After the Crybaby Married the Disabled Villain - Chapter 24

Mo Ying had long ago arranged a place in the courtyard to provide for the food, clothing, and training of the youths.

When An Yu first visited, he could hardly imagine that such a place existed within the General’s Manor. The entire courtyard was situated in a far corner of the manor, but despite being a corner, the location was quite spacious. The placement of personnel and items within the rooms was orderly; An Yu felt as though he had stepped into a military camp.

“Young Master.”

As soon as An Yu entered the courtyard, Mo Ying spotted him and walked over to give a simple salute.

Groups of youths nearby looked over one after another. Some of the younger boys had rarely seen such a clean and handsome young master; they immediately began communicating with one another through sign language. A crowd of people was busily “chatting” with their hands, and for the first time, An Yu felt a sense of noisiness in such a silent environment.

He smiled and waved at the group of youths, immediately receiving a wave back from everyone in greeting.

Mo Ying led An Yu out of the courtyard, vanishing from the sight of the group. Two soldiers dressed in military uniforms, who had been standing nearby, immediately took over the task of maintaining order once Mo Ying left.

“Why has the Young Master come?”

“The Prince said that during these days, you all would be here providing training and medical diagnosis for these youths in batches. I was bored while idle, so I came to see if there was anything I could help with.”

Mo Ying understood and immediately tried to think of something An Yu could help with. However, there was one matter for which a good solution had indeed not yet been found.

An Yu thought for a moment: “It is indeed so. These youths all come from impoverished backgrounds. Naturally, they have never systematically studied sign language; I noticed just now that the communication between them is not very smooth.”

“Yes. Two youths might not necessarily understand each other’s meaning, let alone us.”

There were nearly a hundred youths in the courtyard. Some were born into poverty and sold by their parents, while others were simply street urchins who didn’t even have relatives.

Some could still find parents to communicate with and learn from, but for nearly a hundred people, that method would be too troublesome.

This was indeed one of the most difficult problems to solve at the moment.

An Yu had never encountered this situation before and didn’t know much about it. The last time he had seen sign language was in his memory on the news.

“Should we invite a teacher to come and systematically teach them?”

Mo Han, who hadn’t appeared for several days, walked up from behind An Yu, carrying a sense of travel-worn fatigue.

“But that would still take too much time.”

This was indeed not a sustainable way forward. An Yu suddenly remembered something, and his eyes lit up:

“It is a bit too early for us to be worrying about this. Hasn’t Military Physician Yun already come to diagnose them? Why not treat the youths who have a possibility of being cured first?”

“During these few days, let them simply learn martial arts. Once a portion of the youths can speak, we can have one or several who can talk lead one who cannot.”

“Having been unable to speak for ten years, there will always be similarities. We only need to provide a little training to the youths after their treatment.”

Mo Ying and Mo Han suddenly felt their minds clear; they had indeed been stuck in a dead end.

Mo Ying nodded and immediately went to see to it. Currently, Yun Liang was the only physician in the manor; he truly needed to find more people to expedite the diagnoses and treatments.

An Yu wanted to say something more, but he saw Mo Ying leave in a hurry. He had clearly come to help, yet now he was left with nothing to do.

“Is the Young Master bored?”

Mo Han said: “I have been quite busy lately. If the Young Master is bored, why not come and help me?”

Hearing this, An Yu’s interest was immediately piqued. Originally, due to physical reasons, he could only stay at home or at school; now, he felt staying in his room was far too boring.

“Alright.”

Following Mo Han, they crossed more than half of the General’s Manor and arrived at a place resembling a storage area, where several large rooms were connected. Rows of neat and orderly shelves were placed inside the rooms, each compartment holding wooden boxes of various sizes. There were also larger crates placed directly on the floor.

The room was enormous; the connected series of rooms must have been several hundred square meters.

Seeing An Yu’s puzzled expression, Mo Han explained: “Young Master, this is the General’s private storehouse.”

As he spoke, he led An Yu to the innermost room, which appeared to have been recently connected. As soon as An Yu arrived, he noticed the difference in this room.

The rooms they had just passed through were filled with rosewood boxes—exquisite but not ostentatious. This room was the exact opposite.

Dozens of chests made of solid gold were placed on the floor; at a single glance, that expanse of yellow was enough to dazzle the eyes. Not only that, but An Yu pulled open a cabinet door to find it filled with robes stitched with gold thread. Although they were not bright yellow, the cuffs and collars were as luxurious as possible.

An Yu took a sharp breath; this was far too high-profile. How could anyone wear such clothes out?

He pulled open another cabinet door, and this one was even more direct: the entire cabinet was filled with banknotes of the largest denominations.

An Yu calmly closed the cabinet doors one by one, forcing himself to stay composed. Although he was originally the young master of one of the top wealthy families in the country, he had never seen such a “human-nature-defying” display of wealth.

“This room contains the dowry Master An prepared for the Young Master. At that time, the General had your subordinates place it here, saying it was to wait for the Young Master’s disposal.”

It’s all mine?

Only then did An Yu remember why, as the only son of the richest man, he had so few clothes and even needed Lu Shiyan to personally arrange them for him. It wasn’t that he didn’t have any; it was simply that these weren’t wearable in public!

“Then—cough, cough,”

“Then is there anything you need my help with?”

Was he here to audit the family assets? Or was Mo Han busy transferring the property these days?

Mo Han: “Young Master, the General intends to use his private storehouse to support the soldiers in the army recently. We are in the process of selling items off, but since these amounts are very large, I fear it might attract the attention of certain people in the palace. I wonder if we could use the Young Master’s shops to sell them?”

An Yu then remembered that among the original owner’s dowry, an entire chest was filled with house deeds, land deeds, and documents for various commercial shops in the capital.

“No problem. It seems there is a jewelry shop in the city called ‘Yunbao Pavilion’.”

“Thank you, Young Master.”

Afterward, An Yu didn’t leave; he followed Mo Han to organize Lu Shiyan’s collection in the storehouse. Although Lu Shiyan had been out of favor for several years, he had been the undisputed Crown Prince while the late Empress was alive. The various rare treasures bestowed upon him were by no means few.

One room alone filled two record books.

An Yu stood up and wandered around. He saw a deep blue jewelry box on a nearby shelf that was different from the others. The clasp of the box had long since grown dull; it was not hard to see that the object was of great age.

An Yu carefully took it down from the shelf. Unlike the heavy dust on the other boxes, this jewelry box was very clean. He wondered why it was placed among these numerous treasures.

Gently opening it, a white jade hairpin lay quietly inside. The semi-translucent jade felt thick and ancient. An Yu looked at it for a long time and recognized it as top-grade mutton-fat jade; this single hairpin alone was worth a fortune.

“Xiao Yu?”

Lu Shiyan had entered the storehouse at some unknown point. Perhaps An Yu had been looking too intently, as he hadn’t even heard the sound of Lu Shiyan turning his wheelchair.

“Why has Your Highness come?”

Lu Shiyan did not speak. He took the jewelry box from An Yu’s hands. He took out the jade hairpin and stroked it, his voice calm:

“This jade hairpin is the last relic left by my Mother Empress.”

“Since childhood, Mother was different from other women. She did not love hairpins or pleated skirts; she preferred riding horses and archery. She often galloped across the battlefield with my Grandfather, and no one in the army was unaware of Mother’s valiant spirit.

At that time, Grandfather had recovered large tracts of lost territory in the Northern Border, and the late Emperor was delighted. He held a banquet in the palace to welcome Grandfather back and bestowed the title of Duke of Zhenguo upon him. Even Mother was titled a County Princess. Many princes were captivated by Mother, who was both beautiful and spirited. Father, at that time, was not outstanding, nor was he favored.

He got drunk at the palace banquet and fell into the water by the pond in the Imperial Garden. Mother happened to pass by, saw the situation, and jumped in to rescue him. It was love at first sight; from then on, Father kept Mother in his heart and visited the Duke of Zhenguo’s manor daily. Grandfather naturally looked down on this unfavored prince, but Father persisted for two years, and eventually, Mother’s heart was moved.

And this jade hairpin was what Father pressed into her hand when Mother rescued him from the water.”

An Yu listened quietly. The meeting between the Emperor and the late Empress was beautiful and romantic; if not for what happened later, what a wonderful tale it would have been.

“When they were framed for colluding with the enemy and treason, Grandfather did his utmost to prove their innocence, and Mother knelt for a long time outside the Great Hall.

Yet, despite everything, his killing intent was set. Over the course of a single night, the Duke of Zhenguo’s manor became a river of blood. After Mother gave this hairpin to me, she returned to the Duke’s manor alone.

She self-immolated.”

An Yu’s heart gave a sudden throb. The book had not described the life of the late Empress. To think she was such a free-spirited woman.

“Your Highness—”

His throat felt tight. He wanted to say something but didn’t know what to say. For some reason, his eyes turned red again.

Lu Shiyan was between laughter and tears: “What are you crying for?”

“I am feeling sad for Your Highness, and for Mother. Yet Your Highness is still laughing at me.”

An Yu turned around and wiped his tears fiercely with his sleeve. The tear tracks were gone, but they couldn’t hide his reddened eyes.

“It is my fault. I apologize to Xiao Yu.”

An Yu looked at the jade hairpin: “Is this jade hairpin to be sold as well?”

Lu Shiyan remained silent.

“Your Highness. How could Mother not have known that falling into the water was a trap to lure her in?”

Otherwise, why would someone happen to have a priceless lady’s hairpin on their person?

Lu Shiyan reached out and rubbed the head of the youth squatting beside him: “Mother knew. When I was a child, she mentioned their meeting many times, always smiling exceptionally tenderly. She always said, ‘Your Father truly went to great lengths to get close to me’.”

An Yu fell silent. It seemed that at that time, Emperor Hongchang had indeed loved the late Empress.

“Let’s not sell it for now. Xiao Yu, would you help me keep it safe?”

Lu Shiyan pressed the jewelry box back into An Yu’s hands.

“Alright.”

An Yu stood up and placed the jewelry box on a shelf in his own storehouse room, surrounded by glittering gold.

Turning back, An Yu assumed a haughty air: “If there ever comes a day when Your Highness is too poor to afford food, I can support you.”

Behind the youth were cabinets full of gold and jewels, and at his feet were chests of house deeds, land deeds, and rare treasures; it was a scene quite fitting for his words.

The man burst into laughter, feeling light and joyous.

“Then in the future, I shall rely on the young master of the richest family to support me (the royal ‘I’).”