The daily life of a space tycoon raising children, doting on his husband, and farming.

Chapter 9 Men Should Be Generous

"Don't be nervous, I won't bully you." Shang Wan picked up the thin blanket and wrapped it tightly around Lu Chengjing's frail body.

Lu Chengjing: Something seems off?
He coughed lightly, forcibly steer the conversation back on track, and asked with concern, "Where are you and Yuanyuan living now?"

"They live in Elm Tree Village." Shang Wan briefly explained the current situation of the four of them to him, focusing on Chen San and the others, and asked, "Have you ever had a feud with the Lin family?"

She had a gut feeling that the village chief's sudden targeting of them was not just to establish his authority, and that their only connection with Elm Tree Village was Lu Chengjing.

“No.” Lu Chengjing frowned. “But he deliberately plotted against you, which must be related to me.”

Isn't that a contradiction?

Shang Wan looked at him and said, "Explain in more detail."

"Qin Cuixiang, the daughter of Qin Lizheng of Xiahe Village, was a concubine of Li Can, the only son of Li Wenhua, the former magistrate of Dongning County. Li Can had few children; his wife and other concubines had no offspring, but Qin Cuixiang bore him a son who might inherit the family business in the future. The Qin family and the Lin family were related by marriage."

"Wait, let me sort this out." Shang Wan felt that there was a lot of information to process. She pressed her temples. "You mean, the Qin family blames you for poisoning the former magistrate, and now that no one is helping their grandson pave the way for his future success, they are taking their anger out on us through the Lin family's marriage alliance?"

Lu Chengjing scenic spot.

Shang Wan was speechless. If you want revenge, just confront them head-on. Why go through all this trouble?
After thinking about it, she still felt something was off. "When Shi Tou went to exchange grain, he didn't introduce himself. How did Village Chief Lin know we were from the same family as you?"

Lu Chengjing looked at her unadorned hair bun and said, "That silver hairpin is engraved with the Lu family emblem."

Shang Wan: "..."

So she dug her own grave?
Lu Chengjing, still worried, cautioned, "If one plan fails, there must be a backup plan. Stay in the village and be careful."

"Don't worry about us," Shang Wan said. "Tell me first, how can I get you out?"

Lu Chengjing stared at her face for a while. Seeing that her expression was serious and not fake, he pursed his pale lips and said in a low voice, "There is no other way but to find the real poisoner."

"Then tell me the whole story about the magistrate being poisoned." Shang Wan grabbed a handful of the messy hair of the person next to her and smoothed it out one strand at a time with her eyes downcast.

Lu Chengjing shifted his head uncomfortably, trying to pull his hair back.

"If you move again, you'll be the one who gets hurt." Shang Wan held on tightly and urged, "Speak quickly, the yamen runners will wake up soon."

Upon hearing this, Lu Chengjing had no choice but to suppress his discomfort and recount the poisoning incident, focusing on the key points.

The matter was actually quite simple. The day before yesterday, Lu Chengjing met Li Wenhua at Fuyuan Inn and was invited to have dinner together. However, the wine was poisoned. After drinking the poisoned wine, Li Wenhua bled from all seven orifices and died a gruesome death.

Lu Chengjing, being physically weak and unable to drink alcohol, happened to escape unscathed.

There were only the two of them in the room. After questioning the inn staff, the yamen runners found no other suspicious persons, so the charge of poisoning the magistrate naturally fell on Lu Chengjing.

"Poor kid," Shang Wan sighed. "What were you doing going to Fuyuan Inn for no reason?"

Lu Chengjing turned his face away and forcefully pulled his hair back from Shang Wan's hand, breaking several strands in the process.

Shang Wan: "..."

This little temper tantrum is self-destructive.

She carefully recalled what she had just said, then reached out and poked Lu Chengjing's arm. "I take back what you said, you unlucky kid."

Now you won't be angry anymore, right?
But Lu Chengjing's face grew even darker, as if someone owed him several thousand taels of silver.

Shang Wan: "..."

Stone's awkwardness probably came from this guy, right?
"The letter." Lu Chengjing gripped the blanket tightly with his left hand, his voice muffled. "I saw that letter."

What letter?

Shang Wan blinked, and a scene suddenly popped into her mind.

The letter contained cheesy, sentimental words; the original owner's blushing face and fluttering heart were reflected in the mirror, along with that coy, alluring expression. Damn! Lu Chengjing actually went to the Fuyuan Inn to catch them cheating!

No wonder Shi Tou was blaming her when she first woke up. If it weren't for that letter, Lu Chengjing wouldn't have gone to Fuyuan Inn. If he hadn't gone to the inn, he wouldn't have run into Li Wenhua. And if he hadn't run into Li Wenhua, he wouldn't have been blamed for poisoning her.

The original owner was delayed by Madam Lu's deliberate harassment. By the time she left, news of Lu Chengjing's poisoning of the county magistrate had already spread, which frightened her so much that she fainted on the spot. Naturally, the cuckoldry plan came to nothing.

"If I said that letter was fake, would you believe me..." Under Lu Chengjing's gaze, Shang Wan pouted, "Okay, you definitely wouldn't believe me."

"But I didn't have time to cheat on you, did I?" Shang Wan said matter-of-factly. "Don't dwell on things that didn't happen. A man should be more magnanimous."

Lu Chengjing was so angry at these words that he laughed. Shang Wan immediately seized the opportunity and said, "Hey, laughing means you don't care."

"Okay." Lu Chengjing responded unexpectedly.

Shang Wan was taken aback and looked him over carefully.

He can tolerate being cuckolded; he must be a fake man.

"You really don't care?"

"Hmm." Lu Chengjing responded again, his expression visibly softening.

The woman standing to my left and right is not Shang Wan, so why bother arguing with her?

Shang Wan didn't understand what Lu Chengjing was thinking, but since Lu Chengjing was so generous, could she have him on her left and right... cough cough, I'm getting off-topic, let's get down to business.

Who do you think is most likely to have poisoned Li Wenhua?

Lu Chengjing stared at her for a long time before finally uttering a name, "Tian Sheng".

Tian Sheng was the county magistrate of Dongning County.

Shang Wan asked in confusion, "Why do you suspect him?"

"That day, he came to the inn looking for Li Wenhua with an official document from the county government, and just happened to run into Li Wenhua suffering from the poison."

Shang Wan felt this reason was a bit far-fetched. "What if he just happened to run into him?"

“He was so surprised that he dropped the official document.” Lu Chengjing recalled the scene. “The document was right at my feet. It was about changing the teacher at the county school. As the county magistrate, he could have made the decision on such a small matter. Even if he needed to consult Li Wenhua, it wasn’t urgent enough for him to come all the way from the county office to the inn.”

"So you think he deliberately made the trip to witness Li Wenhua's poisoning?"

“Hmm.” Lu Chengjing nodded. “Besides him, I can’t think of anyone else.”

“Okay, investigate this Tian Sheng.” Shang Wan said, raising her hand to cover Lu Chengjing’s forehead and finding that his temperature had completely returned to normal.

Lu Chengjing could naturally sense the changes in her body. He looked at Shang Wan with his exceptionally dark eyes and asked, "What did you give me to drink just now?"

Shang Wan didn't even blink. "Water."

Lingquan water is still water, isn't it?

Lu Chengjing, feeling brushed off: "..."

"The blanket is a bit smelly and thin, but it's better than nothing." Shang Wan stood up, waved to the person on the straw mat, and said, "I'm leaving."

Lu Chengjing opened his mouth as if to say something, but saw a green shadow flash before his eyes and disappear along with the sound of a lock falling.

A faint fragrance of grass and trees lingered in the air.

Lu Chengjing lowered his head, his left hand gripping the thin blanket tightly, his eyes hidden in the shadows, unfathomable.

(End of this chapter)