Chapter 255: Crazy Couple 15

Ji Xiaosong clutched the storeroom keys and walked to the front courtyard with a spring in her step. From a distance, she saw Wu Chufeng standing under a tree, holding a scroll. His brow was furrowed as if he were deep in thought.

He had just locked up Wu Wanqing, Xiao Mumu, and the rest, and had even sent people to drill some sense into them.

Now, he was pondering how to deal with the remaining troublemakers in the Wu Family.

Wang Cuihua’s two sons were the primary targets, but they were still at the academy and couldn’t be easily touched.

Ji Xiaosong walked over with a wide grin. She dangled the keys in her hand, her voice tinged with triumph.

“Look what I have here.”

Wu Chufeng looked up and saw the keys in Ji Xiaosong’s hand. He raised an eyebrow, his tone laced with amusement.

“Well, well. Aren’t those the storeroom keys? How did you get your hands on them?”

“I earned these fair and square! Aunt Wang tried to make a run for it with the family valuables, but I stopped her. I had the steward tally up all her things, return them to the storeroom, and I took the keys while I was at it.”

Wu Chufeng took the storeroom keys and weighed them in his hand. A small smile played on his lips, a glimmer of admiration in his eyes.

“Well done! I knew from the start that you were a woman of action. You really are impressive!”

Ji Xiaosong recalled how, in front of Wu Daniu, Wu Chufeng had declared that he had chosen her as his wife. So, she remarked with feigned nonchalance, “About what you said earlier… that you’ve chosen me as your wife. I’ll just assume that was an excuse you made up so I’d stick around for the show.”

Upon hearing her words, the smile on Wu Chufeng’s face faded, and his gaze grew serious.

He lowered the scroll and looked directly at Ji Xiaosong, his tone firm. “Xiaosong, do you really think I was joking?”

Ji Xiaosong was taken aback, and the smile on her face slowly vanished.

She blinked, her voice filled with confusion. “But… why me? I’m just a girl from the countryside, with no family connections or scholarly learning. You’re the legitimate eldest son of the Wu Family, the future patriarch. Why would you choose me?”

“The future patriarch of the Wu Family? Heh, that’s not a given. Wu Daniu has had three wives. His first wife gave birth to Wu Wanqing, but less than two years later, he went off to war. It was a time of widespread unrest, with displaced people everywhere. Wu Wanqing and her mother were left to wander.”

Wu Chufeng continued, “By then, Wu Daniu was in the army. He’d worked his way up to Centurion but never considered looking for his first wife. He just assumed that in such a chaotic world, she and their daughter couldn’t have survived, so he married my mother. Less than two years after I was born, he went off to fight in another war.”

“My mother died when I was three. Before her death, she entrusted me to my maternal uncles. Their wives resented the extra mouth to feed, so they passed me around from one family to another.”

“My earliest memories are of living in a cave, foraging for my own food. I had no clothes, so I’d just tie leaves and dry grass around myself…”

Ji Xiaosong listened, finding it hard to believe.

“How old were you then?”

“Four or five, I suppose. The tigers and wolves in the mountains didn’t eat me. Heaven refused to take me, so I survived.”

Wu Chufeng spoke of these things with a breezy indifference, as if his past were just a collection of trivial matters not worth mentioning.

When he finished, his gaze landed on Ji Xiaosong’s face, a hint of softness in his eyes.

He sighed softly, his voice tinged with emotion. “Song Song, you know, those days I spent living in the mountains as a child… they were hard, but they also taught me a great deal. I learned how to survive in desperate situations. I learned how to tell who was genuinely good to me and who was just putting on an act.”

Ji Xiaosong was captivated. She couldn’t help but ask, “And then what? How did you get back to the Wu Family?”

Wu Chufeng smiled, but there was a chill in his voice.

“Eventually, Wu Daniu finally remembered he had a son and sent people to bring me back to the Wu Family. By that time, however, he had already married Wang Cuihua and had two sons with her. In public, Aunt Wang treated me with a thousand kindnesses, but in private, she abused me relentlessly.”

Hearing this, a flicker of heartache crossed Ji Xiaosong’s eyes. “So you had such a hard childhood…”

Wu Chufeng shook his head, his voice tinged with self-mockery.

“Hard or not, it’s all in the past. Besides, once I became a little more capable, I managed to secure some advantages for myself. Aunt Wang couldn’t push me around anymore.”

At this, his gaze returned to Ji Xiaosong’s face, and his tone grew serious once more.

“Song Song, I chose you not for any family connections or scholarly talent. I chose you because you’re a good fit. You don’t have a powerful family backing you, yet you’re brave and capable.”

“Capable?”

Ji Xiaosong was completely baffled. “What capability? That’s news to me.”

“You dared to storm the First-Grade General Mansion single-handedly. In all our time together, you’ve never been timid or withdrawn. You carry yourself with poise and confidence no matter what you do. You couldn’t act like that without enough confidence and capability to back it up. That’s not something a person can fake. It must be because others are powerless against you.”

After hearing Wu Chufeng’s analysis, Ji Xiaosong was speechless for a long moment before she couldn’t help but laugh, her eyes a mix of surprise and exasperation.

“Your analysis is… a little far-fetched, don’t you think? What confidence and capability? I’m just a country girl who happens to be a bit audacious.”

Wu Chufeng shook his head, his voice firm with conviction.

“No, Xiaosong, you sell yourself short. You dared to charge into the First-Grade General Mansion alone, you can handle a deeply calculating woman like Wang Cuihua with ease, and you even managed to get the storeroom keys from her. That’s not something you can accomplish with audacity alone.”

Ji Xiaosong blinked, her tone turning playful.

“So, by that logic, I must be some kind of master in disguise?”

Wu Chufeng smiled, but his tone was earnest.

“I don’t know about ‘master,’ but I know you’re no ordinary country girl. You have courage, wisdom, and most importantly, an unyielding spirit. Someone like you is exactly who I need.”

Seeing as things had come to this, Ji Xiaosong saw no reason to refuse any longer.

‘In any case, Wu Chufeng was the kind of husband she had intended to find in this life. That being the case, she might as well let things take their natural course.’

‘As for whatever other plans he might have, that didn’t matter. She would handle them one by one as they arose.’

“Fine. If you intend to marry me, you can’t skip any of the proper courtesies. I’ll be waiting for your formal proposal, with all the proper rites.”

A gratified smile spread across Wu Chufeng’s face when he heard her answer.

He gently squeezed Ji Xiaosong’s hand, a teasing note in his voice.

“So, does this mean we should go empty the storeroom now? And while we’re at it, we can rip out all of Aunt Wang’s flowers and plant some crops?”

Ji Xiaosong nodded with a grin, her voice full of mischief.

“Of course! But we’ll need a good excuse, lest Aunt Wang catches on and starts making a scene.”

“I’ve already thought of one. We’ll say the storeroom is old and in disrepair, and the roof is leaking. We’re worried the contents will be ruined by water, so we have to move everything to a new storeroom immediately. As for those flowers and plants, we’ll just say the Wu Family is practicing frugality and needs to plant crops to be self-sufficient. That way, no one can accuse us of being wasteful and extravagant.”

“That’s a pretty good reason. But we need to act fast, before Aunt Wang realizes what’s happening and stirs up trouble.”

“Don’t worry. With you here, Aunt Wang won’t be able to make any waves.”