May 15, 2026
Chapter 92 — Inviting Chu Ci • Arguing It Out with Reason
Seeing how strangely he was smiling, Chu Ci couldn’t help but shiver. Yet at the same time, a thread of anticipation quietly rose in his heart. He actually wanted to witness, with his own eyes, how this man would overturn the imperial clan.
The current royal family had grown far too comfortable—pampered by years of ease. It was about time someone stirred things up. Who knew? Perhaps the chaos might even carve out a different future for him and Yan’er.
“Daddy!”
At some point, the reading sounds from the back courtyard had stopped. All that remained was a crisp, childish voice. In the next second, a soft, clingy little “bun” charged straight at him, wrapping his arms around his waist and shamelessly acting spoiled.
Ling Jingxuan chuckled and scooped him up. “Let Daddy take a look—has my Xiao Baozi gotten any smarter?”
After more than a month of care, although the two “little buns” were still some distance away from becoming proper plump buns, they were no longer shriveled, dark, and skinny. Now they were fair and tender—adorable beyond words. With a bit more flesh on them, wouldn’t they truly become little meat buns?
“So annoying! Daddy’s bullying me again!”
The xiao baozi scrunched his nose and puffed out his cheeks in protest. How was he not smart? Uncle Chu and Brother Yan praised him all the time for being clever and cute!
Of course I’m bullying you.
But Ling Jingxuan would never say that out loud. Smiling, he glanced up at Ling Wen, Tiewazi, and Chu Yan, who were walking out behind them. Beckoning Ling Wen and Tiewazi closer, he said to Chu Ci while eyeing Chu Yan:
“Your son really is ridiculously good-looking. You’re going to have plenty of headaches in the future.”
At only nine years old, he was already close to one and a half meters tall. Handsome, refined—who knew how many young ladies and married women he’d charm in the years to come?
“I’d like to have that kind of trouble,” Chu Ci murmured. “Just not sure I’ll get the chance…”
By the end, his words barely left his lips. A flash of naked pain slipped through his cold phoenix eyes. If nothing changed, neither he nor his family would live to see the child grow up.
“Father…”
Sensing his father’s sudden heaviness, Chu Yan quietly walked over. But he was only nine, and not one for words. Aside from looking at him with concern, he didn’t know how to comfort him.
Ling Jingxuan, who seemed to still be teasing the children, had already taken in everything from the corner of his eye. After patting each child’s head, he spoke as if nothing had happened:
“Oh right— in a few days, I’m hosting a banquet for friends, relatives, and the workers. If you don’t mind, you and your son should come along.”
According to rural customs, when a house reaches the beam-raising stage, it’s time to celebrate with friends and family. He’d been busy making fruit preserves at the time and hadn’t had the chance to organize anything, so he decided to combine it with the plaque-hanging ceremony instead.
But before that, they’d need to come up with a proper name for the house.
“There’ll be a lot of people?”
Chu Ci quickly suppressed the pain in his eyes. After giving his son a reassuring look, he turned back to Ling Jingxuan with a slight frown. If possible, he did want his son to spend more time with Sheng Rui—but he didn’t like crowds.
“Heh… I’d say quite a few. There are dozens of workers alone. Then there are relatives from my mother’s side, plus Brother Zhao, Shopkeeper Zhang, Old Wang, and the rest. Don’t worry—no one will recognize you.”
As for the Ling family… he’d rather pass.
“In that case, just let Xiao Wen and the others know the exact time.”
Since that was so, he might as well go. It would also give his son a chance to get some fresh air—they hadn’t gone out at all since arriving here.
“No problem. I’ll send a carriage to pick you up. Alright, Shopkeeper Zhang and the others still need to come by to collect the wine, so I should head back.”
With that, Ling Jingxuan patted the little bun’s backside, signaling him to get down. After being delayed this long, it was about time he returned—otherwise, the “patient” at home would probably start throwing a tantrum again.
“Daddy, have all that wine been sold?”
Ling Wen darted forward first and grabbed the hem of his robe. His round, glossy eyes were filled with undisguised frown—he was clearly worried the wine hadn’t sold for much.
Ling Jingxuan found it funny and ruffled his hair. “Mm. Sold four hundred jars.”
“What? Then why’d you keep a hundred jars? Even if the price wasn’t great, we should’ve sold everything—recover whatever we can! There were five hundred jars at home, right? You should’ve gotten rid of all of them. If you want to drink, didn’t we still have those twenty jars from before? Daddy, you can’t look down on small money—you always say even a mosquito’s leg is still meat!”
The moment he heard that a hundred jars had been kept, Ling Wen immediately assumed the price wasn’t good. And just like that, he launched into a lecture—like a little adult.
Xiao Baozi covered his mouth, tugging Tiewazi along as they snickered. Every time, Daddy got lectured by big brother—and yet he never learned, making the same “mistakes” again and again. It was hilarious.
As for Chu Ci and his son—clearly witnessing this for the first time—they stood there with slightly parted lips in stunned disbelief.
Were they seeing things?
Was that… a son scolding his father?
Ling Jingxuan, meanwhile, was speechless. Since when had he said the price was bad?
“I say, Xiao Wen—I never said the price wasn’t good. And besides…”
As he spoke, Ling Jingxuan pulled out the banknote Zeng Shaoqing had given him and handed it over.
Ling Wen took it suspiciously. But the moment he saw the amount—ten thousand taels, redeemable in silver—his hand began trembling violently, like he’d suddenly come down with a fit. He looked up at his father, stammering:
“Th-this… this is… ours?”
He was genuinely afraid he’d read it wrong. His entire small frame trembled along with his hand.
Forty thousand taels. What kind of money was that? If converted into silver ingots, wouldn’t it pile up and fill their entire storage room?
“Mm. All from selling wine. I got lucky today—ran into the owner of Xinyuan Restaurant. He offered one hundred taels per jar, so I sold him four hundred jars. The remaining hundred—we’ll keep for ourselves.”
Meeting his son’s disbelieving gaze, Ling Jingxuan crouched down and nodded.
Forty thousand taels—just about enough for buying land. Once he finished dealing with the fruit jams, he could head to the county seat and speak with the magistrate.
“One—one hundred taels per jar—?!”
Ling Wen cried out instinctively, then immediately realized his voice was too loud and hurriedly lowered it.
“Daddy! If the price is that good, why didn’t you sell all of it? A hundred jars is ten thousand taels! And we can’t possibly drink that much—wine that costs one hundred taels per jar… can you really bear to drink it?!”
…Right. If it didn’t sell well, he got lectured. If it sold too well, he still got lectured.
Ling Jingxuan pressed a hand to his forehead, utterly defeated. After a long pause, he pulled Ling Wen closer and said as calmly as possible:
“But Xiao Wen—grape wine is a good thing. Especially for women, it helps nourish the complexion. Your grandmother isn’t in the best health, right? That’s why I thought we’d keep a hundred jars for her. We can’t just focus on making money.”
“Daddy, that’s where you’re wrong.”
Grabbing his hand, Ling Wen launched into earnest reasoning.
“If Grandma knew this wine sells for one hundred taels a jar, would she even dare drink it? And besides, one hundred taels can buy so many good things! We could sell the wine and use the money to buy ginseng or something to nourish her body. I’ve heard ginseng is amazing—people say it can even bring the dead back to life! Isn’t that better than drinking wine?”
Ling Jingxuan instantly regretted everything.
He shouldn’t have told him the price.
He definitely shouldn’t have taught him math.
Now look—he’d trapped himself.
“Ahem… my condolences. Hahaha—!”
At some point, Chu Ci had walked over. He gave Ling Jingxuan a sympathetic pat on the shoulder—only to burst into unrestrained laughter the moment he turned away.
Heavens, this was too funny.
So the ever-shrewd Ling Jingxuan had a natural nemesis—and it was his own son.
Just for that alone, he’d make sure to educate Ling Wen properly. Who knew how much amusement the boy might bring him in the future?
Even Chu Yan, who was usually quiet, couldn’t help breaking into a smile.
Meanwhile, the two who had started off giggling—Xiao Baozi and Tiewazi—now looked completely bewildered. They might not be as sensible as Ling Wen, but they understood enough to know one thing:
Their father had just made an unimaginable amount of money.
“Ginseng isn’t that miraculous,” Ling Jingxuan shot back, shooting Chu Ci an annoyed look before turning back to Ling Wen.
“Every medicine has some toxicity—no matter how good it is, too much isn’t good. But grape wine? We made it from wild grapes. It’s a natural tonic—no side effects.”
“And besides, don’t we need to give some away? Your Uncle Chu, Uncle Zhao, Shopkeeper Zhang—they all helped us when times were hard. Now that we’re doing better, shouldn’t we repay them?”
“Xiao Wen… money is never-ending. Today alone we earned forty thousand taels—that’s already a lot. Now that we know the value of grape wine, we can always brew more next year.”
If not for their fruit jam and fish businesses, he might’ve agreed with the boy—sell everything and turn it into capital. Ten thousand taels could easily be turned into even more.
But now?
Life was finally comfortable.
There was no need to keep squeezing themselves dry for money.
This time, Ling Wen actually seemed to take it in. Tilting his head, he looked at his father with suspicion—like he was evaluating him, or maybe calculating something. After a long moment, he finally grit his teeth and nodded, clearly pained:
“Alright then… but Daddy, our family has money now—you still can’t spend it recklessly. If we can save, we should save. Didn’t you say a few days ago you wanted to find a wife for Little Uncle? And Second Uncle will need money for the imperial exams too. No matter what, we need to keep some in reserve.”
Even though he no longer managed the household finances himself, every time money came up, he couldn’t help lecturing his father a bit—just in case he went off and spent wildly again.
For the sake of this hopeless, financially irresponsible dad, he really had worried himself sick.
“Alright, alright, Daddy knows.”
Having successfully pacified his son, Ling Jingxuan’s smile immediately returned in full force.
“You should be getting back to your studies now, right? Off you go—Daddy should head home too.”
“Mm. Daddy should go back quickly too. If Shopkeeper Zhang and the others come to pick up the goods, it’ll be inconvenient if you’re not there.”
Nodding obediently, Ling Wen turned and took his two younger brothers by the hand. The three little “buns” spoke in unison:
“Safe travels, Daddy!”
“Mm!”
Watching them follow Chu Yan into the back courtyard, Ling Jingxuan slowly stood up. He cast a glance at Chu Ci, who had already returned to his usual composed demeanor. Without even bothering with a farewell, he turned to leave.
But—
“Jingxuan,” Chu Ci suddenly called out, “I find it a bit too hot in town lately. Your new house should be quite spacious, right? I was thinking of bringing Yan’er over to stay for a few days… to escape the heat.”
This was the first time in over a month that Chu Ci had taken the initiative.
Even an idiot could hear the schadenfreude and anticipation hidden in his tone.
Ling Jingxuan rolled his eyes without restraint. “Suit yourself. Just remember to pay for meals.”
With that, he strode off without looking back.
Want to watch him make a fool of himself?
Fine.
When the time came, they’d see who ended up laughing at whom.
Bastard.
“Hahaha—!”
Not long after, hearty laughter rang out from inside the bookshop.
Ling Jingxuan, who was just about to climb into the carriage, stumbled and nearly fell flat on his face. Muttering a low curse under his breath, he climbed in at last.
Still—annoyed as he was, he wasn’t truly angry.
Seeing more emotions from Chu Ci—beyond cold arrogance, panic, and fear—actually made him… happy.
At the very least, the man was slowly becoming something closer to a living, breathing person.
If you enjoy reading Poisonous Peasant ‘Concubine’, consider buying me a coffee! A little coffee goes a long way!
Translator: LazyHermitGal
Author: LazyHermitGal
A Lazy Hermit Gal wondering in the void and falling into the translation abyss.
