296, no good intentions
296, no good intentions
He stretched out his hand to push Zhao Lang, but Zhao Lang grabbed it and pressed it against his face.
This guy even rubbed his palm with his handsome face that could charm everyone!
Although the two of them didn't do anything, Lu Mingfei felt his heart beating faster at that moment. He wanted to pull his hand back, but Zhao Lang grabbed his hand and used a little force to prevent him from pulling it back.
"Let me go!"
"No, you posted it yourself."
Zhao Lang even deliberately kissed Lord Lu's hand, hummed a long sigh, and said with an intoxicated look on his face, "Sure enough, the hands of scholars are really different. They all have the fragrance of ink."
"You..." Lu Mingfei felt his face burning. He looked at the man with a smile in his eyes and knew that he was teasing him on purpose. However, he was teased to the point of blushing. He was at his wit's end.
“Knock knock—”
Fortunately, at this moment, there was a knock on the door. Then they heard the guard outside asking them, "Master, the food is served."
Lu Mingfei took a look at their movements at the moment. Afraid that someone outside might push the door open, he quickly pulled his hand back and shouted to the person outside, "Come in."
Zhao Lang looked at Lord Lu with a look of regret in his eyes. But he also knew that Lord Lu was shy and he couldn't tease him in front of others.
"..." Lu Mingfei happened to meet Zhao Lang's gaze, and he was so angry that he glared at him.
Guard Li brought the waiter in to serve the dishes. He felt the atmosphere in the room was a bit strange, but he didn't dare to care about what strange things the two masters did in this private room. After the waiter brought the dishes to the table, he quickly led everyone out and thoughtfully closed the door.
The charming atmosphere was broken by someone coming in, and the ambiguous atmosphere between the two people disappeared in an instant.
Lu Mingfei felt the temperature on his face drop a little and his heartbeat returned to normal.
Meeting Zhao Lang's gaze, he picked up the bowl in front of Zhao Lang, filled it with soup, and placed it in front of the young master. He raised his chin and reminded him, "Drink some soup."
Zhao Lang looked at the bowl in front of him, then glanced at Lord Lu who was serving him the soup. He then picked up the spoon, scooped a spoonful of soup, blew on it, and brought it to the mouth of the seated Lord Lu. "Try it and see if it tastes good."
"I..." Lu Mingfei wanted to say that he had some too, but seeing that Zhao Lang insisted on doing so, he had to open his mouth and drink it.
"Is it delicious?" Zhao Lang asked Lord Lu with a smile on his face.
"It tastes good." Seeing that Zhao Lang was about to feed him a second mouthful, Lu Mingfei quickly held down the man's hand and said, "I have some too."
"Then feed me a sip." Zhao Lang asked with a smile on his face.
"..." So this guy was waiting here! Lu Mingfei was so angry that he laughed and asked him, "Do you still want me to feed you?"
Zhao Lang smiled and said, "If you're willing, that's fine."
Lu Mingfei: “…”
Zhao Lang teased Lord Lu, but when he saw Lord Lu glaring at him, he started to laugh instead, and was in a good mood for the first time in the past few months.
However, he did not forget that they were out for dinner today. Worried that Lord Lu would be hungry, he picked up his chopsticks and picked up a piece of meat for Lord Lu. "Their stewed mutton is quite good. Try it."
Lu Mingfei looked at the person who had returned to normal and turned his gaze to the bowl in front of him.
Looking at the steaming mutton in the bowl, he could smell its fragrance before he even started eating. Picking up his chopsticks, he picked up the meat from the bowl and put it into his mouth. He nodded and said, "Well, it's good. The mutton here doesn't have that mutton smell. It's better than the mutton we had in Kyoto Prefecture."
"Eat more if you like it." Zhao Lang picked up another piece of mutton for Lu Mingfei.
"Eat too, don't just focus on me." Lu Mingfei also picked up a piece of mutton for Zhao Lang with his chopsticks and asked him, "Has anyone bullied you since you came back?"
"You want to ask Zhao Rui, right? Don't worry, he can't bully me." Zhao Lang has never taken Zhao Rui seriously. He looked down on this person before, and he still looks down on him now.
"You'd better be careful. He has been operating here for more than ten years longer than you, and he probably has considerable power. It's easy to block an open attack, but it's hard to guard against an arrow from the dark. If he wants to attack you behind your back, it will be very easy." Lu Mingfei was worried that Zhao Lang would underestimate the enemy and be ambushed by his brother.
"Okay, I know. I understand your concerns. Don't worry, I have someone secretly watching him." Zhao Lang paused while eating, looked at Lu Mingfei and said, "Do you want to follow me into the army?"
Lu Mingfei thought about it for a moment and shook his head. "I won't go with you for now. I'll stay outside so that I can handle things outside. If I go into the army with you, it will be very inconvenient."
"Besides, I'm still in mourning. I'm afraid the emperor might suddenly remember me and call me back."
"I'll stay here for a while. I'll go back to the base after the New Year and stay there to take charge. If you have any problems, send someone to find me."
"That's fine. I'm worried about you staying here. When I become a general, I'll bring you over to be my military advisor." Zhao Lang wasn't worried about Zhao Rui causing trouble for him, but he was worried about Zhao Rui causing trouble for his men. He also felt it was better for Lu Mingfei to stay outside rather than have him join the army.
"Okay, then I'll wait." Lu Mingfei said with a smile.
The two of them discussed this matter for a few sentences and decided on their future plans.
However, although they were going to different places, the direction they were working towards was the same. One day, they would meet halfway and then they would go on together.
That day they had dinner at the restaurant and left together. When they left, they did not meet Zhao Rui and his gang at the door again.
However, when Zhao Lang bent down to get on the carriage, he felt a familiar gaze on him. He looked up and saw a person standing by the window upstairs, looking down.
From the man's figure, he recognized that the person standing upstairs was Zhao Rui.
The two brothers' eyes met in mid-air. Zhao Lang curled his lips, bent down and sat in the carriage, and said to the guard driving the carriage: "Let's go."
"drive--"
The guard driving the carriage heard the order, grabbed the reins and whipped the horse's butt. The horse pulled the carriage on the snow, back towards the courtyard.
Following behind were several guards on horseback, as well as secret guards in the dark, who all moved together.
Back in the courtyard, Lu Mingfei looked at the person who had entered the house with him and asked him, "Aren't you going home tonight?"
"No, I'll stay here with you." Zhao Lang lifted the door curtain and instructed the people outside, "Send a bathtub and a few buckets of hot water here."
"Yes." The person outside responded and went to call for someone to bring a bathtub and hot water for the master to bathe.
Before Lu Mingfei could react, Li Qun brought two people and carried a large bathtub into the room, and then someone else brought in hot water.
A group of people came in and out, and the last person to leave was considerate enough to help them close the door.
After seeing his subordinates leave, Zhao Lang stood up, took off his cloak and threw it on the chair, then walked over to help Lord Lu take off his cloak, "Lord Lu, let me help you bathe."
"...I can do it myself." Lu Mingfei looked at the person who was smiling like a fox seeing meat, and in his heart he wanted to refuse the attentive service of the noble prince.
However, Prince Zhao did not give him the chance to refuse.
***
That night, Zhao Rui returned to the palace from outside and met the maid of his stepmother at the gate of the palace.
Seeing the maidservant beside his stepmother standing at the door, seemingly waiting for someone, he stopped as he was about to go inside and asked the maidservant, "Has my second brother not returned home yet?" Otherwise, why would the maidservant beside his stepmother still be standing here waiting for someone? Zhao Rui had some guesses in his mind.
The maid didn't know what the young master meant by suddenly asking whether their prince had returned home, so she didn't dare to answer.
Zhao Rui clearly noticed the maid's defensiveness towards him. He smiled good-naturedly and kindly informed her, "I was just having dinner at a restaurant outside when I ran into him and his friends. They left earlier than I did and haven't returned yet. I guess they went out to drink somewhere else."
"Thank you, Young Master, for telling me." The maid understood the meaning of the Young Master's words. He was saying that their prince had not returned home so late because he had gone out to drink with his friends.
The maid was not stupid. She knew that the young master was deliberately speaking ill of their prince. She sneered in her heart, but still bowed respectfully to the young master.
Seeing that his goal had been achieved, Zhao Rui said "hmm" and led his men inside.
The maidservant behind them watched their young master leave, then after some thought, decided to leave through the doorway and return to their master's courtyard. Knowing that their master was still awake inside, the maidservant, after passing on the message, went inside and reported to their master, "I just ran into the young master at the door. He said he met the prince and his friends outside today and went to a restaurant for dinner."
"The eldest young master also said that the prince had already left the restaurant with his friends..."
After thinking about it, the maid decided to tell her master what their eldest young master had said on purpose. This was to prevent any unpleasant things from spreading about their young master later. They would be unaware of the situation and wouldn't know how to respond.
"That's pure nonsense!"
Princess Ding cursed angrily, then waved her hand, telling the maid who had been waiting outside all day to leave first. She turned her head and said to another maid standing beside her, "Go and call Manager Liu to come see me."
"Yes." After hearing their master's order, the maid who was named responded and turned to go out.
Another maid who came back to report saw their master waving his hand and knew that his master wanted her to leave, so she followed his master out.
Not long after, a middle-aged steward hurried over to see their princess, "Princess, what do you want?"
"Go out and find out where the prince is so late at night, and ask him to come back to see me." Princess Ding ordered.
"Yes." Manager Liu responded and retreated, taking two servants with him to go out to find their prince.
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