refreshments
The balls handed to them were ginger-colored and sprinkled with sesame seeds.
If you get close, you can smell the honey-like fragrance.
Jiang Nian had been looking out the window intentionally and hadn't noticed what was on the table. Now that he saw it, he quietly said thank you and took the cake from Ai.
The spherical pastry is not as hard as it looks when you twist it gently. Instead, it is a bit like a dessert that is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.
Before traveling through time, she had seen similar pastries in her hometown, which were eaten for breakfast and were called sesame balls.
However, the sesame seeds in sesame balls are white.
Jiang Nian was stunned by this association, blinked, stared at the snack in his hand for a moment, and turned it slightly.
Lights flashed by outside the window, and the delicate patterns printed on the dim sum were brightened for a moment in the light.
The quiet carriage now made some noises because Ai delivered the pastries. Yunxiu saw that Jiang Nian's attention was focused on Ai, and knew that he had escaped a disaster. He turned his head to look at the scenery passing by outside the window, and temporarily became a limited-time head-shrinking person who could not hear other people's calls.
It was rare to see Yunxiu looking frustrated, and he was so tactful. In the final analysis, he was afraid that Xiao Yingzhu would remember him. Qin Lan smiled secretly and turned his eyes away. He caught a glimpse of the movement beside him, with a hint of interest in his eyes, and then laughed.
"This is a specialty snack that Xiao Ai brought from her hometown of Hezhi. She loves it. Miss Jiang lives in Pingzhou all year round. This must be her first time seeing it. Try it."
Jiang Nian listened to his words with a smile on his face, and his eyes shifted from the dim sum pattern to the table next to him.
There was a plate on the table, which I didn't know whether it was originally prepared or brought in later.
And on the plate were several stacked golden balls.
For some reason, although the carriage was running smoothly, it still shook a little. However, these balls were like stone statues standing on the seashore, not affected by the outside world at all, and stood calmly and perfectly on the plates.
Looking at the side of the golden sphere, you can still find some shadows of the Egyptian pyramids.
There were five people in the carriage. Except for the one on the top which was taken away by Ai and eaten, and the one on the other side with a missing corner was given to her, the rest seemed to have been left untouched for some unknown reason.
Ai beside her was still looking at her silently, and Qin Lan opposite her was smiling, but his expression didn't look very good.
Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Jiang Nian always felt a little weird, but he couldn't tell what was weird. He stared at the golden ball in his hand for a while, and Ai on the opposite side had already eaten the last bite.
Ai Jingjing drank the dragon ball in her hand clean, looked at Jiang Nian who was also looking at her, and after a moment, she suddenly said something.
"Madam, don't you like golden pastry?"
…
…
silence.
A drowning silence.
Qin Lan lowered his head and his shoulders trembled slightly. He was already in a good mood, and now he might have heard something funny, and he couldn't help laughing.
However, he still had his rationality, and he still remembered Xiao Yingzhu who was relaxing and leaning on his elbows in the carriage, and was just silently happy beside him.
Jiang Nian silently turned his eyes away, deliberately avoiding the direction of Xiao Yingzhu, lowered his head and broke the golden pastry into two halves, and then broke it into four halves. Suddenly, he felt that he had broken it a little too much, then raised his head, calmly took half of the broken golden pastry into his mouth, and raised his head again, correcting Ai's words with a faint expression.
"You called me the wrong name..." She looked at Ai as if she were a child, and added sympathetically, giving both herself and her a way out. "How old is Xiao Ai this year?"
"Hmm...twenty-seven years old."
Ai stared at her for a moment longer, his eyes dark. Just as the atmosphere in the car was about to relax, she tilted her head again.
"What is it?"
…
What is what?
Yunxiu has been looking out the car window since Jiang Nian asked her a question, staring out the window without moving for a moment. Even though she has been practicing martial arts since she was a child, her neck is a little numb now.
Hearing Ai's questions one after another, Yunxiu wanted to look back but didn't dare to. He had no choice but to continue staring at the road stiffly, slightly raising his eyes, secretly calculating how long it would take to reach Guanyue Tower.
The smile on Jiang Nian's face faded a little. He took a deep breath in his heart. A spicy ginger taste rushed up his throat, making him choke. He couldn't breathe for a while, and subconsciously raised the back of his hand to his lips, bent over and started coughing.
Today she was wearing a skirt with thin and wide sleeves made of blue silk gauze, so she could easily open the opening of the secret pocket by raising her hand.
The spiciness of the golden crisps made my throat sore, and after I caught my breath, an indescribable sweet and greasy taste of plastic came out.
Jiang Nian closed her eyes and just lowered her head to wipe away the tears from the corners of her eyes, when the secret pocket in her sleeve was somehow opened a little, and the jade porcelain bottle given to her by Jiang's mother fell out of the bag with a "click". Before she could react to pick it up, the carriage happened to bump, and the jade porcelain bottle rolled along the tilted direction and fell to the feet of Xiao Yingzhu opposite.
It seems like I'm too unlucky today.
She sighed slightly, bent down and reached out to pick up the jade porcelain bottle, but her fingertips touched the slender knuckles hanging down from the opposite side.
His heart, which had just calmed down, suddenly began to beat again. Jiang Nian withdrew his hand as if he had been electrocuted, and raised his eyes to meet Xiao Yingzhu's indifferent gaze.
“…”
He slowly collected the jade porcelain bottle in his hand, lowered his eyes to look at it for a few seconds, and then slightly raised his eyelids. The emotions in his eyes were dark and unclear, like layers of clouds surging.
Jiang Nian curled her fingertips slightly. The other person's eyes were deep, like an invisible black hole. Looking at them for a moment longer would make her feel as if she were being swept into an endless abyss. The night was as pale as water, leaving a subtle reflection on her eyelashes. She came to her senses and calmly opened her palms to Xiao Yingzhu.
"Mr. Xiao, jade porcelain bottle."
Ai, who was sitting next to him, picked up the golden pastry again, took a bite, and ate quietly.
Xiao Yingzhu stroked the jade porcelain bottle with his fingertips, pausing for a moment on the mark on the bottom of the bottle. The matte texture of the mark was engraved into the lines of his palm. He smiled gently, his tone leisurely.
"Is this bottle yours?"
The tone of his voice rose a few degrees at the end, and he sounded like he was in a good mood.
The invisible subtle feeling between the two of them just now dissipated a lot, but Jiang Nian always felt something was wrong intuitively. She did not move her outstretched hand, and nodded calmly under Xiao Yingzhu's gaze.
"mine."
There must be some information that can be dug out from the jade porcelain bottle. She won't give it to him directly unless she gets anything out of Xiao Yingzhu.
Besides, the person Zhou Jinyu handed it over to was her, not Xiao Yingzhu.
He gave himself some reasons in his heart, and his tone became more confident. Jiang Nian's eyes were clear in the moonlight coming in from the window, but his expression seemed gentle and well-behaved.
"Jiang Nian would like to thank Master Xiao here." She frowned, a faint smile on her lips, "Please give me this jade porcelain bottle."
Qin Lan had sharp eyes. With the help of the cool moonlight outside the window, he and Xiao Yingzhu twisted the curve of the bottle mouth. He could just see the "X" engraved on the bottom of the jade porcelain bottle, and the corners of his mouth curved up.
One good show after another. I just finished watching Jiang Nian's reaction when he tried the golden pastry for the first time, and now I have come to the special time in the teahouse - the front line of the emotional dispute between men and women "Homesick". What I saw on the way to the night banquet was rich and colorful, just like dreaming of returning to the attic to watch an impromptu performance at the New Year's Eve party.
Xiao Yingzhu had no interest in paying attention to the gossipy glances that were vaguely peeking out from inside the carriage. She bent her knuckles and tapped on the wall of the jade porcelain bottle, frowning, and the cool smile in her eyes showed a little more casual interest.
"I picked up this bottle first. If Miss Jiang wants to exchange it for me, she must show some sincerity."
His scattered black hair fell between his eyebrows as he tilted slightly to the side, making his face look even more youthful. He smiled nonchalantly, and spoke casually, his pronunciation lightly, but with a hint of teasing.
After waiting for a while, seeing that Jiang Nian didn't say anything, he leaned on his wrist and moved closer. His voice was so low that it seemed like he was whispering in her ear, with a faint smile on his face.
"Jiang Nian, it's not a good idea to just take the chips away when they've already been marked with a price."
Although they had not touched each other, his quiet aura and the soft warmth that came from his black hair and the intertwining of his sleeves seemed to surround her.
They were way too close.
Jiang Nian leaned back slightly and supported his body with his hands. The other person's shallow breathing seemed to blend into the heartbeat in his body through the dark and cool night.
She was hesitating about how to answer, and her eyes uncontrollably avoided his gaze. When she caught a glimpse of other people's gossiping looks, she instantly calmed down.
Across from him, Xiao Yingzhu had returned to her original distance, leisurely leaning her head to glance out the window. Their previous close proximity was like the moon in the center of a lake, ripples forming at the touch of a finger.
She lowered her eyes to look at his palm again, and the jade porcelain bottle inside was gone. He must have deliberately moved closer to attract her attention and put it away.
I originally wanted to use the bottle to exchange for some more information.
Jiang Nian was obviously in a bad mood because he lost a prop that could be used to obtain information for free due to a mistake. He leaned back in his chair dejectedly, too lazy to glance in Xiao Yingzhu's direction.
Seeing how Xiao Yingzhu was transformed from being treated like a beloved by Jiang Nian to an item that could be thrown away at any time in such a short period of time, the most touching thing was that he discovered that the main source of her emotional fluctuations was the props she used to exchange for information.
...Xiao Yingzhu was outshined by a lifeless prop.
Qin Lan felt inexplicably a little sad.
The carriage, which had been traveling for what seemed like ten thousand years, finally arrived at Guanyue Tower from Qishan Mansion. The coachman parked the carriage aside and disappeared in an instant. After getting off the carriage, Yunxiu immediately raised his hand to rub his neck, stretched his limbs and shook his arms.
He narrowed his eyes and looked in the direction where the driver's shadow was still in the sky. He felt that it was normal for the driver to run faster than his master. Seeing Jiang Nian, who had just come out from behind him, looked a little stunned, he explained as usual: "He went to buy some wine again."
Qin Lan peeled off an unknown adhesive note from the horse's back.
"Eighty-one coins for the wine."
He turned around with amusement and waved the note in his hand in front of Xiao Yingzhu.
"Is this the pay-as-you-go fee for your Duke's Mansion?"
Xiao Yingzhu withdrew her gaze from Jiang Nian, glanced at the contents of the note, and said lightly, "Extra wages."
"ah……"
Qin Lan sighed meaningfully.
“It’s great to have labor service exemptions.”
Jiang Nian didn't worry about the money issue. After all, she was not like Qin Lan, who had to pay and subsidize the wages of the Intelligence Bureau employees out of her own pocket.
But she was a little concerned about what the driver wrote.
Can everyone in the Duke’s Mansion read and write?
The cultural literacy rate in Liangdu City is actually not high, so it is not surprising that Jiang Nian would have such an idea. Xiao Yingzhu looked up and saw her slightly confused expression, and when she saw where her eyes were, she understood.
He spoke in a cold voice, lightly touched his arm with his fingertips, and a hint of mischief flashed in his eyes.
"Huandu has a clear stipulation that all attendants of nobles must be literate. This is a universal rule, passed down for a long time, and known to every household."
There was a slight pause in her words, and Jiang Nian knew that Xiao Yingzhu was going to expose her shortcomings again.
“——”
He chuckled.
"How could you not know?"
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