Let Me Pursue You

Chapter 37 – 037

The two swallowed a mouthful of noodles with great effort, and suddenly they didn’t want to talk to each other anymore. They packed the dishes in silence, turned off the oil lamp and stepped out. Suddenly, Xiao Hei, the gatekeeper, was lying on the ground with his belly upturned.

Yuan Cixian was startled, and trotted forward, smelling a strong smell of alcohol before getting close. She was taken aback for a moment, and only then did she notice that there was a jar of old wine with the top flower bitten off beside it.

This…

Lu Shiqing stepped forward and choked when he saw this.

The altar of wine was originally placed at the door of the kitchen, presumably Zhu County Magistrate prepared it for him. He didn’t realize that he and Yuan Cixian had reached the point where they were alone and widowed, drinking each other late at night, so he pretended not to see them just now. Unexpectedly, the silly dog looked so desolate and lonely, so he stole a drink, and even had a drink. Drunk.

Yuan Cixian squatted down and patted Xiao Hei’s belly, calling out in a low voice: “Hei, wake up!”

The one surnamed Hei remained motionless.

She sighed, then went to grab its eyelids, pinched its paws, and scratched its whole body, but it was still in vain after a pause, so she had to put her forearm under its body, trying to hug it.

This force did not move. She looked back at Lu Shiqing, saw him standing half a foot away with his hands behind his back, his expression was irrelevant, and she didn’t want to approach him, so she did it again in desperation, breathing in, holding her breath, and silently said: three, two, one, get up —!

But still can’t hold it.

Yuan Cixian hesitated for a while, then turned back to look at Lu Shiqing who was waiting there with a slightly impatient expression, and called him: “Lu Shilang…”

Lu Shiqing didn’t look sideways, and didn’t look at the direction of her and the dog: “What are you doing?”

“I can’t hold Xiao Hei, can you give me a hand?”

He was laughed angrily, turned his head, and said in disbelief: “Are you talking to me?”

“What else?” She squatted on the ground with her mouth puckered, blinking at him pitifully.

Lu Shiqing immediately remembered how she squatted in his bathtub like a mushroom back then, and her heart softened inexplicably, but she still firmly refused: “Impossible.”

Yuan Cixian squatted down and took two steps towards him, raised her head and said, “Let’s discuss it…”

“There is no need to discuss it.” He took a deep breath and said patiently, “You go back first, and just ask someone to come and hug you.”

She was right when she thought about it, she said “Okay” and then got up and gave up, just as she was about to go back with him, she suddenly thought of something and stopped him: “Wait a minute.”

Lu Shiqing stopped and turned around.

“Lu Shilang, do you still remember that you swore a poisonous oath to me just now?”

His heart skipped a beat, as if he guessed what she was thinking, he wanted to pretend he didn’t hear, and walked away, but she grabbed his sleeve and heard her say: “You carry Xiao Hei back, if a piece of dog hair I didn’t even touch it, so I completely believed in you!”

The corner of his mouth twitched slightly: “Then you believe it or not.”

Yuan Cixian let go of his sleeves, lowered his eyes and said, “I’m going back to Chang’an tomorrow, how can you bear to tell me to leave in anger.”

Lu Shiqing thought in his heart that it would be hard for her not to leave, so he changed his honorific name and said indifferently: “Being angry and hurting the body, the county lord still wants to open it up, it’s not worth it for Lu.”

She curled her lips: “Okay, then you go back to your room first, and I’ll go and hug Xiao Hei.”

Lu Shiqing nodded slightly: “You are welcome.” After saying that, he did not stay any longer.

Yuan Cixian squatted back to the ground to hug Xiao Hei, but she didn’t exert any strength in her hands.

Of course she wasn’t obsessed with Xiao Hei, and she didn’t mean to be so unkind on purpose, offending Lu Shiqing’s bottom line, and she wasn’t angry about the day’s affairs anymore, but she was going back to Chang’an tomorrow, and she wanted to test him before leaving.

She is not stupid, and it can be seen that Lu Shiqing’s attitude towards her has changed recently, but after all, he seldom shows his emotions, and she really can’t be sure how much he has been attracted to her. If he could even hug a dog for her unreasonable troubles, she would probably understand.

Yuan Cixian pretended to be very strenuous, and counted silently with a little anxiety, determined to count to one hundred before leaving, but when she counted to one hundred, she was a little unwilling to see him when she turned around, and planned to count to another hundred.

This cycle went on and on for several times, even she herself forgot how many hundreds she had counted to, and she didn’t stop until her legs and feet became numb.

Well, she gave up. Lu Shiqing’s heart is still quite hard.

Yuan Cixian struggled to get up with her knees propped up, tapped her calf with a frowning face, and was about to go home when she suddenly heard a sigh behind her. She was overjoyed and turned her head suddenly, only to see Lu Shiqing standing not far away and frowning at her.

She couldn’t hide the smile on her face, and said excitedly to him: “Lu Shilang, why are you back?”

She knows why.

Lu Shiqing didn’t say anything, took a few steps forward, lifted the corner of his robe and squatted down, reaching out to hug Xiao Hei. His movements are stiff and slow, almost measuring an inch.

When his hand was only a few feet away from Xiao Hei’s fur, Yuan Cixian felt like a drum beating for some reason, and hurriedly reached out and grabbed his arm: “Okay, okay, forget it.”

Lu Shiqing paused, looked up at her with a slightly questioning look.

Seeing that he was really fooled, Yuan Cixian couldn’t help but feel a little guilty in her heart, she made him laugh, and pulled him up: “I was joking with you, but if you don’t hug me, I won’t be angry with you anymore, let’s go back .”

He left with her without saying a word, and waited to send her to the moon gate before saying: “I have to meet some officials tomorrow morning, then you can leave on your own, you don’t need to greet me again.”

Yuan Cixian nodded: “For the rest of the journey, please take care, I will wait for you in Chang’an.”

Lu Shiqing nodded slightly, turned around and left, walked a few steps and then turned back and said: “By the way, Cao An got the news that the assassin case has progressed.”

Yuan Cixian stepped forward and asked, “How?”

“It’s not Princess Shaohe that the murderer really wants to set the blame on, it might be the second prince.”

After he finished speaking, he really went back. Yuan Cixian filtered the words in his head several times, chewed all the way into the door, and suddenly let out a low “ah”.

Shicui, who was waiting in the room, was frightened by her and asked what was the matter.

Yuan Cixian was nervous, closed the door and window and said, “Shicui, we can’t see Mr. Xu anymore.”

The next day, Lu Shiqing really left the mansion early in the morning and didn’t return until dusk. When he stepped into the courtyard gate, he saw Yuan Cixian pacing in the corridor, looking like he was waiting for him.

He froze for a moment and asked her, “Why are you still here?”

Yuan Cixian raised her head when she heard the sound, saw him, walked down the stone steps in two or three steps, and said with a smile: “Lu Shilang, I won’t go back to Chang’an.”

To be precise, it is not that she will not return to Chang’an, but that it is no longer necessary for her to return to Chang’an. Listening to Lu Shiqing’s talk about the progress of the assassin case last night, she quickly figured out the link.

This incident seems to be someone trying to frame the second prince, but the ultimate goal is to push the Yuan family and Zheng Zhuo into the pit of fire. Now is an extraordinary period, she must not have any contact with Zheng Zhuo, including Xu Shan, lest she be caught by the suspicious sage. Not only did Xu Sanniang’s matter have to be put aside, brother also had to send someone to remind him.

Since she couldn’t see Xu Shan even after returning to Chang’an, of course she chose to stay by Lu Shiqing’s side and continue to torture him.

She won’t tell him the truth, though.

So she said: “I’ve thought about it, but I still can’t bear you. I’ll accompany you to Huainan, and return to Beijing with you when it’s over, okay?”

Lu Shiqing pursed his lips for a moment and frowned, “There’s a lot of chaos in Huainan waiting for me to deal with, you went to delay things.”

She curled her lips: “You have been annoyed by me all the way, is it possible that you are not used to it?”

When he choked, he pulled out a stack of official documents from Cao An’s hand behind him, left a sentence “It’s up to you”, then looked down and went to the study while looking down.

Cao An followed him all the way into the house, turned around and closed the door, and then asked him in a low voice: “Mr. Lang, have you tricked the county magistrate? She suddenly decided not to go back to Chang’an, but you told me the news of the assassin case revealed it?”

While Lu Shiqing was busy writing the essay, he said lightly: “You also found out about Xu’s family in Xunyang a few days ago. It must be because of Xu Sanniang that she wanted to go home this time. Since ‘Xu Shan’ is not in the capital, I should hold her back, so what’s the point of using a trick?”

His tone sounded business-like, Cao An nodded and said, “Your Excellency is wise.” After speaking, he coughed.

Lu Shiqing felt uncomfortable when he heard his slightly ambiguous cough, waved his hand to signal him to step back, then leaned back in the chair and let out a sigh.

Just as Cao An thought, he certainly wasn’t selfish. Last night, when Yuan Cixian was squatting at the door of the kitchen and counting, he almost suffered all the way.

He saw her temptation clearly from the very beginning, so he got angry at first, just like every time he felt her insincere intentions towards him before.

He knew that once he turned his head, it meant that he had fallen into her trap, and that his thoughts would be exposed to her. He didn’t like being led by the nose, but he couldn’t control his steps back. So on the way of advancing and retreating, he thought it over carefully.

What he couldn’t escape, he chose not to escape. But he is also selfish. Since he is already unable to extricate himself, he will not allow Yuan Cixian to be alone and take it easy.

Last night was his surrender and his counter-general.

For the rest of the journey, she will not even think about escaping for a moment.