Chapter 28: Jade Rabbit's Trick and the Fish Takes the Hook
The fish took the bait.
She smiled with her eyebrows curved, and as her eyes moved, the red mole at the corner of her eye became more and more dynamic.
Alice closed the account book and looked up, and saw the parish director standing at the door of Tzu Chi Hall with a Bible in his hand. His expression was a little gentler than usual.
Seeing her looking at him, the corners of the man's mouth straightened again, and he became as cold as usual.
"Mr. Adrian." She walked out of the shop and called out to the man who was obviously turning around to leave.
"Miss Alice." The man nodded in greeting.
"Sir, apart from showing up at the opening ceremony this morning, I haven't seen you since." Alice's words were slightly accusatory, but her tone didn't sound like blame. Instead, it gave people the feeling that she missed him after not seeing him for a long time.
"Go to the next parish and talk to the person in charge about the Tzu Chi Pharmacy." He subconsciously explained in his mind and said it out loud.
As soon as he finished speaking, he added: "I had something else to do originally, so I just stopped by."
"That's something I should be grateful for." Alice looked up.
When he heard a certain word, the man suddenly shuddered, looked at her quickly, and coughed softly with the back of his hand against his lips.
"Mr. Adrian, the epidemic hasn't completely healed yet?" She saw that the man was in distress, but she still asked this question with pretended concern.
After saying this, before he could react, she placed three fingers on the man's wrist. It looked like she was just lightly pressing on his pulse, but when he tried to pull his wrist away, he couldn't break free.
"Let me see if you need any other medicine." Alice pretended to be just a medical examiner, making the man wonder if he was overreacting.
"Your body..." She had always been good at the art of observing qi, and could diagnose a man's condition without taking his pulse. Now she was just teasing him, "It's fine. The epidemic has been completely cured. I'll give you some medicine to nourish your body. After all, you have caught a cold twice in a row, so there must be some damage, so you need to replenish it." Replenishing the body will not be easy for outsiders anyway.
"And John? He knows his way around here too, so I'll have him go to the Bond Street shop and get some medicine," Alice paused. "Or maybe you could come home with me? We've got some herbs at home too."
"No, Miss Alice, I'm not unwell," he refused.
"Sir, when it comes to health matters, please don't question the opinions of professionals. Just listen to me." He didn't regret it.
"Then let John go." Looking at the sincere eyes of the lady in front of him, which seemed to contain some concern, Adrian Moran finally gave in.
"Can I come to your house and sit for a while, sir? I've been busy all day and haven't even had a sip of water to drink." Alice said with a sigh.
Following her words, the man's eyes unconsciously fell on her still moist red lips. He couldn't tell what she meant, but he agreed: "It just so happens that I asked John to get the medicine. He is at home."
This time, with the host leading the way and inviting her, Alice entered the house provided for the parish priest to live in without any hindrance.
The man led her to the living room, unusually awkward. There were almost no guests at home, and he usually stayed on the second floor. He only had John as a servant, so he didn't let him clean too often.
There were no fresh flowers in the living room, nor any exquisite tea sets for entertaining guests, as was common in Miss Alice's shop. Moreover, in an industrial city like London, if the furniture was not wiped once a day, there would be visible dust on it.
"John, pour Miss Alice a glass of water and bring a blanket." He gave the order as soon as he entered the room, wanting to use the blanket to cover the dust on the lady who looked so delicate before sitting down.
"Sir, you told me before that you had some dust for me to wash. It's not dry yet in this weather." John looked at Alice and then at Adrian Moran, feeling a little embarrassed.
"this……"
The man was about to speak when Alice interrupted him: "Mr. Adrian, don't bother, let John go get the medicine first." As she said that, she called the servant over and gave him a string of medicinal herbs, asking him to go to Bond Street to get them.
John was already very familiar with the matter of getting medicine. He placed the water and the tray on the coffee table, and without waiting for his husband's opinion, he went out to Bond Street.
Looking at the living room in front of him where there was indeed no place to sit, the man whispered, "Miss Alice, would you like to go upstairs and sit for a while?" It was unclear whether the voice was an invitation or simply a hope that no one would hear.
"Okay." The lady in front of him didn't sympathize with him at all and answered in a clear and loud voice.
Taking Alice to the second floor, Adrian Moran wanted to take her into the study next to the bedroom.
But she didn't do what he wanted and stayed at the bedroom door: "Sir, won't you invite me to visit the second floor?"
"Miss, you are already familiar with this place." The man said helplessly, "I don't think you need to visit it again."
"Including this time, I've only been here three times, and I've only been in this room. I'm not as familiar with him as I am with Mr. Adrian." Alice said with an open and righteous look on her face.
Not knowing how to answer, the man simply went straight into the study, put down the tray with the water cup, opened the Bible in his hand and began to read.
"Mr. Adrian, this is not the way to entertain guests." Alice followed him into the study, picked up the water glass and watched him sip it slowly.
Seeing that the man ignored her, she went to the bookshelf, picked up a book at random, opened it, and sat opposite him.
Adrian Moran always felt that there was a gaze from the opposite side that could not be ignored lingering on him, making his mind blank and he did not turn the pages of the book in his hand for a long time.
This punishment lasted until John returned.
Alice prepared some healing medicine with the herbs she had brought, and had a light meal with the owner of the house. It was already dark in London.
"Miss, how are you going to get home?" asked the master.
"I just had dinner and took a walk." The guest replied.
"Let's go, I'll take you home." The man looked at the gradually decreasing number of pedestrians on the road outside the yard.
Of course Alice wouldn't refuse.
The streets that were noisy during the day became quiet.
"Mr. Adrian, you're not going to talk to me all the way here, are you?"
"What do you want to talk about, Miss Alice?" Under the cover of night, the man relaxed a lot, and his words were casual.
"How about you talk about your visit to the next parish today?" Alice found a topic that the man could talk about more.
Unexpectedly, the conversation ended with just one sentence: "There's nothing much to say, Miss. I went to St. James Parish and Mayfair Parish and met with their principals. This is a good thing, a kind thing, and I agreed to it happily."
The man made it sound like opening a Tzu Chi pharmacy in a parish cathedral church was a very simple and easy thing.
"Sir, if I hadn't found out from taking your pulse that you've been quite exhausted lately, you would have almost fooled me," Alice joked.
"So what do you want me to say? How much I've said, how much I've done, and how much effort I've put into pushing this forward?" The man said calmly, "Miss, I'm not very eloquent. I'm not good at using words to embellish myself."
"I don't know about that." Alice glanced at the man's lips.
The man didn't know why he understood what the lady meant without any instruction: "Miss Alice!"
Okay, no more talking now.
Alice was busy with the new store these days, and the man was rarely seen during the day except for preaching in church. But at night, when she closed the store and went home, he would appear at the entrance of the Tzu Chi Hall, waiting to see her off.
That day, on the road, the man talked about how he had already made arrangements with most parishes in London and was ready to go to the church to build a Tzu Chi pharmacy at any time.
"Then sir, can you give me your time tomorrow?"
"What?" The man was a little confused, not understanding how the topic had come to this point.
"Business at Tzu Chi Pharmacy is booming, and we're running low on herbs. I've been seeing so many people lately, and I'm thinking of getting more targeted prescriptions. Could you accompany me to get some more herbs?"
The man’s answer was to show up outside the Tzu Chi Hall on time at noon the next day.
Many patients who had recovered from epidemics or chronic illnesses with Alice's medicine were gathered outside the shop to express their gratitude. The young lady in the middle of the crowd did not refuse, but accepted with a smile.
Alice smiled at him when she saw him coming. These days, the man's expression has become softer and softer.
The two of them took a carriage to Old Lucy's Herbal Shop.
Old Lucy was still sitting on the sofa with her eyes closed. When she heard someone coming, she neither stood up nor opened her eyes. She just said, "Miss Alice, you are already very familiar with this place. Please make yourself at your own pace."
Alice took the man to pick out the necessary herbs.
Unlike the first time I came here where all kinds of medicinal herbs were mixed together, the Chinese medicinal herbs were neatly arranged according to categories, and even the directions of the heads and roots of the herbs were uniform.
Alice walked through the area where the herbs were displayed. She pointed at one, and the man loaded it onto the carriage. This time, they had specially rented a carriage to carry goods.
After a long time, we finally selected all the herbs and loaded them onto the carriage.
"Old Lucy, don't sleep any more, and come and settle the account," Alice urged the leisurely person to get up.
The person who was called stood up, opened his eyes, and scanned the empty seats one by one. Soon, the money that Alice should pay was calculated.
Alice took out some notes in pounds and handed them to her. She took them and looked up at the narrator or the natural dialogue: "Is this the gentleman you asked me to travel thousands of miles in the middle of winter to find fireflies and bring them back to London for you?"
"That's right, Mr. Firefly. You should thank him, too. Fireflies are a very important medicinal ingredient for treating your eyes." But she just said it casually, paid the money, and left with the people next to her without waiting for old Lucy to answer.
She could feel it without even looking that the man's eyes had softened when he looked at her.
Sitting face to face in a carriage large enough for four people, when Alice and Adrian Moran arrived, there was still room for half a person between them under the cloak. Now—
Alice looked at the black and red figures that were getting closer and closer as the carriage swayed.
As if encountering a drunkard who suddenly appeared, the carriage stopped abruptly, and the man fell over as the carriage swayed, with his cloak overlapping.
"Miss Alice, are you okay?" Afraid of crushing her, the man ignored the pain of hitting the roof and hurriedly tried to get up and sit back in his original position.
"Just sit here, so you don't get hurt again." Alice pulled the man to sit on the empty seat next to him and put her hand on his head and rubbed it gently.
The man tensed for a moment, then slowly relaxed without refusing.
Did she really get away with it? But she wanted much more than that. Alice stroked his hair lovingly.
The carriage stopped at the gate of the new house, and servants came out to carry the herbs upstairs to the pharmacy. For the first time, Adrian Moran took the initiative to say goodbye.
"Goodbye, Miss Alice," he added, perhaps feeling the words were a little awkward, "and may you have a sweet dream."
"Goodbye, sir. I wish you a good sleep." She noticed something and offered a less than sincere wish.
I hope he can withstand what comes next.
After watching Alice go into the house, Adrian Moran returned along the route he had walked countless times during this period.
The soft lights on the roadside and the closed shops made him think of a certain lady.
A man who seemed to have seen him somewhere suddenly blocked his way.
Thanks to his good memory, Adrian Moran recognized the figure: "Wickham, you..."
Seeing this unpleasant person, he frowned and waited for the light to see his face clearly: "How could this be?"
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