Ch19 - A Contemptible Self-Actor

“Shut up!” Jing Shao walked in with a cold face.  

Song Lingxin stood in the center of the study with one hand on her waist. Originally she had taken a breath of air to speak again, but with his entrance she swallowed it back down.

Mu Hanzhang sat at the desk was slightly knitting his brows. When he saw Jing Shao come in, his expression somewhat relaxed a little. He stood up and gave greetings: “Wang Ye has returned.” 

Jing Shao walked to Mu Hanzhang’s side. He took a glance at Song Lingxin and the two servant girls behind her: “Song Lingxin, what is your attitude towards the Wang Fei?” 

“Wang Ye~” Song Lingxin feeling wronged called out, then took a deep breath and said, “Qie’s conduct was for the sake of maintaining the peace of the palace. Wang Fei, he …… ” 

“You shut up! ” Jing Shao just hearing Song Lingxin’s shrill voice made his head hurt. He turned his head to look at the person at his side, slowly and lowering his tone he asked,” Jun Qing, what happened?” 

Mu Hanzhang lowered his eyes, after smoothing his lips he said: “My wet nurse’s body is not good, and no one takes care of her in the farm village. I wanted to take her and her son to the palace for a while, let them live in the servants’ quarters for some time, and wait for Uncle Zhou’s leg injury to get better first before letting them go back.” The gentle and sweet-sounding voice spoke, not too quickly or slowly, and it was very comforting to listen to. 

“Wang Ye, the palace has never admitted an outsider, this is the rule. Once Wang Fei opens this possibility, wouldn’t it be possible for anyone who wants to stuff people in here to do so?” Song Lingxin argued strongly for what she thought right, in her opinion, for the members of the royal family. The most important thing to abstain from was having other people here who could be spies. As long as she put forth that point, then she didn’t believe that Wang Ye would still be standing on Mu Hanzhang’s side.

Jing Shao frowned. 

Song Lingxin saw that she had managed to get to the crux, and felt a shred of smugness in her heart: “Qie has personally managed the big and small affairs within the residence, and one must be responsible for the inner court. The servant quarters are behind the West Court, if some person of unknown origins came in, it’s unknown if something bad could happen.”　　

Within the West Court lived the concubines and womenfolk, the so called “bad thing” was naturally referring to certain activities… Mu Hanzhang slowly tightened his fist, Song Lingxing speaking like this, it was clear that she was dishonoring him. 

“Pa!” Mu Hanzhang had not even spoken yet, and Jing Shao’s palm had already slapped Song Lingxin’s face. 

Song Lingxin’s eyes widened and she looked at Jing Shao incredulously.  

“Since you can’t seem to manage the household well, today you will hand over all the account books to Wang Fei.” Jing Shao said coldly. 

“Wang Ye!” Song Lingxin covered her face with her hand, not understanding why, when she had clearly handled all the affairs, she was suddenly hit and thenstripped on the spot of her power as the head female in the household. She couldn’t help but raise her voice and sharply say, “Qie is only thinking for the good of the palace, how could you act this way to Qie? Wang Fei will definitely not be able to manage the palace! The schedule was set in the flower book, yet the nine days when Qie was to serve your bed, Wang Ye didn’t even come for one of the days! This kind of control over the household, who would listen to him!” 

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The imperial guards outside the door came in, and the two servant girls persuaded Song Lingxin to go, and in such a way that she was pulled and tugged out. 

The room was finally quieted, Jing Shao sighed and picked up Mu Hanzhang’s half finished cup of tea from the table and took a big sip. 

“I received the message early this morning and got a little anxious. I didn’t take enough time to think it over.” Mu Hanzhang just noticed  him drinking out of his own cup and was not fast enough to stop him. He said nothing more, just talked about the matter of picking up his wet nurse and bringing her to the palace. Truly he had not thought it over enough.  

“You are the Wang Fei of this palace. Whatever you say should not be questioned by others.” Jing Shao smiled and gently drew him over to himself. “These few days I haven’t been to the West Court, Song Lingxin was just merely using that as a pretext to make a fuss.” 

Mu Hanzhang smoothed his lips: “I can take my wet nurse to the village that’s part of my dowry…”  

“No need,” Jing Shao touched his soft and smooth long hair. “Bring them to the palace, if you want them to keep on living here, that’s also fine, we can just go over to the North Marquis’ residence to discuss a bit, and then just have them count as your personal servants.” The dowry not only included property, but also included some personal servants to accompany him. Jing Shao knew that Jun Qing originally did not have many personal servants, and since his wet nurse and her family were people he considered trustworthy, letting them stay in the residence was actually a good thing, providing him with human resources to use.

Mu Hanzhang fixedly looked at him, slowly moved closer and put his chin on Jing Shao’s shoulder: “Xiao Shao (spoon), thank you.” A husband’s support is very important for the status of the wife and the management of the household. Now it seemed Jing Shao stands completely on his side, even making his favor distinctly obvious. This kind of treatment in an aristocratic family, how hard it was to get, no one knew that clearer than him.  

Jing Shao was endlessly excited about Mu Hanzhang getting close to him of his own accord. He only felt that on his shoulders where he was in contact with him felt tingly and itchy. He couldn’t help but reach out and hug him tightly: “Stupid, we are husband and wife, thank you, what thank you? If you really want to thank me, just give me a kiss.” The originally emotionally moving words, once again became indecent in the end.

Mu Hanzhang heard the words and gently pushed him away: “Wang Ye just said no need to thank.” After saying that, he turned around and took the account books, completely not minding the still frozen in his original place Jing Shao. 

His Wang Fei, really, getting more and more mischievous! 

At noon, he ate a meal in the palace, and Jing Shao dazedly made his way to his temporary assignment in the Ministry of War.

For withstanding the return of the Xiongnu, several of his brothers have been stationed in the six other ministries. Emperor Hong Zheng let Jing Shao go to his favorite, the Ministry of War. The eldest prince went to the Ministry of Works and was in charge of managing each of the construction affairs. His brother at the Ministry of Confucian Rites oversaw very important ceremonies, banquets. The Fourth Prince was in the Hong Lu temple specializing in the arrangements of tributes from foreign lands. They were all stations needing competency, and were also a chance to push oneself into the limelight.

He was in the Ministry of War, and he was said to be holding the office, but in reality he didn’t have much authority. He was only highly hung up there, the people in the Ministry of War did not like a prince ordering them around overhead. He used to be very bored of all these paperwork and everyday he would swing by to deal with a couple matters then just go. 

“Wang Ye!” The Minister of War seeing this bigshot prince came hurriedly smiled and greeted him. 

“Official Sun, being so busy, go on and do what you need to, this Prince is just here for a couple of hours.” Jing Shao waved his hand and said, then went to his seat to pick up a few documents at random to look at. 

Minister Sun had already gotten used to him like this. He just said a couple of pleasantries before busying himself with his own work.

Even after not showing up for a long time, there weren’t that many documents accumulated on Jing Shao’s table. The news that was transmitted from the bottom, the urgent ones Minister Sun would deal with, and there was only some not too urgent matters that would be given to the Jing Shao who had not entered the Ministry of War for too long. For these days that he hadn’t come, Minister Sun would deal with most of it for him.

Picking up a book from the table, this was the Ministry of War drafting up the funds and provisions for this year’s troops, on it was already added up the specific amount of army  provisions for each stationed garrison. There were also two petitions to the Emperor, one asking to dissolve a group of soldiers, believing that the Xiongnu had already been defeated. As in recent years, there were not many soldiers needed to guard. In the other petition, it was reported that there were barbarians in the vicinity of the southwest border where the Miao people lived, trying to invade, and they were requesting the Imperial court to send troops to suppress them. 

The first petition was relatively fine, but this second one looked quite urgent and it was also on his desk, indicating that someone wanted him to form a plan of action as soon as possible. 

“Wang Ye, this petition only arrived today. The situation seems to be more serious than at the beginning of the month.” Song An, the assistant minister of the Ministry of War, came over and said.

Jing Shao slightly nodded and began to look through the account book for the fund and provisions of the troops. 

“As far as this subject knows, the barbarian people are only just some rebel bands, it is just because the governor of the Yunnan and Tibet regions is incompetent,  little by little.” Song An got closer and lowered his voice to say, “Wang Ye can ask the Emperor to bring some soldiers to banish the enemy, this is a good opportunity for an easy way to earn merits.”

Jing Shao looked up and frowned at him. Song An is the father of Song Lingxin, and in the Ministry of War, his relationship with Jing Shao can be considered the closest. The same was true of the previous life, the month before they received the first petition, this person was already urging him to lead some soldiers and go forth. At that time, his frame of mind was bad, and on the fourth day after his new marriage, he took the troops and left on a long campaign. Leaving the newly married and still ill Mu Hanzhang in the palace alone. Looking at it now, it seems that Song An advised him to go on an expedition, not only to make him meritorious, but mostly just wanted him to snub the Wang Fei, so as to preserve his daughter’s status as the female in charge of the household. 

“The Governor of the Yunnan-Tibet region is not some good for nothing. In this world, where is there some easy to obtain military accomplishment?” Jing Shao laughed with a haha, not planning to continue on discussing this issue with him. 

This expedition to the Yunnan-Tibet region seemed to be an easy errand. In fact, it actually wasn’t, the environment in the southwest was complex, and it is difficult for the soldiers used to the Central Plains to adapt. When he led the soldiers there that year, he had been dealt a big loss. The miasma and poisonous insects there were all deadly enemies, and he himself almost died there.The so-called little rebel bandits made him fight on for three years. He did not only get reprimanded by his father, but also missed the best time to launch the attack for the campaign against the three vassal states. In the end, he truly exerted himself without receiving any fruits for his labor. 

Song An smiled sheepishly: “I heard that today Lingxin provoked Wang Ye and made him angry. This daughter was spoiled by me, Wang Ye does not need to lower yourself to her level.”

“Hmph!” Jing Shao threw the account book in his hands onto the table, which made a “bang” sound, causing the people around them to one by one raise their eyebrows, and then avoid his gaze. “It’s just a small trifle in our residence, why does Official Song feel the need to bring it up here?” This Song Lingxin really had a quick mouth, the affair that occurred just this morning, by the afternoon, it was already passed to her family. Thinking of this, his heart became a little fed up. 

Song An seeing that Jing Shao was not tolerating any of this, said a couple more words with a smile and gloomily walked away. 

After making the troublesome Song An leave, Jing Shao once again picked up the petition to look at. He would definitely not undertake this arduous and unrewarding mission this time around. This time would be better spent with his wife. Such a good opportunity should be given to his Eldest Imperial Brother or the Fourth Prince.

After mingling about in the Ministry of War for an afternoon, Jing Shao still left in advance according to his habits of his past life.To not attract people’s attention, he walked by foot to the south of the city to buy some stewed snacks, then went to the little alleyway to pick up a bottle of green plum wine. When he returned to the palace, he arrived exactly as they were about to have dinner. 

“Where is the Wang Fei?” Returning to the bedroom in the East Court, the food had already been set up, but there was no trace of Mu Hanzhang. 

“Responding to Wang Ye, Wang Fei is still in the small study. Meng Xi has gone to fetch him,” Lan Xi replied as she helped Jing Shao change clothes.  

“Wang Ye waited for a long time, Chen came late,” Mu Hanzhang said with apology. 

Jing Shao wrinkled his brow, pinched his chin and kissed him: “Let’s eat then.”  

Mu Hanzhang, who was startled stared blankly for a moment, and only then realized that this was the “punishment for speaking formally”, but right now the room was full of servants and this person actually didn’t even take that into consideration! His handsome face rapidly turned red, and he hurriedly waved his hands to have the servant girls withdraw.

“What were you busy with?” Jing Shao pushed the stewed snacks he had purchased in front of Mu Hanzhang to let him have a taste, and poured a cup of green plum wine for each of them.  

“Suddenly taking over the affairs of the household, there would always be some unavoidable fuss.” Mu Hanzhang picked up and took a bite of a stewed chicken wing, although he said that, his tone was very confident. Jing Shao could hear that he had solved it himself and did not intend to get involved. 

After dinner, Mu Hanzhang pushed at the Jing Shao who had climbed onto the bed again: “You should go to the West Court tonight. You also heard the Secondary Wife say it today, if you always sleep in the East Court, then the inner court may not be peaceful.” 

Jing Shao reluctantly sat up, everyone non-stop blabbed on wanting to push him onto someone other than his Wang Fei’s bed. He pulled his Wang Fei onto the bed, agilely pressing him beneath his body: “Drank too much tonight, not enough energy to move to another bed.” After saying that, he just lay on his chest and didn’t move anymore.

Mu Hanzhang rolled his eyes, as if someone who could drink two catties of burning knives would become drunk by a small bottle of plum wine that was as light as plain water? If he wanted to find an excuse, then might as well find one that made better sense!