Chapter 25 Chapter 25 Qiong Qiong, don’t you want me anymore?
When old friends meet again, there are endless things to talk about.
Ruan Yueyi and Fu Wang were not as familiar with each other as Jiang Hexue was with him, so she simply went to another shop to buy the goods herself, and asked the two of them to go to the restaurant to order food and chat first.
The restaurant was "Zhiweiguan" under the name of Jiang Xingcong. There was a private room reserved specifically for Ruan Yueyi. After parting at the street corner, Jiang Hexue and Fu Wang walked away one after the other.
"Childhood engagement." Fu Wang caught up with her and stood shoulder to shoulder with her.
"Don't call me that anymore." Jiang Hexue glanced at him. "I'm married."
Fu Wang froze in his tracks: "With whom?"
"Your Highness Prince Heng'an." She smiled unconsciously. "You should remember him. He used to live in the Zhenbei Marquis Mansion."
"I remember." Fu Wang's expression returned to normal in an instant, and he pretended to be serious. "Fu greets the princess, may your highness live—"
"Stop pretending!" Jiang Hexue was instantly amused by him. "You and I are close friends, so why should we be so formal?"
"Then how should I address the princess from now on?" he asked.
"Of course, I'll call you Princess in front of outsiders." Jiang Hexue was completely defenseless and said after a moment's thought. "In private, just call me by my full name."
Fu Wang smiled and said yes.
After entering Zhiweiguan, Jiang Hexue told the shopkeeper Ruan Yueyi's name and walked towards the private room.
Fu Wang fell behind.
"Stop dawdling and hurry up." Jiang Hexue looked back at him from the stairs and urged him. "What are you looking up at?"
She followed his gaze, but before she could see clearly, her view was blocked by Fu Wang who was striding up the stairs.
He bowed slightly and moved closer to her: "Are you and His Highness on good terms?"
Jiang Hexue instinctively stepped back a few inches, but Fu Wang, as if he didn't know how to avoid suspicion, leaned closer again with his eyes curved: "Do you love him?"
"Don't get so close, be careful." She gave him a sharp slap on the forehead, just like she did when she was little.
Fu Wang covered his forehead and stepped back, his smile still on his face: "You haven't answered me yet."
"Love." Jiang Hexue said firmly.
Thinking of her sweetheart, she instinctively put on a beautiful smile: "I love you very much."
Fu Wang laughed and turned his head to look up.
"What are you looking at? Are there flowers growing on the fence?" Jiang Hexue stood on tiptoe curiously, but he dodged and blocked her way. "Fu Er!"
"Go and order some food." He walked to the outside of her, blocking the other side tightly. "The princess will come later, and she'll scold you for liking sweet and spicy food, and your food is too strong."
"That's right, we have to hurry." Jiang Hexue had already had several bland meals with Ruan Yueyi, and she was really craving for some greasy food. After he distracted her, she stopped worrying about it and ran into the private room with her skirt lifted.
Fu Wang followed her slowly and glanced at the "fence with flowers" she mentioned.
A corner of a moon-white robe, spotless and dust-free, fluttered by.
-
When Ruan Yueyi arrived late, the table was already full of dishes.
"You're addicted to spicy food!" she said. "You're also addicted to alcohol!"
Jiang Hexue held the goblet between her two slender white fingers: "First, let me announce something important."
"Speak." Ruan Yueyi said unhappily.
"Do you know why Fu Er came to Beijing?" Jiang Hexue wanted to keep it a secret.
Ruan Yueyi was impatient and glanced at Fu Wang: "Speak for yourself."
"Next spring," Fu Wang explained honestly. "Plus, it's the end of the year, and the Emperor is calling high-ranking officials from all provinces to come to the capital. It's my father who's coming from Liangzhou."
"Luckily it wasn't Jiang Tao, it was Uncle Fu." Jiang Hexue took a sip of wine and smiled. "Fu Er passed the provincial examination and won first place!"
"If you pass the spring examination and enter the palace examination, and get one of the top three, then you will be considered a real talent." Ruan Yueyi said calmly.
"I will certainly work hard on it." Fu Wang smiled and bowed. "I will definitely live up to the princess's high expectations."
"Where's mine?" Jiang Hexue asked while sipping his wine.
"I can't let you down." Fu Wang filled her glass with wine.
"Is it really that powerful?" Jiang Hexue glanced at him. "Then I want you to pass the imperial examination. Is it possible?"
"Besides encouraging myself, I must also pray to the gods and Buddhas," Fu Wang continued with a chuckle. "But if the princess could lend a hand, perhaps you could achieve even greater results than I could with my late nights studying and praying to the gods and Buddhas."
Jiang Hexue was amused by him and agreed nonchalantly.
"If you do win second place, I'll parade you through the streets and give you a complete set of Qianxiangfang scented jewelry," she added. "With you as my living signboard, I'll have no worries about my reputation."
There was silence in the box for a moment.
"Great!" Ruan Yueyi praised.
"Oh!" Fu Wang sighed.
"Why do you wish me the second place, and not the first or third place?" he asked.
"How can you possibly possess the talent of the top scholar? You'd be better off trusting Manjusri Bodhisattva to take the exam for you." Jiang Hexue tilted his head and thought for a moment. "As for the third place..."
She was merciless: "The third place winner should be the most handsome one. You are not good enough."
-
"Jiang will definitely keep this in mind." In another private room, Jiang Xingcong bowed. "Thank you, Your Highness."
“It’s good for the country, so there’s no harm.” Shen Qingchen stood up.
The door of the box was opened by Jiang Xingcong. Shen Qingchen stepped out first and happened to see the door of the box next to him was opened and Ruan Yueyi stepped out.
"Gan Le greets the young uncle." There was a moment of surprise in her eyes, and she saluted quickly.
"Where is Hexue?" Shen Qingchen asked.
Before Ruan Yueyi could reply, she heard Jiang Hexue shout from the private room behind her, "Keep drinking! Don't leave until you're drunk!"
Before she could stop him, she saw Shen Qingchen frowning slightly and striding in.
Jiang Xingcong, who followed closely, grabbed her wrist and closed the door tightly. "Yiyi, don't worry about it."
-
The aroma of wine filled the air, and a few empty wine jugs were scattered on the round rosewood table.
The girl on the main seat hooked her little finger on the handle of the wine jug, sat with her legs crossed, and was pouring wine into her mouth.
The transparent wine stained her crimson lips moistly, and her tone was intoxicating: "Jiang Heye...troublemaker..."
"Drink with me." She looked at Fu Wang motionlessly.
"Grandpa, are you still drinking?" Fu Wang looked at her helplessly, then stood up and saluted. "Fu greets Your Highness."
"What His Highness..." Jiang Hexue's mind wasn't quite clear. He blinked, his mouth reacting before his brain. "Look, the third place winner, the third place winner has to be someone this handsome..."
Shen Qingchen ignored Fu Wang and walked towards her.
"Your Highness, Hexue is drunk and unconscious. If he has offended you..." Fu Wang took a step back and smiled apologetically.
The white jade folding fan touched his shoulder, and Shen Qingchen pushed it away.
"Your Highness." Fu Wang stopped him again.
"You're so annoying! You're blocking my view of the handsome guy..." Jiang Hexue muttered in dissatisfaction behind him. "Go away!"
"She is the Princess of Heng'an." Fu Wang did not move. Shen Qingchen pressed his shoulder with a folding fan, his voice cold and emphasizing each word. "She is my wife."
"The palace's family affairs do not require outsiders to interfere, Master Fu."
Fu Wang smiled suddenly and made way: "It is Fu who is rude."
"Get out." Shen Qingchen didn't even glance at him again. After seeing him close the door, he stopped in front of Jiang Hexue.
She threw away the wine jug, held her cheeks with both hands, and looked at him without blinking: "You are as beautiful as grinding music."
Shen Qingchen lowered her body slightly to let her see clearly: "Do you still recognize me?"
Jiang Hexue nodded and shook her head, and the next moment she suddenly raised her hands and pinched both sides of his face.
Shen Qingchen didn't struggle, and let her rub and pinch him patiently, with a low tone: "What now?"
"I can't recognize you." Jiang Hexue looked at him for a few seconds, then suddenly put her arms around his neck and pushed him down. "But you look just the way I like you. I want to kiss you."
Her soft lips immediately pressed against his, and her tongue pried open his teeth, entwining with his.
Shen Qingchen rested his hands on the edge of the chair, not touching her, but staring intently at her. His pupils were no longer as clear as usual, but rather dark and heavy.
"Close your eyes." Jiang Hexue stepped back slightly and ordered.
He refused, turned his head away from her attempt to continue, and asked stubbornly, "Did you recognize him?"
Jiang Hexue was dissatisfied with his hiding and shook her head deliberately.
After staring at each other for a moment, Shen Qingchen straightened up, opened the door, and asked for a bowl of sobering soup for her.
The moment the spicy smell of ginger entered her nose, Jiang Hexue instinctively frowned and shrank back: "I don't want to drink it. I don't want ginger."
Shen Qingchen grabbed her shoulder with one hand, not allowing her to hide, and picked up the jade chopsticks with the other hand to pick the shredded ginger in the bowl.
After picking it out clean, he scooped it out again with a jade spoon, blew it cool and fed it to her.
The drunk Jiang Hexue was even more arrogant than usual, tilting her head left and right, refusing to drink: "I'm not drunk..."
Her jaw was suddenly pinched by him, and the next moment, a soft touch covered her lips.
He pried open the teeth and poured in the warm hangover soup, which was spicy with ginger, sweet with orange peel, and with the refreshing sweetness of the mouth-cleansing soup.
After swallowing it in one gulp, Jiang Hexue was stunned. As soon as he was released, he immediately grabbed the bowl of sobering soup and drank it all in one gulp, not caring about the spiciness of the ginger.
"Hateful." She finished her drink and slumped down. "No matter how pretty you are, if you have a cold face, you will be hated!"
"Are you sober?" Shen Qingchen just asked.
Jiang Hexue lay there for a while, letting his vision slowly return to focus, before nodding: "Why are you here?"
"Talking about business with Mr. Jiang." Shen Qingchen answered, and her eyes signaled her to explain.
"I was walking on the street with Gan Le and happened to run into Fu Wang, so we had dinner together. We got so engrossed in the conversation that we drank a little too much." Jiang Hexue's eyes were frank.
Shen Qingchen pursed the corners of his lips unexpectedly.
Jiang Hexue noticed this and felt baffled. "No way? Fu Er, Gan Le, and I are all childhood friends, and we're close friends. So, even if we get together for a drink, that shouldn't be a problem, right?"
"No problem?"
It was obvious that she was so close to Fu Wang that their faces were almost touching, and she still told him "I love you so much".
He could read lips and knew that this was not the way ordinary friends should behave.
She is his, Shen Qingchen's wife. She kept telling him that she loved him a few days ago. How could she turn around and tell others about it now?
"Why are you so fierce?" Jiang Hexue pouted in dissatisfaction. "You should smile more, too. I like it."
Shen Qingchen didn't agree with her, and her lips were still straight.
Does she like his smile, or does she like Fu Wang who always grins in an inappropriate way?
Or - because Fu Wang laughs all the time, he also likes others to laugh?
But Shen Qingchen would never be aggressive, let alone her.
He simply asked, "Today is New Year's Eve. Are you going home?"
Jiang Hexue shook his head.
Her scented beads were still hanging in Ruan Yueyi's house. She would go back and string them together today so that she could give him the New Year's gift she promised him tomorrow, on New Year's Day.
But she wanted to give him a surprise, and this was inexplicable.
"Then you only want him," Shen Qingchen said in a low voice after a long silence. "Don't you want me anymore?"
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