The next day, Qin Huai’an was indeed forcibly brought back home.
“If you don’t come home one day, I’ll send people to drag you back once! If you aren’t afraid of losing face, then go ahead and mess around outside as much as you want!”
After throwing down these words, Master Qin walked out of the east courtyard with his hands behind his back.
Several young attendants untied the ropes from Qin Huai’an with great caution and then scurried away immediately.
Zhegui hid behind the door, then turned and asked Jiang Ci, “Miss, should we go check on him?”
“No need.” Jiang Ci put aside a hand-copied book and tilted her chin. “He will come over here himself.”
Just then, the door was yanked open violently. Zhegui nearly fell forward, scrambling to steady herself against the doorframe and stepping back in shock.
Qin Huai’an shot her a glare, then turned his furious gaze on Jiang Ci. “Jiang Ci, are you satisfied now? Dragging the elders from the Second and Third Branches into this, you really are scheming!”
“Young Master calls me scheming? Well, no matter how hard my methods are, they aren’t as hard as your mouth.”
“You!” Qin Huai’an gritted his teeth, pointing at her several times from a distance. “Fine! Fine! Jiang Ci, since you forced me home, don’t regret it later!”
Jiang Ci indifferently picked up her book again, leaving him hanging for a few seconds, before asking Zhegui, “Zhegui, is the study cleaned up?”
“Huh? Study?” Zhegui was stunned. She glanced at Qin Huai’an and whispered, “Young Mistress, why do we need to clean the study?”
“You really have no eyes for situations!” Jiang Ci looked at Qin Huai’an with a half-smile. “The Young Master is a man of deep devotion, of course he must preserve his chastity for Miss Liang! Where else would he live if not the study?”
Qin Huai’an opened his mouth in shock. “Jiang Ci, this is my courtyard! Why should I study?”
Jiang Ci narrowed her eyes and smiled falsely. “Because I moved in here rightfully! And I never ran away from home, so there is absolutely no reason for me to move out!”
She paused, looking thoughtful, and added, “I was just thinking of you, but if you insist on sleeping in the bedroom, that can be arranged. But does that mean I should understand that your previous behavior was just hard-to-get, and that deep down you really wanted to sleep in my room?”
“Don’t flatter yourself!”
“Oh my! Why be so shy about it! If that’s the case, I am not an unreasonable woman. How about I talk to Mother tomorrow and ask her to bring Miss Liang into the house? I know, men always want to have the best of both worlds! Shame on you for pretending to be so noble before, what a hypocri—”
Before she could finish, Qin Huai’an stormed out as if fleeing for his life.
He left behind only one sentence, “You are impossible!”
Zhegui chased after him for two steps, then came back huffing. “That Young Master is too much! You already agreed to let that woman in, what more does he want?”
Jiang Ci stood up with a cold laugh. “See? Now he’s obediently going to study. I’m tired of looking at his face anyway. Come on, let’s go to the stone market.”
Zhegui immediately understood that her mistress had deliberately provoked him. She followed behind with a worried face. “Miss, he finally came home, why provoke him? As the saying goes, ‘As long as the green mountains remain, there will always be firewood.’ I know you’re unhappy, but in a big household like this, you really need to have a son or daughter to secure your position!”
“You! You’re not even that old, yet you worry about everything.”
As they chatted, they unknowingly reached the main courtyard.
“Going out again?”
“Yes. My family only has that shop left. It means a lot to me, so I must take good care of it.”
Madam Qin looked like she wanted to say something several times, but thinking of her husband’s rage yesterday, she just waved her hand. “Fine, go ahead! Everyone’s heart is wild these days, running outside every single day!”
“Thank you for your understanding, Mother.”
Jiang Ci paid no attention to her complaints and turned to leave with Zhegui.
Actually, Jiang Ci had expected that Master Qin would know about her business dealings outside.
After all, it wasn’t a secret. If Master Qin wanted to find out, he certainly could.
And if Master Qin knew, then Madam Qin would naturally know too.
But Master Qin was so proud. He had been so angry yesterday that he smashed things just because of a few words of criticism. There was no way he would do anything to damage his own reputation now.
Otherwise, how could he have promised to let Huainan go to school yesterday, only to turn around and lock his daughter-in-law up at home? That would be slapping his own face.
So Jiang Ci was happy to be free and went straight to the stone gambling yard.
Although Qin Yanlou had advised her yesterday that these few days weren’t suitable for gambling stones, since it was the weekend and she had time, she still came. She wanted to test her new abilities after her power had leveled up.
Her ability had reached Level 1 two days ago.
Just like in games where you get an initial skill, ability users usually get one support skill at Level 1. However, to get better skills later, the level requirements are higher and the conditions are much harder.
In her previous life, Jiang Ci had died before ever unlocking a second skill.
And her first skill…
Thinking about it now made her want to laugh in disbelief—her support skill was creating a bright flash point anywhere she wanted.
That she managed to survive until the fifth year of the apocalypse with just that was truly a testament to her resilience.
“Madam, feel free to look around. The stones in this area are larger, so the price is a bit higher.”
The shop assistant’s voice brought her back to reality. She reached out and touched the raw stone in front of her.
In stone markets, smaller stones were usually more popular. The area where Jiang Ci stood had only a few people browsing.
These men wore more elaborate robes and mandarin jackets, and their skullcaps were even inlaid with jewels, clearly indicating they were wealthy buyers.
Jiang Ci was at a new market she had never visited before, so the assistant didn’t recognize her and offered help proactively.
“We’ll look first. Call you when we’re ready to ask the price.” Jiang Ci nodded at him, then focused her gaze on the stone and activated her ability.
Her support skill wasn’t very useful in the apocalypse, but here, it was perfect.
However, before using it, she always had to check first to make sure the stone wouldn’t expose her.
In her vision, the outer crust of the stone gradually became transparent, revealing the outline of the jade inside, which was much smaller than the rock itself.
Judging by the density of the white lines, the quality of this jade wasn’t very good—it was only waxy quality.
But the crust was very thick, so there was no risk of light shining through. Jiang Ci could safely test her skill here.
Otherwise, if she flashed it and the whole stone lit up, she wouldn’t be able to explain it.
She walked around the stone several times, checking from different angles to confirm the crust was thick everywhere. Then she placed her hands gently on the surface and condensed a flash point right in the very center.
The entire piece of jade lit up instantly. Because waxy jade isn’t very transparent, the light shining out from the center became very soft and diffused.
The white lines disappeared from her vision the moment the light turned on, replaced by the actual greenish color of the jade.
This piece was a greenish-grey color, which wasn’t valuable at all. Combined with its poor quality, even if it were cut open, it would be worth almost nothing.
Still, she asked the assistant, “How much for this one?”
“Madam, this one weighs over fifty catties. If you want it, it will be at least three hundred silver dollars.”
“Okay, I’ll think about it.”
That meant there was a 90% chance of losing money on it.
Jiang Ci moved to another stone and rubbed its surface.
In truth, the stones left in this market were mostly leftovers that others had picked through. Most of them had yellow sand skin.
The really good ones—like black sand skin, wax skin, water skin, or large areas of exposed skin where you could clearly see the color, or stones with pine-flower patterns or python stripes that might contain high-quality green jade—had all been bought already.
What was left were either stones with no visible features, which were too risky, or ones that had already been windowed and priced very high.
Nearby, a few men were gathered around studying a windowed stone.
From their conversation, Jiang Ci could tell they were jade merchants.
“The color is rich and bright. If this goes deep inside, it will be a huge profit!”
“That’s true, but this window is right on the python stripe. I’m afraid it’s just a thin line of green. If that’s the case, it won’t be worth much.”
“I’m more worried about cracks inside. Look at the width of the stripe and the thickness of the stone. If there are no cracks, even just that line of green can make two pairs of bracelets.”
“Forget it. Jubao Zhai has bought quite a lot of materials this month. This one is too risky. Count me out.”
Hearing this, Jiang Ci couldn’t help but ask the assistant beside her, “What does he mean by ‘count me out’? Is it not sold directly?”
The assistant laughed and explained, “You see, Madam, that stone doesn’t actually belong to our shop. A merchant from Yunnan left it here on consignment, asking for thirty thousand silver dollars! For stones like this, if you bet alone, one wrong move and you could lose your entire fortune. So in our line of business, people often pool their money together. They agree on shares before buying, and whatever the outcome—profit or loss—they split it according to their investment.”
Zhegui gasped in shock. “Thirty thousand? That’s way too expensive!”
“That’s nothing!” The assistant secretly gestured towards the middle-aged man. “That’s Manager Yu from Jubao Zhai. They’ve bought stones way more expensive than this! Even stones costing a hundred or two hundred thousand, they buy them without blinking!”
As they were talking, the group of men shook their heads and dispersed, deciding not to buy it.
The assistant watched them go and muttered, “I knew it wouldn’t sell so easily. The window is too small and in such a tricky spot. The risk is way too high! Thirty thousand dollars doesn’t grow on trees!”
Just then, someone else called for a price check in another area, and the assistant hurried over.
Jiang Ci looked at the stone they had been discussing and said to Zhegui, “Come on, let’s go take a look.”