Translator: Atlas Studios
Editor: Atlas Studios
“Babbling nonsense again!” Lord Fourth glared at Ruoyin frostily as his voice fell.
Internally, Ruoyin rolled her eyes. Sure, as expected, explaining only brought about more confusion. She had said something wrong again.
She decided to drop it because speaking more would only increase the confusion anyway. She only held her cheek with her hand, looked down at the table, and sighed.
Upon noticing her silence, Lord Fourth realized that his tone had been too severe.
She was always like this—silent, but her every casual motion could tug at his heartstrings and make him pity her.
His lips twitched. Finally, he said gently, “If you really can’t stomach it, drink another bowl of chicken soup, then.”
“Uh… sure.” Sometimes, compromising was a sign of maturity, Ruoyin thought to comfort herself.
Then, she scooped a bowl of chicken soup obediently and drank it without resistance.
Even though Lord Fourth was doing this for her own good, he was such a tyrant to go so far as to threaten her to obey him and drink soup! Really, Lord Fourth was a tyrant through and through!
After their evening meal, Lord Fourth gave Ruoyin a few arbitrary instructions before going back to the front courtyard, completely unaware of Ruoyin’s scheming.
…
As the saying goes, one can hide for a moment but cannot run away forever.
Now that it was May, Ruoyin’s “danger period” was approaching once more and unease clouded her again.
The last time she got angry, Lord Fourth had almost flipped. If she repeated it this time, Lord Fourth would really flip.
No one knew who had irritated Lord Fourth this afternoon.
Ruoyin was innocently sipping her afternoon tea and enjoying her fruit salad when she heard the eunuch announce the arrival of Lord Fourth, who then rushed inside her residence in a fit of anger.
She was adept at reading the situation and observed that Lord Fourth was in a temper.
Under normal circumstances when he was in a good mood, he would not instruct anyone to announce his arrival and would simply barge in.
He must be boiling mad if he did not care for such trivialities and looked absolutely stormy. Someone who could get Lord Fourth into such a rage was not an ordinary person.
Su Peicheng also entered the room with Lord Fourth. Internally, he was sweating for the Fujin. Based on past records, the Fujin could always manage to anger even a happy Lord Fourth.
Now that the Lord was unhappy, would the Fujin pour oil on troubled waters or soothe his frustrations?
Ruoyin checked out the icy expression on Lord Fourth’s face. He looked as if someone owed him several hundred million yuan, and she dared not ask anything, for that would be akin to stepping on a landmine.
A glance at Lord Fourth’s court robes suggested that he had come straight from the court and had not had the time to change yet.
Thus, she changed Lord Fourth as usual.
She then wiped Lord Fourth’s face and combed his hair a hundred times with an ox-horn comb.
Combing the hair a hundred times a day and night could clear the blood, improve circulation, and even nourish the hair!
During the entire process, Lord Fourth leaned back against the chair with his eyes closed and did not speak.
However, his eyes were moving under his eyelids as he breathed heavily. It was obvious that his anger had not subsided, but she did not know what he was thinking.
After her acts of service, Ruoyin could not find another thing to do and paused.
Once she had ceased moving, Lord Fourth opened his eyes and reached behind him.
Naturally, Ruoyin placed her hand in Lord Fourth’s.
When Lord Fourth pulled Ruoyin forward, he did so forcefully, maneuvering her onto his lap.
Ruoyin crashed into Lord Fourth’s chest directly. “Oh! That hurts!”
She began to act coy with Lord Fourth now that his anger had subsided.
“How charming. Your Lord’s body isn’t made of stone.” Lord Fourth was finally smiling.
Ruoyin poked Lord Fourth’s muscular chest. “No, Lord Fourth has an indomitable spirit and is harder than stone!”
Lord Fourth’s heart melted from her light-hearted jabbing, and he could not help but laugh at what she said. He reached out to hold her hand and said, “You’ve worked hard.”
Ruoyin did not complain, for it would sour the tension that she had so painstakingly alleviated.
Similarly, she did not remark that she did not work hard either.
It was just that she would be lying if she said that she had not worked hard. It was indeed difficult to stand there and comb Lord Fourth’s hair while holding in her breath.
Thus, Ruoyin changed the subject. “My Lord is mean. Somebody was relishing a delicious fruit salad and had to abandon it and serve you when you came.”
“Fruit salad? Delicious?” asked a laughing Lord Fourth as he tapped the tip of her nose.
“It’s super delicious. I’ll get someone to prepare it for my Lord,” Ruoyin said proudly as if she was showing off a treasure.
Lord Fourth did not reply to that but only commented, “You weren’t this gluttonous in the past.”
“I didn’t know any better back then. Ever since I recovered from my illness, I realized that my body belongs to me and being able to eat is a blessing. I can only serve my Lord properly if I’m healthy!” Ruoyin knew Lord Fourth had silently assented to her question and thus summoned Qiao Feng in, instructing her to prepare fruit salad for Lord Fourth as well.
As for Lord Fourth, he ruminated the meaning of her words and wanted to remark that her current behavior was childish instead.
However, although she was childish, she was able to comfort him more than before.
Soon, Qiao Feng carried in a sparkling and translucent plate which resembled ice.
Lord Fourth examined the plate in front of him. There were yellow bananas, red strawberries, and purple and black mulberries.
They were nestled on a layer of green lettuce and criss-crossed with streaks of yogurt on top.
A few mint leaves adorned the top of the dish aesthetically.
Lord Fourth scooped up a mouthful unhesitatingly. It contained a mixture of banana and mulberry, and the fruity sweet and sour taste bloomed in his mouth in an instant.
Despite his dislike for sweet and sour things, Lord Fourth wolfed it down in quick succession.
Seeing this, Ruoyin understood that Lord Fourth liked the dish now and proceeded to eat hers as well.
The seething Lord Fourth had finally been pacified. She could, at last, eat without burden.
Even Su Peicheng, who was standing by the side, breathed a sigh of relief. The Fujin had gained quite a skill recently.
It was to his surprise that she could actually calm the raging Lord Fourth into not letting his anger out on her and even get him to eat something so heartily.
Lord Fourth was a man, and he consumed his food in large mouthfuls. After finishing his salad, he looked up to see that there was some yogurt on the corner of Ruoyin’s lips.
He raised his left hand unhesitatingly, wiped it off, and even showed the yogurt mark on his hand to Ruoyin.
Ruoyin glanced at it and went blank. This was awkward.
She ate elegantly. How could she have smeared yogurt on her lips? It was so embarrassing! What should she do?
How was she supposed to explain this awkwardness away?
In the end, an idea flashed into Ruoyin’s head. She would destroy the evidence.
Thus, she lowered her head and kissed the man’s finger.
Lord Fourth was visibly startled as a warm, soft thing enveloped his finger.
His Fujin was audacious. How dare she tease him so?
How could he let a woman have her way?
Thus, Lord Fourth simply stood up and stooped over. He slipped his left hand around her neck while holding her cheek with his right. “Don’t move; there is a little left here.”
With that, he lowered his head and gave her a soft peck on the corner of her mouth. Now they were even.
However, since when had Lord Fourth ever been satisfied with merely being even?