CH 4

Chapter 4: The Playful Wang Zhicai

“Younger Sister Yu’an, I heard that you fell into the water yesterday. Is everything alright?” Wang Zhicai asked towards the direction of Shen Yu’an.

Shen Yu’an felt a chill when she heard Wang Zhicai’s address to her. It seemed like their relationship wasn’t that good.

Shen Yu’an stopped and looked at Wang Zhicai. He was a fairly fair-looking scholar, but compared to the three brothers of the Shen family and the eldest son of the Shen family, he was far behind in terms of appearance. She couldn’t understand why Lin Chunyan, with her discerning eye, would be interested in such a plain-looking man.

Wang Zhicai saw Shen Yu’an looking at him with a frown, somewhat puzzled by her expression. However, he continued speaking, “Yesterday, I heard from the aunties in the village that you attempted to take your own life because of the marriage arrangement I was involved in. You should understand, this was not my intention, but rather the command of my parents…”

Shen Yu’an looked at Wang Zhicai’s expression of being coerced and felt like it was the same as an old man on the subway looking at his phone, with his eyebrows almost crushing a fly. She couldn’t stand how Wang Zhicai was so full of drama!

However, thinking of the two sentences that Lin Chunyan had revealed uncontrollably, the information contained was really huge.

Shen Yu’an looked at Wang Zhicai with a smile that wasn’t really a smile and nodded, “So you mean that you were forced by your family to engage with that girl from the town, and you didn’t really want to marry her, right?”

Wang Zhicai thought that he had moved Shen Yu’an with his words, and he became somewhat excited. He spoke without thinking, “It’s not like that…”

“Stop!” Shen Yu’an suddenly turned cold and raised her hand to stop Wang Zhicai, “So what you’re saying is that you want to have two-timing relationships!”

Wang Zhicai was stunned by the question and looked puzzled. Shen Yu’an explained as if she were a kind-hearted person, “Didn’t you say that you were forced to engage with the girl from the town? If you have such thoughts, then the girl won’t be happy with you. But you don’t want to cancel the engagement and you also try to persuade Lin Chunyan to love you. Aren’t you trying to have two-timing relationships?”

Shen Yu’an saw two aunties coming over with baskets side by side and deliberately raised her voice.

Wang Zhicai’s face turned red and white with anger. How did this into Lin Chunyan get dragged in his affairs?

“I have nothing to do with Miss Lin Chunyan. Please don’t slander us, Miss Shen,” said Wang Zhicai, defending himself angrily, directly switching his address from “Sister Yu’an ” to “Miss Shen”.

But Shen Yu’an was also delighted. Because, being called so affectionately by him gave her the creeps, as if she were being watched.

Shen Yu’an didn’t want to argue with him too much and just said, “I hope Mr. Wang will be more cautious in the future. After all, we are not familiar with each other.”

After saying that, Shen Yu’an continued to go up the mountain again with Shen Ming and Shen Yun. Wang Zhicai, who was standing behind, saw two women passing by, whispering and stealing glances at him. He hated Shen Yu’an in his heart. If it weren’t for her, how could this kind of thing happen?

Wang Zhicai’s sinister gaze, was like of a venomous snake, staring at Shen Yu’an from behind.

It was then that Shen Yu’an remembered a plot from a book.

In the book, Wang Zhicai was also a well-known character. In the 28th year of Shunde, when the people fled in large numbers, Wang Zhicai’s family was also among them. Originally, his family fled with the people from Shen’s village, but due to differences in opinion and being outsiders, they left the group and went their separate ways from the people of Shen’s village.

Later, through a fortunate coincidence, Wang Zhicai gained the favor of the fourth prince, Wei Chenyi, and became his adviser. After the fourth prince achieved his great success, Wang Zhicai was promoted to the first rank due to his contributions. As for the young lady from the town who was already betrothed to Wang Zhicai, she also managed to find him after he had risen to a high position. However, at that time, the young lady’s family was attacked by bandits, and only she and a maid managed to escape.

Wang Zhicai appeared to be delighted with the arrival of his fiancée, but he secretly hated this meddling Sun girl who came to ruin his plans. If only Sun had arrived a few days later, he could have been engaged to a daughter of a martial family in the capital.

Later, Wang found a way to bribe the servant who had escaped with Sun. He told her to say that Sun was already seriously ill and would pass away soon. As the servant was the only person close to Sun, and she had no other relatives, nobody suspected anything.

Taking advantage of the situation, Wang Zhicai also publicly declared that although he did not marry Miss Sun, it would not be virtuous for him to marry someone else so soon after his fiancée’s passing. Therefore, he promised to remain celibate for a year in memory of his late fiancée, thus earning himself a reputation as a man who truly loved and cherished his former betrothed.

However, when Wang Zhicai tried to eliminate the maid, he found that she had already fled. Later, when Wang Zhicai was suppressed by politicians who exposed this incident, they found the maid again and the truth was finally revealed.

Shen Yu’an expressed contempt for Wang Zhicai’s behavior, and through what just happened, she proved that Wang Zhicai was not a gentleman.

She had little to do with him and naturally didn’t want to bother with him.

At the moment, Shen Yu’an was squatting on the ground, carefully digging up the soil, because she had discovered three ginseng roots.

Shen Yu’an was overjoyed and took the ginseng roots to town to sell them, which would surely bring in a good amount of silver. This way, she wouldn’t have to worry about how to turn the things in her space into cash.

The original owner of the body had only been to the town a few times, so she was not very clear about the prices here, but she thought that these three ginsengs could fetch a good price, but she still needed to inquire about the prices.

Moreover, her basket, which was placed aside, was filled with loquats, and there were even some fresh and delicious-looking strawberries on top.

While she was digging up the ginseng with full concentration, Shen Ming and Shen Yun came back together.

Shen Yu’an looked up when she heard the noise and saw the two of them with smiling faces, each carrying a full load of game.

Shen Yun held three wild rabbits and two wild chickens in his hands, while Shen Ming held a fat and plump roe deer.

When Shen Yun saw Shen Yu’an squatting on the ground not knowing what she was digging up, he put down the bundle of wild rabbits and pheasants in his hand and squeezed over to her with a smile, saying: “I didn’t expect to have such good luck today. We even caught a fat roe deer. Tomorrow, when Third Uncle sells it in town, I’ll buy you a big red flower hairpin.”

Shen Yu’an suddenly thought of the big red flower on her head, and how she had swayed it around while walking with a pompous air. She shook her head vigorously, forcing out a smile, and declined, “No, thank you. Keep the money to buy cloth for my nephew’s clothes.”

Shen Yun wasn’t upset when Shen Yu’an declined and still smiled and said, “When Third Uncle becomes rich, I’ll buy you a pure silver hairpin. What are you digging?”

Shen Yu’an had already dug out the ginseng, leaving only half of its body visible. When Shen Yun reached out to pull it, she quickly stopped him, knowing that if it broke, it would lose its value.

Shen Yu’an explained, “Third Uncle, don’t pull it. This is ginseng. If you break it, it will lose its value.”

“Ginseng!!!” Shen Yun exclaimed in surprise, and even Shen Ming, holding a stunned roe deer, walked over and looked down at it.

Shen Yu’an calmly dug out the three ginseng roots under the intense gaze of the two.

Then, seeing Shen Yun’s eager gaze, Shen Yu’an wrapped the ginseng roots and let Shen Yun hold them. Shen Yun carefully placed them in his shirt pocket, making it bulge out in front of his chest. He even walked with extra caution.