FID – Chapter 1026

Chapter 1026: She Gave Him Ten Doses of Courage

  That hand was fair and delicate, well cared for.

  From just that hand, one could see the nobility of its owner.

  It formed a striking contrast with the small hands she held—dirty, half-caked in mud.

  Yet there was not a trace of disgust on the elderly woman’s face. She gripped the little hands tightly, seemingly worried the children might stumble and fall.

  In the fields, the villagers relaxed, smiling as they continued planting rice seedlings.

  Grandma Liu drew her gaze back, her face still smiling; she never doubted the Empress Dowager would lose her composure.

  That old lady had a sharp tongue but a tender heart, especially powerless against small children.

  Guided and steadied by the little ones, the Empress Dowager moved quite swiftly along the narrow, slippery ridge that barely fit one person.

  By the time she reached Grandma Liu, the children scattered with a whoosh, darting through the fields and ditches to play once more. To them, helping the elderly lady had been a purely innocent act.

  Grandma Liu pointed at the bundles of seedlings piled by the edge of the field. “Don’t just stand there. You’ve all come this far—help toss the seedlings. Just throw them near us.”

  “I know what to do, no need for your instruction,” the Empress Dowager said, bending down to pick up the seedlings and start tossing them near the planters.

  She could master such a simple task at a glance. The boisterous old lady’s extra warning only made her seem foolish.

  It was just a matter of following the straight lines of their planting, tossing seedlings from one end to the other.

  The Empress Dowager felt fully capable and even shooed away Chen Xiulan and Du Juan, who had come to toss seedlings alongside her.

  Such a small pile of seedlings was more than enough for her to handle alone.

  Bend, pick up, toss.

  Bend, pick up, toss.

  A quarter of an hour later, her face had fallen. Her waist was beginning to stiffen, but she couldn’t admit it.

  Earlier, she had selfishly sent everyone away; if she now called them back, wouldn’t she truly look incompetent and be laughed at by the boisterous old lady?

  Besides, so many villagers were watching her; she couldn’t afford to drop face in front of them.

  Grandma Liu and the other Liu family members were still planting seedlings, paying her no attention for the moment.

  Accustomed to farm work, tossing seedlings was the simplest task for them. It was barely tiring. They never expected the pampered Empress Dowager to last less than fifteen minutes.

  Forcing herself to straighten her waist again, the Empress Dowager lifted her eyes and looked at the scattered piles of seedlings around the fields, her expression shifting.

  Even without counting the dozen or so acres of the entire farm, judging by the planting speed of the boisterous granny and Liu Dalin and Liu Erlin, they could finish at least three acres by mid-morning.

  That meant she had to toss seedlings for three acres.

  She now wanted to return to the main courtyard.

  Her eyes unconsciously flicked toward Qin Xiao.

  The old man was still working diligently over there, completely unaware of her exhaustion.

  Had he forgotten that he was essentially her bodyguard now?

When she needed assistance, he should be coming to her aid—how could he not even glance her way?

  How negligent!

  She really didn’t understand how he had ever become a Grand General. He possessed not the tiniest bit of awareness at all!

  “Ahem!” the Empress Dowager coughed.

  Her voice wasn’t loud enough; no one in the fields reacted.

“Ahem, ahem!” The second time she coughed, her eyes widened in frustration.

  If it weren’t for the unbearable pain in her bent-back, making it feel like her spine would snap, she wouldn’t humiliate herself like this.

That old Qin, he clearly heard her yet ignored her! 

His skills rivaled Feng Qingbai’s; there was no way he couldn’t hear her obvious coughs.

Fuming, the Empress Dowager stopped coughing and aimed the remaining bundle of seedlings in her hands directly at Qin Xiao.

  The distance was a bit far, and she hadn’t aimed properly—one of the seedlings plopped down right in front of the old man.

  But the mud splashed up perfectly, covering his head and face.

  Seeing that, the Empress Dowager felt thoroughly satisfied.

  She set down the remaining bundle of seedlings, wiped the mud off her face with her sleeve, and watched as the Grand General straightened up and looked at the old lady standing on the narrow field ridge, pretending nothing had happened. He smiled good-naturedly and, splattered with mud, walked toward her.

  The Empress Dowager feigned calm, turning her head elegantly to look at the scenery, saying nothing as Qin Xiao approached.

  Was he still going to get angry with her? She had given him ten chances.

  The Grand General reached the Empress Dowager, reached out with his long arms to scoop up the small mound of seedlings, and with a swing, flung them.

  Half of the little mound scattered in a neat, chaotic pattern across the field, leaving the Empress Dowager dumbfounded.

  “You’re flinging them so fast—why didn’t you come help earlier?”

  “I thought you wanted to play,” the man said helplessly.

  “…” The Empress Dowager cleared her throat lightly. “Since you’re flinging them so fast, I’ll leave the rest of the seedlings to you. Finish quickly so we can go back and eat.”

  “Alright,” the man replied, his gaze toward her brimming with indulgence and warmth.

  Though he immediately lowered his head to continue working, concealing the emotions flickering in his eyes, that brief moment was enough for the Empress Dowager to clearly see everything held in his expression.

  Her heart seemed to be tugged at by something, trembling heavily.

  Panicked, the Empress Dowager stumbled backward.

  The ridge was narrow; one step back and there was the flooded paddy. She lost control and toppled backward.

  Even with Qin Xiao’s quick reflexes, he could only grab her arm just in time to prevent her from falling completely into the water, but he couldn’t save her embroidered shoes.

  They were completely caked in mud.

  The sudden scene left the onlookers stunned. When they saw the Empress Dowager glaring at her muddy shoes, they couldn’t stop laughing.

  She was genuinely staring at the shoes as if they were some kind of monster, utterly incredulous.

  The cold, sticky feeling from her feet made her want to immediately kick off the shoes and throw them away.

  But she was the Empress Dowager; she absolutely could not act like that. She couldn’t behave as casually as Grandma Liu and the other village women, who could simply take off their shoes and step barefoot into the mud in front of everyone. All her life, she had been taught that a woman’s feet must never be seen by anyone other than her husband.

  She could only endure the discomfort, her face flushing bright red with anger. Lifting her gaze, she glared at Qin Xiao, who was still standing beside her. Right now, what she wanted most was to smash her muddy shoes into his face.

  It was his fault she had been startled and ended up in such a disgraceful state.

  In front of so many people, why did he have to look at her like that? If he wanted to hide his feelings, then he should hide them completely. She shouldn’t be able to see even a hint of them.

  Thinking of this, the Empress Dowager’s face grew even redder in a way that was far from normal. She knew perfectly well that Qin Xiao hadn’t been hiding anything for a long time.

  “Get back to work!” she snapped at him in flustered irritation. She steadied herself and turned away, refusing to look at him again.

  Watching her retreating figure and taking in all her frantic reactions, Qin Xiao’s eyes darkened slightly. He said nothing and returned to his previous spot to continue planting the seedlings.

  Too much was as bad as not enough; he understood that principle well.

  Meanwhile, Grandma Liu finished planting the handful of seedlings in her hand and shuffled over, muttering as she came.

  “Honestly, how can you be so careless? The ridge is tiny, narrow and slippery. If you don’t watch your step when you move, of course you’ll slip off either side. Fortunately Qin grabbed you in time, or you’d have fallen into the mud just like Zhiqiu and turned into a walking mud doll.”