Chapter 172 Heart
Seeing that Xia Zihan's face was serious, resolute, solemn, and had a layer of warning, Chu Jingqi knew that what she said was true.
Even if she couldn't marry Song Huai, she wouldn't think of marrying him.
From then on, Chu Jingqi no longer dared to show her ambition to marry her in front of Xia Zihan.
"Okay, don't be so serious. I didn't say I wanted to marry you. You're nervous." Chu Jingqi hurriedly smiled sarcastically and coaxed her with a shy face.
Xia Zihan was silent for a while.
With this episode, when the two of them arrived at the hot spring lake, they had no intention of admiring it. After standing for a while, the two of them went back.
When going back, there was one meter in front of the other and one meter behind. In Chu Jingqi's heart, that meter seemed to be as far away as thousands of mountains and rivers, as if he could not cross the threshold no matter how hard he crossed.
Back in the hall, the four sisters of the Dou family were playing leaf cards, and they didn't notice that the two people's faces looked strange.
Miss Dou Si waved to Xia Zihan, "Chu Yu, come and help me turn over the money. I even lost the money to buy a gold hairpin."
The cheapest gold hairpin costs twenty taels of silver.
After only playing for an hour, I lost twenty taels of silver. This is bad luck.
But Xia Zihan didn't have time to play leaf cards. She reluctantly took Miss Dou Si's place, but lost even worse than her. In less than half an hour, she lost more than ten taels of silver.
This money must be taken by Miss Dou Si.
Miss Dou Si was about to burst into tears, "Chu Yu, what kind of luck do you have, you are worse than me."
There was no other way, so Miss Dou Si sat back down and braced herself to read the book.
Xia Zihan silently returned to the room assigned to her by Chu Jingqi.
The room is large and warmly decorated, with a grass-green curtain and four pink sachets hanging on it, exuding a faint scent of osmanthus. There is a pale pink bedding on the bed, and a set of pink pillows and pillows. , with beautiful camellias embroidered on it.
The wooden couch under the window, the four wenge wooden chairs beside the table, and the dressing stool are all covered with a light green cotton cushion. The large pillow on the Arhat bed is also green, with embroidery on it. There are a few grasses and a few birds, which are particularly elegant and delicate.
These things were all brought by Chu Jingqi to Ma Bao from Duke Anguo's Mansion. They were newly installed. Chu Jingqi was worried that Xia Zihan would catch a cold if it was cold and Xia Zihan would sit directly on the wooden chair.
Every corner of the layout here showed Chu Jingqi's attentiveness, which made Xia Zihan feel a little stunned for a moment.
Chu Jingqi...is it really possible?
No, it can't be done.
Xia Zihan immediately shook his head.
Her aunt was so kind to her, trusted her so much, loved her so much that she doted on her as if she were her own daughter. She couldn't do anything to disgrace her aunt.
She couldn't kidnap her son behind her aunt's back.
Xia Zihan made up his mind to pay more attention to the distance between him and Chu Jingqi in the future and not let him have any ideas.
He is still young, and in two years his attention may turn to other girls.
Nuanyu came in and saw Xia Zihan standing in the middle of the room in a daze. She quickly asked, "County Lord, what's wrong? Didn't you see the hot spring lake?"
"I saw it." Xia Zihan regained consciousness and added, "It's beautiful."
Is it really beautiful? Why is the master still in a daze after he comes back?
Nuanyu is smart. Although she can see that something is wrong with her master, there are some things that she, a slave, cannot ask.
She didn't notice anything strange about her master, so she quickly made a cup of tea for Xia Zihan, "It's the Dahongpao that the county master likes to drink. Prince Chu specially prepared it for the county master."
Xia Zihan drank half the cup, and she told Nuanyu, "Get ready for clothes. I want to take a dip in the hot spring room."
"The clothes have been prepared a long time ago. I will go and get them now."
Nuanyu took out a baggage from the second-door wardrobe, then carried a wooden comb, towel and other small items in a bag. Carrying the two bags, she followed Xia Zihan to the hot spring room.
By the time Xia Zihan came out of the hot spring room again, it was already more than an hour later.
Chu Cong and Chu Fei were in the room. When he saw her coming back, he hurriedly stepped forward and said, "Chu Shizi sent someone to call the master to go to the front hall to eat. He said that the master would be alone."
Even though she was not in the mood to have dinner with Chu Jingqi when the four sisters of the Dou family were there, she had to go and accompany the four sisters of the Dou family.
Xia Zihan hummed, and after entering the screen, she changed into a peach-red silver rat coat with embroidered silk embroidery. Before going out, she put on a satin fox crest pleated cloak to block the cold wind outside.
The four sisters of the Dou family were already sitting at the table waiting, but Chu Jingqi stretched her neck at the door and looked around frequently.
Seeing the beautiful woman walking from a distance, Chu Jingqi could not suppress her excitement and ran over. She wanted to extend her hand but retracted it. She said with a smile on her face, "Ayu, you are here."
Xia Zihan ignored him, walked towards the restaurant, smiled and said, "I'm really sorry for keeping the four sisters waiting for so long."
"Chu Yu, why didn't you ask me to go with you when you went to the hot springs?" Miss Dou Si complained, "If you asked me to go, I wouldn't have lost more than ten taels of silver later." "Lost in one afternoon. Fifty taels of silver, you are so lucky." Xia Zihan teased her, pretending not to see Chu Jingqi sitting down next to her.
Chu Jingqi was always feeling depressed, and she frequently cast resentful looks at her, but she ignored them all.
"Let's go together tomorrow at noon." Miss Dou suggested.
"Okay, okay, I also asked the maid to bring a pack of dried rose petals. It will definitely smell good when sprinkled in the water." Miss Dou San said excitedly.
How can such a private matter as putting flower petals in a girl's bath be discussed at the dinner table when there is a boy here.
Miss Dou glared at her secretly, and then quickly glanced at Chu Jingqi. Seeing that Chu Jingqi's attention was on Xia Zihan, she breathed a sigh of relief.
Miss Dou San also seemed to realize something, and then glanced at Chu Jingqi with a blushing face, and did not dare to speak again.
Chu Jingqi smiled and carefully tried to please Xia Zihan, "The cook here was specially invited by my father from Jiangnan to cook first-hand Jiangnan cuisine. Ayu, try it and see if it suits your taste. If not, If you have an appetite, I will send someone back to Duke Anguo’s Mansion tomorrow to fetch the cook.”
He was worried that Chu Yu wouldn't be used to Jiangnan's food, so he wanted to bring the cook with him when he came, but unfortunately his mother wouldn't let him, saying that I was doing something unnecessary. She also said that Chu Yu had stayed in Jiangnan for three years and had eaten for three years. Jiangnan cuisine, I have long been accustomed to eating Jiangnan cuisine.
Only then did Xia Zihan notice that there were a total of twelve dishes on the table, half of which were fresh vegetables.
Stir-fried shredded bamboo shoots, mushrooms, rapeseed, lettuce, minced eggplant, garlic cucumber, bitter gourd and eggs are all her favorites.
In this winter, almost no green vegetables are sold in the market, and only some wealthy families still grow some in their greenhouses.
There is a small greenhouse in Chu's house, and the cook will fry two or three kinds of green vegetables for every meal. She and her grandmother like to eat them.
An Guo Gong's Mansion also has a greenhouse, but it is so far away from An Guo Gong's Mansion. Even if there are vegetables, they may freeze on the way.
But Chu Jingqi got so many vegetables at once and kept them so fresh. It was a lie to say that she didn't dare to touch them.
"Don't be in a daze, the food won't taste good when it's cold." Chu Jingqi said softly, picked up the chopsticks, picked up a few dishes and put them in her bowl.
"I specially picked these vegetables from the greenhouse in the mansion. They were wrapped in two quilts and delivered to me," he said.
Xia Zihan hummed, chewed slowly and started eating.
Seeing her pick up her chopsticks and eat obediently, Chu Jingqi's heart finally dropped after all the afternoon's mention. He was really afraid that she would not even eat if she got angry.
Seeing her eating, Chu Jingqi frequently gave her food.
The four girls of the Dou family were all working hard in silence, turning a blind eye to the interaction between the two, but the eldest girl Dou couldn't help but frown, as if she was worried about Chu Jingqi.
You know, County Master Chuyu is engaged to be married, and my cousin's behavior seems inappropriate.
Chu Jingqi didn't care about that much. There were no outsiders here anyway. He could do whatever he wanted. What the Dou family's cousins thought was never within his scope of consideration.
After the meal was almost done, Chu Jingqi said gently, "Ayu, after you finish eating, I will accompany you to the yard for a walk to eliminate food, otherwise your stomach will feel uncomfortable again."
When did my stomach become uncomfortable due to indigestion?
Xia Zihan rolled her eyes at him angrily. This bastard was going too far.
"Grandma told me to take good care of you." Seeing Xia Zihan's reluctance, Chu Jingqi pulled Zeng's banner.
"No, I'll just let the maid accompany you around the house." Xia Zihan gritted her teeth and refused him.
"Okay, then remember to walk more." Chu Jingqi's face was full of disappointment and sadness, and the cousins of the Dou family felt sorry for him.
Oh, how could County Master Chu Yu be willing to break the heart of such a lovely cousin.
Chu Jingqi soon smiled again, "Qintianjian has calculated that it will snow in the next two days. Can I accompany you to enjoy the snow tomorrow?"
"Let's wait until it snows." He didn't agree or refuse.
Chu Jingqi raised a smile, feeling that the cloudy day was about to pass, and the bright sunshine would soon come.
When Xia Zihan was full, he put down his chopsticks, said hello to the girls from the Dou family, and then returned to the room without even looking at Chu Jingqi, who was smiling freely.
"What's going on with my cousin? County Master Chu Yu is already engaged, so he dares to go forward."
After several girls from the Dou family returned to their rooms, the third girl Dou came to find the eldest girl Dou and expressed her worries.
Miss Dou is also shrewd, and she has seen some of Chu Jingqi's thoughts, but it is difficult to say this kind of thing, after all, Chu Jingqi is only nine years old.
She thought for a moment and then said, "Didn't I say that County Lord Chuyu once saved cousin Aqi? Perhaps cousin Aqi was so kind to County Lord Chuyu out of kindness. Didn't my cousin recognize it all?" Is Mrs. Chu your godmother?”
"But..." Cousin Aqi had never smiled and been gentle to anyone, but he only did this to County Master Chu Yu.
But this sentence was in Miss Dou Er's heart, and she didn't dare to say it directly. She was also afraid that they would think about things that didn't exist and cause trouble for Chu Jingqi and Xia Zihan.
(End of chapter)