Chapter 63 His Love 3
◎Don’t worry about those who are asking for trouble. ◎
Nan Qing was very sure that this branch was the tree on the cliff, and the thrush's nest was at the root of the branch. There was a broken branch at the top of the tree branch. She remembered the shape very clearly, which was the same shape embroidered on the lantern.
This is such a pleasant surprise!
Yan Yue decided to buy the lantern and give it to Shi Ting as a gift, thus fulfilling Zhang Jicun's wish.
The clerk brought the owner of the lantern embroidery and introduced her, "Miss Shi, this is the girl who wants to buy your eyebrow lantern."
Miss Shi?
Yan Yue looked at the graceful lady in front of her, looking surprised: "You are, Shi Ting?"
The moment Shi Ting heard her name, her lotus-like smile instantly collapsed. She asked defensively and coldly, "Did Zhang Jicun ask you to come?" After asking, she didn't wait for Yan Yue to reply, and drove him away directly, "I won't sell it to him no matter how much money you pay! Please go back!"
Chu Zhi was furious: "How can you be so cold-blooded! Isn't what he has done for you enough?"
Shi Ting's eyes instantly turned red, and the maid beside her angrily confronted Chu Zhi: "Who cares about him doing this? My girl's embroidery is well-known in Linjiang City. Does he need to pretend to be a good person?"
Chu Zhi refused to give in: "Who is pretending to be a good person? We have good intentions..."
Shi Ting's maid exposed directly: "You are so kind! It was you who came to my house yesterday to ruin my daughter's reputation. I had the face to not kick you out, and you even dared to chase you to the embroidery building..."
There were already many people at the Lantern Festival, and the quarrel between the two attracted everyone's attention, and they all stretched their necks to watch the fun. Shi Ting was filled with shame and anger, and was about to cry. She covered her tears with a handkerchief and turned around to leave.
"Zhang Jicun won't bother you again!"
The gentle voice stopped Shi Ting in her tracks. She turned back in surprise, with sparkling water droplets still hanging on her eyelashes.
The girl who was speaking had a complexion as white as the new snow on the branches, with a hint of coldness. At this moment, she tilted her head and smiled at her, revealing a hint of warmth. "I promise!"
Yan Yue felt that her smile was friendly enough, but Shi Ting's tears became even more violent, and she cried so hard that she couldn't speak!
She whispered to Bai Chen: "Is my smile that ugly?"
Bai Chen's mouth twitched slightly, but he still said sarcastically: "It's good that you have some idea in your mind!"
Although she was crying, Shi Ting still led the group to the back hall and signaled the maid to pour water for everyone.
Chu Zhi was so scared by the other person crying like that that she dared not say anything, and she didn't even dare to glare back at the maid who rolled her eyes at her.
"My daughter prepared three embroidery works, and two of them have been reserved at high prices! This thrush lantern is my daughter's favorite. She spent more than three months embroidering it. It's not that no one likes it, but my daughter wants to meet someone who is compatible with her! Zhang Jicun's move makes it seem like we can't sell it and we just need him to show his support!"
The maid handed a handkerchief to Shi Ting, whose crying was gradually subsiding, while scolding Zhang Jicun and still had a bad look on her face towards the others.
Yan Yue explained, "You two girls have misunderstood. It was not Zhang Jicun who asked us to help him buy the lantern. Before Miss Shi showed up, I didn't know that this lantern was embroidered by Miss Shi."
The maid was stunned, and then questioned: "How is it possible? Then what about you yesterday..."
Yan Yue said, "We do know Zhang Jicun, and we have heard rumors that he is deeply in love with Miss Shi, but we only came here to ask for a lantern. Please forgive us for offending Miss Shi without understanding the situation."
Chu Zhi wanted to interrupt, but was stopped by Nan Qing, who shook her head, so she had to shut up in disappointment.
The maidservant's hostility disappeared instantly and she started to pour out her grievances.
"You can't be blamed for this. If you want to blame someone, blame that Zhang Jicun. He has caused my daughter so much trouble! If he hadn't kept pestering her, my daughter wouldn't be in this state now, not even daring to leave the house!"
The facts narrated by the maid of the Shi family were completely different from what the neighbors of the Shi family said, and even more opposite to what Zhang Jicun said!
The two of them did meet by chance on a cruise. Zhang Jicun seemed polite and courteous, so Shi Ting interacted with him for a while.
He was very good at dealing with people and saying flattering things. He quickly became friends with the people around Shi Ting and found out her preferences.
Shi Ting liked flowers, so he sent her a bouquet every day, sometimes one, sometimes four or five.
Shi Ting was very happy to receive the flowers at first, but one day she accidentally discovered that there was a rare and precious peony among the flowers Zhang Jicun sent. She asked Zhang Jicun about the origin of the flower, and Zhang Jicun vaguely said that he picked it from the wilderness.
Shi Ting didn't believe it and insisted on going to see where it was picked. Zhang Jicun couldn't persuade her and had to confess that it was his mother who worked for a wealthy family and secretly gave it to him.
The two had a big fight.
Shi Ting felt that he was not as honest as he seemed, and he even persuaded his mother to steal precious flowers and plants from the master's house for him. He thought that he had a problem with his character. Zhang Jicun said that the mother was willing to do things for her son, and thought that picking a few flowers was nothing, he just wanted to make Shi Ting happy.
Since they were not on the same page, Shi Ting stopped paying attention to Zhang Jicun. However, her nightmare began from then on.
Zhang Jicun continued to send flowers to Shi Ting, and did so in a big way, as if he wanted everyone to see and know his infatuation.
He read aloud the love poem he wrote to Shi Ting under the embroidery building under the scorching sun of the dog days of summer. He only stopped when Shi Ting's maid poured a basin of ink on his head.
He released hundreds of river lanterns, each with her name written on it, causing other people's river lanterns to be squeezed into the water, but they all accused her of acting ostentatiously. Shi Ting had to spend money to hire someone to knock all the lights into the water to declare that this was not what she wanted.
He also stole the wooden sign of the opera house and gave it to Shi Ting, which almost made it impossible for the famous actor to sell his works. If she hadn't quickly hired a carriage to send the wooden sign back, fortunately the actor was a reasonable person. After listening to her explanation and her sincere apology, he finally calmed down.
The maid placed the teacup heavily on the table. "He is good at dealing with people. He makes his deeds known to everyone, but never mentions how much trouble he brings! My girl's friends and even the neighbors all say that he is deeply in love with her, as if it would be a huge loss for my girl if she didn't choose him!"
Such a result made Chu Zhi dumbfounded, "Well, have you explained it to him clearly?"
The maid was filled with grief and indignation and said, "I have said it dozens of times! But he is like a madman, saying that my girl will know how good he is sooner or later, saying that he is the person who loves my girl the most in the world, and that only he can make my girl happy! Bah!"
Chu Zhi murmured to himself: "How could this be?"
The maid continued, "My master originally thought that it was not easy for him to live with his widowed mother, and he did not want to break up with her and embarrass everyone. But who would have thought that this gave him the opportunity to spread the news that he and our girl were in love, and to show how deep his love was!"
"Although our Shi family is not a wealthy family, we don't need Zhang Jicun to walk through the heavy snow and travel back and forth for an hour to buy a few meat buns! And he even keeps them warm in his arms. Who wants to smell his sweat?"
"If my daughter wants to eat mandarin fish, the master should have told the familiar fisherman in advance. How can he let my daughter eat it? He caught the two fish, and my daughter didn't even touch them, but everyone still put this hat on her head and mocked us for being ungrateful!"
The maid cursed at her heart's content in one breath, and Yan Yue fell silent as a cicada, without a trace of her earlier momentum left.
Shi Ting, who had been silent, finally spoke: "I was a bit abrupt in my previous words, I hope you won't blame me. At the end of last year, I went to the suburbs to collect folk songs and encountered a pair of thrush birds, so I embroidered them. This embroidery was seen by Zhang Jicun, and he once said that he would give me a surprise. I have been uneasy until now, and I thought you were sent by him..."
"I see."
Yan Yue understood very well: "The girl lives in fear all day long, so it's inevitable that she will be afraid of everything."
Shi Ting's eyes turned red again. "Everyone said that I didn't know how to appreciate the good things I had, and that I was too ambitious and didn't know how to cherish things. Even my parents were shaken and advised me to consider Zhang Jicun. But I... I..."
"You're not wrong, you just don't like him."
Yan Yue's voice was soft and gentle, carrying a reassuring power.
Shi Ting's tears surged again. She took the new handkerchief handed over by the maid and wiped away her tears. She choked and said, "Not only do I dislike him! Now, I tremble just by hearing his name. I even thought about dying to get rid of him..."
Yan Yue comforted him, "He's dead. So you can rest assured that he won't disturb your life anymore."
Shi Tingru was struck by thunder and was so shocked that she couldn't even cry, but Yan Yue could see clearly that her shock was mixed with a sense of relief.
"How did he die?" When the maid heard that Zhang Jicun was dead, her spirit instantly weakened. Recalling what she had just said, was she too disrespectful to the deceased?
Yan Yue smiled slightly: "He asked for his own death, don't worry about it."
Chu Zhi glanced at Yan Yue, swallowed the words that were about to come up, and dared not say a word.
Shi Ting gave the eyebrow lantern to Yan Yue, and took her maid to escort them out of the embroidery building.
As the sky gradually darkened, the flame in the lantern flickered, as if the thrush had come to life. Shi Ting hesitated to speak, but finally couldn't help asking: "Miss Yue, I heard that if a person has unfulfilled wishes after death, he will turn into a ghost and wander around the world..."
Yan Yue asked back: "It is rumored that I can communicate with ghosts and gods and ward off evil spirits. Do you believe it?"
Shi Ting hesitated for a moment and said, "The rumors are totally unfounded and unreliable."
Yan Yue smiled and said, "You can believe this rumor."
"Ah?" Shi Ting was stunned, not knowing how to react.
Yan Yue held up the lantern and said, "Since I have accepted your reward, I will naturally do things for you. Don't worry, I promise you with the reputation of Ban Lan Ming Yue that Zhang Jicun will never bother you again."
Shi Ting suddenly realized that the person in front of her was truly the legendary master! With tears in his eyes, he bowed solemnly: "Thank you, young lady!"
After they were far away from the embroidery building, Chu Zhi asked in a low voice, "Why didn't the boss tell Miss Shi that Zhang Jicun fell to his death while trying to catch a thrush?"
Yan Yue pointed at the lantern and said, "Shi Ting had seen this pair of thrushes before, and she must have been there many times to be able to embroider these four different poses. If she wanted to catch them, she would have done so long ago. How could she have given Zhang Jicun the chance to go there again?"
Bai Chen curled his lips and said, "You don't want her to bear the burden of Zhang Jicun's death because of her."
Yan Yue said as a matter of course: "Since it was not Shi Ting's wish, why should she bear the responsibility? It was Zhang Jicun who was self-righteous and brought about his own death. Do you still want others to be grateful to him?"
Nan Qing asked: "Zhang Jicun is still waiting at home, how are you going to deal with it?"
Yan Yue snorted proudly: "He's just a little devil. If you can't reason with him, just beat him out!"
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