Farmer girl swaps husbands: buys a sickly villain and pampers him

Chapter 271 All for naught
Seeing that the people he had sent out had returned, Xiao Yanci asked anxiously, "How did it go?"

The subordinate reported, "Reporting to Master, many villagers caught strange insects today to sell. The officials from the Ministry of Revenue were in charge of purchasing them. They first bought the strange insects from the villagers and then sold them to various restaurants. The restaurants even held small auctions for the right to sell the strange insects, with the highest bidder winning. Lin's Restaurant won the exclusive purchase right with a high price of five thousand taels."

"What is an exclusive acquisition right?" Xiao Yanci was hearing this term for the first time.

"Only the Lin Family Restaurant can obtain the strange insect from the Ministry of Revenue. The Lin Family Restaurant launched this delicacy that day, selling it for two taels of silver per serving. Now the Ministry of Revenue has posted a notice saying that this strange insect can only be purchased by the imperial court, and the Lin Family Restaurant will have to buy it from the imperial court."

Xiao Yanci frowned: "Aren't people afraid of getting poisoned by eating those strange insects?"

Xiao Yanci refused to believe in superstitions and ordered his servants to prepare a carriage, intending to go to the countryside himself to see for himself.

He had seen these strange insects in the fields in his previous life and knew how destructive they were. Because he knew this, he was very clear that if they were not eradicated, this year's crops would definitely fail, which would be a great disaster for both the court and the people.

Su Yaoguang handed over the management of the strange insect stall to the imperial court, which allowed her to relax.

The aftermath was exactly as she had anticipated. The insect plague was under control, and the strange insects had been nearly wiped out. Some resourceful villagers had even set aside two plots of land specifically to raise them. Needless to say, these clever villagers were on their way out of poverty.

The next day, Zhou Wangshu returned from the morning court session and said that the emperor had praised him in front of all the civil and military officials. He told the emperor that it was Su Yaoguang's idea, and that the emperor would send someone to deliver the reward later.

Xiao Yanci's pest control plan was met with a furious rebuke from the emperor, who accused him of disregarding the lives of the people. The emperor's impression of him plummeted once again. What had initially improved the emperor's opinion of Xiao Yanci had now reverted to square one.

Zhou Wangshu held the documents in her hand, her eyes filled with surprise.

"Yaoguang..." Zhou Wangshu called out to Su Yaoguang.

Su Yaoguang walked over, hugged his neck from behind, and rubbed against him.

"what happened?"

"Come and take a look at this."

Su Yaoguang saw Zhou Wangshu hand her the booklet, and without understanding why, she took it, unfolded it, and carefully read its contents.

She looked dazed when she finished reading the contents.

This is research data about Xiao Yanci.

She and Xiao Yanci were husband and wife for a lifetime, and she did so many things for him, only to find out now that even his name was fake.

Not only that, he was also the descendant of a disgraced official.

His family is suffering the hardship of being exiled to the army.

If the news that Xiao Yanci was the descendant of a disgraced official were to spread, I wonder if he would be able to turn his life around.
Zhou Wangshu kissed Su Yaoguang's forehead: "I'm by your side, so you don't have to force yourself to cope no matter what happens."

Su Yaoguang hugged him tightly: "Wangshu, I'm so glad I have you, so glad it's you."

If it weren't for Zhou Wangshu, she probably would never have believed in men and love again.

It's really unnecessary for her to distrust men and true love because of Xiao Yanci.

She has always been a good person; the bad ones are those who betrayed her sincerity.

In her past life, Xiao Yanci and Jiang Yihuan had an affair behind her back. In this life, no one is stopping them, and they each have their own powerful backers to cling to.

"Husband, what do you want to do?"

“That old scoundrel, Prime Minister Wang, is extremely cunning. My men couldn’t find anything wrong with him. However, someone who is so invincible in the officialdom cannot become completely innocent. There is only one possibility for his current innocence: he is very good at disguising himself.”

"Does my husband intend to use Xiao Yanci's existence to pry into Prime Minister Wang's juicy secret?"

“That’s right. If we want to clean up the source, we have to let the tiger go back to the mountain first. Only then can we follow the tiger’s head to find the real scourge.”

With such a significant weakness in their hands, dealing with Xiao Yanci wouldn't be difficult, so they'll hold back for now.

Su Yaoguang didn't understand the affairs of the court. She only knew that someone like Xiao Yanci was not fit to be an official. If he were to become an official, it would be a disaster for the common people.

Zhou Wangshu recalled the scene he had seen before, and his gaze lingered on Su Yaoguang.

Su Yaoguang noticed that his gaze was a little strange, and looked at him with a puzzled expression: "What's wrong?"

Zhou Wangshu took her hand and said, "Let's go out for a stroll through the night market tonight. It's been a while since we've been."

“Okay!” Su Yaoguang hugged Zhou Wangshu’s arm.

Zhou Wangshu somewhat regretted letting Su Yaoguang see Xiao Yanci's information. She had almost forgotten about this man's existence; even if she saw him on the street, she wouldn't recall anything from her past life. Now that she had revealed Xiao Yanci's detailed information, it only fueled Su Yaoguang's belief that her past life was a joke.

At night, Zhou Wangshu took Su Yaoguang to stroll through the night market.

On the street, people were talking about eradicating the strange insects.

"If it weren't for the owner of Taoyaofang, who is also the daughter of the Great General Protector of the Nation, mentioning that those strange insects are edible, we wouldn't be able to grow crops in our fields for at least three years. It is said that the Prime Minister's son-in-law wanted to use pesticides to kill those pests. However, pesticides have a fatal flaw: if the pesticides kill the pests, the crops in the field will also be inedible. Most importantly, once those pesticides enter the soil, the toxins will remain there."

"The daughter of the Great General who protects the country suffered in the countryside before, and knows how difficult it is for us ordinary people. Although the son-in-law of that Prime Minister Wang also lived in the countryside, he has always relied on women to make a living, so of course he does not understand the difficulties of us ordinary people."

Su Yaoguang and Zhou Wangshu listened to the conversations of the common people.

Zhou Wangshu bought a lantern and gave it to Su Yaoguang to carry.

Su Yaoguang and he strolled hand in hand through the streets. Suddenly, Xiao Yanci and Wang Ruyan appeared ahead.

"Husband, I'm a little thirsty. Could you buy me some iced drinks?" Wang Ruyan asked, grabbing Xiao Yanci's arm.

Xiao Yanci said softly, "Alright, Madam, please wait for me up ahead!"

Zhou Wangshu never expected to encounter such an unlucky fellow as Xiao Yanci here.

After Xiao Yanci left, Wang Ruyan headed towards the inn not far away.

Su Yaoguang and Zhou Wangshu looked at each other, both with gossipy expressions.

At this moment, Xiao Yanci, who had just left, returned, without any iced drinks in his hand, and was heading towards the inn across the street.

"I can smell a grand show."

"Want to go have a look?"

"want."

Zhou Wangshu pulled Su Yaoguang into the inn and asked the waiter for a room.

"Guests, are you staying overnight or just resting for a while? We can let you rest here for a while, it's two hundred coins per hour."

“We’ll take a break for now,” Su Yaoguang said. “The guests who came in just now are our friends. We’re together, so you can arrange for us to stay together.”

"Row."

Su Yaoguang and Zhou Wangshu took their room number tags and went upstairs. They found their assigned room and went inside.

Voices came from next door; it was Xiao Yanci and Jiang Yihuan talking.

“My lord, let’s take this opportunity to invite Marquis Jing’an over to witness Jiang Yihuan’s true colors.”

"I'll send someone to fetch him right away." Zhou Wangshu went to the window and whistled outside. Before long, a subordinate jumped up from the window and appeared in front of Zhou Wangshu.

“Go and invite Marquis Jing’an. Tell him that an old friend has invited him to the inn for a chat,” Zhou Wangshu said. “If he still doesn’t believe you, tell him that this old friend came from his old residence.”

After their subordinates left, Su Yaoguang and Zhou Wangshu continued to listen to the sounds coming from next door.

Xiao Yanci and Jiang Yihuan are truly a match made in heaven, both equally shameless.

Do they particularly enjoy stolen passion? Otherwise, why was Xiao Yanci also such an unseemly person in his past life?
If he liked Jiang Yihuan, he could have simply told her openly. Even if she was resentful, she would have given way to them. There was no need to resort to such despicable means to kill her.

However, in his previous life, Xiao Yanci pursued a reputation for loyalty and righteousness. If they divorced, his actions would become impossible to conceal, and his reputation would be affected.

Xiao Yanci and Jiang Yihuan's relationship grew increasingly passionate.

Listening to those lewd sounds, Zhou Wangshu said to Su Yaoguang, "Let's go!"

“Listen to what’s over there,” Su Yaoguang said. “Like attracts like. Wang Ruyan is having an affair too.”

The couple calculated that it was almost time, so they vacated their seats to let Marquis Jing'an watch the opera.

They left the inn.

My men will bring Marquis Jing'an directly to this room in a moment. When Marquis Jing'an arrives and hears Jiang Yihuan's voice, he will understand everything; they won't need to say anything more.

At this moment, Xiao Yanci and Jiang Yihuan were being intimate at the window.

Xiao Yanci saw the figure of Marquis Jing'an and pushed Jiang Yihuan away.

"What's wrong?" Jiang Yihuan looked at Xiao Yanci with a dazed expression.

As Xiao Yanci dressed, he said, "I just saw Marquis Jing'an go upstairs."

"What's he doing here?" Jiang Yihuan's expression changed drastically. "He's not here to catch his wife cheating, is he?"

“If I walk out like this, I’m sure I’ll run into him. If he sees me here and then you here, he’ll probably guess the reason right away. There’s already a lot of gossip about us, so I can’t let him find out the truth.”

Xiao Yanci looked out the window and climbed down from it.

"What are you doing?" Jiang Yihuan looked at his actions in shock.

“This is the second floor, not very high. Jumping down from here shouldn’t be difficult,” Xiao Yanci said, climbing down from the window.

Su Yaoguang and Zhou Wangshu hadn't gone far when they saw this scene, and both of them had a mischievous look in their eyes.

Zhou Wangshu picked up a stone from the ground and flicked it towards Xiao Yanci.

Bang! Xiao Yanci was hit on the forehead by a pebble.

Xiao Yanci cried out in pain, his grip loosened, and he fell from the second floor.

"Ah..." he screamed in agony.

People who hadn't been paying attention to him before looked over, and when they saw him fall from the building with his clothes disheveled, they all had strange expressions.

Wang Ruyan was being intimate with her lover in the room when she heard some familiar shouts outside. Looking out the window, she saw Xiao Yanci fall to the ground.

Xiao Yanci struggled to lift his head and met Wang Ruyan's gaze.

At that moment, their expressions were quite intriguing.

Marquis Jing'an pushed open the door and entered.

When he heard the sound, he looked out the window and saw Xiao Yanci lying on the ground.

As if he had thought of something, he immediately came out and pushed open the door to the next room, but there was no one in the room on the left.

He pushed open the door to the room on the right, and when he saw Wang Ruyan, a look of surprise flashed in his eyes.

Aren't these two a married couple? Why don't they stay in such a spacious house and come to the inn to be intimate? Do they have some kind of illness?

Marquis Jing'an neither saw Jiang Yihuan nor Wang Ruyan's lover.

Xiao Yanci attracted everyone's attention, but in doing so, he alerted Wang Ruyan's lover and Jiang Yihuan, who then went into hiding.

When Xiao Yanci saw Wang Ruyan, a fierce look flashed in his eyes.

He clearly told Wang Ruyan to wait for him at the stall, but this guy came to the inn instead. Could it be that he got wind of it and came to the inn specifically to catch him cheating?

Wang Ruyan quickly went downstairs and helped Xiao Yanci up.

"Husband, are you okay?"

Xiao Yanci said calmly, "What are you doing here?"

"Someone said they saw you enter the inn, so I went there specifically to look for you. My husband, where were you just now?"

"Some people said you went into the inn, so I followed you to check. Now it seems that someone was trying to sow discord between us."

Xiao Yanci and Wang Ruyan each harbored their own ulterior motives.

To conceal their affair, neither dared to delve into the other's purpose in coming. In short, they didn't want to continue discussing the topic, lest they expose their secret.

Wang Ruyan initially admired Xiao Yanci, after all, he was handsome and quite talented. However, after marrying Xiao Yanci, she saw him constantly getting into trouble and always being scolded by her father until he couldn't hold his head up high, and her initial admiration vanished.

She remembered her cousin who had seduced her and made her break her vows. This cousin of hers was a master at making women happy, and he was also very skilled in bed.

She originally came to the inn to catch up with her cousin, but she couldn't resist his temptation and ended up in his bed. Luckily, Xiao Yanci didn't catch her, otherwise, if things had gotten out of hand, it would have brought shame to the Prime Minister's mansion, and her father would have beaten her to death.

Marquis Jing'an realized that someone had summoned him here, not just to let him wander around. He stood at the inn's counter and asked who the man who had come with the man surnamed Xiao was and what he looked like.

"There was indeed a woman beside that nobleman, but she was wearing a veil, so her face could not be seen."

How tall is she?

Jiang Yihuan and Wang Ruyan are quite different in height.

The shopkeeper gestured, indicating that he was about half a head shorter than Marquis Jing'an.

Marquis Jing'an breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the shopkeeper's gestures.

Jiang Yihuan is not that tall.

Wang Ruyan is not that tall.

So, Xiao Yanci did come here to meet someone, but it wasn't Jiang Yihuan.

After Marquis Jing'an left, the waiter asked the shopkeeper next to him, "Shopkeeper, the veil that woman was wearing had the effect of making her appear taller. Why didn't you explain this to that gentleman?"

"What do these trivial matters have to do with us? If that person is related to him, he'll find out sooner or later."