Dashamao Hutong is the residence of Grand Secretary Zhang.

Today is Mid-Autumn Festival and the whole family is reunited. It is a rare opportunity for Zhang Juzheng to go home early to spend a good holiday with his wife and children.

Every time he saw his six sons gathered together, he felt very satisfied.

The people in our Zhang family are very capable and powerful!

It’s not that he favors boys over girls and ignores the fact that his daughter is not present, but the unmarried girls don’t have to be restrained by their elders tonight.

Although Xiaojing didn't make any plans to go shopping with anyone, she didn't want to give up her freedom which only came once a year, so she ate some dinner and left.

After returning to the house, I found myself bored.

Normally she is inseparable from Li Mingyue, but in the past two months, Xiao Zhuzi has subconsciously not wanted to meet with her best friend.

The cause was the painting of "Beautiful Bamboos and Rocks" on the wall.

She felt at that time that she might never see Master Zhao again in this life.

This was not an exaggeration common among young girls... Zhao Hao followed Zhao Zhuangyuan out of the capital, and would be gone for at least three to five years, by which time she would most likely have been married.

How could I possibly sit in the school surrounded by lush bamboos and listen to Master Zhao talk about science with my chin resting on my back as I did before?

It was even more impossible for him to follow his brothers to play with him, or to talk about him with Li Mingyue.

So at the moment of parting, Zhang Xiaojing, on impulse, asked Zhao Hao to write a poem on her painting.

I wanted to make a memorial to commemorate my girlish love that ended before it even began. But who knew that Mr. Zhao's poem had a hook!

'The light smoke and ancient ink describe half of this gentleman's face. No need to report safety, the stone fairy Xiang Fei has seen it.'

These four plain lines of poetry made her obsessed. She read them again and again, savored them again and again, and even composed a song.

How can this be considered a dream? It's almost like a demon!

Mr. Zhao is Mingyue's sweetheart, and I am just his student and admirer.

But what is this feeling of sorry for Mingyue?

She took the painting down from the wall and put it in a box, but she could not erase the poem from her heart...

At this time, the sounds of parents and brothers talking and laughing could be heard faintly from the front hall, but Zhang Xiaojing felt lonely and thought, let "Shixian" accompany "Xiangfei" to celebrate the festival.

She took out the painting from Xiu Jin's painting box and hung it on the wall again.

Looking at the painting and the poem above, Xiao Zhuzi suddenly felt his loneliness gone, and his heart was filled with peace and joy.

He lit a censer of incense, faced the painting in the moonlight, and gently stroked the strings of the zither.

She was imagining the beautiful scene of Shixian and Xiangfei meeting in the bamboo forest when suddenly the door was pushed open.

“Xiaojing Xiaojing, something terrible has happened!” The energetic girl Li Mingyue rushed in, holding up the hem of her skirt.

"Ah!" Zhang Xiaojing was so frightened that she almost knocked over the piano stand.

After seeing clearly that it was Li Mingyue, she stood up quickly without thinking and walked towards him quickly.

The guilty girl was afraid that the young county lady would see the painting on the wall.

It's really hard to explain.

In fact, she was overthinking it. Now the young county lady's mind was filled with what was written in the letter, and she couldn't see anything else.

"I'm telling you, Xiaojing!" Li Mingyue was about to go into the house.

"I'm just going to the night market," Zhang Xiaojing pulled her out. "We can talk while we go shopping."

"Wait for me to drink some water first. I ran here in one breath." Li Mingyue reached for the teapot on the table.

"I'll treat you to some osmanthus drink. It's sold at the entrance of the alley. I guarantee you'll want more after you've had it..." Zhang Xiaojing didn't allow her to explain. She dragged her out, hooked her feet, and closed the door.

~~

"Pah, what's that smell..."

When Li Mingyue finally drank the sweet-scented osmanthus drink that Xiao Zhuzi praised so highly, she felt extremely disappointed. "Why does it still taste like tangerine peel?"

"..." Zhang Xiaojing thought, how would I know? This is my first time drinking it. And I hate tangerine peel the most...

But since I said it tastes good, I have to drink it even with tears in my eyes and pretend that I really like it.

"It's okay, cough cough, I just love this flavor, cough cough cough..."

"Don't you hate tangerine peel the most?"

"Who knows?" Zhang Xiaojing used a straw to take a sip of the sweet-scented osmanthus drink. The intoxicating taste of tangerine peel almost made her cry. She had to force a smile and said, "People's tastes change."

"Well, I think you've become weird recently." The little county lady held the bamboo cup of drink and tilted her head to look at the little bamboo with a wrinkled face.

"Really? No?" Zhang Xiaojing denied it in a panic.

"Tell me, how long has it been since you came to play with me?" Li Mingyue stretched out her finger angrily and lifted up Zhang Xiaojing's white and soft chin, which looked like a peeled egg.

"I always get embarrassed when I come to you."

Faced with her best friend's questioning, Zhang Xiaojing's eyes flashed with panic and she didn't dare to look her in the eye.

"Intermediate Algebra is too difficult. I can't do it, so I don't have the energy to play..."

"Oh, I see." Li Mingyue immediately agreed and said, "That's right, I was also feeling sleepy while reading, and I haven't even turned a few pages yet."

Actually, it’s a bit unfair to say this, as she hasn’t even learned much of elementary algebra.

Then she sighed depressedly and said, "Xiao Jing, how can I be a female scientist if I am so stupid?"

"You're not stupid at all." Zhang Xiaojing rolled her eyes at her, thinking, if you were stupid, how could you keep Young Master Zhao under such close watch that I wouldn't even have the chance to talk to him alone?

Later, because of the final exams, the young county lady was too scared to come to her house, so she took advantage of the opportunity to hand in the paper early and grab some time to commit the case that made her feel guilty until now.

~~

As the two girls were talking, they came to the brightly lit night market street. Li Mingyue suddenly remembered why she was looking for her, and she chirped, "It's all because of your sweet-scented osmanthus drink. It was so unpalatable that I forgot what I was doing."

"What exactly happened?" Zhang Xiaojing finally calmed down and faced Li Mingyue.

"According to the report from my spy next to Brother Zhao," Li Mingyue looked around and whispered as if it was a confidential matter, "There is a woman named Jiang Xueying who has been eyeing Brother Zhao covetously recently. She is salivating over his desire, like a toad wanting to eat swan meat."

"Stop using idioms inaccurately." Zhang Xiaojing said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry: "Is she a female bandit or a female queen?"

"Anyway, it's almost the same!" Li Mingyue puffed her cheeks and said angrily, "Can anyone who dares to take advantage of Brother Zhao be a good person?"

"You can't say that." Zhang Xiaojing felt her face burning. "The criteria for judging good and bad should be more objective."

"I don't care, this is how I divide it." Li Mingyue shook her pink fist, as if she was going to punch Kunshan and beat Miss Jiang into a pulp.

"What's her family background like? How did she get to know Brother Zhao...your Brother Zhao?" Zhang Xiaojing began to worry about her best friend.

"It seems that she is an old friend of my brother Zhao's family." Li Mingyue held her cheek with her fingers and said, "Her grandmother is my brother Zhao's godmother."

"Then you count too." Zhang Xiaojing stretched out her index fingers and said, "Your Highness is also Brother Zhao's godmother."

One to one.

ps. I will continue writing the third chapter. Please give me a monthly ticket~