"What are you doing?"
Wenren Bing's voice carried unmistakable anger. They had ruined the residence's garden like this-utterly lawless, wantonly squandering precious things!
Startled by the sudden male voice, Wenren Luoshui looked toward it and saw a man with long brows sweeping toward his temples and handsome phoenix eyes blazing with anger.
She rummaged through her memories before recalling that he was the eldest grandson of her grandfather's brother.
Their two families rarely interacted, though, so Wenren Luoshui genuinely had not recognized him at first glance.
"Is this what passes for manners in this residence? Which of you is Princess Luoshui of the Prince of Beiping's Residence? Has no one taught you to answer immediately when an elder asks you a question?"
[Oh my~ You haven't even figured out who's who, and you're already throwing your weight around? If Second Grandfather hands the family business over to this one, bankruptcy probably won't be far off.]
[Yunjian: Who is this guy? Why is he so arrogant? If he hadn't said anything, I would've thought he owned the residence!]
[A self-important man!]
[Yunjian: What would it take to make a man this overconfident feel inferior?]
[Wait for them to be reborn as women in their next lives?]
[Yunjian: That's so you.]
After speaking, Wenren Bing expected the spoiled younger cousin from this residence to appear before him immediately, just as his younger siblings at home would.
Instead, not only did she fail to appear, but he heard two female voices mocking him inside his head!
They even cursed him to be reborn as a woman in his next life?
He had better not discover who was wagging their tongues behind his back, or he would have their tongues pulled out.
"I asked you a question! Have you all gone mute?"
The anger in Wenren Bing's voice intensified, but unfortunately, none of the residence's servants paid him any attention. At Wenren Luoshui's signal, they continued their work.
Hiding behind Wenren Bing, Wenren Shuang tugged his sleeve, intending to tell him that Wenren Luoshui was the woman dressed in crimson.
Before she could speak, a cool, commanding female voice rang out.
"I would very much like to know who is so overbearing as to make trouble in the potato trial plot personally designated by His Majesty!"
The Eldest Princess arrived in the rear garden with the Seventh Princess and a squad of Ironclad Guards.
Feeling that the residence might be short-handed, she had sought out the emperor after court and explained what was at stake.
The emperor agreed with his daughter and immediately assigned her a squad of Ironclad Guards. From that day until the harvest, command of that squad would belong to the Eldest Princess.
The Eldest Princess assured the emperor that she would live and die with the potatoes.
The emperor: There was absolutely no need for that.
When Wenren Shuang saw the Eldest Princess and the Seventh Princess, her expression grew even more pitifully appealing.
She quietly stepped out from behind Wenren Bing, star-like tears shimmering in her limpid eyes.
Her appearance stirred not a trace of sympathy in any of the women present, but Wenren Bing found it very effective.
To him, every part of her radiated helplessness. Like a tender shoot in the first rain, she made him yearn to stretch a sheltering sky over her, shielding her from wind and rain.
"Eldest Princess, you have only just arrived, yet you already fail to distinguish right from wrong. Does that not diminish the dignity of the imperial family?"
Wenren Bing was accustomed to ruling the roost at home. Moreover, Wenren Hongyu's business was enormous, and he had come close to being selected as an Imperial Merchant on many occasions.
As a result, the Wenren family enjoyed considerable standing in their hometown.
Whenever Wenren Bing went out to meet friends, he was always the one everyone flattered.
Thus, when facing the Eldest Princess and the Seventh Princess, aside from being intimidated by the Eldest Princess's imposing presence at first, he now felt that these two princesses were merely the emperor's daughters.
So what if their status was noble? Wouldn't they still have to marry someday?
"Eldest Princess, please don't blame Brother Bing. This is all my fault..."
Wenren Shuang had only wanted Wenren Bing to teach Wenren Luoshui a lesson on her behalf. She had never expected him to be such a blockhead!
"If not you, should we blame the young princess of the Prince of Beiping's Residence instead? We were perfectly happy farming here, but you insisted on walking your own two feet into the residence. Who exactly is this long-suffering act of yours meant to impress?"
Yunjian was used to putting people in their place. Compared with what she had encountered before, Wenren Shuang's little tricks did not even rank.
"Are you Wenren Luoshui, then? How can a young lady speak so unpleasantly? Is this how your parents raised you? You have no manners whatsoever! Servants!"
Wenren Bing truly could not read the room at all. Every one of the four young women present outranked him, a mere merchant's grandson.
Rather than keeping his head down, he actually dreamed of ruling someone else's household!
Unfortunately, this Wenren residence was not his family's Wenren residence.
He shouted for ages, but not a single servant came to obey him.
Although Wenren Chun had done reasonably well as an official, he had somehow offended the emperor recently, and every civil and military official at court was making life difficult for him.
As Wenren Chun's standing in the capital fell, that of his daughter, Wenren Shuang, fell with it.
Ever since Wenren Qiao had separated his household from the Old Princess Consort's, he had refused to put on even the slightest show of a loving mother and filial son.
Whenever Wenren Shuang shamelessly visited the residence, the servants she passed did not even salute her. They treated her as a complete stranger.
So after waking and learning who Wenren Bing was, she had begun playing the pitiful victim, hoping this fool would settle the score with Wenren Luoshui for her.
At first, everything had gone as she intended. Who could have known that ever since Wenren Luoshui defied heaven and changed her fate, saving her family from being poisoned, her luck would grow better by the day?
Who knew what madness had possessed that old emperor? She had gone to offer him a method of making salt, but not only had he given her no reward, he had even confiscated her palace entry token.
Wenren Luoshui must have been whispering into the old emperor's ear on his pillow!
Wenren Shuang clenched both fists, nearly grinding her back teeth to pieces.
Yet she still maintained her delicate, innocent-flower persona. Unfortunately, her acting was so clumsy that without her protagonist's halo, even Wenren Bing would have been unwilling to help her.
[Ha! With how overconfident and self-important this man is, I refuse to believe he has no juicy secrets.]
[Yunjian: Exactly, exactly! Hurry up and dig them out.]
Hearing that her friend was going to dig up Wenren Bing's dirty laundry, Yunjian immediately forgot her displeasure at having her farming interrupted.
[I knew a man like this would have plenty of dirt on him.]
The Eldest Princess and the Seventh Princess: What gossip? What gossip?
The Eldest Princess even looked Wenren Bing up and down, considering how she could fleece something from his family.
The Imperial Treasury was simply too poor. Finding a legitimate way to make these fat sheep bleed a little would not be bad.
[Wenren Bing's wife already had someone she loved before marrying him. Their families were old friends, the two youngsters had fallen for each other, and both sets of parents were delighted. That scheming man, Wenren Bing, happened to see the Lu family's daughter on the street one day. He thought her beauty could stun the heavens and became determined to marry her.]
[Ugly as sin, yet so adventurous in his depravity! And he thinks he's the head of the family! For someone who considers himself the patriarch, taking the lead in forcibly seizing an innocent woman certainly sets a fine example!]
[Yunjian: A man this overconfident still needs to resort to force and plunder?]
[Not everyone in this world falls for rich people. Suppose a tycoon takes a fancy to you, but his face is covered in pimples, his teeth are crooked, his breath stinks, he reeks of smoke, he has a potbelly, he's bald, and he has a skin disease and intermittent bouts of mental illness. He tells you that if you marry him, he'll give you a hundred thousand a month for living expenses, plus three spacious luxury apartments downtown. Would you marry him?]
[Yunjian: All right, you can shut up now.]
Never mind Yunjian being unable to stomach it-even the Eldest Princess and the Seventh Princess, who were eavesdropping on her thoughts, imagined the man she described and nearly threw up.
What was the difference between marrying someone like that and marrying a beggar?
No, there was a difference. How could a beggar be as rich as him?