After Breaking Off the Engagement, I Started Pursuing My Master-Chapter 120 - So-so

Chapter 120: So-so

Jiang Huai Jr. had kept the fact that he was Ah Mumu a tight secret.

On one hand, he was afraid that the intentionally tragic endings of his previous books would get him caught and beaten up while wearing a hood. On the other hand, those books were indeed not very proper.

He had told Bai Li this secret because Bai Li wouldn’t care whether he was proper or not. From the beginning, he never hid his true self from Bai Li, never pretending to be a gentleman, so Bai Li knew him well and often teased him about being Ah Mumu.

When he first met Luo Qingyu, she was only fourteen years old, and he subconsciously wanted to appear more proper. After all, he was in front of a fourteen-year-old girl, and at that time, he never wanted the girl to fall for him, so he subconsciously played the role of the boy next door, the elder brother. He played the role for so long that Jiang Huai almost convinced himself that he was indeed a proper person.

Thankfully, Ah Mumu allowed him to be himself again. All those petty, dark, and naughty thoughts were hidden in his books. He had kept this secret from Luo Qingyu for a very long time until today when he suddenly spoke it out loud.

“Is it... Jiang Huai brother?” Luo Qingyu’s voice became a bit stuttered.

She had read the three famous books by Ah Mumu, ‘Floating Clouds and Splendid Elegance,’ ‘Record of Glass Splendor,’ and the currently serialized ‘The Melody of Warm Jade,’ which had been popular for several years among the young disciples in the Eastern Region. Anyone with a Ziyun Pavilion collector’s edition could boast for a long time. Luo Qingyu, out of boredom, had also secretly learned about them and occasionally read them under the covers.

Many of her notions about love came from these plays. She didn’t envy the romantic affairs in the stories but particularly liked the female characters who used all sorts of schemes to drive away the women around the male lead. She had quietly noted down many strategies, but now she suddenly heard that Jiang Huai had written the book.

Jiang Huai’s eyes were innocent yet slightly embarrassed.

“You’ve read it, haven’t you?”

She had already reacted so strongly before, and it was too late to hide it now. Luo Qingyu replied somewhat guiltily.

“I’ve, I’ve read it.”

“Then shall we not tell this story? Shall we change it?”

Jiang Huai smiled at her, “How about I tell you the last volume of ‘The Melody of Warm Jade’?”

Jiang Huai earnestly began to tell the story, tucked under the quilt. Luo Qingyu listened attentively, but as she listened, she looked at him somewhat distractedly.

“Why... why is the ending like this?”

“Because I had a casual chat with my master some time ago, and I heard her say that she doesn’t like the heartbreaking endings in those plays. Since I hadn’t written the ending yet, I decided to write a more satisfying one.”

Jiang Huai answered very candidly.

Luo Qingyu uttered a small “oh.”

Sincerity can sometimes be a trump card, but at other times it’s like the thorns among the roses. But if you love roses, you must accept the thorns on their stems; otherwise, even the most passionate roses are incomplete.

Actually, Luo Qingyu was still a bit stunned.

In her memory, Jiang Huai was always so gentle, modest, seemingly knowledgeable about everything, occasionally piercing through her little thoughts, but he seemed to never notice the deeper things. Now, Luo Qingyu suddenly realized that her Jiang Huai brother might have written about so many different women in his books, and regarding those deeply hidden thoughts, he might not have been unaware, but rather chose to turn a blind eye.

It seemed that from this moment on, she was gradually seeing another side of her Jiang Huai brother that she had never understood before.

This sudden realization made her feel inexplicably uneasy, as if many things were quietly slipping out of her control. She buried her cheek in Jiang Huai’s chest and rubbed it, whispering softly.

“I’m a bit sleepy.”

“Then sleep well, do you want me to hold you?”

“Mhm.”

Luo Qingyu snuggled closer to Jiang Huai, who gently embraced the girl in his arms and kissed her forehead lightly.

The unease in Luo Qingyu’s heart melted away the moment she was held.

......

Dawn.

The night’s mountain rain had passed, leaving the early morning shrouded in mist.

Jiang Huai woke up early, with Luo Qingyu still clinging tightly to him in his arms. After gently waking her and asking what she wanted for breakfast, he got out of bed, tucked her in again, and headed to the kitchen. But as soon as he opened the door, he saw a woman sitting on the branch of the ancient tree in the courtyard, shrouded in the dense mist. She wore a light purple silk nightgown, her figure hazy in the fog.

He looked up to see her pale legs shining through the mist, like the waning moon at dusk.

“Good morning,” Jiang Huai casually greeted.

Luo Yueguan looked down at him, the thick mist between them obscuring the complex emotions in her eyes.

“What are you doing up so early?” Her voice was languid.

“I’ve been getting up at this time to make breakfast for you these past few days. But why are you up so early today?”

Jiang Huai remembered that Luo Yueguan usually slept in late.

Of course, Luo Yueguan couldn’t sincerely answer Jiang Huai’s question, as she hadn’t slept at all the previous night. She had regretted using magic to share Luo Qingyu’s senses. Perhaps what mattered most wasn’t the time Luo Qingyu was overly bullied by Jiang Huai, but rather the faint tingling sensation on her tongue as she lay in bed, huddled in the blankets, which left her in a daze for a long time, unable to snap back to reality.

It was just lips touching lips, tongues meeting tongues, yet she couldn’t explain why it occupied her thoughts for so long, to the point of unease. She forced herself to try to sleep, but in a half-dream state, she suddenly dreamt of straddling Jiang Huai, being gently embraced by him, drawing close for a kiss. So she woke from the dream startled, and upon waking, she inexplicably reminisced about the dream for a long time.

She tried not to think about it, so she dressed and sat down in the courtyard amidst the thick fog, lost in thought for a while. But when she recalled the scene again, it had become as hazy and distant as the mist.

“Just happened to wake up early,” Luo Yueguan replied as she jumped down from the ancient tree, landing beside Jiang Huai.

This chapt𝓮r is updat𝒆d by ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom.

Her purple nightgown clung to her body, suggesting she wore little underneath. The cut was form-fitting, though the neckline was a bit low, unable to fully contain her fullness, but it seemed more comfortable to wear with a bit of exposure. The waistline of the dress was especially snug, outlining her slender waist and the full, round curves of her hips, as juicy and tender as ripe peaches.

“What shall we have for breakfast?” Luo Yueguan asked indifferently.

“Qingyu wants fried cakes. What would you like?”

“I’d like glutinous rice cakes and sweet soup made from ground soybeans.”

“That requires soaking the glutinous rice and soybeans in advance; it takes some time. How about we have it tomorrow?”

“No, I want to eat glutinous rice cakes now.”

“I already said we can’t have them this morning.”

“But I want to eat them.”

“Why are you so unreasonable at your age?”

Jiang Huai gave her a deep look. Knowing he couldn’t reason with a woman who was being unreasonable, he went straight to the kitchen to start making the fried cakes Luo Qingyu wanted. Luo Yueguan stood in the mist watching him, and soon her figure disappeared into the fog.

A sense of inexplicable loss washed over her.

At breakfast, Luo Yueguan didn’t appear in the courtyard. Luo Qingyu knocked on her door to ask, and Luo Yueguan replied that she had no appetite and told them to go ahead and eat. Bai Li happily finished off Luo Yueguan’s portion. After breakfast, Jiang Huai reluctantly got up to check on the glutinous rice he had soaked. It wasn’t that he wanted to trouble Luo Yueguan; glutinous rice simply needed at least four hours to soak properly.

The glutinous rice cakes Luo Yueguan mentioned were a specialty snack from the Eastern Region, usually eaten with a bit of sugar as a treat. Jiang Huai thought about it and decided to make some improvements. He took Luo Qingyu and Bai Li to pick some lotus leaves and, out of boredom, taught the two girls how to make zongzi.

The glutinous rice cakes were steamed wrapped in lotus leaves, with Jiang Huai adding some candied osmanthus he had made the previous autumn. As for the dipping sauces, besides sugar, he prepared chopped nuts mixed with crispy sugar and several different flavors of fruit jam.

He indeed carried countless strange condiments because he really enjoyed cooking. Every time he presented a delicious dish to Chu Xianning and saw the pleasure on her face as she tasted it, it was his happiest moment.

At noon, Jiang Huai brought out a copper pot in the courtyard, with a pile of cut beef and lamb and various vegetables ready to be cooked. He tried knocking on Luo Yueguan’s door, inviting her to join them for a meal, but she seemed to be asleep and didn’t respond. So he had to settle for a full stomach with Bai Li and Luo Qingyu until the afternoon when the glutinous rice cakes were finally ready, filling the courtyard with the fragrance of glutinous rice and lotus leaves.

He cut the glutinous rice cakes into mahjong-sized squares, arranged them on a plate with many small dishes of various dipping sauces on the side. He knocked on Luo Yueguan’s door again, and this time he got a response.

“The door’s unlocked.”

So he pushed the door open.

The moment the door opened and Jiang Huai stepped in, Luo Yueguan seemed to be hiding something under the covers. Jiang Huai didn’t see clearly but just came to Luo Yueguan’s side and presented the prepared glutinous rice cakes.

“Here, they’re ready.”

Luo Yueguan turned her face away, “I don’t want to eat them now.”

“You think your little tricks can drive me crazy? Heh, not at all.”

Jiang Huai scoffed, sitting on the bed, picking up a piece of glutinous rice cake and bringing it to her lips, “Try a piece.”

“I won’t taste it,” Luo Yueguan refused, lips sealed.

“It’s really delicious. I’ve already tried it.”

“I won’t taste it.”

But as Luo Yueguan spoke, Jiang Huai quickly stuffed the glutinous rice cake into her mouth. Luo Yueguan’s eyes widened, her hands lightly patting Jiang Huai in protest, but she still chewed the glutinous rice cake seriously. Jiang Huai watched her eyes expectantly. However, Luo Yueguan just looked up at him innocently.

“It’s average, not as delicious as the ones I had when I was a child.”

This time, Jiang Huai was truly frustrated.