Jiang Xiaohu’s secret about being A Mumu was well-guarded.
On one hand, he feared being discovered for intentionally writing bad endings in his previous books to torment readers, which could lead to him being hooded and beaten. On the other hand, those books were hardly considered proper literature.
He had confided this secret to Bai Li because Bai Li didn’t care if he was a proper person. From the beginning, he never concealed himself from Bai Li, nor did he pretend to be a gentleman. Consequently, Bai Li knew him well and often teased him about being A Mumu.
When he first met Luo Qingyu, she was only fourteen years old, and he subconsciously wanted to appear more respectable. After all, he was in front of a fourteen-year-old girl, and at that time, he never wished for that little girl to fall for him. Thus, he unconsciously played the role of a friendly older brother, and after acting for so long, Jiang Huai almost believed he was actually a decent person.
Fortunately, being A Mumu allowed him to be himself again, and all his usual despicable, dark, and lewd little thoughts were hidden away in his books. He had kept this secret from Luo Qingyu for a very long time, only revealing it now.
“Y-y-yes… Jiang Huai Gege?” Luo Qingyu’s voice became a little stammered.
She hadn’t not read A Mumu’s famous three books: Floating Clouds Flowery Records, Glazed Flowery Records, and the currently writing Warm Jade Exquisite Melody. They had been serialized for several years and were incredibly popular among young disciples in the Eastern Region. Anyone who owned a collector’s edition published by Ziyun Pavilion could brag about it for a long time. Out of boredom, Luo Qingyu had quietly researched them and even read them through in secret while under her covers.
Much of her early understanding of love came from these scripts. She didn’t envy the romantic affairs in the stories, but she particularly liked the female characters in each book who employed all sorts of schemes to drive away the men around the male protagonist. She had even secretly memorized many of their strategies. Yet, now she suddenly heard that this book was written by Jiang Huai.
Jiang Huai’s eyes were innocent and tinged with a bit of shame. “You’ve read them, haven’t you?”
Given her strong reaction earlier, it was too late to conceal anything now. Luo Qingyu responded with a guilty whisper, “I, I have read them.”
“Then shall we not talk about this story? Shall we switch to another one?” Jiang Huai looked at her with a smile. “I’ll tell you the last volume of Warm Jade Exquisite Melody.”
Jiang Huai snuggled under the quilt and earnestly began telling Luo Qingyu the story. Luo Qingyu listened attentively, but as she listened, she looked at him, somewhat lost in thought. “This time… why is the ending like this?”
“Because a while ago, while chatting with Shizun, I heard her say that she dislikes the heartbreaking endings in those scripts. Since I hadn’t written the ending yet, I wrote a more fulfilling one.”
Jiang Huai answered frankly.
Luo Qingyu let out a small “Oh.”
Sincerity can sometimes be a killer move, and sometimes it’s like the thorns on a rose bush. But if you love roses, you must accept the sharp thorns on their branches; otherwise, even the most passionate rose is incomplete.
Luo Qingyu was still a little dazed.
In her impression, Jiang Huai was always so gentle and humble, as if he knew a little about everything, and could occasionally see through her little thoughts. However, deeper feelings seemed to have always escaped him. But Luo Qingyu now suddenly realized that her Jiang Huai Gege had written about so many different types of women in his books. It was unlikely he hadn’t noticed those deeply hidden thoughts, perhaps he simply chose not to expose them.
It felt as if, from this moment on, she was gradually seeing another side of her Jiang Huai Gege that she had never understood before.
This suddenly made her feel an inexplicable unease, as if many things were quietly slipping out of her control. She buried her cheek on Jiang Huai’s chest and nuzzled him, muttering softly, “I’m a little sleepy.”
“Then get some good rest. Do you want me to hold you?”
“Mhm.”
Luo Qingyu snuggled closer to Jiang Huai. Jiang Huai gently pulled the girl into his embrace and kissed her forehead.
Luo Qingyu’s unease in her heart slowly melted away the moment she was held.
***
Early morning.
A mountain rain had fallen last night, and the early morning mist was hazy.
Jiang Huai woke up very early. Luo Qingyu was still curled up tightly in his arms. He gently woke her up and, after asking what she wanted to eat, got out of bed, tucked Luo Qingyu in again, and headed towards the kitchen. However, as soon as he opened the door, he saw, through the dense mist, a woman sitting on the branches of the old tree in the courtyard. Dressed in a light purple silk nightgown, her figure was indistinct in the mist.
He looked up, his gaze falling on her calves, pale in the mist, like the waning moon at dusk.
“Good morning,” Jiang Huai said casually.
Luo Yueguan looked down at him. A thick mist separated them, so Jiang Huai couldn’t see the complex emotions in Luo Yueguan’s eyes.
“Why are you up so early?” Her voice was languid.
“I’ve been getting up at this hour to make breakfast for you both these past few days. What about you, why are you up so early today?”
Jiang Huai clearly remembered that Luo Yueguan always slept in late.
Luo Yueguan couldn’t honestly answer Jiang Huai’s question because she hadn’t slept all night. She had spent the entire night regretting sharing her senses with Luo Qingyu through Daoist magic. Perhaps the most significant moment wasn’t the time Jiang Huai had excessively bullied Luo Qingyu, but rather lying in bed, curled up under the covers, the faint tingling sensation on her tongue that had made her daze for a very, very long time.
It was clearly just lips touching lips, and tongues touching tongues, yet she couldn’t explain why she had thought about it for so long, so long that it made her uneasy. She groggily forced herself to sleep, but in her half-awake state, she suddenly dreamed of herself straddling Jiang Huai, him gently holding her waist and leaning in for a kiss. She woke up from the dream, and after waking, she inexplicably kept recalling the scene from the dream for a long time.
She tried hard not to think about it, so she put on her clothes and came to sit in the courtyard. She stared blankly into the thick fog for a long time, but as she recalled the scene again, it had become as hazy and distant as the mist.
“Just happened to wake up early,” Luo Yueguan jumped down from the ancient tree and landed beside Jiang Huai.
Her purple nightgown clung perfectly to her body. It seemed she wasn’t wearing any undergarments beneath the nightgown. It was tailored to fit, although the neckline was a bit low, unable to fully contain her full bosom. However, it seemed more comfortable to reveal a bit this way. The waistline of the dress was particularly fitted, accentuating her slender waist while also shaping her full, rounded, and plump buttocks, which were described as being as soft and juicy as ripe peaches.
“What do you want for breakfast?” Luo Yueguan asked calmly.
“Qingyu wants to eat fried cakes. Do you want anything?”
“I want glutinous rice cake and sweet soup made from ground soybeans.”
“That would require soaking the glutinous rice and soybeans in advance, which takes time. How about we eat it tomorrow?”
“No, I want glutinous rice cake now.”
“I already said you can’t have it this morning.”
“But I want it.”
“How can someone your age be so fond of being unreasonable?”
Jiang Huai gave her a lingering look. He knew that he couldn’t reason with unreasonable women, so he went directly to the kitchen and started preparing the fried cakes Luo Qingyu wanted. Luo Yueguan watched him standing in the fog and soon saw his figure disappear into the mist.
Suddenly, she felt a sense of inexplicable loss.
***
Luo Yueguan did not appear in the courtyard during breakfast. Luo Qingyu knocked on her door to inquire, and Luo Yueguan replied that she had no appetite and they should just eat. So, Bai Li happily ate Luo Yueguan’s portion. After breakfast, Jiang Huai reluctantly got up to check on the glutinous rice he had soaked. It wasn’t that he deliberately wanted to trouble Luo Yueguan, but glutinous rice needed to be soaked for at least four shichen to be delicious.
The glutinous rice cake Luo Yueguan mentioned was a specialty snack from the Eastern Region, eaten with white sugar as a dessert. However, Jiang Huai thought about it and made some improvements. He took Luo Qingyu and Bai Li to pick some lotus leaves and, out of boredom, taught the two girls how to wrap zongzi.
The glutinous rice cakes were steamed wrapped in lotus leaves. Jiang Huai also added some preserved osmanthus he made last autumn. As for the dipping sauce, in addition to white sugar, he also prepared chopped nuts mixed with crispy candy and several kinds of fruit jam.
He indeed carried countless strange seasonings because he genuinely enjoyed cooking. Every time he served delicious food to Chu Xianning and saw her expression of joy as she took a bite, that was when he was happiest.
At noon, Jiang Huai brought out a copper pot in the courtyard, with a pile of sliced beef and lamb and various vegetables arranged around it. He tried knocking on Luo Yueguan’s door and called her out to eat together. However, Luo Yueguan seemed to be asleep and didn’t respond, so he and Bai Li and Luo Qingyu ate until they were full. It wasn’t until the afternoon that his glutinous rice cakes were finally steamed, filling the entire courtyard with the fresh fragrance of glutinous rice and lotus leaves.
He cut the glutinous rice cakes into blocks the size of mahjong tiles, arranged them on a plate, with many small dishes around them containing various dipping sauces. He knocked on Luo Yueguan’s door again, and this time he finally heard a response, “The door is unlocked.”
So he pushed the door open.
The moment the door opened and Jiang Huai walked in, Luo Yueguan seemed to be tucking something under the quilt. Jiang Huai didn’t see clearly. He simply walked to Luo Yueguan’s side and placed the prepared glutinous rice cake in front of her. “Here, it’s done.”
Luo Yueguan turned her face away. “I don’t want to eat it now.”
“Do you think these little tricks of yours can make me lose my temper and get angry? Heh, not at all.” Jiang Huai sneered, sat on the bed, picked up a piece of glutinous rice cake, and brought it to her delicate pink lips. “Try a piece.”
“I won’t try it.” Luo Yueguan tightly closed her red lips.
“It’s especially delicious. I’ve already tried it.”
“I won’t try it.”
But the moment Luo Yueguan opened her mouth, Jiang Huai directly put the glutinous rice cake into it. Luo Yueguan’s eyes widened. She lightly hit Jiang Huai’s body with her small hands in a complaining manner, then she seriously began to chew the glutinous rice cake. Jiang Huai looked at her eyes with anticipation. But Luo Yueguan just looked up, then looked at him innocently, “It’s just so-so. Not as delicious as the ones I ate when I was little.”
This time, Jiang Huai was a little exasperated.
