Contentment with modest wealth

Chapter 103 What to do if you can't fool them?
Lu Jia stared at Shen Qingzhou, nearly biting off her own tongue.

"……what?"

"I say, you left the capital at the age of five, so why are you so confident about everything that happened after you arrived in the capital?"

Beneath the tree, Shen Qingzhou, reclining in a deck chair, glanced at her sideways, holding a cup of tea to his lips, his expression unreadable. "Your father is a high-ranking official; it's not so easy to find out about the Lu family's affairs, is it?"

"I think you're more capable than me."

Lu Jia had no idea that Shen Qingzhou would pay attention to this.

From the time she met him and revealed her background to him until now, they had always worked together seamlessly. Although she knew that she often unconsciously revealed her true self, he always remained calm, so she took it for granted and even thought that he didn't care about these things at all.

what happened to him?
“I have a good memory. The memory of being abandoned back then is too vivid for me to forget. Besides, since I became rich, I have sent many merchant ships to the capital to inquire about information for me.”

Lu Jia's memory is quite good. Even without those five years in her previous life, her childhood memories haven't been erased. So she's not entirely lying.

It was the truth to ask merchant ships for information, and it wasn't exactly lying.

Shen Qingzhou looked at her: "But you speak Mandarin quite fluently. Did you learn it in advance?"

Lu Jia stopped abruptly.

Just how much of his mind is he hiding?
She said, "You know how many merchants come and go from the north and south at Shawan Wharf, so it's not that hard for me to learn a few phrases."

This is somewhat of a lie, but if he insists on getting to the bottom of it, he shouldn't be blamed for making things up.

"Since you've prepared so thoroughly, you should have started planning this much earlier. Why are you only beginning this year?"

Shen Qingzhou's gaze was fixed on her. "From the moment I met you until now, you've taken one step after another, without missing a single one. Your abilities are evident. You don't seem like a coward at all."

"Why didn't you take action during those ten years before?"

"I hadn't met you before, had I? It was after meeting you that I felt like a tiger with wings."

Lu Jia patted his arm reassuringly as she said this: "Don't worry, I know you've been working hard. I'll give you a raise starting next month."

"By the way, since I'm planning to bring Mother and Yi'er to the capital, I need to buy some household items. I don't know if this house can be rented long-term. If not, I'll have to find another place. You'll be very busy from now on."

Lu Jia didn't want to continue that topic.

The housekeeper she hired was someone who could perfectly implement every step of her plan and maximize its effectiveness.

If it weren't for him, how could the scheme against the Zhang family have succeeded so quickly? And how could it have progressed so smoothly?

Not to mention, he unexpectedly uncovered Su Mingxing in the end.

When Zhou Sheng destroyed the dike and flooded the fields, while they were still investigating the culprit, Qin Zhou had already identified who the murderer was. In the end, the decisive factor in the case was the testimony that Qin Zhou had He Qu bring in.

All of this shows that Qin Zhou is not easily fooled.

She had finally managed to recruit a good helper, but she absolutely couldn't let him discover that she was a strange reincarnated person and then run away in fright.

Shen Qingzhou glanced at the claws on her arm, but seemed not to have heard what she said later: "Before you met me, you stirred up trouble between the Zhang family and Li Er with just a few words, and even beat them half to death."

"Afterwards, I gave Zhang Qi some advice and helped him buy the warehouse, which calmed his anger."

"You also exposed the Zhang family's yin-yang balance and took the opportunity to bring their old rival, Liu Xiyu, over to them."

"I can't take credit for these things. Besides, they were all done before I met them."

He persisted so persistently that Lu Jia had no choice but to withdraw her hand: "This is the employer's secret, so please don't ask."

"But if you don't explain clearly, how am I supposed to know if I'm following a notorious thief? How am I supposed to know if you'll lead me to commit crimes?" Shen Qingzhou changed his fist to a fist propped up his forehead and slowly looked at her.

Lu Jia was so angry she almost laughed.

"A notorious bandit? Why don't you call me a demon or monster? This is getting more and more absurd. How could a weak woman like me possibly trick you?"

"That's hard to say," Shen Qingzhou said. "I feel like you're hiding your true abilities. That makes me a little uneasy."

Oh, so you're praising her again?

Still not reassured?

She eats people?!

Lu Jia sat there without saying a word.

She felt she shouldn't stay any longer. The conversation couldn't continue.

So she stood up and went inside.

She quickly walked to the porch, just two steps away from escaping his gaze. Looking at the fluttering gauze curtains in the window, she took a deep breath, but then fell back under the tree.

Have you been curious about me for a long time?

She looked at Shen Qingzhou, who was still sitting quietly under the tree.

Shen Qingzhou gently stirred the teacup in front of him: "It hasn't been that long. My real curiosity started when I entered the capital."

Lu Jia sighed and then sat down: "To tell you the truth, I had a dream a few months ago, a very real dream, in which I dreamt of many things."

If she couldn't keep up the lie any longer, Lu Jia gave up on lying altogether.

Aside from treating Qin Zhou as a housekeeper, he was actually more like a trustworthy friend, and Lu Jia didn't want to treat her friend that way.

From the very first time they met, Qin Zhou showed her kindness, and every time after that, he helped her almost without expecting anything in return.

Although his kindness was somewhat inexplicable, it was still kindness. If Lu Jia didn't secretly enjoy the benefit, would he be foolish enough to dig deeper?
Now that Lu Jia is wealthy, finding several highly skilled guards is not difficult; in fact, she's already planning it. After all, if these people aren't prepared before returning to the Lu residence, things will be very difficult once they're inside.

But Qin Zhou remains an indispensable force for him.

She didn't want to erode the trust between them by constantly dodging these irrelevant matters.

If he absolutely must know, then let's treat her rebirth as a dream; that way, it won't sound too far-fetched.

"'Dream'?"

Before Lu Jia finished speaking, half a cup of tea in Shen Qingzhou's hand spilled out.

Tea dripped down the back of his hand, leaving dark stains on the sapphire blue robe on his knees.

Lu Jia looked at the marks and nodded.

It was just a dream, why was he so shocked?
Thankfully, he didn't mention that he was reborn!

If I told him that, wouldn't he faint from fright?
"What did you dream about?"

Shen Qingzhou looked at her, the water still on her hands, and her throat suddenly felt like it had been burned, making every word hoarse.

“Many.” Now that Lu Jia had accepted this statement, she felt reassured.

She recounted, "I dreamt that six years later—no, less than six years—it was that winter night, and I died there. It snowed heavily that night..."