Chapter 68#
The Cross-dressing Wife#
The cloth shop owner felt that he had accidentally discovered a shocking truth.
Moreover, this was likely an opportunity that could allow him to prosper and soar to great heights!
Just as the cloth shop owner was trembling with excitement, the gray-robed Taoist walked over with the clothes he had picked out and knocked hard on the counter: “Hey, boss, are you still doing business? I…” He stopped halfway.
The gray-robed Taoist stared at the cloth shop owner, who looked as if he had seen a ghost and was so scared that he jumped up from his chair. He frowned and asked, “What’s wrong with you?”
“I… I had a nightmare.”
The cloth shop owner wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and glanced at the clothes he brought absent-mindedly, saying perfunctorily, “Thirty coins.”
“Thirty coins? Why don’t you just rob me!” the gray-robed Taoist shouted, “Too expensive, cheaper!”
“Give what you think is fair.” The cloth shop owner was in no mood to haggle with him and said perfunctorily.
The gray-robed Taoist looked at him suspiciously and tentatively offered a price: “Then… five coins?”
As soon as the words were spoken, even the little boy looked at his master in shock: This bargaining was too ruthless, wasn’t it?
But the cloth shop owner actually agreed immediately: “Fine, fine, even for free is fine, leave quickly, I’m closing the shop!”
“What? Are you serious? I…” The gray-robed Taoist still wanted to say something, but the cloth shop owner had already impatiently come out from behind the counter and pushed them out.
He quickly closed the shop door and hung up a sign saying “Closed Today.” After confirming no one was in the shop, he immediately went home to discuss with his wife. Hearing about Lin Xiaodong’s true identity, the cloth shop owner’s wife was skeptical: “Are you sure that Taoist was telling the truth? Maybe he was having a fit of hysteria.”
“I think it’s most likely true,” the cloth shop owner vowed, “not to mention she was born with the appearance of a fox spirit, did you forget how that Zhao person fell not long ago? I’ve heard people say that he’s now half-mad, muttering ‘impossible, impossible’ in prison all day. The plan we came up with together should have been flawless. If not for sorcery, why would that woman vanish into thin air in the room?”
Hearing him say this, the cloth shop owner’s wife also began to feel afraid: “Then what should we do, report it to the authorities? But what if she comes to our house at night to retaliate?”
“This…” The cloth shop owner was also a bit afraid, but he quickly thought of an idea, “Right, as long as we spread the news and more people know, won’t it be fine?”
“What do you mean?” the wife asked in confusion.
“The law doesn’t punish the masses. Once the townspeople know, the Gu family can’t possibly silence an entire town, can they?” the cloth shop owner said excitedly, “But they definitely won’t all know the rumor is true. When the time comes, we’ll be the first to report it to the authorities and we’ll definitely get the top credit!”
The wife suddenly understood and praised repeatedly: “Good idea! Truly a good idea!”
The cloth shop owner laughed triumphantly.
He held his wife, already fantasizing about a life of luxury and being surrounded by beauties after achieving fame and success.
“A-choo!”
Lin Xiaodong, who was soaking in the hot spring, suddenly sneezed.
“Caught a cold?” Gu Xingzhai frowned, “The weather has been cold lately, don’t keep going to town.”
“Just a sneeze.” Lin Xiaodong rubbed his nose and said helplessly, “And you also know it’s cold, so there must be more sick people. I’m a doctor, if I don’t go treat them, are these poor people supposed to survive this winter on their own?”
Gu Xingzhai lowered his eyes and remained silent.
After a while, he sighed softly: “If only all the enchantresses in the world were like you, how good it would be.”
“That’s impossible, I’m one of a kind,” Lin Xiaodong snorted, not without pride. He used the [One-Click Dress-Up] skill to transform himself into the little mermaid from the previous world and swam freely in the hot spring. Although Gu Xingzhai was amazed by that beautiful silver-white tail, he only took it as a natural ability of an enchantress and thus didn’t suspect anything.
System: “This counts as a violation.”
Lin Xiaodong: “Cut it out, he didn’t notice anything wrong. And what about the thing I asked you to check on Gu Xi? So many points have been spent, there should at least be a sound, right?”
“Don’t worry about this for now,” the system said, “when we leave this world, I will catch the point where the headquarters’ data stream is most concentrated to decipher it. This is also the only chance to avoid being discovered by those programmers.”
Lin Xiaodong asked curiously: “I always hear you mention programmers. Why, does your headquarters recruit externally? Do they set up a stall in the cosmic talent market?”
“Our programmers all come from high-level planes,” the system said proudly, “which is what you call the Heavenly Court. Jobs are hard to find these days, even those who guarded the Southern Heaven Gate have jumped ship to the headquarters as security. I heard them say that my core program was even a divine beast in its past life.”
Lin Xiaodong: “……”
That’s a new one.
After December, the weather immediately became unbearable.
Snow fell heavily, and overnight, the streets were draped in silver, as beautiful as a glass world under a painter’s brush.
However, for the people living here, it wasn’t so easy.
Because in this era without air conditioning or heating, even wealthy families could only rely on burning charcoal for warmth.
On days he didn’t go to town, Lin Xiaodong basically spent the whole day huddled in bed, wrapped tightly in a cotton quilt and shivering from the cold, or sneaking into someone’s bed in the middle of the night to huddle against a human-shaped heater.
Gu Xingzhai practiced martial arts all year round, and his body temperature was higher than normal. Lin Xiaodong wished he could tie him to his belt and take him everywhere.
“Don’t go to town these few days.” When he picked up Lin Xiaodong from his medical consultation in town again, Gu Xingzhai sat in front of the charcoal stove and mentioned this matter again.
He massaged the young man’s feet, which were turned purple from the cold, bit by bit with his hands, and said in a somber voice: “In the years before you came, Qingxie Town survived every winter like this. Don’t think of them as too delicate.”
“I know,” Lin Xiaodong said, holding a warm bottle and sniffing, “I won’t go.”
Before, he was just thinking if he could collect a Good Person Card during the medical consultation process, but now it seemed he had thought too much.
Gu Xingzhai was taken aback, probably not expecting Lin Xiaodong to really agree. He looked up and asked: “Truly not going?”
“Mm.”
Lin Xiaodong thought to himself that he really couldn’t like the people in this place. Although there were simple folks like Wang Er, there were more ungrateful ingrates who felt that no matter how much was given, it was only right and natural.
There was clearly more than one doctor in Qingxie Town, but because he didn’t charge for medical consultations, those people came to him for every little headache or fever. Even if they weren’t sick, they wanted to get a few doses of medicine just in case, or to resell them for money. Just this month, there were no fewer than a hundred people who were exposed by him on the spot for faking illness.
Lin Xiaodong saw all of this.
He wondered if those people really thought he was a naive and sweet rich young lady?
Expressing gratitude with their mouths while mocking him for being a fool behind his back, not knowing who the truly foolish one was.
In the current town, even including the surrounding villages and towns, except for the private doctors kept by the wealthy families themselves, there were no longer any doctors willing to treat poor people. Once Lin Xiaodong left, if they wanted to seek medical treatment, they could only travel over a hundred miles to the nearest city. Not to mention whether the patient could hold out during the long journey, even if they truly reached the big city, the cost of medical treatment was not something that could be simply resolved by the phrase “family bankruptcy.”
“I’ve made up my mind. Isn’t it good to just eat and drink at home? Why bother going to that dirty and cold place to find trouble,” Lin Xiaodong laughed, “How about we have hot pot tonight?”
Gu Xingzhai carefully observed the expression on his face and found that the young man was indeed serious, and seemed not to have heard those rumors in town lately, so he couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief in secret.
“Okay,” he said, “I’ll have someone prepare it now.”
He didn’t know where the news leaked from or who the original source was, but Gu Xingzhai had already keenly sensed that the wind direction was wrong. The man had already made the worst preparations—at most, he would set fire to this big mansion and travel the world with Lin Xiaodong.
Anyway, this place wasn’t their Gu family’s root to begin with, so it was no big deal even if it burned down.
But, Gu Xingzhai thought coldly, in any case, he would not easily spare the person who was hiding behind the scenes and causing trouble.
“What did you say?” When he heard the subordinate’s report, Master Huang almost thought he was hallucinating, “Say it again, who’s here?”
“It’s really that one from the capital, Master! If I lied to you, may the heavens strike me with lightning!” The subordinate was also so excited that his whole body was shaking, “He-he-he is waiting for you right at the door!”
Master Huang took a sharp breath and immediately lifted his long gown to go out and welcome him. Before going out, he also looked down and spat twice into his palm, smoothed his hair against the glass window, and only then made a flustered appearance and trotted out: “Lord Xie has come from afar, I failed to welcome you, I deserve ten thousand deaths!”
The man wearing an official robe at the door turned around upon hearing the words, revealing a pale, hairless, feminine and solemn face.
It turned out that this “Lord Xie” was actually a eunuch!
“Spare me the pleasantries,” he waved his hand somewhat impatiently, staring at Master Huang, who was all smiles on the surface but actually sweating with tension, “I heard that in the nearby Qingxie Town, there is a beautiful woman named Lin?”
“Yes, yes,” Master Huang was startled, thinking to himself that this dead eunuch couldn’t possibly have taken a fancy to Lin Xiaodong, “Miss Lin is indeed famous around here for her beauty and kindness. I wonder… for what matter do you seek her, Lord Xie?”
“I heard some rumors,” the chief eunuch snorted. He had been searching for the method of longevity for the one above for decades. Now, seeing the dragon vein dying, that one’s patience was also becoming less and less. “Investigate for me what exactly is going on. If the rumors are true, report to me immediately without any delay, hear me?”
Under Chief Xie’s sinister gaze, cold sweat slowly flowed down Master Huang’s forehead: “Yes… yes, rest assured, I will definitely do my best!”
After sending Chief Xie off, Master Huang’s deeply bowed back slowly straightened.
“Master, what should we do?”
A subordinate nearby asked fearfully. One slip-up could be a capital offense!
Master Huang’s expression flickered between pale and white. Although he was lecherous, he was ultimately someone who appreciated beauty. Because of the ball, he also had a very good impression of Lin Xiaodong. However, this matter concerned the lives of his entire family, so he really couldn’t be vague…
“Wait,” he squeezed a word out from between his teeth.
“Wait?”
“Yes,” Master Huang, who had been in officialdom for decades, muttered, “Chief Xie couldn’t possibly have come here personally just for a groundless rumor. So ultimately, he’s just passing by, and there are other more important matters waiting for him to handle. As luck would have it, he’s also a eunuch and won’t be interested in even the most beautiful woman. If this rumor is just a rumor, then after some time I will naturally report that it was just the villagers making trouble; but if this matter continues to ferment…”
He shook his head and let out a long sigh, not speaking anymore.