Reborn Daughter: The Young Lady Wants to Make a Trouble

Two days passed without any major incidents, except for the suffocating tension between the Duke and the Duchess. Every meal was awkward, and there was always one meal missing. Duchess Wang Qixing was present, but Duke Li Chenyang was not.

With a sigh, Li Xueyue sat in her room bored, lazily flipping through the pages of a book. For some reason, there were too many geography books in the library. She had almost memorized the layout of this continent and knew it like the back of her hand.

"How boring..." She muttered, staring blankly at the path leading to the capital. Now she knew the fastest route to Hecheng, Handan and other cities.

When a soft knock came through her room, she straightened up, eager to see who it was. "Come in!" She called out happily, turning and walking towards the door.

Li Chenyang surprised her when he walked in. It was early afternoon and he seldom came home during this time, especially on weekdays.

"Oh, Brother Chen, you're back!" Li Xueyue stood up and greeted him with a smile.

The corners of his lips curled up slightly, revealing a faint smile. "I have good news."

"Really?" she asked, her eyes wide, eager to know what he was going to say.

"Well, there is also some bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?"

“Not good.”

"why?"

Li Xueyue shrugged. "It's better to solve the difficult part first. Besides, the good news later might make me happy. I don't want to be happy and then depressed if the bad news comes at the end."

Li Chenyang nodded, not quite understanding. "You make sense," he said, closing the door behind him.

"So what's the bad news?"

"Well, the first plan was more expensive than we thought."

"Oh." Li Xueyue blinked.

"The good news is that the pirates have agreed to work with us, but for a price."

“That doesn’t make sense.” Li Xueyue frowned. “They’re pirates. Isn’t it good enough that we reveal the routes of the merchant ships they’re going to hijack anyway?”

"Yes, but the Bai family's ships are more heavily guarded than we thought." Li Chenyang said. "The pirates claimed that the Bai family hired guards, so they need money to hire more crew members."

"I see. Are we exposed? For example, do the pirates know that you hired them?" she asked.

Li Chenyang shook his head. "No, they didn't know it was me. The pirates only knew that they were hired by a servant of a noble family. It's common to keep identities secret."

"How do these pirates know we won't let them be captured?"

"Well, we have to pay them half of the promised amount first. When they succeed in looting everything or destroying the goods, they will get the rest of the money."

Li Xueyue snorted, thinking about what she said. "So, how much do they cost?"

"A handful of gold coins, don't worry about that." Li Chenyang responded as he sat down at his usual table and ate some snacks.

"When does the raid begin?"

"They sail off tonight. It should take less than a week," he said.

Li Xueyue raised her eyebrows. "That's really fast."

"Not fast enough. We should start the second step soon. The question is, how to contact the Viscount's disgruntled servants from the capital?" Li Chenyang sighed and leaned his head on his supporting arm. He watched her fiddling with the pages of the book while thinking about how to answer.

"That's a good question..." She trailed off, curling her fingers to rest on her chin. "Oh wait, please tell the pirates not to hurt the Bai workers??"

"I have instructed the pirates to rescue the workers alive."

"In that case, can we contact the workers they brought back alive and hire them as our messengers?"

Li Chenyang hummed, tilting his head as he thought about everything. "In theory, this is a good plan, but how can we be sure they won't tell on us? It would be suspicious to catch them and then randomly ask them about their working conditions."

"Well, pirates usually take other sailors as captives to sell into slavery. We could pretend to rescue these workers and pretend to be the officers in charge of the uh…" She paused, shaking her head for an answer.

"Oh, you mean the Servant Rights Officer?"

"Yes!"

"No such thing." Li Chenyang laughed and shook his head. "No one cares about their servants."

"Well, we're pretty good to our servants aren't we?"

“We are indeed.” Li Chenyang nodded with satisfaction. “They have above-average wages, comfortable living conditions, and they make a living from their work.”

“So why don’t we save these people and employ them?”

“How can this convince the Bai workers in Hecheng to dirty the products?”

Li Xueyue frowned slightly. What he said made sense. She just didn’t know how to tie the rope together.

"How about this?" Li Chenyang suggested, "We send the Li family's most trusted servant to go straight to Hechen Commercial Port to find out where the Bai family stores their import and export goods, and then use our own servants to handle it?"

“Oh, that’s a good idea.” Li Xueyue blinked. “Then what about those captured people?”

“Why should we care about them?”

"Because it's a moral matter." She had a blank expression on her face and stared at Li Chenyang in disbelief, as if he had grown three heads.

"It's cute that you care about morals, but that's not how business works." Li Chenyang smiled and shook his head when he saw her serious look.

"Brother Chen, we can't harm innocent lives—"

"It's too late." Li Chenyang stood up and whispered. "We will let the pirates deal with these people--"

"No." Li Xueyue said firmly, and stood up. "These people have families to take care of, children to feed, and--"

"These people work for our enemies. You can't be a saint to everyone you meet." Li Chenyang frowned and crossed his arms.

"Maybe let them go back to the Bai family."

"These servants are severely punished, either with beatings or torture, and then fired. Worse still, killed for losing the expensive goods they export or import. Do you really think that wealthy families care whether they live or die?" "An ordinary servant?"

She shuddered, as if she had been slapped in the face by his words. Her brows furrowed tightly, and her eyes dropped to the ground. Is it so bad to want to save a life?

Li Chenyang sighed. "Xueyue, you are a good girl with a kind heart, but you chose the wrong time."

“When is the right time to have a kind heart?” Li Xueyue muttered, raised her head, and looked directly into his eyes. She didn’t believe that he didn’t have a trace of morality in his heart to save these servants.

"In aristocratic society?"

She nodded.

His frown deepened. "Never."

"Your kindness is a weakness, if people found out about your heart of gold they would trample on you. Only be nice to others when it benefits you," he scolded, moving closer to her.

"I never said to be nice to everyone, I just wanted to save these workers. It's not like they asked to be raided."

Li Chenyang shook his head. "We won't save them. We'll pretend they don't exist."

Li Xueyue frowned slightly. "I'm sure we can find a use for them—"

"Enough."

She was stunned, her eyes wide open, in disbelief. He had never ordered her like this before.

"This discussion is over." He sighed and headed for the door, but she refused to let him leave until this issue was resolved.

Li Xueyue grabbed his sleeve and forced him to look at her. "We are saving these people," she gritted her teeth.

"Snow Moon——"

"These are not suggestions," she snapped. "They will be useful in the future."

"You want us to waste money housing them? What do we need them for—"

"It will work," she said firmly, leaving no room for argument.

"Your kindness is a weakness!" he shouted, grabbing her hands roughly and forcing her to listen. "Do you really think you can become a good person by saving them? In the end, you still have to use them."

It was hard for Li Xueyue to keep calm after hearing his provocative words. He was furious, and she could see it from the twitching of his jaw and the flash of anger in his eyes. He was not happy at all.

"It's better than letting them rot in the hands of pirates." She said calmly, trying not to frown at the tight grip he held on her hand. It felt like he was going to crush her fingers, but she was just too stubborn to voice her pain.

"Xue Yue!" he groaned. "You have to be reasonable."

"I'm."

“You don’t!” Li Chenyang roared. “We won’t care about these people, this is the final decision.”

“What if they have families to feed?”

"Snow Moon——"

"What if their children are waiting for them to come home? What if he is the sole provider for his parents and his wife's side of the family? What if—"

"Xueyue." Li Chenyang whispered softly, grabbed her shoulders and shook her.

She looked up at him, hopeful for what he was going to say next.

"I. Don't. Care. About. Them," he deadpanned.

Li Xueyue opened her mouth to respond, but he dropped his hands and rushed out of her room.