Chapter 12 :

After exploring the residence, her actions were even more fluent. She memorized the best places to hide people and bodies, the places were there were the least amount of people, the maids" hours of work as well as the guard positions. She also managed to get her hands on a map of the residence and after copying down another copy for herself, she added a few notes to her copy before returning the original back to the library.

Of course, during her explorations, she would often hear people talking about her. These times, she would stop and listen to what others had to say about her.

Some people said that she was easy to pick on. After all, her husband left her alone on the wedding night yet she did not complain at all. Others said that she was clever and that she truly lived up to her name of the sly Mu Master"s daughter. She knew how to advance and how to retreat, but how long could she pretend?

At these times, Mu Huanqing would respond in her heart, Relax, people. I will pretend to the end, because this lady is also very interested in how long your residence"s master can pretend? He can"t possibly have army matters every day, right?

There were even those who said that she was only doing everything to preserve her dignity. After all, the husband had left on the wedding night. If this were to get out, it would turn into the capital"s biggest joke. Therefore, she could only hold back her anger and bear it all.

Mu Huanqing furrowed her brow, quietly recording all this down. These people all liked to say one thing but actually believe in something else. They would pretend to be angels in front of the person, then would talk about said person behind his or her back.

In addition to this, she made sure to know who liked to meddle in affairs, who liked to gossip, and who was making secret plans with who. She was like an audience member looking at the good play going on in this residence.

During this time, she also picked up a mute maid for herself. This maid was originally a rough-working maid in the kitchens. Because she was a mute, she was often bullied by the others. Mu Huanqing told the residence"s steward before taking the maid for herself. She even gave the maid a nice name, "Xin Yu."*

This matter spread out in the residence and everyone simply thought that the new mistress of the residence wanted to show off her kind heart and therefore, allowed the mute maid to become her personal made. However, Mu Huanqing did not care about what others thought.

The marquis residence occupied a huge piece of land. The gardens, rooms, and courtyards occupied the most s.p.a.ce, but Mu Huanqing"s favorite place was the stables.

She had lived in the northern prairies for almost seven years. She knew as much about horses as she knew about herself. Thus, she loved horses more than the average person. Her wish to ride on horses on a big prairie was ingrained in her bones.

Good horses were intelligent. After coming to visit the stables a few times, all the horses in the stable already recognized her.

All the aristocrats in the capital only cared about a horse"s physical appearance and would raise them like any typical livestock. However, Mu Huanqing was not the same. She treated horses as friends, combing their manes, scratching them, and stealing some good food for them to eat.

Red crab-apples were a type of sweet fruit that horses loved to eat. She used to pick these fruits by herself in a forest to feed to her horses.

The horses in the marquis residence always ate the feed given to them or grazed in the pastures. Thus, they were very satisfied when Mu Huanqing fed them the red crab-apples.

"There"s no more fruits. Some other day, when there"s more, I"ll come visit you again." Mu Huanqing pet the horses, and they used their faces to rub against her.

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps could be heard. She knew that someone was coming, so she quickly hid behind the stables, concealing herself.

Seeing that the person who came was Fu Yanlin, she could not help but frown.

Why did the Marquis come to the stables? Usually, the only people here were the servants who took care of the horses. Rarely did the master himself come to the stables.

*The name translates to "words of the heart" which is pretty poetic.

I agree, Mu Huanqing. Horses are friends.

Sorry about the lack of updates recently. Last week was the personal thing, but before that, there were literally three people who emailed me telling me to drop this project because they either didn’t like it and wanted me to translate something else or they liked it so much they wanted me to drop it so that they could translate. First off, this project is something that I really enjoy translating and because it’s much shorter, it’ll be easier for you readers to finally get a fully translated novel, which is kind of rare when most novels are 1000+ chapters long. Secondly, I’m glad to see that you like this novel. But I’ve kind of already started… So let’s not steal, please?

On a side note, you guys are amazing readers! Thank you so much for all your support~

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