Ch29 - Perfumed Ointment

Mu Hanzhang looked at the arrogant Mu Yangwen coldly, walked slowly over, raised his hand, and slapped him, right on his smugly laughing face.

 Mu Yangwen was stunned by the slap, slowly coming to: “Mu Hanzhang, you dare hit me!”

“Pa!” Another slap made Mu Yangwen completely stunned.

“I am your elder. How can you just speak to me like that? Hasn’t Third Uncle ever taught you what filial piety is?” Mu Hanzhang looked down from above at his cousin who was reeling from being hit.

“Mu Hanzhang, don’t go too far!” On the other side, when Mu Huafeng saw his younger brother was hit, he raised his fist about to make a move.

The two guards behind Mu Hanzhang pulled out the swords at their waists, which scared everyone to recoil back half a step. The younger of them directly began to cry.

“Everyone stop!” The North Marquis’ deep and resounding voice came from behind as he came forth spitting with anger.

The crowd of people in the Mu family, habitually trembled when they heard the voice of the head of the household. Hearing it today, yet they all felt relieved.

“Jun Qing!” Jing Shao rushed over and hugged his Wang Fei in his arms. “Are you okay?”

Mu Hanzhang pursed his lips tightly, he could not help but tilt his lips slightly upward. In any way you looked at it, it was him teaching others a lesson. This fellow is really…

When Jing Shao saw that the person in his embrace was all right, he turned to Mu Yangwen, who was covering his face, and Mu Huafeng, who forgot to take back his fist. “Father Marquis, leaving aside the fact that Jun Qing is my Wang Fei, in the North Marquis’ household, don’t you have to respect your elder brothers? The etiquette of filial piety in the Mu family, is really opening Ben Wang’s eyes!”

Mu Jin was so angry that his face turned green one second and white the next. He pointed to his two nephews and said, “You two, go and devote yourselves to work with the each copy ‘filial piety’ fifty times each. If you can’t finish copying it, you can’t eat dinner!”

Mu Yangwen still wanted to say something but was glared at by Mu Jin and had to follow his brothers, turning away and leaving.

“Wait!” Jing Shao let go of his Wang Fei and stopped them with a shout. “The laws of the family and the laws of the country are inseparable, disrespect to a Wang Fei, is it not a crime?”

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Mu Hanzhang seeing the situation, went up and grabbed Jing Shao’s arm, gently urging him, “It’s all right, they’re all brothers of the family, don’t be angry anymore Wang Ye.”

Jing Shao hearing these words and patted his lustrous and slender hand: “If the Wang Fei doesn’t care to bother with this, then this matter will be considered over. If in the future Ben Wang sees anyone disrespect the Wang Fei, don’t blame Ben Wang for falling out with and becoming hostile with them!”

The flock of cousins all shrank back their heads, getting Mu Jin’s approval, and left gloomily.

“Third Brother, didn’t uncle send someone to tell us that we had a distinguished guest coming that we should accompany today, so he gave us a half-day off? Why aren’t we accompanying the guest now?” The youngest brother asked in a small voice.

“Hush~” The brothers on either side of him busily covered his mouth and they disappeared into the courtyard.

“This old official’s lax management of the household made Wang Ye see something embarrassing.” Mu Jin sighed and looked at the beautiful Mu Hanzhang standing tall and straight besides Jing Shao, with an extraordinary bearing. He could not help feeling a little sad. In this generation of the Mu Family, the sons of the first wife, not one worked hard! Now, it seemed that the one with a demeanor most akin to the Mu Family was a bastard that had already been married off.

When they returned to the palace in the afternoon, Steward Yun rushed up and said, “Wang Ye, His Highness the Second Prince sent a person here for you today, wanting you to go there as soon as possible once you’ve returned.”

Jing Shao knit his brows and Mu Hanzhang said, “Since Brother is looking for you with some urgent matter, go quickly.”

Jing Shao nodded, turned around getting on Xiao Hei and rode out again.

Mu Hanzhang took an afternoon nap in the bedroom. He had just gotten up, then heard from Yunzhu that Zhou Jin had come to visit. He quickly dressed and went to the tearoom of the Listening Wind Pavilion.

“Elder Brother Zhou has been waiting for long.” Mu Hanzhang apologetically said.

“I just arrived. Hui Wei Restaurant is the kind of business in which only after noon do I get any leisure time.” Zhou Jin smiled brightly.

When Mu Hanzhang heard his words, he relaxed and asked if there was anything he needed.

“Didn’t you say you wanted to open a small shop last time?” Zhou Jin drank a mouthful of tea. The tea varieties served in the prince’s palace were all tribute tea distributed by the Imperial Household Department, products of the highest quality one could not even buy on the market. Towards Zhou Jin who paid particular attention to eating and drinking, he naturally could taste the difference, and could not help but drink a few more mouthfuls. He said, “All the products that should be in the capital are already in the capital. If the small shop does not have a long-established reputation, business will not be easy to do, unless they sell some rare items.” 

“Rare items?” When Mu Hanzhang saw that he liked the tea, he gave Yunzhu a meaningful glance, and Yunzhu, comprehending the hidden meaning turned to leave.

“En, as for things the capital is missing, that is also good to sell, when I was in Jiangnan I did see an item,” Zhou Jin said, a narrow smile couldn’t help but flash by on his face. “Last night, when I was going to bed I suddenly thought of it.”

“Oh?” Mu Hanzhang was actually somewhat curious now. Something from Jiangnan, that is rarely seen in the capital. Why hasn’t anyone sold it here yet?

Zhou Jin smiled and took a sip of tea before he said two words: “Perfumed ointment.”

“Perfumed ointment?” Mu Hanzhang paused, what was that? He really hasn’t heard of it before.

“Haha, this thing sells very well in Jiangnan. When I came with my husband to the capital, only then did I find out that northerners seldom use it. The only thing that’s sold in town is perfumed oil that doesn’t really have any scent.” The corner of Zhou Jin’s lips hooked up into an evil smile, delicately elaborating on the ideal usages of this kind of “Perfumed Ointment”.

In Jiangnan, there are several well-known workshops specializing in perfumed ointments, which incorporate seasonal flowers and plants into them, there were many kinds. The unctuous ointments are different from oils, it can be placed and carried on person in a box, and it is very easy to use once it comes in contact with some warmth. It’s just that these things are small and the price is also not high. Merchants didn’t think much of the small profit margin and refused to travel so far just to sell them. There are few flowers and plants in the north, and there are no workshops to make this.

After listening for half a day, Mu Hanzhang finally realized what this thing was. His handsome face could not help completely turning red. The so-called perfumed ointment is the kind of grease used for lubricant during men’s “joyous times”. Merchants looked for high profit margins. Although this kind of thing would be very popular in the capital where there are many male wives, it could not be helped that the journey would be very far and only reap a meager profit. So until now, few people have sold it.

Zhou Jin gifted a box of unopened perfumed ointment to Mu Hanzhang. Mu Hanzhang looked at his calm face, they were both men, he secretly scolded himself for being so bashful. So he pressed down the embarrassment and accepted it calmly, and asked for the tea Yunzhu had gotten as a gift in return.

Zhou Jin also did not refuse it. He straightforwardly took the box of tea leaves and told him to go find him once he had thought over it, then set off to his busy business at the Hui Wei Restaurant.

Jing Shao rushed to the second prince’s palace, he couldn’t help but be somewhat worried when he learned that Imperial Father was sending his brother to investigate the robbery of the tribute.

“Imperial Father is giving me a chance to obtain a title. This is a good thing. It will always be better than the war eldest imperial brother is fighting.” Jing Chen seeing that his little brother was concerned about him, felt extremely happy in his heart.

The King of Southwest is a cunning man. Since he had already acted, he will certainly have left a backup plan, no matter what his brother says, Jing Shao’s brows wouldn’t relax: “How many troops does Imperial Father plan to send?”

“This matter can only be made clear by investigating in secret, so I’ve only been given four Imperial bodyguards and one accompanying third-rank official.” Jing Chen said.

“How is this okay?” Jing Shao almost jumped up. In his opinion, as his brother’s kungfu was not good yet he was only given four guards. In the case that they ran into some mountain brigand, they would not be able to deal with them, let alone the Southwest King, who held massive military power in his hands. “I’ll give you five hundred people and they’ll follow from far away, if anything happens then they can come.”

“Where can five hundred people hide? No!” Jing Chen refused without even thinking about it.

After a long bargaining process, the two brothers took a step back in compromise. Jing Shao sent two martial arts experts to follow at his brother’s side. Another fifty soldiers dispersed in advance in the southwest, awaiting dispatch.

Leaving the second prince’s palace, Jing Shao still felt uneasy. He had Yun Song go to his villa, and assigned Ren Feng to pick two top-notch experts.

Returning to his bedroom in the East Court, he saw his Wang Fei sitting alone under the light, in a daze with a small exquisite box in his hand.

Quietly he walked over, grabbed the box with one motion and turned it around in his hand. “What is this?” He opened the lid of the box. Inside was a translucent unctuous cream that releaseda burst of delicate fragrance, not sickeningly sweet, but on the contrary, somewhat alluring.

“This… This is…” Mu Hanzhang jumped, having been startled. When he recovered, his face quickly flushed red. “A product Elder Brother Zhou gave me today.”

“Oh?” Jing Shao raised his eyebrows and slowly moved closer to his Wang Fei’s ear. Blowing on his flushed agate-like ear he asked, “Then, why is your face this red?”

Mu Hanzhang smoothed his lips, glared at Jing Shao, grabbed back the box in his hand and turned back into the inner room, ignoring him.

Jing Shao was stunned. Unexpectedly his Wang Fei learned how to be temperamental with him? He pressed his fist on his lips and muffled his laughter, then entered the inner bedroom.

Naturally, he recognized it. Although no one sold it in the capital, the Imperial Household Department bought some every year. The law stipulated that people could only marry male wives and that taking male concubines were not allowed, but those restrictions didn’t apply to the “Son of Heaven” and there are many male concubines in the Imperial palace. Moreover, as he, a prince married a male wife, that department would naturally bestow many of these kinds of things. Just in the cabinet above their bed, there were several boxes of good perfumed ointment.

Entering the inner room, he saw his Wang Fei lying on the bed with his clothes still on, still in a huff, facing the wall and ignoring him. His ears that peeked through were still as pink as before.

Jing Shao restrained his laughter and pounced on the bed, hugging the man on the bed into his arms. “Won’t tease you anymore. It truly is seldom sold in the capital. If you want to do this business, in fact, it’s very easy to do. The general of the soldiers in Jiangnan has a good relationship with me. He sends letters every ten days. I can just ask him to also send some of that over too everytime.”

“How would that be worth it? If he refuses to accept money, then won’t it become ‘accepting bribes’?” Mu Hanzhang turned his head over and frowned. This small thing is not worth a lot of money. Whether it was from the angle of being friends or being ruler and subordinate, either way the Jiangnan General would not ask for that money. He just wanted to earn a living, so if he brought trouble to Jing Shao, then the gains would not make up for the losses.

Seeing Jun Qing was thinking about this for himself, Jing Shao couldn’t help kissing him on the corner of his mouth: “You can be at ease, this fellow is famous for being stingy. He will absolutely make sure you give him the money and make sure you’re not even one wen short. Perhaps he will even ask for extra travel expenses. I will have to make a good bargain with him.”