Exile. Exile Chapter 58

It was spring when they left, and it was summer when they arrived in the capital city. By this time, Su Qingbai's stomach was not small.

“Go straight to the residence.” Jiang Mao dearly stroked Su Qingbai, who was asleep in his arms, and ordered the groom.

Once Su Qingbai woke up, he had arrived at Yue w.a.n.g Residence in the capital.

He opened his eyes and looked at the strange house which made him felt slightly uncomfortable. Fortunately, the person who took care of him had some familiarity.

“Gongzi, are you awake?” The pageboy waiting at the side came to help him in a hurry.

The pageboy was about sixteen or seventeen years old. His name was Liu Wei.

“What about Jiang Mao?” Su Qingbai put on his coat and stood up with difficulty.

“He Lord w.a.n.g went to sort up the things he brought.” Once arriving in the capital city, everyone changed their appellation of Jiang Mao, which made Su Qingbai very uncomfortable when he heard it.

“Sort out things?” After a little discomfort, Su Qingbai's attention quickly returned to the point, “What else does he have to sort out in person?”

Liu Wei answered truthfully, “It's some tea and medicinal herbs you brought with you.”

Su Qingbai felt moved. He came to a place he knew but feared at the same time. Su Qingbai suddenly felt eager to see Jiang Mao.

Out of the room, Su Qingbai went outside to look for him. Jiang Mao's house was quite big. He walked for a long time before he came to the drawing room. He had been used to farming for two years and now that he returned to the familiar atmosphere, he felt unfit for it.

“Jiang Mao.” As soon as he arrived in the drawing room, he saw Jiang Mao came in from outside, looking busy.

“Why are you not resting?” Jiang Mao scratched his nose.

Su Qingbai hardly gave up his thick-skinned and said something he was embarra.s.sed to hear it himself, “I can't sleep without you.” This was the truth.

Jiang Mao suddenly felt that life was complete, and he gathered Su Qingbai in his arms with a low smile.

“By the way, how much money did you make?” Su Qingbai asked a question which particularly dampening one's spirit.

Jiang Mao helplessly cupped his head and kissed his lips before he took out a few thin sheets of silver tickets.

Just those few sheets, Su Qingbai counted and counted, and then he looked up in surprise. “Three hundred taels? How is that possible?” There were too many.

Jiang Mao smiled as he sat down. “You have to know that your husband, I started as a peddler, and I'm exactly good at doing business.” As for his status, at first it could only bring disaster to him, but when he became rich and had some influence, only then people would take note of his status.

Su Qingbai went over and pinched Jiang Mao's chin and kissed him again. Then he took one of the tickets and handed it to him. “Here, your share of dividend.”

Jiang Mao laughed and stuffed it into his sleeve.

At noon, Jiang Mao and Su Qingbai ate out in a restaurant owned by Jiang Mao.

After two years of living in the small mountain village, Su Qingbai returned to the capital city. It was clear that everything was the same as before, but he felt as if it were a lifetime ago.

He used to spend a lot of money in the tavern, casino and theatre. Now, when he remembered them, he just felt strange and ridiculous.

This restaurant was the best in the capital city and previously, Su Qingbai used to come here to show off.

Just like his previous habit, Su Qingbai took Jiang Mao to the private room he used to go at the second floor, and proficiently ordered the dishes. Then he opened the window, just in time to see the teahouse across the small alley, in which inside the teahouse a storyteller was narrating a story.

Everything was the same as before.

Jiang Mao sat there and watched Su Qingbai open the window and look across the street. He didn't know what Su Qingbai was looking at but his face suddenly turned black and looked unhappy.

Not knowing what he was upset about, Jiang Mao went over to see it.

Only to see that across the street, a storyteller was talking in high spirit with spittle splatter everywhere, surrounded by many people which either eating or drinking who were listening to the Storyteller's narration.

Just now, as Su Qingbai opened the window, he heard the storyteller telling the story of those lovers, Yue w.a.n.g and Lou Jingyu, who suffered all kinds of obstructions.

In fact, after such a long time, the pa.s.sion of Yue w.a.n.g and Lou Jingyu's sad and beautiful love had long pa.s.sed, but yesterday Jiang Mao drove his extremely luxurious carriage slowly back to Yue w.a.n.g Residence on the street of the capital city, which many people had seen.

People's imagination was infinite. In the ancient times when entertainment programs were scarce, that was enough for them to talk over a cup of tea or after a meal for a while.

The storyteller clapped the gavel[1] and everyone looked at him.

[1惊堂木jīng táng mù = rectangle gavel made of hard wood. the first clap is intended to tell the audience that the storytelling begins soon.]

The story today was about the love between Yue w.a.n.g and the Miss of Lou Family. They were childhood sweethearts, innocent playmates….. Afterwards, he put the matter of irrelevant things aside and finally concluded, saying: “Fortunately, all shall be well, and Jack shall have Jill. Yue w.a.n.g could not bear for Miss Lou to wait for many years, and now returned to the capital, especially to find that Miss Lou.”

With a black face looked at the Jiang Mao, Su Qingbai roasted, “truly has not gotten new idea. Caicai is not raising little tadpoles anymore, he raises small frogs now. These people are still telling the story of two years ago.”

Jiang Mao laughed. Caicai didn't keep tadpoles not because he had new ideas, but because the tadpoles grew into frogs. Otherwise, he could raise several small tadpoles all the time, and even without getting tired of raising it.

Speaking of Su Caicai, both of them were silent. They had been away for several months and they didn't know what Caicai was doing now.

Very soon the dishes came up, and the two quickly finished eating and went back home.

“You go and have a good rest first.” When they got home, Jiang Mao took Su Qingbai in his arms and kissed him. “I have to go and see my… Consort Mother.”

Su Qingbai nodded. Certainly must not delay in meeting the mother-in-law [wife's mother], so he waved, “Go on, quickly go.”

Jiang Mao smiled and kissed him goodbye.

Leaving Yue w.a.n.g Residence, Jiang Mao's smile vanished.

It was unknown what Consort Lou had done but she was expelled from the capital city by the emperor, bringing with her the original host. She had not returned to the capital city for more than ten years.

Now that the emperor was ill, Consort Lou hopped up once again, relying on the fact that he had made friends with Third Prince some time ago, she even stirred to enter the palace.

Jiang Mao pinched the bridge of his nose, thought of Qingbai, and once again thought that it might not be a bad thing. Just let Consort Lou goes and tosses the people in the palace and as long as she did not go and toss him and Qingbai, it was fine.

“Son, ah!” Consort Lou called out to Jiang Mao as soon as she saw him. It was rare for her to call him so intimately.

Jiang Mao responded faintly, “Consort Mother.”

Consort Lou was never the kind of person who cared about her children, she asked directly, “I heard you brought someone back with you this time?”

Although Consort Lou was down and out, she still had a trusted aide in the Prince's Residence. It's no surprise to Jiang Mao that Consort Lou knew it as soon as Su Qingbai came.

“It's my friend.”

“Really? I don't know what kind of person he is. When will you bring him to me?” Concubine Lou said laughingly.

Everyone had an inverse scale. Jiang Mao's inverse scale was Su Qingbai and his son. As Consort Lou was talking, Jiang Mao clenched his fist to control himself. If this woman dared to reach out to Qingbai, even if she was the original host's mother, he would not spare her.

> Chapter 59