Grass and mustard reign supreme

Chapter 5 Old Cheng also changed jobs

Leopard Head's heart pounded, and he quickly said, "Mr. Yang, it's not just the young mistress who's suffering; everyone in our eldest son's household is so worried they can't sleep."
With the young master gone, everyone felt lost and uncertain!
I, Lao Cheng, am a rough man. I'm good at handling guns and sticks, but I'm not good at things that require brains.

From now on, our eldest son's branch of the family will be relying entirely on you, Mr. Yang, for making decisions!

Yang Can shook his head and said, "Commander Cheng, please don't joke. I only saved your life by chance. You only gave me the position of advisor to repay your kindness."

How can you compare to Commander Cheng, who has followed the young master for many years and is now the esteemed Commander of the eldest branch's guards?

Leopard Head rubbed his hands together and said awkwardly, "That's different! Mr. Yang, you are a scholar. Now that the young master is gone, our eldest son's family can't do without someone who can make decisions."

Who else could it be but you, Mr. Yang?

Yang Can said seriously, "Commander Cheng, please don't say such things again. Even if the young master is gone, our young mistress is still here. How can it be anyone else's place to give orders?"

Leopard Head said urgently, "Mr. Yang, are you really confused or just pretending? When the Yu family and the Suo family get married, it's like cats and mice sharing a room; we should all be wary of each other!"

"When the young master is alive, the young mistress is truly the young mistress; when the young master is gone, what is she? Not even worth a decoration!"

A glint flashed in Yang Can's eyes, and he immediately pressed, "Commander Cheng, what makes you say that?"

Leopard Head was taken aback, and asked in surprise, "Mr. Yang, do you really not know?"

Yang Can asked in confusion, "What do I know?"

When Leopard Head saw Yang Can's blank and clueless expression, he was overjoyed.

He was very worried that the Suo family would collude with Master Yang to shift all the blame onto him.

The true relationship between the Suo and Yu families is far less idyllic than people imagine, even with their marriage alliance.

If that's the case, if he could explain the true relationship between the two families to Master Yang, then Master Yang might not be willing to align himself with the Suo family, and the possibility of him taking the blame would be much smaller.

Thinking of this, Leopard Head grabbed Yang Can's wrist and said urgently, "Mr. Yang, you haven't been in the Changfang family for long, so you don't know the details."

"Come, come, let's find a place, and Lao Cheng will give you a proper explanation!"

Leopard Head pulled Yang Can to the shallow stream and kindly brought him a bowl of fragrant and sticky rice porridge, as well as a large pancake wrapped with cured meat.

"Mr. Yang, you don't know this, but the Yu family and the Suo family, along with the other six clans, aren't exactly close to each other..."

Listening to the babbling brook, Leopard Head couldn't wait to speak.

……

A stream meanders through the Gobi Desert. In early spring, in March, the stream, formed by the melting snow from the distant mountains, flows gently through the area.

Not far away, several maids from the Su family were drawing water from the stream and carrying buckets of it up the slope.

As soon as Yang Can left the wedding tent on the hillside, Suo Chanzhi returned to the main tent and instructed Xiao Qingmei to have the maids prepare a bath.

The clear stream water, once boiled, is poured into the bathtub to make bathwater.

Suo Chanzhi sat in the bathtub, her head resting on the edge of the tub lined with a towel, and her face covered with a bath towel as well.

Her face was covered, which only made the focus more prominent.

Qingmei used a natural sponge, which a merchant from the distant "Fulin" (Mediterranean region), to wash Suochanzhi's body.

This natural sponge is actually a primitive marine invertebrate whose skeleton is made of soft, fibrous proteins or minerals.

It requires divers to harvest by hand, and then it is sun-dried, pounded, and soaked to finally become a soft and usable finished product.

Even in its place of origin, it was something only nobles could afford. When it was sold to the distant East, this "bath towel" became even more expensive.

Qingmei idly washed Suo Chanzhi's body, her curious gaze occasionally lingering on her neck and chest, where there were faint blue bruises.

Even though she had seen the "hidden treasure" before, Qingmei couldn't imagine what exactly happened between Yang Can and Suo Chanzhi.

With only a superficial understanding, when she looked at the light blue bruises again, she began to conjure up many strange and ambiguous images in her mind.

Suo Chanzhi covered her face with a bath towel, clearly unable to see Qingmei's scrutinizing gaze, but her ears were gradually turning red.

Perhaps because the bath was too hot, not only did the heat redden Suo Chanzhi's ears, but it also made her breathing difficult, and her chest began to rise and fall more.

She was afraid that Qingmei would see something she shouldn't see, so she quickly took off her clothes and slipped into the bathtub when Qingmei wasn't paying attention. As a result, some marks couldn't be hidden after all.

But this little girl just kept watching, it was so embarrassing!

"Have you seen enough?!" Suo Chanzhi suddenly grabbed the towel covering her face and glared at Xiao Qingmei, her face flushed.

"Ah! No, what can I watch? What did I watch?"

Little Green Plum argued back, and in a flurry of activity, Sponge almost fell into the water.

"I...I was just washing you, young lady."

Qingmei lowered her head and explained guiltily, not daring to lift her eyelids. She grabbed the sponge and started rubbing the arm of Suo Chanzhi endlessly.

"My skin is almost raw from all the scrubbing," Suo Chanzhi said sullenly.

"Oh, oh." Little Green Plum quickly moved to another spot and continued rubbing endlessly.

Suo Chanzhi snatched the sponge away impatiently: "Get out of the way, sit down over there." "Okay, okay."

Wearing only a small top and pants, with bare arms and legs, the little green plum obediently agreed and ran to sit on the bamboo stool.

But she didn't stay still for long. Her dark, round eyes darted over again, scanning left and right, up and down like searchlights.

Suo Chanzhi was quite helpless about Qingmei's little tricks; she really couldn't treat Qingmei as an ordinary maid.

Qingmei was her personal maid, someone with whom she had the closest relationship. She had no secrets from Qingmei.

Before her marriage, the two of them had sat side by side on the couch to examine the "bottom of the trunk," so what privacy could she possibly have with her childhood sweetheart?

Suo Chanzhi slapped the sponge into the water and glared at Xiao Qingmei, whose pretty face was flushed red, whether from the heat or from embarrassment: "Ask whatever you want!"

"I won't ask. What's there for me to ask? I won't ask. No, no, there's nothing to ask."

Little Green Plum shook her head like a rattle drum, but her index fingers kept tapping together. Before long, her sly eyes darted over Suo Chanzhi's chest a few more times.

Unable to suppress her curiosity any longer, the little plum's eyes darted toward the strawberry marks on the tangled branches.

"Get out! Get out! Get out right now!"

Suo Chanzhi broke through her defenses and suddenly stood up from the bathtub, the movement so forceful that it caused a commotion.

Suo Chanzhi quickly sat down again, submerged herself in the water, pointed at the tent door, and shouted angrily, unable to contain her shame, "Get out of here right now!"

"Okay, okay, I'll go, I'll go." Little Green Plum hurriedly agreed.

Why are you getting angry? Didn't you tell me to ask?

Xiao Qingmei felt wronged, but she dared not talk back at this moment. She could tell that her young lady was really angry and embarrassed.

Little Qingmei hurriedly ran away, still full of questions.

……

Yang Can and Leopard Head squatted by the stream, each holding a large bowl in their hands.

As Yang Can sipped his porridge, he listened to Leopard Head explain the relationship between the Suo and Yu families and even the Eight Clans of Longshang.

According to Leopard Head, there is actually no question of who among the eight powerful families in Longshang has a closer relationship with whom.

Speaking of kinship, among the eight powerful families of Longshang, who isn't related to whom?

The eight powerful clans of Longshang each controlled their own territory, and they both supported and restrained each other, thus achieving a strange balance of power.

The reason why the Yu Clan allied with the Suo Clan this time was actually only one: the Yu Clan's eldest branch and second branch had gradually become more powerful and had surpassed the eldest branch of the Yu Clan.

Yu Xinglong, the head of the Yu clan, is the eldest son of this generation. He is physically weak and has few offspring. He currently has only two sons, Yu Chengye and Yu Chenglin, with the younger son, Yu Chenglin, being only seven years old this year.

Yu Xinglong arranged for his eldest son, Yu Chengye, to marry into the Suo family in order to use the Suo family's power to suppress the second branch, namely his own brother, Yu Huanhu.

The reason why the Suo family readily agreed to the marriage alliance with the Yu family was because the Yu family ceded many business interests to the Suo family.

The Yu family's main business is agriculture, which is their foundation and cannot be touched. The only thing they can give up is their commercial interests.

Even so, Yu Xinglong was still cautious about the Suo family. He wanted to leverage the Suo family's influence, but he didn't want the Suo family to overreach.

Otherwise, it would be awkward if we were to find ourselves in a situation where we could keep the tiger out the front door but let the wolf in the back.

Yang Can's eyes gradually lit up as he heard about the conflict between the Yu family's eldest branch and the second branch from Leopard Head, and also about the truth behind the marriage alliance between the Yu and Suo families, each with their own ulterior motives.

The truth was already obvious to him!
Anyone who goes to great lengths and risks to do something must have a motive.

The reason Suo Chanzhi gave him in the wedding tent could be Suo Chanzhi's motive, but it could not be Tu Mama's motive.

Yang Can had already guessed that the Suo family was the ones who were unwilling to give up on the marriage, but he didn't understand their purpose.

After hearing Leopard Head's words, Yang Can finally realized what the Suo family was plotting.

If the Suo family wanted to use the marriage alliance with the eldest son of the Yu family to strengthen their control over the Yu family, then everything makes sense.

Once he understood the other party's purpose, Yang Can immediately began to silently deduce it in his mind:
After Yu Chengye's death, Granny Tu immediately dispatched two messengers to the Suo and Yu families to report the death.

In other words, at that time, it was impossible for Granny Tu to have thought of the "borrowing seed plan," so the people she sent out were simply there to deliver the news of death.

Therefore, this "sperm donation plan" should currently only be known to him, Suo Chanzhi, Granny Tu, and Qingmei.

However, things might change after a while. Once Granny Tu sends out a second messenger, she might report the seed-borrowing plan to the Suo family.

Once the higher-ups of the Suo family find out about this, even if the Suo family doesn't want to silence him, he can only become a puppet of the Suo family.

So... first he has to stop the news from spreading further.

But how can we stop it?

Yang Can was thinking when he suddenly looked up at Leopard Head. "I've already become the groom, so Lao Cheng can become the 'timely rain' too!"

(End of this chapter)