host
The Xie family was sparsely populated, and the few people who were there had gone out to look for her. Now, only Lin Yi, Xueya who went to the market to buy fresh fish, Xie Chengfeng who was playing with her, and a nanny who served Xie Chengfeng remained in the entire mansion.
The old nanny was usually responsible for taking care of Xie Chengfeng's daily life, and sometimes she would make a fuss at night and wouldn't get any rest. Now that Xie Chengfeng was clinging to Lin Yi, she finally had a chance to catch her breath. She repeatedly told Lin Yi to wake her up immediately if there was any unusual movement. After Lin Yi agreed, she finally yawned and went back to her room to sleep.
Xie Chengfeng went in and out several times, moving around as lively and active as a five-year-old child.
When he returned, he was mysteriously holding a palm-sized grass cage in his hand. Lin Yi glanced at it and assumed it was a grasshopper he had caught.
Forensic scientists have seen all sorts of bloody scenes, let alone a mere insect. In her opinion, girls who scream in terror at the sight of flying insects or bees are mostly a bit spoiled and pretentious. She doesn't hold any prejudice against them, but she simply could never do such a thing herself.
Xie Chengfeng gestured with his lip, indicating that Lin Yi should come closer. When the person got closer, he spread out a few fingers, revealing the hairy, long-legged creature in the grass cage—it was actually a large, glossy black spider!
Lin opened her mouth, forming an "O" shape, and suddenly she understood those girls a little better. What to do? She really wanted to scream.
Xie Chengfeng shoved the grass cage into her hands, and Lin Yi, unable to refuse, held the large spider, bewildered. "...For me? Thank you..."
When Xie Chengnan finally finished dealing with the situation and returned to the mansion with Cang Xie and Er Hei, he saw his silly older brother happily dancing around everyone. In contrast, Qiu Qing's face was full of disillusionment with life, yet he still forced a weak smile. Especially when he looked down at the things in his hands, it was hard to say who was more foolish.
Xie Chengnan found it amusing and casually asked, "What are you playing?"
Xie Chengfeng snatched the grass cage back from Lin Yi's hand and held it up to Xie Chengnan's nose as if to claim credit.
Caught off guard, Xie Chengnan found himself face-to-face with the large spider in the cage. He snatched the spider away, pressed his twitching eyebrow, let out a long sigh, and squeezed out a sentence through gritted teeth, "Who gave you permission to play with this?"
Xie Chengfeng shifted the blame naturally and smoothly, pointing a finger and saying, "It was her who insisted on playing!"
Xie Chengnan naturally didn't believe it. He didn't even need to look Lin Yi in the eye to confirm. He just stared into Xie Chengfeng's eyes and said sternly, "You're not allowed to let her play with these dangerous things anymore. You're not allowed to touch them yourself either, do you hear me?"
Xie Chengfeng's eyes, which were remarkably similar to his own, seemed to freeze, unblinking, clearly reflecting his own fierce and angry expression.
Just as he was about to reflect on whether he had been too harsh, Xie Chengfeng slammed his head into him with a loud thud!
—The sound was so loud and clear that it made the teeth of the people present ache.
Xie Chengnan, clutching his reddened forehead, finally snapped.
"Xie Chengfeng!" he shouted sternly.
Xie Chengfeng covered his ears and tried to run, but Xie Chengnan grabbed his belt and pulled him back. "I said you can't touch this, and that's final. If there's a next time—" Xie Chengnan gave a sinister sneer and pointed at Lin Yidao, "Never seen her prick people with needles before, have you? She sticks needles as thick as fingers all over her body, not even sparing her head or buttocks—she's an expert at this. If you don't want to become a hedgehog, you'd better behave and stay away from her. Got it?"
Xie Chengfeng loosened his grip on his ears and was pulled off by Xie Chengnan. His face turned pale instantly, his pupils trembled as he glanced at Lin Yi, then he let out a howl and ran away, clutching his head.
Lin Yi was both amused and exasperated: "Why did you have to scare him like that... When did I ever give someone acupuncture?"
A needle as thick as a finger—is it a needle or an iron pestle?
“You can’t reason with him; he won’t understand. You have to scare him yourself.” But you can’t actually hit him, so you have to make up stories to frighten him. Once, Xie Chengfeng was sick, and the doctor gave him acupuncture. He was so scared that he didn’t sleep a wink all night. This method should keep him in check for a while.
Lin Yi shook his head in disagreement: "Aren't you afraid of making things worse, and that he'll avoid me from now on?"
"What's wrong with taking a detour? Why does he have to be so affectionate with you?"
Lin Yi sniffed; there seemed to be a faint smell of vinegar in the air. It was probably just her imagination.
It was quite rare, Lin Yi had seen Xie Chengnan's undisguised malicious teasing and his unquestionable instinctive protection, but this was the first time he had seen him scare his own brother like a child. He seemed utterly wicked, but it was all bark and no bite.
Most of the reunion scenes after the crisis were too sentimental, and such interludes more or less diluted everyone's feelings of emotion and joy at Qiu Qing's return. However, the remaining emotions were still enough to make Lin Yi's throat dry.
This world, which did not belong to her, gave her the warmth she had longed for in the previous 24 years. It was the lamp under the eaves of home that illuminated her, a stranger who arrived in the dead of night, and made her wish to stay until dawn.
Needless to say, Cang Xie and Xue Ya share a deep bond, and they must be extremely anxious and restless for her sake. Just by looking at Er Hei's bloodshot and red eyes, Lin Yi knew that he had truly been put through a lot this time.
The child was not very old to begin with, and his dark skin was flushed red, especially his neck, which looked like a red-hot iron, mixed with beads of sweat from his frantic running around.
Lin Yi pulled his thin but stiff body into her arms, patting him reassuringly, her tone light and cheerful: "What are you all standing there for? I didn't eat lunch, my stomach has been growling for ages." She silently sniffed, then grinned, "Can we eat earlier?"
Of course, a meal couldn't be served, and even the only cook in the household had been sent out to find someone else, so who had time to go to the market to buy and prepare the food?
Not only did Lin Yi miss lunch, but the others who had spent most of the day searching for her were also hungry.
So Lin Yi paid for everyone to have a big meal at Zuixianlou Restaurant. As for the two live fish that Xueya bought, they were temporarily kept in the water tank in the courtyard.
Since the last time Xinglin Medical Clinic opened, the owner of Zuixianlou had gotten to know Miss Qiu, who had a bad reputation but was young and beautiful.
That collaboration was merely icing on the cake for his business. Zuixianlou was already a highly reputable upscale restaurant in Mingzhou City, so it naturally didn't lack customers. However, the big boss was very shrewd in business and very enthusiastically arranged the best private room for the distinguished guests from the Marquis's residence.
"Miss Qiu, here is the menu. Would you like to order something?" The waiter could tell who was hosting the meal, and he held up the menu with a smile.
Lin Yi casually asked, "Do you have any recommendations?"
"If you ask me that, then yes, we do! Our shop recently launched roasted camel hump and angelica mutton soup. The reputation and taste are absolutely amazing—and I'm not bragging, you won't find another place in the entire Mingzhou City that makes roasted camel hump. This camel comes from the Western Regions, the meat is taken from the hump, sliced thinly, roasted over lychee wood charcoal until slightly charred, and then sprinkled with sesame salt and apricot sauce. It's crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, with the original flavor, sizzling with oil!"
The young waiter described it so vividly that he himself swallowed hard. Lin Yi smiled and said, "Then one will do."
"Alright! Then this mutton soup..."
"No need for the mutton soup, he doesn't eat mutton."
The waiter was puzzled for a moment about who this "he" referred to, then slapped his forehead and realized: among the people present, who else could it be but Young Master Xie who could make Miss Qiu remember his preferences so carefully?
Xie Chengnan disliked mutton; the strong, gamey smell was enough to make him feel full. However, he had never told anyone this, so he was somewhat surprised that Qiu Qing knew. He must have discovered it during a meal together sometime during the meal.
Xie Chengnan looked at Lin Yi, who was obliviously flipping through the menu, and asked, "What would you like to eat?"
Before anyone else could respond, Xie Chengnan deliberately said, "Since you're the host, we'll naturally follow your lead. Whatever you order, we'll eat."
Lin nodded without refusing. His eyes swept over the list of dishes, and he made up his mind. He pointed to the dishes and said, "Lychee pork, lotus leaf chicken, salted vegetable braised pork, cabbage soup, mountain-style three crisps... and braised pigeon. That's all for now. After the hot dishes are served, I'll have a plate of osmanthus cake."
"Okay!"
Lin Yi didn't ask about their tastes, but she ordered all the dishes they liked. She remembered clearly what Xueya liked: osmanthus sugar cake; Cang Xie's favorite: braised pork with salted vegetables; Xie Chengnan's favorite: crispy bamboo shoots and pigeon; and even Erhei's gluttonous lotus leaf chicken.
No one can help but be moved by such meticulous understanding and attention.
With a soft ding, Lin Yi heard the system's voice appear in his ear unexpectedly: [Host has increased their Goodness Points by 5 by demonstrating meticulous and considerate humanistic care to those around them.]
This was truly an unexpected delight. Lin Yi smiled happily, but then she remembered how her health had plummeted because she had rejected Zhao Binglin, and her smile turned down again.
Out of curiosity, Lin Yi recounted in detail how he was kidnapped by Zhao Binglin that day and what happened at the Qiu residence.
Xueya was closest to her among them, and as she listened, tears streamed down her face. After crying for a while, she laughed again, praising Xueya's intelligence and wit.
Xie Chengnan listened to her story in silence until this point, when he nodded in affirmation: "She does have a bit of cleverness; at least she knows to keep him calm first."
Lin Yi himself was still shaken when he said this, "Fortunately, Zhao Binglin wasn't entirely bad, and he wasn't very bright, otherwise I really wouldn't know what to do."
Xie Chengnan fell silent again.
Whether it was her imagination or not, Xie Chengnan seemed angry the whole way.
Overwhelmed by the unexpected joy of the reunion, Lin Yi belatedly realized that although Xie Chengnan hadn't uttered a single word of blame or resentment towards her, and although he was now joking and laughing with the others, his eyes were always shrouded in a deep and heavy emotion. Perhaps she was overthinking it, but she was certain that his mood wasn't high, and was even rather depressed.
Why is that? Is it because of my confession just now? Because I got lost and caused trouble for everyone, making him worry? Or did he encounter some other difficult situation?
Sure enough, once you start caring, you can't help but overthink and worry about losing things.
Xueya suddenly said, "Miss, why don't you go to the outskirts to avoid the trouble?"
After regaining his senses, Lin Yi subconsciously asked, "Avoiding the limelight?"
Where can she hide? Besides, what's there to go in the suburbs... wait!
Lin Yi's eyes widened: "You mean the outskirts?!"
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