"What are you holding in your hand?" Bai Luochen asked.
Zhou Yu was stunned. What was wrong with this man? One moment he was extremely gloomy, the next he was all smiles, and now he was asking her what she was holding.
When she met those narrow, almond-shaped eyes, Zhou Yu's heart raced, and she held her breath as she replied, "It's food, something delicious. Don't be fooled by its smell; it tastes amazing."
"Yeah?"
"Yes, you... do you want to try some!" Zhou Yu asked the question as if possessed, and immediately wanted to bite off his own tongue after asking.
How could she ask a handsome man on the street if he would eat such smelly food?
Who would eat that?
Bai Luochen abruptly closed his jade fan and replied seriously, "Okay!"
Somewhat unexpectedly, Zhou Yu looked completely bewildered.
The two found a sparsely populated open space and squatted down. Bai Luochen couldn't wait to open the food box, pick up a piece of stinky mandarin fish and stuff it into his mouth. He chewed it carefully and praised it with his eyes closed.
Zhou Yu swallowed hard; she wanted to eat too. Thinking this, she did just that.
If even the noble young man in white doesn't care about his image, then why should she care about hers?
So she copied Bai Luochen, picking up a piece without any regard for appearances and stuffing it into her mouth. After chewing it a couple of times, she found it smelled and smelled delicious. The meat was firm and elastic, and the taste was fresh. She wanted to eat it again after just one bite.
What should I do if I'm getting a little addicted?
Only one piece of stinky mandarin fish remained. Bai Luochen and Zhou Yu swallowed hard at the same time, then reached for the piece of fish simultaneously. Their hands touched, then shook off as if they had been electrocuted.
Bai Luochen took out a handkerchief to wipe his hands and mouth, then opened his jade fan with a flourish and said with great style, "I'll let you have the last piece!"
"Wh...what?" Zhou Yu could hardly believe her ears. What did he mean by giving her the fish to eat? It was clearly her fish.
The young man in white ate so much in one go, yet he had the nerve to offer it to her.
Instantly, Bai Luochen's image in Zhou Yu's mind plummeted several points.
"It was mine to begin with!" Zhou Yu said without any hesitation, picking it up and eating it, her cheeks bulging out like a little hamster stealing food.
Suddenly, a white silk handkerchief appeared in front of her. Zhou Yu happened to be looking directly at Bai Luochen's handsome face, and her face couldn't help but blush: "Th...thank you!"
When Zhou Yu unfolded the handkerchief to wipe her mouth, she discovered that the white silk handkerchief was stained with oil, which was obviously used by Bai Luochen. What was even more disgusting was that there was a dead worm wrapped inside.
"Ah!" Zhou Yu was so angry that her liver hurt, and she screamed in despair.
"What an uncouth man! He actually gave me a handkerchief that you had used, ate my fish, and now he wants to tease me. Who gave you the audacity?"
Bai Luochen laughed heartily and lightly touched the ground with his toes to escape. Zhou Yu was furious. It was all her fault for being bewitched by beauty. How could she forget that the more beautiful something is, the more poisonous it is?
As a young lady of the Zhou family, she had never been mocked like this before. Zhou Yu raised the food box in her hand and hurled it hard at Bai Luochen.
Bang!
Bai Luochen was caught off guard and was actually ambushed by a young woman, who was also the woman he hated the most.
"You dare to smash this young master?" Bai Luochen's expression darkened slightly, his chivalrous peach blossom eyes shooting cold stars.
Zhou Yu shrank back in fright, but the Third Miss's demeanor did not allow her to be weak. She stiffened her neck and said, "You tricked me first, ate my fish, and even made me use the handkerchief you used to wipe my mouth, where you put dead bugs. Aren't you disgusting?"
"Playing pranks?" Bai Luochen calmed himself down and looked at Zhou Yu with a mocking gaze: "You've played pranks on people quite often before."
What?
Zhou Yu was stunned. She racked her brains, but she couldn't remember ever teasing this young man in white.
This was definitely the first time she and the young man in white had met!
She was a young lady confined to her home, rarely venturing out. The only noblemen she had ever met were His Highness Prince Cheng and the princes and nobles of the capital. As for the elegant and refined young man in white before her, Zhou Yu went through all the noblemen in the capital in her mind but couldn't remember who he was.
"Do you think you know me well?" Zhou Yu rolled her eyes. "If you want to slander me, you'd better provide evidence."
"You're such a pig-headed fool, I can't be bothered to waste my breath on you."
With that, Bai Luochen walked past Zhou Yu and left gracefully, while Lü Fu, who was standing nearby, tactfully made way for him.
"Hey! Who are you talking about?" Zhou Yu chased after her, baring her teeth and brandishing her claws, but was stopped by Lü Fu: "Miss, it's getting late. If you don't go back to the manor soon, the Madam will make you kneel in the ancestral hall."
"I can't swallow this insult. They ate my fish and then called me a pig-headed fool, even falsely accusing me of always playing pranks on people."
"Miss, don't be angry, let's go back to the manor first!" Green Fu kept comforting her, and Zhou Yu walked quickly with her hands on her hips, puffing out her cheeks.
Once inside the carriage, Zhou Yu, still unwilling to give up, asked Lü Fu, "If I want something, I'll just snatch it. I never use underhanded tricks to tease people. Tell me, have I ever teased anyone before?"
“This…” Lu Fu lowered her eyes, then looked up at Zhou Yu again, hesitating to speak.
"Stop beating around the bush, just say what you have to say!"
"Does Miss still remember the palace banquet eight years ago?"
"A palace banquet?" Zhou Yu's face fell. The palace banquet eight years ago was something she would never forget.
That year, she got into trouble. She and the Crown Prince played a trick on the Empress's nephew by secretly putting bedbugs in his lotus seed soup. They told him that he had eaten the bugs, but the Empress's nephew vomited it all up.
Zhou Yu was a little scared at the time, and quickly took out a handkerchief to wipe the Empress's nephew's mouth. However, Zhou Yu forgot that the handkerchief had been used to wipe his nose, which caused the Empress's nephew to vomit again and eventually faint.
Consort Yue was reprimanded and was still furious. She ordered her father to give her a severe beating.
From then on, Consort Yue forbade her from entering the palace, and Zhou Wan attended all the palace banquets and flower-viewing parties, big and small.
Could it be that the young man in white is the Empress's nephew, a member of the Bai family of Yuzhou?
If that's true, then it's understandable why the young man in white hated her.
"Sigh!" Zhou Yu sighed, closed his eyes, leaned against the carriage, and didn't want to say anything.
She was truly wronged back then. It was Zhou Wan's idea to put insects in the lotus seed soup, and the Crown Prince had someone do it.
The crown prince couldn't stand his mother always praising her nephew, so he became jealous.
In an attempt to curry favor with the Crown Prince, Zhou Wan came up with the terrible idea of releasing insects.
At the time, Zhou Yu was young and foolish, so someone had to be the fool to say something that might offend people.
And Zhou Yu is that fool!
From then on, Zhou Yu never attended any palace banquets, and Zhou Wan became the rightful eldest daughter of the Zhou family. Everyone in the capital knew that the eldest daughter of the Zhou family was beautiful, kind-hearted, gentle, and dignified. Mentioning the third young lady was simply unbearable, a stark contrast to Zhou Wan.
Consort Yue found her annoying, and as a result, her concubine was constantly suppressed by the First Madam. If it weren't for her maternal grandfather's wealth, she would probably have disappeared from the Zhou family, a place known for its ruthless and heartless nature.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com