Ch 121 (Extra 3): Reborn to Raise My Husband

That evening, Madam Jiang was in high spirits and ordered the dishes served.

Young maids and attendants streamed into the room like flowing water, laying out dish after dish. The display was truly grand.

After talking for so long, Xiao Yuanbao’s throat felt a little dry. As he lowered his head to sip tea, he happened to glimpse a figure outside the garden who looked faintly familiar.

The person stood respectfully with a tray in hand, head slightly bowed, not daring to look around.

From the clothing, Xiao Yuanbao could tell it was a ge’er. A certain person surfaced in his mind.

“What are you looking at?”

Hearing Jiang Tangtuan’s voice, Xiao Yuanbao withdrew his gaze. “Nothing.”

Jiang Tangtuan responded, yet still followed the direction of Xiao Yuanbao’s eyes and spotted the figure standing at the garden gate.

A slight movement crossed his brow. He summoned his personal attendant and whispered a few instructions into their ear.

The evening meal lasted quite some time. Madam Jiang was in a good mood and had a hearty appetite.

It was Xiao Yuanbao’s first time tasting Jinling cuisine, and he too ate his fill.

By the time the banquet ended, it was already late.

Jiang Tangtuan accompanied Xiao Yuanbao back to his quarters.

“Jinling isn’t as hot as the capital, but in high summer the heat is still heavy,” Jiang Tangtuan said. “I had some ice placed in this courtyard. If it feels too cold, just have someone remove a portion.”

The moment Xiao Yuanbao stepped inside, he felt the coolness. It was even more refreshing than Madam Jiang’s courtyard.

Madam Jiang, being older, did not fear the heat much and thus kept less ice.

“I can manage,” Xiao Yuanbao said. “And it smells lovely in here—like orchids.”

“There are orchids and jasmine placed about. They help with sleep.”

“You’ve taken such meticulous care.”

“It’s nothing.”

Jiang Tangtuan patted the back of his hand. “You’ve traveled a long way. Rest early. I haven’t journeyed anywhere, yet perhaps because of the pregnancy my strength fails me easily. I didn’t feel it while talking in Mother’s courtyard, but after the meal I suddenly feel tired.”

“You should rest more now that you’re with child.”

“I’ll send someone to chat with you for a while, then return to my room. I’ll come find you early tomorrow.”

Xiao Yuanbao watched Jiang Tangtuan leave, then sat down to rest for a moment.

After a short while, the maid assigned to attend him spoke gently, “Fulang, the person has arrived. Shall we let him enter?”

Xiao Yuanbao paused, wondering who it could be.

Then he recalled Jiang Tangtuan’s mention of sending someone to speak with him.

In an instant, he understood.

After a brief silence, he lifted his hand slightly. “Let him come in.”

Since he was here, and that person was here as well, there was no harm in seeing an old acquaintance.

The kitchen staff, hoping to witness some amusement, had deliberately sent him to deliver dishes.

Yet his status was too low to enter Madam’s courtyard.

He had expected nothing more than standing far outside, never setting foot in the main hall nor glimpsing the honored guest.

He had not expected that after returning to the kitchen, someone from Young Master Tuan’s side would summon him that evening.

Those who had flattered the powerful and scorned the weak immediately changed their tune.

They offered him tea and laid out pastries and meat, telling him to eat while waiting to be called.

He sneered inwardly. They assumed he knew the honored guest well. They did not realize there was no good acquaintance between them.

Wang Chao understood that Xiao Yuanbao’s reason for seeing him was likely nothing more than to observe how wretched and fallen he had become—perhaps a diversion for someone of higher standing.

After years of burning like an oil lamp in the Jiang household, living as a servant, he had long since shed any pride. He no longer even felt like a person.

And so he waited blankly for the summons.

When he entered the room and saw the once-familiar youthful face—now clothed in fine brocade, jade pendant at the waist—he felt numb as he knelt and kowtowed like a servant before his master.

“This servant greets Fulang.”

Xiao Yuanbao looked at Wang Chao in his coarse clothing. He was dressed even more poorly than in the days at the estate.

His face and build had not changed much from youth, only grown older. Perhaps from hardship, a faint weariness clung to his features.

Those things mattered little.

What mattered was his eyes—still as stagnant water, no longer holding the bright hope for all things that once shone there.

“Ten years since we parted in the village,” Xiao Yuanbao said, asking him to rise and sit. “Have you been well?”

Wang Chao looked at Xiao Yuanbao.

The features were much the same as in youth, yet somehow a noble bearing now surrounded him.

Perhaps it was in the way Xiao Yuanbao carried himself—open and composed, no longer the rustic ge’er of mountain fields, but someone who could command a household and preside with authority.

Wang Chao had imagined that seeing Xiao Yuanbao flourishing so magnificently while he himself had fallen into such misery would fill him with humiliation, shame, and resentment at fate’s injustice.

But when he truly saw him, his heart was unexpectedly calm.

Perhaps the gulf between them was so vast that there was nothing left to compare.

“As a servant, one’s body is not one’s own. What meaning is there in speaking of well or unwell? It is merely surviving day by day.”

Xiao Yuanbao’s brow shifted slightly. “The road was your own choosing.”

“If I had known earlier how difficult servitude is, perhaps I would not be as I am today,” Wang Chao replied.

“But one cannot foresee the future. Our knowledge is limited. Only after crashing into the southern wall and turning back does one understand whether the choices made were right or wrong.”

Their conversation was remarkably even, as though they were truly old acquaintances reunited after many years.

Perhaps life had been too hard. Having finally found someone from the past, Wang Chao slowly recounted what had happened to him.

He had taken Zhu Zhuangtou’s surname and come to Jinling.

When he first arrived at the Jiang household, he had truly been dazzled by its wealth and grandeur.

Zhu Zhuangtou’s principal wife had been part of Madam’s dowry household and held considerable influence in the garden.

In those early days, she had treated him well, feeding and caring for him. Alone in a strange place, he had sincerely regarded her as a mother and shown her filial respect.

Who would have thought he was merely a pawn in her struggle for power?

She had hoped he would serve Young Master Yuan, perhaps even become a concubine. Even as a lesser wife, he would enjoy endless wealth and comfort.

Before he left home, his mother had whispered the same hopes in his ear.

After seeing the splendor of the Jiang residence, his heart had drifted with those dreams.

And so, without yet understanding Madam’s or Young Master Yuan’s temperaments, he had nurtured the foolish thought of becoming a master himself, going to curry favor and act ingratiating before Young Master Yuan.

Unfortunately, Young Master Yuan was upright in character. He saw through Wang Chao’s improper intentions in serving him, grew angry, and had him expelled from the inner courtyard.

When the lady who had once supported him saw that he was useless and had failed in his task—and that she herself had been reprimanded by Madam because of him—she grew displeased. She ordered him to change his surname back and forbade him from claiming to belong to the Zhu household.

Being driven from the inner courtyard was humiliating enough. Losing his patron afterward turned him into a complete laughingstock within the residence.

In the outer courtyard, he was repeatedly ostracized and bullied. Though all were servants, he was made to take orders from those in favor.

He had carried out night soil and washed clothes.

Finding life unbearable, he once wrote home to ask for help.

Yet for reasons unknown, no reply ever came.

Later he learned that his letters had been intercepted by Zhu Zhuangtou’s principal wife. When he went to demand them, he received only a beating and curses.

Last year, he finally received a letter.

It brought ill news.

The letter said that his mother had spent her days eating and sleeping.

One day after lunch, she lay down—and never woke again.

Wang Chao was devastated. Back when they were at the estate, he had often heard his mother complain of dizziness and seeing spots before her eyes. He had urged her not to stay indoors all day and to walk outside more, but she would not listen.

And in the end, this day still came.

Xiao Yuanbao had not even known that Madam Qin had passed away. After his father came to the capital, news from the village and county had grown far less frequent.

He could not help but sigh inwardly.

In truth, he had foreseen even in his youth that Wang Chao would not fare well here.

He was not Zhu Zhuangtou’s legitimate son, but the child of a concubine. Sent to serve in Jinling at the main household, how magnanimous would Zhu Zhuangtou’s principal wife have had to be to tolerate him?

But at the time, mother and son had not seen clearly. Their experience had been too limited.

The sky darkened; a few stars appeared.

After they had spoken enough, Xiao Yuanbao offered him tea, then told him to return.

Remembering their past acquaintance, he intended to leave him some silver before he departed—at least honoring the bond they once shared.

Wang Chao rose to take his leave. When he reached the door, he suddenly stopped.

With a thud, he turned back and knelt directly before Xiao Yuanbao.

Xiao Yuanbao’s brow tightened. “Though I pity your hardships in the Jiang household, I cannot decide matters for you. This is the Jiang family. Your affairs are theirs.”

Wang Chao knelt and bowed deeply, as though staking everything on this moment. “I know. I am the least deserving person to beg you for anything. But having glimpsed even a sliver of light, I still wish to live well.”

“These years I have saved what little I could. I want to redeem myself and leave this residence. But Zhu Zhuangtou’s wife presses down on me. She will not let me go. I can only remain here, looked down upon and bullied.”

“Most of my life has already been ground away. Even if I must spend every coin I have, I want to be free again. Even if I freeze or starve outside, I would accept it willingly. I would close my eyes smiling.”

He kowtowed several times, his forehead striking the floor with dull thuds.

Seeing the resolve in Wang Chao’s heart, Xiao Yuanbao fell silent for a moment and let out a slow breath.

“Very well…”

“You truly have some skill, to know such a powerful person. Had you spoken of this connection earlier, why suffer so many years of humiliation?”

“But have you thought through what you will do for a livelihood once you leave? Life outside is not so easy.”

Early the next morning, the woman from Zhu Zhuangtou’s household, nearly grinding her teeth to dust, handed over Wang Chao’s contract of sale.

When the kitchen staff saw Wang Chao packing his things, they all came to speak to him.

He had long despised many of the faces in that residence. In the past he had been like a mute, speaking only when forced.

Now, holding his contract in his hands, he felt as though he had come back to life.

He slung his bundle over his shoulder and, with a smile toward the kitchen, said, “We shall not meet again.”

Stepping out the back gate of the Jiang residence, a breeze met him.

A rare cool wind in the heat of July.

Looking up, he saw that on a tree near the gate, white trumpet flowers had bloomed.

He bent to pick one fallen blossom from the ground. The petals were soft and delicate, shaped just like a little horn.

In the countryside, such flowers were the most ordinary of things. He had once disdained even to notice them. Now, suddenly, they seemed beautiful.

He lifted his head and gazed at the bustling street, recalling how Chef Wang had asked what he would do for a living.

Laundry for others, sewing work… any of it would do. In times of peace, as long as one worked diligently, there would always be a way to survive.

“Has he gone?”

“He has already left.”

Jiang Tangtuan nodded upon hearing this.

Turning to Xiao Yuanbao, he said, “You are kind-hearted.”

Xiao Yuanbao smiled faintly. “It is not so much kindness. I simply pitied that he has lost his mother and now has no one left to rely on.”

Jiang Tangtuan patted his hand in comfort. “Today I’ll take you around Jinling. Once we go to Feng County, it won’t be nearly as lively as the prefectural city.”

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