[No idea when the thieving aggregator bots are going to come for this series – they might have started already, it’s not like I check – but here’s a reminder to read this on chichilations.]
Regarding the issue of whether she should go console her little brother or apologize to Zhongli Luo first, Rong Jiahui gives it a tiny amount of consideration. Her own baby bro she understands the most, as there’s simply nothing that can’t be resolved with a piece of candy, but Zhongli Luo…
She actually doesn’t understand a thing about him. They once shared the same roof for such a long time yet paid no heed to each other, her acting as if she was high above the rest and feeling that the whole world had to bow to her, and she always hated seeing his cold face, thinking that he was nothing more than an irrelevant person who was always getting in the way of her eyesight, and he… also loved to avoid her…
It’s pretty likely that if she hadn’t run into such a bizarre event and knew what Zhongli Luo’s future looks like, she wouldn’t find the mind to care about him like this today, nor be so rough with her precious brother, but… she really doesn’t want to go to the Liu family for a life of neglect. Priceless treasures are easy to get while good husbands are the rarest thing; there’s plenty of pampered princes of similar social status in the capital, so it’s not like she couldn’t find a better household to get married off to if she wanted. It’s just that she feels Zhongli Luo would be even better, the reason for which she can’t say even if she was forced to.
Nevertheless, apart from the addition of her male cousins, she basically has no understanding of anyone else. Both cousins of hers are truly outstanding and she had always looked up to them as older brothers, but they later on fell deeply in love and got happily married… okay, that’s no excuse. The main one is that she doesn’t get on well with her female cousins, especially that Yu Yixiang. Ruling out her male cousins, the only one staying at her home at present is Zhongli Luo, whose future knows no bounds. She has the opportunity to understand him, and grab a nice hold of him…
She is seriously two-faced, huh. Her nose stings, and a strange, indescribable wave of guilt crashed into her, nearly knocking the wind out of her lungs. No matter what Rong Jiaze does or says, they’re siblings, and he’s still her little brother. Would his hatred even survive the night? The day after, would he not be sweetly calling her Big Sis as he did before?
With that thought in mind, she kneaded her aching nose, told the maid to put the watermelon she was afraid of looking at in the food box and pack it with ice, and lifted herself up to catch up to the place in the courtyard where Zhongli Luo had gone to.
The blazing sun beating down on her head, sweat drenched her back even with a maid holding a parasol for her. Where Zhongli Luo was staying was so far away from her… really, this house is big enough to cause sorrow.
Finally arriving at the at the entrance with great difficulty, Shuang Jiang knocks on the door, and boyservant with an unsightly complexion opens it. Seeing the round little face of the maiden under the parasol, he immediately stared. Though he’d never seen Rong Jiahui, he can guess who she is pretty well right now.
He promptly stepped aside and said, “Please come inside, Young Mistress.”
Shuang Jiang found him somewhat familiar, and seeing how the boy looked right now, asked with some curiosity, “I seem to remember you being Afu of Zhao Jinxi’s family. What happened? Who’s made you unhappy?”
The distressed boyservant called Afu hurriedly shook his head. “It’s nothing, nothing at all.”
As Zhao Afu didn’t want to talk about it, Shaung Jiang didn’t bother him with further questioning. They hadn’t even walked a few steps in when they saw a 15-year-old maid carrying tea emerge from the study, dissatisfaction on her face.
Shuang Jiang is good with people and happens to know this maid’s name, so when she sees Rong Jiahui seeming to be somewhat mistrusting, she promptly opens her mouth to call out, “Big sis Chun Tao!”
Chun Tao turned her head to look, then almost dropped the tray in her hands out of fright. Customarily lowering her head, she said, “Young Mistress.”
Rong Jiahui beckoned her over, and Chun Tao obediently came over. “This maidservant is Chun Tao. What is Young Mistress’s command?”
Jiahui looked back at Afu’s bitter eyes, then asked her, “The two of you look worried. What’s going on?”
Chun Tao paused. “That…”
“As I’ve asked you, you can tell the whole truth.”
Seeing that she insisted upon knowing, after Chun Tao silently compared the weight of Rong Jiahui and Zhongli Luo in her mind, she reluctantly gave a detailed explanation.
“We don’t know why, but this Young Master Zhongli never lets anyone serve him. He won’t have a guard at night to keep watch, and won’t let anyone help him dress during the day. If he just wasn’t letting maids wait on him, that would be okay, but won’t even let the young male servants close to him.”
These people are servants, yet they’re being left out to dry every day. They’re not even allowed to comb his hair and they can’t do anything about it, so how could they not be gloomy? If there came a day where the Mister or Missus saw this, they’d think the servants had offended Young Master Zhongli.
At this, Shuang Jiang silently cast them an envious gaze. To be idle every day must be real nice!
Jiahui couldn’t help but snrk upon hearing that, smiling. How come this Zhongli Luo is weirder than what she imagined? She’s heard that he’d had people serving him before his home’s fall, so how come he’s not willing to let these servants near him nowadays? Is it because these are her own home’s servants and he’s not accustomed to them?
Anyways, she only came to make amends and couldn’t care about the rest of it. She lifted the food box, guessing that the ice had probably melted, made three steps into two, stopped in front of the study’s door, and knocked.
Not long after, Zhongli Luo’s voice came from within. “I don’t need anyone to wait on me.
Rong Jiahui pursed her lips into a smile. “That’s… Big brother Zhongli, it’s me, Jiahui.”
“Hm?” Zhongli Luo’s writing hand slowed. Rong Jiahui? Is she trying to find him to continue her frontline a.s.sault on Rong Jiaze’s behalf?
“You can come in,” Zhongli Luo said. Worst comes to worst, his own army has countermeasures.
Jiahui pushed the door open to see him seated in front of a desk, practicing writing.
This person… is really thin, she thusly thinks. She’s currently still small, only coming up to his shoulders, but she kinda gets the feeling that… her waist is thicker than his. She really should eat less. Looking at the other’s pointed chin, it seems like he’s only eaten a lot of hardships, and must be hungry.
Zhongli Luo didn’t say anything for a long time, so she carried the food box closer. When she saw the handwriting on the Xuan paper, she was suddenly unable to stifle her laughter. This healthy lad has a waist as delicate as a woman’s, and his handwriting is a some kind of small, ornate script. What a truly feminine energy coming off of someone who goes into battle later.
She places the food box on the desk and opens it. Fortunately, the ice hadn’t completely melted yet, but unfortunately, she almost retched as soon as she saw the watermelon.
She tilted her head away, prudently taking out the big plate of melon after, and held it in front of Zhongli Luo as if she was presenting a great treasure. “Brother Zhongli, I can’t eat all this watermelon, so I’m specially bringing it to you first.”
Looking at her shiny-eyed, beaming smile, Zhongli Luo is somewhat terrified. He can only think that this matter isn’t so simple. Can it be… some kind of trick with laxatives or something, or giving her some kind of parasite?
He glanced indifferently at the watermelon in the plate. “I’ve never been too fond of eating this. You should eat it, Young Mistress.”
That’s a bit rude. The smile on Jiahui’s face promptly stiffens. She says coyly, “Brother Zhongli, it’s fine if you just call me Jiahui like my parents do. I’m telling you, this watermelon is the best for the summer heat. It’s so hot out, I’m afraid you might get heatstroke. C’mon, c’mon, give me some face, eat a piece or two.”
Looking at the dimpled smile on this flowery la.s.s’s round face, Zhongli Luo’s heart slightly wavered. He had to stop looking at Jiahui anymore and continued to write characters, not giving a reply.
Seeing him so silent, Jiahui thought he still blamed her. Flattening her mouth, she set the dish down and got straight to the point. “Brother Zhongli, I actually came here to apologize. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have taken what my little brother said before at face value, he, ah… is used to me and my parents spoiling him, and deserves to be put in his place. You hitting him was fine.”
Moreover, she also eventually came to realize that Zhongli Luo hadn’t even hit Rong Jiaze at all. She would have been able to see some kind of wound on him otherwise – unless that minuscule red mark on his hand could be called an injury. It’s just that her mind into disarray when when she saw her brother crying. That little tyrant can really be too much sometimes, but since he’s never dashed into proper disaster, no one minded it.
Zhongli Luo still wasn’t talking, making Jiahui a little worried. Thinking it over, she decided to smash the already busted pot on the ground. “How about this, Brother Zhongli; you can hit me too. I’m solid, I can take a hit. I got angry at you without getting the full picture, after all. It’s my mistake.”
Hearing this, Zhongli Luo turned his head and looked right at her. “You’ve made no mistake.”
“Hah?” Jiahui stared.
Zhongli Luo went on to say, “You thinking that I was bullying your brother was understandable, and you didn’t do anything. Where is the mistake?”
What is this? He’s really strange and doesn’t play by conventional rules at all.
Jiahui cautiously asked, “Then you don’t blame me?”
“I never did,” he said.
Hearing this, Jiahui sighed in relief at once. Wiping the sheen of sweat from her forehead, she smiled and said, “Then I’ll go back now. Take your time writing, Brother Zhongli, I won’t disturb you. Remember to eat the watermelon, too. I’ll tell them to send all of the watermelon meant for me to you instead later on.”
Zhongli Luo hadn’t even yet opened his mouth to decline when Rong Jiahui had already vanished. She hates eating watermelon now anyways, and can now use it as a secondhand gift to curry favor with a giant; if she can kill two birds with one stone, why wouldn’t she?
Zhongli Luo stared blankly. A long time later, a hot breeze swept through, finally snapping her back to her senses. She looked at the empty s.p.a.ce, noticed that Rong Jiahui had forgotten to shut the door, and calmly got up, went over, and closed it herself.
In truth, she didn’t quite understand Rong Jiahui’s behavior. Maybe she’s misunderstanding, but she’s been getting the feeling that Jiahui seems to be very cautiously trying to win her favor, and that… that can’t at all be possible. If she said that, others would mock her like they would someone with buckteeth. Rong Jiahui is the priceless daughter of a stately n.o.ble family, of honorable status and high above the rest. Why would she ever come to gain her favor, a poor, broken, mourning autumn wind that had blown into her home and she’d only just felt?
She can’t crack this riddle.
She looked at the plate of watermelon on the desk, as scarlet as blood, and used a sliver of bamboo to spear a piece. Tasting it, it’s even more sweet and delicious than she’d thought it’d be.
As Rong Jiahui’s actions are absolutely not in order to gain her approval, then it can only be out of kindheartedness. Maybe she was afraid that she would be greving or sorrowful, or fears that she’ll accidentally hurt her feelings from living on someone else’s charity. That hurry-scurry, simple girl is adorably clumsy.
Here’s an example of how confusing the p.r.o.nouns get. One of the original sentences was: “Seeing her (ZLL) so silent, Jiahui thought he (ZLL) still blamed her (RJH).” I only switched to she at the end because Rongrong wasn’t there to confuse things lmao