134, "New Neighbors"
134, "New Neighbors"
At nightfall, Lu Mingfei was reading in the study, and he could hear people talking around him and the sounds of fetching water and moving things.
Gradually, as the night deepened, everyone around went to sleep and everything became quiet.
The quiet night is very suitable for people to read. Once they get into the state, they forget their environment and the passage of time. The more they learn, the more fascinated they become, and the more they forget themselves.
"Oh!"
Suddenly, when Lu Mingfei looked up and saw a person standing in front of his window, he was so scared that his heart almost jumped out.
"Are you scared?" It was Zhao Lang who was standing outside the window.
Originally, he saw Lu Mingfei reading inside and didn't want to disturb him, but he didn't expect that he would scare Lu Mingfei. He couldn't help feeling a little annoyed.
If he had known earlier, he should have spoken up to remind the people inside.
"It's okay, it's okay, I just got a little scared. Why are you here?" Lu Mingfei walked out of the study and glanced towards the main room. After making sure that everyone in the family was asleep, he reached out and pulled Zhao Lang into the study to talk.
Since there was less than a month left until the next exam, he had told Zhao Lang two days ago that he would not go to Prince Ding's mansion to practice martial arts and learn horse riding and archery until the end of the college entrance examination, and would use all his time to study.
Otherwise, after all the hard work of getting this far, if he fails the academy exam, he will have to start over from the prefectural exam next time, which would be really unlucky. So he decided to grit his teeth, pass the academy exam next month, and then take the provincial exam three years later.
The imperial examination system in this country consists of six stages: the first three are the county examination, the prefectural examination, and the academy examination; the last three are the provincial examination, the metropolitan examination, and the palace examination. Only those who pass the palace examination are qualified to see the emperor.
But he didn't think that far ahead now. He just wanted to do well in the first three small tests and get the qualification to take the provincial examination first. Otherwise, if he couldn't even pass the first three small tests, how could he talk about sprinting for the three major exams later?
If he passed the academy exam, there would be three years between the next provincial exam, so he wouldn't have to rush and could have more time to study and prepare for the next exam. Lu Mingfei knew in his heart that if he took the provincial exam now, he would definitely fail, so he didn't plan to take the exam this year.
"I'm going to take you somewhere." Zhao Lang looked at the books spread out on the table and asked, "How long will you continue studying?"
"I don't want to study anymore." Lu Mingfei felt his neck was a little sore after working at his desk for so long. He rubbed his neck with his hand. He glanced at the hourglass on the table and realized it was already past ten o'clock, almost eleven.
No wonder it's so quiet around here. Except for night owls, almost everyone around here is asleep at this time.
"Are you taking me somewhere?" he asked, looking at the person who came to see him in the middle of the night.
"You'll know when you get there." Zhao Lang gestured for Lu Mingfei to follow him.
Seeing that this man was acting mysteriously, Lu Mingfei was not worried that Zhao Lang would trick him into selling him outside, so he followed Zhao Lang outside.
Then Zhao Lang brought him to the next yard, which was separated from their home by two walls and an alley.
"Huh?" Lu Mingfei looked at someone with a puzzled look and asked, "So, you are the new neighbor who moved here today?" Two days ago, he heard some movement in the neighbor's house, so he guessed that the neighbor next door might have moved away.
Today he heard the sound of someone moving things in next door, and he knew someone had moved in. He was thinking to himself, how easy it is to rent a house here, because as soon as a tenant moves out, a new tenant moves in the next day.
Unexpectedly, the new tenant would be the prince Zhao Lang.
"Yes." Zhao Lang made a gesture of invitation, inviting Lu Mingfei to come to the pavilion in the yard.
Inside the pavilion, a table was filled with delicious dishes, all clearly prepared by the chef at Prince Ding's mansion. Lu Mingfei looked up at Zhao Lang as he entered and asked, "So, is this a housewarming banquet?"
"You may think so." Zhao Lang sat down on the stool.
"Thank you so much for treating me to a housewarming party in the middle of the night." Lu Mingfei also sat down. He was hungry from reading, so he took a bowl of soup without hesitation. He took a sip and found it was still warm.
After drinking two sips of soup, he picked up the chopsticks and started eating.
"Mm, delicious!" Lu Mingfei knew, though, that even if Zhao Lang had someone buy the yard, it was unlikely he would actually live there. So, this wasn't a housewarming party; it was just a midnight snack for the two of them. Or perhaps it was the young master's dinner.
But since the young master will live here in the future, it would be much more convenient for the two of them to have a midnight snack together, right?
Zhao Lang was eating with chopsticks, bit by bit. He looked at the young man in front of him who was picking up food with chopsticks and eating happily one bite after another, and his eyes couldn't help but fall on the young man's face.
"Eat, why are you looking at me?" Lu Mingfei looked up and met Zhao Lang's gaze. He smiled and asked, "Are you eating alone at home without anyone to accompany you? Did you come all this way to ask me to eat with you?"
Zhao Lang said "hmm", admitting that he liked to have dinner with Lu Mingfei.
When Lu Mingfei saw Zhao Lang nod, he understood that Zhao Lang came to him for a midnight snack and to keep him company.
However, this beautiful misunderstanding did not affect his eating.
After finishing his midnight snack, Lu Mingfei slumped in his chair with his bloated stomach to digest the food and asked Zhao Lang, "How's our workshop going?"
Hearing the young man use the word "we", Zhao Lang's face curled up into a faint smile, and he said, "We have already chosen a place, and I have asked the housekeeper to find a craftsman. We should be able to start making fans before the end of this month."
It just so happened that there were many manors outside the city of Dingwangfu, and the houses were all ready, so he directly chose a manor to use as a workshop. Once the craftsmen and materials were gathered, he could officially start production.
"Do you want to go and take a look when the time comes?" Zhao Lang asked.
"Can you go out?" Lu Mingfei asked the man.
"I can find a way." Zhao Lang had left the city in recent years, but he just didn't let anyone know.
Lu Mingfei stared at Zhao Lang's face for a long time, then lowered his voice and asked, "Will it be troublesome if someone finds out?"
"Wouldn't it be better if no one found out?" Zhao Lang also lowered his voice.
As soon as Lu Mingfei saw Zhao Lang's expression, he knew that Zhao Lang must have sneaked out on his own over the years. It was a good thing that the emperor didn't know about this. If he did, he might have some other ideas.
"How about when the workshop is almost finished, you find a time to go to the palace and ask the emperor for permission, saying you want to stay at the manor for a few days? ...That doesn't seem like a good idea either. The emperor will definitely send someone to follow you, and then they'll discover the secrets of your manor."
"This matter seems a bit difficult to handle. How about I go? Why don't you just not go?"
"No need to ask. Let's go together." Zhao Lang said.
The two men leaned in close to talk, and Lu Mingfei turned his head to meet Zhao Lang's gaze. This young master had a pair of very beautiful eyes, with slightly raised corners, eyebrows that looked as if they had been trimmed with a knife, and very long eyelashes.
From his angle, he could see Zhao Lang's perfect profile and straight nose.
It must be said that the young master has a very handsome face. This kind of good looks does not have any femininity, but rather has the refreshing and handsomeness of a boy.
Realizing that the two of them were talking too close, he pulled away a bit and said, "Then let's make arrangements after the workshop is built."
"Okay." Zhao Lang responded.
Because it was getting late, and Lu Mingfei was afraid of running into his mother and the others getting up to work, he asked Zhao Lang to take him back to the yard next door, which was their home.
He returned to the room and lay down. He remembered the face he had just seen up close, and also the colorful dream he had that day. He began to suspect that he was seduced by Zhao Lang's beauty.
He obviously likes girls, how could he possibly like boys?!
Absolutely impossible!
After firmly denying the possibility that there was something wrong with his sexual orientation, Lu Mingfei resolutely closed his eyes and went to sleep.
In his dream he smelled a very fragrant aroma of meat, but because he was too sleepy, he continued to sleep with the quilt rolled up and did not wake up.
When he woke up the next day, all the adults and children in the family had gone out, and he was the only one left at home.
“Knock knock—”
While he was brushing his teeth in the yard, he heard the sound of a carriage stopping outside their yard. Then he heard someone knocking on the door, and Lu Mingfei knew it must be Zhang Lingxuan and Ye Zhuoran.
As soon as the door opened, I saw the two men standing outside.
"Come in." When Lu Mingfei came to open the door, he subconsciously glanced at the house next door. However, the courtyard next door was quiet and the door seemed to be closed. So he didn't know whether Zhao Lang was still inside, or had already returned to Prince Ding's Mansion, or went to the Imperial College to study?
All in all, he felt that it was unlikely that Zhao Lang was in there.
"What are you looking at?" Ye Zhuoran noticed that Lu Mingfei stretched his neck to look outside. He looked in the direction Lu Mingfei was looking, but saw only an empty road and no one.
"Nothing." Lu Mingfei invited Zhang Lingxuan and Ye Zhuoran into the yard. "Have you two had breakfast?"
"We came here after eating. There are some pastries here." When Zhang Lingxuan came, he was holding a lunch box in his hand. He gave the lunch box to Lu Mingfei.
"Then keep it. You can eat two pieces when you feel hungry later." Lu Mingfei came to the study with a lunch box. He asked Zhang Lingxuan and Ye Zhuoran to study in the study, and he went to their kitchen to find something to eat.
Sure enough, he found the breakfast left for him in the pot on the stove.
In the morning, there were one and a half baskets of buns and half a pot of porridge. I guess these were left for their breakfast and lunch.
"Very good!" Lu Mingfei took a bun and took a bite, and found that it was his favorite bun with scallion pork filling.
He finished one in two or three bites, then took another bowl and poured himself a bowl of porridge, drank a mouthful, and then continued to eat the buns.
He stopped only after eating four big meat buns and drinking a bowl of porridge in one breath.
After touching his bloated stomach, he stopped eating.
After putting the lid back on, he washed the dishes and his hands, left the kitchen, and went to the study to study with Ye Zhuoran and Zhang Lingxuan, and began their daily preparation for the exam.
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