Chapter 289 Junior Sister's Counter-Flirting Tactics
Suddenly, a lively and beautiful figure turned around, put her hands behind her back, took a few graceful steps backward, and squinted at Ouyang Rong's expression.
"nice."
Ouyang Rong nodded seriously in reply:
"The teacher has good taste. This house looks unassuming from the outside, but it has a lot to offer inside."
Without looking to the side, someone pointed to the night view of the garden outside the corridor:
"The garden is exquisitely designed, lush and verdant, situated on the banks of the Xunyang River. With the gentle breeze from the river and the sound of the wind through the forest, it has the charm of a secluded retreat in the city."
"Living in this house has been a feast for my eyes."
Xie Lingjiang nodded, her pretty face turning slightly cold: "Hmph, Senior Brother, you'd better mention the house."
Ouyang Rong frowned, looking puzzled.
Xie Lingjiang pouted, turned around, and strode forward.
Ouyang Rong followed without making a sound, when suddenly a clear voice came from ahead:
“I bought these yesterday while shopping at Funingfang with Aunt Wei and Sister Guo’er. They insisted on picking out a few items for me.”
The once-favorite lady of the Xie family, who preferred men's makeup to women's makeup, shifted her gaze to the scenery outside the corridor:
“I didn’t like wearing such fancy clothes before, because they prevented me from carrying a sword and drawing a bow.”
Ouyang Rong interjected, adding, "Junior Sister, you can't just fly around on rooftops like that anymore when you're wearing a skirt."
A graceful figure walked ahead of him, her hands behind her back and her braids twitching as she said, "What's it to you?"
She curled her lips. "I'm a professional. Do you think everyone is as frivolous as you, Senior Brother? Humph, anyone who dares to look around will have their eyes gouged out and be thrown into a vat of boiling oil."
Ouyang Rong's eyes... his eyes were the first to look away.
He said softly:
"Aunt Wei and the others are indeed very thoughtful. In Xunyang City, Junior Sister will need to wear more formal attire, like Lady Li."
Why?
Ouyang Rong squinted at the distant night scene, letting out a soft breath:
“Xunyang City is different from the small county of Longcheng. We can’t be too reckless. Many people are watching.”
He paused for a moment, then joked:
"Coming here is like sitting at a proper card table; you have to change the way you play the game and be more dignified."
Xie Lingjiang laughed and said, "So, Senior Brother can't take me to raid houses at will anymore?"
"Seize their property? No, in your mind, do I seem like that kind of person? Besides, whose property would we be seizing?"
Ouyang Rong chuckled.
"That's hard to say."
Xie Lingjiang glanced at her senior brother, who remained calm, and tilted her head to ask:
"Did that Prefect Wang Lengran suppress Senior Brother? Were there any blind fools in the Jiangzhou government office who tried to sabotage Senior Brother?"
At this point, she frowned slightly: "But as the chief secretary, Senior Brother, surely no one would be foolish enough to cause trouble on the surface."
Ouyang Rong smiled:
"It's alright. The atmosphere in the Jiangzhou officialdom is quite interesting."
"In the prefectures and counties, because officials from all over the country have been demoted and gathered here, there are many idle and carefree people, as well as many old hands who only care about their own affairs and keep their positions high."
Looking back now, the trouble I went through when I was demoted to Longcheng was indeed quite remarkable.
"As for Governor Wang, well, he's quite amiable and approachable. There's nothing going on at the prefectural office for the time being."
Ouyang Rong nodded in praise.
Xie Lingjiang couldn't help but glance at his expression, and said crisply:
"I've been here for more than half a month, and apart from recommending Yan Liulang as the chief secretary, I haven't seen my senior brother make any moves. I'm so bored I'm getting sick."
"I heard from Yan Liulang that my eldest brother leaves early and returns late, following a set routine, hmm..."
Her tone suddenly held a hint of anticipation and excitement: "Is she observing intently, brewing something big...?"
Ouyang Rong pointed to his own face and asked with a serious expression:
"Does my junior sister have some kind of prejudice against me, making me seem like a schemer?"
"You're going to clean up the workplace wherever you go, right? If trouble doesn't come to me, I'll go to trouble?"
He shook his head and sighed, "Actually, as long as it doesn't touch on other people's fundamental interests, there won't be so many life-or-death struggles."
Xie Lingjiang nodded, seemingly understanding but not quite.
Her pretty face still held a hint of suspicion:
"That's hard to say. Sometimes my senior brother even keeps things from me. That's really unethical."
“Alright. I won’t hide it anymore.” Ouyang Rong nodded. “I’ll take care of you first.”
Xie Lingjiang quickly dodged her senior brother's chestnut.
The two siblings joked around for a bit, then walked down the corridor and arrived at the entrance of the house.
Ouyang Rong stopped, looked around to make sure no one was there, and solemnly instructed:
"With Uncle Li's reinstatement and the reopening of the Xunyang Prince's Mansion, there will always be some strange people coming to him. It will be a mixed bag, so be careful to distinguish between them."
"Junior sister, please keep an eye on things over there. Due to my status, it's inconvenient for me to attend some gatherings of noble families and clansmen. Please accompany your uncle and aunt to these gatherings. If there are any developments, please let me know immediately."
Xie Lingjiang nodded: "Don't worry, Senior Brother. These days, apart from you and me, old friends from Longcheng, and the Master of Luoyang and the Prince of Xiang's Mansion, no one is easily trusted."
She remembered something and began to grumble and complain:
"Lately, she's been wearing these dresses and formal attire a lot, accompanying my little sister Guo'er to those ladies' gatherings, poetry recitals and such. It's really boring. I don't know why she likes socializing. She's much more active than her brother who's always buried in his books."
Ouyang Rong raised his eyelids slightly, but remained silent.
"Alright, senior brother, that's enough for now."
Xie Lingjiang walked out of the mansion, waving goodbye without turning back, her tone teasing:
"Senior Brother, you're just passing by and have finished digesting your meal, right? Go back and spend some time with your little darling. Absence makes the heart grow fonder."
A figure in a pale yellow dress drifted away gracefully, without lingering or dragging.
Ouyang Rong's lips twitched slightly. His junior sister had been teasing him more and more lately, showing no respect for his elders.
He shook his head, but didn't move from the doorway, taking a few more glances at the graceful figure walking away with her hands behind her back in the distance.
"Strange, why does it feel like my junior sister isn't as clingy anymore? She comes when she's supposed to come and goes when she's supposed to go, and she seems to not care about some things at all. That's interesting."
Ouyang Rong couldn't help but chuckle, stroking his chin as he pondered the changes in his junior sister since she came to Jiangzhou.
Before today, before the arrival of the Zhen family, Ye Weilai, and other female relatives, the junior sister would occasionally come to the Huaiye Lane residence to cook noodles for him when he was off duty, buy him some autumn clothes, and quietly take care of his daily life.
However, she always came and went with great composure, never seeking credit or acting coquettishly, but simply doing her work quietly... Ouyang Rong hadn't thought much of it before.
But now that her aunt and Wei Lai have arrived and can take her place, the junior sister has also decisively left.
This, on the contrary, made Ouyang Rong somewhat nostalgic for their previous quiet, comfortable, and peaceful world together, and he felt a little reluctant to let it go.
This made Ouyang Rong... somewhat want to take the initiative to find her.
He went to win her back. As for what they would do after he got her back, or what they would talk about, he had no idea.
Anyway, Ouyang Rong just wanted to get his junior sister's attention and tease her so that she would break her cold expression and glare at him with a smile.
In particular, my junior sister has recently started wearing high-waisted pleated skirts and other proper and dignified aristocratic lady attire.
This made one of the senior disciples want to tear off this filter that conveyed a sense of aloofness and distance, and drag her down to earth.
Well, as everyone knows, men have two great hobbies: leading respectable women astray and persuading prostitutes to reform themselves...
Standing before the gate of the mansion, Ouyang Rong gazed into the distance for a moment, bathed in the soft glow of the red lanterns, before falling into a brief moment of contemplation.
"Junior Sister is acting strangely. Is this the 'silent and subtle' technique? Is she flirting with me...? Wait, could it be that Junior Sister has figured out some kind of trick?"
Recently, Ouyang Rong, who had some free time, gradually reflected on the matter, but couldn't figure it out...
Just as someone was wondering, at the corner of the long street ahead.
The elegant Xie Lingjiang quietly stopped and glanced back at the mansion in Huaiye Lane like a cat.
"Still no one came after me to stop me? Does this mean... you don't care at all?"
Standing under the dim lamplight, the noble lady of the Xie family gently patted her slightly flushed cheeks with her jade-like hands, tilted her head slightly in a daze, and murmured to herself:
“Oh, Xie Lingjiang, why are you going back so early? Stay a little longer. Even if you ignore him, you could at least talk to Aunt Zhen. That would be much better and wouldn’t cause any problems…”
After wallowing in self-pity for a while, her expression brightened again, and she dabbed her moist lips with her tinted index finger:
"Hmm, it seems to have had some effect, right? Senior Brother's expression when he said goodbye just now clearly showed some reluctance. Did Senior Brother want me to stay and chat a little longer?"
Xie Lingjiang tried hard to recall, and after pondering for about half a cup of tea's time, she suddenly smiled sweetly, made a small fist, and raised it into the distance:
"Hmph, Father's opinion is still the best. It seems that I can't get too close to my senior brother and become a tagalong like a shadow."
“My father said that this is called ‘it can be admired from afar but not touched.’ My mother used to use the same trick on him, but my father became more and more attached to my mother…”
"Men, they always feel a stirring in their hearts for what is hard to obtain and vaguely distant. Someone is probably no exception. Let's see how long he can hold out. Hmph, I don't believe it..."
Xie Lingjiang departed gracefully, leaving behind a sigh:
"A single conversation with your father is worth more than ten years of fighting."
...
Ouyang Rong "reflected" for a while in front of the door, then turned around and went back into the mansion.
It was still early, so he went to the main hall first and sat and chatted with Zhen Shuyuan for a while, listening to her talk about things from her hometown.
Half an hour later, Ouyang Rong said goodnight and got up to leave.
“My love…”
Zhen Shuyuan suddenly stopped Ouyang Rong, handed him a gold-embossed name card she had received earlier that day, and explained the matter of giving way that morning.
Ouyang Rong remained calm. After listening, he gently comforted her, "It's alright, accept it. If there are any more 'chance encounters' later, Auntie, please remember to tell me."
Zhen Shuyuan breathed a sigh of relief and agreed, and Ouyang turned and left the main hall.
On the way back down the corridor, he opened the name card. The gold-embossed paper emitted a faint, gardenia-like fragrance. Ouyang Rong glanced at it with lowered eyes:
"Pei Shisanniang..."
Ouyang Rong vaguely remembered the name; it seemed to be the head of a large merchant guild in Xunyang City, a group of wealthy merchants who were extravagant and spent money like water.
Xunyang City in Jiangzhou was an important commercial port where boats and carriages converged and merchants gathered.
There were many merchants from Jiangnan and Lingnan regions, and many of them banded together in the form of hometown associations to form interest groups. Moreover, these wealthy merchants from other places were very enthusiastic about befriending the leadership of the Jiangzhou government.
Otherwise, where do you think the money for Xunyang Tower, the most expensive building in Jiangzhou, which stands tall on the riverbank, where people sing and dance, and where people indulge in extravagance all night long, comes from?
He shook his head slightly.
In the past two weeks since taking office, Ouyang Rong has received many similar banquet invitations, mostly from merchants. However, he seems to have seen Pei Shisan Niang's name many times before, as she sends invitations quite frequently.
Furthermore, earlier today, when Ouyang Rong, as the chief official, went to inspect the market office at Xunyang Ferry, a subordinate seemingly unintentionally mentioned this name.
"Oh."
He casually slipped the name card into a crack in a screen wall he was passing by, leaving it to a maidservant to clean.
The elegant bamboo grove where Ouyang Rong lived was named Yinbingzhai, a name given by his mentor Xie Xun, which he did not change.
On his way back to Yinbingzhai, Ouyang Rong bumped into a Silla maid carrying a bowl.
"Half-Fine, come here for a second."
Ouyang Rong called Banxi to a waterside pavilion by the roadside and looked her up and down.
As if on the same wavelength, her face flushed slightly: "My lord, the matter of being tied up wasn't something I spread by mistake. It was... it was Madam who guessed it."
"..."
Ouyang Rong was speechless:
"Let's not talk about fetishes today... no, not fetishes, just let's not talk about bondage." He straightened his face: "Let me ask you, do you still remember the cook you hired from Yunshui Pavilion when you were in Longcheng, on your aunt's orders?"
Banxi paused for a moment, then nodded vigorously: "Mmm."
A gentle evening breeze blew in his face, and Ouyang Rong turned his head and said softly, "Tell me what you know."
He revealed everything, down to the smallest detail.
After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, Ouyang Rong left the waterside pavilion with a thoughtful expression.
Returning to Yinbingzhai, Ouyang Rong pushed open the door and saw a white-haired maidservant lying on the bed in the inner room, making the bed silently.
Ouyang Rong greeted her, and Ye Weilai's face lit up with joy. She obediently ran to heat water for his bath.
After bathing and changing, Ouyang Rong, dressed in a snow-white undershirt, went to his desk, sat down in his chair, let out a long breath, and murmured:
"It really is her. Does this mute girl named Xiuniang even know that this is my home? Did she come here intentionally or unintentionally?"
"If it really is the former, and it's not a coincidence, then what is she after? And is the woman I bit also her...?"
Ouyang Rong pursed his lips.
I wish I could meet her again someday.
After a moment, he came to his senses, rested his chin on his hand, stared at the candle flame in front of him, and pondered for a while.
Suddenly, he reached out and took a letter from a thick book.
It was sent by Xiufa and the others from Luoyang, the capital city.
The young novice monk revealed a major event in advance in his letter.
"Does His Majesty intend to build a Lotus Sect Buddha statue in Jiangnan? It is very likely that it will be located in Xunyang City."
"If that's the case, the imperial court will probably ask Jiangzhou Prefecture to pay for it... I wonder how much silver it will cost this time."
"Several counties in the prefecture just experienced floods and a major corruption case involving the Jimin Granary at the beginning of the year. Recently, taking advantage of the year-end accounting and summarizing the accounts, I checked the annual expenditure of Jiangzhou. Except for Longcheng County, which is slightly better, almost all of them are in the red, which is simply appalling."
"Although Xunyang City is a prosperous commercial center, it is only considered a transit point. Merchants are cunning and shrewd, and they do not retain much money to nourish the treasury."
“Building another Buddha statue... we can’t afford to go through that trouble again, let’s not waste time and money.”
In the dark room, before a solitary lamp, the young official, who had recently become obsessed with accounting, sighed slightly, feeling a bit of a headache.
(End of this chapter)
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