The boatman rowed the boat, breaking through the light of the water and slowly sailing towards the lake shore.
Fuyun Pavilion is a three-story building right next to the lakeshore. There are two jujube trees planted in front of the restaurant, which are full of green jujubes.
After the pleasure boat docked, Yu Jiao and the others stood up and walked towards the shore.
Yu Qizhe had already gotten off the boat. He stood tall and slender on the lakeshore. When he saw Yu Jiao walking to the bow of the boat, he extended his hand to her.
As soon as Yu Jiao extended her hand, he exerted force and pulled Yu Jiao to the lakeshore. He let go of her hand only after Yu Jiao stood firmly.
Then he led Yu Fuling ashore.
Yang Jiyan, who was walking at the end, looked at Yu Qizhe's slender, jade-like hands with well-defined joints, and blushed, expecting him to reach out to her and lead her ashore.
But her expectations were ultimately dashed. After helping Yu Fuling ashore, Yu Qizhe turned around and went to talk to Yu Jiao.
Yu Fuling stretched out her hand towards Yang Jiyan with an unconscious look on her face and looked at her with a smile.
Yang Jiyan concealed the disappointment in her eyes, took Yu Fuling's hand, and went ashore.
The group entered Fuyun Pavilion, and Shao Zhong directly ordered the waiter to lead them to the second floor. They should have asked for a private room, but Shao Zhong considered that if they asked for a private room, men and women must sit at separate tables.
He turned around and looked at Yang Jiyan and said with a smile, "The hall on the second floor faces the stage. Sitting in the hall gives us a wider view. How about we just sit in the hall?"
Of course Yang Jiyan had no objection. She just wanted to get close to Yu Qizhe, so she nodded.
In fact, men and women should have separate tables in the hall, but Gu Yun was a man who didn't follow etiquette. When he saw Yu Jiao sitting down at an octagonal table, he pulled Liu Ziqi over and sat down at the table as well.
Yu Jiao frowned, but before she could say anything, Gu Yun grinned and said, "Since you invited me to dinner, why shouldn't I accompany you?"
Shao Zhong saw Gu Yun sitting over and said with a smile, "We are not strangers, so let's not pay attention to those empty formalities today. It will be more lively if we eat together."
He pulled Yu Jinshu to sit next to Yang Jiyan.
Yu Qizhe and Yu Zhizhou sat opposite Yu Jiao.
When the waiter saw everyone sitting down, he came forward to pour tea and water, served melon seeds and snacks, and handed over the playlist. He smiled attentively and asked, "Which play would you like to order?"
Shao Zhong acted like a host. He handed the playlist to Yang Jiyan and said with a smile, "What play do you three ladies want to listen to?"
Yu Fuling looked at the playlist curiously. Yang Jiyan acted gentle and considerate, and placed the playlist in front of Yu Jiao and Yu Fuling. "Sister Fuling and sister Yu Jiao, which play do you want to hear?"
Yu Fuling had never heard of an opera before, and after reading the playlist several times, she still couldn't choose one, so she said to Yang Jiyan, "You should choose it."
Yang Jiyan smiled slightly and said, "Then let's play The Romance of the West Chamber."
When she said this, her eyes were on Yu Qizhe.
In the play, Cui Yingying is the daughter of the prime minister. When they met, Zhang Sheng was just a powerless scholar. The Cui family looked down on Zhang Sheng's family background and sent him to Beijing to take the exam. Later, Zhang Sheng won the top spot and married Cui Yingying.
This play is a comparison between her and Yu Qizhe.
She is the daughter of the prefect, and Yu Qizhe comes from a poor family. In the future, he will become the top scorer in the imperial examination like Zhang Sheng.
The curtain on the stage was drawn open, gongs and drums sounded on both sides, and the actors playing Cui Yingying and Zhang Sheng came on stage and began to sing in a singsong voice.
The waiter brought up the food. Shao Zhong raised his glass and drank with several men at the table. He curiously inquired about the identities of Liu Ziqi and Gu Yun.
Gu Yun didn't want to talk to Shao Zhong at all. Liu Ziqi was gentle and polite. He didn't want to make things awkward for them, so he continued, "Gu Yun and I are from the capital. We wanted to travel around and happened to come to Qingzhou."
When he heard that the two were from the capital, Shao Zhong became more enthusiastic and didn't care about Gu Yun's frivolous and cold attitude at all. On the contrary, he felt that Gu Yun's behavior showed that he must be a child of a noble family.
Liu Ziqi seemed to be having a very pleasant conversation with Shao Zhong, but in fact, he spoke very carefully without revealing his identity at all. He easily diverted the topic to another place.
Gu Yun lowered his eyes and saw Yu Jiao biting the glutinous rice cake in small bites. She was quiet and well-behaved, with slightly puffed cheeks, which made her look chubby and cute, just like the rabbit he raised in his childhood that was chewing grass. It made people feel soft in their hearts just by looking at her, and they wanted to reach out and rub her.
He suppressed his itch and asked her, "Is it delicious?"
Yu Jiao stopped what she was doing and raised her round almond-shaped eyes to look at Gu Yun.
Her cheeks were still a little chubby, like baby fat, and she had a kind of childish delicacy, and her beautiful almond-shaped eyes were dark and lively.
She swallowed the glutinous rice cake in her mouth and said, "It's sweet and sticky, and very delicious."
Gu Yun smiled, staring at Yu Jiao's lips that were as red as if stained with lip balm, and felt his heart itching more and more. He said, "Really?"
He raised his hand and picked up a piece of glutinous rice cake from the table and put it into his mouth. He felt that it was too sweet and a little greasy. Gu Yun didn't like sweets very much, but he still finished the whole piece of glutinous rice cake.
In fact, he wanted to eat the piece on Yu Jiao's plate more. If he were in Kyoto now, he would be so unruly as to directly take the remaining piece on Yu Jiao's plate. He has always behaved wildly and unrestrained, and everyone in the capital knows it. If he did this, at most people would talk about him behind his back.
But now he was in Qingzhou, and the people here didn't know him, let alone his daily behavior.
He was afraid that doing so would scare Yu Jiao.
"Where did you find my purse?" Yu Jiao had no idea what Gu Yun was thinking. She took a sip of the old duck soup and asked Gu Yun.
Gu Yun said nonchalantly, "It's just a purse. If I want to find it, it's easy to get."
Liu Ziqi, who was standing by, heard this and smiled helplessly. Gu Yun was always like this. He never told anyone what he did behind his back. He always looked indifferent and acted as if it was not worth mentioning. It was the same back then.
In order to get the purse back, Gu Yun went out early and came back late for many days, guarding the streets and alleys of Qingzhou, and caught many thieves, but some of them were just petty thieves and had nothing to do with the woman who stole the money that day.
Just the day before yesterday, by chance, a thief who knew the woman was caught, and the thief found the woman who committed the crime.
But the woman had already lost Yu Jiao's purse, and the silver and money were divided equally among the thieves, while the jade inside was taken to the pawnshop by the woman's accomplices and exchanged for silver.
Gu Yun took the woman to the pawnshop, hoping to redeem the relics of Yu Jiao's father, but the jade artifact was pawned by a dead man and had been sold by the pawnshop long ago.
Gu Yun searched the street where the woman threw away her purse for a whole night before he found Yu Jiao's purse among a lot of dirty things.
It was so dirty that it was almost unrecognizable. Even a pampered person like Gu Yun actually carried the dirty purse back to the yard and personally watched the servants wash the purse and put it away.
"Thank you." Yu Jiao said sincerely.
Gu Yun's eyes showed a smile, and the corners of his lips couldn't help but rise. For a moment, he didn't think it was stupid for a young marquis to rummage through a pile of filthy things.
He pretended to be calm and said, "It's just a piece of cake for me."
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