Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
Meng Yingying stared at him for a long time before turning her head to see Shang Mang just withdrawing his gaze. He was dressed in a dark, emerald-green round-necked robe today, paired with mountain spirit coins on his temples, making him look like a peacock spreading its tail feathers. Noticing her gaze, he smiled at her.
He smiled, a calculating glint in his eyes. Meng Yingying withdrew her gaze, stepped onto a stool, boarded the carriage, and sat down. Just as she closed her eyes, someone sat down beside her, and Kong Fusheng's voice rang out: "A-Guai?"
"Are you coming back with us?" he asked. Meng Yingying turned her head and saw a green person sitting next to her. He was not flustered at all: "Hitch a ride, is that not recommended?" It's always not recommended, is it? If I said I recommended it, would you not take it?
The carriage, carrying the weight of five people, swayed from side to side as it traveled, but thankfully it arrived at the Good Wine Inn without incident.
When they got off the carriage, there was a long queue outside the inn. Kong Fusheng exclaimed, "No way, their business is doing so well!" Meng Yingying got off the carriage and saw that the queue took up half the street.
The group followed the flow of people to the Good Wine Inn. The innkeeper was sweating profusely, sitting on a stool, collecting money while calculating with an abacus. He said to the guests, "Wait, I haven't finished calculating yet."
Ahri handed a sign to someone, saying, "Please come in."
The shopkeeper said, "Ah Li, don't issue the tokens yet, I can't figure it out." Ah Jin walked over and said, "I've been asking you to teach us some things for a long time, but you kept putting it off, and now this is causing trouble."
The inn used to be in a remote location, and few people came here. Recently, however, it launched a cuisine that was different from other places. These guests are all here to try it out.
"Miss Meng?" Ah Jin was the first to see them, and greeted them with a happy expression: "You're back."
"It's a great success!" Meng Yingying praised, looking around. There was no room to even stand anymore, as the tables and chairs were piled up everywhere.
Shang Mang stood outside, looking at the sign in front of him. "Good wine and good meat" had been changed to "Delicious food in the world," and the name of the Good Wine Inn had been changed to Jade Kite Inn.
The shopkeeper's temples were covered in cold sweat: "It was much easier to manage before; now I'm finding it harder."
"Judging from the current situation, you shouldn't be short of money in the future," Meng Yingying said. Coming here was a good deed, and she felt a great sense of accomplishment.
Ah Jin smiled gently: "Are you that hungry? Would you like something to eat?"
Meng Yingying had been traveling by carriage all day and was very tired. She said, "We just need to rest; you don't need to cook for us." Zhou Xiuqi was still injured; his wounds hadn't fully healed yet. They needed to find an opportunity...
She turned her head and took Xiao Zheyu's hand: "Sister Xiao, I can't leave right now. You take my senior brother upstairs and change his dressing."
Xiao Zheyu paused slightly. She wanted to refuse such a private matter as bandaging, but she had promised to take responsibility for everything for him, so she finally nodded in agreement.
She walked to Zhou Xiuqi's side: "Let's go upstairs, I'll change your dressing."
"I can handle this myself," he said, seemingly surprised that she would take responsibility for even this, thus politely declining.
Xiao Zheyu didn't argue with him, but looked straight at him and repeated, "Go upstairs."
Zhou Xiuqi was speechless and had no choice but to follow her upstairs.
A moment later, Zhou Xiuqi stood in front of her. Xiao Zheyu looked at him and said, "If you don't take off your clothes, how will I apply the medicine?"
A hint of unease crossed Zhou Xiuqi's face. He reached out and pulled aside his clothes to reveal his body. There were crisscrossing scratches on his back and a faint circular scar on his abdomen, as if it were an old wound. On his back, old wounds had not yet healed before new ones appeared.
Holding the medicine bottle with some force, Xiao Zheyu stepped forward, opened it, and shook out the powder. Observing his expression, it remained unchanged; he seemed to maintain this expression no matter what happened.
"Zhou Xiuqi." Xiao Zheyu remained silent for a moment before calling out to him.
Zhou Xiuqi gave a soft "hmm".
"Don't save me next time." After saying that, she put the medicine bottle on the table and walked out the door.
Zhou Xiuqi touched the medicine bottle. The feather-like sensation on his back had disappeared. The wound was still throbbing slightly after the medicine was applied. He closed his clothes, and the pain was contained inside.
Meng Yingying was downstairs. A Jin arranged a table for them and said, "Catching ghosts is hard work. Try the flavors of our researched cuisine."
As she spoke, a table full of food was laid out. Meng Yingying stared wide-eyed and said, "There's so much, we can't possibly finish it all."
Only Kong Fusheng, Meng Yingying, and Shang Mang sat at the round table. Kong Fusheng's eyes lit up: "How can you not finish it? I'm sure I can finish it!"
As he spoke, he started using his chopsticks. Seeing how happily he was eating, Meng Yingying picked up a piece and put it in her mouth.
"How was it? How was it?" Ah Jin asked impatiently.
Meng Yingying was eating Kung Pao Chicken, which was very spicy and pungent. She was so angry that tears welled up in her eyes. "Water... give me some water." Shang Mang poured her a glass of water and held it out to her. Meng Yingying grabbed the glass and put it in her mouth.
Ah Jin: "You like spicy food, so we've made it according to your taste."
Meng Yingying stopped the burning sensation and said, "No! This is the taste! It's especially delicious!" In reality, she also loved spicy food and had even eaten rice with chili peppers. She was already quite adept at handling spicy food. This was probably because Meng Yuan couldn't eat spicy food. She was certain that it wasn't Meng Yuan's problem.
Shang Mang took her cup, but Meng Yingying grabbed it, asking, "What are you doing?"
"This is my cup," Shang Mang said. He had only been drinking water and hadn't touched anything else.
"I've already drunk it." Her face was slightly flushed.
"Once you've drunk it, it's yours?" His fox-like eyes widened slightly, as if to say she was shameless.
Meng Yingying loosened her grip, and he took the cup and poured himself a drink. Meng Yingying was unconvinced and looked at him: "Shang Mang, open your mouth." Just as Shang Mang was about to speak, a blurry figure appeared before his eyes.
The spiciness began to sweep across his tongue, and he could hardly believe that he could actually taste it.
Meng Yingying gloated, fanning away the tears from the corners of her eyes, and smiled at him, saying, "It's delicious, isn't it?"
Seeing that Shang Mang's mouth wasn't moving, Meng Yingying knew he couldn't eat spicy food and that's why he didn't dare to bite. Meng Yingying teased, "I didn't expect you couldn't eat spicy food, really..."
The moment of being proven wrong always comes quickly. Shang Mang's eyes were a little red, and he gritted his teeth: "It's not spicy at all."
Seeing his appearance, no one would believe his claim that it wasn't spicy. Meng Yingying gasped from the spiciness. Kong Fusheng looked at the two of them; it was truly time for him to drink his tenth cup of water.
Kong Fusheng: "Sister Jin, please don't put so much chili next time."
Ah Jin covered her mouth and laughed: "This is a special feature."
After mocking them, Meng Yingying turned to Kong Fusheng and said, "You're too weak."
Kong Fusheng was startled: "Who are you calling bad?"
Meng Yingying's lips were already swollen, but she refused to admit defeat: "Of course it's you guys, you're all terrible!"
Shang Mang ignored it and put the food she had just given him into his mouth. The spiciness made his mouth burn and his face turn red.
It's not spicy at all.
Kong Fusheng shouted, "Let's have a competition!" Meng Yingying stood up and said, "Let's compete!"
So that night, after Meng Yingying ate her fifth plate of Kung Pao Chicken, Kong Fusheng clutched his stomach and said, "No, no, I give up, I need to go to the toilet."
Meng Yingying wiped her mouth, exuding an aura of dominance: "I told you, I'm really good at eating spicy food!" She picked up the water glass that was lying to the side, and shakily put it into her mouth.
What's going on? How can she get drunk from drinking water? Suddenly, her hand touched something furry, and she reached out and rubbed it hard.
"Meng Yuan, do you want to die?" The next second, Shang Mang's smiling voice rang out.
Meng Yingying paused, bent down, and found that everyone around them had already dispersed, leaving only the two of them.
"Where did you come from, you vixen?"
Her voice was muffled, and she slapped him across the face. Shang Mang turned his head away, his eyes blank. She actually dared to hit him.
“One more time.” He stared at her, unable to believe it.
Snap—Snap.
After two more taps, Meng Yingying laughed and lifted his face: "Your request is so strange, you vixen."
Shang Mang slowly stuck out his tongue and licked the corner of his mouth, wiping away the bloodstains. Meng Yingying looked at him, her dark curly hair draped over her shoulders, her long eyelashes gently framing her eyes as she stared directly at him, her pale face as if she were enduring humiliation.
"You really dare to fight." He laughed in anger, a faint smile playing on his lips, his eyes cold and sinister.
The next second, Meng Yingying straddled his legs and looked him straight in the eye, asking, "Does it hurt?"
She was drunk, her eyes were blurry, and her face was flushed. Shang Mang's throat bobbed, and he turned his head away: "It doesn't hurt at all."
The next second, a light kiss landed on her cheek, and Meng Yingying laughed drunkenly: "Here's a reward for you, you vixen."
She buried her head in his neck, her faint breaths like the scratching of a cat's paws.
[Progress of the male supporting character conquest: 170% - 180% - 200% - 500%]
In Meng Yingying's mind, the system's mechanical voice sounded. She nudged it and said impatiently, "It's so noisy."
"When you wake up tomorrow, you'd better wipe your neck clean," Shang Mang said coldly. He stood up, intending to throw her off, but she clung tightly to his waist. Shang Mang sneered.
I started walking upstairs.
"You'd better hang on securely, or you'll fall and die."
"You dare touch my hair?"
"Try pulling it again?"
"Meng Yuan!"
Shang Mang walked into the room, his once curly hair now a messy frizz. He couldn't keep a smile to himself and threw her onto the bed.
Meng Yingying smacked her lips sweetly twice. She dreamed that there was a fox spirit in her dream who wouldn't leave even after she slapped him twice. She rode on him and ran away.
Hehe, that's really interesting.
She rolled over, and Shang Mang, furious, wanted to slap her to death, but he stopped himself. It would be such a waste to let her die in such a daze!
...
The light streaming through the window shone into Meng Yingying's eyes. She raised her hand to block the light, but the light was blocked by someone else: "Did you sleep comfortably?"
Meng Yingying sat up abruptly and looked out the window. Shang Mang stood there, arms crossed, still wearing the same emerald green round-necked robe from yesterday, its collar disheveled and its hair a mess. Based on Meng Yingying's experience reading novels, she figured he hadn't done anything yesterday. Seeing his aggrieved expression, she decided to apologize.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to."
"Heh—" He chuckled and walked up in a few steps: "You're awake now, it's time for us to settle our accounts."
Knowing she was in the wrong, Meng Yingying shrank back. Her drinking habits were always questionable, and she tended to forget things after a good night's sleep, so she had no idea what had happened. She tried to argue, "I didn't do it on purpose. I don't even know who poured that drink. You should go find him." Shang Mang glared at her coldly. Meng Yingying's voice grew softer and softer. He had poured that drink; it was originally meant for her. She had been eating spicy food and was feeling tipsy, so she drank it all, only to find herself passed out after just one glass.
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