Let Them Earn Money

With her belly full and her thirst quenched, it was just the time to get sleepy, but that lunatic Xubai insisted on making her sit by the window.

It was high noon, the sun was baking her face, and there was a heavy head resting on her shoulder.

He was sleeping soundly against her, but Su Yuhe had it rough: the slightest movement woke him.

She shifted a little. Xubai grunted twice and bumped her shoulder as though in retaliation, but this time Su Yuhe did not coax him.

Instead, she pushed him gently. "Go sleep on the bed. I need to head back."

"Head back? What for?"

"To copy books. Time is tight, and there's a lot to do. I'll come see you another time."

Xubai sat up a little straighter, his voice still nasal from sleep. "What books? Are they more important than me?"

She wrestled with it for a moment before answering truthfully. "They're my livelihood. For now, they're more important than you."

His beautiful eyes narrowed slightly. "For now? Not even for a moment."

Fine, fine, fine. Here he goes again, acting crazy.

Ever since she had started earning money copying books, she felt that living off someone else was not quite so appealing anymore. If she could earn money herself, why should she have to live at someone else's mercy?

Su Yuhe did not indulge him either. She got up to leave.

"Come back!"

Her expression grew more serious. "I'm not joking with you. I really have to get back to work."

Xubai strolled over to stand before her. "Go if you want, but leave those three with me."

"Them?"

An awkward look crossed Su Yuhe's face, and her gaze darted away. "They're still working at home. You want to see them right now?"

He hooked one hand into her sash and yanked hard, saying fiercely, "What else? Do you want another taste of those three?"

She choked, left floundering by his words. "Could you be a little more tactful?"

"I've always spoken this way. Isn't that tactful enough? I can be even more explicit." Xubai pressed his long fingers against her chest. "I'll pretend nothing happened this past month. But after today, if you dare keep getting tangled up with them, watch out, or I'll leave you and them in pieces scattered east and west."

All right, he really had been quite tactful just now.

After that verbal warning, Su Yuhe took his hand and spilled everything that had happened over the past month like beans pouring out of a sack.

With the marriage agreement and the little episode with Meng Zhixian left out, life consisted of nothing but copying books and deciding what to eat each day.

"I copy books until midnight every day. When would I have time to bother with them?"

Her little face fell, her brows and eyes drooping. It was not a pretty sight.

Yet to Xubai, she looked especially adorable.

As her lips opened and closed, he could not resist lowering his head to press his mouth against hers. All her unspoken words melted into the scorching heat between their lips and teeth.

Their panting sounded especially distinct in the room. Su Yuhe pushed him away and continued recounting her miserable days, completely unaffected by that kiss.

"I copy day after day, and I only earn one tael of silver per book. A while ago, I even had to hand over four taels. I don't dare take a single day off. How would I have time to bother with them?"

Like a fox spirit sucking away someone's vital essence, Xubai listened languidly, one hand playing with the ends of her hair while the other hooked around her waist. At this, his temple twitched. "One tael per book?"

Su Yuhe felt a tiny bit guilty, but when she thought about how, without that benefactor, her pay would only have been around one tael per book anyway, she instantly felt justified. "Yes, just one tael per book, and that's already considered a lot. The job I found for Zhixian only pays half a tael per book. It's nothing but hard-earned money."

In that brief remark, Xubai caught three key points.

He had clearly set the rate at five taels of silver per book, with an extra five taels for every four books copied. To think that by the time it reached her, it had been docked down to one tael.

There was only one bookshop in town. He would have someone give them a warning another day. If that did not work, he would not mind buying a bookshop specifically to give her work, lest she find herself idle and go flirting with every flower and blade of grass.

"Zhixian. How intimate that sounds."

Su Yuhe quietly watched him act crazy. Only when he seemed to have nothing more to say did she continue, "That's not the point."

Here, she stumbled over her own words, turning them over in her mouth before saying, "The point is, Zhixian can help me copy books and earn money at my place. If you take him away, wouldn't that be..."

"You're using them to earn money?"

She spread her hands as though it were only natural. "What else?"

Xubai was very pleased with her reaction. He knew it: the person he had taken a fancy to would not fail to withstand such a trifling temptation.

At that moment, he completely forgot all his previous doubts and hugged her tightly. "I knew it. I knew it."

Knew what?

Su Yuhe pushed him. "I really can't keep talking. I still have work to get back to."

"Very well. Go back. I'll go meet those three."

After all that circling around, the conversation had returned to Lu Mingyi and the others. She stole a look at Xubai's expression. Seeing that he seemed to be in a reasonably good mood, she asked with exaggerated casualness, "You want to see them right now?"

She had asked that more than once. Xubai suddenly grew displeased, his brows drawing together slightly. "What, are you worried I'll do something to them?"

"No, no." Su Yuhe waved her hands, though that was exactly what she was thinking. Her mind raced. "It's just that seeing them now will hold up their book copying."

He was not satisfied with that explanation.

"Then stop copying. Staying by my side will earn you far, far more than copying books."