Chapter 92: I smelled the fragrance of cold plum blossoms on the mistress all night.

After Li Yue'er returned to the Qu residence, she originally intended to go and pay her respects to the old lady in a perfunctory manner. After all, she was nominally a guest "invited" back by Qu Rong and would be marrying into the Qu family in the future, so she was a junior.

To her surprise, when she arrived at Shouhe Hall with the gamboge, she was stopped by the maids in a gentle and polite manner before she even entered the round gate. They said, "The old lady is ill and we are afraid of passing on her illness, so she has not been seeing anyone recently."

Are you sick?

Whether the old lady was truly ill or feigning illness, Li Yue'er had made this trip, gaining face and avoiding the old lady's gloomy face; it was practically a stroke of luck for her.

Li Yue'er lived leisurely in the academy for a month. It was indeed relaxing and comfortable, but also boring and empty. Now that she has returned to the Qu residence to manage the inner quarters, although she is busier, she feels more and more fulfilled.

Moreover, the conditions at the Qu residence were far superior to those at the back of the academy.

It's already late May, and the weather is getting hotter. Living in the academy means you can only rely on palm-leaf fans and sitting in the shade to cool off, but living in the Qu residence means you don't have these troubles.

Inside the Qu residence, there was an ice basin, and in the courtyard, there was a pavilion. Now that she was the future matriarch of the Qu family, as long as she sat there, a maid would come over to fan her.

When Li Yue'er was cooling off in an ice basin, the maids would chill various fruits and sweet water in it. Li Yue'er didn't need to lift a finger; she could simply open her mouth and someone would feed her the food and drinks.

Taking advantage of Su Jie's two-day leave, Li Yue'er stole a moment of leisure from her busy schedule. In the afternoon, taking advantage of the fact that her mistress was not at home, she asked the maids to help her move the rocking chair to the pavilion.

The hexagonal pavilion is built next to the artificial hill, opposite which is a pond full of lotus flowers, in which fat red carp are raised, and from time to time they swim in groups to the pavilion to beg for food.

It was just past noon, and the sun was still high in the sky when the maids lowered the colorful gauze curtains hanging on the six sides of the pavilion to shield them from the glaring sunlight and the curious prying eyes of the servants.

Li Yue'er lay back in the rocking chair, her eyes closed, and had Teng Huang read storybooks to her. She placed her hands on her lower abdomen and only needed to listen. After swallowing the seedless grape in her mouth, she would open her mouth again to wait for the next one to be fed to her.

Even when her family was at its best, Li Yue'er never enjoyed such a good life.

She was so beautiful that she seemed oblivious to the world around her.

When Qu Rong returned, this was the scene she saw.

Teng Huang was the first to see her, and he gasped in surprise, coughing softly.

Li Yue'er didn't even open her eyes, her voice languid and nasal, "Hmm? What's wrong?"

Qu Rong glanced at Gamboge.

Garcinia suppressed a laugh and shook his head, saying, "It's nothing, just clearing my throat."

Li Yue'er opened her mouth to wait for the grapes.

When the head of the household arrived, the maids didn't dare to feed the grapes to the future mistress; they all lowered their heads and dared not utter a sound.

Qu Rong walked to the side, washed her hands in the basin on the basin stand, wiped the water off her fingertips with a towel, and sat down next to Li Yue'er in place of the maid. She picked up a grape and fed it to Li Yue'er, who opened her mouth and took it.

Fujiwara made an excuse, "My stomach suddenly feels a little uncomfortable, I need to go to the outhouse."

Li Yue'er didn't even open her eyes, chewing on grapes as she spoke in a muffled voice, "Go on, you must have eaten too much cold food earlier."

Teng Huang put down the storybook, mumbled a perfunctory "uh-huh," but actually stuck out his tongue at Qu Rong, grabbed two large handfuls of cold lychees from the ice basin and fruit plate next to him without any hesitation, and happily left the pavilion, walking lightly to the shady spot under the rockery to look for cinnabar.

Seeing that Teng Huang had left, the maids wisely put down what they were carrying and tiptoed out of the pavilion.

The surroundings suddenly fell silent. Li Yue'er, chewing on grapes, began to sense something was wrong. She mumbled, "Xiao Mei?"

The newly arrived maid, Xiao Mei, had already left the pavilion.

Li Yue'er then suspiciously raised her hand and pulled off the handkerchief covering her eyes to block out the light, looking left and right. "Hmm?"

Someone reached out and fed her grapes. She instinctively opened her mouth and took them. As her eyes adjusted to the light in the pavilion, she also saw who was sitting next to her, feeding her grapes.

Li Yue'er, "..."

Li Yue'er gasped and glanced around. Sure enough, the maids had already retreated from the pavilion. Among them, Teng Huang must have run the fastest; he was long gone!

The mistress picked up another grape and fed it to her lips, a hint of teasing in her eyes, "Awake?"

"Mmm." Li Yue'er blushed and reached out to take it, her eyes darting around.

She had already reached out her hand, but the mistress withdrew her arm while still holding the grapes.

The mistress asked in a puzzled tone, "He was just lying there waiting to be fed, how come he suddenly sprouted arms as soon as he saw me?"

The mistress raised an eyebrow and drawled, "Oh, well, it's because I didn't feed you well. I'll go and call Xiao Mei back for you, and I'll sit here and watch her feed you."

Li Yue'er, "..."

That would scare Xiao Mei to death.

Li Yue'er's face flushed. She bit her lower lip, sat up halfway, lowered her head, leaned forward, and opened her mouth to take a grape from the mistress's hand.

If someone else were feeding her, she would only bite the grapes and wouldn't touch the other person at all. But since the person in front of her was the mistress, Li Yue'er used her lips to press against the mistress's fingers, and when her tongue rolled over the grapes, she deliberately swept it across the mistress's fingertips.

The mistress, "..."

The mistress glanced at her.

Li Yue'er's eyes curved into crescents. When she sat back down, the mistress's fingers were all wet.

The mistress was very jealous, but also very easy to appease. She had only taken a bite of the grape, and the mistress gave a light chuckle and stopped arguing with her.

While the mistress lowered her head to wipe her hands with a handkerchief, Li Yue'er sat in the rocking chair deep in thought.

She chewed on the grapes, puzzled. While she was enjoying herself, she not only didn't hear the mistress's footsteps, but she also didn't smell the fragrance of cold plum blossoms on the mistress.

Could it be that she spent every day with the mistress and had become so familiar with her scent that she didn't even notice the mistress sitting next to her?

Li Yue'er was very suspicious, and her eyes swept towards the mistress.

The mistress then pinched some grapes and fed them to her.

Li Yue'er, "..."

The recliner couldn't fit two people, so she brazenly took a grape from the mistress's fingertips, gently pressed one end of the grape against her tongue, half-closed it, and looked up at the mistress.

Qu Rong, "..."

Qu Rong didn't want to talk to her.

Li Yue'er, however, persisted, grabbing her sleeve and straightening her back, stubbornly holding the other end of the grape to her lips.

Their noses were almost touching, their breaths mingling, their scents so close that Qu Rong could smell the fragrance of plum blossoms mixed with fruit on Li Yue'er's body, a sweet and refreshing scent that was very tempting.

She lowered her eyelashes, bit the other end of the grape, and before she could sit up straight, Li Yue'er wrapped her arms around her shoulders and neck, biting off the grape as she used the momentum to stand up from the rocking chair and then sat sideways in her lap.

Afraid that she might fall, Qu Rong immediately put down the fruit plate, wrapped her arms around her waist and back, and frowned as she looked up at her.

Li Yue'er's eyes crinkled into crescents, a triumphant smile spreading across her face. Then, with an air of confidence, she opened her mouth towards her, signaling for her to continue feeding her.

Qu Rong, "..."

Qu Rong really wanted to call Xiao Mei in.

Qu Rong didn't eat any grapes, but after kissing Li Yue'er, her mouth was filled with the aroma of grapes.

After the deep kiss, Li Yue'er gently sniffed her face, neck, and clothes with the tip of her nose, like a puppy.

Qu Rong found it somewhat amusing. "I was out there doing serious accounting, without any women around, and no one reading stories to me or feeding me grapes. What could you possibly detect?"

Li Yue'er found it strange because she couldn't smell anything.

By evening, when Li Yue'er felt a bitter taste in her mouth and her head was spinning, she realized why she couldn't smell the mistress's scent.

She lay on the bed, the bed curtains were drawn, and the doctor from Bian Que Hall sat by the bedside to take her pulse.

The doctor's surname was Zhou, he was in his early twenties, and he was one of the personal disciples of Doctor Fu.

He withdrew his hand, and the patient in the same bed said to the head of the Qu family beside him, "It's nothing serious, it's just a cold caused by wind-heat. A few doses of medicine will do the trick."

The cause of the illness may be that Li Yue'er has been exposed to cold and dampness in the past few days, which has led to the onset of fever, headache, chills and nasal congestion today.

Li Yue'er suddenly realized, "No wonder I didn't sense you coming when I was cooling off."

She said that even if you can't hear it, you should be able to smell it.

Qu Rong, "..."

Li Yue'er lifted the bed curtains with her fingers as she spoke, her eyes fixed on her mistress's face.

The mistress remained expressionless, but as she passed by her hand, she gently patted her wrist, signaling her to put it back and tuck it into the blankets.

Qu Rong had Dan Sha escort the doctor out of the house, and at the same time instructed a servant to go back with the doctor to get the medicine. Teng Huang was worried, so he personally went with the doctor to get the medicine.

Because Li Yue'er was ill, Qu Rong ordered the maids to remove all the ice basins from the room, and even the chilled watermelon juice that Li Yue'er drank during the day was not allowed to be brought over. Instead, they boiled water, filled it into a kettle, and brought it to the table.

Songlan Hall was bustling with activity.

Li Yue'er lay on the bed, glancing sideways at the mistress sitting beside her and sighing, "Am I not destined to enjoy a life of happiness?"

Qu Rong looked at her.

Li Yue'er counted on her fingers and said, "I had only enjoyed a few good years before my maternal grandparents passed away, and then I started to suffer. Now, I've been with you for so long, and just as I was about to enjoy life, I suddenly fell ill."

Her voice had changed; it was low and hoarse, sounding muffled.

Qu Rong grasped her wrist, tucked her hand under the thin blanket, lowered her eyes and said softly, "It's because you haven't enjoyed enough that you've gotten sick. Once you get better, enjoy more of the good things in life, and your body will get used to it and won't get sick again."

Li Yue'er's heart softened at the sound of this, and she couldn't help but lie on her side, pulling her mistress's hand into her arms, and deliberately asked, "Can I ask the maids to sing a song? So they can dance around me?"

Qu Rong, "..."

Qu Rong pulled her hand away, almost laughing in exasperation, and pinched Li Yue'er's soft cheek, asking, "How about I sing you a song?"

Li Yue'er's eyes darted around, and she stammered without saying a word.

She started to complain?

Qu Rong couldn't help but lower her head and bite her lips. Just as she was about to use some force, she felt Li Yue'er's heavy and hot breathing, and even her body was constantly emitting heat.

Li Yue'er has always had cold hands and feet and is afraid of the cold. Her skin is always icy cold, even in summer. She has never felt so hot as she does today.

Qu Rong lowered her eyes, changed the direction of her lips, and gently kissed her forehead, "Don't think about those things, just take your medicine."

Li Yue'er placed her palm on the mistress's shoulder, and after being kissed, she stopped her from kissing her any further. "You can sleep in the study tonight, or I can sleep in the study."

She covered her mouth and nose with the blanket, her voice muffled, "So as not to pass on my illness to you."

Qu Rong ignored Li Yue'er.

After washing up in the evening, she sat on the edge of the bed in her pajamas, lifting the covers to prepare for bed.

Li Yue'er kicked at her knee, which was pressed against the edge of the bed, with her toes, her face full of disapproval.

Qu Rong held her ankle, tucked her foot back under the covers, and frowned as she asked, "Why are you sleeping in separate beds all of a sudden?"

Li Yue'er is just sick, it's not like there's a problem with their relationship, so there's no need for them to sleep in separate beds.

Qu Rong squinted at her, "Are you tired of sleeping with me?"

Li Yue'er, "?"

Li Yue'er, "..."

Seeing that she was about to mention "Xiao Mei" again, Li Yue'er's eyelids started twitching wildly, and she quickly took the initiative to lift the quilt and let her lie down.

Let Xiao Mei go.

She was just an honest and hardworking maid.

Whether it's a blessing or a curse for Xiao Mei, among the new maids who entered the household, the mistress still remembers Xiao Mei's name to this day.

As soon as the mistress lay down, Li Yue'er immediately wrapped her arms and legs around her, pressing herself tightly against her body.

She tried to warm the bed for a long time but couldn't. She was thinking that if the mistress was sleeping in the study tonight, she would ask a maid to bring in a hand warmer.

Fortunately, her mistress never abandoned her.

Li Yue'er's icy feet rubbed contentedly against her mistress's legs, her toes parting her nightgown to press her feet against her mistress's warm skin, humming contentedly.

Qu Rong, "..."

Li Yue'er, who was so passionate and only interested in her body, hadn't been seen for a long time since spring had arrived and the weather had warmed up.

Qu Rong pulled the blanket up to cover Li Yue'er's shoulders and gently patted her back, "Go to sleep, you'll feel better when you wake up."

After drinking her medicine, Li Yue'er fell into a deep sleep. She didn't know when her mistress had fallen asleep, but she knew that when she was thirsty in the middle of the night and was about to get up, her mistress asked her softly what was wrong.

Li Yue'er mumbled sleepily, "Thirsty."

The mistress lifted the covers, got out of bed, hung up the bed curtains, and poured her some warm water.

Li Yue'er was burning up with fever yet freezing cold. She sat shivering on the bed, took the cup, and drank the whole cup of water. "Bitter."

Qu Rong looked down at the cup with a puzzled expression, then lowered her head to take a sip of the water Li Yue'er had drunk from, tasted it, and frowned as she asked, "Where is it bitter?"

Li Yue'er, "My mouth tastes bitter."

Qu Rong, "..."

Qu Rong found a piece of candied fruit and stuffed it into Li Yue'er's mouth.

Even candied fruit couldn't shut Li Yue'er up. She mumbled, "According to the storybook, you should hug me and kiss me, then ask me 'Is it still bitter?' and I should say 'No, it's not bitter.'"

Qu Rong was silent for a moment, then said, "...Read less of those miscellaneous books."

Li Yue'er puffed out her cheeks and glanced at her, then curled up unhappily, hugging her calves with her hands and pressing her forehead against her knees, pretending to be a mushroom on the bed, and humming, "You don't like me reading those books, so you don't like me either."

Qu Rong, “?”

Where did this conclusion come from?

Qu Rong had no choice but to accept that she was sick and upset, which was understandable, since the two of them were about to get married.

Besides, she doesn't bother the maids, she only bothers her like this in bed.

Qu Rong calmed herself down, got into bed, knelt down next to Li Yue'er, lifted her face off her knees with both hands, and gently kissed her lips, cheeks, eyebrows, and forehead, whispering to her, "I like it."

How could she not like her?

She liked her so much that she didn't dare to sleep tonight because she could feel Li Yue'er's unusually hot body, for fear that she wouldn't know if Li Yue'er was in pain in the middle of the night.

Li Yue'er's eyes were watery, unlike her usual bright eyes. She just stared at her intently, and slowly pouted.

Qu Rong noticed that she had become a little childlike after falling ill, which softened her heart. She smiled and asked softly, "What's wrong?"

Tears welled up in Li Yue'er's eyes and silently streamed down her cheeks.

Qu Rong froze, instinctively reaching out to catch the tears rolling down her chin, letting the teardrops fall into her palm.

"Why are you crying?" Qu Rong frantically searched for a handkerchief and wiped Li Yue'er's tears.

Li Yue'er collapsed into her arms, sobbing as she hugged her. Suddenly, she said, "Even when life was toughest before, my mother would always hold me and comfort me when I was sick."

Qu Rong gently stroked her thin, frail back with her palm, her voice softening, "When you're better tomorrow, I'll take you back to the academy to see her."

She thought Li Yue'er was homesick.

Li Yue'er hugged her even tighter, "She's just like you, staying up all night watching over me without daring to sleep."

Qu Rong was stunned, her mouth opening and closing several times before finally closing.

Li Yue'er kissed her neck, hot tears and her burning breath hitting her heart and spraying onto her skin, making her heart tremble slightly. "Qu Rong."

Li Yue'er said, "I like you too, I like you very, very much, so I'm willing to marry you."

She had exchanged many sweet words with the mistress of the house, and even made vows of life and death, but this was the first time she had ever expressed her love for her like this.

She had never spoken such straightforward words in a serious manner, nor had she borrowed anyone's poetry to express her deep affection. She simply followed her inner instincts and blurted out her feelings for her.

Qu Rong raised her hand to touch Li Yue'er's long hair behind her back and asked in a low voice, "In the storybook, what should we do in this situation?"

Li Yue'er burst into laughter through her tears, cupped her mistress's face in her hands, and kissed her on the lips.

In traditional stories, people would be embracing and rolling around together at this point.

Unfortunately, Li Yue'er was willing but unable. After touching the mistress for a long time, she finally fell asleep.

Fortunately, her illness was not serious, and after taking the herbal medicine for two days, she was back to her energetic self.

After recovering from her illness, Li Yue'er felt refreshed and her nose returned to normal. After resting for a few days, one night she couldn't resist and pressed down on her mistress, inhaling the fragrance of cold plum blossoms all night long.

Because Li Yue'er was so ill, half of the ice basins in Songlan Hall were used this year. As soon as the hottest August passed and autumn arrived, Qu Rong had the ice basins removed and only palm-leaf fans were used.

Xiao Mei was transferred from being a regular maid in the courtyard to serve Li Yue'er. Together with Teng Huang, she was responsible for Li Yue'er's food, daily life, accounts, and internal affairs. Her monthly salary was increased to one tael.

This year, spring and autumn seem unusually short in the north. When Meng Xiaoxiao jumped up to Li Yue'er and called her "bride" with a smile, Li Yue'er vaguely remembered that winter was just around the corner!

The couple's bridal chamber was the same one they were used to living in. Li Yue'er wanted to surprise them, so she didn't stay to decorate it herself, but instead packed her things with Teng Huang and went back to the academy to live.

The Songlan Hall was thoroughly cleaned and rearranged.

As Dansha and her maids were tidying up the newlywed room, they opened the wardrobe to organize the clothes. One of the maids squatted in front of the wardrobe and said in confusion, "Sister Dansha, there is a small box here."

The head of the household is extremely fastidious about cleanliness, so why would there be a small box in the wardrobe?

Upon closer inspection, the cinnabar box contained a set of red agate and gold jewelry, as well as silver fragments, jade hairpins, and thumb rings.

She asked the question knowing the answer already, and consulted the head of the household.

Qu Rong said, "It's your mistress's secret stash; just put it back to her."

No matter which time Li Yue'er returned to the academy, she never brought this fortune with her; she always left it in her wardrobe.

These are Li Yue'er's "lifeblood".

Qu Rong thought for a moment, then took off the red jade thumb ring from her thumb and put it in, "Add a little more to her."

Dansha rarely joked with her, saying, "I thought you were going to add the mistress's indenture and the land deed for the Ming family's ancestral home as well."

Qu Rong said, "...There's no need to add so much."

cinnabar,"……"

Dan Sha thought to herself, "Hasn't that enough? The betrothal gifts alone far exceed those of a normal wedding. Not to mention that the head of the family privately allocated three of her own shops to the mistress as her pre-wedding dowry."

Qu Rong had no idea what Dan Sha was thinking, and only said, "I'll keep the indenture for her, as for the land deed..."

"Let's talk about it when she's saved up enough money to buy it back."

If the land deed is in the hands of the head of the household, then when the mistress finds someone to buy it back, she is essentially going to buy it with the head of the household.

Cinnabar suddenly realized!

Dansha felt like she understood, and silently memorized the move, intending to use it to surprise Garcinia later.

Winter has arrived in the blink of an eye.

On the day of Lidong (the beginning of winter), the Qu family was overjoyed.

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Extra chapter today!