Wine-scented Beauty

Chapter 84: A Glimmer of Hope Amidst the Darkness

After seeing Qiu and the others off, Ji Meiqing wiped away her tears and earnestly confessed to him the bad things she had done.

“I did put a drug in that meat.” She smiled mysteriously. “It’s a way of repaying you for taking care of me before. It’s just a little bit of croton oil.”

She then playfully stuck out her tongue at the end, adding, "No matter how much Brother Lu scolds me, I don't regret giving them croton oil."

Lu Yu said helplessly, "Have you heard what I said?"

She chuckled twice, then pushed him back into the house, poured him a cup of tea, and said ingratiatingly, "Hey, thank you for colluding with me!"

He took it, smiled, and finished drinking it.

The next second, Ji Meiqing pounced on him, staring at him curiously, which left Lu Yu completely bewildered.

"What's wrong?" He didn't look away, just stared at her.

Ji Meiqing shook her head, her gaze still fixed on him, but her tone was more playful.

"You're handsome." She stared intently at Lu Yu, then noticed a blush on his ear. Ji Meiqing's teasing of him felt a little awkward. It wasn't quite right anymore. So she said a few more things.

Lu Yu felt a surge of anger and embarrassment, unsure whether he should look at her.

"Brother Lu, are you shy?" She playfully tried to feel the temperature of his face, but he grabbed her arm. Ji Meiqing was stunned for a moment, then realized what she was doing, and the atmosphere suddenly became awkward.

Ji Meiqing chuckled dryly and made up an excuse on the spot, "I... I saw that your face was so red, so I thought you must be sick."

"I'm fine." He released her hand and got up to leave. Ji Meiqing stared at his retreating figure, somewhat stunned.

Suddenly realizing how reckless I had just acted, I suddenly felt like dying.

He patted his head, feeling conflicted, and went back to his room to stay.

Lu Yu returned that evening, bringing the message directly to her. Ji Meiqing bit her chopsticks, trying hard to process what he had just said.

“We still have some time to go, so it will be difficult to increase production in the short term. But it’s not that we can’t agree to her request.”

After careful consideration, Ji Meiqing put down her chopsticks, her chin resting on them, and slowly said, "How about this, you take charge of the verification. I'll handle the business negotiations. As for production, we'll leave it to the Li family. We'll give them a monthly quota."

"This..." He hesitated, and Ji Meiqing leaned closer and urged, "How is it? How is it?"

"This... is alright." He pondered, "This division of labor is not a bad idea."

Ji Meiqing looked at him smugly, "That's true, you don't even know that I used to be a manager... such a wise person."

"Hmm." He smiled without saying anything.

Ji Meiqing was getting anxious. "You don't believe me?"

“No.” He shook his head, a smile playing on his lips. “I’m just surprised that you can become such an excellent businessman without anyone’s guidance.”

Hearing such praise, she felt incredibly pleased, exclaiming, "Don't you know who I am?!"

Having revealed her true nature in an instant, Ji Meiqing simply shut her mouth.

He chuckled twice, "I'll go do my work."

She hurriedly ran to the kitchen and absentmindedly washed all the dishes and chopsticks, then boiled water.

Lu Yu sat in the room, looking very serious in the candlelight, his expression solemn. Ji Meiqing watched for a while before knocking on the door.

Lu Yu didn't even look up and let her in.

She brought the water in and placed it behind the screen.

"Brother Lu, hurry up and take a shower, don't let the water get cold." She was a little curious and wanted to see what he was doing. But she stopped, after all, he was just a stranger, and she wasn't as intimate with him as she had imagined.

She stopped a short distance away, smiled, said those words, and then went outside.

He was alone in the room again. Ji Meiqing brewed a pot of tea and took it to his room. Taking this opportunity, she noticed a pile of unfamiliar characters on a piece of paper. Ji Meiqing was somewhat bewildered.

She was a little curious and took a second look. Lu Yu happened to look up and, seeing her blank expression, didn't try to hide it and placed the paper directly in front of her.

"This is cuneiform, a script belonging to the barbarians."

Ji Meiqing glanced at him, then continued looking at the words on the paper, even though she couldn't understand a single word.

"I don't understand...it looks like a withered tree branch." She commented quite frankly, and after moving the teacup to the table, she was about to leave. But then she remembered something and turned back, staring intently at him.

"Could this be some kind of classified document? Like, a discussion about how to attack this place?"

The room fell completely silent. Seeing his astonished expression, Ji Meiqing was also stunned, looking at him in disbelief.

"You...you wouldn't really..."

"No." He picked up his pen and drew the last stroke, then said, "This is a passage from the Grassland Chronicle. I'm using it to practice my calligraphy."

He turned around, took a book from the shelf, and flipped to that page to show her. Ji Meiqing looked at it carefully, and suddenly felt relieved.

"You scared me to death! I thought you were betraying the country again."

The draft paper was returned to the table. Ji Meiqing said a few more words before leaving the room. Lu Yu smiled helplessly and continued looking at the book on the table.

Ji Mei took a shower and prepared to rest.

Two more days passed, and Ji Meiqing put forward her ideas. She noticed that apart from Qiu Jiaming, who was slightly dissatisfied, everyone else in the crowd was fine.

Ji Meiqing was too lazy to pay him any more attention and was about to go back to rest after saying that. But Qiu Jiaming suddenly stopped her.

"What are you going to do?" My guard immediately went up to the highest level, and I stared intently at every tiny detail of his body.

"You're doing this on purpose!" he said, his tone full of resentment. "You're deliberately making things difficult for us!"

“How have I made things difficult for you?” Ji Meiqing retorted. “The employer is asking me to increase production, so why should I refuse this good opportunity to make money?”

Qiu Jiaming stared at her for a long time, his anger growing. "You're clearly making things difficult for us. If you weren't still holding a grudge against us, how could you possibly use such a lame excuse to shut us up?"

Ji Meiqing sneered twice, "You probably think too badly of me."

"You've never been a good person."

"Say what you will, take the money or leave it. And don't think too highly of yourself!" Ji Meiqing scolded in a low voice, but Qiu Jiaming didn't take it to heart at all and continued to be sarcastic.

"No wonder you were kicked out of the Ji family. You're just like your shameless mother, that's why you were kicked out."

Ji Meiqing immediately became serious, grabbed his sleeve and said fiercely, "If you continue to speak recklessly, I will kill you right now."