Chapter 22

Taking someone's money means helping them solve their problems. Since Wu Fan had accepted the house and silver from An Yuan, he had to figure out how to get his son, An Lushan, into the Yingyang Guard. At the same time, he also had to think of a way to take care of his former subordinates. After all, he couldn't just ignore them, right? With this calculation, out of the fifty-plus spots, he had to set aside twenty as favors, and he couldn't make it too obvious, which was truly a difficult task.

Back at home, Wu Fan couldn't focus on eating, scattering rice grains everywhere, which immediately infuriated Tong Rui.

"Bang!"

The loud noise temporarily pulled Wu Fan back to reality. He glanced over and saw Tong Rui, who was sitting opposite him, with her eyebrows furrowed and eyes wide open, as if she wanted to chop him up with a kitchen knife. Looking at the table, he saw the coarse rice scattered everywhere. He rolled his eyes and obediently picked up the grains with his chopsticks and ate them. Otherwise, because of these few grains of rice, his extremely frugal wife would argue with him all night.

Tong Rui took a bite of the coarse rice and coldly snorted, "If you want to think, think. If you want to eat, eat. Don't just sit there looking so annoying!"

Wu Fan sighed and clicked his tongue, "Wife, you tell me... There's this matter. There are three or four hundred people, and I need to pick fifty from them. I also need to ensure that these fifty are the ones I want, without making it obvious that I'm playing favorites. What should I do?"

Tong Rui frowned slightly and sneered, "Have you seen the tricks those kids next door play? Go and take a look, and you'll understand! I thought it was something big, but it's just a trivial matter. You're not even eating your dinner? Hey, come back here..."

Before Tong Rui could finish her sentence, Wu Fan had already run out to peek over the wall.

Next to Wu Fan's house lived an ordinary family surnamed Huang. The man of the house, Old Huang, seemed quite yellow, or else he wouldn't have had seven children. It seemed his wife was pregnant again, always with a big belly... Because the Huang family was very poor, these children couldn't afford to go to school. They usually played in the yard, where the older ones took care of the younger ones, and they even came up with little games to entertain themselves.

What Wu Fan saw now was a very interesting scene. The second son of the Huang family was holding a small wooden bucket with seven sticks inside, each inscribed with the names of the children. He shook the bucket, and whoever's name was shaken out had to be the seeker in the hide-and-seek game. After watching for a while, Wu Fan noticed a problem: all the other children's names were shaken out, but the second son's name never came up.

"Hey! Kid! Come here!" Wu Fan waved to the second son and took out a piece of silver from his pocket, saying, "Tell me why your name never comes up when you shake the bucket, and I'll give you this!"

The kid's eyes lit up. Knowing that Wu Fan was in the Yingyang Guard and wasn't a good person, he quickly wiped his nose and demonstrated to Wu Fan. It turned out that he had rigged the bucket. He had inserted a piece of leftover cake from a wealthy family into the bottom of the wooden bucket. The bamboo sticks were sharp, so he had inserted the stick with his name into the cake, while the others hadn't. Naturally, no matter how much he shook, it would always be someone else's name that came out!

"Ha ha ha! Interesting! Interesting! Heaven helps me! Here!"

Wu Fan laughed uncontrollably, handed the silver to the kid, and took the small wooden bucket. He returned home happily.

Then...

The kid next door secretly called him a fool.

His wife, Tong Rui, called him a fool to his face.

Seeing that Tong Rui was about to grab the silver back, Wu Fan quickly stopped her, saying, "No! No! No! Listen to me first! I forgot to tell you, I've been promoted to a commander, a commander!"

"So what if you got promoted? You just give away silver so easily!," Tong Rui, like an angry mother leopard, pointed out, "How much silver do you get as a commander in a year? We can barely make ends meet, and you're giving silver to others... You're really wasteful! Move aside! For a kid, two coins would be enough, right?"

"Alright, alright, alright! Lady, can you not shout so loud?," Wu Fan said with a bitter face, "I haven't finished talking yet. Consider it a farewell gift for Old Huang. We're moving tomorrow! I bought a new house, on West Street, the one with the two big stone lions at the gate, you know?"

"Really?"

Tong Rui looked at Wu Fan with disbelief.

Wu Fan had to take out a deed from his pocket and show it to her.

After taking the deed, Tong Rui examined it carefully and asked, not about why their names weren't on it, but, "Should we have a few tables?"

Wu Fan was shocked, "When did you become so generous?"

Tong Rui squinted her eyes and smiled charmingly, like a little fox about to steal a chicken, "Moving into a new house, we can collect a lot of gifts, right?"

Wu Fan: "...", what could he say? "A dog can't change its nature"? Too harsh. How about "It's hard to change one's nature"?

Regardless of Tong Rui's calculations, Wu Fan finished dinner and immediately went to the backyard to practice martial arts. This was a daily routine, practicing in the heat of summer and the cold of winter, waking up early and going to bed late. Just as many people in the world envied martial artists for their opportunity to learn martial arts, who could understand the hardships they endured? Learning is like rowing against the current; if you don't advance, you retreat, and the same goes for martial arts.

Tong Rui cleaned up the dishes and started washing Wu Fan's clothes. Indeed, she wasn't the kind of woman who looked elegant and well-read, gentle and refined, but she had her good points. She had stayed with Wu Fan through poverty, supporting him until now, which was something not everyone could do, and it truly moved Wu Fan. Although... what moved him even more was Tong Rui's figure and appearance, yes, they were really excellent, weren't they?

After practicing the Yuyang saber for a while, Wu Fan wiped the sweat from his forehead and approached Tong Rui, his eyes falling into the deep, white, and firm cleavage that occasionally appeared when she bent over... It was truly stunning, completely natural, and tightly squeezed together, rising and falling, swaying, how could one not feast their eyes and be entranced?

[One hand definitely can't hold it, truly top-notch!]

Wu Fan started to think about whether he should immediately arrange the wedding and start a happy life...

"Blood!"

Tong Rui extended her finger, expressionless.

Wu Fan carefully examined her white, tender finger and said blankly, "No, there isn't!"

Tong Rui's face twitched, and she said viciously, "I'm talking about you! You pervert!"

Wu Fan touched his nose and found it cold. Seeing Tong Rui's about-to-explode face, he laughed and ran away, his posture extremely... seductive!

...

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