It's not exactly soft; it's a bit rough to the touch.
Meng Qingluan didn't realize that the waiter had replaced her pastries with chicken feet.
Meng Qingluan touched her hands and didn't find any oil on them. She was just about to grab them to take a look.
Suddenly, a familiar voice came from beside me.
"Xiangxiang, are you now so openly taking advantage of me?"
"..."?
Startled, Meng Qingluan's hand trembled, and she threw the thing in her hand away, turning her head away in terror.
Sure enough, it was that bastard Li Zhanlan again!
Meng Qingluan wanted to give him a good scolding, but because they were in public, she swallowed the profanities that were on the tip of her tongue.
"Are you... are you crazy? Why are you putting your hands on my desk?"
"Your table? Isn't this the one we both share?"
Li Zhanlan raised an eyebrow and placed the admission card on the table. The seat number on it was the same as the one next to her.
Meng Qingluan: "..."
“But it’s you,” Li Zhanlan persisted, circling his finger in the air toward Meng Qingluan’s face, “you naughty Xiangxiang, you actually touched my hand in public.”
Meng Qingluan gritted her teeth, "I secretly touched your hand?"
"uh-huh!"
"You were the one who eagerly put your hand in mine."
Li Zhanlan lazily raised his eyebrows. "My hand was right here, and you touched it. How can you blame me?"
Meng Qingluan said matter-of-factly, "I'll touch you, you can dodge me. Not only do you not dodge, but you're also trying to get closer to me. Are you trying to throw yourself into my arms?"
The smile in Li Zhanlan's eyes deepened.
"Would you throw yourself into my arms? I've been thinking about that, but I don't know if you'd be willing to accept it."
Meng Qingluan remained calm and picked up a crumb of pastry with her fingers, then smeared it on his sleeve.
“I don’t do the castration work; you have to find a pig castrator.”
Li Zhanlan: "..."
Li Zhanlan's smile froze, and he looked at the pastry crumbs on his sleeve with a grim expression, his brows furrowed tightly.
Meng Qingluan naturally noticed that his face was pale and he was in a bad mood.
She was overjoyed. If this could make Li Zhanlan happy, she wouldn't have done it.
She had long noticed that Li Zhanlan had a bit of a cleanliness obsession; the little pig he raised at home was always washed until it was plump and pink, and even the pig hair on its body showed signs of being trimmed.
With a gong and drum sound on stage, the play officially began after the announcement of the program.
This time it's quite different from the usual plays.
This scene tells the story of a courtesan from Yangzhou who catches the eye of a marquis, who forcibly buys her out and locks her in his mansion. Not long after, she gives birth to a baby boy. The courtesan dies shortly after giving birth, in the very year the marquis loved her most.
Therefore, the marquis harbored resentment towards his own flesh and blood, even though he was a courtesan and his own flesh and blood.
The baby boy was raised by other concubines, and his life was naturally difficult. The dark environment he grew up in gradually distorted his personality.
The first scene ends here, and the next scene begins.
"That's all?" Meng Qingluan asked in confusion.
Not only Meng Qingluan, but the other audience members behind her were also dissatisfied, their appetites whetted by this first scene.
Meng Qingluan found it both infuriating and amusing. It seemed that, from ancient times to the present, these editors had all learned how to whet the audience's appetite.
Li Zhanlan, who had been sitting silently watching the show, suddenly spoke up.
"What do you think will happen to that baby boy?"
Meng Qingluan turned to look at him and saw that Li Zhanlan was still looking straight ahead, so he probably wasn't asking her.
"..."
After confirming that the question wasn't directed at her, Meng Qingluan leaned back in her chair to watch the next scene.
"Why aren't you saying anything?" Li Zhanlan poked her shoulder.
"Huh?" Meng Qingluan pointed at herself. "You're asking me?"
Li Zhanlan was so angry at her incredibly stupid appearance that he almost laughed, and asked her with a forced smile.
"Besides you and me, who else do you know here?"
Meng Qingluan pointed to the two maids sitting behind her.
"Dollar, British pound."
Li Zhanlan: "..."
Is this woman out of her mind?
“Okay,” Li Zhanlan said, taking a step back and seeing the bigger picture. “Now that you know me, can you answer my question from earlier, Xiangxiang?”
Meng Qingluan blinked, her face earnest.
"Is there even a question? He's the protagonist of this drama, and he'll definitely succeed in getting revenge on everyone who bullied him."
Li Zhanlan: "He is only the protagonist in this scene, but that doesn't mean he will be the protagonist in other scenes."
Meng Qingluan replied, "I don't know, you should ask the screenwriter."
Li Zhanlan was taken aback by her nonchalant answer and it took him a while to regain his original voice.
"Do you want to know my secret?" Li Zhanlan asked.
Meng Qingluan: "..."
Has Li Zhanlan lost his mind...?
Isn't it annoying to bother her while she's watching the play?
Meng Qingluan stared intently at the play on stage, then hastily shook her head, "I don't want to."
Li Zhanlan smiled brightly and cheekily moved closer to her again.
"If you answer that you want to hear it, I will deliberately not tell you; if you don't want to hear it, then I will tell you."
?
Meng Qingluan immediately changed her mind: "I want to hear it."
"How could I bear to disappoint my Xiangxiang?" Li Zhanlan said with a righteous expression. "If Xiangxiang wants to hear it, of course I will satisfy her."
Meng Qingluan: "..."
Meng Qingluan immediately raised her hands to cover her ears and shook her head frantically.
I won't listen, I won't listen, you're just spouting nonsense.
Li Zhanlan smiled, not removing her hand, but instead taking the ink-dipped brush that Eleven handed him.
He placed one hand on the paper and quickly wrote large characters with the other.
Seeing that there was no movement beside her for a while, Meng Qingluan breathed a sigh of relief and was about to put her hand down when a note was suddenly placed in front of her.
Her eyes reacted faster than her brain, because there were only a few large characters, which she quickly scanned and took in.
—The baby boy is me.
Meng Qingluan abruptly lowered her hand and turned to look at Li Zhanlan, who was sitting next to her with a smile on his face.
"Did you specially put on this play for me today?"
“No,” Li Zhanlan shook his head in denial, “I put on this play for everyone who comes here to listen to the play every day. Don’t worry, Xiangxiang, I’m not a ghost, I don’t know exactly when you came here.”
Meng Qingluan: "..."
Li Zhanlan seemed to see her confusion and explained with a smile.
“I don’t want their sympathy. I’m not that fragile. I just want them to have something to look forward to, to anticipate how the story will end.”
Meng Qingluan: "Wait until you succeed, and then enjoy the feeling of being the center of attention?"
Li Zhanlan gently shook his head.
"Xiangxiang, you overestimate me. I am the most dissolute of the princes. I have no maternal family support and no outstanding skills. No one will bet on me."
"If you say that, does that mean I can assume you're betting your last chance on me?"
As Li Zhanlan spoke, he pressed half of his face against Meng Qingluan's cheek, a gesture that was exceptionally intimate.
Meng Qingluan stood up abruptly without answering his question.
"Have self-respect."
He left a single sentence behind, then turned and left the theater with the US dollars and British coin.
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