My wife has a secret

Chapter 6 Puyuan Poetry Festival
"Are you the maids in the compound?"

Suddenly, an indifferent male voice floated over from behind the two maids.

When they looked back and saw who was coming, they were so frightened that their souls left their bodies and their breathing stopped.

Because the person who came was none other than Xu Qing.

The long-faced maid looked pale and heartbroken, and she stammered as she begged for mercy and apologized.

"Master...I said the wrong thing, that's not what I meant...I deserve to die!"

She used to be a good talker, but now she couldn't even speak clearly in front of Xu Qing, which was enough to show how bad the latter's reputation was.

"Why die? I'm not an unreasonable person."

When the long-faced maid heard this, she thought Xu Qing was going to let her go, so she bowed and saluted, "Thank you, Master..."

Xu Qing interrupted her and ordered the other person in front of him, "Hitting her will dirty my hands. You come and slap her to vent my anger. If you don't slap her hard enough, I'll let Chief Steward Hai slap you."

Xu Qing didn't want to act like a rich young master, and he didn't take his reputation seriously.

After all, the reputation of the eldest son of the Xu family is so bad that he can accept any bad words said about him.

The only thing I said was Xiaohuan.

Xiaohuan is an innocent girl. She should not suffer criticism from others just because she is by his side.

"Pa pa pa" three crisp slapping sounds were heard, and the maid covered half of her burning face and sobbed with tears in her eyes.

The maidservant who was traveling with her was afraid that Xu Qing would call Steward Hai, so she slapped her very hard, using all her strength.

"Do you know you're wrong?"

The long-faced maid got ready to be taught and cried, "I understand."

"What's wrong?"

"I was wrong to say bad things about the young master..."

"It seems that he didn't get hit enough and is still a little confused."

When the long-faced maid looked up in confusion, the maid next to her slapped her again.

"Xiao Huan is mine, and I am the only one who can bully her."

Xu Qing said calmly: "If I hear anyone say bad things about Xiao Huan again, I will seek justice from her."

The two maids then realized that Xu Qing's action was to vent his anger for the maids in his own courtyard.

They stood there for a few seconds, and only after seeing Xu Qing waving his hand to indicate that he wanted to give up did they dare to leave quickly.

"Young... Young Master."

Xiaohuan was stunned watching in the yard and even forgot to wipe away the tears she had been holding back.

She couldn't help but wonder in her heart, am I so important in the young master's heart?
In ancient times, servants had an extremely low status, and being beaten and scolded were common. It was rare for a servant to be regarded as a forbidden delicacy by the master.

I am not particularly good looking, so what does the young master like about me?
Xiaohuan bit her thin lips lightly, her heart filled with ripples, as if a lost deer was running around in panic.

"Master... this is not good."

Xiaohuan remembered something and sniffed her red little nose.

"If the old lady knew about this, she would blame the young master for being ignorant."

"Just say it."

Xu Qing didn't take the matter too seriously, and his words were nonchalant.

"By the way, Master, aren't you recovering from an illness? Why are you up so early?"

Seeing Xu Qing taking off his sweat-stained coat, Xiao Huan hurried forward to help, "I haven't had time to prepare hot water yet."

Xu Qing waved his hand.

"Morning exercise. It's not too late to boil water now. Let's pack up and go to the Third Hospital."

……

The sky is clear and the sun is hanging in the east.

Xu Qing and Xiaohuan walked through the cobblestone path, turned a few corners, and arrived at the gate of the courtyard of the Third Young Madam Lu.

After knocking on the door, Ji Xia, the maid in the courtyard, pushed the door and opened it a little.

"Excuse me, Master, my Third Young Mistress is getting ready to go out."

Her eyes moved up and down, as if she wanted to look at Xu Qing from head to toe.

"Today is the Puyuan Poetry Festival organized by Marquis Jingdong, and the Third Young Lady is invited to sit in and listen to the excellent works. My mistress has previously declined Marquis Jingdong several times, and it is really difficult to offend him."

Ji Xia knew that the eldest son of the Xu family hated these kinds of poetry discussions by literati and scholars the most, as he felt that they were just whining and being pretentious.

After I said this, he would definitely not make it difficult for his young lady to meet him.

"Puyuan Poetry Festival? It sounds interesting."

Ji Xia blinked, thinking she had misheard.

She suddenly thought of the rumors in the mansion about Xu Qing's amnesia, and hurriedly explained to the other party: "This Puyuan Poetry Festival is not a game for children. Some famous Jiangnan talents will participate, including many famous literary giants. If you can't write poetry... you can only make a fool of yourself."

Ji Xia knew clearly that the young master of the Xu family was very concerned about his reputation, and that she and her young lady lived under the roof of the Xu residence, so she did not dare to say anything too embarrassing.

"Plus, the person hosting this poetry gathering is Marquis Jingdong, and he won't give the young master face."

Marquis Jingdong and Xu Qing were notoriously incompatible. The former, because he loved poetry and prose, had made friends with many men of letters and thought himself to be somewhat talented, and he had always looked down on people like Xu Qing.

In addition, Marquis Jingdong came from a legitimate royal family, his grandfather was one of the founding generals of the Great Qi, and he had considerable differences with powerful families like the Xu family.

If the Xu Qing of the past had heard the name of Marquis Jingdong, he would probably have taken a detour.

But Xu Qing was different today. He had no idea who Marquis Jingdong was, and naturally knew nothing about their previous conflicts.

Ji Xia's reminders and sarcasm all sounded well-intentioned to him.

"That's great, take me there to broaden my horizons."

Ji Xia opened her red lips for a long time but couldn't utter a word. Finally, she had to open the door and let Xu Qing walk into the yard and run to the young lady's boudoir to get some fresh air.

About half a cup of tea later, Ji Xia walked out of the house with a somewhat reluctant expression on her face.

"Master, the Third Young Lady said that it's rare that you are interested in the Puyuan Poetry Festival. Please go to the carriage in the backyard and wait for her."

"it is good."

Xu Qing felt that this was a good opportunity to bring the two sides closer together.

His goal was not the poetry reading, but to get close to Lu Wanhe.

There are many suspicious points about the poisoning incident. The two women gave him a very strange feeling yesterday, so he wanted to take advantage of this poetry meeting to test the other party's true attitude.

Even a fox has its tail exposed.

Not long after Xu Qing was led to the carriage by Xiaohuan, a faint and elegant fragrance like sandalwood wafted into the carriage.

He raised his head slightly and saw Lu Wanhe lifting the door curtain and bending down to get into the car.

It has to be said that Lu Wanhe has a graceful figure and beautiful curves, and her casual movements can reveal the gentle beauty of a Jiangnan woman.

"Husband...jun."

Lu Wanhe's voice was soft, just like yesterday, with a hint of awkwardness and distance.

After she sat down, the carriage started moving.

"Do you go out often?"

"I have been living indoors for a long time and am weak and sickly. I usually decline poetry gatherings like this. Besides..."

Lu Wanhe was talking softly when she suddenly remembered that the person sitting opposite her was Xu Qing, not the old lady. She swallowed the rest of her sentence.

Any poetry gathering in Suzhou that is somewhat famous will usually feature the figure of Marquis Jingdong.

As a woman who had married into the Xu family, she naturally did not want to have anything to do with this man. After all, he would often belittle her husband at poetry gatherings.

Even so, Marquis Jingdong never stopped sending invitations and gifts.

Lu Wanhe agreed to attend the poetry reading today in order to avoid Xu Qing, but who would have thought that Xu Qing would follow him to the poetry reading.

Xu Qing asked curiously: "Add what?"

"Nothing, sorry to make you laugh, husband."

Xu Qing saw that Lu Wanhe intended to keep silent, so he didn't ask any more questions and changed the subject.

"Oh, by the way, I see you have a lot of paintings in your room. Who did you buy them from?"

"It was...painted by me."

"You drew all of them?"

Xu Qing said in a tone of amazement: "I see that the objects in the ink painting are lifelike and full of spiritual meaning. It is impossible to reach this level without superb painting skills."

Lu Wanhe's cheeks turned slightly red after hearing this. She turned her head away embarrassedly and glanced at other places in the car.

"Excessive praise."

Her voice was as soft as a mosquito. "I started learning painting when I was six years old, but my skills are not good enough. I can't paint the charm that my husband is talking about."

"It's already pretty good."

Xu Qing took the opportunity to interrupt the topic, "By the way, I heard that Madam had a serious illness when she was young. I wonder what disease she had at that time?"

Lu Wanhe was just about to answer when the carriage suddenly swayed and stopped.

Ji Xia opened the curtain at an inappropriate time and looked at Xu Qing with eyes as if he were guarding against a thief.

"Master, we're here."

……

After handing over the business card, Xu Qing and Lu Wanhe separated.

There are many rules for this poetry gathering. The invited ladies and women have to enter by boat from the East Gate Pier.

Talented scholars and writers need to enter the garden from the west gate, enjoy the autumn scenery, and compose poems based on the scenery of Pu Garden.

After two incense sticks of time, the masterpieces in the garden will be passed to the female guests on the cruise ship, allowing them to choose the best of Pu Garden this time.

From beginning to end, it is full of style.

But in Xu Qing's opinion, isn't this just an ancient version of a social gathering?

The "talented women" invited to participate in the poetry meeting were all young women from various aristocratic families in Suzhou, and most of them were unmarried.

There are very few people like Lu who are famous for their knowledge.

There were many talented people from various counties in the south of the Yangtze River, but their intentions were very obvious.

Just like a peacock trying hard to spread its feathers, if it can win the favor of a famous lady on the cruise ship, it will be able to fly to a tree and become a phoenix in the future.

"Brother Xu!"

Xu Qing had not been standing there for a while with Xiaohuan when he saw a bloated man in brocade robe running towards him.

His face was full of flesh, and the bright smile he forced on his face made Xu Qing frightened.

"Who is this?"

Xiao Huan reminded in a low voice: "I have seen him twice in the mansion. He is Zhu Yuande, the eldest son of the Zhu family, and your former good friend."

"Zhu Yuande, right?"

"Yes."

The man rushed forward and stretched out his hand with a smile on his face.

"Damn it, stay away from me... Do you know that it's forbidden for men to have physical contact?"

Seeing Xu Qing avoiding him with a look of disgust, Zhu Yuande chuckled twice, "Boss, didn't I hear that you lost your memory? I want to see if you have changed."

"Although I have lost my memory, my body is normal."

"Oh, that's fine. Brother Zhang and I thought you were castrated by your wife. After all, your eldest wife... Tsk tsk, Brother Xu's memory loss is really good."

Xiaohuan didn't expect that the fat man could speak so humorously. She covered her mouth and laughed twice.

This action made her noticed by Zhu Yuande, who looked at her curiously and sized her up.

"Who is this pretty lady next to you? Why didn't I see her when I went to Zuiyuanlou? How much does she cost per day?"

Xu Qing blocked the fat man's gaze and said, "Don't look at me. This is a maid in my courtyard."

Zhu Yuande showed a look of understanding, "Oh, I understand, I understand, the boss has changed his taste after losing his memory."

There are many strange things in aristocratic families, especially their love of new and strange things. For example, the Yangzhou skinny horse was all the rage before, causing dignitaries to scramble for it.

For example, the noble families of the previous dynasty liked to keep male paramours. This kind of extravagance and comparison had long since formed a bad trend within the noble families.

In comparison, these of Xu Qing can only be considered as small hobbies.

"Don't think wrongly, this is just an ordinary maidservant beside me."

Zhu Yuande didn't believe Xu Qing's nonsense, because why would a young man from a normal family take a maid out?
Not to mention that the maid's eyes were filled with admiration and adoration that was almost overflowing from her eyes.

He laughed dryly twice and changed the subject, "Luckily the boss is here to manage the situation today, otherwise I wouldn't dare to enter the gate of Pu Garden."

"Is it that exaggerated?"

Zhu Yuande hurriedly complained, "Boss, you don't know how I have been here these days... It was all because my father forced me to come! I am now over 20 years old and not yet married, but my father forced me to come to the poetry gathering to try my luck."

"But it's not that easy! The host of the Puyuan Poetry Festival is Marquis Jingdong, and we have never been on good terms with him. It's good enough that he doesn't cause trouble for me when I come to the poetry festival. Why would he let me show off in front of others?"

After hearing this, Xu Qing finally understood why Ji Xia's maid's eyes were not right.

It seemed that she knew about the feud between him and Marquis Jingdong, and didn't understand why he came to the poetry gathering.

But Lu Wanhe is also interesting. Since she is already his third wife, she still comes to participate in the poetry reading of her former enemy. What is her purpose?
"Boss? Boss?"

Seeing Xu Qing standing there, as if lost in thought, Zhu Yuande hurriedly called out to him twice.

"You're not going to die without saving your life, are you?"

Xu Qing reacted and coughed lightly.

He didn't want to have too much contact with the fat man at first, because his bad reputation as a playboy in his previous life was definitely related to these bad friends.

But now he has changed his mind.

If you want to understand your marital relationship, you must first figure out what kind of person you were before.

As a friend who went to the brothel to listen to music, Zhu Yuande must have known the most about these gossips.

Besides, this poetry gathering is separate for men and women, so why not take this kid to Pu Garden to take a look at the situation and find out about his previous interpersonal relationships.

"Isn't he just the Marquis of Jingdong? Don't I have the final say in this Suzhou territory? I'll protect you."

Zhu Yuande's admiration for Xu Qing was beyond words.

He was worried that the young master of the Xu family would turn over a new leaf after losing his memory and would never associate with people like them again.

But now it seems... the boss is the boss, even when he is buried in the ground, he will still be the boss!

(End of this chapter)