Chapter 11: Sending Flowers to Appease

“I……”

Hu Youning glanced towards the small ravine behind the house, recalling how Miss Li had asked him to keep it a secret before she left. The answer on the tip of his tongue was tucked away and swallowed back.

He shook his head and continued earnestly kneading the dough in his hands.

When Li Ruantang returned, the soup on the stove had been hot for quite a while.

As soon as she entered the door, Hu Sanniang, who was chopping firewood in the yard, greeted her first. Meng Jun got up a little slower and fell behind.

“Miss Li, you’re back.”

Due to the events of the day, Hu Sanniang’s tone was more enthusiastic than before, with a little less calculation.

Li Ruantang smiled faintly, her gaze pausing on the young gentleman standing behind.

Jiujiu’s expression still looked listless.

Li Ruantang sighed inwardly and exchanged a few pleasantries with Hu Sanniang. However, the hand behind her back gradually broke out in sweat in the night breeze.

What if he doesn’t like it…

She thought distractedly about the young gentleman’s reaction in a moment.

Hu Sanniang saw it clearly. She hurriedly instructed Zhou Fulang to prepare dinner, leaving the not-so-large courtyard to the two standing there.

In the main hall of the Hu family, a bean-sized lamp was lit.

The dim light penetrated through the window, scattering like a small river in the increasingly dark night, flowing out a clear coolness.

Li Ruantang’s nervous lip corners were even a little dry, while her silly young husband was standing gloomily on the other side.

Only those beautiful phoenix eyes occasionally glanced up quietly, meeting her gaze, then pretending to be nonchalant and looking away.

Something had to be said.

Li Ruantang licked her lips and was about to speak. The young gentleman, who had just been lowering his head and stepping on pebbles to relieve his boredom, suddenly became solemn.

He stared fixedly at the mud stains on the side of Li Ruantang’s skirt blown by the wind. Li Ruantang liked cleanliness and naturally wouldn’t return with dirty clothes for no reason.

Thinking back to her uncomfortable state during the day.

Meng Jun’s heart tightened, and the scene of her dizzy and falling to the ground with no one stepping forward appeared in his mind.

So that’s why she came back so late? Although the weather is warm in May, isn’t it cloudy today? The ground is so cold, who knows how long she had to lie there before she could barely walk back to the Hu family.

The more the young gentleman thought about it, the more uncomfortable he felt in his heart. The fingers on his own sleeves gradually clenched tighter. He glanced at Li Ruantang, who was showing a smile, and inexplicably felt a little heartache.

If he had known, he should have gone out to look for her.

“Wife-master.” He called softly. The way he walked over with his head down was even more obedient.

Li Ruantang blushed upon hearing it, and the speech she had just prepared instantly became disordered. She hurriedly took out a newly made flower wreath from behind her back, holding it out like a treasure.

“Jiujiu, this is for you.”

“Huh?”

Meng Jun was stunned, his eyes full of surprise. “Wife-master went out injured just for this?”

“Mm.”

It was Li Ruantang’s first time making a flower wreath. She sat on the hillside and made it for a long time before coming up with this one. Her hands were clumsy, and when she first started picking flowers, she accidentally injured herself, cutting a few small marks on her thumb and index finger.

Seeing the young gentleman looking over intently, Li Ruantang hurriedly covered it with her sleeve, embarrassed. “I originally wanted to catch a little white rabbit for you. It’s just a pity that now my heart is willing but my strength is lacking. I heard before—”

Thinking of Jiujiu’s question to her at noon.

Li Ruantang paused the words that slipped to the tip of her tongue and forcibly changed her words. “I read in a book that young men like flowers, so I tried to make a flower wreath.”

Her craftsmanship was not good, but the colors of the small flowers woven into the willow branches were chosen exquisitely. The young gentleman’s ears turned red when he saw it, and the corners of his lips had just lifted in an arc, but he suppressed it.

No, he couldn’t be bought. Today he had to have a good talk with Li Ruantang, otherwise what if she goes out injured again in the future.

Moreover, with an injury, one should recuperate well. At the very least, she should bring him along so that he could take care of her in this wilderness.

Meng Jun withdrew his gaze from the flower wreath. “Wife-master, today—”

Although Hu Sanniang repeatedly assured that this trick was effective, Li Ruantang looked at her young husband and he didn’t seem very happy.

Especially now that Jiujiu was frowning. Li Ruantang recalled the young gentleman’s listless state sitting in front of the kitchen at noon and regretted it so much that her intestines almost turned green.