"Xiao Qi, who are you talking to?" Liu Shichu saw Qi Zhixi and his elder brother talking in the corner of the alley again, but this time she did not leave quietly like last time. Instead, she walked up to them without hesitation and asked with pretended curiosity.
"Boss?" Qi Zhixi was startled by Liu Shichu's sudden appearance. When he heard her question, he felt guilty for a moment before pretending to be calm and replied, "This is a relative from my hometown. We just happened to meet and talk."
"Oh? So you're relatives?" Liu Shichu blinked and looked at Brother Qi Tao. "But I seem to remember you said that there are not many relatives in your family, so after your father died, you had to make a living by selling calligraphy and paintings."
Qi Zhixi suddenly showed a confused look and said, "Really? I said these words? I don't remember. But this person is indeed my relative. He knew I was working here and came to see me specially."
Liu Shichu said with a half-smile, "You still have relatives far away, and it seems that the relationship is pretty good? But when I met you and an old servant on the road, you fainted on the ground. Why didn't you ask this relative for help at that time?"
Qi Zhixi choked, his eyes rolled quickly, and then he answered: "At that time, my brother and his family happened to be working as officials in another place. I couldn't go to see him, so I fainted from exhaustion." After he said that, he breathed a sigh of relief, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and was glad that he had found an excuse cleverly.
When Brother Qi heard Liu Shichu say that his brother had fainted on the ground, he was already anxious and annoyed. He wanted to grab this troublesome brother and give him a good lesson. But now Liu Shichu was still there, he had to hold back. However, he still couldn't help staring at Qi Zhixi with a cold look.
"So that's how it is..." Liu Shichu saw that he was so nervous that his breathing seemed to slow down a few beats, so he kindly let him go and said, "Since your relatives are here to see you, why don't you bring them to our tavern to sit down? Why do you have to meet them secretly here? I'm not a black-hearted and harsh boss, I will still give you this time to meet."
"No, no need, we'll finish it soon." Qi Zhixi said quickly. He didn't want his elder brother and Liu Shichu to appear in the same place, otherwise he would always worry about his identity being exposed.
"Okay then, whatever you want." Liu Shichu said, nodded to Brother Qi, and went back to the tavern.
"Tell me, what happened? You fainted on the road." Brother Qi grabbed his brother's face and asked coldly.
Qi Zhixi quickly pulled his hand away and quietly looked back. Seeing Liu Shichu had indeed entered the door of the tavern, he smiled and said, "It's nothing. I was just pretending at that time. I wasn't dizzy at all."
"Why are you pretending to be dizzy if you're not? What do you want to do?" Brother Qi was so angry at this brother who could never guess what he wanted to do that his head was about to explode.
"Brother, don't look at me like that. I'm not doing anything bad." Qi Zhixi saw Qi Tao waiting for him again and quickly explained.
"I just heard that the boss opened a very unique tavern. I was curious and wanted to learn more about it. So why not pretend to faint on the road where the boss must pass by so that he can 'save' me? With this life-saving grace, I can stay in the tavern to work. Most people tend to trust those they have saved, so I came up with this idea."
After hearing what he said, Brother Qi didn't know what to say to him. After a long while, he asked, "I see your hostess's clothes and temperament don't seem like an unknown person. Whose wife is she?"
Since his younger brother is working for someone else, Brother Qi has to take the trouble to get to know his younger brother's boss.
Qi Zhixi frowned after hearing his question, and then said unhappily, "She is not the wife of any family. She and her husband divorced two or three years ago. Her ex-husband is Cui Anhua, the general stationed in Liangzhou, and her brother is Liu Jian, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue."
"Divorced? Why divorced?" Brother Qi asked in confusion with a frown after hearing his words. Logically speaking, Cui Anhua was stationed outside all year round, and his wife must have been separated from her husband all year round, staying in Beijing to take care of a large family. Could it be that the former general's wife couldn't stand the loneliness
When Brother Qi thought of Liu Shichu's flamboyant and bright appearance he had just seen, he couldn't help but doubt, such a charming and beautiful woman should want her husband to be with her all the time, instead of suffering from being a widow and not being able to see her husband for years, right
Who knew that Qi Zhixi curled his lips in disdain and gave him an unexpected answer: "Isn't it because General Cui got tired of the old and reunited with his childhood sweetheart, so he abandoned his wife who had supported his family for twenty years. He was so heartless and ungrateful that he could easily abandon his wife who had given birth to his children and taken care of the family for many years..."
Brother Qi was immediately surprised and blurted out, "How beautiful must General Cui's childhood sweetheart be for General Cui to be willing to abandon his young and beautiful first wife?"
After he finished speaking, he felt a little regretful, thinking that he shouldn't comment on a woman's appearance casually, as it showed disrespect for others. But the words were out of his mouth, and he couldn't swallow them back, so he could only cough lightly to cover up.
Qi Zhixi didn't notice his elder brother's embarrassment and continued to defend Liu Shichu:
"I heard that the new general's wife is not as pretty as our boss, but our boss has a strong and straightforward personality. She is not the kind of weak woman who can only cry and depend on men. General Cui only likes weak women who want him to make the decisions in everything. Naturally, our boss, who never shows weakness to others, is not welcomed.
And brother, you have to admit that men are most easily attracted to women who are gentle, weak and pitiful. They love women who regard them as their heaven and obey them in everything. Our boss is not such a woman. She is the most opinionated and capable than ordinary men.
I think that General Cui is trying to pick up sesame seeds while losing the watermelon. He mistook fish eyes for pearls, but was blind to the real pearls. But that was also his bad luck. He didn't see that after the last earth dragon turned over, our boss's family stabilized the situation at home in an instant, while the new general's wife could only cry and do nothing else. In the end, the boss's son had to help her clean up the mess..."
Qi Zhixi talked incessantly about a lot of things about Liu Shichu, and praised Liu Shichu unreservedly. Brother Qi's heart skipped a beat when he saw his beaming expression when he talked about Liu Shichu. He suddenly opened his eyes wide and had a bad premonition: Could it be that his little brother had fallen in love with this divorced lady
"Brother, what's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that? Is there something dirty on my face?" Qi Zhixi finally stopped and saw that Brother Qi was looking at him strangely. He couldn't help but touch his face and asked puzzledly.
"Nothing." Brother Qi quickly restrained his expression and suppressed the ridiculous guess in his mind.