Bai Weiwei shot him a wretched glare, then immediately turned away to leave. She said viciously and hatefully to a servant, “Not allowed to feed him, just let him, let him…”
Her words were clumsy, and she stomped her feet in vexation.
“Let him die.”
These words were said with urgency and annoyance.
It looked like the arrogance of the family’s precious daughter, but it didn’t feel vicious.
After speaking, Bai Weiwei hurriedly stormed off.
As though she would regret it if she stayed a second longer.
Qi Chimu was thus pushed into the woodshed and locked up at Bai Weiwei’s orders.
The woodshed was colder than his worn-down room.
Chilly winds, mixed with icy snow, blew in from between the cracks in the boards.
His lips were pale as he sat on the pile of hay with no expression on his face.
Because there was nothing else to do, he could only hold a wooden stick and start writing on the ground.
All that was written was–Schemes to harm people.
He had known that he should deal with Bai Weiwei first.
After all, the longer he delayed, the greater the possibility she would speak out about the wealth.
With Qi Chimu’s current strength, he could only stealthily hide in the dark to make plans.
If he was directly exposed to the Bai family, he, a scholar without the strength to truss up a chicken, would be no match for two fists and four legs1, no matter how many strategies he had.
Qi Chimu recalled something that had happened before rebirth. At that time, he had also been locked up in the woodshed.
But it wasn’t because he had pushed Bai Weiwei into the water.
Rather, he had resisted wearing women’s clothing and styling her.
He had been imprisoned for five days. The weather was freezing, and he was half-dead by the time he came out. The wind-chill affliction in his bones had also come about during that time.
He didn’t expect to gain a new life and still repeat the misfortune of his previous life.
Qi Chimu smiled coldly, unafraid.
The stick in his hand halted. A sinister plan had already taken form–
–to send off Bai Weiwei.
By the time he came out of the woodshed, the Lantern Festival2 would be held a few days later.
This was a festival that was born from the palace.
On the day of viewing lanterns, the women of each family would come out for a stroll.
Qi Chimu coldly kept his eyes to the ground, pressing down the puny, foreign emotion in his heart.
He could no longer be as indecisive as he had been at the pond.
After concocting a plan, Qi Chimu finally felt both the cold and hunger.
He curled in on himself. As he felt uncomfortable, he recalled Bai Weiwei’s wretched face.
White and tender, like a plum blossom against the ice and snow, a hint of the red pistil.
She clearly had a vicious temperament, but her eyes were clear and penetrating, without any turbidity.
Her face was also round and smooth, like a rice flour dumpling, not a trace of scathing sarcasm to be seen in her appearance.
In the last life, her chin had clearly been pointed, not nearly as harmless as in this life.
Moreover, she seemed more pleasing to the eye in this life.
Qi Chimu abruptly halted his thoughts.
He thought of her only to reinforce his disgust towards her, and along the way, ponder how ugly the scene of her death would be.
The more he thought, the more it felt off.
Qi Chimu clenched his teeth and gave a snort before leaning against the wall of the woodshed, but he didn’t dare to continue thinking about it.
After stewing for the majority of the day, nobody came to deliver food.
Qi Chimu, cold and hungry, fixed his gaze on the woodshed like a lone wolf.
He still had a fire starter3 hidden in the cuff of his sleeve.
If he truly couldn’t hold on, burning the woodshed was also an option.
Just as he thought this, there was the sound of someone passing by outside.
It was a couple of maidservants, passing by the woodshed.
One maidservant couldn’t help but ask, “Why did the young miss lock that Qi Chimu in the woodshed? I heard that the kitchen boy in the main kitchen is not allowed to take firewood to light the stove.
The other said, “Dunno, even the madam disagrees with the young miss immediately doing things this way, since he’s just recently saved her. The madam said that she would make him suffer, that there was no hurry, and that it was never too late to lock him up after waiting a while.”
1: As in he can’t win against numbers and brute strength.↩
2: 赏灯节: 灯节 is the Lantern Festival, which is held on the 15th of the first month of the lunar calendar. The 赏 can mean appreciation (of beauty). The proper name is probably Lantern Appreciation Festival but that’s a mouthful.↩
3: 火折子: dunno what else to call it. From the pictures, it functions much like the modern lighter. There’s a scroll of paper inside that burns for a long time once ignited. I suppose I could call it a lighter in terms of function, but it almost sounds too modern for the setting?↩
