Chapter 32: Official, Too Warmhearted
TL Chiyomira
ED Sonia
Song Liang Zhuo saw Xiao Qi off at the soup kitchen and exhorted Shan Zi and Lu Liu a bit. Cai Yun who was busying at the side wanted to go up to greet good morning but was interrupted by a person at the side. When she put down the things she was working on and wanted to head over again, Song Liang Zhuo had already gotten on the carriage and left.
Cai Yun for the most part knew that this is because the people of the Qian family didn’t want her to come in contact with Song Liang Zhuo. From the moment she entered Qian fu, she didn’t have the opportunity to exchange a single word with Song Liang Zhuo. During the day Song Liang Zhuo is not in Qian fu, at night when he got to Qian fu, if he was not in the main courtyard then he was at Xiao Qi’s courtyard. That way, she also didn’t have the opportunity to encounter him. With great difficulty she finally convinced Xiao Qi to also allow her to come along and give out porridge, yet every morning she was kept apart from them.
Cai Yun looked towards Xiao Qi who had picked up a ladle and was starting to portion out meals, her gaze containing quite a bit of resentment. Lu Liu who was giving out steamed buns based on height and age laughed and said: “Lady Cai Yun, our family’s guye has already said that he will only have our family’s Miss as his only wife. Lady Cai Yun, what do you think, isn’t our family’s guye and Miss a great match?”
Cai Yun silently portioned out the salted vegetables and nodded without a sound.
“Lady Cai Yun, our family’s guye also treats our family’s Miss extremely well. Lady Cai Yun probably doesn’t know, but every day early in the morning guye would buy breakfast for Miss and stand at the door waiting for her before heading here together.”
Lu Liu glanced at Cai Yun who had her head hung and smiled: “In my opinion, though our family’s Miss is a bit dumb in regards to emotions, but as long as there’s guye to dote on her, there also won’t be any instances of taking concubines.”
Lu Liu’s eyes looked towards Cai Yun with hardly concealed envy and said quietly: “Lady Cai Yun, with your looks you’ll definitely be able to find someone like guye, who will only guard lady Cai Yun his entire life.”
Cai Yun looked at Lu Liu and mumbled: “I don’t have any inappropriate intentions, da ren, he……”
“Oh.” Lu Liu suddenly said: “Guye said that in a while he’ll take my family’s Miss back to his home to see his parents. I don’t know whether they’ll come back after that.”
“R-really?”
Fake, but why should I tell you? Lu Liu silently thought.
“Really ah.” Lu Liu was all smiles as she looked at Cai Yun: “Does lady Cai Yun like Advisor Lu? He’s still single, his house doesn’t have parents that you need to attend to, and he even has rather big residence. Not to mention he’s an advisor and his appearance is pretty good looking. He’s such a good man. Lady Cai Yun is so beautiful, you definitely have the ability to eliminate all the over girls and in one stroke seize Advisor Lu’s fluttering heart!”
Cai Yun’s face immediately flushed red and she frowned as she said: “Lady Lu Liu, please don’t say these kinds of things again.”
“Ah, what is lady Cai Yun embarra.s.sed for!” Lu Liu looked at Lu Li Cheng who was not far away leading an old doctor towards this direction and lifted her hand to wave widely at him while loudly calling: “Advisor Lu, over here, over here ya.”
Lu Liu threw the steamed buns back into the case for Shan Zi to continue distributing and jogged a few steps to Lu Li Cheng to say: “Advisor Lu, lady Cai Yun was just thinking about you.”
Lu Liu returned and took the chopsticks from Cai Yun’s hands and nudged her: “Weren’t you like that just then? I’ll help distribute the pickled vegetables, lady should go and chat with the advisor for a while.”
Cai Yun’s embarra.s.sed eyes were almost about to cry. She lowered her head and bit her lips, standing next to Lu Li Cheng without moving an inch. Xiao Qi turned her head around and saw Lu Li Cheng, then saw Cai Yun whose face was red and ambiguously shot Lu Li Cheng a wink before concentrating on ladling the porridge again.
Lu Li Cheng failed to understand what was going on and looked to Cai Yun who had her head helplessly drooped and warmly asked: “Does lady Cai Yun need something?”
Cai Yun hurriedly shook her head.
“Oh, then Lu will……”
“Advisor Lu.” Cai Yun didn’t wait for him to finish and suddenly raised her head to ask: “Advisor Lu, is da ren bringing Madam back to his home? They won’t return anymore?”
Lu Liu who was eavesdropping the entire time shot a wink at Lu Li Cheng. Lu Li Cheng frowned and slightly paused for a moment before saying: “I heard da ren talk about it before, he probably does have such plans.”
Cai Yun’s gaze turned a bit gloomy. She nodded then walked back to continue helping.
Lu Li Cheng didn’t know what had just occurred but roughly knew that it had something to do with Song Liang Zhuo and just helplessly shook his head.
Xiao Qi swiftly finished distributing the porridge and with two three steps, skipped to Lu Li Cheng’s side. Smiling, she asked: “Big Brother Lu isn’t with Official Song?”
“There was a reply from the higher ups, da ren has returned to the government office.”
“They’re giving money now?” Xiao Qi’s eyes widened with pleasant surprise.
Lu Li Cheng smiled: “We didn’t expect there would be a reply so soon. Apparently they had already set aside money before the flood had occurred.”
“Once they give it then everything’ll be alright.” Xiao Qi blinked as she looked at the old doctor behind Lu Li Cheng and slightly tilted her head: “Someone’s sick?”
“There’s someone with a fever, afraid it might be malaria.”
Xiao Qi hurriedly got out of the way and said: “Then you should hurry over, do you want me to boil some medicinal tea for everyone to drink?”
Lu Li Cheng looked towards the old doctor. The doctor hurriedly replied: “Currently there’s no need. If Madam has time you could prepare some mugwort.”
“Mugwort? That’s pretty easy to find!”
The three turned around simultaneously, looking towards the person that spoke each of their expression were different. Xiao Qi opened her mouth first: “What is w.a.n.g gongzi doing here?”
Chen Zi Gong looked at Xiao Qi and was stunned for a moment, then smiling, he said: “Is this Qian Qi, little Qian gongzi?”
Xiao Qi looked at her female outfit, wrinkled her nose and nodded.
Lu Li Cheng carefully sized up Chen Zi Gong. Although he could see that Xiao Qi was quite familiar with him, but upon noticing that his gaze had been on Xiao Qi the entire time, Lu Li Cheng still faintly knitted his brows.
“Wonder where w.a.n.g gongzi is from? I don’t seem to have seen w.a.n.g gongzi before.”
“Oh,” Chen Zi Gong moved his gaze away from Xiao Qi and said: “I’m from Beijing and came to Tongxu to sightsee. Unfortunately, it was right in time for the flood.”
Lu Li Cheng nodded and said to Xiao Qi: “Da ren will still come back. Will Madam wait or directly head back to the fu?”
Xiao Qi blinked, a bit confused as to why Lu Li Cheng would suddenly changed his way of address, but seeing that he kept looking at her, nodded: “I’ll return together with him.”
Chen Zi Gong’s eyes flickered, but because he immediately lowered his eyes his mood could not be seen. Lu Li Cheng smiled and said: “Don’t know if w.a.n.g gongzi have some other good methods, if you don’t mind let’s investigate a little together.”
Chen Zi Gong hooked his mouth. With one hand behind his back he walked to the front. Xiao Qi was originally going to follow out of curiosity but froze when Lu Li Cheng rather severely swept a cold gaze over.
Xiao Qi watched Lu Li Cheng and Chen Zi Gong. She tilted her head and thought for a long time but still couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Lu Liu helped put the things away then asked as she gasped for breath: “What is Miss looking at?”
Xiao Qi pouted: “Big Brother Lu glared at me!”
Lu Liu rolled her eyes and said: “The one Advisor Lu glared at wasn’t you, it was that w.a.n.g gongzi.”
“Huh?” Xiao Qi doubted: “But he was clearly glaring at me.”
“Shh, Miss, that w.a.n.g gongzi is definitely seeking the charm of young ladies. Advisor Lu saw that with one glance, that’s why he didn’t let Miss follow over.”
Lu Liu scratched her chin and said: “Miss shouldn’t get too close with that w.a.n.g gongzi. The number of times you encounter each other is also a bit too much, who knows what kind of person he is? Miss is already married!”
Xiao Qi pouted: “I’m not pretty and he doesn’t have that intention.”
Lu Liu patted her own cheeks and leaned her head forward as she asked: “Miss, tell me, am I pretty?”
Xiao Qi blinked and looked over, then nodded and said: “Very pretty. I like soft pouty faces.”
Lu Liu curled her lips: “Even the ugliest people will look attractive to some people, don’t you agree?”
Xiao Qi nodded. A moment later she fiercely shot a glare at Lu Liu and said: “I’m not that ugly either.”
Lu Liu laughed ‘hehe’ and then cast a glance at Cai Yun that was not that far away and lowered her voice as she asked: “Is Miss returning?”
“The doctor said I should prepare mugwort. I have to wait until they finish talking to find out how much. Also, Big Brother Lu said Official Song will be coming back in a bit.”
Lu Liu got a gauze hat and helped her put it on as she exhorted: “Miss has to listen to Advisor Lu and obediently wait for guye to return. I’ll return first with lady Cai Yun and fetch some other stuff before coming back.”
Xiao Qi tilted her head as she watched Lu Liu jump onto the carriage and leave, then mumbled: “Am I really dumb? Everyone’s always giving me such careful warnings!”
Xiao Qi sat to a side of the shack, bored. Leaning against a pillar she started thinking about Song Liang Zhuo again, no, she’s thinking of Song Liang Zhuo’s behavior. Xiao Qi’s eyes squinted as she giggled ‘hehe’. From that time when she had the fever, Song Liang Zhuo never fought over the bed with her, but before going to sleep he would always go to the bedside to take a look at her. Once, she even purposefully kicked the blanket onto the floor but Song Liang Zhuo still didn’t get angry, he just quietly moved to help cover her up again. Heehee, and he even secretly stroked her face.
Xiao Qi’s eyes squinted as she raised her hand to touch her own cheeks. Turning around, she looked at the people that were starting to build houses and thought as she yawned, Official Song is sure capable, he’s so busy yet he still wakes up early everyday to buy her breakfast. Xiao Qi knitted her brows and then thought, could it be that Official Song is planning something again?
Xiao Qi felt, right now, Song Liang Zhuo and her were like a cat and dog a family was raising, and that kitten was precisely her. The moment the puppy gets fierce she could only curl up into a ball and pathetically look at him. When the puppy is not fierce, her heart would itch with the desire to poke him. If he’s not fierce towards her she would be happy to the point the skies lit up; if he is fierce towards her, at most he was only baring his teeth and wouldn’t really expose his claws to scratch her.
“Heehee, Official Song is a puppy!” Xiao Qi squeezed her eyes shut as she shook her head, entirely free from worry.
Xiao Qi had a dream, in that dream Song Liang Zhuo became the dream husband Xiao Qi always desired. Xiao Qi gave him a smack and he voluntarily offered his other cheek for her to slap; Xiao Qi gave him a kick and he lifted his b.u.t.tocks and squatted down for her to conveniently kick; he even carried rice and chased after Xiao Qi to coax her to eat; he even stopped fighting over the bed with her, at night he slept while hugging her and even told her stories. Heehee, and even kissed her!
Song Liang Zhuo really did come, along with Meng Yun Fei.
Xiao Qi drowsy watched Song Liang Zhuo walk over and couldn’t hold back from grinning. Song Liang Zhuo couched down and touched Xiao Qi’s forehead. Knitting his brows, he gently asked: “Are you sleepy? Why didn’t you go home?”
Xiao Qi drew back the corners of her mouth and smiled, shaking her head. She thought, the Official Song in her dream was perfect in every way. Everything he said was in a soft, gentle voice. Heehee, like a young married woman.
Xiao Qi smiled and raised her hand, two palms ruthlessly slapped onto Song Liang Zhuo’s two cheeks. She wanted to see if he would lean forward to let her add a purple eye.
The two ‘slap’ sounds mixed into one and the sound of it became a lot more violent. Song Liang Zhuo knitted his brows with pain, but his eyes that looked towards Xiao Qi contained more concern than anger. Ever since she had the fever, her behavior had always been strange.
Meng Yun Fei who was behind him first covered his mouth and lightly coughed. Seeing Song Liang Zhuo and Xiao Qi stare at each other motionless with their eyes wide, in the end he couldn’t hold it in anymore and started laughing.
Xiao Qi unhurriedly looked over. She blinked in incomprehension towards Meng Yun Fei who was doubling over laughing, then retrieving her gaze she looked for a while at the person in front of her. Her heart flipped and with a ‘whoosh’ she withdrew her hand.
Xiao Qi took a deep breath and forced a smile: “Official Song, when did you arrive?”
Song Liang Zhuo reached out to feel Xiao Qi’s forehead. Xiao Qi was frightened and shut her eyes, shrinking her neck back. Song Liang Zhuo’s hand pressed against her forehead for a while, then he said with a frown: “Is Xiao Qi not feeling well?”
“Ah!” Xiao Qi nodded repeatedly: “Not feeling well.”
“Then Xiao Qi should go home. Once I finish working I’ll also go back.”
Song Liang Zhuo pulled Xiao Qi up. Xiao Qi shot a glance at his cheeks that were slapped red by her and shook her head: “I still have to stay and help.”
“I’ll send someone to help.” Song Liang Zhuo pulled Xiao Qi as he walked towards the carriage.
Xiao Qi felt guilty. Lying to people is always wrong, and it was even purposefully lying to escape from blame after hitting someone. Xiao Qi tugged at her hand and said quietly: “Official Song, I don’t feel unwell.”
“Hm?”
Xiao Qi glanced over again, seeing that Meng Yun Fei didn’t look over, she lifted her hand to rub Song Liang Zhuo’s face and said: “I didn’t do it on purpose.”
Song Liang Zhuo froze for a moment, but still carried her up the carriage: “Head home first, take a nap.”
Xiao Qi pouted as she got into the carriage. When the carriage started moving wobbly, she couldn’t hold back and angrily humphed: “Official Song is seriously petty, getting angry again.”
Xiao Qi lifted open the curtain to look behind her. Seeing Song Liang Zhuo was still standing there watching the carriage, she stuck out her tongue and pulled her head back in. After thinking about it, she started smiling again.