A Good Country Wife

When Zhao Erhu came back, he saw Zhao Lingxiang sitting there with a face as dark as iron. His little wife was chatting enthusiastically with Zhao Cheng’s wife, which brought a smirk to his face. After all, she was his wife, capable of overcoming the enemy without even lifting a finger.

Xiaocui also found it strange to see her mistress Zhao Lingxiang looking like this. What happened to Lady Zhao? When she left, everything had been fine, but now she looked as if she was about to be angered to death. Even during their time at the Wei Residence, she had never seen Lady Zhao get this angry with any of the women in the back courtyard. No wonder Chunxi said the Lin Family was formidable; they truly had some abilities.

Xiaocui didn’t really care what happened to Zhao Lingxiang or if she got angry, but she worried that if Lady Zhao had nowhere to vent her frustration, she might take it out on her. That would be bad luck for Xiaocui. While Lady Zhao’s methods were not bone-breaking, being tormented little by little was hard to bear. Just earlier, her hand had gone sore from waving a fan.

"Wife, are you all right?" Zhao Erhu clearly saw that his little wife was doing well, laughing and talking with Li Xiaomei, but he still asked her, always considering his wife most important.

"Of course, I’m fine! Who do you think I am? When facing those monsters and demons, I don’t hesitate to strike them down mercilessly," Lin Yue said, then gave Zhao Lingxiang a meaningful look.

"Lin Yue, don’t go too far! Zhao Erhu, you need to control your wife. I’ve had enough of her. If not for the fact that she’s your wife, I would have torn that foul mouth of hers to shreds a long time ago," Zhao Lingxiang indulged in her verbal spat. If she really could have done it, she probably would have already acted, not become this infuriated.

"Do you have business with me?" Zhao Erhu did not show the same pleasant face to Zhao Lingxiang as he did toward his own wife, especially since Zhao Lingxiang was consistently belittling his wife. Zhao Erhu was holding back, preventing himself from throwing this woman out.

"Of course, I’m here to offer you a chance to make money. Whether you seize it or not is up to you," Zhao Yunxiang said as she took out twenty taels of silver and laid them on the table, her expression smug. She hadn’t planned on offering so much silver; the last time she bought two recipes from Chunxi, it only cost her five taels. But seeing the attitude of Zhao Erhu’s wife and knowing Erhu doted on her, she feared a smaller amount wouldn’t be tempting enough.

She thought about how for each additional tael she offered, her own stash of private silver decreased. Luckily, her master had recently increased her monthly allowance to fifteen taels. The loss wasn’t too painful, and if the task was accomplished well, the master’s reward would undoubtedly be more generous. She hoped for a pair of gold bracelets—bracelets weighed more than hairpins.

Lin Yue raised an eyebrow at Zhao Lingxiang’s ’generous’ display of twenty taels of silver. She thought, so Zhao Lingxiang must have also come for the recipes today, but what’s with this attitude? Last time, she at least knew how to be submissive. It turns out she felt ’rich’ and therefore more confident in her speech.