Breakfast was served, steaming hot, but in case it cooled too quickly, a delicate little bowl was placed on top.

After Bao Ning washed up and changed his clothes, Pei Yuan's feeding task was finally completed. The lamb had been restrained by him for too long, and finally got rid of it. It ran out happily, and Ah Huang followed. The lamb and the dog were playing and eating grass under the pomegranate tree.

Pei Yuan looked outside: "How does this sheep look sick?"

"Look carefully, its legs are lame, and its bones are not well grown." Bao Ning rolled up her sleeves with one hand and took off the bowls on the dishes one by one. "It may be because of the change of residence. It was originally in a straw shed, and it couldn't eat or sleep well. Now that it has changed its place, its mood must have improved."

Pei Yuan walked behind her, put his arm on her shoulders, and asked her lazily: "So are you in a good mood now?"

"Well... it's okay."

Bao Ning smiled and poked the crystal shrimp dumplings on the plate with chopsticks. She was still very happy that Pei Yuan remembered what she wanted to eat, even though it was just a trivial matter.

Growing up, she received too little love and care from people other than her aunt and Ji Lin, which made her have such a personality. She would be happy for a long time after receiving a little favor.

Bao Ning glanced in the direction of Pei Yuan, thinking in her heart, Pei Yuan is her husband, they have such a close relationship, so she can ask for more, and Pei Yuan can do better. Isn't this idea too much?

"Don't you like it?" Pei Yuan stared at her expression, frowning, "I arranged it according to your preferences, shrimp dumplings, vegetarian buns, river shrimp, fried small yellow croaker, and dumpling soup. Did I remember it wrong?"

"No." Bao Ning sat down, looked up at him, her calves swinging back and forth, her eyes smiling, "But what else do I like, do you know?"

Pei Yuan was stunned. He thought for a long time and shook his head.

"I remember your preferences." Bao Ning counted on her fingers.

"I know you like to eat meat and don't like to eat vegetables. If you must eat vegetables, you like to eat bean sprouts. As for meat, you prefer spare ribs to stir-fried meat, and you prefer pork bones to spare ribs, especially those with sauce. Well, you also like to eat soup and rice, but you don't look very pretty when you eat. You like potato and mushroom soup and winter melon meatball and vermicelli soup, and you hate red date and lotus seed soup the most, right?"

Pei Yuan looked at her seriously, squatted down, and looked at her at eye level.

"So you have to remember my preferences too." Bao Ning sat upright.

"I like to eat river seafood and small dumplings. I like those with rose filling, sesame filling and peanut filling. I hate things with five nuts the most, including five-nut mooncakes. So if you make me angry in the future, don't try to please me with things with five nuts. I also like to eat noodles, especially noodles from Shanxi. The chef of the Duke's Mansion used to be from Luliang, Shanxi. The vinegar he brewed was especially good, and his knife-cut noodles were also good. The best one was Wantuan'er."

Bao Ning asked, "Have you ever eaten Wantuan'er?"

Pei Yuan listened to her nagging, his eyes narrowed into slits with smile, "No."

"I knew it." Bao Ning picked up the small plate, took a bite of half a dumpling, and said with some pride, "My third brother-in-law is also from Shanxi. He can cook, but not as delicious as I do. I have a secret recipe. I'll make it for you some other day."

Pei Yuan replied with a yes.

He reached out and tucked the strands of hair on Baoning's forehead behind her ear, laughing softly: "I didn't know before that you would be so nagging."

"Everything I said to you is serious, don't forget it." Baoning ate the remaining half of the dumpling and went to drink the dumpling soup. Then she remembered something and looked up and asked, "What did you say to me last night? I was half asleep and half awake, I only knew you were talking, I didn't hear a word clearly."

"Nothing." Pei Yuan said in a word, sat opposite her, and also picked up a bowl of porridge.

He changed the subject: "How about going to Xiaoling River later? I asked around, and I heard that there is a troupe there today, I will take you to see it."

Baoning's attention was indeed diverted. She rarely had the opportunity to go out, and she was excited to hear this plan. But after drinking half a bowl of soup, she suddenly remembered something, stopped moving, and glanced at Pei Yuan.

Pei Yuan threw the peeled shrimp into her bowl and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Can I see my brother?" Bao Ning asked tentatively, her fingers clenched the chopsticks, "I miss him."

Pei Yuan was not very happy: "I'm going out with you, why do I need to see outsiders?"

"He's not an outsider." Bao Ning's eyes widened, "My brother, he's your brother-in-law, you should call him brother-in-law, see what you say."

Pei Yuan snorted and laughed. He still remembered Ji Yan's hatred, he knew that this brother-in-law didn't like him, when Bao Ning just got married, Ji Yan still wanted to take her away. Pei Yuan was reluctant to let Bao Ning contact him, because he was afraid that she would be fickle and be coaxed into submission by Ji Yan with a few words, and come back to make peace with him.

But something in Bao Ning's words pleased him.

"Didn't you say yesterday that God is the boss and you are the second, do whatever you want, no need to ask me." Pei Yuan put a peanut in his mouth, "You can ask him to come out, we haven't met properly, and he was in a hurry when he went to the Duke's Mansion last time, let's have a drink together."

"Your leg is not healed yet, it's better to drink less of that stuff." Bao Ning held his chin and looked at Pei Yuan's wrist under his sleeve with some worry. He blocked it, so Bao Ning couldn't see it.

Bao Ning said, "Then you can go to the Duke's Mansion to deliver the visiting card. According to the date, at the end of this month, Ji Yan should not have gone to the academy. We will take a carriage to Xiaoling River together."

Pei Yuan lowered his head and stirred the porridge in the bowl, pouring it into his mouth in a few gulps: "Let him ride a horse by himself. How can he have the nerve to join us in the fun." "

You--" Bao Ning swallowed the food in his mouth, "Today is a good day. I won't be angry with you. I just want to remind you that you still owe me a 500-word confession and a small wish."

Pei Yuan raised his head in a daze: "Is this true?"

"Do you think I'm joking with you? I'm still angry, you'd better be careful with what you say and do." Bao Ning stood up, patted her skirt, and smiled at him, "Otherwise, my little wish is to let you sleep on the floor for half a year."

Pei Yuan couldn't even eat the fried peanuts.

Ah Huang circled around his feet, Pei Yuan kicked its butt to get rid of it, but it was ashamed and came again.

Pei Yuan said angrily: "I just fed you something, but it's useless. You just know how to eat, you greedy ghost." He threw a piece of garlic-flavored pork ribs with the meat removed on the ground.

Ah Huang happily ran to the corner with the ribs in his arms, tilted his head, and stuck out his butt to chew it. Bao

Ning looked at it, shook his head helplessly, and tiptoed to take down the porcelain pot containing leeches.

Pei Yuan had just fed them in the morning. After they had eaten their fill, they burrowed into the mud to rest, revealing a bit of their light blue heads.

The three egg shells hatched a total of 36 small leeches. Two of them died. One died of hunger because it had no food. Its food was snatched away by a leech of considerable size. The other was eaten directly by the large leech. When Bao Ning saw it, it was already half eaten. Half of the shell was stained by the blood and sticky fluids flowing out of its body.

Bao Ning realized from then on that the law of the jungle is applicable everywhere.

Bao Ning cast his eyes on the leech that had grown extremely strong and fat. It seemed to have an innate advantage and was extremely ferocious. It was already as thick as a little finger. Such a growth rate exceeded Bao Ning's expectations.

If you calculate it this way, in about three days, it will be ready to suck poisonous blood for the first time.

Bao Ning tilted her head to glance at Pei Yuan. Ah Huang ran to his side again, and the lamb also went, and they all circled around him. Pei Yuan was so angry that he threw his chopsticks, blasting this one away and that one away.

He is still full of energy now, purely because of his good physical foundation. The longer the poison is delayed, the faster it will spread. Bao Ning dared not imagine whether Pei Yuan would still be like this in half a month or a month, and whether he would have the strength to quarrel with her.

At the latest the day after tomorrow, she must try whether this leech is useful.

...

Around noon, Bao Ning and Pei Yuan arrived at the Xiaoling River. There was a tea stall there, very simple, with a shed built as a resting place for porters. Tea was served in large bowls, which had been rinsed countless times, and was as light as plain water, but with a slightly bitter aftertaste.

Ji Yan was waiting for them there.

Pei Yuan frowned when he arrived. The table was shiny and the wooden planks on the stools were chipped. He didn't want Bao Ning to sit there, but looking around, there was no other good place except a newly built small building.

Ji Yan took the initiative and said, "You chose this place."

Bao Ning didn't care that the place was simple. She hadn't seen her brother for a long time and really missed him. Seeing that he had grown taller like a willow branch and looked much more stable, she was very happy and kept staring at him.

The proprietress brought a tablecloth, Pei Yuan frowned and threw it aside, wiped Bao Ning's seat with his sleeve, and asked her to sit down.

Ji Yan stared at his movements, and seeing this, he relaxed a little.

"I remember this place used to be a big restaurant." Pei Yuan also sat down, and he started a more homely conversation with Ji Yan.

"Later, it was forcibly demolished by the son of the left prime minister. Now a new one has been built, which is also a restaurant." Ji Yan poured tea for him and Bao Ning, smiling appropriately.

Bao Ning felt that Ji Yan seemed to have grown up a lot. I don't know if it was because of Tao's pregnancy that his position in the mansion was not as stable as before, and he felt a crisis, so he grew up faster. Or was it because of her marriage? She married someone who was not very respectable. Even though she was satisfied with her life now, it was still not so respectable in the eyes of outsiders. Ji Yan was distressed for a long time at first.

If Ji Yan was young and energetic before, he could not hide his sharpness, but now he has learned to greet people.

Pei Yuan said "hmm", and the two sat opposite each other drinking tea. They looked disgusted with each other and no one spoke.

Bao Ning quietly stepped on Pei Yuan, wanting him to say something. Pei Yuan understood the meaning, but did not move. In his heart, women's minds are always twisted and round. Ji Yan obviously doesn't like him. Of course, he doesn't like Ji Yan either. Is it fun to force them to chat by pressing their heads? It made both of them embarrassed.

Pei Yuan stood up and smiled at Ji Yan: "Excuse me for a moment, I'm going to relieve myself."

Pei Yuan didn't want to relieve himself, he just wanted to find an excuse to go out and avoid it, and he would come back after Bao Ning and Ji Yan said goodbye.

Pei Yuan thought that he was already polite enough, and this was only for Bao Ning's sake. Not many people could receive such courtesy from him.

Ji Yan stood up and bowed to Pei Yuan, and they both said goodbye with a smile.

When his back was far away, Ji Yan's expression changed, and she sat down in front of Bao Ning, looking at her nervously: "Sister, is he good to you? I have wanted to see you for a long time, but I was delayed by things and didn't go. Later, when I arrived at your place, I found that you had left long ago."

Bao Ning smiled and said, "Very good, we moved to a new place."

She asked with concern: "What happened to make you so busy?"

Ji Yan didn't answer for the time being.

He thought of Pei Yuan's actions just now, and he was still dissatisfied with this brother-in-law. Bao Ning didn't bear grudges and could forgive Pei Yuan's initial bad attitude, but he couldn't let it go and still felt resentful. Moreover, Baoning was forced to marry Pei Yuan. In Ji Ran's heart, Baoning was wronged, which was related to his father's inaction and his age and incompetence.

In a word, Pei Yuan was not worthy of his sister, even if he was a prince. Besides

, with Pei Yuan's temper and status, how could he be a good husband?

Ji Ran was most afraid that Baoning would be angry with him, or fall into the danger caused by his actions.

Ji Ran could not persuade Baoning to divorce openly. Xu Shi would not allow it, and it would be unfair to Baoning. He hoped that she could figure it out herself. As a younger brother, he left her a way out.

"Sister, I bought you a manor. It's not far from the capital, in Lihu."