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Chapter 242: Honeymoon (2)

Translator: Iris

“As a result, a few days ago, after the military review, His Majesty rewarded General Gu with fifty thousand ounces of silver in addition to the routine reward. His Majesty must be clear about everything, so he has granted generous rewards to comfort Gu’s family.” Hearing that, Bo Jun was finally enlightened.

Bo Tianzhou laughed loudly and stopped knitting his thick eyebrows, “That Gu’s boy exposed those sneaky things in that imperial estate without creating any disturbances. His Majesty must be in a great mood now! It’ll be easier for His Majesty to lay off the people he doesn’t trust after this.”

Bo Jun who understood everything now was ashamed of his own foolishness. After a while, he couldn’t help saying, “Those vicious landlords are so lucky. General Gu just let them go! Alas... Luckily, the suffering for the tenants is over. I heard Madam Gu is a virtuous person. She said that the elders in the estate have toiled for their whole life and she couldn’t let them have nothing to support their lives in their old age. Then she gave the instruction: All the elders in the tenant families who are older than sixty will be rewarded silver, food and clothes every year.”

“The wife of that boy does have a fine quality. Your mother has praised her a few times. However, I also heard that this young girl is a bit lazy and doesn’t like socializing.” Bo Tianzhou remembered his wife’s words and nodded slightly. With light flashing in his eyes, he muttered, “Are those people really so lucky? I don’t think so.”

...

West Mountain was a mountain range extending thousands of miles instead of a mountain. In spring, the mountains were covered with green vegetation. On the summer nights, the water lilies here bloomed in the moonlight. In fall, there were red maples for the tourists to watch. In winter, the mountains were covered with snow. However, not everyone was able to enjoy such splendid scenery. There was an imperial summer resort on the nicest mountain in the east. Situated on the other hills or ridges were also a few estates which only belonged to the nobles or the prestigious families.

After Minglan had finished her discussion with Gu Tingye, he told her to come to this hot spring estate.

On the way there, Minglan opened the curtain in the coach secretly to look to the outside. Then she couldn’t help but lose herself in the beautiful views. After she arrived at the estate, she was impressed by the wonderful landscape. As she overlooked the rolling hills, she felt herself arriving at the wonderland. Besides, the decorations in the room were quite delicate and graceful which satisfied Minglan a lot. After that, she gave lots of compliments to the stewards there.

This steward used to be in the support crew in Gu Tingye’s troops. Years of following the army made him a very thoughtful and devoted person. After he had become disabled in a battle, he had no one to rely on since he didn’t have any family property and his families were all weak or sick. Then he went to Gu Tingye for refuge.

After Minglan entered the hot spring estate, she felt herself free from all those constraints for the first time. Most of the time she would either take the bamboo sedan to watch the scenery of the estate or put on a straw hat to pick the fresh oranges in the back garden. Every day, she ate the fruits and vegetables that were freshly picked, the meat from the animals which had just been hunted and all kinds of dishes which were made from the mushrooms in the forest whose names were even unknown to her. The most important thing was that there were three mouths of spring in the estate that gushed thermal water the whole year. There was a wooden tray floating on the warm water, on which were the fruits which had been washed by the cold well water and a cup of wine. Every day, she would take a bath in the hot spring for half an hour until she felt totally relaxed.

She didn’t need to handle the family affairs, or keep up appearance, or deal with the noble madams or relatives who came to her mansion from time to time. After a few days, Minglan only felt herself living in paradise with every bone of her extremely relaxed. She was willing to live like this forever.

However, her happy life only lasted for four days. Then, Gu Tingye came back.

The man who had just finished dealing with all those affairs seemed very tired. The military review truly was a huge event. In the ancient times, people didn’t have cars, but the emperor made up his mind to inspect the whole army. Even though the inspection only took place for one day, the emperor still had to ride on the horse for hundreds of miles. As for the vice commander of this military review, Gu Tingye had to ride on the horse for three hundred miles every day, not to mention that he also had to deal with those sophisticated soldiers the whole time. The affairs in the army were as difficult to deal with as the ones in the court. There were so many overt or covert schemes, which caused his headache.

Seeing the exhausted look on the man’s face, Minglan lowered the head to look at her fingers, thinking, ‘He really is a good man. Even though he is busy with his job every day, he still comes back to the estate to stay with me every night...’ As she pitied his man, she decided to serve him well.

Seeing his muscles being very stiff, she volunteered to give him a massage.

Yao Yiyi had a friend who loved SPA a lot. Now only did this friend of her go to the SPA shop very often, she also studied massaging all the time. Under this friend’s influence, Minglan had been a master of massaging. In her view, pounding on the back with fists or using a small wooden hammer to pound on the legs were useless for relieving the fatigue. The essence of massaging depended on the fingers and palms of the massager. Poking, pressing, kneading and pushing were the basic movements, while pounding was just for assisting.

After Minglan learned some acupoint knowledge from Old Madam He, she was more confident with herself. Old Madam Sheng had also praised Minglan for her skills a lot. However, when she gave massage to Gu Tingye, things were a bit different.

Men’s skin was rougher than women’s, not to mention that Gu Tingye practiced martial arts throughout the year. The muscles of his shoulders, his belly and his long legs under his brown skin were well-developed. It was like there was no fat in his body at all. In a word, his flesh boasted large density and great hardness. As Minglan gave the massage to him, she got sweats all over her forehead. Then, she could only leave all her skills behind and exhausted her strength to pound on him. Gu Tingye, in the meantime, only wore a calm look and said he felt nothing.

Minglan exhausted her tricks.

Suddenly, the man said that he had seen the kids on the boats stepping on the back of the adults as a way of massage in the southern area.

Minglan used her handkerchief to wipe her sweats, sulking, “Your daughter is in the capital. I don’t know where your son is.”