Chapter 4

Ning Qingxi stared at him for a long time, but she really couldn't figure out what he was up to.

The show-off nodded slightly, gesturing for her to look at his hands.

Those were hands that had been toiled for a long time, with cracks that still oozed blood, thick calluses on their hands, and a yellowish tinge of malnutrition. Their ten fingers were beautiful, slender and long, with rounded nails, but they were always reddish as if they had been frozen.

The show-off said, "If Miss Ning becomes famous and successful, she'll need to make a living with her hands. Wouldn't it be a waste if she got frostbite?"

However, Ning Qingxi wasn't buying it.

Unsolicited kindness is always suspicious; Ning Qingxi has a strong sense of security.

Seeing that she wouldn't listen to reason, Huo Yanci said, "I don't want anything in return from you. You really don't want to take advantage of this opportunity?"

Ning Qingxi: "..."

These words are very tempting to a poor person.

After hesitating for a moment, she took the hot water bottle and said, "Thank you. I'll treat you to a meal another day."

"Oh," Huo Yanci glanced at her leisurely, "You have money?"

Ning Qingxi coughed lightly: "No."

However, there's a trick called "drawing a pie in the sky," and Ning Qingxi was well-versed in it, so she continued to hypnotize him: "Although I don't have money right now, a person can't be poor forever, right?"

"Oh, and who is your father?"

"..."

Damn it, she forgot about that.

“You just said you had high hopes for me,” Ning Qingxi said, “but it seems you were just teasing me.”

She sighed deeply, looking hurt, and left with two hot water bottles in her pocket.

Back in her room, Ning Qingxi collapsed onto the bed. She had been drawing from dawn till dusk for days, and the food she ate was gone in no time. She was starving again in less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn. Lying there now, she truly lived up to the saying that she was suffering from hunger and cold.

Mr. Zhang was very generous and gave her a very large room, but it was very cold inside.

Because the room was large, the heat couldn't get through, so it was very cold. Ning Qingxi lay on the bed and felt colder and colder. She couldn't stand it anymore, so she had to stand up and jump around a bit to stretch her muscles.

"Sister?" Ning Qingyuan heard a noise outside and went out to take a look.

Ning Qingxi estimated the time and asked, "Has Ashan gotten up yet?"

Ning Qingyuan didn't speak, but a muffled voice came from next door: "Sister."

Ning Qingxi was extremely pleased.

Even in the dead of winter, her younger siblings did not develop the bad habit of staying in bed, which is enough to show that her education was very successful.

Why didn't you go to school today?

When Ning Qingxi arrived, she discovered that Zhang Fu had actually hired a private tutor, but the man had no children with him. Since the tutor's salary still had to be paid, she decided to find him some work to do. She couldn't let him take the money for nothing, so Ning Qingxi put the two children in his care without any qualms.

However, these two children were slow-witted. When they were first taught, they almost made the teacher faint with anger. Even now, they can only write their names crookedly, and the characters are extremely ugly. Ning Qingxi watched them write their names and draw them in an unexpected order.

She was quite troubled by the two names that seemed to be filled with evil and the two pairs of expectant eyes. In the end, she could only open her eyes and make up a story: "Not bad, you two have a lot of room for improvement."

Ning Qingshan said, "The teacher said he has something to do today and will not be teaching for the time being. He told us to rest in the room for the day."

Ning Qingxi had no suspicions.

Although these two people are extremely poor at talent, Ning Qingshan probably won't be able to do any work in his life. He spends all his days in bed, bored out of his mind. Now that he finally has something to do, he is naturally eager to do so.

Ning Qingyuan was quite lively. The teacher said that when Ning Qingyuan was studying, her mind was not on the book. Even the appearance of a bud on the magnolia tree outside the window would make her thoughts wander.

However, Ning Qingxi didn't care much.

She didn't have the money to send her younger siblings to school, and guessed they'd only be studying for a few more days and wouldn't become scholars.

Ning Qingyuan placed his hand on the hot water bottle and said curiously, "It's hot."

“Of course,” Ning Qingxi said, scrambling to her feet. “This is called a hot water bottle. You keep it in your hand to warm your hands.”

Ning Qingyuan held on tightly and wouldn't let go, but Ning Qingxi told her to take it outside to play so as not to miss lunch later.

Lunch was served at two tables as usual. One table was for Zhang Fuhu to entertain his distinguished guests, and the other was for the daily meals of the contestants. However, the meals were much more lavish. Since there were only two tables, they were set up together in the front yard reception room.

Ning Qingxi sat down at the table with her younger siblings and said in a low voice, "You are not allowed to eat before the elders have started eating. That's the rule. Do you understand?"

The two children nodded, but it was unclear whether they had taken it all in.

.

"You are not allowed to eat before the elders at the table. That's the rule. Do you understand?"

Huo Yanci heard the whispers behind her and turned around to see Ning Qingxi looking up calmly, sitting upright, waiting for her meal.

However, the food served was all exquisite, something that ordinary families rarely saw except during festivals. For the Ning family, it was even more difficult, and the two children's stomachs kept rumbling.

Zhang Fuhu said, "Thank you all for your kindness. I'll drink tea instead of wine as a sign of my respect!"

"Gurgle gurgle..."

Zhang Fuhu added, "I'm sorry to have troubled you all to make this special trip..."

"Gurgle gurgle..."

Huo Yanci: "..."

He was distracted for a moment, and Zhang Fuhu's teacup was right in front of him, but he didn't even notice.

The noise from next door, with its two voices echoing each other, was getting annoying. After finishing her tea, Huo Yanci interrupted Zhang Fuhu's incessant chatter: "Master Zhang, I'm hungry."

Zhang Fu thought to himself, "What nonsense is this?" Before the meal, they talked, and the small kitchen made a lot of snacks. Huo Yanci didn't respond to their conversation. She just sat there quietly and ate all the snacks with tea, leaving only a jujube pastry, guessing that it was too sweet for her taste.

However, this man seemed completely at ease, without batting an eye. Although Zhang Fuhu had his doubts, he didn't ask, and only said, "Shall we begin the feast?"

Huo Yanci hummed in agreement and took the first bite of lotus root sandwich with her chopsticks.

At the next table, the most senior garden designer, after being persuaded by everyone, finally picked up his chopsticks.

Ning Qingxi sighed.

Ning Qingyuan was born in the Year of the Monkey, and if they don't start feeding her soon, she doesn't know if she can still keep her in check.

Throughout the meal, Ning Qingxi kept serving food to her younger siblings to avoid appearing to break the rules.

After the meal, Ning Qingxi sent the two of them back first, as she planned to refine the blueprints herself.

The second round of competition has been given twenty days.

Twenty days is neither a long nor a short time. It takes an ordinary person an entire afternoon to draw a small park, let alone for them to complete the design of an entire park.

Therefore, twenty days may seem like a long time, but when you actually start writing, you'll find that time is also very tight.

She sat at the table, deep in thought, a brush in her mouth, staring at her drawings.

This is the scene that Huo Yanci saw when she entered the room.

"Young Lady Ning is diligent; I've been searching for her for quite a while."

Ning Qingxi looked up and frowned almost imperceptibly when she saw who it was: "What are you doing here?"

"I brought you some food. I noticed you didn't eat much at the dinner table." Huo Yanci brought out a plate with several delicate pastries. The white pastries were decorated with a few sugar osmanthus flowers and drizzled with honey on top. They looked quite appealing.

Ning Qingxi belatedly realized that she hadn't eaten much at noon, and now, tempted by the sweet taste, she really wanted to eat something.

She pushed the blueprints aside, making room for the plates. Huo Yanci, now free, also had time to look around the reception room.

After looking at it for a while, he commented, "It's like going to school."

Ning Qingxi, who was choking on the pastry and pounding her chest, said with difficulty, "Isn't this like an exam?"

Huo Yanci turned around and realized she had forgotten to bring tea. She turned around, went out, and brought back a pot. Ning Qingxi then swallowed the pastry that was stuck in her throat. The warm food made her feel much better, and even her voice sounded nicer: "You're so thoughtful. It's hard to find a kind person like you anywhere else... By the way, what's your name again?"

Huo Yanci plopped down on the stool in front of Ning Qingxi: "Young Lady Ning, you're not too late to ask that question."

"How could we, ordinary people, ask the name of such an important person?" Ning Qingxi took a bite of osmanthus cake and gulped down a cup of tea before she choked and rolled her head back.

Huo Yanci: "..."

He dodged Ning Qingxi's bite of the pastry: "What a waste."

Ning Qingxi looked at him with a strange expression and asked curiously, "What are you going to do with the pastries? Aren't they for filling your stomach? I've already swallowed them, so why would I waste them?"

Seeing Huo Yanci's speechless expression, Ning Qingxi, who had finally won this battle, turned around to continue wolfing down her food, but was stopped again.

"You should take a small bite of the pastry, then sip some tea, and eat it slowly."

As she spoke, Huo Yanci demonstrated it for her.

Every gesture she makes is elegant.

However, Ning Qingxi began to question his motives: "You wouldn't be trying to eat my pastries and deliberately picking on me, would you?"

Huo Yanci: "..."

That night, all was peaceful. In the front yard, a group of people gathered together, chatting at length about the concept of elegance with Zhang Fuhu, who was illiterate. Suddenly, a furious roar came from the back of the yard: "Stop eating Ning Qingxi!"

A moment later, the notoriously idle and wealthy prince of the capital stormed past and left.

Immediately afterward, Ning Xiao Niangzi, who had been the center of attention all day, peeked out. Facing the puzzled looks of the crowd, she said innocently, "I don't know what happened. I just asked him if he wanted to eat pastries, and he got really angry."

Upon hearing this, everyone had the same thought: "So the rumors were true."

After the person stormed off, Ning Qingxi sat down and continued eating. She picked up a piece of pastry and suddenly remembered what that person had demonstrated for her. On a whim, she took a small bite of the osmanthus cake and discovered that it actually had a filling.

The sweet taste fills the mouth, the green tea is refreshing, and after a sip, the aftertaste is long-lasting.

It seems that the fussy habits of the wealthy are sometimes not without reason.

Ning Qingxi muttered to herself for a long time.

However, she wasn't eating the pastries to savor them; she was there to fill her stomach. So she took a big bite and choked on the rest of the pastries, stretching her neck as she did so.