Have a meal

It turned out that the ink had gotten into Zhao Yu's room and wouldn't come out, so he asked Xi Chun to help him get it out.

Following Zhao Yu to his bedroom, Xi Chun found Mo Zhi lying under the bed playing with Zhao Yu's belt. Xi Chun called Mo Zhi a few times before he reluctantly crawled out from under the bed. Embarrassed, Xi Chun returned the belt, which was covered in Mo Zhi's saliva and cat hair, to Zhao Yu, apologized, and then picked up Mo Zhi to head back to Qing Wu Garden.

Mozhi suddenly heard a bird chirping nearby. It jumped off Xichun's arms. Xichun was afraid that it would go into Zhao Yu's room and cause trouble again, so she wanted to take it back quickly. While catching the cat in the corridor, she ran into Wei Qiao, who was walking out of the study.

When Xichun saw Wei Qiao, her face stiffened for a moment. She should have expected him to be at Xuesong Hall. She forced a smile and said, "Greetings, Uncle."

Wei Qiao smiled slightly, "Why did you come to Xuesong Hall, sister-in-law?"

Xi Chun pointed to the ink behind Wei Qiao, "I came to find the ink."

"Oh." Wei Qiao turned around and called out to Mozhi, who immediately came running to him. Wei Qiao bent down and hugged Mozhi. Mozhi wagged its tail happily and nuzzled his arm affectionately. Xi Chun finally understood who Mozhi had been seeing at Xuesong Hall. Since Mozhi liked Wei Qiao so much, it would listen when Wei Qiao called it, so there was no need for her to stay any longer. Just as she was about to say goodbye, Wei Qiao spoke first.

"I wonder if my sister-in-law has had lunch yet?"

It was only 9 AM, and there was still a long time before lunch. She shook her head.

Wei Qiao smiled again and asked gently, "I've specially invited a chef from Sichuan to cook a meal today. Would you mind if I tried the dishes with you, sister-in-law?"

While Xichun's mind was still considering whether to agree, her mouth had already opened and agreed.

"Alright, please make yourself at home, sister-in-law. I'll invite you to join me when the dishes are ready." Wei Qiao nodded to her and then turned and went into the study.

Fu Qing, worried that Xi Chun might feel uncomfortable staying at Xue Song Tang, told her she could go back first, and that she would go to Qing Wu Yuan to invite her over after the dishes were served. Xi Chun returned to Qing Wu Yuan to continue wiping the furniture. Around noon, Fu Qing came to Qing Wu Yuan to invite Xi Chun.

A table laden with bright red dishes was laid out on the round table in Wei Qiao's main room. The enticing aroma of chili peppers made Xi Chun's mouth water. Wei Qiao invited her to sit down and eat. Fu Qing and the other two sat at a separate table, leaving just the two of them to eat here.

"Sister-in-law, please don't be shy, please have some."

Xichun didn't stand on ceremony. She hadn't had so many authentic hometown dishes in a long time, and now she just wanted to eat them all.

Wei Qiao picked up a piece of spicy chicken for her. Xi Chun nodded vaguely to him while eating, and then finished the spicy chicken. Xi Chun also picked up a piece of boiled fish for Wei Qiao, which she thought was the best dish on the table. The tender white fish was covered with bright red chili peppers, and Wei Qiao ate it with difficulty, bite by bite, under Xi Chun's watchful gaze.

"What do you think of the fish, Uncle?" Xichun asked him expectantly.

Wei Qiao forced a smile. "Very good. The cuisine of Sichuan is very distinctive."

"It seems Uncle likes to eat too, eat more." Xi Chun put several different dishes into Wei Qiao's bowl.

Wei Qiao wasn't used to spicy food, and now his stomach was burning with pain. Xi Chun, however, was completely oblivious and continued to eat with gusto, savoring every bite because she didn't know if she would ever taste such hometown cuisine again. Fine beads of sweat quickly appeared on her face.

Seeing this, Wei Qiao took out a handkerchief to wipe her sweat. Xi Chun reacted and tried to dodge, but his hand was already on her forehead, and he gently wiped her face with the handkerchief. Xi Chun stared blankly into his eyes, which held a gentle smile. She felt as if she would be captivated by him if she looked any longer. She lowered her eyes to look at her hands resting on her lap, unable to look at him any longer.

Wei Kang laughed and said, "In this cold weather, you should wipe away your sweat promptly, otherwise you'll easily catch a cold if you get blown by the cold wind."

His words sounded so high and mighty that Xichun could only smile awkwardly and say, "No need for you, Uncle, I can wipe it myself."

Wei Qiao took back the handkerchief. "I've wiped it all off, let's continue eating." After saying that, he turned around and slowly ate the food in his bowl.

Seeing that he acted as if nothing had happened, Xi Chun could only continue eating. Just as she turned around, her sleeve brushed against the chopsticks on the chopstick rest, and a pair of chopsticks fell to the ground with the movement of her sleeve. Xi Chun was about to bend down to pick them up when Wei Qiao picked them up from under the table before she could.

When Wei Qiao picked up the chopsticks, his eyes fell on her shoes. She wasn't wearing the new shoes she had bought that day; she was still wearing the same pair she had before. He felt a little unhappy for a moment.

Wei Qiao went to the small kitchen and got Xi Chun a new pair of chopsticks, then urged her to continue eating.

After the meal, Wei Qiao invited Xi Chun to have tea in a side hall. A charcoal stove was burning in the side hall, and the warm steam made Xi Chun feel drowsy.

Wei Qiao took a sip of tea and suddenly said with a touch of melancholy, "Sister-in-law, you may not know, but today is actually my birthday."

Xi Chun perked up immediately. It seemed a bit unreasonable for her to come to Wei Qiao's birthday party and freeload, so she said, "So it's my uncle's birthday. I didn't know beforehand and didn't prepare a gift. I'm so sorry, uncle. Please forgive me."

Wei Qiao shook his head and said with understanding, "It's not my fault, sister-in-law. My birthday has never been important. No one in the Wei family has ever cared about my birthday."

"Uncle, don't say that. How about I give you a gift? What would you like?" Xichun said, trying to comfort him when she saw how pitiful he looked.

Wei Qiao sighed, "I don't lack anything. If you really want to give me something, please give me a pair of silk stockings."

Xichun wasn't very good at making socks, and without thinking it through, she nodded in agreement. Only when she lay in bed that night did she realize something was wrong; she shouldn't have agreed.

After Xichun left, Wei Qiao's stomach pain lasted for a long time before it subsided.

"Young Master, you don't eat spicy food anyway, so why did you suddenly find a chef from Sichuan to cook this meal?" A-Gui asked, puzzled.

Ever since Fu Qing saw the candlestick in Xi Chun's bedroom that day, and thought about how the second young master had taken the eldest young mistress out hiking a few days ago, she felt that the relationship between the uncle and sister-in-law was unusual, but it didn't seem like they were really sincere. A few days ago, she also found a good luck charm in the wastepaper basket in the second young master's study. It was the day after the second young master brought the eldest young mistress back, and she guessed that it must have been given to him by the eldest young mistress.

The next day, after finishing his shift, Wei Qiao went straight to Zizhu Lane in the west of the city. His carriage stopped at the door of the sixth house in the lane. After Zhao Yu knocked on the door, an old man with gray hair came out and opened it. "Lord Wei has arrived. My master is drinking inside."

This was a small courtyard with several banana trees planted inside. Entering the main house and lifting the thick curtain, one saw Qiu Jiu, dressed in white, sitting on a bamboo mat, drinking. Two braziers burned inside, and the room was immediately enveloped in warmth.

Qiu Jiu's hair was loosely tied up with a bamboo hairpin, her feet were bare, and her peach blossom eyes were half-awake. She only got up when she saw Wei Qiao enter and invited him to sit down on the couch.

Taking the painting from Wei Qiao, Qiu Jiu unfolded it on the nearby desk. The painting depicted a stunningly beautiful woman sitting quietly by a stream, with a white camellia in her hair. After looking at it for a moment, Qiu Jiu turned back to the couch and sat down, looking at Wei Qiao who was drinking tea beside her, and said, "This is the painting you asked me to copy. I think your painting skills are not much worse than mine."

"Nothing can compare to your painting skills, Master Qiu. Your paintings are now worth a fortune," Wei Qiao said with a faint smile.

Qiu Jiu smiled and cupped his hands in greeting, "That's all thanks to Lord Wei's discerning eye, otherwise I would still be a poor scholar selling paintings on the street."

After a few jokes, Qiu Jiu picked up his teacup and took a sip. Looking at Wei Qiao, who seemed calm and composed, he put the teacup down on the table and looked up at the painting on the desk. "I heard you say that your sister-in-law is extremely naive. Can you really bear to send her to the palace, that kind of place that eats people alive?"

Wei Qiao's gaze also fell on the painting, and he couldn't help but recall the scene with Xi Chun that day. After a long pause, he replied, "Of course, I've already thought it through."

After saying that, she recalled the scene of Xichun standing under the camellia tree that day, when he personally pinned the white camellias into her black hair, making her look even more charming and innocent.

Xi Chun was looking at the white camellia in front of her dressing table. After so long, the flower had become stiff and withered, its brown petals completely losing their former beauty. She placed it in the small box that Wei Qiao had put in when he returned her hairpin, alongside her chrysanthemum hairpin on the dressing table. She threw the flower away several times, but each time she couldn't bear to pick it up again.

By mid-December, the Lunar New Year was fast approaching, and officials from all over the country rushed to send their New Year's gifts to the capital before the holiday. Wei Qiao also brought his prepared New Year's gifts to the Yuanhe Hall.

"What gift has Minister Wei prepared for me? The box you're carrying looks like a painting," Yan Zhongyou asked Wei Qiao, who was standing in the hall bowing to him, as he sat on the soft couch.

Wei Qiao handed the brocade box to Miched and flattered him, "Your Majesty has a good eye. What I have prepared for Your Majesty is a new painting of a beauty by the painter Qiu Jiu."

Qiu Jiu was arguably the most famous painter of the Great Zhou Dynasty. His unique style was deeply loved by high-ranking officials and nobles. Yan Zhongyou also had several of Qiu Jiu's paintings in his collection, which he would occasionally take out to appreciate.

"Very good, very good! Minister Wei's gift has truly touched my heart. Michide, quickly open it and let me see Master Qiu Jiu's new work," Yan Zhongyou laughed heartily.

Miched carefully unfolded the painting on the desk, his expression momentarily freezing when he saw the figure in it. He glanced furtively at Wei Qiao in the distance, and seeing that Wei Qiao's face was expressionless, and seeing Yan Zhongyou approaching the desk, he could only smile and stand aside to let Yan Zhongyou appreciate the painting.

The moment Yan Zhongyou walked to the desk and saw the painting, the smile on his face turned into a tender gaze. He stared intently at the woman in the painting, motionless for a long time. Seeing Yan Zhongyou's infatuated expression, Wei Qiao's lips curled into a fleeting, cold smile.

Xi Chun's New Year celebrations were as quiet and uneventful as usual. The weather was bitterly cold, so she stayed indoors making socks. She chose a piece of pale white silk cloth, cut it to the right size, and began sewing. Afraid of not doing it well, she made every stitch carefully. Each time she was almost finished, she would cut it all open with scissors. This process of taking it apart and mending it never seemed to be completed perfectly.

On the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, Caihuan officially cooked a grand meal in the Wei family kitchen for the first time, and specially invited Xichun to the kitchen to help her taste it. Xichun sat alone in the kitchen, in the cubicle where the cooks usually rested, waiting for Caihuan's dishes to be served. There was also a nanmu wood screen in the cubicle. Xichun sat at the dining table outside, while several other cooks sat in chairs inside.

In the kitchen, apart from Caihuan and her mother, no one spoke to Xichun. The servants coming and going only greeted her politely. Xichun sat outside, idly cracking melon seeds, while the cooks inside chatted animatedly. Their voices were loud enough for Xichun to hear clearly without even straining her ears.

"Was Lady Qin really beaten to death?"

"Of course it's true, her family took her back and buried her a couple of days ago."

Xi Chun didn't know who Qin Niangzi was that they were talking about. Just then, Cai Huan came in carrying a freshly cooked braised fish. Cai Huan heard them still talking about Qin Niangzi and couldn't help but tell Xi Chun about the news.

"Young Madam, you don't know, do you? On the afternoon of the second day of the Lunar New Year, a tofu seller named Qin died in the alley behind our mansion. Qin was beautiful, known as the Tofu Beauty. Unfortunately, her husband died a few years ago while he was in the army. She lived with her parents-in-law and two sisters-in-law. On the second day, Qin took advantage of the fact that everyone in the family was out to have a secret rendezvous with a peddler who often came to that street. However, her parents-in-law arrived home early and caught them in bed together. In order to cover for her lover's escape, she accidentally pushed her mother-in-law, causing her to hit a cabinet and die from a head injury. When her two brothers-in-law returned and saw their mother dead, one of them, a soldier, took a sword and stabbed Qin to death."

Xi Chun was terrified; it felt as if the sword were piercing her own flesh. Cai Huan, seeing her stunned expression, asked, "What's wrong, Young Mistress?"

Xi Chun shook her head and said, "I was just wondering why that Qin lady doesn't remarry? She has a skill in making tofu, so she shouldn't have trouble finding a husband."

Caihuan sighed and said, "Of course Qin Niangzi isn't worried about getting married, it's just that her husband's family is pressuring her not to marry. Her husband's family doesn't have much income, they're just relying on Qin Niangzi to sell tofu to supplement their income."

Xi Chun tasted Cai Huan's braised fish without really enjoying it, then bid her farewell and returned to Qing Wu Garden. Just as she entered the main room, she saw Mo Zhi carrying something green in his mouth, running into the room with a thud.