My wife has a secret

Chapter 27: Cloudy Hair, Flowery Face, and Golden Step-Shaking Hairpin

The end of the year is approaching, and now is the coldest season of autumn, the Frost Descent.

Therefore, women usually dress relatively conservatively, and most of them wear thick coats to keep warm, with pleated and spiral skirts being the most common styles.

But Qin Shuying is a little different. She often dresses in a unique way and takes a completely opposite approach.

For example, what she was wearing today was a slightly see-through skirt with delicate lotus flowers embroidered on the silk-patterned bodice. A deep groove was printed on the soft tip of the flower, which was quite spectacular.

"My dear, just go sit on the bed. I will help you relieve your longing tonight."

Qin Shuying smiled with her bright eyes, and with her white wrists like cream, she closed the window and pulled down the gauze curtain.

The colorful gauze fell to the ground, hiding her graceful and graceful body.

Xu Qing could see her blurry figure through the veils of different colors, like a fairy wandering in the layers of a painting.

Now it seems that the layout of this room is quite interesting, much more interesting than those in Zuiyuan Pavilion.

Xu Qing also figured out why his predecessor favored only Qin, the fourth wife.

Qin Shuying rolled up her sleeves, lit the incense in front of the dressing table, and then blew out the candles in the room one by one.

The environment became increasingly darker, Xu Qing felt his mouth dry and he swallowed unconsciously.

Although he had imagined these scenarios before coming here, Xu Qing still felt it was not real when it really happened in front of him.

"My dear husband, you don't need to pity me tonight."

Qin Shuying bit her plump lips, her eyes full of love as she gazed at him.

After a moment, the dress fell to the ground.

Before Xu Qing could react, he felt a warm, sweet body throw itself into his arms and press him down on the bed.

Then, the golden hairpin was taken off and the black hair fell down.

The interweaving of yin and yang reversed the Tian Gang. The sudden fierceness made Xu Qing open his eyes wide and he completely lost the initiative.

He only remembered that the night was very sweet and that he had lived the happiest day of his life so far.

……

The next day.

When Xu Qing woke up from the bed, the other person was no longer by his side, but he could vaguely feel the lingering scent from the wrinkles of the mattress and the fragrance.

"Master, you are awake."

The person who spoke was the little maid from yesterday, Yang Liu.

Xu Qing raised his head and saw the other person smiling and using a thin bamboo pole to open the windows in the house for ventilation.

Because she is petite, it is a bit difficult for her to do this and she needs the help of external force such as a bamboo pole.

"Where's your lady?"

"Out."

"You went out again? Where did you go?"

Yang Liu raised her head and smiled sweetly, with a hint of mischief in her smile.

"Master, do you think you didn't have enough fun yesterday? I didn't sleep well in the side room... There's so much noise here, I can hear the creaking sound through the wall."

Xu Qing's face turned red and he coughed twice.

Yang Liu caught a glimpse of Xu Qing's expression, covered her mouth and laughed softly, "Young Master, why are you so shy? Love between men and women is a natural thing, not to mention that I grew up with the young lady in the red-light district, and I'm used to this kind of thing."

"That lady..."

"Master, don't think too much. My young lady is a prostitute in Wangyue Tower. Even if she is willing, the madam doesn't want to destroy this cash cow... At first, the merchants and nobles who came here to admire her could line up outside the capital, but in the end, only you can become my young lady's lover."

Yang Liu understood Xu Qing's feelings very well, and with just a few words she resolved his confusion.

After a while, Yang Liu opened the window, put away the bamboo pole, and came to the bed.

She found a cushion and knelt on it, looking at Xu Qing with tender eyes.

"Master, what do you want to know? Yang Liu will tell you slowly... But Master, please turn your back and lie on your stomach first. I will massage your back for you."

The service in these four rooms was so good that Xu Qing couldn't help but give her a thumbs up in his heart.

He half-heartedly lay down and enjoyed the imperial treatment.

Yang Liu placed her tender little hands on the brazier to warm them, then reached inside her clothes and began to knead them carefully and meticulously.

"After what happened last night, I need to relax my muscles...By the way, Master has a very broad back, and I feel very safe."

Xu Qing had never been to those foot massage parlors in his previous life, so this was his first time enjoying it and he took a deep breath with a "hiss".

"Master, is the force too great?"

Xu Qing waved his hand and asked with his eyes closed: "No, the strength is just right... By the way, who does your young lady meet outside?"

"They are all princes, nobles, merchants and celebrities...but this is all the fault of the young master."

"Blame me?"

"Master, you never attend such occasions. In addition, the eldest young lady is not often in Suzhou, and the third young lady is taciturn, so my young lady has to travel outside."

Xu Qing was stunned. He never expected that Qin would have a legitimate excuse for not coming home at night.

Is this considered the bad guy complaining first?
As a large family in Suzhou, with the Queen Mother in power as their backer, the Xu family should have their own social circle.

But he always felt something was wrong.

Even if Qin was speaking for the Xu family, she shouldn't have stayed outside for so many days. After all, she was a woman. Didn't her predecessor have any objections?

"Master, because of your amnesia, you may not know much about the Xu family and the young lady."

Yang Liu explained softly, "Because the Xu family has been a single-line family for many generations, as early as your grandmother's generation, the custom was changed to women being the head of the family and men carrying on the family line... Your aunt was supposed to be the next head of the family after the old lady, but because of entering the palace, she also left the burden of the family behind."

"Today, the old lady is old, and all the family affairs are handed over to the eldest young lady. But now the eldest young lady and her grandfather are very popular in the court, and they are your aunt's right-hand man. They are busy with endless national affairs every day, so some of the mundane affairs in Suzhou are all taken care of by my young lady."

"Generally, the affairs of the mansion are handled by Chief Steward Hai himself, but when it comes to social gatherings and drinking parties outside, as well as the wood warehouse left by our ancestors, those are all matters of our Fourth Courtyard... If the young master still feels uneasy, he can go to the side room to take a look at the invitations that have been sent recently. Most of them are related to this."

"So that's it."

Xu Qing nodded thoughtfully, and the doubts in his heart were alleviated a little.

The ancestors of the Xu family made their fortune by trading in wood. He had read about this in the family tree.

If it involves business matters, then Qin would have to worry about a lot of things, so it wouldn't be so suspicious if he put all his heart and soul into it.

"Don't look at the invitation. I'll just pack up and go back."

"Then let me help the young master change his clothes."

After Xu Qing stood up, Yang Liu's hands wandered back and forth on Xu Qing's body. Compared to Xiao Huan, Yang Liu's dressing skills were obviously more skillful, and she quickly helped him change his clothes.

"Master, I heard that you have stolen a lot of poems from the Third Madam recently."

Xu Qing posed in front of the mirror and asked absentmindedly, "Why? You want a song too?"

"It's not me, it's my young lady who likes it... When she was in Wangyue Tower before, many famous poets would rush to the tower to write poems and paint for her, including some contemporary masters. But young lady looked around and found that the fourth branch of Lu's poems were the best, enough to be recorded in history."

Xu Qing stopped what he was doing and turned to look at Yang Liu.

"Your young lady also wants to go down in history?"

"Master, you are joking. The young lady just likes it. She wants what others have, and she wants what others don't have even more... Well, but Master, you may not know that the relationship between our Fourth and Third Houses is not very good, so we can only get the poem through you."

Xu Qing thought for a moment and replied with a smile: "Of course, no problem, it's just gold plating, it's human nature...Please prepare the paper and inkstone, I will copy down the poems I saw in the Third Courtyard a few days ago, and I will make your young lady famous."

"Thank you, Master."

The willow smiled sweetly, and flew away like a butterfly, leaving behind gusts of fragrant breeze.

After a while, she brought a tray of paper, inkstone, ink and brush and placed them in front of Xu Qing.

Xu Qing wrote with his pen, very satisfied with the poems he had copied today, then he walked out humming a little tune.

Only after the young master's figure disappeared outside the door did Yang Liu dare to take the paper in her hand and savor it carefully.

"A beautiful lady in her twenties has a body as soft as butter, and she carries a sword at her waist to kill ordinary men. Although you won't see their heads cut off, your bones will dry up in secret."

Even though Yang Liu grew up in a place of entertainment, he was still stunned by the explicit content of the poems.

Isn't this just talking about Miss again?
Then, a dawn glow rose on her face, she flushed slightly, and spat softly.

"He's really not a serious person."

……

Xu Qing came out of the Fourth Courtyard and went straight to his own yard. On the way, he kept thinking about poisoning.

All clues are now gone and the investigation has reached a deadlock.

The statement of the Fourth Courtyard should be true, because what Yang Liu said is hard to fake. Just talk to Chief Steward Hai and other servants to find out.

But he still couldn't let it go.

The murderer must have come from the backyard, but if the other party is not from the third or fourth courtyard, then there must be a problem in the courtyard under Hai Dafu's control.

But Manager Hai had been in the Xu Mansion for such a long time, and he had all the opportunities to poison. How could he do such a stupid thing?

This doesn't make sense either morally or logically.

So there must be something wrong in the backyard of the Xu Mansion. What exactly was it that I overlooked?
When Xu Qing walked to the gate of the courtyard, he saw Jiao Tingzhang, a burly man in a dark blue robe, standing at the gate waiting.

The other party's highly recognizable scar spanned the right half of his face, and Xiaohuan was so scared that she hid behind the door frame and trembled, fearing that the other party would break in by force.

Xu Qing's return made Xiaohuan's tense heart rise to her throat.

"Master... don't come over yet. This man looks so fierce and strange... and he said he wanted to find you to investigate a case as soon as he arrived. Master, go find Chief Steward Hai and chase him out!"

Xu Qing didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the silly girl's worry. "Don't you think about it? This is the Xu Mansion. Who could be allowed to be released into the mansion by Chief Steward Hai in broad daylight?"

"oh oh."

After Xiaohuan understood this, she realized that although the man in front of the yard looked scary, he really wanted to see his young master for something.

When Jiao Tingzhang saw Xu Qing, he bowed respectfully and performed a great salute.

"Master Xu."

Xu Qing nodded and asked casually, "Why isn't Chief Jiao wearing his official uniform today?"

Jiao Tingzhang's eyes were deep and he answered calmly, "The case has not been fully investigated yet, so it's not convenient to wear it."

Xu Qing frowned, sensing something was wrong.

There is an ancient saying that the people should not fight against the officials.

Because ordinary families are weak and cannot withstand the government's search.

The oil seller lived in Suzhou city, and someone reported his hiding place. Logically, he should have been arrested soon. Why did it take so long?
"I came here to ask Mr. Xu to go to West Street with me and investigate those gambling houses."

"Those gambling houses are still open?"

Although gambling houses were allowed in ancient times, the gambling houses on West Street were harboring criminals after all, so they should have been closed down by the government. How come there was no impact at all?

Seeing that Jiao Tingzhang looked embarrassed, Xu Qing did not ask any more questions.

He turned to Xiao Huan in the yard and said, "Please keep the things at home a secret for me for now. Leave a gap before you go to bed at night. I will sneak back tomorrow morning."

"Oh...Okay, Master."

Xiaohuan became very worried when she heard the words "gambling house investigation".

But as the young master's confidante and personal servant, she could not disobey her young master's wishes, so she had to nod and do as Xu Qing instructed.

……

The most lively places in Suzhou are the East and West Markets, where there are many shops and vendors sitting on the ground in every alley.

Vendors come from all over the country, selling a wide variety of goods, which creates the prosperous cityscape of Suzhou, an important town in the south of the Yangtze River.

However, the difference between the East and West Markets is that there are more wine shops, brothels, and flower, bird, and chess shops in the West Market.

If you follow the alley to West Street, you can see gambling houses next to each other hidden deep inside.

When Xu Qing and Jiao Tingzhang arrived at the gate of West Market, where there was constant flow of people and traffic, he asked Jiao Tingzhang the purpose of his visit.

"What trouble did you encounter?"

Jiao Tingzhang was slightly stunned. He obviously didn't expect that Xu Qing could guess that he had something to ask for before he even said anything.

"Although you are only a pavilion chief, you work under the governor of Suzhou after all, and you have some power both on and off the stage... The fact that you have not been able to solve the case for two consecutive days can only mean that you have encountered obstacles when investigating this gambling house, and the other party's background is difficult to deal with."

After listening to Xu Qing's analysis, Jiao Tingzhang's eyes widened.

Because everything was just as the other party said, that day he rushed to seal up the gambling house with officials from the government office, but was blocked at the door by the waiters from the gambling house.

Every household here has documents issued by the government, enjoys immunity, and is stamped with the official seal of the government.

In the end, although the shopkeeper came forward and asked them to search the guest rooms in the backyard, Chief Jiao still felt that there was something seriously wrong with these gambling houses and that they must be hiding some unspeakable secrets.

"Mr. Xu is very good at predicting things. I admire him."

Jiao Tingzhang no longer had any doubts about Xu Qing's ability, so he told him everything that happened that day.

"Mr. Xu, this is what happened... Later, when I checked various gambling houses, I didn't find anything, but I discovered something strange."

(End of this chapter)