"My Lord, Madam, neither of you has eaten a thing since this morning. This humble servant went to Drunken Fragrance Restaurant and bought two roasted chickens for you."
Seeing Wen Qingwan and her husband stepping out of the yamen, Jinque hurried forward with two roasted chickens cradled in her hands.
"We’ll take one, and you and Leng Yan can share the other," Wen Qingwan said, her tone neither happy nor sad.
In truth, she was overjoyed inside. However, with plenty of onlookers lingering outside the yamen just waiting to see a good show, and having just officially severed family ties, she felt it wouldn't do to let her happiness show.
"Don't be sad, Madam! So what if those family ties are broken? You still have My Lord and all of us. Master Wen and his wife must have eyes made of mud not to see your worth!"
"Pfft." Hearing Jinque's boldly rebellious words just as she stepped up into the carriage, Wen Qingwan finally couldn't hold it in any longer and burst out laughing.
"That maid is right," he said. "My lady is the mistress of our Xiao household. You have not only me, but this entire estate to back you up."
As he spoke, Xiao Jin tore off both roasted chicken drumsticks and held them out to Wen Qingwan. "Here, my lady, you have them."
"I’ll just have one. By the time we get back to the estate, it’ll practically be time for dinner anyway."
After finishing a single drumstick, Wen Qingwan didn't want any more. Xiao Jin urged her a few times, but seeing she genuinely had no appetite left, he simply ate everything that was left.
Earlier, Jinque and Leng Yan had each eaten half a roasted chicken. As soon as they finished, Jinque chattered excitedly, "Brother Leng, let me tell you something."
"Back when we were at the Wen residence, the whole family used to bully my young miss. The second young miss, in particular, had to compete with her and snatch away whatever my young miss had."
"Whenever my young miss felt upset or displeased in her heart back then, she would often end up getting into arguments with her."
"Whenever the second young miss shed a few tears in front of Madam Wen, my young miss was guaranteed to catch the blame and be in big trouble."
"How did she suffer?” Leng Yan asked dryly. While he himself had zero interest in the Madam's past, their Lord was dying to know!
"Both the Master and Madam would pitch in to scold her, and the young masters would blame our young miss for being insensible and making the second young miss cry."
And with that, Jinque launched right back into her non-stop chattering, spilling out all the grievances and wrongs her young miss had suffered over the years like peas pouring out of a tipped bag.
The gist of it all was that Vice Minister Wen had married Madam Wen purely for political and personal gain—even though she had given him two sons.
Yet the moment he achieved even a tiny bit of success, he immediately took his ultimate white-moonlight first love as his wife.
She was originally supposed to be raised to the status of a co-wife, but alas, she suffered a beauty's tragic fate—she passed away right after giving birth to a daughter!
It was said that concubine was Vice Minister Wen’s childhood sweetheart whom he had loved since they were young. Years ago, because he needed the political backing of the Prime Minister's estate, the two lovers had been unable to be together.
After they reunited later on, they were naturally as sweet as honey, and Wen Mingzhu was the living fruit of their love.
She was a concubine's daughter who had been spoiled rotten beyond measure, and she was also that concubine's only child.
In the Wen household, no one was ever allowed to speak a harsh word to Wen Mingzhu. Having been pampered and spoiled rotten since childhood, she grew up to be utterly arrogant and haughty, looking down on everyone else.
Naturally, Wen Mingzhu didn't treat her elder sister by the primary wife well at all. She frequently framed her and snatched away whatever belonged to her...
Listening to this made the veins on Xiao Jin's temples bulge as he fought the urge to throw punches. He turned his head to look at the little girl beside him, only to see her with her eyes closed, as if she had fallen fast asleep.
Wen Qingwan wasn't actually asleep. Mentally projecting herself into the Merit Mall, she discovered to her surprise that formally severing ties with the Wen family had netted her a whopping 2,000 merit points!
Are people from the Wen family literally toxic or something?
Saving the entire Marquis’s estate had only netted her 1,500 merit points, whereas going to all that exhausting trouble to trick the Xiao family's second son into feeding pigs had only brought her a measly 500.
She hadn't really exerted herself at all to sever ties with the Wen family, yet she had unexpectedly pulled in two thousand merit points. Without missing a beat, she tapped on the blackboard to see what delicious snacks were available.
First, she bought ten roast chickens, along with things she had never tasted before like steak and pork chops, and even some exquisitely packaged chicken feet and melon seeds...
It came to a total of 380 merit points for a massive pile of snacks. Wen Qingwan wondered to herself if she should check out some of the rarer, more unusual items.
No sooner had the thought crossed her mind than the blackboard displayed two major items: a Marrow-Cleansing Elixir for 2,000 merit points, and a Jade-Fracture Bone-Mending Ointment, also for 2,000 merit points.
Good grief! That's so expensive—what kind of miraculous elixir is that?!
The Marrow-Cleansing Elixir probably wouldn't be of much use, but I wonder if this Jade-Fracture Bone-Mending Ointment could cure that man's lame leg?
Ah, well! Once I'm rich, I'll buy a box and give it a try. Then, the next time I get into a fight, I won't even have to hold back...
Before she had even finished her thought, a mechanical voice rang out: [Congratulations to the host for acquiring a box of Jade-Fracture Bone-Mending Ointment! All sales are final—strictly no returns or exchanges.]
"What?! When did I ever say I wanted to buy that?!" Wen Qingwan shrieked angrily inside her spiritual space.
[Host, all transactions in the Merit Mall are conducted through mental intent. Just having the thought in your mind means the transaction is already in progress.]
".........."
Wen Qingwan smacked her own forehead in despair and groaned, "Oh well, so what if I bought it? There's no way I'm ever letting him use it!"
[Host, the Jade-Fracture Bone-Mending Ointment has a shelf life of only three days. If it isn't used within three days, it will become completely void and expire.]
"What?! Say that again!"
[Host, the Jade-Fracture Bone-Mending Ointment has a shelf life of only three days. If it isn't used within three days, it will expire and become completely useless.]
"Hmph! Keep threatening me and ticking me off, and I won't compromise—even if it means letting the damn thing go to waste!"
As soon as she finished venting her fury, her world fell completely silent.
Looking at the massive pile of food inside the storage cabinet, Wen Qingwan finally managed to calm down a little.
After all, in this lifetime she had the memories and experiences of an extra life—plus, she'd gotten a Merit Mall completely for free.
Thinking back to her past life, she had been entirely empty-handed while scraping by just to survive in the Eastern Palace, with no prior experiences or foreknowledge to draw upon.
She had no choice but to figure everything out step-by-step through trial and error, genuinely draining a lifetime of energy in the process, only to die an untimely death in the end.
This time around, however, she was a seasoned veteran who had already survived a harrowing trial by fire. Being forced to react passively versus taking the initiative—the two were now entirely different games.
Oh well, what's done is done—it's bought now!
The moment Wen Qingwan's consciousness withdrew from the mall, she saw Xiao Jin staring at her with a completely bewildered expression. "What is it?" she asked.
"N-nothing..." Xiao Jin sheepishly looked away, so embarrassed that his earlobes had turned completely red.
Yet Wen Qingwan was completely clueless about matters of the heart, because across her two lifetimes, she had never actually loved anyone.
In her mind, for women of traditional noble families, once married off, there were only two possible endings: dying of illness or hanging themselves. A mutual divorce was utterly unheard of, let alone being discarded as a cast-off wife.
Yet Wen Mingzhu was able to shatter convention and divorce not just once, but time and time again—solely because she had the Wen family standing firmly behind her as her backing.
Wen Qingwan knew that no one would ever stand up for her, which was why the thought of a mutual divorce or anything of the sort had never even crossed her mind.
"Were you fast asleep just now, my wife?" Seeing that the young lass wouldn't even look at him, Xiao Jin hurriedly scraped together something to say just to break the awkward silence.
"Mhm."
"........."
Xiao Jin gave her a speechless look. This conversation was completely impossible to keep going!
Fortunately, they had already reached the grand gates of the Marquis's estate. As Wen Qingwan and Xiao Jin stepped into the main hall, they saw her step-siblings sitting there looking completely crestfallen.
"What's the matter?"
"Eldest Sister-in-law, the tutor bolted before class even started!"
"Why? Does he think his wages are too low?" Wen Qingwan asked, completely baffled.
"My wife, I haven't even discussed wages with him yet; I just wanted to let him get accustomed to things for a couple of days first."
"Eldest Sister-in-law, the tutor asked us what this saying means: 'Though a path is close, it will never be reached without walking; though a task is small, it will never be accomplished without action.' What does it mean?"
"So not a single one of you was able to answer him, is that it?"
"How did Eldest Sister-in-law know?" asked eight-year-old Xiao Lixia, looking completely astonished.
Standing off to the side, Xiao Lidong's little face was scrunched up in a knot as he debated whether he should just straight-up tell his Eldest Sister-in-law that he didn't understand it either.
Would that make him look really stupid?
Wen Qingwan looked at Xiao Lidong, whose face was scrunched up into a little steamed bun, only to notice that a pair of childish, adorable little dimples still lingered on his cheeks.
Her heart softened at the sight. "Go wash your hands and come eat, all of you,' she said. 'If the tutor ran off, we'll just hire another one!"
🐇♡🐇♡🐇♡🐇
The characters stand backstage, staring at each other with utter exhaustion.
Wen Qingwan: "Let me get this straight. Severing ties with my toxic family nets me two thousand merit points, but I accidentally buy a three-day-expiring bone ointment and get strong-armed into playing nurse?"
Xiao Jin: "Hey, don't look at me—my earlobes were burning red just trying to figure out how to talk to you without sounding like a total idiot."
Jinque: "At least you two get plot progression! I’ve been running marathons, eating poultry, and exposing family trauma for free while Brother Leng just sits there nodding like an NPC."
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