Chapter 40: Whom Did He Encounter? Of Course, the Servant Feeding the Cranes, No…

During these two months, Meng Huan always had chance encounters with her.

If Wen Xi was present, Wen Zhibai would say some ordinary things. If Wen Xi was sent away or not around, she would say those kinds of things.

Meng Huan wasn’t stupid. He instinctively felt that this woman liked him.

He had a good impression of her, but he could also see clearly that she was Wen Zhaoyin’s cousin. If he dared to do anything and was discovered, with the nature of the female-dominant world, he would likely be beaten to death or at least half-crippled if not killed.

“No more feeding the cranes today! Let’s go back!” He pulled Wen Xi to turn around, but Wen Zhibai had already quickly walked over from the other side, arriving in front of them in the blink of an eye.

Meng Huan thought that with Wen Xi present, she certainly wouldn’t go too far. So he just stood there frowning unhappily. Who knew she would actually come forward and directly grab his wrist.

This was the first physical contact between the two.

Wen Xi, carrying a basket, was so shocked that his mouth fell open. He was stunned for several seconds before reacting, looking at Wen Zhibai with both anger and panic, while quickly reaching out to pull her hand away.

“Madam! Young Master is the family head’s concubine, how can you overstep your bounds! Quickly let go of my Young Master!”

A man could not be touched by a woman other than his wife. Even when a physician took the pulse, they had to do it through a handkerchief to avoid suspicion. What Madam Wen was doing now was really putting his Young Master in a fatal position!

Wen Zhibai was a woman. Even though she was often ill, she still had some strength. If she really wanted to grab someone, it wasn’t that easy to break free.

Meng Huan also tried to move his wrist, but still couldn’t break free. Knowing it was futile, he stopped moving. “What are you doing?”

“In front of the wife, you call me sister-in-law. In front of Wen Shu, you call me Young Master. In private, you call me Meng Huan. Wen Zhibai, you’re quite good at calling names.”

One reason he didn’t dare to make trouble was fear of being beaten. The other main reason was that none of the women in the Wen family were simple.

Although Wen Zhibai hid it well, she was still a few levels inferior compared to Wen Zhaoyin. He could occasionally see some clues, seeing the impure thoughts under her sickly exterior.

He didn’t want to escape the tiger’s den only to board a wolf’s pirate ship.

Hearing this, Wen Zhibai laughed. “Pfft, Meng Huan, didn’t you let me call you that? How can you blame me now?”

Stumped by her retort, Meng Huan hesitated for a moment, wanting to say she was distorting the facts, but not knowing how to say it. He continued to stand there in a stalemate with her.

Seeing him like this, Wen Zhibai immediately softened her attitude. “I like you, can’t you see that? You were willing to chat and joke with me before, so why have you started avoiding me recently?”

He had been willing to talk before because he hadn’t detected her motives, thinking she was just a simple woman. Now that he had discovered it, he naturally wanted to stay far away.

But Meng Huan couldn’t directly state it, so he could only say: “I am your cousin’s concubine. I shouldn’t be close to you in the first place. What are you saying about liking or not liking? I’ll immediately tell the Madam!”

Wen Xi on the side no longer dared to speak. Madam Wen actually said she liked Young Master. If someone else heard this, Young Master would be drowned in a pond tomorrow!

How could she be so reckless? Clearly, the family head had kindly taken her in, an orphan with no one to rely on, and even supported her to take the imperial examinations. Forget about being grateful, she actually had designs on the family head’s concubine and tried to lay her hands on him!

Wen Zhibai looked at the master and servant in front of her, chuckling softly. Then she released Meng Huan’s hand that she was holding. “I didn’t mean anything else. It’s just that I will be leaving tomorrow to take the imperial examinations, and I’m afraid I won’t be able to return. So I wanted to say a few words to you.”

“I wonder if you would accompany me alone to that cool pavilion over there to sit for a while?”

She had already blocked the way out tightly, not giving them a chance to refuse at all. Meng Huan had a dark face. Usually, he would just give in when threatened by Wen Zhaoyin, but now there was one more.

“Young Master…” Wen Xi looked at him worriedly, his gaze shifting between the two.

“Forget it, let’s just sit. Let’s go.” Meng Huan made a decision and took the lead in walking towards the cool pavilion, casually choosing a stone stool to sit down and wait for her.

Wen Zhibai knew he was straightforward. After stopping Wen Xi in place, she walked over by herself.

Poor Wen Xi just stood there watching them, not knowing what they said to each other or what Madam Wen gave his Young Master. Not long after, his Young Master walked over with a dark face.

Meng Huan walked to his side and said in a low voice, “Don’t talk, we’ll discuss it when we get back.”

The two carried that basket of shrimp, untouched, back to Qingzhu Courtyard. On the way, Wen Xi was constantly worried and wanted to speak, but his Young Master was always lost in thought and didn’t pay attention to his hesitation to speak, not giving him a chance to talk.

After returning to the room, Young Master directly sent him out and locked himself in the room alone. No matter how much he knocked, the door wouldn’t open.

No way around it, he could only pace back and forth in front of the door like an ant on a hot pan.

Inside the room.

Meng Huan had already sat on the dressing table, taking out a bronze token from his bosom and carefully observing it in his hand.

The script on this token was very ancient. He could guess about seventy to eighty percent of the current script in the female-dominant world. But as for the ancient script of this world, although he hadn’t studied it, in short, he couldn’t understand it.

Wen Zhibai said she liked him, that he was a special man. She played the affection card with him, saying that as long as he placed this bronze token in Wen Zhaoyin’s study, she would take him out after the imperial examinations and marry him as her primary husband.

Ridiculous. He didn’t care about any of these things at all. Didn’t she try to understand him before saying that?

Perhaps all the men in the world wanted a good place to belong, wanted a good wife. But he wasn’t from here and wasn’t interested in these things.

Using the position of primary husband to tempt him really had no effect at all. But her mention of taking him out of the residence was quite attractive.

“Just placing it in the study would work…?”

He kept flipping the token in his hand, unable to make up his mind. He just hid it in the hidden compartment of the jewelry box first, intending to deal with it after thinking it through in a few days.

After putting away the item, Meng Huan called Wen Xi, who had been standing outside the door, to come in. He warned him never to tell anyone about what happened today, saying he was afraid of being punished if it was found out.

This time, Wen Xi’s thoughts were surprisingly consistent with his. He only asked him to never see Wen Zhibai again in the future and agreed to keep it secret for him.

“Young Master, you don’t know how serious today’s matter is. If the concubine of an ordinary family touches an outside woman, he would be beaten to death in public. I would also be beaten to death together or sold off. So in order to survive, we can’t say anything.”

“Madam Wen is taking the imperial examinations. Spreading this matter would impact her official career, so she probably won’t publicize it. As long as we keep our mouths shut on our side, perhaps we can save our lives.”

Only then did Meng Huan realize. No wonder the usually rule-abiding Wen Xi was willing to keep it secret for him. It turned out this matter could endanger their lives.

“But, but she was the one who took the initiative to grab me. We were just going to feed the cranes and didn’t intentionally make an appointment with her.”

When convicting someone, shouldn’t there be a distinction between the principal offender and the accessory? Although he had some thoughts at first, he didn’t do anything later. No matter how wrong it was, it shouldn’t be blamed on him.

Wen Xi let out a long sigh and said in a low voice, “Being a man is the biggest mistake.”

These words carried a bit of imperceptible heaviness in their calmness. Meng Huan was momentarily at a loss for words and just fell silent.

“Alright.” He only said two words after a long time, no longer thinking of arguing anything and directly giving in.

In this world, being born a man was the original sin. Even without mistakes, there were still mistakes. Small mistakes were big mistakes, and big mistakes were unforgivable sins.

Wen Xi’s mood was also a bit low. After all, following Meng Huan, his thoughts would unconsciously be influenced. At this time, he also felt that this world seemed too unfair to men.

The two of them were both in a somewhat complex mood now, both lost in thought. They had no intention of taking care of other things and forgot about the basket of shrimp they brought back, leaving it in the corner.

In the evening, as soon as Wen Zhaoyin entered the door, she noticed the basket in the corner. She walked over with her hands behind her back and saw a whole basket of shrimp placed there.

Hmm?

She turned her head to look at Meng Huan, who had just stood up from the couch, and asked, “You went to the Crane Courtyard today?”

The latter also noticed the basket and only then remembered that the two of them had brought the shrimp back untouched and hadn’t dealt with it. Wouldn’t this arouse suspicion out of nowhere?

The more he thought about it, the more nervous he became. Meng Huan didn’t dare to stay silent, so he had to brace himself and nod. “Yes, I went to see the cranes.”

He didn’t know how to explain the matter of that basket of shrimp, so he first started talking about the method of teasing cranes that Wen Shu had told him to buy time.

“I thought it was interesting, so I went to take a look. Alas, I didn’t expect it to be too hot outside, so the cranes didn’t come out. We just carried the shrimp back.”

After saying that, he instinctively held his breath and pretended to look at her as if nothing had happened.

Wen Zhaoyin didn’t continue standing in front of that basket, but walked towards him step by step. “Oh, is that so?”

“Yes, yes! Those few cranes are lazy, greedy, and afraid of the heat. It’s fine in spring, but now that the weather is hot, you can’t lure them out even with food.”

Meng Huan observed her expression, but found that this woman was still as expressionless as ever. Even if there was that kind of ambiguous smile, he couldn’t observe any useful information.

The more he thought about it, the more nervous he became. He couldn’t help but glance at the dressing table where the token was placed, but then felt it was a bit too deliberate. He quickly withdrew his gaze and placed it on the candied fruit on the low table.

“Try it, this was just delivered today. It’s sour and particularly delicious!”

She approached step by step, her pace a little slower than usual.

“Really? Is it that delicious?”

Wen Zhaoyin passed by the dressing table, her hand casually raised and lightly swept across the tabletop, frightening Meng Huan who was watching nervously from the side.

This is called not fearing ghosts knocking on the door when you haven’t done anything wrong. When you’ve done something wrong, you’re always on edge.

Although he couldn’t read the characters on the token, he could feel that the thing definitely had a bad influence on Wen Zhaoyin.

So he was very afraid, afraid of being discovered by the owner herself.

Fortunately, she only lightly swept over it and didn’t investigate carefully. She walked to the low table and sat across from him.

Meng Huan picked up a piece of candied fruit and handed it to her. She readily took it and took a small bite, chewing while asking, “Did you meet anyone in the Crane Courtyard?”

“Anyone? What, what person?” He instantly became so nervous that his hair stood on end, and his head felt a bit buzzing.

She asked casually, and after asking, she didn’t even look at him, but it made him feel tremendous pressure.

Meng Huan’s mind was racing. Could it be that she knew? Perhaps someone saw them in the Crane Courtyard and went to report it secretly? Or had she been sending people to monitor him? What should he say now to avoid angering her…

Wen Zhaoyin raised her head and took another piece of candied fruit from the box in front of him, smiling and saying, “What person? Of course, the servant who feeds the cranes. Otherwise, who did you think you would meet?”