Rebirth: So what if my husband is a little crazy? He loves me.

Chapter 172 Ah Li Shows Mercy

Shen Li felt an overwhelming sense of guilt when she thought of her past life, and her eyes were filled with apology as she looked at him. If she had followed her heart in her past life, she wouldn't have let him down or herself.

"Why are you getting so worked up about a dream, Ah Li?" Seeing her expression, Gu Chang'an quickly got up, sat down, and took her hand. "Even if a dream is real, it doesn't matter. As long as Ah Li is happy."

"But I'm not happy either." Shen Li leaned against him, nuzzling her head before saying, "I'm only happy when my husband is by my side."

Gu Chang'an couldn't suppress the urge to speak, and immediately said, "I will never leave A-Li, unless I..."

Before he could finish his sentence, Shen Li covered his mouth with her hand and looked at him with an unfriendly expression: "Don't talk nonsense, or I won't let you hold me to sleep tonight."

"Is Ah Li punishing herself?" Gu Chang'an wrapped her arms around her, looked down at her, and smiled.

“That makes sense…” Shen Li realized she couldn’t sacrifice this, so she turned her eyes to think of other ways to threaten him.

"Please have mercy, Ah Li." Gu Chang'an whispered in her ear, "I won't dare to do it again."

As the warm breath blew into her ears, Shen Li felt that his lingering voice was like a hook, as if it wanted to dangle her heart out, and her heart skipped a beat for a moment.

It took her a moment to recover from her bewilderment. She raised her head and hummed softly, "Well, you're smart enough to let me off this time."

"Thank you, Madam." Gu Chang'an looked at her slightly flushed face and found her very cute.

Shen Li was carried to bed, and her only thought after getting into bed was to find that old man Zou and ask him what was going on.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Since taking up her post at the Hanlin Academy, Shen Li has spent little time at home during the day. Although the Hanlin Academy is a sinecure, she still gets home late after her shift ends. She tried to catch Old Man Zou several times but never saw him.

He was always out drinking or gathering herbs, and twice he even went to brothels and didn't come back all night. She was puzzled; at his age, he really had a wide range of hobbies.

"Miss, you don't know this. I heard that the divine doctor is very popular with the girls in brothels. Not only do they not have to pay money, but they are also treated to good food and drinks." Yu Die said, sharing the gossip she had heard.

Upon hearing this, Peony immediately replied, "Yes, I've heard that too. It's said that the divine doctor cured many girls' illnesses."

Shen Li felt a little envious; she hadn't expected the old man to have such a vibrant life at his age, something she herself lacked.

She wanted to hear more, but she had to rush out the door, so she could only wait. As soon as she reached the door, she saw Old Man Zou carrying a wine jar, dressed in disheveled clothes, coming in from outside the gate. He looked drunk.

"Girl, I've finally found you! You haven't been home lately. Have you finished painting those herbs I sent you?" Old Zou's cloudy eyes cleared up when he saw Shen Li, and he hurriedly asked about the painting.

"The senior has returned and has already painted several paintings. I wanted to personally deliver them to you to see, but every time I went there, the senior was not there."

Shen Li said casually, "I think the senior wasn't in a hurry and didn't continue drawing."

Old Zou felt a little guilty upon hearing this, and after his eyes darted around, he said, "I have some free time now, can I take a look?"

"Unfortunately, I was just about to leave. I hope my senior will already be waiting for me when I get home this afternoon."

"That's for sure, for sure," Old Man Zou readily agreed.

Shen Li then smiled and said, "Alright, senior, please take your time. Farewell."

Old Zou was still a little puzzled when he saw her leave. This girl was clearly kind and gentle, but why did he always feel a little afraid of her and unconsciously listen to her?

He scratched his head, also finding it strange.

As they left, Yu Die asked with concern, "Why did you need to see a doctor, Miss? Are you feeling unwell?"

"I..." Shen Li wanted to say that she was feeling unwell, but the question she was asking was not unrelated to her, so out of caution she nodded: "I guess so, but it's not serious."

"Even if it's not serious, you shouldn't delay; you should see a doctor as soon as possible." Yu Die was quite anxious about this.

“Yes, we can’t delay.” Shen Li agreed wholeheartedly; she was determined to find out tonight.

Shen Li has been self-disciplined since childhood and loves reading and understanding the situation in the court and the inner palace. She has never been unable to concentrate on reading, except for today.

She felt that her feelings for Gu Chang'an might be stronger than in her previous life, or perhaps in her previous life she restrained herself with austerity, and because she couldn't eat or sleep well, she didn't want to be in love.

But she's living too well in this life, and even her revenge is going very smoothly. Although she hasn't witnessed Li Heng's death yet, the rumors about the deposed crown prince are rampant. How long can he keep jumping around?

Although the two cases caused quite a stir, they were ultimately tried fairly. With no other thoughts on her mind, all she could think about was Gu Chang'an, which made her feel both amused and exasperated.

She had never heard of anyone falling in love after getting married.

The morning passed neither quickly nor slowly. After lunch, I needed to copy several important memorials that the emperor had approved and wanted to keep on file.

She casually flipped through a memorial sent to the capital from Henan Province, and then her expression gradually became serious. It was a memorial submitted by the Henan Provincial Governor requesting funds from the imperial court to dredge the river.

If she remembered correctly, the cleanup and dike-building efforts were ineffective, and when summer arrived, the river breached its banks, flooding more than a dozen villages and surrounding farmland.

As a result, people were displaced, plagues raged, and people sold their children to survive. There were even cases where a bag of rice or flour could be exchanged for a living person.

The imperial treasury was not full, and disaster relief officials were corrupt, which led to many disaster victims rebelling. Although troops were sent to suppress the rebellions, the losses were still heavy that year, resulting in the treasury being basically in deficit.

In her previous life, she didn't know the reason, but there were only two possibilities for the breach: either corruption caused the dike to be of poor quality, or the people in charge of managing the river were incompetent.

She should remind Gu Chang'an when she gets back that while the money can be allocated, the repair of the river channel should still be taken seriously.

She copied down the contents of the memorial word for word, memorizing almost everything. After putting it back, she copied another copy. Finally, she had something to do that afternoon.

Back at her residence, she was still thinking about the river embankment. The best solution was for the imperial court to send suitable people to manage the river, rather than leaving it entirely to local officials.

When they got home, Lianqiao helped Shen Li change her clothes while asking, "Tomorrow is the first day of the lunar month, a day of rest. What would you like to do, Miss? I'll go and prepare in advance."

"I'll ask your parents later. If they're not busy, we could go for a trip to the countryside." Shen Li thought for a moment and said, "Hiking or fishing would be nice."

"That's great, it'll get hot soon if we don't play now." Peony was very happy to hear this.

"What if the master is busy with official duties?" Yu Die asked.

Shen Li looked at her: "So what do you want to do? Go out shopping and listen to music?"