"I have been rewarded by the imperial court this time, and I can live in the capital for a long time in the future. I have an unwelcome request. I would like to ask my cousin to teach me how to cook some of your specialty dishes..."
Before he could finish, Duan Tingxuan said in a rough voice, "Why do you ask your cousin's wife to do this? Is she a cook? That's unreasonable. If you want to eat, take that poisonous snake to Anle Tower. Anle Tower launches a new dish every month. In addition to the hundreds of original dishes, you won't get tired of eating there day after day for ten years. I know you are not short of money. Even if you are short of money, you can go and eat. You don't have to pay for the meal."
Su Donglou shook his head and said, "I know that Anlelou's cooking skills are the same as my cousin's. But I still want to learn it myself. You know, he doesn't care about anything in his life, but he has a special liking for food. I originally promised him that I would take time to come to the capital and ask my cousin to make Buddha Jumps Over the Wall for him. Who knew that the King of Xiangyang was always restless, and after he finally fell, we rushed to the Northern Xiongnu without stopping. This promise has never been fulfilled."
Su Nuannuan smiled and said, "It's not a big deal. I'll make a jar of Buddha Jumps Over the Wall myself..."
"No, cousin, I don't need you now. I want to learn it myself."
Su Donglou said anxiously. Seeing Su Nuannuan looking at him curiously, he scratched his head a little embarrassedly and laughed, "Well... I think, if I learn it myself and make it for him, will he be happier? Will he also believe that I sincerely want to grow old with him?"
"Bah! You have completely disgraced your parents." The young marquis glared at Su Donglou, deeply understanding what it felt like to "pity their misfortune and be angry at their lack of resistance."
"Hey! Don't go too far." Su Nuannuan frowned and looked at her husband: "What's wrong? Didn't Donglou just like a man? I have said before that love has no reason at all. Now that I have suddenly become a man, can you abandon me without hesitation?"
"That's of course impossible." Duan Tingxuan was shocked and quickly expressed his loyalty.
"Isn't that enough?" Su Nuannuan spread her hands. Then she continued earnestly, "If possible, Donglou wouldn't want this to happen, right? But it happened, so what can we do? True love should not be restricted by gender. There is also love across races in the animal world, oh, of course. We humans... don't need to be so extreme."
"What is interracial love?"
The young marquis understood what his wife meant. But Su Donglou didn't understand, so he immediately asked for advice. Then he heard Su Nuannuan say, "Look. Even if Lu Fengyu has turned into a donkey, you still love him to death and insist on hugging him and saying you will grow old together. This is called love beyond race."
Before he finished speaking, the two men began to shake together. Su Nuannuan spread her hands and said, "So. If you think about it this way, isn't it easier to accept that Donglou fell in love with Lu Fengyu than him falling in love with a donkey? So Tingxuan, you don't have to be angry. You should be glad."
The young marquis nodded vigorously, but then he shouted: "What should I be thankful for? Without Lu Fengyu, could Donglou really fall in love with a donkey, a dog, and a duck?"
"oh……"
Su Nuannuan was speechless. But the grandmother was very eloquent when it came to big ideas. Who could compare to this time-traveling woman who had received higher education in the 21st century? She immediately patted her husband on the shoulder and laughed, "Okay, okay, anyway, what I mean is that things have already happened. Since Donglou is unwilling to give up this relationship, we should find a way to help him achieve his wish and make them fall in love with each other, so that he won't bother us every other day, right?"
Su Donglou: ...Is this a consolation?
Perhaps it was because he had become accustomed to obeying his wife's words over the past ten years. In any case, Duan Tingxuan finally agreed to let Su Nuannuan meet Lu Fengyu, so that she could find out his attitude towards this relationship and then formulate countermeasures based on this attitude.
Su Donglou felt relieved and was deeply moved by Su Nuannuan's strong support. He immediately made an appointment to meet and left.
Duan Tingxuan sent him to the gate and suddenly said calmly, "I still remember how cunning Lu Fengyu was. Back then, you said that you would treat him as a plaything and would not be manipulated by him. I believed you. But now you have fallen in love with him. People who have fallen in love with him are not much smarter than monkeys. Do you still dare to say that you can stay rational and not be led by him by the nose?"
"I really don't dare to say this now." Su Donglou sighed, but then he looked directly at Duan Tingxuan and said, "But Tingxuan, after so many years, based on my current feelings for him, if he wants to harm me, do you think I have the ability to fight back? But he didn't, so I dare to tell you that I think he has feelings for me. I just don't know why, he always refuses to admit it, and even now he is getting more depressed day by day. Except when he is eating, he doesn't seem to be in any spirit."
“You.”
What Su Donglou said was not wrong, so Duan Tingxuan didn't know what to say except these two words. Suddenly, he looked around and saw that there was no one around. Then he came closer and said softly: "I don't understand one thing. Now that the King of Xiangyang has fallen, why is Concubine Jing still..."
Duan Tingxuan immediately understood what he meant and said with a bitter smile, "The Queen Mother asked Concubine Jing, and she admitted what happened that year, but she said that she had just entered the palace at that time and was young. She was coerced by Prince Xiangyang and did not dare to resist. Afterwards, she did not dare to commit suicide because Prince Xiangyang threatened her with her parents. The Queen Mother said that she and Concubine Jing have been together for so many years, and she believes her words. Moreover, if the Emperor or the Queen Mother wants to punish Concubine Jing secretly, how can the Fourth Prince not be angry? He ran to question the Crown Prince, what would the Crown Prince say? Therefore, since the matter has been settled now, let this past event be left in the past. After all, compared to these dog-skinned things, the brotherhood between the Crown Prince and the Fourth Prince is the most important."
"I see. This is a happy ending for everyone."
Su Donglou resolved his doubts and felt that the future of himself and his lover was worth looking forward to. Therefore, he was in a good mood and turned away humming a little tune.
"After ten years of absence, you are even more charming than before, but your body and spirit seem to be weaker. Could it be that Donglou's bastard has been asking for pleasure every night, and has exhausted you?"
Seeing Lu Fengyu again, Su Nuannuan had mixed feelings: he was still the same as when they first met ten years ago. He was not like an ordinary person, but still the immortal in the painting. But just as Su Donglou said, his spirit was ten times worse than before.
"You are still as outspoken as you were in Jiangnan. You dare to say such things. Are you also so outspoken in the Marquis' Mansion?"
Lu Fengyu smiled and shook his head. He didn't have any hatred towards Su Nuannuan. On the contrary, he was very happy to see her again. As the two talked about their farewell, Lu Fengyu suddenly changed the subject and asked Su Nuannuan, "Did Su Donglou ask you to come over and make Buddha Jumps Over the Wall for me?"
"yes."
Su Nuannuan smiled and raised her eyebrows, "I am not the same person I used to be. As the wife of a marquis, I have to maintain my status and I don't cook easily. It was Donglou who pestered me. So I will make another Buddha Jumps Over the Wall for you, and make two new dishes so that you can taste my real cooking skills."
Lu Fengyu clapped his hands and smiled, "Excellent, excellent! At least that guy still remembered his promise. This way, even if I die, I can rest in peace."
Su Nuannuan's smile froze on her face, and she looked at Lu Fengyu in disbelief. She cried out, "Dead? What do you mean? Sir... are you suffering from a serious illness? Incurable? Why didn't Donglou tell me this?"
"No, who said I was seriously ill?"
This time it was Lu Fengyu's turn to be surprised. But Su Nuannuan breathed a sigh of relief, frowned and said angrily: "What nonsense are you talking about? I was scared and thought you were seriously ill. Even if there are no taboos, don't talk about words like death and closing your eyes all the time, okay? It's easy to cause misunderstandings."
"It's not a misunderstanding." Lu Fengyu smiled casually: "Don't you understand? This is my last meal before execution, but since Su Donglou has invited you to come and cook this meal, I will die willingly."
"The last meal of the...last meal?"
Su Nuannuan was so scared that she almost jumped up: "Wait... that... Mr. Lu, is there any misunderstanding here? How could it be the last meal before execution? Donglou is extremely worried about your current depressed state. In order to make you open up to him, he even wants to learn cooking from me. You... what did he do to make you have such a terrible idea?"
"In order to make me open up, he actually wants to learn cooking from you?" Lu Fengyu was stunned at first, then he smiled bitterly and shook his head, "He really saw through my weaknesses and knew how to attack my weak spots."
Su Nuannuan rolled her eyes and thought, nonsense, do I need to see your weakness clearly? Wasn't it clear ten years ago?
"Forget it. Since he is so obsessed, why don't I help him? There is no fun living like this anyway."
Lu Fengyu lowered his head and pondered for a while, as if he had finally come to his senses. He shrugged and smiled. Suddenly, he heard Su Nuannuan whisper, "How can you help me? You don't want to... still want to die? Why? Isn't Donglou very good to you? From what he said, I feel like I want to open my heart to you."
"He lied to me, but I didn't expect that he could fool you too." Lu Fengyu laughed, stood up and stretched: "Okay, okay, let's not talk about these troubles. Didn't you say you were going to make Buddha Jumps Over the Wall? I'm really a little impatient. Oh... considering that I'm a dying man, can you allow me to watch?"
Su Nuannuan was really upset by Lu Fengyu's thinking. How cunning and sinister was he in the past? How come his eyes were like cow dung now, and he couldn't see Su Donglou's kindness to him? He was determined to die after eating this meal. What kind of logic was this? No, she couldn't cook this meal without figuring it out.
Hearing Su Nuannuan's request, Lu Fengyu sighed and shook his head, "This matter has nothing to do with you, why do you have to be so serious about it?"
"I'm being serious. I want to try to understand your train of thought. I want to see if you, a former venomous snake, are suffering from delusions or are you showing solid evidence?"
Su Nuannuan shouted heroically, and Lu Fengyu couldn't beat her here. He sighed, and finally had some disappointment on his face. He sat down slowly, lowered his head slightly, and put his hands in his sleeves. The weather during the Mid-Autumn Festival was not cold, but he had been traveling around with Su Donglou for many years, and his spirit was getting worse and worse, so even his body was very fragile and afraid of the cold.
"Madam, do you still remember? What did Su Donglou say in the bamboo building back then?"
Su Nuannuan tried hard to recall, but in the end she couldn't remember: it had been ten years, and if she was still obsessed with Su Donglou's words, she would have been killed by the sourness released by Duan Tingxuan.
"He said that he would play with me for a few years. I am a bad guy anyway, so he doesn't have to bear the guilt. When he has played with me enough, I will probably be half dead. By then, I will die of illness or starvation. It will be my retribution."
"ah!"
Su Nuannuan screamed. When Lu Fengyu said this, she remembered that she seemed to have called Su Donglou a scumbag because of this. She also said that there would be a day when he would regret it, but she didn't expect that this day would actually come.
His eyes widened and he murmured, "But...but that was just a momentary angry remark, right? How could you take it seriously?"
"Of course I took it seriously. I have always kept this sentence in my heart, so at first, I wanted to hold on to this heart. Then one day, he got angry and told me that he would not let me die easily. Even if I had to die, he had to have my heart before he died."
Lu Fengyu said this. He smiled slightly and said softly: "Madam, what else do you not know? Su Donglou is the most competitive person. He promised to bring me to eat the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall that you made. He really brought me here. So he said that he would kill me before winning my heart, and he will keep his word."
At this point, he suddenly smiled proudly and said lightly, "But when I die, you tell him that if I hadn't been discouraged and tired of this game in the past two years, I would never let him see my true feelings. If I had been determined to pretend that I had no feelings for him, I could live to be seventy or eighty years old. But... Alas! Maybe I'm old, past the age of forty, so I softened my heart. I thought he was still in his prime, why should I drag him around for the rest of his life? It's better to fulfill his wish earlier, so that he still has the opportunity to marry and have children. I haven't done many good things in my life, and I should have died long ago. It's because of him that I can survive for so many years. At least he has been good to me all these years..."
Su Nuannuan stared at Lu Fengyu in a daze. She was completely speechless: People in love have a negative IQ. Is this really an iron rule? Even someone as insidious and smart as Boss Lu could not escape the punishment of this iron rule. After falling in love with Su Donglou, he became a suspicious fool.
However, it seems that it’s not entirely Lu Fengyu’s fault.
Lu Fengyu was still mumbling, but his voice was getting lower and lower. At this moment, the door was knocked open with a "bang". Su Nuannuan turned her head and saw Su Donglou standing at the door with an excited look on his face, and behind him stood the young marquis with a confused look on his face.
Now the grandmother had a way to vent her anger. She jumped off the chair and poked Su Donglou's forehead, shouting, "You deserve it! You deserve it! What did I tell you in the beginning? I told you to pretend, and now you've been struck by lightning, right?"
Su Donglou cried out weakly with a sad face, "Cousin, please stop poking me. It hurts. I... I didn't expect that he had such a good memory and would remember that sentence until today? It was clearly said in anger."
"So what if I said it in anger? I've said it before, some words are so hurtful that they can't be said easily. You just don't believe it, so what? You must be regretting it now, right?" Su Nuannuan withdrew her hand and scolded Su Donglou with a righteous look on her face.
"Yes, yes, I regret it so much that it's almost black." Su Donglou sighed, walked up to Lu Fengyu, and said with a bitter face: "Sir, how could you take those angry words seriously? After so many years, don't you know how I feel about you? You...what do you think..."
"Madam, should we avoid it now?" The young marquis, who was annoyed, coughed lightly, but saw his wife waving her hand with interest and said, "Oh, I've been listening for a while, what's the matter, it's not the most disgusting time yet."
Duan Tingxuan: ...
Su Donglou obviously only had Lu Fengyu in his eyes and heart, and he didn't realize that there were two people eavesdropping openly. He grabbed Lu Fengyu's hand and continued affectionately: "I love you so much, and I can't wait to see your spirit decline. I don't say it, but I'm worried. Why do you think I brought you to the capital to eat Buddha Jumps Over the Wall? It's not for a promise, but I know you like to eat, so I hope that after you settle down in the capital, I can let you go to the Marquis' Mansion to eat from time to time, maybe it will cheer you up and live a good life. I have good intentions, but you... Alas! I really want to cut my heart open for you to see, so that you will know that what I said is all from the bottom of my heart..."
"What do you mean? Su Donglou, this guy, really thinks I'm a cook, right?"
Su Nuannuan was so angry that smoke was about to come out of her nostrils. Duan Tingxuan was about to say a few words to comfort her when he suddenly heard the voice of a maid in the courtyard saying, "My Lord, Madam, a housekeeper from your mansion is here to look for you. He said that your third master has returned to Beijing to report on his work today and has already arrived home. In addition, Lord Long and Madam Chu have returned from Luzon and are already guests at the mansion. They are accompanied by the female relatives and the third master. You should go back quickly."
"What? Ting Fang has already arrived? This bastard didn't even send a letter when he returned to Beijing to report on his work. I don't know how he has done as the prefect in the past three years."
"Isn't it? This guy is deliberately trying to give us a surprise, right? And Pingzhang and Chuxiu, they didn't even send a letter in advance. They've all learned bad habits and learned to launch surprise attacks. Humph! This time I have to drag my children over to show them off, give them a warning, and congratulate them on this double happiness."
"Madam, are you sure this show of power is used to celebrate the double happiness?"
“That’s how it works here.”
The voice faded away. Su Donglou and Lu Fengyu in the room opened their mouths and blinked their eyes. After a long while, Su Donglou scratched his head and muttered, "They...are leaving now? Why did I invite them here?"
"Why don't you leave? Do you still expect Madam Su to stay and cook Buddha Jumps Over the Wall for me at this time?"
Lu Fengyu was both angry and amused. The next moment, he was lifted into the air. Su Donglou said firmly, "Yes, it's good that they left. The point now is: we should have a good and practical talk. How can you believe that my feelings for you are true? If being faithful to one person is not enough, I don't mind being exploited by you every day until the end of time."
"I... bastard, let me go, who wants to exploit you every day? Get out of here... ah!"
The voice stopped abruptly, and Duan Tingxuan and Su Nuannuan, who had just walked out of the courtyard, couldn't help but pause.
"Um...I seemed to hear Lu Fengyu's scream."
"Who cares? Let them solve their own problems. Donglou knows about Lu Fengyu's problem now, so he should know how to deal with it. We don't need to worry about it anymore."
Lord Duan obviously still had confidence in his cousin's abilities, and he took Su Nuannuan and left briskly.
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