CH 29

It was not something he don’t like, it was something he hate very much.

As soon as Lu Shi Qing finished this question in anger, in the distance Xiao Hei raised its dog’s legs and made a fake motion of leaping forward. Lu Shi Qing’s heart was trembling, his outstretched index finger bent, and he subconsciously took a step back.

Yuan Ci Xian was taken aback when she saw this, thinking that it was Xiao Hei who was scaring him, but when she turned around, she saw that it was laying peacefully on the ground, looking very honest. Then looking at Lu Shi Qing who became pale in front of her, her expression became blanked.

Lu Shi Qing felt both angry and funny. Could it be that Yuan Yu fed this stupid dog too much walnut meat to make it smarter?

He pointed out: “It just now…!” He said halfway, but too embarrassed to continue. If he said this, he looked like a bitter woman who tried to make her husband give her justice after being bullied by a tyrant.

He calmed down for a while, his face gradually returned to its original color. Out of the corner of his eye he stared at Xiao Hei, and pretended to be indifferent: “It’s inconvenient to travel late at night, County Princess will rest here tonight, but please take care of…” Saying until here, he saw Xiao Hei straighten its dog body, looking like he was about to rush forward. His Adam’s apple rolled, and said in a trembling voice, “Your dog.”

Yuan Ci Xian had already taken care of Xiao Hei, telling him to stay ten feet away from Lu Shi Qing’s body. When she heard those words, she said with a smile: “Don’t worry, it will be definitely behaved this time. I didn’t mean to bring it, but my brother was afraid that I would encounter danger on the way, so he insisted that I take it, saying that it’s good to have its protection on the journey.”

Lu Shi Qing smiled “heh” in his heart. In today’s world, no one was afraid of dogs. If she was really in danger, what this stupid dog could do to protect her. Yuan Yu was clearly worried that he had bad intentions towards his precious sister, so he sent it to frighten him.

Bad intentions? Is he that kind of person?

He walked away uncomfortably, sat down beside the carriage, opened the water bag, and raised his head to drink.

Yuan Ci Xian glanced at the low stool under him, and couldn’t help feeling that he was picky about travelling. She then took out a handkerchief from her bag, spread it on the muddy ground beside him, thinking that this would suffice. But when her body bent over, she instead touched the surface of a stool.

The moment her butt was about to hit the ground, it seemed that someone swiftly placed a small stool under her.

She was taken aback, and when she turned her head, she saw Zhao Shu behind her with saliva flowing down, smiling shyly at her.

Lu Shi Qing turned and stared at him: “Who allowed you to move the stool out of my carriage?”

“Mater, this stool of yours is also idle. How can you let Lancang County Princess’s precious body sit on the ground?”

Yuan Ci Xian felt that this young man was very promising, so she smiled at him, took out a festive mooncake wrapped in red silk, and handed it to him, “Thank you, Brother Zhao, this is for you to eat.”

Zhao Shu licked his lips, and just about to reached out his hands to hold it, when he heard Lu Shi Qing asked coldly, “Is the water boiled?”

He stopped suddenly, looking resentful.

But Lu Shi Qing said without sympathy: “Go, I want to clean my hands and face.”

Zhao Shu had no choice but to leave angrily, and quietly spitted his bitterness to Cao An, who was silently making a fire on the side.

Yuan Ci Xian still stretched out one hand, and asked Lu Shi Qing with a smile: “Then you eat?”

Lu Shi Qing glanced at her, turned his head away, and said coldly: “No need.”

“Assistant Minister Lu, this is the so-called ‘Sending mooncakes for thousands of miles, the gift is light but the affection is heavy’, you can at least take a bite.”

He ignored it. A good man did not bend his waist for a mooncake that was originally intended for others.

She sighed: “Okay, I’ll send it to Brother Zhao and the others.” After saying that, she made a gesture to get up.

However, Lu Shi Qing was one step faster than her. He stretched out his long hand and took the cake in her hand, then coughed and said, “Just give it to me. I’ll give it to them after they finish their work.”

Yuan Ci Xian thought it was funny that he pretended to be serious, and said “Oh” calmly, and gave him a big oil-paper bag: “Then give them all these.”

He took it then set it aside.

She continued to seriously advise: “You must give it to them, don’t steal it.”

Lu Shi Qing threw her a sharp gaze and was about to ask who she wanted to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with, but suddenly felt something was wrong, rubbed the slightly warm mooncake in his hand, and said, “Yuan Ci Xian, are you lying to me? There is no one in the radius of thirty miles, but this mooncake is warm, where did you get it?”

Yuan Ci Xian choked. One hundred dense one sparse, she forgot about this problem.

She was silent for a while, guessing that when Lu Shi Qing called her name, it means that he was angry, so her voice weakened a little, and said honestly: “It was sent to me by Shi Cui in a hurry…” She stretched out her hand to swear, “But she went back after sending it. I’m really alone right now, I have nowhere to go, it’s very pitiful.”

Lu Shi Qing knew that she was full of lies, and didn’t want to care which sentence was true, so he smiled and said: “If you want to ask for trouble, just do it yourself. It’s just that Lu’s carriage can’t accommodate you, the sky and the earth is big here, please take care of yourself.”

Yuan Ci Xian didn’t think that he would give up the carriage to her, already satisfied when he didn’t drive her away. She chatted a few words with him, and when it was late at night, she very self-consciously took out a huge fine net from the bag, looked around, and tied it to the two low trees on the side.

Lu Shi Qing cleaned his hands and face and was ready to rest. When he looked back and saw that she was skillful in pulling the net, she was probably prepared, he didn’t bother to care about her anymore. He ordered Zhao Shu and Cao An to watch the night, and then got into the carriage and lay down with his clothes on.

Although it was not late autumn, it was still a little cold at night, and this place was close to the river, so the humidity was heavy. After lying down with his eyes closed for a while, he was awakened by a gust of wind blowing into the carriage. After a few silent counts, he got up and raised the corner of the carriage curtain, and looked in Yuan Ci Xian’s direction.

She curled up into a ball, lying on her side in a net between two low trees, and seemed to be fast asleep. Xiao Hei was guarding at the bottom.

He frowned, hesitated whether to go down, put on his boots but met the pair of dog eyes staring at him, he had no choice but to put down the curtain and return to the bed in the carriage. But he lay down for a long time without falling asleep, until the second gust of wind came in again, he finally sat up again, gritted his teeth, and walked towards the net.

This was the first time that Lu Shi Qing approached a dog on his own initiative since an incident seven years ago. For this reason, he almost took three steps and retreated two steps. Finally he came to its front, but he heard the dog barking at him.

He stopped on the spot with stiff limbs, and was about to call Yuan Ci Xian who was a few steps away. But then she woke up by herself, rubbed her eyes and stared at him for a while before she seemed to realize: “Assistant Minister Lu?”

Lu Shi Qing’s lips trembled slightly, glanced at Xiao Hei who was barking wildly.

Yuan Ci Xian woke up immediately, told the dog to shut up, then got up, sat in the net and asked: “Are you looking for me?”

She was covered in the net, and her sleepy eyes were funny. Lu Shi Qing endured it, took a deep breath and said with a straight face: “You sleep in my carriage.”

Yuan Ci Xian suspected that she had heard wrong, and confirmed: “I sleep in your carriage, where do you sleep?”

Lu Shi Qing pointed at her net, and said again: “Take the dog away.”

She asked rather worriedly: “But can you sleep here?”

He glanced at her coldly, probably to tell her not to talk anymore nonsense. Yuan Ci Xian had no choice but to roll over and get off the net, and patted Xiao Hei to signal it to follow her.

Lu Shi Qing added: “Except for the bed and quilts, you can’t touch anything in the carriage, and tell the dog to stay outside.”

Yuan Ci Xian was woken up by the noise just now, so her head was a little slower than usual, with an “oh” she headed towards the carriage. After walking halfway, she heard Lu Shi Qing turned over on the net behind her, and then, the net made a creaking sound.

She sobered up in an instant, turned her head abruptly, and tried to stop him, but it was already too late.

The net creaked a few times, and the knots on both sides broke off in unison. With a “bang”, Lu Shi Qing who was wrapped in the net fell to the ground on his back.

He fell very quietly, without even making a muffled grunt, as if he was too dumbfounded.

Yuan Ci Xian froze for a moment, then hurriedly ran to help him, “… Assistant Minister Lu, are you okay?”

All this happened too quickly. Although Lu Shi Qing usually a quick-thinking person, right now he was too stunned and failed to answer the question. After being helped to sit up by her, he tore off the net that was entangled on his head, and asked in disbelief: “Yuan Ci Xian, should you give me an explanation?”

She put her hands on his shoulders with a weeping face, and said hesitantly: “Maybe… maybe your body is too majestic…”

She must not tell him that she forgot to remind him that this net was just enough to bear her weight.

Zhao Shu and Cao An noticed the strange noise, quickly rushed over here, and when they heard this sentence, they all stumbled together.

Majestic body? What did their master do to County Princess that made her experience such an unfathomable word as “majestic body”?

Lu Shi Qing was so angry that he shook off her hand, got up on his own, pointed to her and said, “I’m going back to the carriage, you can sleep wherever you like.”

Yuan Ci Xian worriedly looked at the net that could not be used again, and then heard Zhao Shu said: “Master, you broke County Princess’s net, so you can’t let County Princess sleep in the wild, right?”

Yuan Ci Xian thought that it was not really Lu Shi Qing’s fault this time. At this point she was completely awake, and understood that earlier he came to swap place of sleep with her out of kindness. If it were her, she would also be angry if it ended up like this.

She waved her hand to signal Zhao Shu that he didn’t need to stand up for her, but Lu Shi Qing seemed to become more and more angry when he saw their interaction, and returned to the carriage very quickly.

Yuan Ci Xian was pacing back and forth outside, worried about where to go tonight, and suddenly remembered that just now, when Lu Shi Qing landed, it seemed that his left shoulder hit the ground first. Judging from the movement, it was likely that his skin was broken.

After thinking for a while, she dug out a bottle of ointment from her treasure bag-like baggage, knocked on the wall of his carriage, and asked, “Assistant Minister Lu, are you sleeping?” When she didn’t hear him answering, she continued, “If you don’t speak, I’ll come in.”

Lu Shi Qing quickly said: “Sleeping.”

Candlelight was clearly visible through the curtain of the carriage, he was talking nonsense.

Yuan Ci Xian asked: “Are you hurt? I have ointment with me, do you want to rub it?”

“No need.”

That means he was really hurt. Yuan Ci Xian felt a little guilty, and continued: “I’ll rub some medicine on you, and I won’t bother you again after that. I promise to go back to Chang’an at dawn tomorrow morning.”

“No need.”

But she insisted: “Assistant Minister Lu, can I come in?”

Lu Shi Qing was silent for a while, and just halfway through the word “no”, but she already lost patience from his repeated rejections, and opened the carriage curtain.

As soon as she lifted it, she saw him sitting on the edge of the couch, half naked, wiping his shoulders with a wet handkerchief. Seeing her, he stared blankly and froze, and quickly shook the handkerchief to cover the two red plum blossom on his chest.

Yuan Ci Xian stared at him stupidly, and blinked three times woodenly.