The Zuihua Building was indeed very quiet during the day, unlike the night when Su Rong brought him there - it was noisy outside, filled with all sorts of raucous noises.
Xie Lin widened his eyes, questioning Zhou Gu, "Is your fiancée too magnanimous? Does she not like you?"
In his opinion, only disinterest could lead to such leniency. As far as he knew, there were no truly magnanimous women in the world. Many women say one thing but think ten different things. They’d ideally want the man’s heart to be tightly fastened around their waist, and not at all wish for the man to lay eyes on another woman.
Zhou Gu didn’t like this," If she didn’t like me, would she buy me so many clothes?"
Xie Lin pondered over this, eventually becoming confused, "Your fiancée is truly hard to understand."
"You don’t need to understand." Zhou Gu raised his wine cup, "Come on, drink up, enough with the nonsense. Since we’re here, let’s enjoy this wine. Of course, the song and dance aren’t bad either, they have more variety than the dancing girls in the palace."
Both of them were worldly people from a young age, and the music from an average orchestra didn’t impress them.
Xie Lin nodded, noticing Zhou Gu was quite relaxed. After having a sip of the wine, he also began to loosen up, realizing that the inside of the green building wasn’t as chaotic as he’d thought.
With Zhou Gu bringing Xie Lin to Zuihua Building, naturally, a message had to be passed along to Su Rong, asking her whether she was aware or not. After all, young master Zhou was replicating her usual demeanour when visiting the Zuihua Building.
Since Su Rong had guards sent by Zhou Gu to escort her, she found it inconvenient to go elsewhere. She could only buy some food from the street vendors and, escorted by the guards, returned to the residence.
Upon seeing her, Su Xingze expressed his astonishment, "Seventh Sister, why have you come back alone? Where’s Zhou Gu?"
Su Rong handed over an extra serving of candied chestnuts that she had purposefully bought for Su Xingze, and spoke about Xie Lin, "The Young Master Xie Lin from Rui’an King’s household has arrived in Jiangning. We bumped into him by coincidence. Zhou Gu took him out to have fun, and I didn’t want to go, so I came back by myself."
Su Xingze was puzzled, "Xie Lin from Rui’an King’s house? Why has he come to Jiangning?"
Su Rong shook her head, "From what I gathered, he was bored in the Capital City. Knowing Zhou Gu was in Jiangning, he naturally came to visit."
Su Xingze was doubtful, "Aren’t they on bad terms?"
Su Rong was also confused, "Yes, they had a fight over Qin Luan, so logically their relationship should have soured. But, that’s not what I saw. They both seemed quite amicable upon meeting..."
Su Xingze was skeptical, "Where did they go?"
Su Rong shook her head, "I didn’t ask."
They must have gone to explore the snack street. Didn’t Zhou Gu spend several days exploring the snack street when he first arrived?
Clearly, Su Xingze had the same thought as Su Rong. Many out-of-towners visiting Jiangning would first have a taste of the food on snack street.
Su Rong said to Su Xingze, "By the way, Brother, I invited Young Master Xie over to our residence for dinner tonight. Tell the kitchen to prepare fish!"
Su Xingze nodded, "Now that we know Young Master Xie is in Jiangning, it is only courteous to invite him over. I’ll tell mother now so that she can instruct the kitchen." He then asked, "Where is Young Master Xie staying?"
"Probably at an inn!" Su Rong yawned, "I’m not really sure, but it’s easy to find out. If you want to know, just send someone to ask."
Upon hearing the affirmative response from Su Rong, Su Xingze was determined to send someone to investigate why Xie Lin was visiting Jiangning, to see if it was as simple as he claimed it to be. Seeing Su Rong yawning, he urged her, "It’s too hot out. Since you’re tired, go back and rest! You don’t have to handle this. I will make the arrangements."-
Su Rong initially didn’t want to, so waving her hand, she took the snacks and returned to her own courtyard.
After Su Rong left, Su Xinzhe, looking at the candied chestnuts in his hand, smiled. After instructing a servant, he went to find the Governor and his wife.
Hearing that the Young Master Xie Lin from the Rui’an King’s household was visiting Jiangning, and that Su Rong had invited him over for dinner, the mistress hastily ordered preparations for the evening’s meal.
Meanwhile, she asked Su Xingze, puzzled "Is this Xie Lin the one who fought with Zhou Gu?"
The two had fought over a woman, creating a big ruckus that everyone knew about.
Su Xingze nodded.
The mistress was confused, "Since they had a fight, why are they still hanging out together?"
Su Xingze hadn’t met him yet and shook his head, "I don’t know. But according to Seventh Sister, their relationship seemed to be quite good, so she invited him over for dinner."
Having lived a lifetime, the mistress only now understood how little she knew about young people. She nodded, "Alright, our home welcomes all guests."
Upon receiving the orders, the kitchen staff of the Su Residence started preparing busily.
Upon returning to her own courtyard, Su Rong handed the snacks to Yuewan, who happily shared half of it with Ahua. As Yuewan followed Su Rong into the room still clutching her half, she curiously asked, "Miss, why have you returned home so early? It’s still quite early."
Su Rong poured herself a cup of tea, sat at the table and took a sip. She repeated her earlier statement, "Xie Lin arrived, Zhou Gu took him out to play, I didn’t want to go, so I came back."
"Who is Xie Lin?" Yuewan found this name familiar.
"The young master of the Rui’an King’s Residence."
Yuewan exclaimed, "Ah, isn’t he the one who competed with young master Zhou for a lady?"
"Hmm,"
Yuewan was incensed, "What is he doing here? Didn’t Zhou Gu beat him up when he saw him?"
Su Rong: "..."
She was speechless, "Why beat him up again?"
Yuewan huffed angrily, "He dared to steal a woman from young master Zhou, isn’t that a huge grudge? Isn’t it normal to see red when enemies meet?"
Su Rong sighed laughingly, "You are really on Zhou Gu’s side."
She reminded Yuewan, "He stole someone else’s woman!"
Her implication was clear, not your lady—me—so why are you so angry?
Yuewan slapped herself on the forehead, "Yeah right, you are the fiancée of young master Zhou, it is wrong for him to compete with others for a woman."
She peeled a sugar-roasted chestnut and tossed it into her mouth, speaking in a muffled voice, "So now they are not fighting anymore? Why are they still playing together? I really don’t understand."
She still believed that these two would go mad as soon as they met each other.
Su Rong also thought so, but the reality was that Zhou Gu was very friendly when he met him. She shook her head, "Not only are they not fighting anymore, but they are also pretty friendly now."
She was enlightened, "This is probably because men are generally more generous than women?"
Yuewan nodded vigorously in agreement, "That’s right, if you were to fight with someone, you would continue to fight whenever you met them. You still held a grudge against Jiang Yunying for scolding you three years ago, didn’t you?"
She concluded, "Perhaps women are more vengeful."
Su Rong nodded in deep agreement. She was that kind of vengeful woman.
After the two of them had analyzed the generous hearts of men for a while, someone came to deliver a message to Su Rong, "Miss Su, Yuniang sent me to tell you, young master Zhou took Xie Lin, the young master of the Rui’an King’s Residence, to the Zuihua Building."
Su Rong was shocked, "What did you say?"
She doubted her hearing.
The servant repeated it, adding: "Young master Zhou took Xie Lin to the Zuihua Building. Since they didn’t leave through the front door, they followed the same route as you would. They met Yuniang and asked her if they could have the same treatment as you. Naturally, Yuniang said yes and arranged the same hospitality for them as she would for you."
Su Rong: "..."
It took her a while to reply after understanding what had been said, "Okay, tell Yuniang, I got it." She paused, then added, "Ask Yuniang to treat them well."
The servant responded, and seeing that Su Rong had no other instructions, he turned and left.
Yuewan approached Su Rong in incomprehension, "Miss, is young master Zhou actually taking Xie Lin to visit the courtesan house? But isn’t there nothing to do during the daytime? Shouldn’t they go at night..."
Su Rong gave Yuewan a glare, "Is that something you do at night?"
"Why not? Isn’t nighttime the traditional time to visit courtesan houses? With dim lights, soft singing and dancing, beautiful music, male thieves and female..."
"Stop!" Su Rong immediately stopped her when she veered off into an unseemly topic.
Yuewan blinked her big eyes, cluelessly looking at Su Rong.
Su Rong patted her the head, "Your little brain is not suitable to think about such two profound things, go and eat quietly."
Yuewan made an ’oh’ sound and trotted off with her food.
Su Rong was left to contemplate about Zhou Gu actually taking Xie Lin to the Zuihua Building. She had thought Zhou Gu would take him on a tour of the streets of Jiangning County, as when Zhou Gu first arrived in Jiangning. She expected he would take him to food streets, but she didn’t expect Zhou to end up at Zuihua. Maybe Xie Lin likes such places? Zhou Gu couldn’t conveniently lead him through the main gate, so he sneakily took him on the same route they had taken when she had guided him. It was unexpected that Xie Lin from Rui’an King’s Residence was a frequent visitor to the entertainment houses.
After pondering for a while, Su Rong thought, regardless of what Xie Lin wants, the point is that Zhou Gu, went there twice. With this, he should realize she has very close ties with the third floor. Even without her, Zhou Gu would receive the same treatment, which means their friendship is unusually deep.
Su Rong sighed. Let him know then! After all, she hadn’t intended to hide it from him. If so, she wouldn’t have sent him those clothes today.
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