Chapter 19 Sending Breakfast

 

After Lu Shi Qing returned to the mansion, he ordered Cao An to secretly send a letter to Zheng Zhuo, explaining what happened today, and because he borrowed his name, let him not expose the matter in front of the Yuan family another day.

Cao An was much more stable than Zhao Shu. Most of Lu Shi Qing’s private communication were through by him.

After finishing his work, he reported back: “Master, His Highness sent someone to bring a message saying that Shaohe Sate Princess have been making small moves recently. Please pay attention.”

“I know.” Lu Shi Qing said lightly, “Today’s two spies are hers.”

“Could it be that she knows about your personal relationship with His Highness?”

Lu Shi Qing shook his head: “This woman’s political sense is not very sharp, and sending spies is just a trivial matter, so there’s no need to worry about it. However, she can speak in front of the empress, and the empress is used to blow the pillow wind with His Highness, which should make us vigilant.”

Cao An thought to himself, the so-called trivial matter referred to the love affairs between men and women. It seemed Shaohe State Princess learned the news of Lancang County Princess leaving the capital from somewhere, so came to check on Master’s reaction. However, the fact that Master sent the soup had already made this noble princess feel very embarrassed, she would not dare to act clever in a short while.

“How does Master think about Lancang County Princess’s political sense? This servant thinks that she approached you with other intentions, not really coveting your…” He coughed, “it’s like deliberately currying favor with you for some purpose.”

Lu Shi Qing knew that the word he missed was “beauty”. He nodded, indicating that he was right.

The more they got along, the more he couldn’t underestimate Yuan Ci Xian, especially today in Yuan Mansion. After hearing her strategy that coincide with him, he subconsciously pondered and guessed on her actions.

It was hard for him to believe that her approach was simple, but it was also unpredictable. What exactly was she planning?

After all, she didn’t seem to be aware of his secret plan with Zheng Zhuo.

Cao An asked again: “Now that His Majesty has already spoken, how does Master plan to deal with this marriage that is likely to fall on your head?”

Lu Shi Qing frowned: “I have delayed this matter until the end of the year. Since it’s impossible to send her back to Yaozhou right now, let’s take one step at a time and see what she really wants.”

“This servant thinks that in fact, Master doesn’t need to hide from County Princess, since you can’t see through her, why don’t you take a closer look?”

Lu Shi Qing bowed his head to study the chess record and didn’t comment.

…

Yuan Ci Xian rested for a day, then the next day asked the kitchen to make some breakfast, prepared a few bottles of wound medicine, and walked out of the courtyard vigorously.

She was destined not to return to Yaozhou. His Majesty even resorted to such unreasonable tricks, which mean he made up his mind to keep her. If she insisted to go south, firstly, she might be blocked again, and secondly, it might arouse his suspicion.

She didn’t have any complaints about this, after all, leaving was fine and staying was also fine. It’s just that if she knew this earlier, she wouldn’t confide the dream to Yuan Yu. Looking at her brother’s rude attitude towards Xu Shan, she knew that he couldn’t hold his breath, afraid from now on, the Sixth Prince’s matter would have to be handled by her.

When she was walking halfway, she happened to run into Yuan Yu who was up for morning shooting practice, and was stopped by him: “Where are you going this early in the morning?”

“I’m going to atone for brother’s sins.”

“You’re going to look at Lu Zishu’s injury, right?” Seeing her nodding, Yuan Yu frowned, “Come here, brother will tell you something.”

Now that he knew the real purpose of his sister’s approaching Lu Shi Qing, he initially disapproved, howling and crying, saying that the Yuan family was in trouble but had to rely on her selling her body to others. As a brother, he was completely useless, ashamed of his father and mother, ashamed of his ancestors…

As a result, he howled for a long time, until Yuan Ci Xian blocked him by saying, “Assistant Minister Lu is so good-looking, I don’t suffer any loss”.

When Yuan Ci Xian came over, Yuan Yu instructed: “Listen to brother analyze the current situation with you. They said that people are not grass and treesit means people have thought and feelings, so how can one have no feelings. In my opinion, blocking the whip that almost got you last time must be giving Lu Zishu a lot of shock. He works with His Majesty and knows His Majesty’s mind best, he told the story about wolves and tigers, and persuaded brother to send you back to Yaozhou. Although he made it clear that he doesn’t want to marry you, he also doesn’t want you to be trapped in a prison. So don’t be discouraged.”

Yuan Ci Xian had heard him tell the story yesterday, and when he mentioned the whip, she still had lingering fears. She thought for a while and said, “What brother said is reasonable.”

“But don’t be happy too soon. This man, ‘moved’ and ‘interested’ are not the same, ‘for your own good’ and ‘for you’ are also different.”

“Why is it different?”

Yuan Yu cleared his throat, finally had the opportunities to show off his knowledge, said: “To put it simply, persuading you to go back to Yaozhou, this is because he was ‘moved’, and did it ‘for your own good’. But if he’s willing to keep you in the capital and protect you, it means he’s ‘interested’, and do it ‘for you’.”

Yuan Ci Xian suddenly realized, and let out a long “ah”.

“Brother dares to guarantee that Lu Zishu doesn’t hate you as much as he did at the beginning, or just started to have a good impression of you. But to say that he’s willing to protect you, or even protect our Yuan family, I’m afraid it’s still a long way off. You have to keep adding more firewood.”

Yuan Ci Xian pointed to the medicine box and food box in the hands of the maid behind her: “I’m about to add it.”

Yuan Yu scowled: “But don’t add too much! If like last time, a single man and a single woman get together in the middle of the night… Yuan Ci Xian, I will break your leg!”

She thought to herself that it was not a single man and a single woman, there was also Xiao Hei, but she didn’t quibble: “I know. Don’t worry brother, I definitely won’t let myself suffer!”

Yuan Yu stopped acting like a mother-in-law, and waved her to go.

…

When Yuan Ci Xian arrived at the Lu Mansion in Yongxing Lane, she handed over a name card as a sign of formality. When the servant saw it, he hurriedly welcomed her in.

Lu Mansion and Yuan Mansion occupied about the same size area, but from the look of it, the former was more spacious. Probably because of the simple layout, less complicated decorations, and no more than a few potted flowers and trees.

Yuan Ci Xian felt this makes sense. After all, how could Lu Shi Qing accept something like a rockery with jagged rocks? Even the flowers and trees in the mansion had been cut into rounded and neat appearance, symmetrical left and right, and this attention to detail was completely lack of charm.

The first time coming to the door, she had to be more reserved, so she didn’t look around much because of etiquette. When she heard that Lu Shi Qing was in the study, she also didn’t insist to go in, but waited obediently in the main hall.

Lu Shi Qing heard that Lancang County Princess was visiting, and even though he wanted to retreat, but Xian shi went to the Daci’en Temple in Jinchangfang early in the morning, so he had to bite the bullet and go to the main hall. Before he could enter, he heard a pretty voice say: “This is the wonton that I asked Xiao Ji’s master to pack up in the morning. You take it down and put it in the pot when the old lady returns…”

She seemed to order the servants of his family very easily. Lu Shi Qing’s face was gloomy, and when he stepped through the door, his steps froze.

The woman in the main seat was wearing a lotus root-colored jacket, and a goose-yellow long skirt at the bottom. The two colors that seem to be inharmonious collided together, but on her body it unexpectedly made people close their eyes. The jacket she was wearing was a fashionable half-arm style, with loose cuffs, revealing a section of jade arm, and her porcelain-like skin shone brightly in the whole room.

After Yuan Ci Xian gave orders to his servant, she saw him standing at the door, waved at him with a smile: “Good morning, Assistant Minister Lu.”

With this wave of her hand, the plain room brightened even more.

He stepped forward and said: “Lu has seen County Princess, didn’t know County Princess has come to grace Lu’s humble home, so Lu did not come to welcomed in person.”

Yuan Ci Xian took his pleasantries seriously: “Assistant Minister Lu should really come to welcome me. Your house is too big, I hurt my leg yesterday, and have to limped here for half a day.”

Lu Shi Qing was silent. She really knew how to do the whole set of acting, she wanted to cheat Emperor Huining, even him also was cheated.

It was at this moment of silence that Lu Shuang Yu, who had been summoned to meet the guest, arrived. The little girl wore a lilac-colored wide skirt, came over to salute Yuan Ci Xian, and then retreated behind her elder brother.

The fourteen-year-old young lady couldn’t hide what was on her mind, Yuan Ci Xian could see that she looked listless, very reluctant, maybe still brooding about the Lu Bridge incident back then.

But she didn’t care too much, and continued to talk to Lu Shi Qing: “Assistant Minister Lu, we’re also friends who went through life and death together, why don’t you ask, how did I hurt my leg?”

Who went through life and death with her? Lu Shi Qing asked patiently: “May I ask how did County Princess hurt her leg?”

“Yesterday I wanted to go back to Yaozhou, but I ran into mountain bandits on the way, and I accidentally got hurt during the fight.”

This was quite true. Yesterday that group of people came to “rob money” and had a rough fight with her entourage. She was guarded by Shi Cui and Jian Zhi to retreat towards the capital. At first, she really thought they were mountain bandit, but after seeing the route they were chasing, she became suspicious.

Taking advantage of the chaos, she observed the group’s gestures of raising their knives and the position and strength of lowering their knives, and concluded that they had received special and unified training, and they were by no means came from the wilderness. In the end, many suspicious points were connected together, and she guessed it was the work of Emperor Huining, so she pretended to be panicked and threw herself into the mud on the side of the road.

After Yuan Ci Xian finished answering, seeing that the brother and sister were still stuck in place, she pointed to the chairs and stools on the side: “Come on sit.” When they sat down, she ordered Shi Cui, “Bring the breakfast to Assistant Minister Lu.”

She travelled all this way just to bring him breakfast?

Lu Shi Qing was slightly taken aback, and forgot to say that he had already eaten.

Shi Cui went forward with a double-layers food box.

Yuan Ci Xian followed, “I personally make this…” She stopped abruptly when she said this.

Hey, it’s not good, she forgot what the servant made!

Jian Zhi who stood beside her panicked, then reminded in a low voice: “Lotus porridge.”

She quickly picked it up, and smiled awkwardly: “… Lotus porridge. Try it.”

Lu Shi Qing’s face darkened instantly. It’s so obvious, did she think he’s deaf?

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TN: I can’t with this girl 🤣🤣🤣