cold clothes

Someone pinched Leng Yi's face.

"Get up, get up! You can really sleep in..."

Leng Yi was half asleep, her eyelids barely open, then she gave up when she realized she couldn't open them completely. Unconsciously, she grabbed the hand that was pinching her cheek and mumbled, "Lingcao, let me sleep a little longer..."

Then I became fully awake.

What a good night's sleep! I feel refreshed and full of energy! It's just that my hands don't look like Bellflower's hands. The joints are a bit prominent, and although my palms have calluses like Bellflower's, the feel is completely different.

Leng Yi held someone else's hand and felt the owner of the hand freeze in fear.

Leng Yi does experience some morning grogginess, but when she sleeps well, the grogginess doesn't last long, so her clever little brain quickly started working. She suddenly grabbed that hand with both of hers and said with great seriousness, "Benefactor! Your bone structure is truly one in a million, your bones are extraordinary, you must be a dragon among men! However, your face has been dark lately, so let me offer you a few brilliant ideas!"

"Oh? You can tell I'm an exceptional person just by touching my hand bones?" Perhaps because he had just woken up and his hearing was still not sharp, the boy's voice sounded somewhat deep.

"Uh, well... it's a secret." Leng Yi said awkwardly, letting go of the boy's hand. She stretched lazily, "Ah, I slept so well, what time is it now?"

"The old man hasn't even given me his brilliant plan yet," the young man said with a hint of mockery.

"Well, the brilliant plan is... when you're hungry, you eat; when you're thirsty, you drink; when you're sick, you see a doctor, uh, doctor..." As Leng Yi spoke, she realized that her joke wasn't funny, and slowly deflated, saying dejectedly, "I can't keep making this up. It seems that being a blind charlatan isn't for me."

The boy smiled, noticing Leng Yi's embarrassment, and changed the subject, "It's already late afternoon, you can really sleep, you're the biggest sleeper I've ever met."

"I wasn't born in the Year of the Pig," Leng Yi muttered softly.

"Are you hungry? Dinner has already been delivered from the kitchen."

"I already told you I wasn't born in the Year of the Pig!" Leng Yi's face flushed red.

He said no, but his body language betrayed him; he swallowed hard at the smell of the food.

"Where is Qingtan?"

"He left after you fell asleep and hasn't come back yet," the boy said calmly.

This is troublesome; she can now shove food up her nostrils while eating.

Seeing Leng Yi's troubled expression, the young man hesitated for a long time before reluctantly picking up the bowl and deciding to act as a servant for once, just once.

"Ah, ah, this isn't appropriate." Noticing the boy's actions, Leng Yi blushed and waved her hands repeatedly.

The young man smiled gently and warmly: "What's there to be embarrassed about? You are a young lady from Zhuoyu Pavilion. In terms of status, you are second only to the madam, Madam Hu, and the four most beautiful courtesans."

"I don't feel like I have a high status at all, and I've already been demoted to a third-class maid."

"This is only temporary; your status remains unchanged."

"And what about you? What's your status?" Leng Yi asked tentatively. Well, that was a direct approach.

"Just a lowly medicine boy, he has no status whatsoever," the young man said indifferently.

Leng Yi shook her head. "I don't think so. You are special."

The boy seemed intrigued: "Tell me about it."

"Because you're the only man I've seen in all this time. All the men from Fengxiang Pavilion gather at Langxuan Pavilion, and you're the only one outside. Isn't that special enough?"

"Pfft," the boy chuckled, amused by Leng Yi's simple-minded appearance. "Is that all? Just because you've only ever seen me as a man?"

"Uh……"

"Although Langxuan Pavilion and Nuanfeng Pavilion are separated by a wall, people can come and go freely. Sometimes male prostitutes come to Nuanfeng Pavilion. Hehe, maybe it's because you've been confined for half of the months you've been at Fengxiang Pavilion, so you haven't seen many people."

Leng Yi finally noticed the boy's sharp tongue, and he insulted her without batting an eye. She still managed to find a reason, saying unconvinced, "You are Doctor Xie's nephew, so you should be different from the servants in Fengxiang Pavilion, right?"

"There are many people in Fengxianglou who are related by blood, so I am not an exception. I came to the herbal medicine hall as a lowly apprentice only because I have been weak and sickly since childhood."

"Uh... so you mean you're not special, but I treated you as special, as if I had a special feeling for you," Leng Yi said with a touch of arrogance. Actually, she understood that it would be impolite for her to probe the boy's identity further after he'd gone this far, but the feeling of being politely rejected while trying to understand him was truly unpleasant. However, Leng Yi quickly let it go. Meetings between people, whether fleeting or lifelong, are all about fate; you can't force it. Her vague affection for the boy might be because he happened to appear at the Herbalist's Hall, a place of peace and tranquility for her. In mythology, angels often appear in heaven, and in fairy tales, elves often appear in the forest; the boy, to her, was perhaps a symbol of this kind of beauty.

Once she understood, Leng Yi was no longer awkward. "Since my status is higher than yours, then serve me, little medicine boy!" she said, opening her mouth.

After a few seconds of silence, Leng Yi snorted, "What's wrong? You don't want to now? If you disobey my orders, do I have the right to punish you? To lock you in the dungeon?"

After saying that, Leng Yi added in her mind: I was just joking. I don't want to be a crazy woman like Hu Mama and Qingchun.

A low, chuckled laugh drifted over; he'd laughed far too many times today, making Leng Yi desperately want to regain her sight and see his expression. After laughing, the boy said, "Yes, Miss Ningbi has the right. I will immediately serve you your meal."

-

When Qingtan returned to the herbal medicine hall, she heard a noisy commotion before she even saw anyone.

"I don't like eating scallions, can you remove all the scallions for me?"

"You almost fed me food up my nose again!"

"Why is there a bone in this chicken? I know chickens have bones, but the chicken I eat is boneless!"

"I told you I don't like onions..."

Qingtan was puzzled, but what left her even more speechless was Doctor Xie's statement: "What is Doctor Xie doing standing outside the door? And peeking through the crack in the door?" No way, that shouldn't be happening. It looks like peeping, but that shouldn't be...

"Miss Qingtan is here," Doctor Xie said, closing the door slightly and straightening his sleeves, trying to regain his composure, but he couldn't stop smiling. "Oh, hehehe, children are so noisy, chattering like sparrows in spring, don't you think? It's time to prepare the medicine for Qingchun, the courtesan. I'm off."

Qingtan curtsied to Doctor Xie, muttering to herself that she hadn't realized Doctor Xie liked children so much before. She then opened the door to the inner room and couldn't help but twitch when she saw the two little brats.

Food scraps were scattered on the floor, the bedside table was unkempt, and Leng Yi's face was smeared with food juice. It was obvious that the person holding the bowl and chopsticks was someone who didn't know how to serve others, and the mess they made caused Qing Tan, the top maid, to have her blood pressure soar.