Volume 2: Residence in the Capital Chapter 251 Like
Ge Yong's words attracted everyone's attention, especially when Qingyu, who was dressed in a beautiful outfit, appeared. Most of the men present cast their eyes on her. As one of the top girls in Tingyu Cottage, she was naturally beautiful. At this time, she was not wearing any makeup, and her plain clothes and hairpins were even more stunning than those in fancy clothes and ornaments.
Zhang Shou only heard a few lines before he knew that this was a flashback to the scene where Kou Baimen raised gold and broke up with Zhu Guobi, the Duke of Baoguo, who wanted to reconcile. Of course, Kou Baimen is still Kou Baimen, but Zhu Guobi has changed...
He was the one who wrote the foreground story and character biographies. He had also watched numerous TV dramas or plays about the Eight Beauties of Qinhuai, with some good and some bad acting skills. He knew that Qingyu's acting skills might not be as good as those of the popular young actresses of later generations. So after watching for a while, he quietly went behind Zhu Ying while everyone else's attention was focused on Qingyu's lines and the plot.
Sure enough, Zhu Ying, who was not watching the show at all, noticed him immediately. Her eyes lit up, she grabbed his hand, and then quietly pulled him out through the side door.
Perhaps it was because Twelve Rain's reputation was too great. Not only was Wu invited by Ge Yong to set up a screen to watch the fun, but the little ones brought by Zhang Shou also slipped away. Even the servants in the Ge Mansion who were deaf and dumb, the rest of the people asked for the job of serving tea and water so that they could watch the fun from the side, so the yard was actually empty.
Zhu Ying forgot to wear her cloak when she slipped out, and she could not help but stamp her feet in cold. Zhang Shou also noticed it when he came out, and immediately took the young lady with a smile and slipped directly to Ge Yong's study. After entering the room, he borrowed the teacher's kitchen utensils, added smokeless red snail charcoal to the small copper stove, and concentrated on boiling water and making tea.
Zhu Ying stared at Zhang Shou's face as he concentrated on brewing tea for a long time, and then couldn't help but say, "Ah Shou, didn't you say you're not good at the tea ceremony and can't tell the quality of tea?"
Zhang Shou paused, smiled bitterly and said that he was just trying to keep you away from him, so he just made up a story. But he couldn't say it out loud, so he could only say seriously: "So, I'm just pretending to be cultured!"
Zhu Ying was stunned at first, then she couldn't help laughing: "But you are more elegant and refined than those gentlemen who claim to be truly refined! Ah Shou, what kind of tea are you brewing?"
Zhang Shou then turned his head to look at Zhu Ying, and then said meaningfully, "Brown sugar ginger tea." Seeing Zhu Ying dumbfounded, he shrugged and said, "We didn't even wear cloaks and were blown by a lot of cold wind. Of course, we should drink some ginger tea to keep warm. Otherwise, if we choose elegance over temperature, we will end up harming our own health. I don't want to get sick during the New Year!"
Seeing Zhang Shou using a silver pick to pick up a few pieces of brown sugar and put them into the small teapot while talking, Zhu Ying laughed again with great joy: "Ah Shou, you use this teapot that Grandpa Ge usually uses to make brown sugar ginger tea. It will smell sweet and gingery. How can you make tea then? Aren't you afraid that Grandpa Ge will scold you to death?"
"You can scold me if you want. I can leave a few questions for you to change your mind." At this point, Zhang Shou would not say that this teapot was used by Teacher Ge to make ginger tea. He picked up the teapot and poured a bowl of ginger tea to Zhu Ying, and then poured it for himself. When he held the hot tea bowl in his hand, he saw Zhu Ying take a sip and then grinned because of the spiciness. He smiled at her.
"Yingying, when you came here just now, you seemed to be forcing a smile. Is there something wrong?"
Zhu Ying didn't expect that she had acted so calmly, but Zhang Shou could still notice it. Although she wanted to find Zhang Shou immediately and tell him this incredible thing when she was in Shuntian Prefecture, she changed her mind when she arrived at Ge's Mansion. At this moment, facing Zhang Shou's question, she couldn't help but hesitate for a moment, but in the end, she decided to tell him the truth.
"A Shou, today I followed my grandmother, mother and elder brother to the palace to pay New Year's greetings to the Empress Dowager, and then I went to the Emperor. Just after the grand court session, the Emperor asked the cabinet to draft an edict for Wang Dayin to be appointed as the Governor of Xuanda. I thought Deng Xiaodai would also go with him, so I followed Eunuch Lu who was delivering the edict to Shuntian Prefecture Yamen to go out of the palace to find him. But I didn't expect that someone would go to Shuntian Prefecture Yamen to sue my family for marriage fraud!"
At this point, her face was filled with anger, she was simply furious: "The poster said that my family had long been attracted by your talent and beauty, and knew that you were Grandpa Ge's last disciple, so they tricked me to Rongshui Village, and after I fell in love with you, I forced you to come to the capital and lure you, a rare talent, into my Zhu family's trap!"
Zhang Shou was stunned at first, then he couldn't help laughing. His laughter immediately angered Zhu Ying, who was trying to be serious. She put down the bowl in her hand, strode to Zhang Shou, and asked loudly: "I'm talking about serious things, why are you laughing?"
Zhang Shou, who almost died of laughter, ignored Zhu Ying's anger and laughed for a long time before he finally straightened up. He used his other hand to wipe away the tears that had just come out of his laughter. Then he looked up at her as if nothing had happened: "It's because you said this in such a serious tone that I laughed. I never thought that things would change so drastically in 20 years."
Zhu Ying was so angry at Zhang Shou's nonsense that she almost died: "What nonsense are you talking about?"
"How can it not be that twenty years in the east, twenty years in the west? Back then, didn't everyone say that I, a poor boy who cheated on you, a daughter of a famous family? When I first came to the capital, how many people thought I was lucky? I didn't expect that within less than half a year, the story would be reversed, and they actually said that the Zhaoguo Mansion cheated a poor boy like me into marriage!"
"To tell you the truth, it's because you're so nice to me that those idle people have this illusion!"
Zhang Shou's smile deepened. Seeing Zhu Ying's angry face now looking extremely charming because of her shyness, he asked casually, "By the way, for such a consensual thing, what reason report it? Could it be that he said we didn't have a marriage certificate?"
Zhu Ying's eyes widened immediately. "Ah Shou, how did you know? I sent the invitation to Wang Dayin, and he immediately sent someone to the household office to check whether there was a marriage certificate on file for my father. When he heard that there was none, I couldn't believe it."
Zhang Shou immediately laughed: "The files in Shuntianfu's household office are piled up like a mountain, and today is the first day of the first lunar month. Who do you think can confirm whether there is a marriage certificate in such a short time?"
Zhu Ying, with her eyebrows raised, was immediately furious: "Are you saying that the people in Shuntianfu's household office were deceiving Wang Dayin? In fact, they didn't investigate properly at all? It's so audacious... No, when Eunuch Lu and I left, the clerk who first sent the notice and later went to the household office to check the marriage certificate personally also escorted us out. He said he was Deng Xiaodai's uncle! He wouldn't lie to me, right?"
Seeing Zhu Ying's anger turn into shock, Zhang Shou couldn't help but blink at her meaningfully: "Xiao Dai's uncle certainly wouldn't lie to you. But the reason why he was able to give the answer so quickly is very simple. I had asked Xiao Dai to help me check the marriage certificate of the Duke of Zhao's mansion. And Xiao Dai had to ask for his help to verify this kind of thing, so he, as an insider, of course knew the answer."
"Ah!" Zhu Ying stared at Zhang Shou in amazement, and stammered for a long while, "You mean...you mean..."
"So, it's not that the Zhu family knew that there was no marriage certificate, but they still wanted to marry me, a poor girl. It's that I knew that there might not be a marriage certificate, but I kept going in and out and pretending to be your fiancé! What I mean, Yingying, do you understand?"
"I...I...I don't know." Zhu Ying stuttered for the first time. When she said the word "I don't know", she felt very happy. There was no marriage certificate, but her grandmother and mother said that there was an engagement. Maybe it was just a verbal agreement. But Zhang Shou knew it but never said it. Now he opened the window paper to her...
Did he want to say that he really liked her? Of course he did, otherwise he wouldn't have said that he couldn't help himself after he held her in his arms... But he never said it himself. Only when she boldly asked him to marry her quickly, he joked about who else she could marry if not him...
Just as she was thinking about it, she suddenly felt a pair of big hands holding her tightly. She felt the warm breath close at hand and the clear heartbeat, and she heard Zhang Shou's voice again.
"Since you don't know, then I will explain it more clearly. When we first met, you may have liked my appearance and conversation, but I was wary of you at that time, and even kept my distance from you. Because in my opinion, it is impossible for me, a young man who grew up in the countryside, to have an engagement with you, the eldest daughter of the Duke of Zhao. There must be a conspiracy. "
"I asked Xiao Dai to check the situation of my family a long time ago, and later asked him to check the marriage certificate archive of the Duke of Zhao's mansion. Unlike today when Wang Dayin gave an order, it is usually not so easy to check such things, so Xiao Dai actually spent quite a long time to find out that there is no such marriage certificate at all."
Zhang Shou paused, then gently loosened his hand. Seeing Zhu Ying tidying up her hair, and then looking up at him in surprise, he smiled and said, "But during those days when Xiaodai secretly went to investigate, I found that you are not quite the same as I imagined."
"You can treat the villagers in Rongshui Village who are living a hard life with a normal attitude."
"You really want to help those country urchins who are considered by others to be hopeless."
"You are willing to use your own eyes to see the lives of the villagers and talk to those whose status is far lower than yours. All of these have allowed me to see you clearly. Your publicity and arrogance cannot cover up your brightness and sincerity. Therefore, even Princess Yongping, who is your mortal enemy, will tell me not to let you down."
Zhu Ying's face gradually turned red. Some people praised her beauty, and some praised her flamboyance, but that was more because of her family background. In fact, the only people who really liked her personality, apart from her relatives, were the emperor, the empress dowager, and a few others, and at most Grandpa Ge who was helpless with her.
She bit her lip lightly, and then said word by word: "A Shou, I have always thought you are very good. Do you think I am very good too?"
"Yes, I think you are very good, the best among all the girls I have ever met."
Although this was an extremely sweet love talk, Zhu Ying felt sweet in her heart and still couldn't help asking, "How many girls have you met? Do you really think I'm the best? Will you regret it in the future?"
"As long as you remain the same as you are now, I won't regret it." Zhang Shou smiled slightly, and reached out to hug Zhu Ying gently again, "I like you when you laugh loudly, I like you when you talk without restraint, I like you when you are a matchmaker, I also like you when you are carefree, and I like you even more when you like me... Maybe, future life will make you no longer so willful, and more restrained, but..."
“Gold will never turn to sand. Real pearls may fade, but they will never turn to dead fish eyes.”
Zhu Ying felt that her heart was about to burst with joy. She wished Zhang Shou would say those words again and hold her tighter. She said she didn't care about what her elder brother said to her in private, but once she thought about it, she couldn't help but feel a little anxious, especially when she heard that there was no marriage certificate today, she felt an imminent sense of urgency.
What if it was her wishful thinking all along? What if Zhang Shou only agreed to her request because of the engagement?
But now, it turns out that she was just worrying too much. It turns out that Zhang Shou also likes her, and it turns out that he likes her who likes him!
Zhu Ying subconsciously reached out and hugged Zhang Shou's back, which was not strong but rather thin, and tried to make her words sound smoother, but what she said in the end were still only those few words that she kept repeating.
"I'm so happy...A Shou, I'm so happy!"
Zhang Shou couldn't help wanting to thank the poster that reported the marriage fraud of Duke Zhao's mansion. If it wasn't for this kind of thing, maybe he wouldn't have been able to say it just now. He has always been a person who does more than he says. At this moment, with the warm and soft jade in his arms, he couldn't help but use a little strength to push Zhu Ying away a little, and then, under her puzzled gaze, he moved closer again.
He gently kissed the soft and smooth forehead, and when he moved away, he saw that Zhu Ying was completely stunned. He smiled and said, "Yingying, I actually want to get closer to you, but since there is no marriage certificate, then let's wait a little longer. When the marriage certificate between our two families is finalized, everything will be fine."
At that time, I should be able to kiss you legitimately , because at that time, you will be my real fiancée.
Zhu Ying reached out and caressed his forehead, which seemed to still be hot from before, and her eyes finally revealed an infinite smile of joy. She suddenly rushed forward, wrapped her arms around Zhang Shou's neck, pecked him lightly on the cheek, and then hurriedly stepped back, stroking her delicate red lips with some embarrassment.
Then she raised her head and said with a smile: "Now we are even!"
