Chapter 506 Li Rong: I'm that pretty boy
"Then his pretty-boy husband must be very favored!"
"Who knows? Oh dear, I wonder what this old woman looks like? What skills does she have?"
"Exactly! I really want to see him. I'm so anxious, but I haven't seen him at all after all this time!"
"He must be going to the palace. I don't think he's back yet. We'll probably run into him sooner or later."
That makes sense.
"Hey? Girl, whose are you? When did such a pretty girl come to our alley?"
"Exactly! I had no idea he was such a good person!"
In a daze, the aunt came to her senses, looked Jiang Nuanzhi up and down, and said with a smile, "Are you married yet?"
Jiang Nuanzhi blinked, placed the bag of pastries in the aunt's hand, and said with a smile, "Aunties, you must be surprised to find me here. I only buy from this store."
Upon hearing this, everyone around instinctively glanced at the house in front of them, then at Jiang Nuanzhi, and the air fell eerily quiet.
"Hehe, hehe, you...you're joking, right?" The woman gave a dry laugh, seemingly in a daze. Everyone stared intently at Jiang Nuanzhi.
The auntie dropped the snacks she was eating on the ground, her mouth agape.
Jiang Nuanzhi placed another pastry in the aunt's hand, then gave the rest of the pastries to the lady. After brushing the dust off her hands, she smiled slightly and nodded to herself: "Greetings, everyone. I am the extremely ugly old woman you speak of, and also the mistress of this house. We are neighbors, so please take good care of me in the future."
The surroundings were eerily quiet.
The pastry in the aunt's hand fell to the ground with a thud once again.
Li Rong followed behind Jiang Nuanzhi, picked up the snacks from the ground, and put them in the aunt's hands.
Like Jiang Nuanzhi, he nodded slightly and smiled, saying in a gentle voice, "I am that pretty boy."
He followed Jiang Nuanzhi for a couple of steps, then stopped abruptly and turned around: "My wife only has me as her gigolo. The others are all family and friends. Please don't misunderstand, neighbors."
He then nodded politely and followed Jiang Nuanzhi into the courtyard.
The crowd behind them: "!!!"
"???"
"#:*~&_"
Ahead, Jiang Nuanzhi's hand was vaguely grasped.
She looked at Li Rong with surprise.
Li Rong raised an eyebrow: "What? As the most favored husband, it's not too much to hold hands, is it? Ah Nuan, so many people are watching."
Jiang Nuanzhi looked at him suspiciously: "Why do you look so happy?"
Li Rong was taken aback, and then leaned closer to Jiang Nuanzhi in a daze: "My Nuanzhi is so beautiful? Really, what kind of nonsense are they spreading? They should say that a celestial being lives here."
Jiang Nuanzhi thought for a moment, then couldn't help but turn around and take a look. They had just entered the gate and could still see the group of people staring blankly in the distance, clearly not having recovered yet. She burst out laughing.
Coming to her senses, she realized that Li Rong was trying to cheer her up because he was worried she wouldn't be happy. It was rare for this usually straightforward guy to do something like that. She immediately tightened her grip on his fingers: "Alright, let's hurry inside and see what's going on. How did a fire break out so soon after we got back? We also need to have a quick meal, and then go to Chi Heng's residence to check on Wei Ke's condition."
Li Rong nodded: "Anuan, thank you for your hard work. I..."
"Stop with the 'I' and 'I'."
Jiang Nuanzhi interrupted him: "Take me to see the yard quickly."
When she entered the capital during the day, Li Rong only gave her a glimpse from afar and didn't have time to take a closer look at what she looked like.
Upon entering, Jiang Nuanzhi realized that the small doorway held a hidden world within.
After just a quick glance, her eyes widened: "This is the small house you were talking about?"
Li Rong was taken aback: "Isn't this small? Um... but it's a bit bigger than the ones at home."
Li Rong only mentioned that he bought a small house, a three-courtyard house belonging to Jiang, and a residence for officials in the capital, with considerable refinement. Although it was small, it wasn't actually that small, and certainly couldn't be compared to the houses in the wilderness.
As soon as Jiang Nuanzhi entered the gate, a screen wall stood before her, carved with auspicious beast patterns.
After passing the screen wall, you enter the outer courtyard. On the south side is a row of five rooms.
This place is usually used as guest rooms or accounting offices. The windows are covered with clean white paper, indicating that Li Rong and his men had renovated it.
There are three wing rooms on each of the east and west sides of the courtyard. The door of the east wing room is open, and it is filled with miscellaneous items, which can be seen from a distance.
Jiang Nuanzhi glanced at it: "You said this is a three-courtyard house, is the layout the same behind the hanging flower gate?"
Li Rong looked over and said, "Almost there. After passing through the hanging flower gate, there's the middle courtyard, and the main house is the same. There are three rooms on each of the east and west wing rooms. Further back is the inner courtyard. There are five rooms in the main house, three rooms on each of the wing rooms, and the last row is the rear building. There are enough rooms in the inner courtyard for the study, storage room, etc. It's just that we haven't had time to tidy it up yet. Our family is a little small, so the main courtyard in front is enough for us. We originally wanted to buy servants, but we thought we'd wait for A-Nuan to come and buy one that suits her taste."
Upon hearing his words, Jiang Nuanzhi counted on her fingers: "There are more than thirty rooms in total?"
Li Rong nodded: "Yes, we need to buy at least a dozen servants for the family. It won't do if we go to the capital and there's no one to serve us. We need at least a house this big, otherwise it will really be too cramped."
Jiang Nuanzhi gasped.
Who understands the feeling of burning money?
However, this house was built with great care.
This is probably the wisdom of the ancients. Jiang Nuanzhi didn't have time to take a closer look in the palace, but now that she's in her own home, she can't help but take a closer look.
The beams are embroidered with the Three Friends of Winter pattern.
Even the painted decorations on the doors and windows, though faded somewhat, still adhere to the principle of occupying the sky rather than the ground. They are remarkably exquisite.
The brick carvings on the screen wall are also very detailed, with bats and auspicious clouds surrounding the character "福" (fortune).
This is just an ordinary official residence, and it's like this.
Jiang Nuanzhi hadn't had enough of looking when she heard a commotion beside her. Looking over, she saw that black smoke was still faintly rising from the kitchen.
The sounds of dogs barking, chickens crowing, adults and children shouting, and lightning flashing overhead, flapping its wings and squeaking – the word "lively" is simply insufficient to describe it.
Inside the kitchen, the old man, his face blackened with soot, ran out of the black smoke, followed by Uncle Xin.
He spotted Jiang Nuanzhi at a glance and immediately pounced on her.
"Ah Nuan! You're finally back!"
Jiang Nuanzhi caught the old man and looked at him strangely: "Could it be that Dongzang went to cook again?"
As if to confirm Jiang Nuanzhi's words, one after another, people ran out of the dark kitchen.
Baozhu, Xiao Er, Lü Shizhu, Linchun, Chen Shu, and even the two eunuchs left behind by Eunuch Liu to serve them—every single one of them was covered in dust and dirt.
The clothes were practically beyond description; they were patchy, black and white.
A strange, burning smell spread.
The last one is winter storage. They all rush out and throw the pot-like, black-smoking thing in their hands directly into the snow.
Then, Dongzang wiped the black ash off his face and said with lingering fear, "It's alright, it's alright, I told you it was alright. I've taken care of it."
She couldn't hear anything for a moment, so she turned around to look. The next second, she saw Jiang Nuanzhi standing in front of her, looking radiant.
When Dongzang saw her, two lines of tears unexpectedly streamed down his face, leaving a mark on his dark complexion.
"Madam, you're finally back! Waaaaah!"
(End of this chapter)
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