Allure of a Country Maiden
Chapter 705 - 703

Chapter 705: 703

The next day, Xiao’er was busy preparing for the opening of the animal park. She had to go to the outskirts for a few days to check on the conditions of the animals being moved into the park.

She didn’t find out about Lin Miaoyan’s situation until several days later.

When Du Yijin came to find Xiao’er at the Sixth Prince’s Mansion, she was the one who told her about it.

After Gu Honggen rescued Lin Miaoyan and was rejected in his marriage proposal at the Yuan Mansion, he repeated his old tricks. He claimed that he’d saved Lin Miaoyan’s life and carried her all the way, implying that she should marry no one else but him.

He further claimed that Lin Miaoyan had mysteriously fainted in a small alley. When he found her, her clothes were dishevelled, her hair was messy and it wasn’t clear whether she had been assaulted. He declared his willingness to marry her as her blessing!

Being generous as he was, he couldn’t have left her to die. He sent her home and even made a marriage proposal for the sake of her reputation. Yet Lin Miaoyan responded with ingratitude. She claimed that he had intentionally ruined her innocence, insisting that she had merely fainted from hunger!

The scandal led to a huge uproar, with Lin Miaoyan weeping daily. Despite the pressure, Mrs. Lin did not agree to the marriage proposal!

Even if Mrs. Lin received many cold responses from her sister-in-law back at her maiden home, she did not agree. Instead, she bought a small courtyard and moved out.

Xiao’er believed that Mrs. Lin did not make the wrong decision.

Even calling Gu Honggen a spoiled rich kid was an uplift for him! At least the spoiled rich kids had abundant family wealth and the protection of their ancestors! What did his family have? They were so impoverished that they relied on the dowry from his sister’s marriage! He did not strive for improvement and was addicted to gambling, with his thoughts extremely misguided.

"Mrs. Du is right. Letting the daughter marry such a person is worse than letting her stay single at home. If it were me, I would rather have my reputation ruined than marry him."

"Exactly!" Du Yijin shared the sentiment from personal experience; she would rather die than marry someone like Gu Honggen!

Xiao’er, recalling Du Yijin’s past attempt at suicide, quickly changed the topic.

"Miss Du, did you come to find me today because Chu Die no longer wishes to renew the contract?"

"The Sixth Consort is really amazing. She can’t hide anything from you."

Xiao’er smiled and said: "She tried to divert the hot spring to her villa last winter, but her villa is even farther away from my hot spring holiday resort. By the time the hot spring water flowed there, it had turned into ice spring. There’s no way she could continue the contract."

Chu Die and Princess Ling’er had deliberately outbid Xiao’er and Du Yijin for their hot spring collaboration plan at a high price. They also slightly modified Xiao’er’s design plan and put in the layout for the hot spring diversion pipeline.

It’s been almost two years now, and it was time to draw in the net!

Because the design plan that Xiao’er gave them only included the layout for the pipeline and did not specify the insulation technology. During the hot spring diversion process, a drop in temperature was inevitable.

Especially in winter, the temperatures plummeted. If the insulation was poor, wouldn’t the hot spring water turn into ice spring by the time it reached the villa?

Even in summer, the hot spring water would turn into cold spring by the time it reached the villa. What use would their hot spring villa be then?

The two of them had spent over two thousand taels of silver. That money was definitely wasted! Let’s see if they would dare to trip her up in the future!

Xiao’er deliberately reminded Du Yijin to ask them to renew the contract. Her hot spring resort villa was already fully prepared. She was just waiting for the contract with Chu Die to expire so that she could then refuse to renew it unilaterally. Then she could take advantage of the situation.

"I told her, following the way you taught me, that I wouldn’t renew the contract, but because we had buried so many pipes in the courtyard which affected its usage, I asked her for some compensation. She wasn’t happy about it. She said she had spent a lot of money building those pipes and demanded compensation from me. After arguing for a while, I pretended to give in under her threat, and bought those pipes for one tael of silver. Here is the contract."

Du Yijin brought out the contract.

One tael? Chu Die and Princess Ling’er really suffered a huge loss this time! Xiao’er could not help but laugh as she took the contract.

"Thank you, Yijin," Xiao’er said sincerely.

If she had built that part of the pipeline herself, it would certainly have cost more than one tael. It wouldn’t even be less than a hundred and a half taels. Although the amount wasn’t much, it wasn’t the money that Xiao’er cared about.

She appreciated that Du Yijin was willing to risk offending Chu Die and Princess Ling’er to help her deal with them.

Let them taste their own medicine!

Now, with only minor modifications needed for those pipelines, they could be connected to the ones on her end.

And these modifications could be completed in less than a day.

As for the insulation of the hot spring, Xiao’er had built a heating system in the resort, so it was not a problem at all.

Now, all she had to do was wait for the hot spring water to circulate, check the water temperature of each villa, and then adjust the heating facilities accordingly.

Upon hearing Xiao’er’s gratitude, Du Yijin was somewhat taken aback: "I should be the one thanking the Sixth Imperial Consort, without her help, I don’t know what state I would be in now, and Chunkang’s illness wouldn’t have improved. I will always remember the great kindness of the Sixth Imperial consort."

Xiao’er laughed upon hearing this: "Alright. There’s no need for us to keep thanking each other, we are mutually beneficial."

Du Yijin laughed and did not argue, but she knew in her heart how much the Sixth Prince’s Consort had helped her.

At this moment, Yang Liu walked in and announced that Shangguan Xuanyi had returned.

Hearing this, Du Yijin stood up tactfully: "It’s getting late, Sixth Imperial Consort, I will take my leave first."

Xiao’er nodded, and let Yang Liu see her out.

At this moment, Shangguan Xuanyi strode in.

"Greetings Prince," said Du Yijin, bowing before she respectfully lowered her head and left.

On the nineteenth of June, it was Guanyin’s birthday, and the Empress Dowager was set to go to the Guanyin Temple for a day of prayer. She had designated Shangguan Xuanyi to accompany her. The Guanyin Temple was a bit far from the Imperial Capital, and as the Empress Dowager was elderly, the carriage could not travel too fast. Therefore, the round trip would take three to four days.

Xiao’er got up with a smile: "Isn’t it tomorrow..."

Xiao’er thought he wouldn’t be back until tomorrow.

Before she could finish her sentence, Shangguan Xuanyi strode forward, held Xiao’er in his arms, bent down, and tried to kiss her.

The familiar cool fragrance instantly enveloped her.

Oh my God! Yang Liu and Du Yijin hadn’t gone far. What if they turned around and saw this?

Xiao’er blushed, hurriedly raising her hand to cover his mouth as he leaned in.

Shangguan Xuanyi looked at Xiao’er discontentedly: "It’s been two days and three nights, don’t you miss your husband?"

Xiao’er almost choked with laughter. Two days and three nights, and he had the audacity to mention it. Someone who didn’t know would think they hadn’t seen each other for half a year or so!

Other than going to bed half an hour late because she had no one to cuddle with, she didn’t think about him much during the day. She had just taken over the household affairs and Shangguan Xuanyi’s business, plus running between the zoo and the city, she was too busy to think much.

However, Xiao’er knew his personality well, she dared not say such words out loud.

"People will see!"

At that moment, Yang Mei tactfully ran out and closed the door.

Just as she was closing the door, Yang Mei looked at Xiao’er and winked: I didn’t see anything.

The normally thick-skinned Xiao’er blushed.

"It’s all your..." The moment she looked up to glare at Shangguan Xuanyi,

the rest of her words were swallowed by him.