CMWKSD -Chapter 57 Holding a Grudge

Ji Yiqing stayed outside for quite a while. Mainly because he didn’t know how to face Jiu Yue if he went back in now. He peeked into the room like a thief, craning his neck.

Seeing that the quilt wasn’t moving anymore, he crept in on tiptoe, thief-like, and with a soft puff blew out the oil lamp.

The darkness hid his flushed face. Then he heard a soft chuckle from the bed.

Ji Yiqing walked toward the kang with his hands and feet moving in unison. Laugh all you want. It’s pitch-black—I can’t see it anyway. You’re not laughing at me.

After getting onto the bed, each of them covered themselves with a thin quilt. They’d been sleeping like this for over a month already.

Before tonight, it hadn’t felt like anything special. But perhaps because of the unexpected intimacy earlier, Ji Yiqing found his courage growing a little.

Jiu Yue had never been someone to wrong herself. If… if she didn’t like him even a little, she definitely wouldn’t have taken the initiative to kiss him.

So… so could it be that Jiu Yue actually liked him a bit too? At the very least, she wasn’t repulsed by him?

Lying there, he took several deep breaths, then—like a little puppy—lifted Jiu Yue’s quilt. Jiu Yue, eyes closed, felt the quilt being raised.

Then she heard a faint rustling sound, a pause of one second, and then another rustle. It was Ji Yiqing inching over toward her. And really, the kang was just too wide—there was enough space between them to fit another person.

Ji Yiqing was truly moving like a thief. Jiu Yue was almost unable to resist hooking him over with her foot.

Thankfully, after much effort, Ji Yiqing finally wriggled into Jiu Yue’s quilt. Then Jiu Yue heard an extremely soft sound.

Jiu Yue was nearly amused to the point of laughing out loud by this contrast in him.

Ji Yiqing slowly turned over to face her, his hand tentatively reaching toward Jiu Yue’s body. Every step felt like he was guarding against Jiu Yue suddenly erupting.

Yet lust still pushed him to keep testing her limits amid the thrill.

Of course Ji Yiqing knew how alert Jiu Yue was. From the moment he lifted the quilt, she was probably already awake—but she hadn’t refused him.

Then Ji Yiqing wrapped a large hand around Jiu Yue’s waist and pulled her straight into his arms, letting out a satisfied, quiet sigh.

Jiu Yue, muffled against Ji Yiqing’s firm yet soft chest, laughed so hard her shoulders shook. Ji Yiqing felt a bit embarrassed.

He’d long used a tightly composed expression to hide his true thoughts, but in front of Jiu Yue, all of that failed.

Ji Yiqing held Jiu Yue and refused to let go, like he was clutching some beloved toy. He nuzzled against the top of her head. “Stop laughing.”

Jiu Yue pressed her lips together tightly. “Mm.”

A chaotic yet heart-pounding night finally passed.

Ji Yiqing had never known that holding a young girl while sleeping felt like this—soft and fragrant.

Because he was holding Jiu Yue, she couldn’t unleash her usual bold sleeping posture all night. Any hint of her drifting out of his arms would get her pulled back and pressed into his embrace even tighter.

Jiu Yue rarely slept so peacefully—without any wild flailing.

Yesterday had been the last day of sowing, so today was a rare chance to sleep in. Jiu Yue’s biological clock, however, was extremely punctual.

She got up early every day to train, with sandbags tied to her hands and feet—specially made for her by Su Ruo. Every other day, she even ran the mountain trail once.

Weighted cross-country training couldn’t be stopped. Only by training in the harshest conditions could she avoid losing her life. That was Jiu Yue’s survival rule.

The moment Jiu Yue slipped out of Ji Yiqing’s embrace, she was grabbed back.

He really was terribly clingy. Jiu Yue, rare gentleness appearing on her face, reached out and touched Ji Yiqing’s intact face. “I’m getting up. Hug me again and don’t blame me if I beat you up!”

Ji Yiqing slowly—very slowly—withdrew his hand and lay stiffly on the bed.

Jiu Yue flipped over and got up, with not the slightest intention of sleeping in. Seeing Ji Yiqing lying there so rigidly, she bent down and kissed his cheek. “Sleep well!”

Then she went out to wash up.

Ji Yiqing’s grin stretched all the way to his ears. For no reason at all, he hugged Jiu Yue’s quilt on the bed and twisted around like a wriggling maggot.

No matter how steady he usually was, he’d still been raised under the protection of Ji Chaomian and his parents. He wasn’t that old—occasional childish behavior was perfectly normal.

It was just that whenever he saw Jiu Yue in the morning, his ears would inexplicably turn red.

If his family hadn’t all been busy with their own matters, Ji Yiqing would probably have made a fool of himself today.

…

Today, Master Wang was coming to Ji Family Village to collect sweet potatoes and lotus roots. The past few days had been spent preparing the estate to make lotus root starch, regular starch, and vermicelli.

Once collected, production could start the same day, and the restaurant could launch new dishes tomorrow.

After all, when Jiu Yue and Ji Yiqing had gone to discuss business with them last time, they’d deliberately left dozens of jin of finished products there so the chefs could practice the recipes.

If there was anything they didn’t understand, they were welcome to come to Ji Family Village anytime to ask.

During this period, villagers had been saying that Jiu Yue was lazy, greedy, and didn’t do any work. Ji Yiqing recorded every single one of those remarks in his little notebook.

To show how much he valued this purchase, Wang Sheng specifically sent the restaurant manager to Ji Family Village for this first collection.

Ji Yiqing had already spoken to the village head a couple of days earlier. Since this benefited the entire village, the village head was overjoyed and went to notify everyone.

Originally, Wang Sheng planned to collect five thousand jin for the first round. But after letting several restaurant managers and grain shop managers taste the newly made products, every one of them found them extremely novel and felt that the finished goods made from five thousand jin of sweet potatoes would definitely not be enough to sell.

So they decided to go straight up to twenty thousand jin.

They had plenty of workers anyway, and sweet potatoes could be stored for several days after being collected. Moreover, they’d even specially hired a carpenter to make a grater based on the one Jiu Yue had drawn for them—production efficiency improved dramatically.

Once made into finished products, they could be stored for a year without any problem.

Ji Yiqing conducted the purchase directly at the village head’s house. Jiu Yue didn’t like noisy places—if it were at the Ji household, she’d probably be in a bad mood.

Most villagers had already finished planting wheat. Some came pushing wooden carts, others carrying shoulder poles, household after household heading toward the village head’s place.

The village head helped register the amounts, while the managers checked the quality of the sweet potatoes. If anyone tried to pass off inferior goods as good ones, there would be no future cooperation—after all, sweet potatoes were cheap.

One jin (sixteen liang) for one wen. You could buy them at that price anywhere. The reason they came to Ji Family Village was purely out of respect for Ji Yiqing and Jiu Yue.

The village head had made this clear to everyone from the start.

Ji Yiqing glanced at the line and pointed out several farm women. “You go back. We’re not buying from you.”

The women exchanged looks, their eyes rolling, mouths already opening to curse—why shouldn’t theirs be bought?

Ji Yiqing cast them a cold glance. “This business exists because of Jiu Yue.”

The women instantly fell silent. Some people behind them, who didn’t get along with them, snickered quietly. These women were the ones who especially disliked Jiu Yue for not going out to work in the fields.

They thought that since everyone was a daughter-in-law, why should Jiu Yue—an orphan picked up to bring luck—do nothing at all?

It was nothing more than envy, jealousy, and resentment. Some loose tongues even said Jiu Yue must be very good at seducing men, babbling all sorts of nonsense.

Anyway, the village gossip had grown outrageous. But Ji Yiqing held grudges—if he said he wouldn’t take their goods, then he wouldn’t.

Ji Yiqing didn’t care at all what they might say about him. His reputation was good, and this time he’d even brought a major client from the Wang family to Ji Family Village.

From now on, sweet potatoes and lotus roots would both have stable sales channels. The ones speaking ill of him in the village were just these few sharp-tongued people—and he didn’t care about them in the slightest.