Stockade Chief Zhao, a Tiger Crouching on the Balcony

"Hello, sister-in-law!"

"Hello, sister-in-law."

The mountain bandits had a worse New Year than corporate drones. They only got half of New Year's Eve and the whole of New Year's Day off-a grand total of a day and a half.

Early on the second day, the Mountain Stronghold was back in operation. Zhao Changhe went to the Martial Arts Ground to muster his men and personally instruct them in martial arts. Those who weren't training had other duties assigned to them, and the previously suspended trap-building campaign started up again.

Zhao Changhe felt that if he hadn't transmigrated, he might have become a capitalist who deserved to be strung up from a lamppost.

But the stronghold's defenses concerned everyone's safety...

While Zhao Changhe managed things, Yue Hongling wandered around the Mountain Stronghold, mainly to familiarize herself with the traps' locations so she wouldn't fall into another pit... Her injury was no longer much of a problem, and she could leap out even if she did fall in, but it was still annoying.

She actually wanted to dismantle the traps... Forget it.

"Out shopping, sister-in-law?"

"Sister-in-law, where did you meet the boss? They said it was some cheap brothel in town, but I just don't believe it."

"If you can't speak properly, you can cut your own tongue out." Yue Hongling's face was expressionless.

Plenty of bandits couldn't speak properly; not all of them had their wits about them. One idiot even asked why the boss had overexerted himself yesterday and whether she could go into detail. If she could make such a strapping man cramp up, just how thoroughly could this sister-in-law drain him...

That idiot was still hanging upside down beside the Martial Arts Ground as a warning. The boss hadn't dared let out so much as a fart, making it abundantly clear who ruled the roost.

"Don't put spikes in these pits." Yue Hongling stopped a bandit who was trying to add spikes to a pit. "The stronghold is so big that not everyone knows where every trap is. It would be bad if we caught our own people."

The bandit scratched his head. "Without spikes at the bottom, they're useless. Are these pits supposed to trap people or give them somewhere to hide and take a shit?"

Bang! The bandit went flying from a kick.

She had thought Zhao Changhe was crude, but only after actually dealing with these bandits did she learn what it meant to have no filter and no taboos. Zhao Changhe, at most, used some coarse language when swearing at people. His everyday speech was still civilized...

Her head aching, Yue Hongling rubbed her temples and pointed at the others shrinking away nearby. "You, you, and you... Go remove the spikes from the other pits. Just set these death traps outside the stronghold. Behind the mountain and near the various mountain paths, you can make them more lethal. Inside the Mountain Stronghold, trapping the enemy is enough. We don't want to hurt our own people by mistake."

"Right away! Whatever you say, sister-in-law!"

"There are other tricks besides spikes. For example, stepping into one could trigger a drenching of icy water. In this weather, most people would lose a layer of skin. Or once someone steps in, vines could close over the top, and so on. There are countless mechanisms in this world. Use your imagination. Anyone who comes up with a good trick gets a reward!"

"Also, spring is coming. This mountain is huge, and we can plant things in some places. That would supplement our supplies and keep us from sitting around eating through everything we have."

"'That's not what bandits do'? Say that again?"

"No objections, right? Then go do it."

"What does the man of the house think? Man of the house! I'm asking you!"

Zhao Changhe's voice came from far away. "Do what she says..."

Who was the man of the house here, exactly?

The people in the stronghold truly felt they had acquired a housekeeper, except this housekeeper was a half-baked one. She knew nothing about domestic management and merely tossed out ideas off the top of her head. Take planting things, for example. If you actually asked her what to plant, she would just stare fixedly at you. It was hard to tell whether the question had angered her or her mind was simply blank.

She didn't look at warehouse accounts or anything of the sort, either. She couldn't understand them at all. That bewildered expression, as though she recognized every individual word but had no idea what they meant together, was especially adorable.

In the end, the boss still had to look over them himself, while she stormed off fiercely to lead the men in training.

Nobody knew who was the Stockade Chief and who was his wife anymore. Their roles inside and outside the home seemed to have been reversed.

Lunch.

The Stockade Chief and his bandit bride hid in their room for a private meal. Both ate with their heads down, saying nothing for a long while, as though opening their mouths would make things awkward.

"Um..." They were almost finished eating before Zhao Changhe hesitantly spoke.

Yue Hongling looked up at him, her cheeks moving as she chewed her meat.

Unexpectedly struck by how cute she was, Zhao Changhe turned away rather than keep looking and cleared his throat. "I had them fix up the room next door. You can stay there starting today. There's a tub inside, and I'll have them heat water and bring it in for you every evening."

Yue Hongling blinked. That's a pretty good arrangement for the household. You can be the wife from now on.

In truth, Yue Hongling was different from Luo Qi. She genuinely didn't need to sleep; she could simply meditate in a chair, so the same awkward situations from before would not arise. Yue Hongling herself had never planned to live separately. After all, a "bandit bride" not sharing his room would only arouse suspicion. At the very least, people would think the Stockade Chief couldn't keep his wife in line.

But Yue Hongling also knew that a man and woman living together would inevitably create some problems. Zhao Changhe was trying to spare her any embarrassment beforehand, even if it meant being mocked for failing to assert his authority as a husband.

"Aren't you afraid the men will laugh at you, dear?" she deliberately asked anyway.

"Compared to that, I'd rather you could stay here longer without any reservations." Zhao Changhe muttered, "Even if this housekeeper doesn't actually know how to do a damn thing."

Yue Hongling glared at him, and Zhao Changhe raised his hands in surrender.

After glaring at him for a long while, Yue Hongling finally curled her lip. "Fine. But however long I stay, I'll still have to leave. Rest a little after eating. We'll keep sparring today."

"Second Brother, the atmosphere in town has been a little strange lately." At the inn in town, a young girl asked her brother in puzzlement, "I've noticed gang figures coming from quite far away, like Lin Feihu of the Black Tiger Gang. He's an expert at the fourth level of the Profound Pass... Could they have heard that you and Yue Hongling both got injured in your duel on the main street and come to pluck the peaches?"

By now, the siblings looked nothing like the plain-clothed travelers they had pretended to be when passing Mang Mountain. The girl wore a hooded sable coat, her head nestled in its fluffy hood with only her rosy little face showing. She was charming and adorable; there was no trace of the "passerby" from back then... Making oneself look ugly and inconspicuous was simply an essential skill for traveling the martial world.

Dressed in a brocade robe, Cui Yuanyong sat leisurely by the window with a book, every inch a handsome young gentleman, warm and gentle as jade.

Hearing his sister's question, he smiled amiably. "That shouldn't be the case. Yue Hongling and I both knew our limits during the duel and stopped short of going too far. Our injuries would take three to five days to heal at most. The spectators could tell we weren't badly hurt, too. By the time the news spread and anyone arrived, half a month would have passed... Everyone knows we've recovered. What would they come for?"

Yes, half a month had passed since their duel, and Yue Hongling had already spent half a month as the "bandit bride" in the Mountain Stronghold. Cui Yuanyong still found it hard to understand. No matter how he tried to picture it, he could scarcely imagine such a thing, yet he had seen it with his own eyes. Yue Hongling had even taken the initiative to echo David Tao's "Just Love You."

She had lingered for half a month, forgetting all about leaving. Presumably, a vigorous, strapping man like Zhao Changhe left Yue Hongling very satisfied.

Sure enough, that was how these country girls were. Fighting ability was one thing; vulgarity was still vulgarity.

Fortunately, Cui Yuanyong truly wasn't a gossip. He hadn't even told his sister about it-it wasn't the sort of thing one could readily discuss with an unmarried girl. He had only told her that Yue Hongling was hiding in the stronghold on North Mang Mountain to recover, so his sister, who was itching to capture a wanted criminal, wouldn't go throw her life away.

Cui Yuanyong thought for a moment, then smiled again. "So Lin Feihu's visit should have nothing to do with us. He may have come to trouble Zhao Changhe instead. Zhao Changhe has tested his saber across Mang Mountain and found no worthy opponent. It's time he drew in tigers from outside. Still, fighting for the bottom of the Hidden Dragon Rankings at the fourth level of the Profound Pass is truly embarrassing."

Hearing her brother's explanation, the girl huffed. "What brains could a country bumpkin have? With someone at the fourth level of the Profound Pass coming to his door, will Zhao Changhe get cut down? What am I supposed to do about my assignment?"

Cui Yuanyong was rather speechless. "A fully recovered Yue Hongling is living in that stronghold. Even I can't beat her, let alone him. Unless they're a grandmaster on the Heaven, Earth, and Human Rankings, anyone going there to cause trouble had better pray for their own good fortune..."

The girl thought of this too and laughed, then furrowed her delicate brows in puzzlement. "Speaking of which, it's been half a month. Yue Hongling's injury should have healed ages ago. Why is she still hanging around the stronghold instead of coming down?"

Cui Yuanyong kept reading without lifting his head. "She's free to come and go. She can stay wherever she likes. Is that any of your business?"

"Then what about my assignment? Am I supposed to just wait here?"

"I told you to break through to the third level first. What have you been doing lately?"

"...You were injured, weren't you? I was keeping watch over you."

"Yes, yes, I desperately needed you to keep watch." Cui Yuanyong sighed. "When First Seat Tang gave you this assignment, I originally thought he was merely humoring your childish desire to catch criminals..."

"Hm?"

"Hm, your wish. So he picked some wanted criminal for you to play with. But now Zhao Changhe has the bearing of a crouching tiger, far beyond an ordinary bandit. I feel I underestimated this matter before. First Seat Tang may be probing certain views held by our Cui family... You should abandon this assignment. That isn't a suggestion. It's an order."

The girl's eyes darted about, and she grinned. "The bearing of a crouching tiger? You mean the rumors that his bandit bride carts him around like a cat-a tiger crouching on the balcony?"

"...Don't change the subject. I told you to give it up, so give it up."

"You're no fun." The girl stamped her foot and left in a huff. It was anyone's guess whether she had listened.