Chapter 14: How about giving me a flower crown?…

“Chirp chirp, I promised Lady Li,” Hu Youning turned around with difficulty. “One must keep their word. Can you… can you just pretend you don’t know?”

“Besides, Lady Li is with my mother, there’s absolutely no danger.”

“Nothing in this world is absolute.” Meng Jun reached out to grab Hu Youning’s sleeve. “Aning, the wife-master is still injured. If something happens, it might be a burden for Lady Hu instead.”

He spoke earnestly. Seeing Hu Youning’s gaze soften, he continued, “You promised her not to tell, and I won’t force you.”

“However, if I guess correctly, she can’t blame you, right?”

Hu Youning’s breath hitched. Actually, he was a bit scared too. Yesterday, the water in Changshan Gully was indeed quite rapid. Although his mother had been hunting in Changshan Gully for many years, that was all before the mountain was blasted.

Moreover, he had heard Sun Huolang mention casually before that if the mountain water rises, one must be extra careful when entering and exiting Changshan Gully.

He glanced secretly at the young gentleman who was frowning in thought, and nodded almost imperceptibly.

The wind blew the wild flowers in the mountains, creating ripples. As it brushed past the two young men, even their clear voices trembled slightly. “Aning, did the wife-master go to the Fu family?”

The young gentleman looked up, watching Hu Youning nervously, thinking to himself. There was no one in this small mountain hollow, and yesterday Fu Lanxian had come to make trouble once.

Most likely, Hu Sanniang saw that Li Ruantang was skilled and wanted to ask her to go to the Fu family to warn them, but was afraid Li Ruantang would tell him and he wouldn’t agree.

Otherwise, there’s no reason why everyone in the Hu family would know except him.

Hu Youning was stunned and shook his head.

“No?”

Meng Jun asked puzzled, “Then… did she go to the fields?”

The Hu family was in straitened circumstances, it wasn’t impossible that Li Ruantang wanted to help them.

But Hu Youning shook his head again.

The young gentleman sat on a big rock, cupping his face with a frown. Strange, if she and Hu Sanniang weren’t in the village, could they have gone outside the village?

No, that’s not possible.

Meng Jun shook his head repeatedly, denying this thought. Li Ruantang had clearly said that returning to the capital wasn’t urgent. Besides, these past two days were only cloudy, without a drop of rain. Perhaps Sun Huolang would arrive at Hu family village tomorrow. By then, sending out a message and waiting for people from the manor to come pick them up would be safer.

“By the small river?”

“The ancestral hall?”

“The Mountain Goddess temple?”

…

The young gentleman asked many places in one breath, but Hu Youning only shook his head.

Now Meng Jun had asked about every place in Hu family village. Putting aside all possibilities, that one impossibility became clear.

“Changshan Gully?”

The young gentleman held his breath secretly, those beautiful eyes staring fixedly at Hu Youning who was hanging his head.

After a moment of silence, the young man’s jet-black hair tips swung out in a subtle arc as he nodded.

“Really Changshan Gully?!” Meng Jun couldn’t help but ask again.

Hu Youning’s cheeks turned slightly red. He gently grabbed the young gentleman’s wrist, somewhat embarrassed. “Chirp chirp, actually today is my birthday. Mother said since we have an honored guest at home, she wanted to make it more lavish.”

“Don’t worry, mother’s traps in the mountains aren’t in the usual dangerous places.”

“So the wife-master went…”

“Lady Li said she also wanted to see the terrain of Changshan Gully, so she went with my mother.” Hu Youning curved his lips. “Chirp chirp, Lady Li didn’t tell you because she was afraid you’d worry.”

“Now that I’ve told you everything, don’t worry too much. My mother is there.”

“When Lady Li returns later, you absolutely mustn’t let on.”

Hu Youning advised one sentence after another, but in the young gentleman’s ears, all he heard was that Li Ruantang and Hu Sanniang went to Changshan Gully together to prepare for this birthday.

So, when she suddenly brought up Aning’s marriage last night, was she testing his thoughts?

The young gentleman was slightly stunned.

But then again, they weren’t really wife and husband, so he didn’t need to think too much about it.

Meng Jun curved his lips, suppressing the inexplicable heaviness on his heart, and very naturally linked arms with Hu Youning. “Aning, today is your birthday, why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

Usually, when those young men who grew up with him had birthdays, they needed to prepare gifts half a month in advance.

Now that he was eating and living at the Hu family’s, he couldn’t give anything valuable, but he still had a sincere heart to wish him well.

Hu Youning smiled shyly, “Actually, every year on this day, our family just eats a bowl of noodle soup, and then each person eats a poached egg, and that’s considered celebrating the birthday. It’s not really a big deal.”

“How is it not a big deal?” Meng Jun smiled as they walked together towards the Hu family home. “By the way, is there anything you want? When we return to the capital in a few days, I’ll buy it for you as a belated birthday gift.”

“No, no, that’s not necessary.” Hu Youning hurriedly waved his hands. Of course, there were things he wanted, but how could he let chirp chirp specially give them?

Seeing the young gentleman’s eyes looking somewhat dispirited, the ‘no’ that was about to come out of Hu Youning’s mouth suddenly changed. As if possessed, he blurted out, “How about you give me a flower crown?”

“A flower crown?” Meng Jun was stunned. He hadn’t learned how to make one yet.

There were ready-made ones in the house.

The young gentleman lightly pursed his lips. But those were given by Li Ruantang, and he had already worn them. It wouldn’t be right to give them away.

In any case, they still had to go dig wild astragalus with shovels. The young gentleman felt relieved. At worst, he could pick some fresh flowers and make one to give him.

However.

“Aning.” Meng Jun frowned slightly. “If we two young men exchange flower crowns, won’t the Mountain Goddess misunderstand?”

He asked very seriously.

Hu Youning hadn’t expected him to still remember this. Feeling a bit guilty, he said, “Don’t worry.”

“The Mountain Goddess is a deity, all-knowing. Of course, she won’t misunderstand us.”

The young gentleman was stunned hearing this, secretly marveling. It’s only because there are few people in Hu family village. If it were in the capital, with so many women and men, wouldn’t this all-knowing Mountain Goddess be so annoyed that she’d stop caring about human affairs?

As Hu Youning spoke, his gaze turned to the window with a bird’s nest under the eaves. After a moment, he lowered his voice and said, “Chirp chirp, actually I was just joking earlier.”

He smiled gently at the young gentleman. “It doesn’t count.”

Eh? How can that be?

Meng Jun’s expression remained unchanged, but in his heart, he had already made up his mind to give Aning a flower crown as a birthday gift.

When they went out again, the young gentleman specially asked Hu Youning for a flower basket, saying he wanted to pick some petals for a bath. Fortunately, Aning also seemed preoccupied and didn’t ask much.

That afternoon, after returning from the mountain hollow, Meng Jun made an excuse of being tired and curled up in the room, busying himself. Aning hadn’t taught him how to make a flower crown yet, so the young gentleman bent the willow twigs back and forth in his hands, unable to form a shape.

He sighed pitifully, lying on the kang bed tossing and turning. His gaze fell on the flower crown Li Ruantang had given him, but he quickly looked away.

No, he couldn’t take it apart.

He had only worn it once, it would be a shame to take it apart. The young gentleman buried his face in the blanket, feeling troubled.

Gradually, there were sounds of people outside the courtyard.

Li Ruantang was still injured after all, and even though she entered Changshan Gully, she didn’t go far before exhausting her strength. Fortunately, Hu Sanniang’s traps had yielded a bountiful harvest.

Now the two were chatting and laughing as they approached. As soon as they pushed open the door, Hu Youning, who had heard the commotion, came to greet them.

“Mother, Lady Li.” He lowered his head slightly, taking the fish basket from Li Ruantang’s hand.

The young gentleman lay by the window, secretly watching Li Ruantang speaking gently with Aning. She was smiling, reaching into her sleeve to take out a brand new small wooden comb.

Hmph, he had worried for so long. So she really did go to find a birthday gift for Aning!

***

She said to him: “Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change it!” (Female-dominant)

Liu Changning transmigrated into a female cannon fodder character in a female-dominant novel.

After reading the first half of the novel’s plot, the first thing she did upon transmigration was to divorce the Pan Jinlian-style male protagonist she had just married.

She indulged herself, pretending to be ugly and poor.

But as time passed, the way that man looked at her became more and more unusual…

Liu Changning was dumbfounded: Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!

――

This lifetime, Pei Yuanshao was rejected by the same woman twice!

The first time, she drove him away. Forced by the situation, he endured the waves of anger in his heart, yielding and humbling himself.

That person lay slanted on a rocking chair, her sallow face emotionless: “If you don’t want a divorce, go cook!”

Pei Yuanshao’s face was dark and gloomy: “You!”

The second time, after the crisis in Jinling City was resolved, the new emperor sent someone to pick him up. He turned around, stammering: “I… I have to go. If you keep me…”

That person lay on the kang bed, her back to him, as if she had long anticipated this day, crisp and clear: “Goodbye!”

Pei Yuanshao was so angry his fingers trembled: “You… you!”

The mission of family and country made him restrain himself, averting his eyes and turning to leave this broken household.

Two years later, they met again. Seeing her ethereal face, his body shook like a sieve.

“She was originally a ‘she’!”

At the Qionglin Banquet, the top scholar of the imperial examination, a talented person with exceptional speech and conduct, all the unmarried young gentlemen from aristocratic families looked at her with shy and timid eyes.

The peerless imperial official Pei Yuanshao felt the anger in his heart erupt. He pointed at the woman surrounded by the crowd at the Qionglin Banquet, his thin lips slightly curled: “Little sister, I wants that person to be the wife-master of my Mingde Prince Manor.”