Chapter 6: Anger

Well, this time, she and he had a major grudge!

Jiu Jin had to exert immense effort to temporarily suppress the marriage arrangements between him and A Lin. However, regarding the deed of boundless merit he had performed, A Lin showed not the slightest hint of gratitude toward him.

It was his fault to begin with! Who told him to wade into that muddy water, causing that scene where she kissed him! She didn't even blame him for always causing trouble and leaving her to clean up his messes! Wanting her gratitude? Not a chance!

Oh! Right. There was one more thing. A Lin suddenly remembered the twenty taels of silver he had spent. She took the ledger to track down the whereabouts of the silver, praying to heaven that he wouldn't act like a "good Samaritan" again and give the silver away as charity.

"Silver?" Jiu Jin froze.

"Yes, silver, twenty taels," A Lin said matter-of-factly, giving him no chance to play dumb. Her master was always like this, squandering the family fortune; if this continued long-term, what would become of them!

"Twenty taels?"

"Yes, exactly twenty taels. Where did you take it?" A Lin interrogated, stretching her hand straight out like Sister Qian, who was always demanding money.

Jiu Jin shook his head, and only then did he remember. "Uncle Wang from across the way is going to the capital to visit his relatives—"

"So you gave the twenty taels to him for travel expenses!" Before Jiu Jin could even finish his sentence, A Lin rushed to complete it for him.

She knew it. She just knew her master must have gone off to play the good Samaritan again.

"No, I didn't!" Fearing A Lin would misunderstand, Jiu Jin waved his hands frantically. "I know you hate it most when I act like a good Samaritan, so I didn't give the silver to Uncle Wang. I only gave him a wild boar." In his panic, Jiu Jin held up a single, straight finger in front of A Lin to show her.

It really was just a wild boar!

"A wild boar! He's going to the capital, why give him a wild boar?" A Lin's attention was not diverted by the mention of the boar.

"So he can take it to the market to sell! That way Uncle Wang will have travel expenses!"

*Good grief—how is that any different from just giving the travel expenses directly to Uncle Wang?* A Lin was so angry that smoke was practically rising from the top of her head, yet she remained composed.

"Then where did your twenty taels go?" A Lin asked coldly. If she guessed correctly, those twenty taels were almost certainly not on her silly master.

"I let Uncle Wang take it to the capital for my little brother." Look! He even said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"Your little brother?!" A Lin's eyes narrowed into two dangerous, thin lines. She stared at her master and asked, "Where did you get a little brother? Aren't you all alone in the world? When did a brother suddenly pop up? Huh? Huh?! Speak up!" Seeing A Lin's fierce manner, it wasn't surprising that the neighbors would mistake her for Jiu Jin's wife.

Jiu Jin hurriedly explained to A Lin. "Tian Cheng isn't my biological brother, he is my—"

"That father who abandoned you?"

Sigh, he hadn't even reached the main point yet, and A Lin had interrupted him again! Jiu Jin nodded helplessly. "Yes, he is the child of that father who took another wife outside."

"Th-that person named Tian Cheng is another son of your father?"

"Not exactly," Jiu Jin answered again. "Tian Cheng is the child my stepmother had with her previous husband before she remarried my father."

*Good heavens—how did things get so complicated?*

"I'm not listening anymore." A Lin covered her ears. If she kept listening, she would surely go mad. "In short, you gave twenty taels of silver to someone who has nothing to do with you, right?"

Did her silly master know that in order to manage this household, she tightened her belt every single day, saving every single copper coin to help him? Yet here he was, being incredibly extravagant, handing out twenty taels of silver generously for the sake of a stranger!

"Tian Cheng is my brother, how can he be someone who has nothing to do with me?" Jiu Jin explained anxiously, unwilling to let A Lin misunderstand.

He felt a sense of reverence and admiration for A Lin. Although she was quite fierce with him sometimes, he knew in his heart that the reason she was fierce was because she was impatient, and he happened to be a master with not much of a brain, always spending more than he earned and causing her great distress in managing the household. But no matter how much she did for him, it couldn't erase his brotherhood with Tian Cheng!

"Brotherhood?" A Lin's eyes narrowed even further. What kind of bullshit brotherhood! "He wasn't born of your father, nor was he born of your mother. What relationship do you two have?" This thick-headed man didn't even realize he was being played! "I'm asking you, what did he want money from you for?" As A Lin grew anxious, her domineering attitude unconsciously surfaced, and she didn't even realize she needed to reflect on it.