Chapter 37 "You can bully your younger sister, but your wife..."
Meng Yuanxiao's stomach rumbled with hunger, and she urged, "Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet? I'm starving!"
As they were talking, a skewer of grilled meat was handed to them.
Turning his head, he saw it was Lu Erlang.
Meng Yuanxiao blinked, reached out and took it, took only one bite, and her eyes lit up.
She finished the meat in her hand in a few bites, her eyes crinkling into a smile. "Young Master Lu, our tastes are quite similar!"
Lu Erlang blushed slightly, smiled, and asked, "It's been a long time. How have you been, Miss Meng?"
Meng Yuanxiao glanced at Cui Xintang subconsciously and saw that he was looking down at the meat in his hands and hadn't noticed this place, so she was relieved.
She smiled at Lu Erlang, "It's alright, it's alright."
After saying that, for some reason, she suddenly remembered what the bookstore owner had said, "The fan painting you painted was bought by Lu Erlang."
Meng Yuanxiao glanced at Lu Erlang's waist subconsciously, only to find that his waist was bare and there was nothing tied around it.
She secretly breathed a sigh of relief, but then heard Lu Erlang say, "Barbecue is smoky and fiery, so I changed my clothes before coming here."
Therefore, the fan was also put away.
Meng Yuanxiao: "..."
Lu Erlang handed her another skewer of grilled meat. Meng Yuanxiao hesitated before taking it, and Lu Erlang lowered his head to continue grilling the meat, no longer looking at her.
Meng Yuanxiao didn't dare to stay there any longer, and hurriedly ran to his second brother's side with the roasted meat in his hand.
The second brother, who used to be a carefree brat but always shouted "A gentleman keeps away from the kitchen," was now skillfully flipping the roasted meat in his hands, and Meng Yuanxiao almost thought he was seeing things.
She sniffed, her eyes lighting up. "It smells so good! When did you learn to cook, Second Brother? You used to never lift a finger!"
Meng Zheng, flipping the grilled meat in his hands, laughed and scolded her, "Are you asking for a beating?"
Meng Yuanxiao chuckled a few times, moved even closer, and pleaded, "Second Brother, where's my roasted sparrow?"
Before Meng Zheng could answer, an arm reached out and pulled her over.
"Brother Tang?"
Cui Xintang glanced at her, a half-smile on his face, and said, "Your drool is practically dripping onto your flesh."
Meng Yuanxiao: "..."
She didn't!
She was still holding a skewer of grilled meat in her hand. Grilled meat doesn't smell good when it gets cold. She took a bite of the meat and saw Cui Xintang looking down at her.
Meng Yuanxiao blinked and swallowed the meat in her mouth.
Cui Xintang looked at the roasted meat in her hand, then at her, and asked, "Is it good?"
Meng Yuanxiao was about to say it was delicious, but then stopped herself and said, "It's... alright!"
After saying that, she met his half-smiling eyes, swallowed, and tentatively asked, "Brother Tang, would you like to try some?"
"Hmm." Cui Xintang neither refused nor reached out.
Meng Yuanxiao pursed her lips and held the meat skewer to his mouth.
Cui Xintang glanced at her, then took her hand and ate the remaining meat on the skewer using her hand.
After finishing his meal, he glanced at Lu Erlang, curled his lips into a smile, and then looked away, saying, "It's not bad. Go and get two more skewers for Brother Tang."
Meng Yuanxiao: "..."
She didn't even dare to look at Lu Erlang, and just huffed, "I'm not going. I've never eaten meat that you grilled before, Brother Tang. I want to eat the meat you grill."
"...Want to eat?" Cui Xintang asked.
"Yes, I want to eat it." Meng Yuanxiao nodded seriously.
Cui Xintang smiled, sat down on a chair to the side, crossed his long legs, and pointed to the marinated meat next to him, "If you want to eat, just pick the meat you like and skewer it."
"..." Meng Yuanxiao: "Brother Tang, you're slacking off again!"
Cui Xintang looked at her with a smile, showing no shame or attempt to hide anything. "Otherwise, why do you think I brought you to the Lu family's estate for a barbecue?"
Meng Yuanxiao choked.
Cui Xintang was close to her elder brother, and he had visited the Meng family's estate several times.
When people come to the village in winter, they inevitably have to have barbecue, but Brother Tang is not a diligent person and always tries to avoid it.
The eldest and second eldest brothers were furious, so they deliberately prevented the servants from cleaning up the mess and left it to Cui Xintang to clean up.
Cui Xintang wasn't afraid at all. He always managed to find a way to keep her here and in various ways to make her help him tidy up this and that.
At that time, Meng Yuanxiao was young and was afraid that her brother Tang would find out that she was being lazy and that he was doing her homework for her. Every time, she was foolishly fooled by him.
When he finally realized what had happened, he was so angry that he jumped up and down, but he didn't dare to complain to his older brother.
So, Brother Tang deliberately came to the Lu family's manor for a barbecue today to avoid being lazy and to save himself the trouble of cleaning up the mess!
After all, they were guests; how could the Lu family let him clean up?
Thinking about how he had bullied her before, Meng Yuanxiao was still angry and stomped hard on his instep.
Cui Xintang hissed. Seeing her puffed-up face, he wasn't in a hurry at all. Instead, he smiled and looked at her meaningfully.
"That's right. I can bully my sister, but I wouldn't dare to bully my wife. How could I, as your husband, bear to let Yuanyuan clean up my messes again?"
Meng Yuanxiao: "..."
Even with her thick skin, she couldn't help but blush.
She caught a glimpse of Lu Erlang out of the corner of her eye, and suddenly remembered something.
After hesitating for a moment, she awkwardly whispered, "Brother Tang, back then, Lu Erlang said he had found the storybook, but you wouldn't let him give it to me."
Cui Xintang paused for a moment, but did not deny it. "Yes."
Meng Yuanxiao looked at him with her almond-shaped eyes, unable to hide her anticipation, "Why didn't you let him give me the storybook?"
Cui Xintang raised his eyebrows, smiled, and did not answer.
Only when Meng Yuanxiao became somewhat displeased did he say, "It was Meng Xu who asked me to stop Lu Erlang."
Meng Yuanxiao was stunned. Cui Xintang said, "What else does Yuanyuan think? Meng Xu looks down on him, but he doesn't want to offend him directly, so he asked me to find some excuse to refuse him."
He naturally guessed Lu Erlang's intention in seeking out Meng Xu.
He had seen Yuanyuan playing with Lu Erlang and his friends several times, and he had also seen Lu Erlang secretly watching Yuanyuan.
Also, there's the way Yuanyuan's cheeks are slightly flushed when she's in front of Lu Erlang.
If the purpose was simply to deliver the storybook to Meng Yuanxiao, someone else could have given it to him. Lu Erlang's insistence on seeing Meng Xu indicated that he had ulterior motives and wanted to test Meng Xu and the Meng family's intentions.
If Meng Xu agrees to let him personally deliver it to Meng Yuanxiao, then he also has intentions. The next step should be for Lu Erlang to ask Madam Lu to come and inquire about Madam Feng's intentions.
When Meng Xu asked him to find a pretext to get rid of Lu Erlang, he could have refused.
But he agreed, and afterwards he couldn't help but personally go and find a storybook for Yuanyuan from somewhere else.
So before Meng Yuanxiao pestered him to help her find storybooks that day, he had actually already been looking for them for her.
Upon hearing this, Meng Yuanxiao paused, and the enchanting feeling from before vanished instantly.
Somewhat unwilling, she frowned and asked defiantly, "What if my older brother hadn't asked you to stop him?"
Cui Xintang: "..."
Meng Yuanxiao pursed her lips and glared at him angrily.
Cui Xintang looked around helplessly and, seeing that no one was paying attention, he scooped Meng Yuanxiao up with his long arm and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.
"Sweetie, go and skewer the meat. I'll grill it for you later."
Meng Yuanxiao felt annoyed and glared at him for a long time, but she really wanted to eat the meat that Brother Tang had personally grilled, so she obediently went to skewer the meat.
Cui Xintang loved to shirk his responsibilities, and Meng Yuanxiao was no less so; he only skewered two pieces of meat before giving up.
Cui Xintang had been watching her closely. Seeing that she had finished skewering the meat, he continued to boss her around, "Brush on the sauce."
Meng Yuanxiao: "..."
She was seething with anger, and imagining the meat skewers in her hand were Cui Xintang, she used a brush to dip them in sauce and scrubbed them back and forth several times.
"Tsk," Cui Xintang stopped her, "Aren't you afraid of getting sick of the sweetness?"
Meng Yuanxiao wanted to say, "You're so sickeningly sweet!"
Cui Xintang could easily see through her thoughts. With a smile on his lips, he leaned back in his chair and pointed towards Meng Zheng, "Take the meat skewers to the shelf over by your second brother."
Meng Yuanxiao nearly threw the meat skewer in her hand at his face.
Cui Xintang, however, was full of twisted logic: "Your brother Tang has never done these things. What if I ruin the meat that Yuanyuan worked so hard to skewer?"
After a brief standoff, Meng Yuanxiao gave up and stopped talking to him.
She rolled her eyes at him, huffed and puffed as she walked over to her second brother, throwing the meat in her hand onto the barbecue grill.
Meng Zheng: "...Could you be any more pathetic?"
Meng Yuanxiao blushed and tugged at his sleeve, "Second brother, can you help me grill the meat?"
Meng Zheng remained unmoved. "Go away, who promised you that? Go and let them grill it."
Meng Yuanxiao: "...Hmph, stingy."
Meng Zheng was amused by her, "Come on, make him call me Second Brother, and Second Brother will grill the meat for you."
Meng Yuanxiao's eyes lit up, and he turned to look intently at Cui Xintang.
Cui Xintang's expression stiffened for a moment, then he raised his eyebrows and said with a smile, "I'd like to trouble you, Second Brother, to grill the meat. Yuanyuan wants to eat some."
Meng Zheng: "..."
That's shameless.
He sneered, said nothing more, and simply sprinkled some salt on the meat, then took over all sorts of other seasonings and sprinkled them on as well.
Meng Yuanxiao was stunned, wanting to stop him but not daring to.
Once the meat was cooked, Meng Zheng handed it to her, saying, "Alright, here, take it and eat it."
Meng Yuanxiao wasn't stupid. She rolled her eyes, blew on the meat, walked over to Cui Xintang, and held the meat to his mouth, saying, "Brother Tang, you try it first."
Cui Xintang glanced at her, but did not refuse, and took a bite from her hand.
Meng Yuanxiao stared at him with her almond-shaped eyes, and seeing that he had no change in expression, she couldn't help but ask curiously, "Is it delicious?"
Cui Xintang swallowed the meat in his mouth and nodded, saying, "It's alright."
Meng Yuanxiao blinked, looked at him, then at the meat in her hand. She was so curious that she couldn't resist taking a bite herself.
With just one bite, her pretty little face scrunched up like a bitter gourd.
The meat in her mouth was incredibly salty and tasted strange, even worse than the bitterest medicine she had ever drunk. Tang-gege was obviously deliberately trying to trick her.
Meng Yuanxiao's face turned red with anger. Cui Xintang smiled and watched her swallow the meat in her mouth with difficulty before taking the rest of the meat from her hand and eating it all.
Meng Yuanxiao was stunned and momentarily forgot to be angry with him.
A tiny fennel seed still clung to her lips. Cui Xintang reached out and brushed it off for her, then pointed to the pavilion beside her. "Isn't the meat ready? Go eat it, lest someone else eat it all."
Meng Yuanxiao looked in the direction he was pointing and saw that several plates of roasted meat had already been laid out in the warm pavilion.
The aroma of meat wafted on the wind, and she forgot about Cui Xintang, immediately pulling Li Keying to eat barbecue.
Roasted meat is a hot, smoky dish. Noble families in the capital liked to cut the meat into small pieces, skewer them on thin bamboo sticks, rub them with just a little seasoning, brush them with honey, and then roast them.
But Li Keying grew up in Fengzhou, where the food is heavier and different from that in the capital, so she didn't actually like the barbecue she was eating today.
She was not interested until she saw the plate of roasted meat in the middle, which smelled deliciously charred.
The meat is roasted in large chunks and sprinkled with strong seasonings. To make it easier to eat, it is then sliced into thin slices with a knife after roasting. The aroma alone is enough to make your mouth water.
When Li Keying tasted just one piece of meat, she couldn't help but be pleasantly surprised.
Meng Yuanxiao ate a few skewers of meat, then turned around and saw his sister-in-law happily eating a plate of meat, so he curiously went over to her.
Li Keying used a skewer to pick up a piece of meat and brought it to her mouth. Meng Yuanxiao didn't stand on ceremony and ate the meat from her sister-in-law's hand.
The meat had a slightly pungent taste at first bite, and Meng Yuanxiao wrinkled her little face, but then her eyes lit up. "Sister-in-law, it tastes strange, but it smells so good!"
She couldn't resist forking another piece of meat to eat, but as soon as she put it in her mouth, she suddenly thought of the meat her second brother had grilled.
She had just noticed that her second brother was grilling large pieces of meat, and the taste was somewhat different. So it turned out that her second brother had grilled it.
Her mouth moved faster than her brain, and without thinking, she blurted out, "Sister-in-law, this is meat that my second brother grilled."
Li Keying paused, looking at the few remaining slices of meat on the plate in her hand, and remained silent for a moment.
Meng Yuanxiao belatedly realized he had spoken out of turn and was feeling somewhat embarrassed when he turned around and saw that Madam Su had arrived at some point and was standing next to Meng Xu.
Meng Xu said something, and Su Shi giggled, offering the meat skewers in her hand to Meng Xu's lips.
Meng Xu paused, looking at the meat that was being offered to his mouth without touching it.
Su looked at him earnestly and said something softly. Meng Xu glanced at her, but finally ate the meat that was being offered to him.
Su took back the skewer, smiled and said something to Meng Xu, and then, without any hesitation, ate the remaining meat on the skewer.
They clearly didn't call out to Su Shi when they arrived. Meng Yuanxiao didn't know when Su Shi had come, but when Su Shi had been bothering her elder brother before, her elder brother hadn't paid much attention to her and wouldn't have let Su Shi barge into her sister-in-law's presence so easily.
Brother, are you acting strangely today? Did you take the wrong medicine?
Meng Yuanxiao really couldn't understand her older brother. Her heart skipped a beat. Just as she was about to pull her sister-in-law aside to avoid being an eyesore, Meng Xu brought over a plate of roasted meat.
Seeing the plate of roasted meat in front of Li Keying, which was already half-eaten and smelled of caramel, Meng Xu frowned, his face showing undisguised disgust. "Eat less, it'll make you feel hot."
After saying that, he moved the plate of meat aside and placed the meat he had grilled himself in front of Li Keying.
The atmosphere suddenly became a little awkward. Meng Yuanxiao's palms were sweaty. Just as he was about to speak, Li Keying ate the last piece of roasted meat on the plate.
She put down the plate, not even glancing at Meng Xu, and instead took Meng Yuanxiao's arm, saying, "I'm full. I heard that a greenhouse has been built in the Lu family estate, and flowers bloom inside even in winter. Come on, let's go take a look with my sister-in-law."
The two left the warm pavilion but did not go to the warm shed; instead, they wandered around the estate at will.
A pond had been dug in the Lu family's estate. Because of the hot springs, the pond never froze in winter. The two walked over and squatted down by the pond.
There were fish in the pond. Li Keying picked up a dry branch and teased the fish in the water.
Meng Yuanxiao squatted down beside her and looked at her. Suddenly, he thought of Sister Li, whom he had first met in Fengzhou City a few years ago.
While she was in a daze, Li Keying suddenly spoke up: "Meng Xu hasn't stayed in my room for a long time."
Meng Xu wanted to stay, but she was unwilling. If Meng Xu insisted on staying, she would leave and stay in a side room.
After this happened several times, Meng Xu lost his patience.
Meng Yuanxiao was surprised. She pursed her lips and said, "Sister-in-law, you and my eldest brother..."
Li Keying turned to look at her and smiled: "I was indeed angry and resentful before, but I've slowly let it go. After all, there are many things in the world that are more important to me than your older brother."
How could I not be sad?
Having grown accustomed to the ruggedness of her father and brothers, she was suddenly confronted one day by a young, handsome, and gentle man who had traveled a great distance to her door. He appeared nervous and flustered, saying that he had already fallen in love with her and vowed to marry no one but her. How could she not be moved?
She had considered that after marrying Meng Xu, she would give up her original self and learn to be a qualified mistress of the Meng family.
But all of that is in the past.
Meng Yuanxiao was stunned for a moment, then suddenly understood what she meant, and was shocked.
She wanted to say something on behalf of her elder brother, but when she thought of how he had stood with Madam Su earlier, she couldn't bring herself to say it.
"Yuanyuan, you can understand your sister-in-law, right?"
Meng Yuanxiao swallowed hard. "...Mmm."
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