The First Venerable of the Prosperous Age

Chang'an was startled by the sound. When he turned around, he saw Liu Rao leaning against the door, holding a wine jar. Her eyes were slightly tipsy, her face was flushed, and she was dressed as usual, with her dress trailing down, revealing a patch of white skin.

Upon seeing this, Chang'an closed her eyes involuntarily, "Sister Liu Rao, could you... could you..."

Liu Rao smiled with satisfaction, lifted her dress up, and walked up to Chang'an with the wine jar. "Look how embarrassed you are. You're always running into girls' rooms and you're never embarrassed. Why are you putting on an act now?" As she spoke, she lightly lifted Chang'an's chin, making him open his eyes.

Chang'an squinted, and seeing that she had already pulled the clothes up, she opened her eyes and denied, "No..."

"Look at you, your face is so red, and you still say no." Liu Rao smiled charmingly again and leaned closer. "Do you think your sister is prettier than them?"

As soon as she approached, Chang'an smelled a strong odor of alcohol.

He involuntarily took a step back and said with a fake smile, "Yes, Sister Liu Rao, you are prettier than them."

Liu Rao covered her mouth and laughed, "Haha, I love seeing my Xiao Mei smile at me the most, even if he's telling the whole truth."

Chang'an hurriedly replied, "No, every word I said came from the bottom of my heart..."

Liu Rao stroked Chang'an's cheek again and said in a charming voice, "Really? Then this dessert is for your most beautiful sister Liu Rao, okay?"

"No...no, this..." With the warmth of her jade-like hands on his face, he immediately blushed and didn't know how to explain.

Liu Rao suddenly burst into laughter, "You men are all the same, Xiao Mei, you're so accomplished at such a young age!"

Seeing Chang'an's face turn completely red, Liu Rao said seriously, "You gave this dessert to that guy upstairs, didn't you?"

Chang'an nodded, "Sister Lianxue...she...she said she wants to eat something sweet..."

Liu Rao's expression turned angry, but then a thought struck her and she said softly, "Look how flustered my little beauty is, tsk tsk tsk, such a beautiful face should be used for smiling, not for being afraid."

Chang'an asked cautiously again, "Sister Liu Rao, you...you're not angry anymore?"

"Sigh, Sister Lianxue is skilled in music and is willing to lower herself to teach you music. It's only right that you send her some good food. Why should I be angry?"

Liu Rao added, "Lianxue and I are like sisters, so I need to help her with something else."

Chang'an was taken aback. "How...how can I help?" He was halfway through his sentence when he saw Liu Rao pick up a dessert from the plate and start eating it.

"Sister Liu Rao... what's wrong?"

Liu Rao didn't finish her dessert; she just took a bite of each piece. After finishing, she praised it with her eyes, "Hmm, it tastes good."

Chang'an was completely bewildered when he saw Liu Rao sucking on her fingers, which were covered in pastry crumbs, while staring at him provocatively.

Liu Rao laughed and said, "I was afraid you might put something weird in the dessert, so I'm letting Lianxue try it first."

Chang'an was shocked. How...how did she know I was going to put something inside? She asked in a trembling voice, "What...what strange thing?"

Liu Rao chuckled softly and whispered in Chang'an's ear, "That's naturally... an aphrodisiac... hehehehe."

After hearing this, Chang'an finally felt relieved.

Upon calm reflection, she realized that she and Sister Lianxue did indeed have a conflict.

Taking a bite of each of these desserts would be a blatant provocation, but luckily she hadn't poisoned them beforehand, and since they were meant for rats anyway, it wouldn't escalate the conflict between them too much.

Chang'an then asked, "How did Sister Liu Rao find it? Did she have any aphrodisiacs?"

Liu Rao smiled and said softly, "No... but it's also possible." Then she licked her lips.

"Well... if there's nothing else, I'll be going now." Chang'an said, turning to run away.

"Wait, you've finished talking about Lianxue, but I'm not done yet!" Liu Rao shouted.

Chang'an turned around. "I wonder what brings Sister Liu Rao to see me?"

Liu Rao returned to her charming tone, picked up the wine jar in her hand, and said reproachfully, "Look at you, you only know how to give Sister Lianxue delicious food, but the wine you give me doesn't smell like anything."

These seductive words made him feel itchy and uncomfortable all over, but he forced a smile and said, "These are all the finest wines, how could they be..."

"You still don't believe me? Then come and smell it." With that, he brought the wine jar close to Chang'an's nose.

Chang'an took a sniff; the aroma of wine was mixed with the scent of cosmetics, but he still said, "Yes, Sister Liu Rao is right. I will definitely pay attention next time."

Liu Rao looked aggrieved. "The wine you usually send is always fragrant when you open it, but now it has no aroma at all."

Upon hearing this, Chang'an remembered that Lu Xiaosan had taken advantage of the absence of people in the kitchen to sneak a whiff of the wine's aroma.

Chang'an sighed and could only explain for Lu Xiaosan: "It's because before Master Ning left, she instructed me to let the wine sit for a while to let it sit before taking it over, because she was afraid that the wine would be too strong and upset the girls in the building."

Liu Rao smiled, "I see. However, please use your kindness on other girls, but don't use it on me. I can't accept it."

Chang'an hurriedly replied, "Okay, I won't open the altar again in the future."

Liu Rao stirred at the sound, "Hmph, you should open the jar when you're supposed to, don't let Ning Konglou blame me. Just don't open my wine jar in advance in the future."

"Okay." Chang'an understood.

"Looks like from now on, I'll have to ask my older brother to reserve a bottle of wine specifically for Sister Liu Rao..."

Just as Liu Rao was getting excited, her skirt suddenly pulled down on its own, revealing her private parts. Chang'an quickly closed his eyes.

Liu Rao snorted and patted Chang'an's cheek. "Xiao Mei, Xiao Mei, don't let me catch you again."

Chang'an closed his eyes and nodded gently.

As Liu Rao was leaving, she said in a seductive voice, "One last reminder: don't get too close to Lianxue and the others." Then, the door slammed shut with a bang.

Chang'an squinted, watching Liu Rao return to her room, and thought: I seem to... I seem to have offended her, sigh..."

Chang'an carried two plates to Lianxue's room. Lianxue listened to Chang'an recount his experiences, nodding occasionally, but mostly looking distracted and preoccupied.

Lianxue seemed unconcerned about Liu Rao's provocation and was unwilling to discuss the matter between her and Liu Rao further.

The two sprinkled some highly poisonous arsenic on the dessert and placed it in a conspicuous spot, waiting for the rats to take the bait.

After waiting for a long time, they didn't even see a single mouse hair. Chang'an couldn't stay any longer, so he left the poison with Lianxue and left first. The two even agreed to come back to learn the pipa that night.

As expected, Master Zhou and Madam Zhou came again that night, so Chang'an had to go on stage to perform again. Although she still played very poorly, it was much better than yesterday. With Lianxue's zither playing and Yulei's dance, it became much more exciting.

After the performance, he paid the money and went to Lianxue's room to learn the pipa.

The dessert plate remained perfectly intact, and the mouse still didn't take the bait.

Chang'an asked curiously, "After I left that night, did Sister Lianxue never see that mouse again?"

Lianxue nodded.

"Could that rat be coming for me?" Chang'an wondered.

Chang'an seemed to be deep in thought when he heard Lianxue comfort him, "It's alright. If it reappears, I'll use the poison you bought."

"Well... alright then." Chang'an said, but something felt off.

Every day thereafter, he went to Lianxue's room and learned to play the pipa by hand.

Over the course of several days, his pipa skills improved significantly, and he was gradually able to play the pipa and zither together with Lianxue. The matter of the rats also gradually faded away.

Lu Xiaosan, on the other hand, stayed in the kitchen all day. Her condition worsened with each episode, and she was finding it increasingly difficult to breathe. It was uncertain when she would make it through.

Until that night…