Chapter 46: Jade Rabbit and Scandal: Food and Medicine

This pill took effect faster than any Adrian had taken before. In a matter of moments, the fatigue on his face had mostly vanished. His steps were no longer frivolous, and he no longer had to pretend to be calm.

"Whenever anyone asks me about our relationship in the future, I will say that you are my lover." On the way back, Alice brought up the old topic again, clarifying their secular relationship.

"Yes." Adrian emphasized calmly, "I'm yours." Anything is fine.

Being a lover is also a kind of status.

"I already said we're lovers. I won't hide our relationship," Alice noticed the occasional glances from the people beside her, and found it a bit amusing. "If you want to be close, then be close."

He wanted to point out that England was nowadays very harsh and harsh on unmarried ladies in matters of the sexes, but the lady was clearly not afraid of that. He simply replied, "Okay."

After saying that, he took a step to the left to completely close the gap between them, lowered his head and put his fingers into Alice's hand. Not feeling it was not enough, he drilled in a little further before holding it tightly against his palm.

Pleased by the man's subtle thoughts, Alice leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. This brought a slightly reserved blush to Mr. Believer's face, and the corners of his lips, which he couldn't suppress even with a tight pursed mouth.

We walked along the main thoroughfares, such as Piccadilly and Shaftesbury Avenue, which were bustling with carriages and pedestrians.

The unusual intimacy between the two was seen by others.

If passers-by in other places in London might not recognize Alice, but in the area around Bond Street, almost everyone recognizes this famous figure in London, England, and even Europe.

Mr. Moran, the rector of the neighboring Soho parish, who was famous for his good looks and kindness to the poor, was also recognized.

They could all feel the scrutiny from all around them. Alice could even hear the well-dressed people whispering, "Is that Miss Alice? Why is she cuddling with a man in the street? It's ridiculous." "And more than just cuddling, I saw them kissing. Oh my God! And the one kissing was a respectable and prestigious member of the church! This is pure blasphemy!"

Neither party cared and they held hands all the way back to their residence.

"Miss Alice, I'm going to go back and pack some clothes." Adrian spoke as he approached the house where the two of them lived side by side.

She wouldn't refuse something that was delivered to her door. She rubbed his knuckles and replied, "Okay, I'll have someone clear out a section of the bedroom closet for you to put your things in."

The gentleman said he was going to clean up, but he was reluctant to let go of the hand he was holding.

"I'll go with you?" Alice looked at him mockingly.

"Okay." The man immediately responded.

The next door room was as clean and tidy as when she first visited it.

"Sir, you're back." John happily opened the door after hearing the knock on the door, and saw another person he didn't expect, "Miss Alice!"

John subconsciously lowered his head as the two people's shoulders rubbed against each other and saw their tightly clasped hands. "You...Mr., Miss Alice, this is really great!"

He thought the gentleman would have to work hard for a long time before he could send him out, and he couldn't help but say happily, "Will I be able to call you Madam soon?"

"I am Miss Alice's lover." The man glanced at him, his expression still serious, but his tone was faintly proud.

"Huh?" John was confused. Is he following Miss Alice without any status? What is he so proud of?

"John, go pack up my important belongings and daily clothes. I'm going to move in with Miss Alice." Without waiting for him to say anything else, Adrian ordered the butler to do his job.

"Oh, yes, sir," John agreed, and hurried upstairs.

After the servants left, Adrian took Alice's hand and led her to sit on the sofa in the living room.

Alice immediately leaned over the man sitting next to her, leaning forward like a boneless person, and flipped the layers of decorative folds on his scarf. "Just tell me what you want next time. I might not 'understand' you next time, okay?"

She looked up, and Adrien caught her gaze and nodded slightly: "Yeah."

"I'll tell you." He added, tightening his grip on his clasped hands.

The ambiguous atmosphere grew invisibly as the two looked at each other. Adrian swallowed and opened his lips to speak.

"Sir, I've packed everything." John came down from upstairs carrying two suitcases.

"Hahaha." Alice covered her lips with her hands and laughed so hard that she fell backwards, unable to contain her joy.

The sharp-eyed young lady had obviously known about it for a long time, but seeing the man fall in love, she could hardly control herself. She mustered up the courage to make a request, but was then ruthlessly interrupted.

"Miss Alice." There was a hint of grievance in the man's calm tone.

"Sir, here are your luggage. I'll go pack mine right away." John put the suitcase in the corner and went to his room.

"Why are you packing your luggage?" Adrian frowned.

"I'll move with you." John said.

"No, you still live here. Someone will call you if anything happens."

"Ah, but sir..." The servant still wanted to fight for it.

"There's no room for you over there."

John is really too loud sometimes, Adrian thought.

Carrying the luggage to the new bedroom, Adrian opened the boxes and put them in order.

The painting of the rabbit and the roses was hung on the wall opposite the four-poster bed. She liked it and had no objection to it.

"You still keep this rabbit." A familiar wicker rabbit was placed neatly at the head of the bed.

"This can be considered as a token of our love." Adrian carefully adjusted the position of the rabbit and answered as a matter of course.

"But..." Alice deliberately dragged out her tone, "I clearly remember that a certain gentleman flatly refused."

"Miss, please, don't tell me over and over again that I'm the stupidest person in the world." The man, whose pain was touched, gave up on himself and hurled venomous words at himself, "You could have grasped happiness and found your true soul's home long ago, but you turned a blind eye and chose to become a blind vagrant."

"Well, Mr. Tramp, now you have a home." The lady sitting at the end of the bed, swinging her legs, said casually.

Upon hearing this, the gentleman's expression softened and he responded softly.

By the time they had finished cleaning up, it was almost time for dinner. The dishes on the table were quite different from the roasted beef and mutton they had had at noon; they were oysters cooked in various ways. There was even a bowl of oyster soup with red wolfberries floating on top.

"Mr. Moran, please use more." Mary warmly welcomed the new family member. "Influenced by Alyssa, I also read some Eastern medicine books. Today, time is limited, so we can only buy oysters, which are good for nourishing the body."

"This little red fruit is a new Chinese medicinal ingredient I've learned. Stewing it together should be very beneficial for your health." She instructed the servant to serve a bowl of oyster soup to the gentleman sitting opposite her, and sighed, "The knowledge I've learned should indeed be put into practice."

"Thank you." The polite man didn't know whether he should drink the bowl of soup in front of him and felt a little embarrassed looking at it.

Alice, watching the fun, added fuel to the fire. She leaned over to the man and whispered, "Eat it. This little bit is nothing compared to the medicine you took this afternoon."

The man's face flushed crimson, and the four sisters watching suddenly understood what it meant to be cold on the outside but warm on the inside.

The combination of food and medicine made the nights a torture. Yet, the culprit was still too busy applying ointment to the man who was suffering from internal and external heat.

After only half a day, the scars on Adrian's face and body hadn't healed quickly. Alice prepared a topical ointment for him in the townhouse pharmacy that evening. It would heal almost completely in about twenty minutes. After half an hour, there would be no trace left.

The young lady, who could have applied the ointment instantly with a spell, deliberately played with him, but instead, she applied it piece by piece by hand. This was Adrian's most agonizing half hour. Warm fingers, cold ointment, and her meticulous recollection, recounting the cause.

The next day, Lydia looked at the man still wrapped in a thick scarf, pointed at his chin, and asked in confusion, "Was your mark on the left yesterday?"

"Lydia, let's eat." Jane, who heard about their new relationship, came back this morning to have lunch with her sisters. Seeing this, she came to Adrian's rescue.

At the dining table, Mary flipped through the morning newspaper that the servant had just brought her and interrupted, "Elissa, Mr. Moran, you're in the newspaper."

Alice and Mr. Lover looked at each other and both guessed what the content would be.

Before the parties could speak, Lydia and Catherine had already put their heads on Mary's shoulders.

"Miss Alice Bennett, who founded the Oriental Alice Pharmacy, was recently caught by everyone being intimate with a gentleman on the street. This gentleman was once the head of the Soho Parish. This newspaper has learned that he was recently approved to resign from his teaching position. It is not yet known whether the two incidents are related." Lydia read, with an expression of exclamation on her face, "You are so bold."

"Commentary from this newspaper: Although Miss Alice is extremely skilled in oriental medicine and has saved the hair of all British people, her personal ethics are poor and she should be used as a negative example to educate unmarried young ladies. As for Mr. Adrian Moran, as a former teaching staff member, his behavior is not decent enough either." Catherine frowned when she read this.

Adrian frowned upon hearing the comments about Alice in the newspaper. Although he knew he shouldn't care, he couldn't help but take notice of the slander against Alice.

Alice, the center of the conversation, continued to eat leisurely. After her sisters had taken turns reading the various gossips and comments from several newspapers, she said, "Well said."

Jian was puzzled when she heard this: "These are all unpleasant words, what's the good in them?"

"I didn't find it offensive; they were all quite nice compliments," Alice said, giving examples. "One newspaper said I was extremely skilled in Oriental medicine, another called me the savior of the British, and another said I was like the incarnation of the goddess of desire, cruelly snatching away pure believers of God. Aren't those all quite true?"

"If you ask me to choose the best one, it's the last one. The language used to praise me is beautiful and the descriptions are quite artistic. I need to practice more on the other ones." Alice picked up the napkin and wiped her lips, then commented on the content of the report.

Alice and Adrian, well-known figures in the area, had just been recognized by passersby the previous day, and word of their affair had spread rapidly. Soon, the news, along with the fact that the Oriental Alice Pharmacy had been personally recognized by the King and Queen of England, and that the owner, Miss Alice, had even been invited to a palace ball, spread throughout London and even further afield, as did the tabloids, spreading the news across newspapers, especially the tabloids.

Those who received the news embellished the story, re-telling it, and the story of their love story was fabricated one after another. Some said that Miss Alice was simply from a country gentry family. Upon arriving in London, she was dazzled by the world of pleasure, and the most beautiful one was Mr. Moran, the most famous and handsome man in the upper class. But this flower needed wealth, and the old Countess of Camden announced that she would find a wealthy woman for her son to marry. With only an £800 dowry, Miss Alice had to abandon her respectable country lady status and open a pharmacy to make money.

After making her first fortune from the awakening ointment, Miss Alice couldn't wait to open a Tzu Chi pharmacy, the first of which was in the Soho Diocese. It must have been at that time that she seduced the pure and innocent clergyman and made him fall deeply in love with her.

After the old Countess of Camden discovered and separated them, she took Mr. Moran away. Miss Alice worked hard, determined to impress the old lady, and developed a hair-strengthening and rejuvenating cream, ultimately achieving both fame and fortune. The imprisoned Mr. Moran was finally allowed to return to London.

Fearing they would be separated again, Miss Alice decided to abandon her reputation and staged a play where the rector rescued her lover from the Thames. Unfortunately, the onlookers at the time thought that the clergy was just being helpful, and her plan to force the Camden family to accept her failed.

At the palace ball, Miss Alice kidnapped her lover, persuaded Mr. Moran to give up his teaching position, and secretly got married. She couldn't wait to show her affection to the old countess in the street so that all of Britain could witness it and finalize the marriage.

Alice fell on Adrian and laughed as she listened to Lydia's latest unreliable gossip.

In addition to making the parties involved laugh, these tabloid gossips also attracted the attention of the old countess.

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The author has something to say: Every morning Alice sees a painting of herself: Mirror, mirror, who is the most powerful rabbit in the world! [Rabbit head with erect ears]

John: Sir, you have worked so hard for so long but still don’t have a legitimate status?

Adrian: Do you know what a lover is? A lover is someone who has feelings for you.