Farm Girl's Manor
Chapter 1008: A Bluff That Paid Off Big Time (1)

Chapter 1008: Chapter 1008: A Bluff That Paid Off Big Time (1)

Before them stood a mansion built against the hills, yet standing independently; no neighboring houses were to be seen within a mile or so, just a few similarly large courtyards that were also apparently built here by wealthy families from the city.

The mansion covered an extensive area; one could neither see the corners of the walls at a glance nor the end of the estate. What lay inside could be partially surmised from the intricate carvings of carps playing with pearls on the rows of green tiles atop the vermillion gate.

This residence not only astonished Xin Er but also the others. Zhenzhen looked at the towering gate, barely containing his excitement, "This yard is indeed very large; who knows, maybe there’s even enough room to gallop horses inside!"

Xin Er slapped her brother’s shoulder, gloating, "Master punished you to copy the Book of Rites, and you still have the mood to think about playing; it seems your punishment wasn’t severe enough!"

Zhenzhen’s face fell, and he looked at his elder sister with a plaintive expression, "When other siblings make a mistake, their sisters help them correct it. But you, you won’t even help me copy it and even ridicule me. Are we even blood-related?"

Embracing their father’s arm, Xin Er said with a chuckle, "You’d have to ask Dad about that; perhaps you’re a wild child he picked up somewhere."

Zhenzhen immediately looked towards his father, hoping for a fair word to suppress his obnoxious elder sister.

Mo Qingze feigned profundity with a glance at Zhenzhen and, under his hopeful gaze, delivered a "fatal" blow with a smile, "When Dad was your age, he could recite the Book of Rites from memory. Since you can’t, it’s clear you’re a bit slow; perhaps you were indeed switched at birth, and not my own flesh and blood."

"Dad, how, how can you say that? That’s going too far!" Feeling doubly assaulted by his father and sister, Zhenzhen complained with a wronged face, "I, I only forgot to memorize the text, not that I don’t know how." Didn’t he just forget to memorize it because he had too much fun playing cuju that day?

"If you can forget something like that, it only shows you have a bad memory, so you must not be very sharp-witted!" Xin Er piled on relentlessly, finding it oh so satisfying to have a brother to tease.

This time, even Yun Zhao and Yun Sheng couldn’t help but cover their mouths and snicker at the side.

Seeing that Zhenzhen was almost about to cry from the bullying, Mo Yan, who had watched the fun long enough, quickly jumped in to smooth things over, "Alright, alright, let’s go inside. Aren’t you all tired after such a long carriage ride?"

Zhenzhen’s eyes brightened, and he regained his spirits, "Tired, tired, of course I’m tired! You wait, I’ll go knock." With that, he trotted up to the large vermillion gate with his short little legs and reached up to knock on the higher-than-he-was copper ring.

Not long after a few knocks, a somewhat shrill female voice came from inside, "I’m coming, I’m coming, no need to keep knocking—" As the voice trailed off, the gate was opened from inside.

The woman who opened the door had an honest appearance, with her hair styled in a married woman’s hairstyle. She appeared very young, around twenty-five or six years old, dressed in an indigo silk shirt, with two exquisitely unique silver hairpins in her hair and a pair of gold earrings on her ears. As she maintained the posture of opening the door, a section of her fair wrist was revealed, adorned with two gold bracelets that were clearly not light in weight.

Her attire didn’t suggest that of a servant but rather seemed like that of a young mistress from a local rich man’s family.

As the Mo Family scrutinized the woman, she too was sizing them up. Noting the Mo Family’s extraordinary dress and bearing, her impatience faded, but her voice remained shrill, "Who are you? What business do you have at our house?"

Our house? Mo Yan raised an eyebrow and restrained Zhenzhen, who was about to introduce themselves, "We are looking for Zheng Dafu; have him come out." Zheng Dafu was the Manager whom Chun Shang had found in the Mo Family Village, responsible for overseeing the various affairs of the estate.