Chapter 84: The Gentle Wife and the Lovely Concubine (Part One)

The two of them bickered for quite some time before finally settling down again.

Tao Ming recounted what Qin Siyu had told her, sharing only the parts she could, and concluded, “I just feel the connections between these events are a bit forced. What do you think?”

Su Nanxing, who was well aware of the twists and sordid secrets involved but had no intention of divulging them to Tao Ming, furrowed his brow and replied, “Wife, you know I’m not very bright. If you can’t make sense of it, how could I?”

Tao Ming, seeing through his act, retorted irritably, “Not bright? If you’re not bright, then I must be an idiot.”

Su Nanxing hurried to appease her. “I really am not smart! Look, I only managed to marry you at my age.”

Predictably, Tao Ming’s train of thought was led astray by his words. She asked, “That’s true, you’re not exactly young anymore. So, what’s the standard for leaving the Su household?”

Su Nanxing let out a barely perceptible sigh of relief and answered, “At the very least, you have to reach the Sun Rank before you can leave. It’s the same for the Qin family.”

Tao Ming ground her teeth at that. “How long did it take you to reach Sun Rank?”

Su Nanxing multiplied the real number in his head by at least tenfold and replied, “About a thousand years!”

Tao Ming eyed him suspiciously, “But when I was in the Qiluo residence, I heard my mother reached Sun Rank at a little over two hundred!”

Su Nanxing quickly flattered her, “Mother-in-law is a peerless genius!”

Tao Ming wouldn’t fall for it, “Aren’t you supposed to be heaven’s favored child? How could you be so lacking in talent?”

“Maybe all my talent was spent on loving my wife!”

Su Nanxing continued to spin his tale, silently reminding himself to warn the Su family tomorrow not to let anything slip.

Tao Ming felt utterly helpless. Su Nanxing would grab onto any excuse to climb upward; there was truly no saving him.

A sudden thought struck her and she asked, “Earlier you said you were already Sun Rank Five, nearly two thousand years old. But by that calculation, the timeline doesn’t match up. It shouldn’t take less time to go from Rank Four to Five than from Rank One to Four, right?”

Su Nanxing thought, ‘Oh no,’ and mumbled, “Maybe I remembered wrong. It’s been so long, I can’t recall clearly.”

Tao Ming saw right through him and, grinning slyly, pressed, “Are you hiding something you did after leaving the household, afraid I’ll find out, so you’re being so evasive?”

Realizing he’d been caught, Su Nanxing decided to come clean. “Good wife, I’ll tell the truth! After leaving the household, I could attend the academy in the Imperial City and make friends.”

“But I was rather playful and always skipped classes, dragging things out. In the end, I was studying with people over a thousand years younger than me.”

“It was so embarrassing! That’s why I didn’t tell you the truth.”

Tao Ming asked again, “So you can be honest now?”

“I reached Sun Rank before I was a hundred,” Su Nanxing finally confessed.

Tao Ming’s eyes widened. “Impressive! Truly heaven’s chosen one! So, when do you think I’ll reach Sun Rank?”

Su Nanxing thought, ‘This is a trap!’ Abiding by the principle that a happy wife means a happy life, he replied cautiously, “With your mother as an example, you shouldn’t take more than two hundred years.”

Tao Ming beamed, “I’ll begin closed-door cultivation tomorrow!”

Su Nanxing quickly discouraged her, “Just practice casually for now, no need to shut yourself away. Ruannuan is still so little—if you go into seclusion, she might be married off by the time you come out!”

Tao Ming wilted, “That’s true. It’s because I had children too early!”

Su Nanxing comforted her, “Not too early. Over on Earth, having children at thirty-one is considered late already.” Then, changing the subject, he asked, “After I left back then, did you ever look for me?”

Tao Ming immediately grew indignant. “Of course I did! Did you tamper with your colleagues’ memories? I went to your company, and none of the people I’d eaten with recognized me! Nearly scared me to death!”

“I was afraid my mother would find you through their memories!”

Tao Ming remembered someone and asked, “Do you still remember Tang Hai?”

“Of course I do! His famous saying still keeps me on my toes!”

Tao Ming recalled Tang Hai’s words and couldn’t help but laugh.

Tang Hai had been Su Nanxing’s colleague on Earth, passionate about building computers, with his house filled with all sorts of parts.

One day, Tang Hai’s girlfriend asked him, “Am I more important or your computers?” After a long hesitation, he finally replied, “Sometimes you’re more important?”

His girlfriend was furious.

The best part was, the next day Tang Hai recounted the story at work and even asked, “Was I wrong to say that?”

Everyone around sighed, “Even people like him have girlfriends! Why am I still single?”

Tao Ming laughed, “When I went to look for you, he didn’t remember me either, but he still gave me wedding candies. He married his girlfriend!”

Su Nanxing exclaimed, “Even someone like that found a wife!”

Tao Ming chuckled, “He may not be smooth-tongued, but he’s reliable.”

After a pause, she asked, “Why did you become a programmer? Isn’t it said that every time there’s a bug, a programmer must be sacrificed to appease the heavens?”

Su Nanxing replied seriously, “Don’t you think creating a world is interesting?”

Tao Ming nodded. “It is, but it’s only virtual.”

Su Nanxing continued, “Sometimes I think, maybe we’re just NPCs in a game. Every move, every emotion, all under the players’ control.”

“You grew up in a cultivation civilization! How could you think of something like that?”

“It was only after playing games on Earth that the idea occurred to me. But after meeting you, I think creating new life is much more interesting.”

Tao Ming thought, ‘I knew it would only take a few words for Su Nanxing’s true nature to show.’

As she pondered how to change the topic, a commotion erupted outside. Many people were shouting at once, their voices blending together into an unintelligible din.

Su Nanxing rose swiftly. “You look after the kids. I’ll go see what’s happening.”

Tao Ming, uneasy, stayed by the two little ones. The noise outside grew louder, more people joining in.

The two girls woke one after the other, and hearing the chaos outside, burrowed into Tao Ming’s arms, one on either side.

Nuonuo asked, “Mama, why is it so noisy outside?”

Ruannuan echoed, “It really is noisy!”

Tao Ming hugged them both, kissing one and then the other. “Papa’s gone to check. I’m here with you, so there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

Soon, Su Nanxing returned. Entering, he announced, “A side courtyard of the Qin family caught fire. Everyone’s scrambling to put it out.”

Tao Ming noticed his peculiar expression and asked, “Is there more?”

Su Nanxing hesitated before saying, “The fire was too big—pouring water from buckets was useless. So, they wanted your mother to extinguish it. They sent for your father to bring her over, but he was in the Camellia Pavilion, which caused a bit of a delay.”

Tao Ming was stunned, unsure how to respond.

Su Nanxing added cautiously, “It’s perfectly normal in Weishui for a man to have several concubines.”

Ruannuan piped up, “Papa, what’s a concubine?”

Tao Ming quickly signaled Su Nanxing with her eyes. He caught on and replied, “A concubine is like a nanny—someone who looks after others.”

Ruannuan brightened, “Papa, you should get a few concubines too, so they can look after us.”

Su Nanxing was startled and quickly soothed her, “Ruannuan, you’re a big girl now. You should do things for yourself and not always rely on others.”