"… Your Highness?"
"Yes, don't you know? This is the Seventh Prince of Qingsi Palace." Cui Shi was completely unaware and said with a smile. When he met Xie Wangzhi's surprised eyes, he realized that something was wrong with this young lady.
The lantern shone far away, clearly a warm yellow light, hitting Xie Wangzhi, illuminating her jet-black long hair and lotus-colored skirt. Her skin was fair, originally healthy and rosy, but now it was pale, and her pupils were slightly shrunken. It didn't look like she was chatting with someone she knew in the kitchen, but rather like she was struck by lightning.
Xie Wangzhi supported the stove, stood up, immediately bowed her head and bent her knees, hurriedly said "I'll take my leave", without even looking at the two men in the kitchen, she picked up her skirt and ran out, closing the kitchen door with extra force, as if to vent her anger.
With a "bang", the door was smashed back into the door frame. Cui Shi was shocked and scratched his face: "She usually doesn't have such a bad temper, right?"
Li Qishen didn't want to pay attention to him, resisting the urge to fight in the kitchen, he stretched out his hand to block, and chased out through the empty gap. When he opened the door, he took a gulp of cold wind that blew in his face, and he coughed twice.
He ran while coughing, and was filled with cold wind. He finally caught up with Xie Wangzhi's house, but the girl walked in before him and slammed the door in front of him. If he hadn't reacted quickly and dodged in time, I'm afraid his tall nose would have been broken in half.
Obviously, he couldn't kick the door to deal with Xie Wangzhi, so Li Qishen had no choice but to move to the window secretly. Coal Ball was not there, so he had no cat claws to use, so he could only use his own claws, bent his knuckles, and knocked twice.
A painting of a lady was immediately projected onto the window. The girl's silhouette was beautiful and smooth, and her shoulders and neck were elegant like a swan sipping water. She had also removed her flower-shaped hairpin, and her long hair flowed gently over her shoulders.
Unfortunately, she was not a very gentle person. She reached out and pulled the window latch.
Nothing can be kept secret forever in the Daming Palace. Li Qishen knew that he would not be able to keep it secret sooner or later, so he made plans to confess to Xie Wangzhi before leaving the palace. However, he never expected Cui Shi to do this and shatter his plans, making it impossible for him to use a single word he had prepared.
He was silent for a moment, and while Xie Wangzhi was still there, he quickly asked tentatively: "... Are you angry?"
Xie Wangzhi was talking nonsense, looking at the cold and beautiful silhouette outside through the window paper. She was holding her breath, so angry that she wanted to hit someone, but she spoke softly, politely and distantly: "It's late, Your Highness, please go back, I want to rest."
This was a sign of expulsion. Li Qishen couldn't force his way in, so he could only say in a gentle voice, "Okay. I'll come back tomorrow morning. Good sleep."
Xie Wangzhi responded awkwardly, turned back to the couch, and went over to blow out the light.
The room suddenly became dark, and Li Qishen could not see the shadow of the girl. Fortunately, he had good hearing and heard some rustling sounds inside, guessing that she had gone to bed. It was too cold at night, and he did not want to disturb Xie Wangzhi, so he stood outside the window for a while, then turned and walked towards the main hall.
After a while of arguing, Cui Shi finally figured out what was going on. He walked over to meet Li Qishen, the lantern still in his arms. "So what are you going to do?"
"I'm not happy." Li Qishen answered the question irrelevantly.
Cui Shi was stunned: "...Ah?"
"So," Li Qishen looked up at Cui Shi, smiling, but his pupils were frozen like ice. He said softly, "I want to beat you up for fun."
“… Don’t!” Cui Shi knew that he could really do it, and hurriedly tried to save his life, “Don’t do it yet, let me finish.”
Li Qishen was too lazy to hit him: "Speak."
"I think the young lady is an honest person, gentle and kind. But the gentler and more honest she is, the harder it is to appease her when she gets angry." Cui Shi sighed, "I don't know what you are planning, but this time it's my fault. Let's think of a solution together. If it doesn't work, I'll go and apologize with you."
"how?"
"… It's like this. My origin is clear. There aren't many decent people among my ancestors." Cui Shi was a little embarrassed. He coughed and touched the tip of his nose. "To coax the young lady, let me tell you something?"
Li Qishen glanced at Cui Shi and licked his lips: "Let's talk."
**
Xie Wangzhi had no idea what Li Qishen and Cui Shi were discussing behind her back. She didn't give Li Qishen any chance at all. After coaxing him back to the palace, she immediately packed up her things. She only had two small boxes when she came, and when she left, some needlework, perfume, etc. were missing, and it was even lighter than before.
The next day, Xie Wangzhi got up early, cleaned the house, picked up two boxes, and went straight back to the Shangshi Bureau. The palace servants in Qingsi Palace pretended to be deaf and dumb. A few palace servants who were barely familiar with her saw her leaving, but they all pretended not to see her, and no one thought of passing on the message.
So Xie Wangzhi's trip back home was relatively smooth, except that her arm was sore from being pressed by the box. As soon as she entered the familiar courtyard, she immediately put the box down and went to open the door first.
By this time, the palace servants in the Imperial Food Bureau should have gotten up and washed, otherwise they would be late for breakfast. She was not worried about disturbing anyone, but when she opened the door, she was startled by the scene inside.
The room was still the same room, with two couches connected to each other on the left and right walls, the table and shelf were still there, and there was a charcoal stove under the window. However, the people inside were different. Apart from Lou Hanyue, Xie Wangzhi and Shi Manqing had unfamiliar women sleeping on their couches, and Yao Yupan's couch had a few boxes on it, which looked like they were used to store sundries.
This pattern was strange, and she was stunned: "Are you awake?"
Lou Hanyue was the first to sit up, with messy hair. When she saw it was Xie Wangzhi, she stared at her stupidly for a while and rubbed her eyes twice.
After rubbing, he looked again and saw that it was Xie Wangzhi standing at the door. Lou Hanyue was instantly delighted and lifted the quilt and got off the bed: "Wangzhi? Why are you back?"
“I…” Xie Wangzhi was not sure about this question, so he mumbled, “Things are going on in Qingsi Palace. His Highness… His Highness said that he doesn’t need me anymore and can come back whenever he wants.”
"Is that so?" Lou Hanyue was careless and didn't think much about it. After looking at the situation on the couch, she felt a little embarrassed. "Well, Wangzhi, this is a newcomer to the palace, working in the Shangshi Bureau... I thought you wouldn't be back, so I used your couch."
She used the word "do things", and Xie Wangzhi paused, then understood.
This year's selection was advanced, and those who could move to this large house facing the sun, and become "palace maids", seemed to be noble ladies who had some connections in their families and had a chance to work in the Shangshi Bureau. Lou Hanyue was not stupid, and if the noble lady insisted on sleeping on Xie Wangzhi's couch, she couldn't rush to offend him and stop him.
"I understand. I'll sleep on Yupan's couch then." It doesn't matter where you sleep, Xie Wangzhi didn't blame Lou Hanyue. He turned around and wanted to go outside to drag the box in.
"... Are you Xie Wangzhi?" The young lady sleeping on her couch also sat up and looked at the person at the door. "I thought you were not coming back, so I slept on your couch. How about I give it back to you?"
He said he would return it, but the person didn't move. Xie Wangzhi couldn't really pull him up, so he smiled and shook his head: "Don't bother, I'll just sleep on the empty couch. Whose things are on the couch?"
"It's mine, and the other half is for the song book." The young lady on the other couch also stood up. She actually went to pick up the box. She glanced at Xie Wangzhi and felt a little embarrassed. "I thought you wouldn't come back. You brought a lot of things into the palace... so I put it here."
What else could Xie Wangzhi do? He could only smile and help clean up.
After a while of tidying up, they also cleaned the house, and finally everyone was back to their respective positions. The three of them went to the big kitchen. Xie Wangzhi didn't know how to talk to Dian Shan for the time being, so he sat by the couch in a daze.
She wasn't very good at observing people's expressions, but after spending a short time together, Xie Wangzhi probably had some idea of what was going on.
The lady sleeping on Shi Manqing's couch was called Sun Shuirong. She had an ordinary personality and ordinary looks. She looked like she wasn't there even when she was standing there. She didn't like to talk. Xie Wangzhi tried to talk to her several times, but she answered vaguely, obviously not wanting to have anything to do with her.
The one who occupied her couch was the "Ge Shu" mentioned by Sun Shuirong earlier. His surname was Xue, and he was lively. He stuffed a few silver hairpins into Xie Wangzhi's pockets as an apology. Xie Wangzhi felt uncomfortable, but Xue Ge Shu was smiling, so she didn't think much about it, and just thought she was a little xenophobic.
From this perspective, these two people are not bad. As a noble lady, she is always a little arrogant, so it is normal that she doesn't like to pay attention to her. Besides, they just live in the same room, so it's fine as long as they don't fight. Xie Wangzhi doesn't have to be close to others and be sisters.
She thought it through and decided what to do. She went to talk to the chef about what happened, then went into the kitchen and everything was back to normal.
After all, he had just returned and was not familiar with Sun Shuirong and Xue Geshu, so Lou Hanyue thought about it and decided to have dinner together in the evening. However, this time it was not the usual fish stew, which was delicious but the soup was watery and not good to eat, so Lou Hanyue only mixed a few meat and vegetable dishes and stewed a large bowl of sour soup.
They ate together, and the two ladies did not object. Xue Geshu drank a spoonful of sour soup and praised Lou Hanyue's cooking skills. But people's hearts are always not together. The four people each had their own thoughts, and the meal was just harmonious on the surface.
When they had almost finished eating, Xie Wangzhi wanted to pack up and leave, but then the half-open door moved and a familiar dark figure rushed in from outside.
With so many visits, Meiqiu was very familiar with the route. She jumped over the shelves and boxes that blocked her way, used the couch as leverage, and quickly leaped onto Xie Wangzhi's lap. She put down the hairpin she had been biting in her mouth, and stared at her with her amber eyes, as if waiting for her to touch her.
Xie Wangzhi rubbed the head of the coal ball with one hand and picked up the hairpin with the other hand. This hairpin was much more delicate than the pearl hairpin, with an ebony base and a jasper carved into a flower shape at the end. The tassel hanging down was made of silver, with two small, shiny pearls hanging at the end.
"Oh, this hairpin doesn't look cheap." Xue Geshu pretended to take the hairpin from Xie Wangzhi's hand, "Cats are really psychic. Where did they find this hairpin to give to... Ah!"
She screamed in pain and quickly pulled her hand back, but her movements were not as fast as the coal ball. The black cat struck her hand twice more with its back claws, leaving three claw marks on the back of her hand. All of them broke the skin and thin beads of blood were faintly oozing out.
The author has something to say: Coal Ball: I have paid too much for this family (spitting smoke)
A new tool man has appeared, how can the plot stagnate!!! Go for Changsheng, forgetfulness is easy to deal with!!!
Ah Rou is a black virgin, and Wang Zhi is at most a half black virgin (a lunar unit of measurement).