Ch47.2 - Widespread Reputation (Part Two)

Editor: malaysian_asian

Proofreader: Lia 

George peeked at Cui QiChao from over his tea cup, thinking to himself that it was rare for a young Baron to be both handsome and rich. He subconsciously blurted out his ulterior motive for coming here, “Your Excellency is not married yet?”

Cui QiChao paused, “No.”

In this day and age where most nobles were engaged since their youth, it was very rare, but Cui QiChao had been in the East for a long time.

George perked up and said, “I can introduce you to a good candidate. One of my wife’s sisters was the Lord of Sanok’s wife, but she was recently widowed this year and inherited his property and land. She is looking for a new husband to inherit it all from her.” 

This was the first time Cui QiChao had encountered this type of situation. His stewards couldn’t possibly introduce him to a partner and, while the archbishop had been slightly worried about it, he thought Cui QiChao could just get married later in life. It would be best if Cui QiChao found his perfect match.

Cui QiChao didn’t even spare a thought for it and said, “Your Excellency, thank you for the kindness, but I do not need it.”

“Ah, you don’t like mature women?” At his answer, George unexpectedly let out a mischievous smile. “I understand. In fact, I wanted to introduce her first because she had a lot of wealth and I thought you would prefer it more, but if she is not to your taste, I also have a 14-year-old daughter. She is as beautiful as my wife, but younger and more tender. How about it? She could be a perfect match for you!”

Cui QiChao: “……”

George did not even take into account how fast his position in his family would change when proposing to matchmake Cui QiChao. Initially, he wanted to introduce a girl to the Baron and become brothers-in-law, but now he wanted to be Cui QiChao’s father. “The gift I brought here was prepared with my daughter’s help.”

As he was speaking, he asked the attendant to bring in the box and open it.

As soon as the box entered the hall, Cui QiChao noticed something, “This is…”

There were several holes in the box, and animal calls faintly emitted out from it. As soon as the lid was opened, there were dozens of densely packed cats that were tied up in all sorts of colors. With a sweeping glance, he could tell that there were more than ten or twenty cats. 

Once the cats were out of the dark environment, they were surrounded by strange humans. Hence, these cats loudly meowed.

George said proudly, “I heard that Your Excellency likes abusing cats the most. We specially caught all the cats near the fief. I hope you like it.”

Cui QiChao: “……”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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The kitchen was located in the same yard and Lily soon arrived.

Cui QiChao said: “This is my small… personal hobby. Unexpectedly, everyone seems to know about it, haha.” He decided not to add salt to William’s meat in the future, “I’ll take heed when using it. Lily, take these to the kitchen first. Do you know what to do? Don’t let them make noise.”

Lily responded, trembling. Her thin body dragged the huge wooden box to the canteen. The sight of her dragging the cats was simply unbearable to the eye. It’s strange that the Baron let a maid do such a thing. However, since the maid seems to be from the kitchen and the Baron’s words seem to hold a different meaning, it seems that these cats are bound to be miserable. Alas, too bad they were so unlucky. 

“I’m so happy to see that Your Excellency likes our gift,” George said with deep meaning. Obviously, he thought Cui QiChao was also slightly interested in what he proposed.

Cui QiChao immediately said, “Your Excellency is too thoughtful. I’ll give Your Excellency a gift in return. Steward, go and get some brown sugar.”

George’s eyes widened in an instant. Brown sugar? Tristan wouldn’t really want to recognize him as his father on the spot, right? If he didn’t want to do so, how can he be so generous? He has never met a situation where he could get some brown sugar in return by giving some cats.

George’s territory was not particularly rich. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have to give such things as a gift. 

The steward wrapped a bag of brown sugar. When George had grabbed the brown sugar, Cui QiChao pressed on his hand. He uttered, “The archbishop has other arrangements for my wedding, but I thank Your Excellency’s and Your Excellency’s daughter very much for your efforts. I hope you can understand.”

“Of course, of course…” George murmured. Why was he so accepting of the rejection? The Baron of Northumberland just gave him brown sugar! A whole bag of brown sugar! Of course, he wouldn’t mind Cui QiChao rejecting him. It wouldn’t even be a problem if Cui QiChao wanted to discard him after having intercourse with him!

Moreover, when Cui QiChao mentioned the archbishop, George suddenly understood why they were not short of brown sugar. The church opened a sugar factory. George thought that even without the trading place, Cui QiChao would still be capable of getting a lot of brown sugar. Thus, George and company had really taken advantage of Cui QiChao, given that he let them accompany him to the trading place. George was not dissatisfied at all.

After dinner, Cui QiChao took him to see the knights conducting their drills. The strength of the knights utterly caused George to be convinced. He said repeatedly, “If I catch a cat again in the future, I’ll bring it to Your Excellency. Your Excellency is really a generous person, and you’re really like my big brother…” 

Cui QiChao: “……”

Cui QiChao: “It’s not required. After all, cats are evil. I will feel unease letting Your Excellency’s men get embroiled in peril again and again. It will also seem that the people in my territory are useless. In the past two years, many fief’s grains have been invaded by demons. I think it’s better for everyone to courteously keep a distance from one another.”

If Cui QiChao didn’t stop him from doing this right now, what if everyone came to send him cats in the future?

“It makes sense, it makes sense. This, brother…” George can’t be his father-in-law, but it’s good to become brothers with Cui QiChao. 

Cui QiChao pretended not to hear it: “I’ll arrange a room at the back for you. It’s quieter there.”

When Cui QiChao finally sent George away, Lily was sitting on the box, and the cats in it were silent. She kept watch over them all the time, watching Cui QiChao arriving. Afterwards, she hurriedly stood up and opened a crack in the box.

Cui QiChao glanced inside. As for why the cats weren’t calling out, it was because they were eating something inside…

Lily was afraid of being seen by someone and quickly put down the lid. 

“Sigh,” Cui QiChao had a headache, “Move the box to my room first.”

Lily called two male servants and moved the box outside the Lord’s residence. After sending them away, she opened the door. There were three cats sleeping inside, and it wasn’t good if someone saw them.

The servants had long been used to the Baron’s solitude and how he never liked to be served by servants. It was unlike normal nobles. They left without a word.

As soon as Cui QiChao entered, the three cats woke up. 

Lily pushed the box in and said happily, “All of you have new pals.”

XiaoBai: “?”

Before Cui QiChao could stop her, Lily had opened the box. The pile of ropes that tied the cats were tied on another rope. This rope was wrapped around the lock. All of a sudden, there were so many cats. The trio, including XiaoBai, all blew up at them, “Meow!”

When the box was opened, more than 20 cats ran out and tried to hide in the corner. There were also some who provoked the indigenous cats. 

XiaoBai had gone crazy. There were so many cats here. How could it abuse all of them?

Cui QiChao: “Okay, calm down——”

It was unable to calm down. XiaoBai already felt that it’s shameful for it to live with DaBai and DaJu. However, they are still its blood-related brothers in this world and he could only bear with it. At first, the cats numbering over twenty here were nothing to it, but they dared to challenge it. XiaoBai wanted to rush up and beat them… But he calmed down and chose to scream at Cui QiChao instead.

“XiaoBai is so clever. It knows that being fierce to the other cats is useless, and it has to speak to milord for milord to make a decision.” Lily praised XiaoBai. 

Cui QiChao felt like a scum man being interrogated. He lethargically said, “These cats are sent by others. They will only stay here temporarily. When people leave, they will be released to a distant place.”

He could only hide three cats from the others at most. How can he hide so many cats? If they were ever found out, everyone could only be burned by the fire together.

XiaoBai was relieved that it didn’t have to share the room with so many wild cats. He meowed proudly.

When the cats were full, they became unhappy about being tied up. They started to meow. People who weren’t aware thought that Cui QiChao abused ten cats all night. There was nothing to destroy in the room. Cui QiChao rolled up his bedding to avoid it getting dirty, and let the cats move about. 

XiaoBai immediately took his mat away and also gave it to Cui QiChao to put away.

DaBai and DaJu had no opinions. It was the first time they had ever seen so many of their own kind. Surprisingly, they started to play together with the other cats.

Cui QiChao let Lily return first. He sat by the window with only one slit open and deliberated about who he should choose to deal with the cats. After thinking for a long time, he realized that he couldn’t even trust Raymond.

However, although humans are not trustworthy, animals are. Cui QiChao thought, maybe he can find an excuse to take the cats out alone into the forest and let the XiaoBai grab the cats by the collar and release them. He can claim that he was abusing them and throw them away. XiaoBai will not release itself to the wild and will come back when it is done doing its job. 

“XiaoBai, XiaoBai, come here and let me say something to you…” Cui QiChao turned his head and found two black cats squatting in front of him.

There were more than 20 cats in the room with all kinds of colors. And it wasn’t as if XiaoBai’s coat color was very special either. Cui QiChao was stunned for a moment and almost couldn’t distinguish which cat was XiaoBai. Unless the difference in size was very large, he wouldn’t be able to distinguish the cats if the fur color and facial features were the same.

The two cats looked the same. If he chose the wrong cat, XiaoBai would definitely go crazy again. Cui QiChao said quietly, “XiaoBai, come here. What are you doing with it?”

The two black cats did not move but stared at Cui QiChao coldly. 

Cui QiChao thought that XiaoBai may have discovered that he couldn’t recognize it…

The sounds of “ripping” sounded out. It sounded as if someone was scratching the wooden bed boards. Cui QiChao tilted his head and saw a third black cat lying on the bed board, grinding its claws.

Cui QiChao: “……”

Cui QiChao: “XiaoBai?” 

XiaoBai yelled: “Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow!!!”