Don’t Be a Kept Man

Chapter 52: Money Pouch

The inside of the carriage was a bit cold, and that cold was starting to seep in through their clothes, making them shiver. From outside, Xie Yu Zhi could hear the sounds of the whip, spurring on the horses, and he could hear the bumps the carriage was going over. But none of those noises were louder than the beating of his own heart, beat by beat, each sounding loud enough to burst his eardrums.

Chen Miao Ping snuggled up against Xie Yu Zhi’s neck, biting occasionally, sometimes hard, sometimes soft. Xie Yu Zhi was in a rare state of patience, even lifting up his head to better accommodate Chen Miao Ping. His eyes, however, were swaying off elsewhere, and his fingers were tightened on Chen Miao Ping’s shoulders. His nose was tinged with a blush, and his breath was slowly quickening.

A horse carriage, after all, was not a good place to do certain activities, and so after a while, the racket inside was quietening down. The two of them rested their foreheads against each other, linking their breaths together. Xie Yu Zhi blinked as he reached out to slowly touch Chen Miao Ping’s ear. He suddenly felt the urge to yank him hard by the ear, and there was an itch to his hand that made it hard to resist.

Chen Miao Ping seemed to sense something and raised his eyes to look at him warily. He pointed out, 

“Yanking the ear is what only girls do.”

“…..I’m a man. Of course I won’t do such girlish things.”

Xie Yu Zhi paused for a second, and then he pretended that nothing ever happened and retracted his hand. He lowered his eyes and stuck his hands in his sleeves, saying,

“If there was ever a person who made me unhappy, I would just greet them with my sword. That is called upholding my reputation as a general.”

Chen Miao Ping made a face at him discreetly and turned his head away. His ears twitched before bowing down to the power of martial arts, 

“Ok ok ok. I’ll let you yank- let you yank. Go ahead. I won’t say anything, alright?”

“I don’t want to!”

The horse carriage was just slowly coming to a stop when Xie Yu Zhi pushed him away. He then immediately flung open the curtain for the doorway and jumped down. Seeing this, Chen Miao Ping followed him and laughed heartily, 

“Ah ah ah, what are you angry for? How old are you? How could your attitude be so much like that of a child’s?”

Xie Yu Zhi’s feet did not stop, 

“I’m bigger than you.”

Chen Miao Ping’s mind had not processed the sentence fully yet and he blanked out at what it meant, 

“Huh? Bigger than me? Where are you bigger than me?”

One look at him and one could see what he was thinking. Xie Yu Zhi turned red from embarrassment, knowing that Chen Miao Ping was misinterpreting his words and angrily said, 

“Bastard, of course it’s age. What did you think it was!”

It was the same curse over and over, but Chen Miao Ping had a thick skin and didn’t feel any shame or embarrassment. He shook his head and walked ahead of Xie Yu Zhi, 

“What Second Master thought it was, that’s what I thought it was.”

Xie Yu Zhi quickly grabbed his shoulder, but Chen Miao Ping was faster and pulled Xie Yu Zhi forward by his hand. Waiting for Xie Yu Zhi to fall into his embrace, he then bent his waist and piggybacked the other, hooking his arms onto his legs. Chen Miao Ping shuffled him up and said, 

“If you wanted me to piggyback you, then just say it. Why are you so shy, Second Master?”

Xie Yu Zhi did not speak, but on the inside, he kept thinking this bastard must have picked up many girls in the past. He softly gave a “Hmph” and couldn’t hold himself back from yanking on Chen Miao Ping’s ear, 

“Were there girls that liked you, back in your hometown?”

Chen Miao Ping was walking very steadily, one step at a time, with Xie Yu Zhi on his back, 

“Well, that depends on what kind of like you mean. If it’s the face, then there’s a lot, a lot of that kind of love, of infatuation, of those that are born from lust. But how long could it last anyway, when we all go old and wrinkly in the end. And besides, once they have made a deeper connection with me, and have known me for longer, I would no longer be liked by anyone.”

Xie Yu Zhi asked in suspicion, 

“Why?”

Chen Miao Ping said, 

“Because the girls back there are very smart. A man that’s too smart, it can only mean that he’s hard to control. Perhaps they would be seduced by the outer appearance and honeyed words for a short while, but very few would actually open their hearts to these kinds of men.”

Xie Yu Zhi yanked on his ear again but harder this time, 

“Everything on this earth trades true heart with true heart. If you don’t give out your heart, then how could you expect others to give you their heart?”

Hu, naive.

Chen Miao Ping didn’t really agree, 

“Then my heart is with Second Master here. Is your heart with me, Second Master?”

“Little Bastard,” 

Xie Yu Zhi grounded his teeth by Chen Miao Ping’s ear, 

“I will not believe in your lies.”

Chen Miao Ping thought in his heart, well if you don’t believe it then don’t, what are you yanking on my ear for.

“Let me go already. Didn’t you say you wouldn’t do anything girlish? What are you twisting my ear for?”

“If I don’t let you go, what are you going to do about it?”

“If you don’t let go, I will throw you into this lake.”

Right beside the hall they were in was a small lake. Chen Miao Ping was making movements as if he was going that way, and Xie Yu Zhi immediately moved to strangle his neck, 

“If you dare to, then throw me out. Let’s see who’s going to drown first.”

Chen Miao Ping said, 

“Can’t drown to death. There are so many servants in the estate. One or two cries for help, and there would be someone coming over.”

Xie Yu Zhi laughed at his naivety and hooked up the corners of his mouth, 

“If I don’t give the orders, you can see who would dare go and save you.”

……That was indeed true, as lives in ancient society were not worth any money.

Chen Miao Ping retraced his steps and immediately turned back to the direction to head towards Qu Feng Courtyard. His burning hot palms squeezed Xie Yu Zhi’s calves and he chuckled lowly, 

“Look at what Second Master is saying. How could I ever be heartless enough to throw you into the lake?”

All around them, as they were conversing with each other, were servants patrolling the estate. However, upon seeing the two of them, each one of the servants could only pretend that they did not see anything and lowered their heads to walk quickly out of the area. It was only once they reached the entrance of Qu Feng Courtyard did Chen Miao Ping put Xie Yu Zhi down.

The night was dark and Ren Dong and Fu Lin were completing their daily duties, helping them prepare for bed. When they were untying their jewelry, Fu Lin’s nose twitched suddenly, 

“Oh, Gu-Ye, there’s a really nice scented fragrance on you?”

Ren Dong was not fast enough to scold her for breaking the rules before she saw Xie Yu Zhi grab that crystal pendant away. He laughed out mockingly, 

“Who knows what kind of dirty place he went to, bringing back a body of perfume?”

Chen Miao Ping shushed and said with a fake smile, 

“As if you didn’t go either. Fu Lin, quick, go smell his clothes. Perhaps your Second Master’s body is emitting a more fragrant scent than mine is.”

Fu Lin obviously would not dare, and she only realized now that she might have said something wrong. She didn’t dare to speak anymore and kept her lips zipped. Ever since they came back, these two masters seem to be fighting both on and underneath the surface. Both of their mouths seemed to be going crazy at each other, quipping back at everything, no one letting the other off.

She did not know that they were not only fighting with their mouths, their battle would continue at night against the thrall of succubi. 

In the day, Chen Miao Ping would normally be easy-going, and at night, he would be unnecessarily gentle. But today, he was the exact opposite. Xie Yu Zhi was pressed and held down by him, unable to move. After exhausting his strength, he could only bite viciously down on Chen Miao Ping’s shoulder, 

“Bastard.”

Chen Miao Ping asked curiously, 

“Do you, Second Master, have any curses other than bastard to call me?”

Xie Yu Zhi lifted a pillow to throw it at him, 

“Animal!”

Chen Miao Ping dodged it, 

“People say marry a chicken, become a chicken, marry a dog, become a dog. Second Master’s life does not look good since you married an animal, which, I guess, it means you can only become an animal too.”

Xie Yu Zhi reminded him, 

“You married into my family.”

Chen Miao Ping said, 

“Then my life is terrible, wedded to an animal.”

He had in him a naturally self-defeatist attitude and never put anything into his heart. Due to this, Xie Yu Zhi was so angered by Chen Miao Ping that he was no longer in the mood. But he didn’t dare to entice him further. 

This guy was too vindictive, having a heart smaller than anyone and a memory that could hold a grudge against the smallest thing. After suffering in the morning, he would find his revenge at night on the bed. 10/10 a terrible human being.

The branches outside the window were swaying slightly and the moon seemed to be moving along with the howling winds. The sudden decrease in temperature seemed to be an obvious signal that winter was coming. 

Chen Miao Ping closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep. In his dreams, he was taken to some strange places. Perhaps it was because his hometown, his birthplace, was mentioned, that a few faces from his past slipped by, faster than anyone could catch.

In his previous life, Chen Miao Ping’s father was very wealthy and pretty loose. He had a family, but outside of his family he was someone who contributed to the population growth. Counting the number of children birthed out of wedlock, there were about eight all together. And Chen Miao Ping was one of the eight.

His unscrupulous mom had wanted to use him to marry into a wealthy family, but the wife of that man was no regular housewife. For so many years, his mother had tried and fought to take the wife’s position away, but it was all for naught. And after having been beaten down for too many times, she lost the will to continue and tossed Chen Miao Ping away to their neighbors. One day, she just packed up her stuff and left after saying that she had to leave for work and never came back.

His neighbour was not willing to foster useless tag-alongs, but thankfully, the man that birthed him had some part of a conscience in him and took Chen Miao Ping in. Life continued on for a while in that environment. Since he was young, he was very sensitive to other people’s emotions, so he was able to coax the old lady in the family and make her like him. Life was barely livable in those circumstances, but that elderly lady did not live long enough and then……

And then there was nothing that changed.

Although no one had been good to him from the bottom of their hearts since he was born, Chen Miao Ping thought that there were many more people worse off than him. Humans must always look in the positive direction after all, and there was no point in thinking about all the negatives. The most important thing was how to make your life better.

He was only a normal human being, living a normal life, concluding in a normal story. Just like how it wasn’t important that he just transmigrated here, and how it didn’t need to be mentioned. Just like how one day he will die, he won’t be leaving any evidence of his existence in this time period. Besides himself, no one would know that Chen Miao Ping has lived in this kind of time period, lived out his life in such a place.

A goldfish only has a memory of seven seconds. How long a dream can stay, well, that depends on whether that person wants to remember it or not. And it was evident that Chen Miao Ping did not want to remember such a useless and clouded dream, so when he woke up in the morning, everything was forgotten.

Yesterday, that chubby boy had sent a rock crystal to the Bureau, and bright and early in the morning, Qian Tong directly delivered it to the estate. The rock crystal was as big as a fist, and its translucence was incomparable. Actually, it was no doubt even better than the one gifted by the Noble Consort of Brightness.

Chen Miao Ping stroked his chin, “ho”ing from the happy surprise. 

He’s rich, he’s rich, he’s rich. 

There was definitely no wonder why there was that saying of ‘the poor will be poorer, the rich will be richer’. That chubby boy’s family certainly did not lack for money. He called Ren Dong over and handed her a new drawing, 

“Split this crystal in half, and make a few of the same pendant from last time. The other half, carve it according to this diagram.”

Ren Dong was very curious in her heart, but she was more mature than Fu Lin and didn’t ask any other questions. She received the design and was about to head off when she was called back by Chen Miao Ping, 

“Tell those craftsmen to keep their mouths shut. If this gets out, this Da-Ye will take care of those that leaked it.”

Ren Dong smiled, 

“Don’t worry, Gu-Ye. This store is owned by the estate. They don’t dare to waggle their tongues.”

“That would be good.”

Chen Miao Ping remembered just then that he still had to patrol the streets and couldn’t help but sigh. 

Xie Yu Zhi just woke up and the moment he opened his eyes, he saw Chen Miao Ping sitting by the bed. He narrowed his eyes and discreetly went to pinch him from under the sheets.

Chen Miao Ping had no fear, and he immediately jumped onto the bed in response, capturing Xie Yu Zhi in his embrace,

“Second Master, you have no conscience. So bright and early in the morning, and you’re doing these kinds of things.”

Xie Yu Zhi hid under the bedsheets, his eyes cold but his neck still had some faint marks left behind from last night. With the bedsheets in between them, Chen Miao Ping held him tightly and complimented out of his heart, 

“Second Master, you are so attractive.”

Xie Yu Zhi was thinking to himself, I’m going to watch you go back to the brothels to find entertainment. He grabbed Chen Miao Ping’s robe and threatened him half-heartedly, 

“I will have someone spying on you. Be careful. Don’t let me find anything.”

A city warden inspector was not a very good position. Everyday, you could be certain that you’ll meet someone on the streets causing trouble, and at least one of them will be those in a position that’s higher than yours, related to the imperial family in some way. 

Chen Miao Ping’s mouth could easily get him in trouble, and perhaps one day, he will meet someone who gets too angered by his mouth that is in too high of a position for him to have done so. Honestly speaking, he himself was very worried about the safety of those considered in his territory.

Chen Miao Ping was very confident and puffed up his chest, 

“I have never done anything wrong, to betray the morals of my heart. Second Master, send all the people you want to spy on me. The more the merrier. If any of them catch me heading into the entertainment district again, I will take on your surname!”

Xie Yu Zhi raised his eyebrows, 

“You won’t be called Chen Miao Ping anymore and change your name to be Xie Miao Ping?”

Chen Miao Ping nodded his head.

Xie Yu Zhi came closer to his ear and lightly pinched his earlobe, 

“Idiot. I don’t want you to have the same name. But you just need to remember. If I ever catch you heading into the entertainment district again, be careful of your money pouch……”

Chen Miao Ping reflexively patted the bag by his waist, and then he came to his senses. He smiled and kissed Xie Yu Zhi, 

“Money, why am I earning money? Of course it is to provide for Second Master.”

Notes:

>> Editted a sentence of when Chen Miao Ping was reminiscing his past and to make it clearer that it was not the neighbour who took him in, but the man who gave him his part of DNA was the one who took him in (so the old lady in the family is most likely the grandmother)