123 Chapter 123

◎With tenderness and affection, attachment and reluctance.◎

The 27th day of the twelfth lunar month is a nice day with warm sunshine.

Most of the snow that fell a few days ago has already melted, and now the air is filled with both the freshness after the snow and the warmth.

The carriage of the Duke of Fuguo's mansion rumbled along and finally stopped in front of Nianxiangju.

The horse stood in front of the door for a long time but there was no movement. The waiter who was greeting guests at the door was hesitant, and was not sure whether the people in the car were coming to the building to have dinner.

Inside the carriage, Xu Qinghe held the hand warmer and glared at Wei Che: "You begged me to come out, not me asking to come out on my own."

Wei Che didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

This girl was not only soft-hearted but also vindictive. She remembered that he had previously detained her and not allowed her to go out. Today, he had to persuade her into getting on the carriage.

Now that the carriage had stopped, he was throwing a tantrum and refused to get off.

"Yes, yes, it was me who was being unreasonable and insisted that you accompany me to eat. Princess, please have some pity on me and come in with me, okay?"

Xu Qinghe snorted lightly, and finally took his hand to get off the carriage.

Before the New Year, there were many customers dining at Nian Xiang Ju, almost every table was full, and many people were still queuing outside.

Fortunately, Wei Che was well prepared and had already booked a private room.

Xu Qinghe's illness had almost healed, and she no longer had any dietary restrictions, so Wei Che let her order a lot of spicy dishes.

After waiting for about two quarters of an hour, the food began to arrive one after another.

After leaving the Southern Territory for so many years, Wei Che also missed the food of his hometown. The hot meal in his mouth could make all his fatigue disappear.

He added the dishes he thought were delicious into Xu Qinghe's bowl one by one, but found that the girl ate very slowly.

"Could it be that you haven't eaten spicy food for too long and now you can't eat it?" He supported his chin and looked over leisurely.

As expected, the girl in front of him blushed, not knowing whether it was because of the spiciness or because she felt embarrassed after being exposed by him.

But he still said stubbornly: "Good food should be savored slowly. If everyone wolfs it down like you, then what's the point of eating?"

Wei Che laughed: "But if you keep eating like this, the food will get cold."

Xu Qinghe glared at him: "What do you care?"

She didn't let him care, but he couldn't really ignore it.

Wei Che sent someone to call the waiter and asked them to bring a soup to relieve the spiciness.

From the first time he entered Nianxiangju, he discovered that there were many children aged twelve or thirteen in Nianxiangju.

Most likely he was a beggar on the street who met a kind-hearted shopkeeper and got a meal from him.

But precisely because they were only twelve or thirteen years old, they were a little clumsy in doing things.

Just like the little girl who brought them soup now, there was hot soup on the tray, but the little girl couldn't hold it steadily and was about to pour it on Xu Qinghe.

Wei Che quickly went to catch it, but the hot soup still spilled onto her dress.

"How is it? Are you burned?"

Xu Qinghe shook his head.

In winter, she was wearing thick clothes, so the spilled hot soup only made her feel slightly warm. However, this person's hand...

"Don't you know how hot the soup is? You're still trying to catch it with your hands. How foolish!"

She frowned and looked at the little girl who was huddled on the ground. "What are you still standing there for? Why don't you go get a doctor?"

Nian Xiangju was opposite the clinic, so the little girl nodded and hurriedly got up and went downstairs.

"I have thick skin, so this little burn is nothing. Don't worry about me. Let someone get some clothes from the carriage. You can change into this and then check if there are any burns. When the doctor arrives, we'll check everything together."

As a result of this commotion, most of the food on the table was ruined. The owner of Nianxiangju rushed over to apologize with great guilt.

Not long after, the maid came back with clean clothes from the car. Xu Qinghe asked the shopkeeper to find a clean and elegant place for her to change clothes.

As soon as she stood up, Wei Che also stood up.

"What are you following?"

Wei Che said, "I have to see it with my own eyes to feel at ease."

Xu Qinghe blushed. Coincidentally, the doctor was dragged over at this moment. She said coldly, "Nanzhi is here. You are not allowed to come with us. Take care of your injuries. I will come back to investigate."

Wei Che was not annoyed by her glare, but his heart softened and he nodded in agreement.

In the end, Xu Qinghe only took Nanzhi with her and went into the private room at the other end with her dress.

The shopkeeper nodded to the two of them, and after they entered, he closed the door and stood guard outside silently.

However, this private room for changing clothes was not empty.

Princess Jing'an and Lin Xiao have been waiting for a long time.

Seeing her come in in such a mess, Jing'an was the first to frown: "How did it become like this?"

Xu Qinghe hadn't seen Jing'an for almost a month. She must have been doing well in the past month, as her complexion was much rosier than before.

She shook her hand back, comforting her: "It's okay, I just had someone splash some soup on me, so I had the chance to come here alone."

After all, it was winter, and the hot soup would inevitably make people catch a cold if it cooled down, so Princess Jing'an urged her to go behind the screen and change her clothes.

While she was changing, Jing'an asked, "What's been going on these days? Lin Xiao couldn't wait for you to check the accounts, so he came looking for me. But I sent so many letters to your mansion, inviting you to a chat, but there's been no response."

Since Nianxiangju opened, Xu Qinghe has set a rule to check the accounts every ten days. Even if there is a delay, he will send someone to inform him.

Therefore, when she didn't come for the first time, Lin Xiao immediately went to Qi's house to look for her.

Amid the rustling of fabric, Jing'an heard her whisper, "He intercepted the letter."

he?

Jing'an quickly understood that this was referring to Wei Che.

"Did you have a fight?"

Ever since leaving the palace, Xu Qinghe didn't want Jing'an to know too much, so now she just said, "I want to divorce him, but he won't let me leave if he doesn't agree."

Jing'an: "...divorce? But your marriage was arranged by our father, how can you divorce?"

Then, she heard Xu Qinghe say, "Just find some bad omen and ask people with matching horoscopes to go to the Taoist temple to pray for blessings. Then, take the opportunity to add my name to the list."

Since my father ascended the throne, there have indeed been several bad omens. Each time, he believed the sorcerers' words and sent a large number of people to pray for blessings. He even released some of the concubines who had already been taken into the palace.

Since there is a precedent, this is not impossible.

only……

"But why do you insist on divorcing him?"

"I don't like him anymore, so I don't want him anymore."

She answered decisively, but Jing'an didn't think she could really let it go so quickly.

After all, she had seen her secretly happy expression before.

But since Qinghe doesn't want it anymore, she naturally has to help her.

"How do you want me to help you?"

When he said this, Xu Qinghe had already changed her clothes and came out. He guessed that Wei Che was almost there as well.

She was afraid that he would come looking for her, so she kept her story short and told Jing'an and Lin Xiao about it.

But Lin Xiao was puzzled: "Why go to so much trouble? If the princess wants to leave, just have someone put some more aphrodisiac incense on… on Prince Wei. By the time he wakes up, the princess will be gone, and he won't have anywhere to look for her."

Xu Qinghe shook his head: "If I disappear here, he will definitely turn Nianxiangju upside down. Where can I hide then?"

After all, she was reluctant to leave Kyoto until the important matter was settled.

Lin Xiao was about to ask again when he heard the shopkeeper outside the door call out "Prince Wei".

Xu Qinghe immediately asked Jing'an and Lin Xiao to hide, and while he was straightening his clothes, he let him in.

"How is it? Are you burned?" He came forward immediately.

Xu Qinghe deliberately frowned and said no.

"It's just that I'm sticky. Go back quickly."

Wei Che just thought that she liked cleanliness and wanted to go back to take a bath quickly, so he immediately paid the bill and left with her.

"It's all your fault. You insisted on letting me out."

Xu Qinghe had a cold face all the way and would glare at Wei Che from time to time.

Wei Che naturally had no choice but to beg for mercy: "Okay, okay, blame me, blame me, it's all my fault. I saw you staying in the house for so many days and I was worried you'd get bored. If you don't want to come out, then don't come out in the future. If you want to go out again, we'll go somewhere else."

Xu Qinghe turned away, and after a long pause, he whispered, "Let's try somewhere else. It's not like this happens every time. That dish today... was indeed quite good."

"When you were younger, you always said I was greedy. I guess you're not much better."

Seeing that she was no longer angry, Wei Che finally breathed a sigh of relief and went over to put his arm around her shoulders.

Xu Qinghe raised her hand to push him away, and immediately heard his grimacing cry.

Only then did she remember that the man's hand was also burned. Although it was not serious, it was also red.

"How's the injury on your hand?"

Wei Che smiled and said, "It's okay. I've already applied the medicine. It will be fine in a few days."

In the following days, before all the stores closed on New Year's Eve, Wei Che kept his promise and took Xu Qinghe to several other restaurants for dinner. During that time, Xu Qinghe also used different excuses to go change clothes alone, so as not to let him notice that she was abnormal when she was thinking about her hometown.

On New Year's Eve, a palace banquet was held in the palace, and the Wei family also wanted to enter the palace.

Xu Qinghe naturally didn't want to show up at such a party that seemed to be a happy family event but was actually filled with sadness, and Wei Che didn't even think of asking her to go with him, so he gave her an excuse that she had been ill for a long time and let her face it alone.

"If you come home late tonight, you don't have to wait for me. Go to bed early."

Before leaving, the girl was unusually obedient and was willing to stand up to help him put on his clothes. Although she only straightened his collar and fiddled with the jade pendant on his waist, he was really satisfied.

"Don't flatter yourself. I never thought about waiting for you." She fiddled with the jade pendant on his waist, and suddenly remembered something. She looked up and asked him, "Where are the pair of jade pendants we used to have?"

She was talking about the engagement token between the Xu and Xie families.

Just at this moment, the maid's voice came from outside the house, urging: "Sir, the Duke has sent someone to urge you to enter the palace."

A hint of impatience flashed across Wei Che's eyes, but it disappeared when he met Xu Qinghe's eyes, and was replaced by gentleness like water.

"There's a small box in the bedside cabinet, and the jade pendant is inside. Okay, I have to go now. Remember to leave the window open for me."

The first half of the sentence was very serious, but the second half suddenly talked about something inappropriate.

Xu Qinghe was too lazy to pay attention to him. Instead of going through the door, he had to climb through the window, making himself look like an adulterer having an affair in the middle of the night.

She watched his back as he left the room before turning back to the couch. Just as she sat down, she saw that the man had left and come back.

"What are you doing back again..."

He suddenly leaned forward and kissed her.

With tenderness and affection, attachment and reluctance.