Miao Shuang really didn’t want to help him.
After all, he’d already tried last night — this guy was really heavy, and if he tried to pull him up and failed, it would be truly embarrassing.
But looking at his exhausted eyes, the sarcastic remark already on the tip of his tongue was swallowed back down. He clicked his tongue impatiently. “Is this your attitude when asking for help? It’s only because I have such a good temper — if it were someone else, not only would they not help you, they’d give you a beating.”
Qi Yan: “…”
Good temper? Who was he talking about?
Miao Shuang pushed the wheelchair back close to him, grabbed Qi Yan’s hands with both of his, pressed his toes against Qi Yan’s feet, and with a sharp pull, hauled him up from the ground and quickly transferred him into the wheelchair.
The veins on the back of Qi Yan’s hands bulged from the exertion. Before he could let go, he suddenly felt a chill at his wrist.
The white snake from Miao Shuang’s sleeve had, for some reason, slithered out, and was crawling up Qi Yan’s arm along their clasped hands.
The snake’s defection made Miao Shuang narrow his eyes in displeasure — it was clearly his Life Gu, yet it kept seizing every opportunity to crawl onto someone else.
Just as he was about to call it back, he heard Lai Fu’s voice calling out, approaching from the distance. “Madam! General!”
Qi Yan snapped back to his senses and jerked his hand back as if electrocuted, quickly turning the wheel on one side of the wheelchair to turn his back away.
Miao Shuang stared grimly at the tip of the snake’s tail disappearing into Qi Yan’s sleeve, then turned to face Lai Fu. “What is it?”
“Madam, someone’s come from the palace, delivering a lot of silver and fabric. Come take a look quickly!”
“Understood, let’s go.”
Listening to their footsteps fade into the distance, Qi Yan raised his hand.
The little white snake poked its head out from his sleeve, flicking its tongue, stretching itself as far as it could to affectionately rub against his face.
The cold scales brushed against his jaw, bringing a strange and peculiar sensation.
Qi Yan froze for a moment, his gaze softening involuntarily.
This little thing really didn’t resemble Miao Shuang in the slightest — if Miao Shuang hadn’t admitted it himself, he would never have believed this snake was his Life Gu.
Qi Yan gently stroked the little snake with his fingertip, letting it coil around his hand. For some reason, this snake seemed to really like him.
General Qi had a secret fondness that no one knew about — he actually loved small animals. Unfortunately, having campaigned in war for years, his hands were stained with blood and carried too heavy an aura of killing intent, so animals, with their naturally keen senses, were never willing to get close to him.
Whether it was the colts in the army camp or stray puppies he occasionally picked up, they would flee far away the moment they saw him.
After one incident where he tried feeding a colt to build a bond with it, only to startle the mare so badly it nearly kicked someone, he never tried again.
Compared to satisfying his own not-so-important preference, he’d rather they be safe and well.
After all these years, this was the first time he’d encountered an animal that wasn’t afraid of him and even approached him on its own. This couldn’t help but fill his heart with joy, letting him temporarily cast all his pain to the back of his mind.
While Qi Yan amused himself with the snake here, on the other side, Miao Shuang — his sleeves now empty — felt his hand getting a bit itchy.
That damned little traitor. It was clearly his Life Gu, yet it kept crawling onto Qi Yan time and again. Every morning when he woke up, he had to retrieve the snake from inside Qi Yan’s clothes first.
Didn’t the original novel say this snake was of one mind with him? Just where exactly did that connection lie?
“In this servant’s whole life, I’ve never seen so much money,” Lai Fu stared blankly at the boxes of silver before him, feeling as though the entire courtyard had turned gleaming silver. “Madam, why would His Majesty suddenly give us such a reward? Does this mean the whole matter is truly over, and the General can be reinstated to his official post?”
Miao Shuang came back to his senses and sneered. “You wish.”
The rewards sent from the palace had all been unloaded in the front courtyard — twenty crates in total, half of which were silver, amounting to ten thousand taels altogether, with the rest being jewelry, fabric, and medicinal materials.
Although he’d said he didn’t want the reward, the Emperor had given it anyway — not a cent less, and even more besides.
Miao Shuang looked at the gleaming white silver, his expression unreadable.
Three generations of the Qi family risking their lives in battle, and all it bought was the Emperor’s casual reward.
“Move all of this to the storehouse, and remember to record it in the ledger,” Miao Shuang instructed.
“Yes,” Lai Fu called out to the household servants, “come quickly and help!”
The courtyard buzzed with activity, and Lai Fu added, “It’s thanks to Madam’s foresight that you had this servant hire people in advance — otherwise, with this much to move, this servant alone would’ve worked himself to death.”
Miao Shuang glanced at him. “Just love flattering me, don’t you?”
Lai Fu grinned foolishly and scratched the back of his head. “Heh heh.”
Miao Shuang sized up this newly hired group of people, his gaze landing at the storehouse entrance, where a man in his early forties was holding a ledger, recording the items in the crates as he tallied them.
The man walked back and forth around the crates, and Miao Shuang noticed his gait was unsteady — one leg seemed to have a limp.
He frowned, called Lai Fu over, and lowered his voice. “Why did you hire a cripple? Isn’t having one cripple of a General in this household already enough?”
“It’s not… Madam, didn’t you say he had to be honest?” Lai Fu scratched his head. “This servant asked around for quite a while, and he was the most honest one by far. These accountants are all so good at scheming — it’s not easy to find an honest one.”
Miao Shuang was only half convinced by this. “How honest exactly?”
Lai Fu glanced toward the storehouse and pulled him aside. “I heard that before, because he refused to falsify the accounts, he offended his main employer. Not only did they break his leg, they forcibly took his wife as well. His wife, unable to bear the humiliation, hanged herself, leaving behind only a daughter.”
“When did this happen?” Miao Shuang asked.
“Just over a year ago. Ever since then, no one’s dared to hire him. He said if he can’t find work by the end of this year, he’ll have to leave the capital to seek a living elsewhere. When I negotiated his wages, I lowered the price to eighty percent of the normal rate, and to my surprise, he didn’t even haggle — he agreed right away.”
After thinking for a moment, Miao Shuang said, “Understood.”
He walked toward the accountant. “Are you the newly hired accountant?”
The middle-aged man stopped what he was doing, looked at him with eyes full of weariness, then lowered his head. “Yes, greetings, Madam.”
“What’s your name?”
“Lu Fang.”
Miao Shuang exchanged a few pleasantries with him before getting to the point. “Looking at Master Lu’s age, do you have any family?”
Hearing this, Lu Fang’s expression dimmed. “My wife passed early. I only have a young daughter.”
“Then while you work here, what happens to your daughter?”
Lu Fang hesitated before saying, “If Madam doesn’t mind, I’ll pack some food from the household each day and send it to my daughter… ah, the expense can be deducted from my wages.”
“It’s not as though we’re short on food money — but this can’t go on forever as a solution.”
“Then what does Madam mean by that…?”
“Why not bring your daughter to live here at the residence? This General’s residence is so spacious, and with more people it would be livelier too.”
Lu Fang startled, light instantly igniting in his eyes: “Madam means this… truly?”
“Would I lie to you?”
“Thank you, Madam, thank you!” Lu Fang’s voice trembled with excitement, and he moved to kneel and kowtow to him.
Miao Shuang caught him before he could. “Master Lu, no need for such formality. Since I’ve hired you as the accountant, we’re family now. The General has always treated people generously, and would never mistreat his own family — I only hope Master Lu won’t take offense that, since the General is currently unwell, all household affairs are being handled by me in his stead.”
Lu Fang shook his head repeatedly, tears welling in his eyes, too moved to speak.
“Once you’ve finished recording the accounts, go and bring your daughter here,” Miao Shuang added.
“Yes, yes… thank you, Madam.” Lu Fang bowed deeply to him.
“Oh, and one more thing — the household will be purchasing a batch of furniture in the coming days, so expenditures will be frequent. I’ll need Master Lu to put in extra effort on that.”
“Rest assured, Madam, it’s all part of my duties.”
Miao Shuang nodded and turned to leave.
He certainly hadn’t let the accountant bring his daughter here out of softheartedness — as a Demon Lord, he’d never had such superfluous feelings. He simply didn’t trust the man.
Planting a Gu in him was ultimately a last resort — with his daughter held here as leverage, this father surely wouldn’t dare act rashly.
A person’s weaknesses were nothing more than family, friendship, and love — and as it happened, Miao Shuang possessed none of these.
Now that he had the silver, matters he hadn’t been able to accomplish before could be put on the agenda. He sent Lai Fu off to measure furniture dimensions, while he himself began selecting medicinal materials.
Needless to say, with the Emperor’s reward, within a mere two hours he’d gathered all the medicinal materials he needed — including ones that weren’t even produced in the Central Plains. The efficiency was truly astonishing.
Clearly those medicinal materials weren’t scarce at all — ordinary commoners simply couldn’t get their hands on them.
Having selected the medicine, Miao Shuang had people set up the stove and clay pot used for decocting medicine at the entrance of the bridal chamber. He didn’t borrow the kitchen, nor did he intend to let anyone else help.
Qi Yan had just finished his midday meal, and seeing him fiddling about at the entrance, wheeled himself over. “What are you doing?”
“Decocting medicine.”
“Are you ill?”
Miao Shuang gave him an inexplicable look. “It’s for you.”
“…” Qi Yan simply couldn’t imagine these words coming out of his mouth. He was shocked for a moment. “What medicine?”
Miao Shuang’s fingertip tapped across the three clay pots one by one. “Medicine to extend your life, medicine to heal your injuries, medicine to boost your virility.”
Qi Yan suddenly started coughing.
“Just teasing you,” Miao Shuang smiled wickedly. “This pot isn’t medicine — it’s just a pot for filtering out the dregs.”
He bent down to light both stoves, covered the pots with their lids, and sat before the stove to tend it.
Qi Yan sized him up for a good while with a strange expression, then asked, “You really intend to treat my injuries?”
“What, does the General think I was joking with you before?”
Qi Yan found it somewhat hard to believe — he truly didn’t believe this Miao person would actually help him. Although it now seemed Miao Shuang wasn’t a mole planted by His Majesty at his side, the man had, after all, drenched the Miao Village in blood. By any reasoning, Miao Shuang shouldn’t be helping him.
“Why help me?” he asked.
“Help you? The General misunderstands. Didn’t I already say — I intend to turn you into a human puppet and bring you back to the Miao Territories,” Miao Shuang stood up, looking down at him from above, smiling. “Before that, of course I need to heal you first. My standards for human puppets are quite high — they can’t be unsightly, and even less can they be useless.”
Qi Yan’s grip tightened slightly on the armrests of the wheelchair, a flash of fierce intent passing through his eyes. “Aren’t you afraid that once my injuries heal, I’ll kill you immediately?”
Miao Shuang couldn’t help but laugh aloud. “You can’t kill me, General.”
“You’re that confident?”
“Naturally, because—”
Miao Shuang reached out, touched the small mole beside his Adam’s apple, and leaned in close to his ear, saying in a low voice, “I’ve already planted a Love Gu in you. Not only will you not kill me, you’ll fall hopelessly in love with me, unable to free yourself.”