Transmigrated into the Scumbag Ex-Wife of the Prime Minister - Chapter 3

“Don’t you want money? As long as you sign the divorce papers, the fifty taels from pawning the house will be yours.” Qi Zhenshu looked at her and said.

Listening to her words, she must have guessed the original owner’s intention.

Lu Sheng bowed her head in contemplation. Qi Zhenshu was too smart. How should she answer without arousing suspicion?

“Auntie…” Lu Sheng thought for a moment and could only bring up the old lady.

“I will naturally repay the money borrowed from Auntie, it has nothing to do with you,” Qi Zhenshu said.

Seeing her misunderstand, Lu Sheng explained, “No, I mean, I promised Auntie today that I would live a good life with you.”

“If you think the money is too little, I’ll sell these books tomorrow.” Qi Zhenshu frowned slightly, her gaze sweeping over the books in the room. “I should be able to add another twenty taels for you.”

Lu Sheng: …

She realized that in Qi Zhenshu’s eyes, the original owner was someone who was greedy for money and went back on her word.

Lu Sheng couldn’t think of a solution for the time being, so she could only stall. She said to her, “Let me consider it for two days?”

Qi Zhenshu’s brows slightly furrowed, and a chill spread across her face.

“It’s not about the money.” Lu Sheng was afraid she would think wrongly, so she could only bring up Chief Lu again. “If we get a divorce, what should we tell Auntie? I’m afraid she will hit me if she finds out.”

She shrunk her neck, looking genuinely afraid of Chief Lu.

Qi Zhenshu’s expression relaxed. “I will tell her myself in a few days.”

The way she said it clearly showed that she thought Lu Sheng would take the money and run.

“Let me think about it again.”

Lu Sheng didn’t want to divorce her for the time being.

Her memory was incomplete, and she was already in an unfamiliar place. Instead of taking the money and going elsewhere, it would be better to familiarize herself with the situation first before making plans.

Besides, Qi Zhenshu was good-looking and highly intelligent. Lu Sheng felt a little reluctant to just divorce her like this.

Having been a widow for more than twenty years, this was the first time Lu Sheng had developed a crush on someone.

Coming out of the study, Lu Sheng went to the east room on the south side.

Unlike the other rooms, this one had more furniture. Besides a table and a wardrobe, there was even a dressing table.

Although the furniture wasn’t made of expensive wood, the style and craftsmanship were quite exquisite.

Looking at the arrangement in the room, some images appeared in Lu Sheng’s mind again.

The original owner’s father, Lu Huacheng, was quite capable, working as a steward in the clan’s wine shop, and the family’s life was relatively affluent.

Lu Huacheng’s wife had died of illness a few years ago, and he hadn’t remarried. The original owner grew up spoiled, with a capricious and lazy personality.

Qi Zhenshu was sold to the Lu family at the age of twelve. Lu Huacheng discovered her talent for reading and sent her to school, requiring her to become a patrilocal son-in-law (or ‘son-in-law’ who lives with the wife’s family, a zhui xu) in the Lu family.

In Liang Country, marriage was free, same-sex people could marry, and they could also use medicine to conceive offspring.

The laws of Xiliang stipulated that regardless of gender, anyone over the age of sixteen could establish their own household, and only those who had established a household could participate in the imperial examinations. However, those who participated in the imperial examinations could only marry a wife or become a zhui xu, and could not personally give birth to a child. If they violated this, their official title would be revoked.

In Lu Sheng’s era, same-sex people could also marry and have children, but there was no restriction that the person who gave birth could not take the civil service exam.

Liang Country’s set of laws was both advanced and feudal.

The original owner looked down on Qi Zhenshu’s background and only married her because she dared not disobey her biological father.

Qi Zhenshu was aloof and didn’t deliberately try to please her. The original owner became more and more disdainful of this ‘son-in-law’, and by extension, didn’t much like their daughter either.

Half a month ago, he died unexpectedly and left behind a debt. To repay the debt, the original owner and Qi Zhenshu sold furniture, jewelry, and some land.

After Lu Huacheng’s death, the original owner had already thought about divorce, but Qi Zhenshu did not agree at that time, which Lu Sheng found a little strange.

Another point caught Lu Sheng’s attention: the original owner selling the house and their daughter seemed a little suspicious.

With this thought, Lu Sheng walked to the wooden box in the corner, opened the lid, rummaged inside, and took out a bag.

The bag contained forty-five taels of silver, which was the money the original owner got from pawning the house.

As for the missing five taels, two taels had been spent by the original owner on food the day she got the money, and the other three taels were exchanged for two boxes of rouge.

The family was so poor they were selling furniture and land, yet the original owner’s first reaction after getting money was to eat, drink, and make herself beautiful. Lu Sheng didn’t know what to say.

However, she couldn’t expect a scumbag who could sell her house and her daughter to have a normal person’s mind.

Remembering some things, Lu Sheng also relaxed her actions. She opened the cabinet next to it, which mostly contained the original owner’s clothes.

The original owner preferred bright red and bright green. Lu Sheng chose a relatively simple light pink ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress) and packaged the colorful clothes together.

While it was still early, Lu Sheng planned to pawn these clothes and exchange them for some silver.

She carried the bundle out the door. Just as she stepped out, she saw Qi Zhenshu hanging clothes in the courtyard.

Qi Zhenshu looked at her, surprise flashing across her eyes, followed by a knowing look.

“I’m not leaving, I’m just going to the county town,” Lu Sheng explained calmly to her.

“Mm.” Qi Zhenshu’s voice was extremely soft.

Lu Sheng’s steps were unhurried. After reaching the doorway, she specifically added, “I’ll be back in a moment.”

Arriving at the county town, Lu Sheng found a shop specializing in buying used clothes.

The original owner’s clothes were made of good fabric, but the style was too ‘flashy’. The dozen or so used clothes only sold for five taels of silver, basically half of the original purchase price.

The original owner hadn’t used the two boxes of rouge, so Lu Sheng returned them, also at a discounted price, only exchanging them for two taels of silver.

The total amount of silver in her hand was only fifty-two taels. Lu Sheng decided that tomorrow she should first borrow ten taels from Chief Lu.

Before returning, Lu Sheng bought some meat and vegetables. Pork was ten wen per liang, and Lu Sheng didn’t dare to buy much, only cutting half a jin (half a catty). Chinese cabbage was cheaper, two big bunches for one wen.

On the way out of the city, Lu Sheng encountered a street vendor selling tanghulu (candied hawthorns) and bought three sticks, spending three more wen.

She hadn’t eaten this in a long time, and Lu Sheng felt a bit nostalgic. She ate one stick as she walked, even before she got home.

When she arrived home, Qi Zhenshu was making a fire.

Lu Sheng smiled and raised the things in her hand. “I bought meat and vegetables.”

Qi Zhenshu looked at her hand but didn’t say anything.

“What’s wrong?” Lu Sheng asked, confused.

Qi Zhenshu glanced at the bamboo basket under the stove and said flatly, “There’s Chinese cabbage in the backyard vegetable garden.”

The bamboo basket contained Chinese cabbage, garlic chives, scallions, and ginger.

Lu Sheng: …

How would she know that? She had no memory of it.

The original owner, who was physically lazy, had never been to the vegetable garden.

Lu Sheng put the meat and vegetables on the stove and handed a stick of tanghulu to Qi Zhenshu. “This tanghulu is quite delicious.”

Qi Zhenshu gave her a strange look, then shook her head. “Leave it for Tangtang.”

Lu Sheng guessed that she would refuse and didn’t insist. She found a plate and put the tanghulu on it. “Then I’ll put it here first. I’ll give it to her after dinner.”

Lu Sheng washed the meat, placed it on the cutting board, and cut it into small pieces. She casually asked, “Is Tangtang in the room?”

“She’s sleeping,” Qi Zhenshu replied, moving a portion of the burning firewood to the other stove eye.

Lu Sheng seasoned the wok with garlic chives, stir-fried the meat for a while, and then added water to braise it.

One was stir-frying, the other was tending the fire, and neither of them spoke.

The pot was gurgling and steaming. Occasionally, the burning firewood would make a crackling sound. Outside the window, orange-red light adorned half the sky.

Time flowed like water, easy and carefree.

Flap, flap, flap.

‘Trying to catch this young master? Next life, cat!’

An extremely fast white shadow darted in from outside the window, directly hitting Lu Sheng’s chest.

This scene truly felt like déjà vu.

Lu Sheng grabbed its claws and lifted it up. The parrot, hanging upside down, wrapped its wings around Lu Sheng’s hand and excitedly squawked, ‘Sister, not seeing you for half a day is like three years. Xiao Yu missed you so much.’

“You time it quite accurately, don’t you?” Lu Sheng squinted at it.

To Lu Sheng, this bird, which appeared punctually at mealtimes, looked exactly like it was freeloading.

Yu Ling flapped its wings twice, landed on Lu Sheng’s wrist, and said, ‘Sister, let me tell you, there’s a giant ugly fat cat in the village…’

Lu Sheng disliked it and shook it off. “Go away.”

“What did you say?” Hearing Lu Sheng’s words, Qi Zhenshu stood up from the stove.

Lu Sheng was just about to grab Yu Ling and throw it out when Qi Zhenshu’s sudden voice startled her.

“I’m shooing the bird away,” she said, holding the parrot with two fingers and presenting it to Qi Zhenshu, pouting as she complained, “It’s this one. It comes to our house for free meals every day.”

‘I clearly only ate one meal at noon,’ Yu Ling squawked indignantly.

It was the first time Qi Zhenshu had seen such a bird. Its body was white, its head was yellow, it had long crest feathers on its head, and the orange spots on its cheeks made it look particularly interesting.

“This bird is quite unusual.”

Yu Ling pecked at Lu Sheng’s finger with its beak. Lu Sheng slightly loosened her grip, and it flew to the stove next to Qi Zhenshu.

Qi Zhenshu stretched out her hand, and Yu Ling landed on her palm.

‘Beauties are smart. This young master is the most special bird under the heavens,’ Yu Ling proudly puffed out its chest.

Qi Zhenshu couldn’t understand its words, but she could sense its smugness, and asked with some surprise, “Can this bird understand human speech?”

‘How can mere human language stump this young master,’ Yu Ling shook its wings, and the crest feathers on its head stood up.

“Yes, this is a Cockatiel, it’s quite intelligent.”

Lu Sheng swept her wrist and tossed the smug parrot into the bamboo basket.

The parrot cried ‘Ouch,’ with its claws pointed skyward, fluttering its wings.

Lu Sheng burst into laughter.

Qi Zhenshu saw her little action and the corner of her mouth also curved up. Her eyes became probing as she asked, “Cockatiel?”

“Mm.”

Qi Zhenshu recalled something. Her classmate, Jiang Zibin, had boasted that his family had purchased a bird with a large sum of money, and the breed of that bird was a parrot.

It was said that this kind of parrot was an imported item, expensive, costing a hundred pieces of gold each.

Qi Zhenshu focused her gaze on Lu Sheng’s eyes and asked, “How do you know that?”

Lu Sheng paused and found a reasonable explanation, “I heard my father talk about it.”

It was not strange that Lu Huacheng, having traveled a lot for business when he was young, had seen a parrot.

“Mm.” Qi Zhenshu turned to look out the window. Seeing that the sky was already dark, she said, “I’ll go wake Tangtang up for dinner.”

“I just need to stir-fry the green vegetables now,” Lu Sheng nodded, taking a plate to scoop the meat.

Tangtang sat on the tall stool, holding a small pair of chopsticks and a bowl, eating her meal. She looked especially adorable.

Lu Sheng picked up a piece of lean meat and placed it in her small bowl. The child looked at her with wide, round eyes, filled with surprise.

Feeling a pang of sadness at her flattered expression, Lu Sheng said in a gentle voice, “Eat more meat, so you can grow tall.”

Tangtang stared blankly at Qi Zhenshu. Qi Zhenshu rubbed her head. “Hurry and eat, the food will get cold.”

“Mm.”

Tangtang joyfully picked up the meat with her chopsticks and put it into her mouth, smiling at Lu Sheng with her eyes curved while eating.

Seeing her so happy, Lu Sheng fed her several more times.

After the meal, Lu Sheng returned to her room to get the silver, preparing to give Qi Zhenshu the fifty taels she had put together first.

The moon was high in the sky, and the stars were brilliant.

Lu Sheng tucked the money into her clothes and walked towards the east wing. Just as she stepped into the courtyard and took a few steps, a small stone was thrown in from outside the wall, landing right at her feet.

In the moonlight, Lu Sheng saw a piece of paper next to the stone.

The paper was crumpled. Lu Sheng picked it up disdainfully by a corner. There was a small line of writing on it: See you in half an hour under the crooked-neck tree.

“Lu Sheng?”

Lu Sheng was about to throw away this nonsensical piece of trash paper when Qi Zhenshu’s voice sounded behind her, giving her a start. She instantly crumpled the paper into a ball and held it tightly in her palm.

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