Thinking of this, Li Ruantang composed her smile, “Young Master need not worry about pregnancy if that’s why you came.”

She turned her face slightly, her expression instantly becoming cold, “If you and I only did as you said—”

Li Ruantang deliberately wanted to draw a clear line with him, that aura long cultivated on the battlefield emanating forth, instantly causing the warmth in the room to recede.

“World… World Miss.” Meng Jun’s voice trembled slightly, sounding pitiful and helpless.

Seeing that he was becoming fearful, Li Ruantang felt relieved.

It seemed that if she spoke a few more cold words, she could make him understand that she was just someone who toyed with people’s hearts and wouldn’t take responsibility.

She pretended to look impatiently at the young gentleman with his head lowered, picked up the cup on the table, took a sip and said, “Young Master is still intact, there can’t possibly be any pregnancy.”

“But World Miss said seventy percent…”

Before Meng Jun could ask, Li Ruantang shook her head decisively, “Absolutely impossible!”

“If Young Master wants to use this to threaten me, I’m afraid you’ve found the wrong person.”

“In my life, I will only marry a man I like.”

“And Young Master is not…”

The words meant to scare him away gradually lost their force.

The gauze lamp before her eyes somehow produced many halos, making the young man supporting her, so close at hand, seem like a hazy silhouette.

Her feet softened, and she fell straight into the young gentleman’s embrace.

“I know Tangtang only wants to marry one person for life.” Meng Jun carefully hugged the confused Li Ruantang. “I also know Tangtang doesn’t like Meng Jun.”

The young gentleman’s tone was low, his slender fingers lightly hooking her belt, pausing before curving his brows and eyes, “But…”

“Tangtang likes Jiu Jiu.”

That night in Changshan Gully, she said many shameless words of love. The young gentleman remembered every single one clearly.

Clearly Meng Jun was him, and Jiu Jiu was also him, yet she only liked Jiu Jiu.

Hmph!

The inexplicable jealousy hidden in his heart was like a wildfire, burning the young gentleman with secret resentment.

He gritted his teeth and turned the storybook to the page with the most mentions. The man in the book used this move to obtain the marriage he wanted.

“Tangtang, don’t be afraid. This medicine is for calming nerves, not some evil poison.”

The young gentleman murmured, carefully covering her with the brocade quilt. Just as he was about to get up, he suddenly remembered how she had winced in pain earlier.

Oh right, he should check her injury first. But to look at the injury, her clothes would have to be removed.

After all, it wasn’t the first time he had applied medicine for her.

Meng Jun glanced at the drowsy Li Ruantang, his slender fingers moving slightly. Soon, several pieces of clothing were thrown out from behind the lowered gauze curtain.

On the soft couch, black hair was casually spread out, covering smooth and delicate shoulders.

Li Ruantang lay deeply asleep on the soft pillow. She seemed to be lying in a misty silence, her whole person much softer than before. Only her tightly furrowed brows were struggling with that last bit of clarity.

The young gentleman was stunned for a moment. He first carefully tucked her hair behind her ear, then said to her in a low voice with a red face, “Tangtang, I’m just going to apply medicine for you. Don’t worry, I won’t look at anything!”

The previous injuries were mostly on her back, and Meng Jun had helped apply medicine a few times, so checking didn’t require much effort to find.

But her injury was on her chest.

The young gentleman only lightly swept his gaze over that bamboo-green undershirt, his ears feeling as if they had been thrown into fire, burning with embarrassment.

“Tang… tang.” He stammered, calling the girl with closed eyes, his slender finger lightly poking her cheek. “I’m going to untie your undershirt. If, if you don’t agree, just tell me.”

As if afraid she would misunderstand something, Meng Jun withdrew his hand and turned his face away nobly, saying, “Don’t worry, I’ll definitely close my eyes tightly when the time comes.”

The room was quiet.

The young gentleman waited for a long while. Seeing that the night outside the window had deepened a few more shades, he finally reached out his fingers again, sitting formally on his knees by her side.

The wick in the gauze lamp suddenly crackled and burst into flames.

This sound was usually unremarkable, but at this moment, Meng Jun was concentrating intently. Hearing this sudden noise, his fingertips, which had just touched the string, trembled slightly, almost directly touching her shoulder exposed outside the quilt.

“I’m, I’m sorry.”

The young gentleman was flustered and at a loss, quickly apologizing in a low voice to the drowsy girl. Those beautiful eyes lowered, the corners of his eyes and brows full of deep red and light pink brought out by shyness, layer upon layer, yet also with a hint of faint joy.

He took several deep breaths, barely suppressing his racing heart, before accurately grasping the bamboo-green string.

White snow and red buds, early spring breeze. It couldn’t cover the bruise on her chest. The young gentleman looked carefully, comparing it several times, and it seemed to have been bitten hard by someone.

He rubbed his reddening and hot cheeks in confusion. Strange, are those who are now her enemies so lacking in martial virtue?

Where’s the logic in biting when you can’t win a fight!

Meng Jun, feeling very distressed, scooped out a large chunk of ointment from the medicine bottle and gently applied it to that towering whiteness.

Not knowing who had left such a poisonous bite, the young gentleman’s brows furrowed into mountain ranges just thinking about it. Li Ruantang feared pain the most, always enduring it silently. If he hadn’t accidentally discovered it tonight, who knows how long she would have suffered this injury alone.

Outrageous! This is really too much!

The young gentleman cursed a few times angrily, then puffed out his cheeks and blew on it for a while. After the ointment had seeped in considerably, he carefully tied the undershirt around Li Ruantang’s neck.

The bamboo-green color was elegant, matching well with her serene sleeping face.

However.

The young man who had just bent down to put on his shoes after carefully covering her with the brocade quilt suddenly had an inconceivable thought.

This injury, it couldn’t have been bitten by some man, could it?!

He froze in place, then shook his head a moment later. It couldn’t be. All the men in the capital trembled at the mention of Li Ruantang. Only Qi Yun…

These two words were like a splash of cold water, instantly chilling the blushing young gentleman to the core.

He hesitantly turned around, looking at the girl sleeping behind the gauze curtain.

Although he knew she wasn’t a woman who easily let others get close, the scenes from those storybooks suddenly came alive.

A tide of sourness like ocean waves tumbled and tossed his foolish heart, filling it with sadness, sinking heavily in his chest.

The young gentleman pressed his lips together and approached the unaware Li Ruantang again. He bent down and gently placed a kiss on her wound, as if only this could dispel the bitterness that had seeped into his bones.

“Tangtang.” His clear voice was full of grievance. Meng Jun carefully examined the storybook spread by her pillow again and again. Though he knew she couldn’t hear anything, he still opened his small cloth bag and said to her in a low voice, “I remember you don’t seem to be a picky eater.”

“So when I came today, I grabbed a handful of several types of rice from the small kitchen. Zhiqiu said rice cooked this way is very fragrant.”

He had specially instructed two servants not to return to the mansion tonight. But now, though he had the rice, there was no pot or small stove in Li Ruantang’s study.

The young gentleman looked half-believingly at the series of marks in the storybook again, pondering very worriedly.

In a moment, those drooping phoenix eyes brightened, and he happily walked towards the door. In the courtyard, the two maids he had summoned looked at each other in bewilderment.

But the young man before them had a solemn expression, and in his hand he held the mutton-fat jade that could mobilize the entire Suqing Prince’s mansion.

Even if the maids had doubts, they dared not question. Several times they wanted to help Meng Jun, who was in a mess from the smoke, to start the fire, but were waved away by him.

The jade plate in the sky had long since tired and hidden in the clouds, and the maids guarding the courtyard gate were secretly slacking off.

In the night, only that clear and handsome figure was still bustling about. The jumping firelight gradually coaxed out the rich aroma of rice grains.

Whew, he really did it!

The young gentleman wiped the fine sweat from the tip of his nose with his sleeve, his eyes and brows brimming with light, looking expectantly at the storybook placed to the side.

Now he only had to wait for the pot to boil, then feed Li Ruantang the rice he had cooked. Meng Jun lowered his eyes shyly, cupping his face and smiling gently. This way, she would really become his wife-master!