Who else could you love besides me

Chapter 81

If her third brother hadn't appeared at Sunset Garden in the evening, perhaps a day wouldn't have been enough for her to recover from the abyss of self-contempt.

Fortunately, she had mostly returned to normal when she saw Ming Lu, which made the anxious twins secretly pat their chests to calm themselves down. The thought of their young lady suddenly asking Prince Ming, "Which leg will I step with first when I run away? Left? Right?"... just imagining it made the twins break out in a cold sweat.

My third brother mentioned wanting to recuperate at a villa in the suburbs of Beijing, because there was a hot spring nearby that would be very helpful for his injuries. Unfortunately, I was somewhat distracted when I heard this the other day...

The next day, Tian Yong sent a visiting card from Suo Ge to the Tian residence through Tian Shuang.

When the visiting card was handed over by Tian Shuang, Xi Ri saw disgust, disdain, contempt, and aversion in Tian Shuang's eyes. Tian Shuang's eyes...

good!

very good!

very good!

"Little Shuangzi, here's a tael of silver for you." Xi Ri suddenly tossed Tian Shuang a tael of silver.

Tian Shuang looked completely bewildered, then saw Xi Ri accept the visiting card from her hand with satisfaction, thinking to herself: Miss won't repay Suo Ge...

Xi Ri casually tore open the visiting card, glanced at it briefly, and then lowered her head to ponder for a while. Suddenly, a smile appeared on her lips, and she looked up at Tian Shuang, who was staring at her in a daze, and instructed her: "Little Shuang, go back to the manor and fetch a few things for me."

The twins were lost in thought. Hearing their mistress call her, they quickly replied, "Young master, what do you need?" They had an unspoken agreement that as long as Xi Ri was dressed as a man, just in case, even if it was just the two of them, Tian Shuang would still address Xi Ri as "young master."

“I want to take…” Xi Ri whispered in her ear.

Upon hearing this, Tian Shuang nodded excitedly, his eyes gleaming, and then said loudly, "Young master, I will go and fetch it for you right away."

Xi Ri smiled and said, "Go quickly."

Tian Shuang left the house quickly and lightly.

As he watched her leave, a smile crept onto his lips: "Suoge, this time you came to me willingly, so don't blame me..."

It would be inappropriate for him to suddenly ask her to meet under the identity of Suoge. Although it was said in a respectable manner, it would still be somewhat abrupt if others found out.

So when Xixi left the Prince's Mansion, she met her fourth brother, Fu Jin, at the gate and only said that she was going to stroll around the streets. She thought her fourth brother was coming to see her third brother, but to her surprise, as soon as he heard that she was going shopping, he strolled over and followed her.

Now, Xi Ri was in a bit of a predicament. She wanted to get rid of her fourth brother, but couldn't find a reason. She could only give Tian Shuang frequent winks, and Tian Shuang pretended not to see them, looking up at the sky, then at the ground, then at the tofu, which happened to be near a tofu vendor.

Just after Xi Ri gave her a wink for the fourth time, Tian Shuang finally showed a helpless and pathetic expression and began to take action.

She crept up behind Fu Jin and, taking advantage of Fu Jin's interest in looking at the beautiful women on the street, gave him a hard shove in the back. There happened to be a tofu vendor in front of them, and Fu Jin landed right on the tofu stall, leaving two deep handprints on the perfectly good slab of tofu.

The tofu seller was a young woman. Upon seeing her tofu ruined, she put her hands on her hips, ready to hurl insults. But when she looked closer, she saw that the culprits were two handsome young noblemen… especially the one behind her who was smiling at her… a young nobleman in brocade robes and a jade belt. Sigh… how handsome! He was as handsome as could be… In an instant, her wide, bulging eyes turned into teary ones, her straight eyebrows curved into willow leaves, and her cheeks quickly flushed red. Her eyes held a mixture of anger, resentment, shyness, and timidity… What a beautiful image of shyness and timidity.

Xi Ri was stunned upon seeing this. The tofu girl's expression changed so quickly that it was something he had never seen before. He secretly sighed: "There are indeed hidden talents in the marketplace. Even she, the queen of face-changing, has to admit that she is not as good as me."

At this moment, Fu Jin, who was always a womanizer, had no interest in the beautiful scenery in front of him. He looked down and saw that his front was stained with tofu water. His eyes almost shot fire. After panting a few times, he suddenly turned around and punched the twins in the head: "Don't you have eyes when you walk? How dare you push me? You don't want to live!" He shouted as he punched the twins.

The twins glanced at Fu Jin disdainfully, dodged Fu Jin's swinging fist with a quick sidestep, and said insincerely, "Master Jin, please spare me! I was really careless just now." Xi Ri couldn't help but shudder upon hearing this... thinking to herself: Little twins, you've been wronged. I'll definitely reward you with another tael of silver when we get back.

Fu Jin was not about to let the twins off so easily. The feud between the two of them had been brewing for a long time, and they hated each other every day. In addition, after the parrot he gave to Yu Di one day inexplicably called him a "lecher," he disliked the twins who kept the parrot even more.

People were coming and going on the street. When they saw people fighting, they all made way for each other, afraid of being caught in the crossfire, but they also watched the excitement from a distance.

Fu Jin relentlessly chased and attacked the twins, but couldn't hit them no matter what he did. The twins dodged left and right, seemingly in a sorry state but actually quite at ease, which only fueled Fu Jin's rage. The twins found an opening and suddenly turned and ran. Fu Jin shouted, "You dog of a servant, stop right there!" and chased after them, completely forgetting about Yu Di, who had been abandoned behind him.

The two quickly disappeared from the street corner they had come from.

Xi Ri watched the two disappear with a smile, then casually tossed a tael of silver to the tofu-selling girl, saying, "This is compensation for you." After tossing the silver, he was about to leave when he heard the tofu-selling girl timidly say, "Young master, a tael of silver is too much, I dare not accept it."

Xi Ri stopped and looked around, and saw the tofu girl looking at her shyly, her face as red as an apple. She teased her softly, "Consider this extra as a reward from this young master."

Upon hearing this, the tofu girl became even more shy, her head almost drooping to her chest, and she said in a soft voice, "Thank you, young master." After speaking, she bowed.

Xi Ri nodded and was about to leave with a smile when he suddenly noticed something embedded in the flattened tofu. He reached out and pulled it out, only to find it was a yellow dragon jade pendant. He figured it must have been dropped by his fourth brother, so he put it away.

At this moment, the tofu girl suddenly raised her head and stole a glance at Xiri, her eyes sparkling. Then she lowered her head again, this time her neck almost turning red, and said timidly, "If you ever want to eat tofu in the future, young master, you must come and eat my tofu. My surname is Zhao, my nickname is Nu'er, and everyone in the capital calls me the Tofu Beauty. I live in Wuli Lane, South Gate..."

Xi Ri stared blankly for a moment, then quickly and quietly strode away. Even after walking ten steps, she could still faintly hear the girl saying, "The tofu I make is so white and tender, perfect for frying, stir-frying, and cooking..."

The girls in the capital are getting bolder and bolder these days! They actually dare to flirt with this fake young master in broad daylight, and even let her take advantage of them...

The place where Suoge had arranged to meet her was a bit far, so she left very early. But because of her fourth brother's delay, she didn't have much time. She had to rush back to the old house to change back into women's clothes, get the things that Tian Shuang had taken from the mansion and stored in the old house, and then take a carriage to the bamboo forest in the eastern suburbs.

There are likely two reasons why Suoge chose that location. First, the capital is too crowded and inconvenient for them to meet. Second, she had heard that Suoge had built a villa in the bamboo grove on the eastern outskirts of the capital after returning. She knew this because her fourth brother had originally intended to buy that land, but Suoge, who had just returned to the capital, had seized it. It was precisely because of this that her fourth brother had always disliked Suoge.

However, she remembered visiting that bamboo grove three years ago. At that time, Suoge had not yet returned to the capital, and there were no buildings there, only a simple, uninhabited bamboo hut. But because the bamboo grove grew exceptionally well, in the summer, scholars and literati would often come there to enjoy tea and admire the bamboo. She also loved the tranquility and the lush bamboo forest there, and had even played the zither and enjoyed tea there, anonymously reciting poems and lyrics with contemporary scholars and literati.

Even that year's scenery was breathtaking, with people struggling to survive. The weather was so bad that it was almost unbearable ...

Later, I heard that Prince Suoge, who had just returned to the capital, had bought that bamboo grove and was going to build a villa there. Although I heard that outsiders could still enter the bamboo grove, and it remained a gathering place for literati, I hadn't been there since, because of Suoge's refusal of the marriage proposal and the fact that his villa was there. Now it was autumn, and the green bamboo probably no longer had the serene and verdant feel of summer…

Back at the old house, while changing clothes, she carefully examined the yellow dragon jade pendant her fourth brother had dropped. She noticed two small characters engraved on it, which, upon closer inspection, appeared to be "Xiao Bai" (小白). Just as she was about to put it down, she picked it up again. Xiao Bai?!… She looked at it again and again, and indeed, it was indeed the name Xiao Bai. She was immediately alarmed: Could it be that her fourth brother, Fu Jin, was actually Xiao Bai? How could her fourth brother be called Xiao Bai? She had never heard anyone mention it before. Did her fourth brother and Princess Ningxiang have some connection? How could that be? Could the Xiao Bai that Princess Ningxiang spoke of really be her fourth brother, Fu Jin…? Thinking this, Xi Ri felt it was unlikely. If Ningxiang liked her fourth brother, it didn't seem likely. When Ningxiang mentioned Xiao Bai, her brother, Suoge, showed no objection. If Suoge knew Xiao Bai was Fu Jin, how could he remain indifferent? Perhaps it was just a coincidence, or perhaps Suoge, like her, didn't know that Xiao Bai was Fu Jin.

Xi Ri was holding the yellow jade in a daze when Tian Yong outside the door said, "Miss, the carriage is ready, please set off."

One day, on a whim, he took the piece of yellow jade with him and went out to get into the carriage.

Tian Yong drove the cart northeast towards the bamboo forest.

When the servants took Xi Ri to the bamboo pavilion deep in the bamboo forest to pay respects to Prince Xi, Xi Ri sighed inwardly. She thought that her third brother, Ming Lu, was a romantic and extremely enjoyable person who had planted a pond full of water lilies. She never expected that this Prince Xi, Suo Ge, was no less so.

The bamboo forest in autumn is a deep yellow, not as bright and refreshing as the green bamboo in summer, but it has its own unique charm. Especially when you step on the yellow bamboo leaves on the ground, there is no sadness brought by the passing of life, but rather a gentle tranquility. I think that playing the zither and sipping tea here in this season would be a kind of enjoyment.

The original bamboo houses deep in the bamboo forest have been demolished and replaced with bamboo pavilions.

At this moment, a guard with a sword at his waist stood at each of the four corners outside the bamboo pavilion, while two servants bowed and waited nearby. From a distance, Suoge could be seen sitting alone inside the bamboo pavilion. Looking at his back, Xiri suddenly felt a little nervous.

She never imagined she'd have any further contact with him, nor did she ever imagine a day when it would be just the two of them alone together. She had always thought that if that day ever came, all she would think of was revenge, but she never imagined she'd feel this nervous when it actually happened…