Fields of Gold

The Wu Family had narrowly escaped disaster and they apprehensively came out of the back room. The maidservants and senior servants surrounded Jiang Meiyi and her daughter, and all of them had still somewhat panicked expressions on their face. After they heard Chief Steward Su’s words, the entire Wu Family opened their eyes wide in disbelief. This...was clearly a sign that he was shielding the prince!

The male master of the Wu Family, Wu Dingsen, was a perceptive person and hurriedly agreed, “That’s right ah, that’s right! We have a lot of people at home and the residence was too small. We wanted to expand a few buildings but we didn’t expect to alarm Chief Steward Su...and Royal Prince Yang. It is truly embarrassing ah!”

Jiang Meiyi had wanted to use this opportunity to ask for more money from Zhu Junyang as compensation. When she heard her husband speak in such a way, she immediately panicked, “Lord Husband, our family doesn’t have enough money to rebuild…”

“Shut up!!” Wu Dingsen growled out, seething. He had admonished this stupid woman so many times that she needed to have a good relationship with Imperial Prince Jing’s estate and Royal Prince Yang. They were not people she could afford to offend. However, this woman never listened to him. Every time she went to visit Princess Consort Jing, she always held head up high and spoke in an incredibly arrogant manner. She never thought about the fact that she was only the wife of a fifth-level small official. Did she have any qualifications to act so pretentiously in front of a first-ranked princess consort? She truly managed to make a giant mess out of an originally good hand! At that time, how could he have been so blind to marry such a muddle-headed person?

Today, when he had left court, he had heard that Royal Prince Yang had come to the residence to pay a visit. This was such a good opportunity to make a connection with the prince. However, he didn’t know how this mother-daughter pair somehow managed to offend this calamitous star. The entire estate was almost ruined in their hands! He could always rebuild the buildings that had been destroyed but if his son, who he had gotten with great difficulty, and the favored concubine who bore him his son died, then he would cry until he had no tears left in him.

It had been difficult for the Wu Family to beget an heir. The only son he had was born only after he had taken in a dozen or so concubines into the residence in his forties. Wu Dingsen regarded the crowd with a bit of panic as he continued to shield his son and concubine. He came to a decision within his heart. He could no longer indulge the mess-maker, Jiang Meiyi! Since feelings of hate had arisen towards his wife, he even felt a bit dissatisfied towards his normally clever and sweet daughter.

“Chief Steward Su, Royal Prince Yang, it’s a bit inconvenient to receive you two today at the residence. I will act as the host another day and invite you two to eat and chat merrily then!” Wu Dingsen squeezed out a smile and spoke in a very courteous tone.

Zhu Junyang took out a banknote worth five thousand taels from a very ugly waist pouch and handed it to Wu Dingsen and said, “There’s no need for that! Let me give my congratulations right now for your new home. I will be unable to make it to your housewarming party once construction is done as this prince will be at the army barracks. Here is a token to take instead. Please don’t disdain it, Official Wu.”

Yu Xiaocao stared at that crookedly sewn pouch that was embroidered with an unknown pattern on top. Her eyes twitched. Didn’t she tell Yingchun to throw away the pouch that she had practiced on? How did it end up appearing on that fellow’s waist belt? Even she felt embarrassed looking at that ugly pouch, yet he, on the other hand, was wearing it as if it was a precious treasure. Was he not afraid of being laughed at by other people? 

In actuality, many people had made fun of Zhu Junyang while he was in the barracks because of this pouch. However, he didn’t think it was an embarrassment and instead, considered it an honor. He regarded all of the people teasing him with an arrogant and boastful expression. ‘This prince’s woman had personally made this and this prince is extremely happy to wear it. The rest of you are just single dogs who are envious of me!’

They weren’t envious of you, okay? However, the impression the officials and soldiers had of Yu Xiaocao had improved a bit——Finally, there was something that even Official Yu wasn’t good at!

A little preteen lass had suppressed all of the young men in the capital. You couldn’t find another person in the capital who was as talented as Official Yu. This made the bunch of old men in the army feel a bit ashamed of themselves. However, there was nothing they could do. They knew how to march in the army, use different battle formations, and fight bravely. In terms of farming, trade and making money, they could be left in the dust behind Yu Xiaocao. It made this group of men feel uncomfortable being surpassed so easily by a little lass. Now, after seeing that incredibly ugly pouch, they finally felt a bit more comfortable again.

Zhu Junyang didn’t know that the little lass was currently trying to figure out a way to get that extremely ugly pouch back in her hands. He directly stuffed the banknote into Wu Dingsen’s hands. Although Jiang Meiyi and her daughter were the direct cause as to why he had lost control of himself, he had still destroyed their family’s residence. Five thousand taels was more than enough to rebuild the estate or even buy a completely new one.

Wu Dingsen still wanted to refuse but Zhu Junyang stopped him from protesting, “Just take it as it is! I hope, in the future, Lady Wu and Miss Wu will stop displaying themselves in front of this prince. This prince is afraid that I may lose control of myself again and cause some harm…”

Wu Dingsen felt his face go numb when he saw Zhu Junyang crush a ceramic tile in his hands into a bunch of dust. This stupid mother-daughter pair had truly offended the prince completely. In the future, even if they wanted to grow closer to Imperial Prince Jing’s household, they wouldn’t be able to! Wu Dingsen pasted a smile on his face and repeatedly assured the prince that he would restrain his wife and daughter.

In actuality, even if he didn’t restrain them, Jiang Meiyi and her daughter were scared to their bones after this episode. They no longer dared to shamelessly get closer to Zhu Junyang. The images of Zhu Junyang transforming into a mindless monster were deeply engraved in their hearts and they would never forget it.

Su Ran left to go back to the palace to report after he confirmed that Zhu Junyang was back to normal and there was no big fallout from this episode.

As they were about to leave the remains of the Wu Residence, Yu Xiaocao looked at Zhu Junyang, who was covered in head to toe with dust and dirt, and the two injured servants next to him. She didn’t feel that it was safe for them to just head back to Imperial Prince Jing’s Estate like this. Head Steward Liu and Bodyguard Dong were both so heavily injured that they couldn't ride horses, so she rented a carriage from the streets and had the two men lie down there in order to avoid worsening their injuries.

“Just what did that mother-daughter pair do to make you suddenly lose control of yourself?” Yu Xiaocao thought that it’d be wise for them to figure out the root cause of the problem. That way, they could come up with a targeted solution and thoroughly suppress his heart devil.

Zhu Junyang frowned slightly and thought carefully for a bit before he said, “Although they are both very irritating, they didn’t do anything too excessive. Only…”

“Only what?” Yu Xiaocao pursued this line of thought.

“Only that...that Wu Junling gives off some kind of weird smell that makes me feel very uncomfortable.” Zhu Junyang also thought it was weird that he had lost control of himself after so many years of quiescence. In fact, even when he was in the midst of battle, fighting a dangerous war, he had never gotten close to falling into the darkness. This lapse had to be heavily related to the Wu Family.

Yu Xiaocao deliberately used a juvenile tone to reply, “What sort of smell? Are you saying that your younger cousin has some body odor that you can’t stand?”

Zhu Junyang, who was walking abreast with her on the street, smiled at that comment and used his finger to gently tap her head as he said, “It’s not in the least bit related to her body odor! Is this prince that weak to go out of control because of a little bad body odor? As for what sort of smell it is, I really don’t know how to describe it. I can only say that it’s a feeling that makes a person want to rampage!”

[I know what the problem is!!] The little divine stone had been mediating and cultivating for the entire day and finally decided to show itself.

Yu Xiaocao’s spirits rose and she quietly asked, 'Quickly tell us, just what is the reason?”

[Your little lover’s younger cousin is a pure yin girl. She was born on a yin year, in a yin month, on a yin day, at a yin hour. She must have been very sickly and weak when she was young. In addition, she probably easily attracted remnant spirits here on earth that continue to linger on after death. In more common terms, she attracts ghosts!] The little divine stone explained to Xiaocao the facts about being a pure yin girl.  

‘So what does this have to do with Zhu Junyang losing control of himself?’ Yu Xiaocao couldn’t quite make heads or toes of this. Were people with pure yin bodies able to disturb heart devils?

[It usually wouldn’t have much of an effect! However, your little lover’s younger cousin is quite favored at home and her mother couldn’t bear to see her enduring hardships, so she invited an ‘expert’ to change her fate.] The little divine stone paused a bit as it seemed to like to keep its audience in suspense.

Yu Xiaocao frowned deeply and impatiently grumbled, ‘Can you just say it all at once? Hemming and hawing all the time is so irritating!’

Zhu Junyang observed as the little lass first grinned happily and then revealed an unhappy look. Her facial expressions changed alarmingly quickly. He really wanted to know what his little lass was thinking about at this time. 

“Xiaocao, what’s wrong?” He lightly pushed on Xiaocao’s shoulder and gently asked.

Yu Xiaocao was right in the middle of the most important part of the little divine stone’s story, so she waved a hand at the prince in dismissal and turned all of her attention back to the stone. [Unfortunately, your little lover’s younger cousin’s mother is a stupid one. She didn’t seek out any of the true expert monks in the world. Instead, she had to find a swindler who dabbled in some type of sorcery. However, this swindler did have some tricks up his sleeves. He used a spell to steal from a person’s life force to suppress that poor girl’s fate.]

‘Stealing a person’s life force?’ Yu Xiaocao was quite startled by this. This type of sorcery definitely caused harm to a person, ‘Then, doesn’t that mean that this spell is eating away at Wu Junling’s life span?’

[That’s right ah! If that spell doesn’t get broken, then I bet she won’t live past the age of thirty! However, if the spell does get broken, she will revert back to having spirits congregating around her at every night and her nightmares will go on without stopping. That will also influence her life span! In any case, this lass wasn’t born to live a long life ah!] The little divine stone spoke in a manner that made it seem like it was a swindler waving around a magic wand. 

“Argh...sorcery can truly harm people ah!” Yu Xiaocao revealed a sympathetic look on her face and inadvertently said her thoughts out loud.

Before Xiaocao could walk into a pillar in front of her, Zhu Junyang pulled her aside to avoid getting hit. He asked worriedly, “What sort of demonic sorcery? Xiaocao, just what is going on? Did you encounter a sorcerer?”

“It’s not me who’s been enspelled; it’s your younger cousin!” Yu Xiaocao looked at him and wanted to say more but she was also afraid he would dig deeper into this.

“How do you know that Wu Junling had a spell cast on her? She looks like a normal person.” Zhu Junyang didn’t think she was speaking nonsense. He solemnly looked at Xiaocao. He didn’t care whether Wu Junling had encountered demonic sorcery but he was afraid it might affect Xiaocao in some way. 

Yu Xiaocao prepared what she was going to say first before she replied, “If I told you that I know a bit of ‘the way of mysterious learning’ [1] , would you believe me?” She lifted her large, glittering eyes to look at Zhu Junyang in a hopeful manner. She wasn’t expecting him to believe her nonsense but was mostly trying to pave the way to the topic at hand.  

‘The way of mysterious learning’? What the hell was that? Was that the Daoist way of catching monsters and spirits or the feng shui way of predicting one’s fortune? Zhu Junyang’s phoenix eyes flickered, showing that he didn’t believe the little lass’s words. He had known her since she was eight years old and had never seen her learn how to cook, concoct medications, come up with skin and body nourishing recipes, or build greenhouses. However, she knew how to do all of those things and do them quite well.

Now, she said she knew a bit about the way of mysterious learning. He thought it wasn’t out of the ordinary. Even if she claimed that she was the earthly incarnation of the Queen Mother of the West [2] , he would still take that as fact. However, if she was the Queen Mother of the West, he wouldn’t be able to marry her. She absolutely could not be the Queen Mother of the West!

“Alright, Immortal Teacher Yu, what have you discovered?” Zhu Junyang was as calm and collected as ever. 

Yu Xiaocao slightly relaxed when she saw that he wasn’t going to pursue this line of questioning. She stated, “Your younger cousin has traces of being enspelled by someone. This is the reason why whenever she gets close to you, the heart devil inside of you will have a reaction. Your exposure to her caused your heart devil to wake up and control you.” 

[1] the way of mysterious learning - a metaphysical post-classical Chinese philosophy from the Six Dynasties (222-589), bringing together Daoist and Confucian beliefs through revision and discussion 

[2] Queen Mother of the West - Goddess in Chinese mythology. In the Daoist pantheon, she is the Goddess of life and immortality.