Birds chirped in the woods, the first rays of morning light fell on the mountains, and the mist spread over the valleys.
In the crystal-clear creek, a few fish swim leisurely. Jiang Rui picked up the cool stream water and threw it on her face, and the little fish fled around in fright.
"Master, there are fish in the water!"
On a rock not far away, Ling Yuan's wheelchair stood firmly. He glanced at the little fish that were scurrying around in the water, less than the length of a finger, and couldn't help but ponder, "Want to eat fish for breakfast? All caught, enough to feed you and me."
"No," Jiang Rui shook her head and smiled, "such a small fish is not enough to stick between teeth, and there is no seasoning that can remove the fishy smell, it will definitely not taste good."
She took out the dry food she brought from the carriage yesterday from her bosom. After one night, it had become very hard. She broke off a small piece, crushed it, and threw it into the water. The aroma of the food attracted the greedy fish, and they gathered in a short while, and some even dared to jump out of the water.
"You and I have an empty stomach, but these fish are full." Ling Yuan looked at this and smiled.
"Anyway, the owner and I don't eat." Seeing that the fish were gathering more and more, Jiang Rui broke off another piece of dry food.
This is true. With the two delicious meals before, and then facing the hard and dry rations, who is willing to eat
The sound of wings flapping came from the forest, Ling Yuan tilted his head slightly, at the same time, a grass seed popped out of his hand, and after a few breaths, a wild pigeon fell straight into the stream from mid-air.
Jiang Rui clapped the scraps on her hands, held her skirt, stood on tiptoes, stepped on the rocks in the stream to pick up the pigeons, weighed the weight, raised her head and smiled at Ling Yuan: "One more is enough to eat. La."
Ling Yuan nodded and continued to pay attention to the movements around him.
Jiang Rui moved the crock pot to the stream, and cooked a pot of pigeon stewed mushrooms in the same way as chicken stewed with mushrooms.
After eating, she cleaned the cave and looked at the pile of dry wood that had been used up by them in embarrassment. Suddenly, she took off her earrings, wrapped them in cloth, and prepared to stuff them into the pile of firewood.
"What?" Ling Yuan asked warmly.
Jiang Rui said embarrassedly, "We've used up the firewood, and it's still wet everywhere, so I can't pick it up and return it to him, and I don't have any money on me, and I'm afraid that Liu Shaoxia will be too hasty to find it and forget it. , so put the earrings here first as a reward."
Ling Yuan went out with his own servants to follow, and he did not carry silver taels on his body. Hearing the words, he took off the jade pendant around his waist and handed it over, "Use this."
"Why?" Jiang Rui laughed, "A load of firewood is only a few cents, and my pair of small silver earrings are enough to buy twenty or thirty load of them, but we also borrowed his cave, which is a lot of money. It's the rent for him. If the owner of the village puts the jade pendant here, people may be scared and won't dare to accept it."
"Your earrings are inappropriate." Ling Yuan said.
Jiang Rui understood what he meant. These days, it is not easy for a woman's belongings to fall into the hands of a man, but now she left the earrings to the hunter, and the other party didn't know who it was, so what did it matter
Thinking like this, she wouldn't really tell Ling Yuan that, she thought about it for a while, and handed the earring to him, "Otherwise, the owner of the village will take some effort and squeeze it into a silver mound?"
The earring in front of me was a small one in the shape of a lilac flower, about the size of a little fingernail. Although it was quite small, it was also shabby.
There were no women close to Ling Yuan. The only common ones were the maids in the main courtyard. He didn't pay attention to their clothes, but in his impression, their jewelry was mostly red gold, pearls, and precious stones. If there is silver, it must be silver bracelets and hairpins. I have never seen such small silver ornaments.
He couldn't help looking up at the little cook in front of him, as if it was the first day he saw him, he looked at it from beginning to end, and found that in addition to the pair of earrings and a small beaded flower, there was only one piece on her hand. It is only wrapped in a fine silver bracelet, so simple and simple that it makes people feel dazzling.
"Keep it well." He gently pushed Jiang Rui's hand away, then cut the jade pendant in his hand in half with a sword, handed the half to her, and motioned to wrap it and put it in the pyre.
Jiang Rui looked at Yu Pei with a distressed face, but was quite speechless in her heart.
She said the jade pendant was too precious, so he cut the jade in half? It should be noted that a good jade is as important as the quality of the carving. Only half of the jade pendant is left, and its value is far less than half of the original jade pendant. It can be said that this jade was destroyed by him.
What can be solved by earrings of a few dollars, must be replaced by jade pendants of a few hundred taels. Jiang Rui thinks that he is a typical unprofessional and ignorant of resources.
She didn't feel bad for Yinzi, and it wasn't hers anyway, but she didn't know what to say about his behavior.
Ling Yuan was quite at ease, with half a jade pendant hanging around his waist, he went to the entrance of the cave to enjoy the mountain scenery.
Jiang Rui also moved a stone and sat at the entrance of the cave not long after, the two of them talked aimlessly without saying a word.
Since last night, she could feel the change in Ling Yuan's attitude towards her, which was not very obvious. On the surface, it seemed no different from usual, still gentle and polite. In fact, when Ling Yuan was talking to her yesterday, although it seemed to be a casual topic, there was a hint of temptation hidden in his words, but not today.
He has given up on her temptation, but it doesn't seem like he believes that she has a clean background and no purpose, more like he doesn't care, doesn't care what mission she has, doesn't care who is behind her.
Jiang Rui frowned slightly, thinking about what the traitor Luo Er said last night before he died.
In fact, what she guessed was right, Ling Yuan really wasn't going to test the little cook, no matter what her origins were or what purpose she had in approaching him, as long as she was always so obedient, he would not hold her accountable.
If one day she is not good, like Luo Er, he has two hearts, and he will kill and destroy the people and things that made her have two hearts. By then, she should be good again, right
As for why he didn't kill the little cook, Ling Yuan didn't think about it for the time being.
In the evening, the two of them were thinking about what to have for dinner when they suddenly heard an excited voice.
"Brother Ling! Sanniang!"
Jiang Rui looked up and saw Liu Xingfeng hanging from the cliff like a spider. Ling Yuan had previously said that he would be able to come to them tomorrow and the day after, and he was right.
As soon as Liu Xingfeng touched the ground, he couldn't wait to untie the rope around his waist and ran towards the two of them, "Brother Ling, are you all right?"
"It's okay, but Brother Liu Xian has worked hard." Ling Yuan said warmly.
Liu Xingfeng was ashamed, "I should have come down to find Brother Ling yesterday, but many people were injured, and my cousin was frightened again—"
Ling Yuan waved his hand and interrupted him, "You did the right thing, it would be irrational to come down to me rashly."
Liu Xingfeng was relieved, and asked Jiang Rui, "How is Sanniang?"
Jiang Rui shook her head, "I'm fine, but the owner is injured."
"It's just a small injury," Ling Yuan said.
Liu Xingfeng hurriedly said: "The small injury should also be shown to the doctor. I found a few local villagers at the foot of the mountain and asked them to lead the way. Brother Ling, let's go down the mountain."
Someone led the way, they circled the mountain for more than an hour, and finally arrived at the foot of the mountain when it was dark. They didn't stop much and set off immediately.
Ling Yuan was injured and rode the carriage with Jiang Rui.
Jiang Rui lifted the curtain of the carriage a little and looked back. It was already dark, and in the valley that had trapped them for nearly two days and one night, only dark shadows remained.
"Reluctant?" Ling Yuan asked.
Jiang Rui shook her head and smiled cautiously, "No."
Ling Yuan squinted his eyes slightly in the dark carriage. He realized that since the others appeared, the little cook was no longer as comfortable as when she was in the mountains. Even with only two people at the moment, she was still restrained.
Although speaking, this is the attitude she should have as a cook in front of the owner.
There was silence in the carriage for a while, and Ling Yuan asked an irrelevant question: "What's your plan after that? Do you want to go back to Ming Villa?"
"Didn't Young Master Gu ask me to cook for him?" Jiang Rui asked softly.
"The child is making a fool of himself, let Brother Liu Xian find him another one." Although Ling Yuan was gentle, his tone was a little careless.
"Is that so..." Jiang Rui whispered, sounding a little confused.
Ling Yuan added: "If you don't want to go back, you don't need to wait at him again. After that, you'll be by my side. When things are over, we'll return to Ming Villa together."
Jiang Rui nodded hesitantly, "Okay."
Ling Yuan smiled and said, "I wasn't very lively in the mountains before, and ordered me to catch chickens and birds, how come I have become gentle and delicate now?"
Jiang Rui pursed her lower lip in embarrassment, "That, that is..."
"Don't worry, I'm not training you. Since I let you follow me, you don't have to suppress your nature. You can do whatever you want."
"If people see it, it should be said that our Mingshan Villa has no rules."
Ling Yuan chuckled: "Just do it and see who dares to say it."
Non-stop rushing all night, at dawn, they arrived at the house where Liu Xingfeng and the others temporarily settled.
"I have already sent a letter to my father. I will rest here for a few days before I leave. Brother Ling, what do you think?" Liu Xingfeng took Ling Yuan to a small courtyard.
Ling Yuan nodded, "Liu Xiandi has been bothered."
""What's the matter, just now I have instructed the steward to invite the doctor, Brother Ling has breakfast first, Sanniang, your residence has also been arranged, let someone take-"
"She lives with me." Ling Yuan said.
"Ah?" Liu Xingfeng didn't react for a while.
"There are still a lot of rooms in the courtyard, just arrange one, you don't need to go elsewhere. Which one do you like?" The last sentence was said to Jiang Rui.
Jiang Rui lowered her eyebrows and said, "It's all good."
Ling Yuan added: "Since I live here, I would like to ask the steward to order me to bring meals for the two of us together."
The steward went immediately, but before leaving, the sight on the two of them was a little ambiguous.
Liu Xingfeng blinked, and then he came back to his senses.
Although it is normal for the host and the maid to live in the same yard, and there are people who sleep in the same room, but if this happened to his brother Ling, it seemed abnormal.
His eyes moved between the two, and he couldn't help touching his chin, feeling a strange smell.
The author has something to say:
Liu Yingfeng: Adultery!
Old Eight: [smiles]