Chapter 379

“The Lady is back!” The servants that had disappeared all suddenly reappeared. The respectful voice gradually became louder.

“Lord Husband!” Lu Lingqi’s voice grew louder as she approached. Her voice was full of longing.

“I’m doomed.” Liu Mang should be longing for the owner of that voice as well. After all, they were newlyweds. Liu Mang also knew about her rushing out to Shouchun because she was worried about him. This action caused him to feel extremely moved. However, at that particular moment, Liu Mang was only feeling indescribable fear.

How could he not feel fear? There was another woman in his study room. On top of that, it was Lady Zou and not some simple servant. This was Zhang Ji’s widowed wife. This was the same person that caused Cao Cao to lose so much. He is also unable to use bringing Zhang Lei in as an excuse as he was literally caught with his pants down. If Lu Lingqi were to see him in such a state, his death would not be far.

“Quick, Miss Zou! Lady Zhang!” Liu Mang no longer knew how to address her. “Ah whatever! Quickly go and hide! My family is about to come in!”

“Huh? Ah!” Zou Rong was stunned. She came looking for her happy ending but suddenly the main wife arrived. She had also never come across this situation before as Zhang Ji’s main wife had already been dead when he married her. She was confused and did not know what to do.

“Why are you still standing there? Hide!” Liu Mang shouted as he tried to wear his pants. Unfortunately, the pants during ancient times were quite troublesome to put on. His panicked state simply made the task even more difficult.

Zou Rong saw Liu Mang trying to put on his pants hurriedly and ran around the study. However, she found that there was nowhere to hide. The only possible hiding location was on top of the bookshelf but it was not possible for a delicate person like her to climb it.

Liu Mang carelessly wore his pants. He was only able to use his shirt to cover up his private parts and prevent it from swaying around. Once he was done, he raised his head in time to see Zou Shi running around and returning to him. “Why haven’t you hidden yourself yet? When my family comes in, the both of us will be dead!” Liu Mang was truly scared of his family’s fierce tiger.

It is said that a single mountain could not have two tigers. Unfortunately, Liu Mang’s home really did have two tigers. The first one was Lu Lingqi. Although she could not work well in a kitchen, she was actually able to go on the battlefield. She inherited her martial arts skill from Lu Bu. If she had been a man, the Little Conqueror would have been her. She could handle halberds and Liu Mang would definitely not want to mess with her.

Besides that, there was another, stronger tiger. This tiger would also definitely be on the way to Shouchun. This tiger was Da Qiao. He initially thought Da Qiao was a gentle and kind person before marrying her but then he found out that Da Qiao was like a sharp knife. Even though she was unable fight like Lu Lingqi, she had her own ways to surpass others. This trait of hers made Liu Mang tremble.

Although Da Qiao was the third wife, Liu Mang knew that she was the real boss. Lu Lingqi may be good at martial arts but she was soft hearted. On the other hand, Yuan Fang was a woman from a wealthy family that strives for nothing while his concubine followed feudal society. All of them were influenced by Da Qiao. Besides that, Da Qiao was also very knowledgeable. The amount of books she had read even made her father lament that she was not a man. She was able to completely see through how men think, including Liu Mang.

Da Qiao’s talent had been used in Liu Mang’s backyard instead of in political areas. This showed how much suffering Liu Mang had to endure. If Lu Lingqi were to see this Lady Zou, Liu Mang would be beaten up at most. On the other hand, if Da Qiao were to see this, Liu Mang would need to write apology letters or else he would be forced to stay in the study room.1

With Da Qiao’s ability, his wives have formed an alliance. At home, Da Qiao was the Lord. Lu Lingqi was the general. Yuan Fang may not have strived for anything but women would not like their husbands to have so many women.

“Sister. I beg you! Please hide!” Liu Mang already wanted to cry. All of this was Jia Xu’s fault. Now, Liu Mang was not only anxious about Jia Xu’s presence but also had a sense of grudge against him. Liu Mang believed that he was being toyed with.

It was unfortunate for Jia Xu as this was a misunderstanding. Liu Mang was the one that called his wives over and he did it before accepting Jia Xu into the city. He did it as he believed that Yangzhou was now more stable and also to placate Yang Hong. As Jia Xu came after this, it was not possible for him to know about that arrangement. All he wanted was a bargaining chip that he would get if Lady Zou managed to sleep with Liu Mang. Unfortunately, Jia Xu’s actions ended up pushing Liu Mang into misery. Liu Mang swore to humiliate Jia Xu if he managed to survive. Liu Mang could not help but clench his teeth as he thought about this.

Liu Mang started to give up. If he had truly cheated on his wives, he could at least die in peace but as he was set up by Jia Xu, he only felt wronged.

“Lord Husband!” The voice continued to grow louder but Lady Zou was still standing in front of Liu Mang. Liu Mang’s pants was also still in a mess. Based on how loud the voice was, Lu Lingqi was just outside the door.

Liu Mang’s heart turned cold. This time, he was really finished. His death penalty would come the moment she pushed the door open. Fortunately, good people do not live long and Liu Mang have already done many virtuous deeds.2

The moment Lu Lingqi was about to step into the room, she was suddenly delayed. “Milady. His Majesty is currently reading in the study room. He said that nobody is allowed to disturb him unless something serious happened.”

“Studying? Serious matters? It was not this busy even when my father was around. Now, the danger to Yangzhou has passed. What military matters could there be? Step aside!” Lu Lingqi’s position was high regardless of whether she was in the Lu Bu’s Army or the Liu Mang’s Army. When they had to break out of encirclement, she also joined the fight. As a result, the servant did not recklessly continue to stop her. Although Liu Mang was a good Lord that is not overbearing, he was certainly not paid enough to deal with this. He wouldn’t even be able to save enough money for a wife.

This is why Jia Xu told him about this plan that could bring him wealth and not harm his Lord. All he needed to do was lead Lady Zou in and make love. After that, Liu Mang would be happy and he might get a raise.

He never expected Lu Lingqi to arrive. This was the most he could do to help his Lord and it had already used up all of his courage. He hoped his actions managed to warn the two in the study.

“Milady?”

“Step aside!” Lu Lingqi was not supposed to have arrived so early. Regardless of how fast Yang Hong rushed he would take care of his own family which was the frail Yuan Fang. However, Lu Lingqi could no longer wait and rushed ahead as she was too worried about Liu Mang. She initially wanted to surprise Liu Mang and had sent someone to inform Liu Mang. By doing this, Liu Mang would come to her. Unfortunately, the informer had been stopped at the study. Lu Lingqi did not believe that Liu Mang was unable to hear this message and believed that something fishy was going on. Without thinking too much, she pushed the door open.

“This is truly bad luck!” The servant could no longer do anything else. It was up to the Lord to find an explanation. He had been prepared to hear the angry voice of Lu Lingqi but that anger did not come.

_____

Personally, I’d take apology letters over domestic violence.

First, they used a Chinese idiom that describes how good people live shorter lives than bad people. Now, the ‘fortunate’ part about good people living shorter lives is that Liu Mang considers himself a good person. In other words, his execution would be swift and painless as opposed to a long torturous one a bad person would otherwise suffer.