Since the beginning of September, Zhou Tao has been going to Madam Qi's courtyard to practice the zither every day at the same time.
The master is now teaching five girls, the others of whom are daughters of wealthy families in town.
Moreover, they all knew Zhou Tao and had bought clothes from their store. When they learned that Zhou Tao had loved the piano since she was a child and now had the opportunity to learn it, they enthusiastically taught her some fingering techniques and basic piano playing skills. When their teacher went to rest, they would also practice the piano with Zhou Tao, showing her great kindness.
As a result, Zhou Tao spent more than a month with her master and made several good friends.
There were also some young ladies from the town who had studied the zither under Madam Qi. Occasionally, when they had nothing to do, they would come back to visit them, sit together, play the zither, and chat.
Those who are skilled at making pastries will personally cook some for their master and fellow apprentices. They will eat pastries, drink tea, and listen to music together, which is very enjoyable and relaxing.
Here, Zhou Tao understood the meaning of her sister-in-law's words about enjoying life.
She also studied hard, learning to play the piano, learning how other girls behaved, and learning how they interacted with others.
For more than a month, her second brother personally drove her to his house in a horse-drawn carriage every day and picked her up again in the evening. She spent the whole day in her master's courtyard. Occasionally, she would cook a special dish that her sister-in-law had taught her for lunch for her master and senior sisters, which received unanimous praise from everyone.
In addition, Xu Yue visited her twice. When others learned that Xu Yue was now Zhou Tao's future sister-in-law, they were more willing to spend time with Zhou Tao and make friends with her.
As a result, Zhou Tao is now quite well-known among the young ladies in town.
During their breaks, Zhou Tao also taught them how to design their own clothes and jewelry.
She was taught by Li Mai, but none of these young ladies had been taught these skills. So, when they saw that Zhou Tao's drawings were quite impressive while theirs were nothing, these young ladies admired Zhou Tao even more.
That evening, Zhou Quan drove a carriage to pick up Zhou Tao. When Zhou Tao came out, she was very happy to see that it was her older brother who had come to pick her up. After getting into the carriage, she first patted Zhu Zhu's head before sitting down next to Li Mai and chatting happily with her sister-in-law about some of the interesting things that happened that day.
Li Mai chatted with her with a smile, but her eyes kept glancing out the car window, seemingly unintentionally.
Not far from the gate of the Qi residence, she sensed Lu Qian's presence again. He must have been hiding in a small alley every day, watching Zhou Tao follow her second brother home from afar.
Li Mai came over to pick up Zhou Tao several times and sensed it each time, but she never said anything.
She sensed it, and Zhou Quan sensed it too. He subconsciously glanced in that direction, but saw nothing and didn't pay any attention.
So it turns out this kid didn't really not go to see Xiaotao, but was secretly watching her leave?
After returning home, Zhou Quan quietly asked Li Mai if she had sensed Lu Qian's presence in the vicinity when she went to pick up Xiao Tao a few days ago. Li Mai nodded, "Of course I sensed it, but he never appeared in front of Xiao Tao. Why should I bother to say anything?"
Zhou Quan thought about it and nodded, "Yes, that makes sense."
Lu Qian was a man who couldn't help but talk about things. The next day, he made his appearance at the restaurant and first went to see Li Mai and Zhou Quan.
Li Mai noticed that after more than a month, the boy had suddenly become much more mature. The arrogance in his eyes was gone, replaced by a more composed demeanor.
Li Mai raised an eyebrow. Has she grown up after experiencing these things?
"Brother Quan, sister-in-law, may I visit Madam Qi to see Xiao Tao?" Lu Qian placed a few pomegranates in front of Li Mai and smiled, "To nourish my little nephew."
Li Mai glanced at it and asked, "Where did you buy this?"
"It was bought from Xiangzhou," Lu Qian said. He had gone there a few days ago to check on his business.
"Have you sorted out your family's matter?" Li Mai asked.
"Yes, it was my mother's younger sister who paid someone to bribe my father's concubine, Liu, in order to gather information about me. Liu made a deal with them: they would help her daughter become the legitimate daughter of the Lu family, and in return, she would help them spread the news in town that I was going to marry my cousin, in order to morally blackmail me."
"I don't know how my father could have fallen for such a stupid woman. She's just a concubine. Her daughter came from her womb. No matter what she does, she can never become the legitimate daughter of the Lu family. They should always be well together. Even if she's a half-sister, would I mistreat her in the future? Besides, is it really that important to become the legitimate daughter now? If you had paid attention to these things earlier, why did you become someone's concubine in the first place?"
After saying this, Lu Qian frowned gloomily and sighed, "From a young age, I have been troubled by the infighting between my father's concubines and my mother. You may not know, but there should have been three children in our household, one of whom was my own brother, and the other two should have been my half-brothers. But because of their jealousy and rivalry, they were all killed in the end. Their fighting destroyed the children."
"So, from a young age, I hated this messy life. Unfortunately, my parents were very good to me. They gave me all their goodness. In fact, to protect me from getting into trouble, my father has not allowed his concubines to have any more children for the past ten years."
"Seeing how tiring their lives are, my mother is tired, my father is tired, and neither of them loves each other. So, from the time I was old enough to understand, I vowed that I would not marry unless I met someone I liked. Moreover, I will only marry one wife in my life. I don't want my harem to become as messy as my father's."
"Perhaps, I didn't understand the true meaning of life or the concept of feelings before. But in the past year, I've actually felt the feeling of loving someone from a fifteen-year-old girl."
“You might not believe me when I tell you this, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about for several nights. I don’t dare to be too obvious in front of Xiao Tao, for fear of scaring her. In your eyes, she’s still just a child, but in my eyes, she is the person I want to spend my life with. I don’t care that she’s still young. I can wait for her to grow up, until she understands the feelings between men and women, until she sees me in her eyes.”
After Lu Qian finished speaking, he glanced silently at Li Mai and Zhou Quan and said softly, "To be honest, I envy you two for being able to meet people you love to the core even in an arranged marriage. Sometimes, you really have to admit that luck is something you can't deny."
Zhou Quan glanced at him and said, "Alright, I know you're sentimental. Xiao Tao has an hour's rest time at noon. If you want to see her, you can go see her, but you're not allowed to take her out of the Qi residence."
Upon hearing his brother-in-law finally speak up, Lu Qian stood up abruptly. "Thank you, brother and sister-in-law. Don't worry, I won't ruin Xiao Tao's reputation. I will formally pay my respects to Madam Qi."
Li Mai looked at him and chuckled, wondering if Madam Qi would be startled by him.
Under the watchful eyes of Zhou Quan and Li Mai, Lu Qian visibly cheered up. He respectfully bowed to the two of them, then turned and quickly went out to prepare gifts.
After a while, he came running back, asking Li Mai to recommend two outfits that suited him. Li Mai chuckled and recommended a brocade robe and a matching cotton cloak. He happily paid the money and took the clothes back to his family's restaurant to change.
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