I Gave Birth to a Cub without Telling the Head Assistant

The banknotes danced in the air with the wind, lingering around the body of the woman, and then slowly and leisurely scattered on the ground, falling into the messy courtyard, stained with dirt.

At that moment, Ruan Longling’s heart seemed to fall along with the money.

Before she came to the Liu Mansion today to collect debts, she knew that she would be in a lot of trouble. Whatever happened in the future, the most important thing was to settle the matter with the black market. As long as she could collect the money, Ruan Longling would bear a few scoldings.

Ruan Longling stretched out her arm subconsciously and caught a banknote that was floating down in front. Then she bent down and reached out to the banknotes in the mud.

“Miss, these banknotes… are dirty.” Ah Xing then looked for other people from the Ruan family and said with a choking voice, “Hurry up, pick them up.”

Seeing Ruan Longling Ah Xing became very sad. Miss Ruan handled such a big business alone on behalf of the Ruan family, and everyone in Yangzhou respected her. She wasn’t supposed to be humiliated in such a way. If someone offended Ruan Longling, that person would never be spared. But today, because Liu Sheshi was Liu  Chengji’s aunt, Ruan Longling had to bear such humiliation.

Ruan Longling lowered her slender eyelashes like black feathers and said softly, “Silly girl, is there anything dirty about money? To earn money, we had to go through so many hard things with our sweat and blood. This is nothing compared to those things.”

Ruan Longling was not a rich and noble lady but a businesswoman. So she didn’t care about such things as long as she could keep her family’s fortune up.

“Hurry up and pick them up, it’s okay if they are only covered with mud. But if the banknotes are soaked in water, it won’t work.” As soon as Ruan Longling finished speaking, a gust of evil wind blew from the porch.

The wind was unable to move most of the banknotes because they were covered in mud, but a few of them were lifted off the ground and floated in the direction of the water tank in the courtyard’s corner. When Ruan Longling noticed this, she became frightened and raised her skirt to follow the cash. She tripped over a stone next to the water tank, but instead of falling into the water as she expected, someone caught her without warning.

It was a man’s hand. The palm was clean and thin, the joints were slender and distinct, white as cold jade, the white crescent on the fingernails was clearly visible, and the slightly protruding blue veins on the back of the hand seemed to be showing a sharp edge.

Ruan Longling paused and raised her eyes to look at the owner of the hand. The man was dressed in a silver-white brocade robe, with a thin and tall figure and a very good appearance, standing under the peach blossom tree amidst the rain of flowers. This person, this scene, and this atmosphere stunned Ruan Longling for a moment.

Ruan Longling hurriedly stabilised her body, took a few steps back to make a certain distance from this unknown man, and studied him for a while. Ruan Longling understood that this man was either rich or noble after seeing the shining jade brocade on his body. ‘Oh, that brocade seems very expensive. Maybe a hundred taels. So he is not from the Liu clan! I have been here for so long, and I didn’t realise there was a foreigner waiting in the side room in the courtyard. So this man has seen everything that has happened now. How embarrassing…’

A few people in the world wanted to be caught in a state of embarrassment, and Ruan Longling’s complexion suddenly darkened.

The man picked up the banknotes near him and handed them over to the servant behind him without directly giving them to Ruan Longling. Then the servant handed over them to Ruan Longling. At this moment, the distance between the two was only six or seven steps, and the man could easily give the money to her. So it seemed that he was afraid of having anything to do with her.

The man’s every move was filled with the dignity and nobility of a superior. Ruan Longling thought not to offend this unfamiliar man, who just appeared here. Anyway, without him, the one hundred taels of banknotes would have been in the water.

Thinking of this, the knot in Ruan Longling’s heart suddenly disappeared a lot. She knew what was good and bad, so after carefully folding the banknotes, she knelt down and thanked the man. “Thank you very much, young master, for helping me just now.”

“It’s a little effort.” The tone was gentle, and the voice was clear, but it was still difficult to hide the ice-like indifference in the voice.

Ruan Longling’s vision was quite vicious. ‘The man is dressed luxuriously, speaks, and behaves decently, surely he is a potential high-quality customer.’

She pulled a delicate and small wooden token from her sleeve and offered it to the man with the intention of partially showing her appreciation and partially pursuing business. When you present this token, you will receive a 20% discount on clothing as well as food and drinks in my stores. This discount is valid for lodging as well.

Her hand paused in the air for a long time, but still no one came to pick it up. ‘I’ve heard that the children of aristocratic families are all guarded against men and women, and they will never give and receive anything privately with women at will, but the man in front of him is too rigid, right? And he should have heard that I’m engaged to Liu Chengji, and what I handed over was not a sachet or a love letter… I just want to do some business. What is wrong with him? Anyway, it is not like we are short of business!’ Ruan Longling felt a little annoyed and was about to take back the wooden token, but the young servant who accompanied the nobleman, under his master’s signal, took the wooden order first.

“The girl has a heart.” The man’s voice was cold and distant.

Ruan Longling felt that this man was not easy to get along with. She raised her legs and was about to turn her head to leave, but she remembered something. Then she turned around, bowed slightly to the man, and said in a low voice, “My lord, what you saw and heard was just a little conflict among the women in the inner house. It’s just filthy, polluting the young master’s ears. For the sake of reputation, please don’t spread it.”

The man was surprised to hear such words because no one had ever taken him as a gossiper before. He raised his eyebrows slightly, a trace of astonishment flashed in his eyes, and then he quickly calmed down. “Reputation? The girl is worried about her own reputation or the reputation of the Liu family?”

Naturally, Ruan Longling was thinking about the Liu family’s reputation. To be precise, Liu Chengji’s future. She had never been afraid of gossip, but she had to think about Liu Chengji. With Liu Chengji’s talent, he could pass the exam easily. It would only be a matter of time before he became an official.

Liu Sheshi would definitely not publicise such scandals to the outside world, so as long as this man kept his mouth shut, no one else would know about it. But he had seen how Liu Sheshi threw the banknotes in Ruan Longling’s face. So Ruan Longling thought that the man would think she was such a weak woman. After pondering for a while, Ruan Longling was about to answer, but the man cut her off, saying, “The girl is so infatuated, she is really admired by others. But I’m afraid she has to make a wedding dress for someone else.”