Bumpkin's Rich Handsome Husband

“I bet you’re fantasizing about life being like this one day.” Miguel shoved his hands into the pockets of

his trousers and sighed. “Love makes a man go crazy, I guess. I’ve never seen you lift a finger to clean

up anything anywhere, but here you are scrubbing dishes in your future-mother-in-law’s kitchen. I’m

telling you, if word of this gets back to Bloomstead, all the women who have their eyes set on you will

be devastated, not to mention become extremely jealous of Veronica.”

“Shut your trap,” Matthew drawled. He washed his hands and spun on his heels to leave the kitchen.

However, he had only just reached the living room when Skyler stood up and flashed a mischievous

grin at him, saying, “There you are, Matt! Veronica’s father was just saying how we could use more

firewood in this weather. Could you run out to the front yard and chop up the pile of wood there?

Thanks.”

“Hey, I did not—”

Tony was about to deny this when Caleb interrupted him, “Yeah, I heard Master Crayson mention that

there isn’t enough firewood, too.”

Thermostats were uncommon in small towns like these, so to keep out the cold, most houses here had

closed furnaces installed with a pipe that vented out the smoke through a hole in the wall.

“Works for me,” Master Crayson said nonchalantly as he took a long drag of his cigarette. He looked at

Matthew steadily and added, “Your buddies were telling me how much you wanted to experience life in

a small town, so here’s your big chance. Go out to the yard and chop up some firewood.”

“Huh?” Veronica gaped at Crayson in astonishment. No matter how she looked at it, the old man was

picking on Matthew for the sake of amusement. She immediately stood up and said, “Master Crayson,

you can’t possibly have a guest do the work, can you? Dad wouldn’t like it.”

It was hard to imagine someone like Matthew, who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, chopping

up firewood. The thought of it was absurd, and more importantly, Veronica couldn’t bear to have him go

through the labor.

“He might be a guest, but you’re my disciple, you brat! He’ll have to go through me if he really likes you.

I have no plans on letting the both of you see each other if he can’t do a simple job such as chopping

up firewood!” Crayson huffed as he waved his hand dismissively, then looked away without saying

anything else.

He had made his intentions clear, and even Daniella did not bother countering him. She knew how

much Veronica meant to him and that he saw her as his own daughter. Thus, it was only normal that he

would try to gauge just how far Matthew was willing to go to prove his feelings for Veronica.

Daniella had to agree that this was a clever way of going about assessing someone.

“What? He likes Roni?” Tony was the only one in the house who had no idea of this, and it showed. He

shot a blank look in Crayson’s direction, then at his wife. Finally, he gazed at Veronica and Matthew in

confusion, then asked, “Why didn’t I know about this?”

“Because all you ever care about is food,” Daniella pointed out in mock exasperation as she glowered

at him.

“Master Crasyon, you—”

Veronica began to protest, but Crayson snapped, “Keep quiet and stay out of this!”

“It’s fine. I’m always up for a little exercise, anyway.” Matthew suddenly spoke up, not at all bothered.

He asked Veronica, “Where do you keep the ax?”

“I…” She wanted to dissuade him from going through with this ridiculous demand. She was only too

aware of the discrepancy between her social status and his. If he was the one who was out of her

league, then there seemed little point in testing him this way.

“Could you show me where you guys keep it?” Matthew went on to ask, sounding completely unfazed.

As courteous as he was, she did not miss the authoritative tone underlying his words.

“Okay, come with me,” she said, finally caving in.

She led him out of the living room and into the store room, then found the ax. She passed it to him, but

when he grabbed the hilt, she did not let go. Instead, she eyed him gravely and said, ‘You don’t have to

listen to Master Crayson, you know. My parents would never let you do something like this, so why are

you going through with this just because he asked you to?”

Matthew’s obsidian eyes glittered with amusement as he reached out and tousled her hair gently.

“Because I want to be with you and I want your family’s blessings, including Master Crayson’s.”

Crayson had seen Veronica grow up, and he had trained her in martial arts as well. He deserved every

bit of respect as a parent would.

“That’s fine and all, but you’ve never worked a day in your life. How are you going to chop up firewood?

You don’t even know how exhausting it is.”

“Yeah, well, there’s a first time for everything, right?” Matthew pried her fingers off the hilt of the ax and

walked out toward the fence at the front yard.

There was a huge stretch of concrete land to the left of the entrance, but to the right was earthy ground

where a pile of thick logs were laid. On top of these was a canvas tarp weighed down by snow.

Matthew found a level spot and propped up a chopping block. He placed a log on it, then swung his ax

down and split the wood.