Chapter 62. A naked man stood beside her. ...
Since learning that Si Qing had moved away from next door, Leng Zhen's mood has improved considerably. She not only spends more time at home but also chats with Leng Cuizhu from time to time.
"Mom, could you give me a bottle of your hair oil?" Leng Zhen asked while rolling out dumpling wrappers.
Leng Cuizhu was sitting making dumplings when she heard this and glanced at him: "You want to use it to comb your hair? Of course you can. What flavor do you want? I have osmanthus, gardenia, and half a bottle of lilies that I haven't finished using."
Leng Zhen said calmly, "Just pick one."
"...Okay, then I'll give you that unopened bottle of osmanthus hair oil."
After they finished making dumplings, she took Leng Zhen to the room and found the hair oil, and also gave him an extra ivory comb.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the exquisitely embroidered twin lotus flowers on his cuff.
"Did you embroider this yourself?"
Leng Zhen took the hair oil without changing her expression: "Well, my sleeve got torn a few days ago, so I mended it myself."
Leng Cuizhu sighed, "Your embroidery is much prettier than mine... Well then, you'll mend your own clothes from now on, won't you? Your mending is better than mine."
“You’re all grown up now, you’re not a child anymore, you can do a lot of things on your own, so I won’t interfere, okay? That way it’ll be easier for both of us.”
Leng Zhen hesitated for a moment, then said, "Mother, I'm going back to my room."
"Oh, okay." She nodded, though it was unclear whether Leng Zhen had actually heard her.
She was telling the truth. Leng Zhen was already getting on in years, and it wasn't appropriate for her to interfere any further. Children his age in other families were either still studying to prepare for the imperial examinations or planning to get married and have children.
If you don't want to get married, you can at least take care of yourself, right? At least don't let her help you sew or wash clothes, even though she doesn't usually do those things; it's the dodder that does them.
In the evening, because she had just made some dumplings, she cooked more than a dozen dumplings for dinner.
Leng Zhen likes to eat meat, so she basically makes meat-filled dumplings, with only a few being meatless cabbage and radish fillings.
"Is the hair oil any good?" she asked abruptly.
Leng Zhen paused in her chopsticks, lowered her eyes, and replied, "It's easy to use...it smells very good."
"If you like using it, you can buy it yourself later. It's from the old lady's stall at the alley entrance. It's only ten copper coins a bottle, and if you know how to bargain, she'll sell it for three copper coins."
She asked curiously, "Why did you decide to use hair oil?"
She went straight to the point and asked, "Do you have a girl you like?"
“…No.” Leng Zhen remained silent.
After a long silence, he said, "I just like it, is that so hard to understand? It's like how you like to have affairs."
"Huh?" Caught off guard by Leng Zhen's attack, she blurted out before she could react, "When did I do that..."
"Not yet? All sorts of shady characters have been attracted here." Leng Zhen rolled her eyes. "Do you think everyone is like you, with nothing but love and romance on their mind all day long?"
She put down her chopsticks: "Why are you saying that to me?"
"You were the one who kept asking questions first."
"I just took a bottle of your hair oil, why are you asking so many questions? What? Can't I use it? Is it wrong for me to like looking good?"
"...No one forbids you from applying it."
She wondered what had happened to Leng Zhen today, why she was so easily angered. After thinking for a while, she realized that Leng Zhen had always had this bad temper, but since they hadn't talked for a long time and there were fewer conflicts, she had forgotten about his bad temper.
"If you love beauty, then love beauty. I don't care if you love ugliness, just don't be aggressive."
Leng Zhen snorted coldly, quickly picked through the plate, put all the few vegetarian dumplings in the bowl, and left with the bowl.
Seeing him stand up, Leng Cuizhu asked, "Aren't you going to eat?"
"I won't eat it, I love beauty."
"...Really." She stared at the remaining dumplings and side dishes on the table, feeling so angry that she had no appetite. She picked out all the leftovers and put them on a plate, intending to wait for Tu Si Zi to come back from his walk and give them to him.
Dodder is much more obedient than Leng Zhen.
In the afternoon, having nothing to do at home, she tidied up and prepared to go out. Just then, she ran into Leng Zhen coming out of the attic, carrying a basket on her back.
"You went up the mountain to gather herbs again?"
"Hmm." Leng Zhen walked past her with a straight face.
She tiptoed and glanced inside. The basket wasn't empty; it contained several pieces of pink cloth, all embroidered with flowers. The cloth was rough, but the patterns were exquisite.
Before she could take a closer look, Leng Zhen had already slipped away with her basket on her back.
She had a vague feeling that something was wrong.
Carrying embroidered cloth up the mountain to collect herbs? This was the first time she had ever heard of such a thing.
Is she really that obsessed with beauty?
She thought about it for a while, but couldn't figure out what Leng Zhen was trying to do, so she put it out of her mind and went out into the street with her oil-paper umbrella.
As lunchtime approached, the streets were bustling with pedestrians. She walked along the side of the street, passing one pastry shop after another, the steam rising from the steamers making her cheeks feel hot.
"Meow...meow..."
"Cluck cluck, cluck cluck!"
"Hey, little cat, would you like some meat buns?" The shopkeeper smiled and took a meat bun from the steamer, tore it open, and tossed it to the white cat on the ground.
Then, he turned and kicked the rooster that was crowing incessantly to the side: "Go away! Go away and crow somewhere else!"
"racism!"
The rooster, with its wings tucked between its legs, slunk away. After only a few steps, it was picked up and about to curse when it saw the person's face and its expression immediately changed.
"Host!"
"What were you doing standing in front of someone else's stall just now?"
"Begging for food."
The rooster pounced into her arms, looking slightly shy: "Host... who's prettier, me or that cat?"
She looked disgusted: "...You're pretty."
"Yeah! I think so too. Why does that boss give meat buns to the cat but not to me? He must be blind!"
"Are you hungry?" She rubbed the rooster's comb. "If you're hungry, I'll buy you a meat bun. Don't go begging for food, it's shameful."
"No, no, I'm not hungry, I'm full. I just like begging to prove my charm."
"Host, you're so kind of you, you're even worried I'll go hungry..." The rooster blinked, looked up, and cried out.
"Giggle giggle giggle giggle—"
She swiftly covered the chicken's beak and, under the watchful eyes of passersby, fled the scene with the chicken in her arms.
Once they reached a secluded spot, she slapped the chicken's rear end and yelled, "Don't scream! You scared me to death..."
"Ouch!" The rooster wilted in her arms and whispered, "Okay, okay, I won't crow anymore..."
"Host, can you hit me again?"
"What if you fall and die?" She let go of the chicken and threw it on the ground.
Unexpectedly, the moment the rooster landed, it turned into a naked man with a thud.
There was a bright red handprint on her pert buttocks.
"Ouch, it hurts so much..." Dodder held her bottom and slowly got up from the ground.
Leng Cuizhu's face paled: "Change back quickly! Change back quickly!" She looked around frantically, trying to cover his body with her hands.
There's no one here now, but what if someone walks by later... with a naked man standing next to her? Anyone who sees her will suspect she's a lunatic like him, right?
"Oh dear, why do I want to turn back?" Dodder lazily leaned against her. "Host, feel my pectoral muscles. Aren't they bigger than before? I've been working out hard these past few days."
"Feel my butt again, and it'll definitely be perkier than before!"
Leng Cuizhu was so terrified by the sight of the white flesh before her that her vision went white. She stammered, unable to speak, and after a long while, she finally managed to stammer, "I won't touch you, I won't touch you..."
"Can I touch you?"
"Don't go into heat in the street!" She closed her eyes, utterly despondent.
"Sigh, I thought you liked it. This is actually a kind of game, where you are the master and I am the slave, and you can lead me around the streets in human form as punishment for my disobedience. Okay, if you don't like it, then forget it."
"In that case, let's go home!"
What guy is rubbing against her leg?
She opened her eyes, and the dodder had turned back into a large rooster, reddish-yellow in color.
She breathed a sigh of relief.
"Don't play these kinds of weird games anymore, they're scary..." She didn't want to be walking down the street with a naked man by the hand.
"Yes, yes, it won't happen again."
Dodder couldn't help but sigh at Leng Cuizhu's double standards. She would respond when You En called her "master" every day, but not when it came to him. She even called it a messy game.
Doesn't she usually find it strange to be called "master" by a grown man? Did he go too far today and that's when she realized it? Or is it that she and Eun only address each other as master and servant, with no other ambiguous relationship?
That seems to be the case.
Eun was indeed useless; he couldn't compare to the host's beloved.
Hmph, while you were still playing the role of a mere master and servant to her, I had already started an affair with her. Didn't expect that, did you, you damn foreigner?
So what if a foreigner has a big bird? I'm a rooster full of cunning.
Even though Tu Si Zi is now being led around like a dog, whenever she thinks of the tender days and nights he spent with Leng Cui Zhu, and of those unique moments when she was beaten and scolded, she can't help but straighten her chest.
After returning home, Leng Cuizhu took out the leftover rice and gave it to Tu Sizi to eat.
Although the dodder stalk had said he wasn't hungry, she didn't care. She just wanted to finish the leftovers to avoid waste.
"Is there any vinegar?"
Dodder picked up a dumpling, looked it over from left to right, and then exclaimed as if she had found a treasure: "Wouldn't it taste even better with vinegar?"
"You have so many demands." She turned and went to the kitchen to get a bottle of vinegar.
When she returned to the eaves from the kitchen with the vinegar bottle, she saw that the dumplings on the table were untouched, and two people were fighting beside the table.
"That's the bowl I've used since I was a child, what right do you have to use it!" Leng Zhen grabbed Tu Si Zi by the neck and shouted.
"I'll use it, I'll use it, I'll use it!"
Even though her face was flushed red from being pinched, the dodder still wouldn't let it go: "Just because your name is engraved on it doesn't mean it's yours. Then I'll say your mother is my mother!"
Leng Zhen seemed to have been hit where it hurt, and shouted hoarsely, "Shut up! Shut up!"
"Come on, come on," the dodder said, not only refusing to shut up but getting more and more excited, "Come and strangle me!"
"Heh, you think I'm still afraid of you? Actually, I haven't been afraid for a long time. The fragile and sensitive person I was back then is dead. Now I'm not afraid of anything, not even death! If you dare to strangle me, I dare to die!"
"Don't fight!" Leng Cuizhu hurriedly dropped the vinegar bottle and ran to persuade them.
Unexpectedly, the two fought fiercely and she couldn't pull them apart at all. She was even hit in the face by someone's elbow and fell to the ground with a cry of pain.
The beating and cursing stopped abruptly: "Mother!"
That one word "Mother" was mixed with two different but equally childish voices, and Leng Cuizhu couldn't tell for a moment who was regretting and who was joking.
"...Help me up."
"Okay!" came the unanimous reply.
Her arms were suddenly grabbed and pulled in different directions.
Her head was throbbing: "Let go..."
Leng Zhen hurriedly scolded, "Xiao Du, let go of my hand right now!"
The dodder plant retorted, its neck stiff: "Why should I loosen my grip? You loosen your grip first, and then I'll loosen mine!"
She was so enraged by the noise that she yelled, "Let go! Get out of here, all of you!"
The two hands that were pulling on his arms immediately withdrew.
Caught off guard, Leng Cuizhu lost her balance and fell backward down the steps, hitting her forehead on the floor tiles.
In an instant, shouts rose and fell.
"Quickly, take our mother back inside to check her injuries!"
Leng Zhen didn't bother arguing anymore and nodded repeatedly: "Okay, okay... Little Du, let's help Mother up together."
In this strange yet harmonious atmosphere, the two of them pulled Leng Cuizhu up from the ground, tacitly led her into the house, and placed her on the bed.
Dodder knelt down by the bedside with a thud, reaching out to touch the bruise on her forehead, her face contorted with grief: "Mom, you're so pitiful!"
Leng Zhen hadn't expected Tu Si Zi to suddenly kneel down. Seeing this, she also knelt down and grabbed Tu Si Zi's wrist: "Mother..."
The two seemed to be competing to see who could call out more sincerely and movingly, kneeling by the bedside and sobbing incessantly until tears streamed down their faces.
Leng Cuizhu lay on the bed, her mouth dry from listening, and the wound on her forehead aching terribly.
She opened her dry lips and said in a hoarse voice, "What are you doing kneeling here shouting? Cough, cough... Go get me my medicine!"
"Oh, okay!" Leng Zhen got up from the ground.
"Pour me another glass of water!"
"Okay, okay!" Dodder jumped up too.
As she listened to the footsteps fading into the distance, she breathed a long sigh of relief.
Finally, peace and quiet settled in my ears.
A little while later, Cuscuta came back first with tea and poured her some. After she finished drinking a cup, Leng Zhen also came back with the medicine. She squeezed past Cuscuta and sat by the bed to apply the medicine to her.
Dodder wasn't annoyed. It simply sat down wherever it fell, refusing to move, its eyes fixed on Leng Zhen applying the medicine.
Leng Cuizhu couldn't bear to watch any longer: "Xiao Du, the floor is cold, get up."
Dodder remained seated on the ground, hugging her knees: "I have nowhere to sit, my brother took my spot!"
"Whose family are you anyway?" Leng Zhen snorted coldly, turning her head to glare. "How can you be so ill-mannered? Didn't your parents teach you that you can't just come to someone else's house to freeload and use the host's utensils? Or do you not have parents at all?"
“Yes,” Tu Si Zi glanced at Leng Cui Zhu and said to Leng Zhen with a smile, “Brother, from now on you are my brother, your mother is my mother, and your father is still your father.”
“Uh…” Leng Cuizhu lowered her eyes and scratched her chin.
She secretly glanced at the expression on the person's face by the bedside.
Leng Zhen's face was incredibly dark at this moment. Her once cool and aloof expression was now filled with endless resentment as she stared angrily ahead.
After applying the medicated oil to Leng Cuizhu's forehead, he got up and left without saying a word.
As soon as the stool by the bed became available, Tu Si Zi immediately sat back down, propped her face up with her hands, and grinned foolishly at her.
She frowned: "Why did you talk back to him like that?"
"He's definitely angry, but he doesn't dare to show it here. He's probably going back to his room and crying secretly. You're so mean, you know? Why argue with a child?"
"Why not? I'm a child too. He can't win the argument himself, what can I do?"
Instead of feeling guilty, the dodder was smug: "I'm going to fight him for it, fight him until he's so miserable he quits on his own, then you'll be mine alone!"
"It's just that he used his usual eating bowl, it's not like a dog had its bowl taken away, why are you so angry? Hehe, from now on I'll not only use his bowl, but I'll also monopolize his mother." Dodder chuckled.
Leng Cuizhu thought to herself that Tu Sizi really had something wrong with her brain. Her words and actions were not only immature, but completely inhuman.
Is this rooster's brain really more distorted than a human's? Surely not, the other chickens aren't like this.
She rubbed her forehead and gave a wry smile.
"Fine, fine, do whatever you want. But if he retaliates against you later, don't come to me for help."
"I'm thirsty again, please pour me another glass of water."
As she took the water cup from the dodder, she suddenly heard a cry.
The crying was extremely faint and mournful, and it came from outside.
"...Did you hear me?"
Dodder blinked: "What did you hear? My heartbeat?"
He clutched his chest and sighed dramatically, "Oh dear, he really does jump really fast!"
"..." She closed her eyes and pondered for a long time before finally speaking and instructing, "Dodder, go out and clean up the unfinished food, and wash the dishes."
"OK!"
After the dodder hopped away, she slowly got out of bed, put on her shoes and socks, and leisurely walked towards the attic.
These days, she has been suspecting something, but she can't find any evidence to support it.
We must find out the truth this time.
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