Chapter 18 Chapter 18 Oh, you will suffer a bloody disaster.

"Miss, it's Master Qin."

Only Qin Chen came.

After he walked in and greeted her with a smile, he immediately saw the notebook she had hidden away. The faintly visible cover seemed to say...

He tilted his head, curious to see more clearly.

Gu Zhizhuo leaned back, completely blocking the notebook with his back.

Qin Chen:?

Gu Zhizhuo glared at him and asked, "Sir, can't you come out?" Qin Chen touched his nose and said, "Yes."

Gu Zhizhuo hung his head listlessly.

Qin Chen said, "On the first day of May, the young master will go to the Taiqing Temple outside the city. This is..." He mouthed the word "Emperor" and said, "It's agreed. The young master said that if there is a girl who is free..."

"Okay!" Gu Zhizhuo was happy again.

After she finished answering, she asked, "Master Qin, do you know of any place nearby where I can repair my bow?"

She only remembered which rouge shop had the brightest color, which embroidery shop had the most fashionable and beautiful patterns, and which pastry shop had the most delicious cakes. She never paid attention to anything else.

"Repair the bow, is this the one?" Qin Chen pointed to the black cloth bag beside Gu Zhizhuo and said confidently, "What's broken? I can fix it!"

"You can?"

Qin Chen straightened his chest and said confidently: "Of course!"

He added, "I'm very good at it. If you go to a blacksmith shop, you will definitely not find anyone who is good at repairing bows. Bows and arrows are the weapons of a country, and no ordinary shop would dare to take on this job. I learned it from the instructor of the East Palace." When he mentioned the two words "East Palace", he also only used lip movements.

That’s right.

Gu Zhizhuo took the bow bag, untied it, and revealed an ordinary black bow inside. He said, "The string is broken."

"Besides, it seems that the calibration is not accurate."

Huh?

Qin Chen only took one look and couldn't move away.

He took it, weighed it in his hand, and first praised it, "Good bow." After carefully testing the string, he said, "The bow shaft is crooked, but the bow string is secondary. It can be repaired."

"Miss Gu, are you using it yourself?"

"right."

"How's your arm strength?"

Gu Zhizhuo: “…”

In her previous life, she had practiced hard, and in the following years she used a crossbow.

But now, after being spoiled for so many years, his arms and legs are so thin that he might not even be able to fully string a five-dou bow.

Suddenly, she felt so disgusted with herself! She sat up straight and emphasized seriously, "I'm practicing."

Qin Chen looked at her pair of delicate, white, and tender hands placed on his knees, without a single callus or wound. He looked at her face, then at her hands, and tactfully said nothing.

Qin Chen patted his chest and assured, "Miss Gu, it will be ready in a moment. I guarantee you'll find it easy to use! Just read the storybook for a while."

"I actually don't like reading storybooks!"

Gu Zhizhuo emphasized.

No matter what she said, Qin Chen just smiled and nodded, trying not to annoy others.

Qin Chen always carried a spare bowstring with him. If he needed any tools, he could just tell Shopkeeper Su and he would just keep his head down and get busy.

Gu Zhizhuo quietly handed the notebook to Qiongfang from behind, motioned her to put it away, and then watched him carefully adjust the bow shaft and change the bowstring.

He moved very skillfully, and the bow was repaired in just half an hour.

Qin Chen handed the black bow back and said confidently, "Try it!"

Gu Zhizhuo tried to pull it and easily reached the full string. She curled her lips in satisfaction.

Very good, let’s practice with this one first!

"Miss Gu." Seeing her smile, Qin Chen leaned over and said shamelessly, "The bloody disaster you mentioned last time... please help me calculate it again!"

Gu Zhizhuo put the bow aside, motioned Qiongfang to bring a pulse pillow, and then said, "Give me your hand."

Qin Chen was stunned: "I'm not sick."

"It's the Taisu pulse." Gu Zhizhuo explained, "'The Taisu pulse is based on the light and clear and the heavy and turbid to determine fate' (note). It can predict good and bad luck, and predict disaster and fortune."

There was no compass or counting rods at hand.

In addition to the compass, what she is best at is the Tai Su pulse.

So that’s it! Qin Chen happily stretched out his hand.

At first glance, Tai Sumai's pulse diagnosis technique was no different from that of a doctor. Gu Zhizhuo placed three fingers on his pulse and lowered his eyes to take a close look.

Hey, this is...

Gu Zhizhuo looked up and carefully examined his face, asked about his birth date, and asked him to change his hand and examined it again, carefully feeling his pulse. After a long while, she withdrew her fingers and calculated something.

Switching from left hand to right hand, and calculating for such a long time, even if Qin Chen was a bold man, he felt a little nervous at this moment.

He asked cautiously, "Can it be resolved?"

"I need to think about it..."

Gu Zhizhuo bent his fingers slightly and tapped the table lightly with his fingertips. Each tap seemed to hit Qin Chen's heart, and his heart beat fast.

"Mr. Qin." Gu Zhizhuo leaned back in his chair, curled his fingers and hooked them at him, then asked with a subtle expression, "Let me ask you, what are your plans for now?"

Qin Chen asked and answered: "I want to go to Xilai Pavilion in front to buy some snacks and bring them back for my aunt to try."

After returning to Beijing, he has not returned home.

After finally settling down, the master gave him a few days off and asked him to go back to see his aunt. He wanted to bring some pastries from Xilai Pavilion for his aunt.

"Then go ahead."

"ah?"

Gu Zhizhuo said, "The furnace at Xilai Pavilion opens at 15:00 sharp. If you don't go now, you won't be able to get in. We'll talk about the rest later."

ah!

He really didn't know when Xilai Pavilion would start working.

"Miss Gu, please wait for me. I'll be back soon! I'll bring you something delicious."

He suddenly stood up and ran away in a hurry.

Xilai Pavilion is an old shop in the capital city. It was very famous in the previous dynasty and is located at the end of Zhuque Street.

Qin Chen always remembered that when he left Beijing, his aunt cried uncontrollably and gave him all the private money she had saved over the years. He promised his aunt that he would take good care of her and buy her some Hongyansu from Xilai Pavilion after returning to Beijing.

He hurried as fast as he could, and when he arrived, the line in front of Xilai Pavilion was already very long. Qin Chen glanced at the end of the line and hurried over to line up.

The Hongyansu at Xilai Pavilion is famous far and wide. Only one batch is made every day and it is sold out as soon as it is opened.

Qin Chen waited in line obediently. He arrived neither too early nor too late. After waiting for a while, he heard the waiter shout, "The furnace is open!"

The fragrant smell filled the entire street.

Qin Chen followed the queue and slowly moved forward. The queue moved very slowly. Finally, it was his turn. Qin Chen handed over a small silver bead and received two boxes of Hongyan pastry wrapped in oil paper.

The person behind him called out, "Boss, give me a box too."

"No more, no more. Sold out today."

The shopkeeper waved his hands repeatedly and smiled warmly: "Sir, please come back tomorrow."

"Gone? How come it's gone?!"

"We only have pine nut and lily puff pastry and duck fat puff pastry. Would you like more, sir?"

A burst of frustrated voices rang out, and the people in the queue began to complain.

Qin Chen paused and grinned, thinking that he was really lucky to have bought the last two boxes.

I gave a box to Miss Gu and then exaggerated it, saying how difficult it was to queue up and buy it, and I guaranteed that she would be satisfied with the food.

If Miss Gu is satisfied, she will pay more attention to the young master's illness.

Qin Chen was happily walking across the street with some snacks in his hand. Halfway through, when he was still in the middle of the road, he heard the sound of horse hooves coming from the end of the street. The sound was fast and urgent, and there were at least three or five horses.

Qin Chen quickly dodged to the side.

When the previous emperor was alive, there was a strict law that horses were not allowed to run freely in the capital. He had been away with the young master for six years, so how come even this rule had changed?

He frowned, too lazy to think about it.

He dodged quickly, but others were not as agile as him. When the people saw the galloping horse, they immediately became chaotic, screaming and running in both directions. A little girl lost her balance and was bumped by someone and fell in the middle of the road.

"Oh." Qin Chen sighed, and rushed forward in two steps, pulling her aside and blocking her behind him.

A black horse with its four hooves stepping on the snow almost brushed past him. The strong wind raised by the horse's hooves blew his black hair into disarray and covered his face with dust.

Qin Chen let go of the girl with lingering fear: "Where are your parents?"

A woman in blue cloth rushed out from the crowd and hugged the little girl in her arms, and the little girl burst into tears.

"Thank you, sir! Thank you, sir!" The woman thanked him repeatedly and left quickly with the girl.

Phew!

The sounds of reining in horses rang out one after another, and several horses stopped one after another.

The five of them, all clutching horsewhips and dressed in splendid attire, looked like the sons of wealthy families. The people of the capital knew their place in the world, and when they saw they couldn't afford to offend them, they kept their distance.

Bad luck!

Qin Chen cursed inwardly, then bowed and called out, "Fifth brother."

He was the illegitimate son of the Earl of Jing'an and the third child in the mansion, and the one who almost hit the girl was his stepmother's youngest son, Qin Luo.

Qin Luo looked distracted, sitting on the horse and looking down at Qin Chen. He hesitated for a moment before remembering who he was.

"Oh, it's Third Brother. What a coincidence, are you back in Beijing?"

"By the way," he slapped the horse's head, causing it to shiver uncomfortably, "that guy has already returned to the capital, and you're still begging and following him back like a lapdog."

After saying this, he started laughing himself.

He pointed his whip at Qin Chen and joked with his companions, "You don't know, my third brother was a very arrogant man back then."

Qin Chen said expressionlessly, "Fifth brother, I have something else to do. I'll take my leave now."

"Errand?" Qin Luo glanced down at the oil-paper bag in Qin Chen's hand, thinking that his errand was to buy cakes. He said arrogantly, "You don't think your humble errand is a treasure, do you?"

"Come here, kneel down and use me as a riding stool. I'll go and plead with my eldest brother and find a way to get you out of this as soon as possible, so that you don't lose your temper and act recklessly, bringing shame to our family."

He had heard his eldest brother and his staff talking a few days ago about finding a way to get Qin Chen a new job. His eldest brother said that while Gongzi Chen might seem impressive now that he'd been linked to the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion, he was afraid the emperor would find it even harder to tolerate him. If the emperor decided to take action, their uncle's mansion would also be implicated because Qin Chen was Gongzi Chen's associate.

What a troublemaker.

He is already sixteen years old and still has no job. It must be because of Qin Chen's involvement!