Madmen don't keep diaries

Chapter 410, 409: Xu Liansheng's Fish
The glass was clean, but Shunzi looked at his dusty old shoes and felt unsure where to put them.

Xu Liansheng patted his arm and said with a warm smile, "It's my fault for not being fully prepared. Then let's not change our shoes and come inside quickly."

After saying that, he walked inside first.

After taking a few steps, Xu Liansheng turned around and saw Shunzi still standing there hesitating, so she asked in a joking tone, "Is Third Master unwilling to come in because he thinks the house is too simple?"

"Nothing."

Shunzi chuckled dryly and waved his hand, finally stepping inside.

Strangely enough, as the two moved around, the koi fish under the glass followed them, always hovering and circling around their feet.

Shunzi was surprised, so he squatted down to take a closer look: "There really are fish."

Xu Liansheng smiled slightly: "They're just a bunch of gluttonous gluttons, nothing to be surprised about."

Her fair, jade-like feet stepped through the glass to the wall, followed by a school of fish. The light and shadow of the gas lamp were shattered by the water ripples and reflected on the wall in a dappled pattern, making Xu Liansheng look like a fairy walking on a lake.

Shunzi was somewhat lost in thought. He saw Xu Liansheng grab a handful of fish food from a glass jar on the wall cabinet and then put the fish food into the glass tube next to her.

Fish food pellets slid down the pipes into the water beneath the floor, causing the fish to immediately scramble for the food, creating foam and ripples.

Xu Liansheng winked slyly at Shunzi: "Now you understand, right? These gluttons have learned their lesson; they know that if they follow someone, they'll get food."

She beckoned to Shunzi, and when he came over, she put a handful of fish food into his hand: "Third Master, you should try it too. Although it's just a hobby, it's quite interesting to see them looking so clueless."

As she spoke, Xu Liansheng dropped fish food into the pipe one by one. Looking at the koi squeezing around at her feet, she couldn't help but smile.

Shunzi imitated her, slowly adding the fish food, and casually asked, "Sister Asheng likes fish?"

Xu Liansheng didn't even look up: "What do you mean? Eating fish?"

Shunzi thought for a moment and figured that since Shi Wu Yu's signboard was fish, Xu Liansheng must like it, so she nodded and said, "Mm."

Unexpectedly, Xu Liansheng laughed and denied it: "I don't eat fish."

She slowly raised her head, her burning gaze fixed on Shunzi: "I only like feeding the fish, because..."

"...I love watching how they'd do anything for even a tiny bit of food."

Looking into her eyes, Shunzi was momentarily dazed, as if at this moment the aura of "Madam Xu" completely overshadowed the kindness of "Sister Asheng," making him somewhat afraid to look directly at her.

Boom!
Suddenly, a muffled thud was heard, and the two felt a slight tremor in their feet.

They both looked down at the same time—and saw a koi fish, noticeably fatter than the others, crash headfirst into the glass.

Xu Liansheng smiled slightly, "So it was you."

She casually explained to Shunzi, "This one was just acquired a couple of days ago. It's new here and hasn't adapted yet, so it's quite temperamental. Let's just keep raising it. If it gets used to its new environment, we'll continue raising it. If it doesn't, I'll put it on the dinner table tomorrow."

Shunzi nodded, seemingly understanding but not quite—fish farming was indeed a blind spot in his knowledge.

Unable to keep up with Sister Asheng's topic, Shunzi had to find a new way to talk.

He quickly remembered: "Oh right, Sister Asheng, there was a foreigner causing trouble downstairs just now, I think his name was something like Weiss."

"Wells".

Xu Liansheng naturally picked up the conversation: "I knew he was here."

Shunzi asked cautiously, "What is he here for? Zhao Mumu said there's a misunderstanding between you two..."

Xu Liansheng smiled helplessly: "It's embarrassing to talk about this. That foreigner is pursuing me. I've rejected him several times, but he just won't give up." "You ungrateful wretch."

Shunzi frowned: "I'll go break his legs and see if he still has the guts to come back."

Xu Liansheng glanced over, her eyes smiling: "Third Master's words are heartwarming, but you don't know Wells' background."

"This man's full name is Wells Cosette. He comes from the Ozma Empire across the ocean, and his family holds the hereditary title of duke. The current Grand Duke Cosette is his father, so he is a true nobleman."

"If Third Master were to break his leg, he would be in deep trouble. So these words are just to make me happy; please don't have any dangerous thoughts."

Shunzi frowned even more deeply: "This is Da Xuan. How dare a foreign nobleman act so arrogantly? If all else fails, find a dark and windy day to bury him. Anyway, I'm good at this kind of thing."

Xu Liansheng rolled her eyes at him: "Third Master, please calm down. He has neither broken the law nor caused any trouble. He is just pestering me out of affection, which is a bit annoying, but Third Master wants to send him directly to the River Styx. Isn't that going too far?"

Sister Asheng is still too kind-hearted.

Shunzi sighed silently, thinking that if this had happened to his older brother, he would have been thanking him for burying him like this.

Shunzi felt quite useless; apart from her strength, she had no other way to help Sister Asheng.

He asked, somewhat annoyed, "So how exactly did you get involved?"

Xu Liansheng remained silent and did not answer. She picked up a cigarette from the coffee table, lit it, took a puff, and then stuck the cigarette into the bronze incense burner on the wall cabinet.

Shunzi then noticed that there was a black and white portrait hanging on the wall above the incense burner.

The photo shows a young man in a suit with a serious expression.

Shunzi wasn't stupid; she knew that this man was most likely Ah Sheng's deceased husband.

"Huh."

Xu Liansheng smiled helplessly: "Is it considered entanglement? Wells and I only met once at a dinner party. Perhaps I held my glass too low, or perhaps I said a few nice things, which made him mistakenly think that I had feelings for him, and he has been clinging to me ever since."

Shunzi was silent for a moment: "It's not your fault."

"Of course I know."

Xu Liansheng smiled nonchalantly and casually flicked a petal: "He's not the only man who has pursued me over the years, I'm used to it."

Below the black and white photograph, a vase held a fresh bouquet of flowers, with a few dewdrops still clinging to the petals. With a gentle touch from Xu Liansheng, the dewdrops dripped onto the countertop, shattering into tiny lines.

The man in the photo seemed to be staring at Shunzi, which made Shunzi feel uneasy, so she looked away: "I heard that when my brother-in-law was still alive, he didn't get along well with the Duke of Daguo... Was he really harmed by the Duke of Daguo?"

Xu Liansheng paused, then turned around and asked with a smile, "Was this question asked by the Second Master through the Third Master?"

Shunzi was stunned, then quickly denied it: "No, my brother and I heard it from someone at the teahouse."

Xu Liansheng remained noncommittal, unsure whether she believed him or not, but she still answered.

"That's right. From the day he arrived in Qianyu City to take office, the Grand Duke had been trying to win him over, but he never agreed. In his own words, 'The Prefectural Government is the President's Prefectural Government. If I get involved with the Grand Duke, then whose orders should the Prefectural Government take in the future?'"

"Later, he went to Fancheng on official business. Not long after he returned, he fell seriously ill. Even when the monks from the Barefoot Temple came to see him, they said that his illness was terminal and there was no cure."

"Only two or three days later... he breathed his last, and he couldn't even utter a complete sentence before he died."

Shunzi stared silently at the nearly burnt-out incense stick in the incense burner.

Xu Liansheng looked at him and asked, "Third Master is also a person with cultivation. Tell me, besides the Duke of Daguo, who else has the means to cure an illness that even cultivators cannot cure?"

(End of this chapter)