Treasure Author
On the other side, the Shen family guards who had just managed to clear their young miss’s presence from the Meng Jun incident were also feeling displeased.
Even though the master and madam hadn’t said anything, how could they not know who was spreading rumors about their young lady?
Even after getting beaten into a pig’s head, that person still hadn’t learned his lesson. Did he not stop to think that if he hadn’t been morally corrupt in the first place, how could their young lady have set him up?
In the end, the beating just hadn’t been harsh enough.
They should go a bit further and teach him how to behave properly.
Almost at the same time, both groups of people formed the same idea. As fate would have it, when they were lingering around the Meng residence, they unexpectedly ran into each other.
The moment they noticed the other side, both groups tensed up. Then Wen Tie was the first to recognize that a couple of them looked familiar, they seemed to be from the Shen family.
Although the Shen family guards didn’t know about their connection to their young lady, a glance was enough. Instinct told them they were here for the same purpose. After a brief exchange of looks, both sides silently reached a tacit understanding and each chose a position to lie in wait.
A little over half an hour later, Meng Jun, who had recently become the target of public hatred and could no longer find any doctor willing to come treat him, forcing him to go out himself, finally appeared.
While his servant and coachman were talking, Meng Jun, still wearing a swollen pig-like face and full of irritation, was suddenly gagged and dragged into a nearby alley.
With a rag stuffed into his mouth, he stared wide-eyed in terror, struggling desperately to break free. But what awaited him was only a rough sack thrown over his head… and then a rain of fists and kicks.
The next day, during lunch, the Shen family learned that Meng Jun had been beaten up again by unknown people.
Shen Taohua nearly spat out her food while laughing. “Hahaha, karma really does exist! I wonder which righteous hero couldn’t stand it anymore, well done!”
Shen Feibai calmly served his wife another bite of food and glanced at her.
The guards had already returned after finishing their “work” and confessed to Steward Liu. Liu had also reported it to him. However, to prevent his daughter from developing a habit of sending guards to beat people whenever she disliked them, he decided not to tell her.
Noticing her sneaking yawns while eating, Shen Feibai said unhappily, “If you have time to care about the Meng family, you should care more about yourself. Were you up late reading those storybooks again? Do you not care about your body anymore?”
Xiao Qingqing also observed their daughter’s complexion. Seeing no signs of fatigue, she said nothing.
Shen Taohua replied cheerfully, “I won’t! I sleep late, but I also wake up late!”
Shen Feibai scoffed. “Sleeping until the sun is high in the sky and you’re still proud of it? Go ask around, whose daughter sleeps until noon before getting up? When it comes to arranging blind dates you run faster than anyone, but when it comes to reading storybooks you’re suddenly so diligent. Are those books really that interesting?”
“Of course they are!”
Mentioning it, a bright, lively light instantly lit up in Shen Taohua’s eyes.
“Dad, let me tell you, the storybooks I like aren’t those boring, overused ones you see everywhere!”
Most storybooks on the market were nothing more than tales of talented scholars and beautiful women, or romances between humans and demons, or tragic love between humans and ghosts.
The first type basically followed the same formula: a wealthy young lady supports a poor scholar on his way to the imperial exams; after he passes and rises in rank, he marries a princess or noblewoman. When the original lady comes back into the picture, the scholar ends up enjoying both women’s company, living in bliss with multiple partners.
The second type catered to people’s curiosity about the non-human world, while fox spirits and snake spirits in folklore already carried erotic undertones, conveniently fueling the fantasies of vulgar men.
But regardless of the type, none of them could hide the fact that they were essentially the self-indulgent fantasies of some low-grade, down-and-out scholars.
Worse still, in order to disguise the male protagonist’s flaws, they would always insert a section where the female lead, feeling ashamed of herself, voluntarily withdraws, while the male lead, moved by lingering affection, keeps her around, painting him as deeply devoted and righteous.
As if!
If you’re greedy and chasing status, just admit it, why wrap it in a fake moral fig leaf? Disgusting.
She couldn’t even be bothered to waste time looking at storylines with that same rotten core.
But there was one author who was completely different.
That person had actually written something that felt like a reversal of the typical web-novel tropes Shen Taohua was very familiar with.
In the story, after the scholar married a princess, the wealthy young lady did not choose to swallow her grievances. Instead, she turned around and married the princess’s father, becoming the male lead’s stepmother-in-law and playing with a “stepmother” style trope.
Occasionally whispering into her husband’s ear and making things difficult for the male lead was basic routine.
She even arranged for the princess to meet several smooth-talking, charming pretty boys far better at sweet-talking than the scholar, completely enchanting her so she no longer cared about anything else.
After the female lead gave birth to a son and firmly secured her position as a royal consort, she casually revealed her past with the scholar to the princess’s father. After that, she no longer needed to do anything, the princess’s father would take care of the rest himself.
After all, what man could tolerate his son-in-law having almost married his own wife?
And since the wife had already borne him a child, divorce was off the table, so the only option left was dealing with the son-in-law.
Moreover, the scholar’s willingness to marry the princess for status already proved his questionable character; once investigated, plenty of flaws could be found.
As a result, he lost his title as son-in-law, lost his official position, and was further pushed down by others eager to curry favor with the royal household after learning he had offended them.
Meanwhile, the princess had long since been captivated by various “cute boy” and “bad boy” types, and had lost interest in the dull scholar.
In the end, the scholar could only leave in a miserable, downcast state, disappearing without a trace.
Afterward, the female lead outlived the princess’s father, inherited all the wealth of the duke’s residence, and used her late husband’s money to run businesses that flourished, eventually becoming the wealthiest person in the dynasty.
It was a full-on “strong female lead” power fantasy.
Romances between humans and demons were, of course, also part of the mix.
Except that what you thought was a love story, where the fox spirit patiently tolerates a human man marrying someone else for the sake of continuing the family line, turned out to be something entirely different: on the night of the wedding, the fox spirit female lead turned around and abducted the bride.
After learning about the history between the female lead and the male lead, the bride felt both sympathy and indignation. Yet under the fox spirit’s unparalleled charm, the two of them actually ended up together.
That’s right, you didn’t read it wrong. The female lead and the female supporting character ended up happily together.
It was utterly shocking.
But thinking about it again, in folklore fox spirits absorb human essence, and that “essence” was never specified as being exclusive to men. So her ending up together with the female supporting character didn’t actually seem that unreasonable.
As for the male lead?
After his wife ran off with someone else, he became the laughingstock of the village. In anger, he clashed with the villagers and alienated everyone. Still delusional, he tried to apologize to the fox spirit and win her back, dreaming of enjoying both women. In the end, he was instead drained of his life force by the fox spirit and thrown off a cliff.
A romance story turned into a horror story just because of cheating.
Surprised? Shocked?
And don’t say the fox spirit went too far.
It’s unreasonable to apply human moral standards to demons. If you betray someone, are they not allowed to take revenge?
It’s just that the method of revenge was a little, extremely, overly intense.
Of course, all of this only describes the main plot. Along the way, there were naturally plenty of satisfying “face-slapping” side characters and comeuppance scenes.
Each story was tightly plotted and immensely satisfying, reading them in one go felt like drinking a huge glass of ice water on a sweltering summer day, utterly refreshing.
Even more gratifying, even in traditional genres like imperial examinations, court politics, or detective stories, the protagonists never took multiple wives or concubines; they remained faithful from beginning to end, treating each other with respect and harmony.
Good plots, sweet romance, who wouldn’t be thrilled reading them?
In this ancient setting, apart from the lack of internet, there were no dramas, no anime, no variety shows. All the entertainment she had once enjoyed simply didn’t exist here.
There were only storytellers, acrobats, opera performances, and the like… In short, none of them were things she could truly appreciate, and they weren’t convenient for passing time at home either.
If she hadn’t discovered this author who perfectly suited her taste, she might really have had no entertainment at all besides eating, drinking, and shopping.
What a pity, such a treasure of an author, yet the locals couldn’t really appreciate them, instead thinking the works were just cheap sensationalism and nonsense.
Those who could appreciate the work weren’t nonexistent, but they were few in number, and the book sales were always underwhelming.
In order to prevent the author from losing heart and giving up writing, and also out of genuine fondness, every time the author released a new story, Shen Taohua would write a long review full of her thoughts and encouragement, asking the bookstore to pass it on to the author.
“Dad, don’t you think this author’s storybooks are really interesting?”
Shen Taohua enthusiastically introduced several of her favorite stories in great detail, trying to recommend them to her father.
Unfortunately, Shen Feibai only found her noisy.
He waved a hand dismissively. “Your father is busy. Where would I find time to read that kind of thing?”
Although it did sound quite novel and imaginative, she was an unmarried young lady who, at night, besides sleeping, only had storybooks to pass the time. But he was different.
He had a wife.
Rather than wasting time reading about fictional romances, it was better to put in more effort himself, he might even be able to give her a younger brother.
Afraid that his daughter would continue rambling, Shen Feibai quickly said, “Alright, don’t talk while eating. Eat more and talk less.”
Shen Taohua pouted. “There’s no such rule in our family.”
However, since her father wasn’t interested in her recommendation, she didn’t force it. She simply planned to discuss the newly finished story later with her close friend, who had already been successfully “converted.”
Her plan was good, but after the meal, before she could leave the house, she was stopped by her mother and pulled into helping review the family accounts for the month.
With no choice, she had to temporarily postpone her plans.
Thinking of the stallholders and merchants she had been cooperating with recently, who had all started sending over their monthly dividends, she helped her mother with the bookkeeping while also recording her own earnings at the same time.
Snack stalls had low costs and small scale, so profits weren’t huge, just dividend shares ranging from a few taels to over ten or twenty taels at most.
It didn’t sound like much, but when dozens of stalls were added together, the total became quite considerable.
Restaurant earnings were even more impressive, with profits at least two or three times higher, sometimes even more, forty to fifty taels, even over a hundred in some cases, such as her best friend’s Yueya Restaurant.
Aside from the food industry, there were many other types of businesses as well.
The textiles shop that makes new dress patterns, the rouge shop’s novel cosmetic products, and similar dividends.
She had already lived in this world for more than ten years. If she wanted to be a lazy little fish who didn’t have to work every day and could just lie around, she couldn’t rely entirely on her parents. She still had to make some early investments.
And now, just from these dividends alone, she could earn several hundred taels a month.
On top of that, her parents would occasionally slip her pocket money, so earning over a thousand taels a month was normal.
Converted to her previous life, that would be equivalent to over a million per month.
Sounds pretty amazing, doesn’t it?
There had even been a time when she dreamed herself awake laughing about it, and that phase lasted over a month.
But after a few years, she could now take it all very calmly.
It’s just money. Nothing to make a fuss over.
As the saying goes, once there’s too much money, it’s just a string of numbers.
That said, since there was new income coming in, of course it had to be spent.
Hmm, what should she buy?
She’d heard that the fabric shop on West Street would soon get a new batch of fine Jiangnan materials. She could pick some to make new dresses for herself and her mother.
Right, there were also the new monthly lip color releases from the rouge shop to buy, and then…
“Yaoyao.”
Snapped out of her thoughts, she turned toward her mother, who was still holding the account book, and asked in confusion, “Mother, you called me?”