After seeing off the ladies, the maids in the house swarmed around Xu Jiang, pestering her for this and that. In the end, Liu Mei pulled them away one by one, and then led Xu Jiang to the courtyard.
Xu Jiang walked out of the house and was blown on the head and face by the cold wind. Yin Yin came after her and put a cloak on her.
Liu Mei still had to arrange some trivial matters for the banquet, so she asked Yin Yin to take Xu Jiang to the big room inside.
Lou Yunchun was waiting there and had asked people to check several times.
The two men said goodbye to Liu Mei for a while and walked along the corridor towards the big house.
Yinyin had been looking at Xu Jiang's face the whole time, and when she felt confused, she pinched the little girl's face and asked, "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"I only wonder how much hardship I must have endured to become like my sister. I wouldn't dare travel far from home, and I can't even imagine opening a shop. Even if I did, it would go bankrupt within two days."
Xu Jiang was both amused and annoyed. She just grabbed her and held her in her arms, squeezing her until she giggled.
Speaking of fear, she was afraid at first, but what was the point of being afraid? She couldn't eat enough, couldn't fill her stomach, and she was afraid that she wouldn't cry enough, wouldn't be hungry enough.
She was terrified of ghosts when she was little, but later, she took it for granted that she was living in graves and using the flickering ghost lights as a night light. She would sleep soundly in the graveyard, refusing to wake unless there was thunder or rain, just like the dead in the coffin.
Sometimes I think that knowing fear is a blessing.
"arrive."
As they turned the corner, they saw Lou Yunchun standing in front of the door. Beside him stood a servant who, upon seeing them approach, came forward and dragged Yinyin out to play in the courtyard.
Lou Yunchun extended his hand to Xu Jiang, who somehow thought of Madam Lou again, smiled, and held it.
The two of them walked inside. Lou Yunchun's house had the same layout as Madam Lou's, with a central main hall and four or five symmetrically arranged side rooms. However, the furnishings were not as lively as the other side, and it looked empty and deserted. In comparison, Xu Jiang preferred this side; it made her feel calmer.
Lou Yunchun led her through several rooms and then to a study. The smell of paper and ink made Xu Jiang feel familiar and she couldn't help but relax.
She looked around and saw her copy of "Notes from the South" on the desk, then she remembered that he had never returned the book.
"It's time to return this book." She took it and wanted to use her hand to flip through a few chapters, but Lou Yunchun used his other hand to flip through them for her.
I just don't want to let her go.
Xu Jiang glared at him, then borrowed his hand to look at the notes, only to discover some extra annotations. The annotations were brief, some four or five words long, some two or three, and in some places only a single word was missing. It was unclear what the annotations were for.
She read a passage: "When we reached Fuzhou, we encountered a severe drought. The river dried up, revealing the Bazi Bridge, lying along the river. On the bridge sat a stone fish, and it was said that the appearance of a stone fish was a sign of a good harvest, but I didn't know whether it was true or not. There were also inscriptions, many of which were about fish and the contemplation of water, some by famous artists. So I copied them and returned home."
This is what she saw and heard when she was traveling down the river and was blocked in Fuzhou due to a severe drought. Lou Yunchun wrote the word "three" on it.
Xu Jiang asked in confusion, "Why three?"
Lou Yunchun pursed his lips and said nothing. Xu Jiang saw that his face was a little red and thought that there must be something fishy.
"If there are three, there will be one, two, four, and five. Turn the page and let me find it." Xu Jiang asked him to turn the page, but he knocked the book down and threw it to the other end of the desk.
Xu Jiang was speechless for a long moment before she said, "Isn't that my book?"
Lou Yunchun said: "I haven't finished reading it yet."
Don't think she can't tell if you're lying with a straight face.
Never mind, let’s look at something else.
The two of them walked around to the bookshelf behind the desk. Xu Jiang looked at the books one by one, and found that many of them were books she had never seen before. She asked, "I wonder if the books here at Zhaoyue are available for loan?"
"Not for loan." Xu Jiang was about to reply, but then he said, "I can lend it to you."
Xu Jiang choked, then turned away to look elsewhere. Lou Yunchun turned her around, only to see her cheeks flushed. His heart skipped a beat, and he froze.
He moved his arm, wanting to reach out, but then pulled it back.
Seeing this, Xu Jiang took a half step forward, leaned lightly in his arms, and said softly: "Count to three. If you don't hold me, I won't hold you. One..."
The word "一" was still half in his mouth when it was knocked back into his stomach by Lou Yunchun's chest.
A pair of shadows were cast obliquely on the ground, and then moved to the bookshelf with the flowing light.
"Three." Xu Jiang uttered a word muffledly in his arms, and Lou Yunchun loosened his arms. The two did not dare to look at each other and turned their heads away.
Xu Jiang continued browsing the books on the shelf, but she found something familiar on a square. She reached out and took it. Isn't this Yue Nu's cat tag? Why is it here?
A few days ago, when she saw that its neck was empty, she thought it had fallen somewhere and was about to carve a new one for it, but she didn't expect it to be with Lou Yunchun.
Lou Yunchun reached out, took the cat tag and stuffed it into his arms.
"Master Yanluolou, why did you steal my Yuenu's cat tag?"
Lou Yunchun was speechless for a long while, and then he whispered, "It's not stealing, am I not also a moon slave?"
Xu Jiang was completely speechless.
She wailed in her heart, Oh God, what kind of treasure have you given me?
It took her a long time to find her tongue again, and she murmured, "Thinking back to the first time we met, I never knew you would be this kind of person."
"First time meeting?" Lou Yunchun pondered for a moment and asked, "Yunlai Inn?"
Xu Jiang nodded.
"At that time, I only thought you were fierce, and frightened the waiter so much that he nodded and bowed his head. Thinking he couldn't afford to offend you, he stayed away from me. Who would have thought..." Who would have thought that I would have such a marriage with him.
"Vicious?" Lou Yunchun's tone of disbelief contained a subtle sense of grievance.
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!
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