Chapter 13: She Gives, He Accepts

“What else did she say?”

Gu Yingqing shook his head, “Nothing else.”

Zhu Wansheng pondered for a moment. In such a small space, if he just stood there, it would feel like he was monitoring her experiment, which would be very uncomfortable. But as long as he didn’t speak and sat where she couldn’t see him, it would be as if he didn’t exist.

“Why don’t you sit here and wait for me?” She pointed to the bench behind her. Gu Yingqing nodded and asked, “How long should I wait?”

Zhu Wansheng said, “I don’t know. Just wait here. You can sleep, read, or do whatever you want.”

Gu Yingqing made a sound of agreement. The chair was padded, so waiting wasn’t difficult, just boring. Being stuck with someone he didn’t get along with was even more torturous.

But he had no choice. The sound of rain pattered outside. Gu Yingqing changed from sitting to lying down, using his arm as a pillow, turning his back to her and closing his eyes to rest.

Only after the noise behind her stopped did Zhu Wansheng pick up the measuring spoon again. In just a short moment, she had become so irritated that a thin layer of sweat appeared on her forehead. Time was wasted in such inexplicable ways. Zhu Wansheng put aside the messy emotions in her heart and continued her work.

After an unknown amount of time, a sudden clap of thunder struck, pressing against the wooden window and crashing into her ears one after another.

Then came a gust of wind, with wind and rain surging in from outside the window. The measuring papers she had used flew about in the wind with a rustling sound. In a brief moment, her papers were floating all around the already small space on the second floor.

The residual pigments on the papers were blown off, swirling in the air before settling down. The table and floor, which had been cleaned to a shine when they arrived, were now ruined.

But Zhu Wansheng only frowned and glanced at the chaotic scene, her body remaining as still as if in meditation.

When she was busy with her work, she couldn’t bother with the flying papers, and she didn’t like to panic. The more chaotic things became, the more likely mistakes were to occur.

Some things had already gone wrong, and rushing to fix them would be of no use. She preferred to leave them be for now.

With a creak, the wind and rain suddenly stopped. The papers floated down gently, and her liquid had just finished dripping into the beaker.

Zhu Wansheng turned around.

He stood by the window, his long, strong fingers just falling from the wooden window. He bent down to pick up all the scattered measuring papers.

His movements were gentle and careful, each sheet of paper stacked on top of another in the same direction. Zhu Wansheng said, “Thank you.” The measuring papers were disposable, meant to be thrown away after use, so there was no need to arrange them so neatly, but since he had picked them up anyway.

She raised her hand, and he gently placed them down. His cool fingertips seemed to brush against her warm palm, almost imperceptibly. A tingling sensation spread through her nerves to her entire body, and Zhu Wansheng unconsciously shrank back a little.

“How much longer will you be?”

“About an hour. Are you getting restless?” As she spoke, she glanced outside. The thunder was still tirelessly attacking everywhere, and light seeped in through the wooden window, illuminating his figure. Although she couldn’t tell exactly what time it was, it wasn’t too late.

Gu Yingqing seemed a bit dazed, but after a moment, he returned to normal, leaning back in his chair and saying indifferently, “I can sit still.”

As long as he could sit still, that was fine.

Zhu Wansheng nodded and picked up the pipette again. After a moment’s thought, she still stood up and called downstairs, “Lanfan, come up for a moment.”

Lanfan’s response was quick, her footsteps following immediately after the words were spoken.

The stairs seemed to groan under her weight, creaking wildly as she stepped on them. Zhu Wansheng often wondered if the stairs might suddenly collapse, but clearly her worries were unfounded, as Lanfan had already appeared in view.

“My lady, what is it?” As she spoke, she glanced intentionally or unintentionally at Gu Yingqing behind her.

“Could you please prepare some tea and snacks? Not too much.”

Lanfan smiled, “This servant will go right away.”

When Lanfan came running up again, she was carrying a wooden tray with a set of blue-glazed tea ware on it, surrounded by several plates of exquisite snacks: pink lotus pastries, golden sesame cakes, and plum blossom-shaped plum cakes.

Steam was rising from the teapot, and the fragrance of tea wafted up to their noses along with the steam.

“My lady, these were all prepared by the shopkeeper earlier, but you didn’t allow anyone to come up and disturb you, so this servant didn’t dare bring them up.” Having said this, she was about to place them on the long table where she was conducting her experiment.

Zhu Wansheng’s muscle memory was faster than her brain’s thinking, her hand reaching out to block it, her voice raised a few notches, “Food and drink cannot be placed here!”

Her overreaction startled Lanfan, who stepped back several paces, the blue-glazed tea ware colliding with the wooden tray, making a crisp sound that was particularly jarring in this quiet environment.

“I’m sorry, it was a reflex. My voice was a bit loud.”

But Lanfan’s face lit up with joy, her tone becoming excited, “My lady, this is the familiar you! This is how you used to speak before! This is the lady I’m familiar with!”

…..

Zhu Wansheng changed the subject, using her chin to point behind her, “Give all of these to him.”

She absolutely could not eat anything while conducting experiments. Even with gloves on, she still felt uneasy before washing her hands, afraid of ingesting even a tiny bit of organic reagent.

Hearing this, Lanfan’s smile immediately disappeared, and she stood motionless.

Zhu Wansheng was puzzled, “What are you standing there for? Give it to him.”

Lanfan seemed to want to say something but held back, opening and closing her mouth before finally just letting out a light hum, reluctantly placing the wooden tray beside Gu Yingqing.

“My lady…” Lanfan clasped her hands together, looking from her to Gu Yingqing, her face full of confusion.

Zhu Wansheng didn’t even look up, “Speak.”

Lanfan said ingratiatingly, “Shall I pour some tea for you, my lady?”

Zhu Wansheng replied without hesitation, “I won’t drink any.”

Lanfan was confused for a moment, then her eyes lit up, and she suddenly moved towards Gu Yingqing, “I’ve brought up the tea and snacks, why are you just sitting there motionless? Hurry and serve the lady some tea and snacks.”

Zhu Wansheng was speechless, and then sent her away, “Lanfan, you should go back downstairs and wait.”

“My lady…” Lanfan kept looking back with every step, leaving as if it were a matter of life and death.

“Would you like some tea?”

Hearing this, Zhu Wansheng turned around. His slender hand was holding the teapot, pouring light-colored tea into a cup with a trickling sound. Smoke rose and then dissipated. He then picked up one of the cups and drank it all in one gulp.

“I won’t drink any. My hands are occupied.”

She turned back, again pouring those strange, multicolored liquids back and forth. Her hair was tied up casually, with a few strands left out resting on her neck, poking at her fair skin with each movement.

After fiddling around all afternoon, he still couldn’t figure out what exactly she was busy with. It’s just that — she seemed to have changed, becoming extraordinarily focused and polite.

Gu Yingqing picked up the teacup. The tea was at a suitable temperature. It was green tea, bitter at first but with a sweet aftertaste, leaving a slight fragrant taste on the tip of his tongue.

“What are you doing?” Gu Yingqing suddenly asked.

Zhu Wansheng didn’t stop her movements, “I’m making rouge, can’t you tell? I’ve made so many bottles.” She pointed to the neatly arranged small transparent bottles on the edge of the table, each only half-filled with red stuff. So it was rouge.

Gu Yingqing spoke honestly, “I can’t tell.”

Zhu Wansheng wasn’t annoyed, she just made a sound of agreement, “That’s normal. You boys don’t use these things. When my junior sister and I were tinkering with cosmetics in the lab before, our senior brother also looked confused, unable to understand. He said we were bored and should read more literature instead of messing around with this and that.”

Gu Yingqing didn’t understand, “Junior sister? Lab? Senior brother?”

Zhu Wansheng coughed once, not explaining, and changed the subject, “Since you’re free anyway, why don’t you help me? This way we can finish earlier and go home sooner.”

Gu Yingqing’s hand paused slightly as he was pouring tea, and when the tea spilled over, he came back to his senses and used a handkerchief to clean the table.

He moved slowly, and she neither urged him nor asked more questions, just continuing with her own work.

“What should I do?”

Zhu Wansheng thought for a moment, first taking out a pair of gloves from the glove box and handing them to him. Seeing his large hands, she realized that these S-size gloves definitely wouldn’t work, so she took them back.

Then she silently chanted: Little chemistry, little chemistry, bring me a box of L-size gloves, don’t put them on the table, put them on my lap.

Gu Yingqing took the gloves and, following her example, stuffed his five fingers in. They fit smoothly. “What next?”

“Then, it’s very simple. Just help me grind this, the finer the better. Be careful, okay?” Zhu Wansheng gave him the base material for making blush to grind. These tasks that didn’t require much skill indeed needed a helper.

Gu Yingqing didn’t ask why, just held the quartz mortar with one hand and slowly rotated clockwise with the other.

Zhu Wansheng watched for a moment. Not bad, he was grinding well…

This human tool seemed quite useful, quiet and obedient. She could assign him more tasks in the future…

Thinking this way, she suddenly felt a bit pleased and couldn’t help but laugh.

Gu Yingqing glanced at her, and she suppressed her smile.

His grinding motion became faster and faster, the agate rubbing against each other making a squeaking sound. At this rate, he might create sparks. “Grind carefully, don’t go too fast. I’m afraid you’ll make the powder fly out.”

Gu Yingqing obediently slowed down. “The Zhu family has plenty of rouge, why make your own?”

Zhu Wansheng smiled helplessly. She didn’t want to do it, but who would enjoy working when they could just enjoy the results? “The Zhu family’s rouge isn’t good now, especially not good. Lanfan and I bought some from other places before, they were all quite good. The Zhu family can’t compare.”

Gu Yingqing made a sound of understanding. “Do you have to do this all the time? Personally make each bottle?”

Zhu Wansheng shook her head, “This is the exploration stage. Once I figure out the formula and proportions, I’ll give it to professionals for mass production. So, it’s a bit of hard work in the beginning, but we can enjoy the fruits of our labor later.”

He had finished grinding the powder and was carefully pouring it into bottles. His hand was steady and patient, not wasting even a bit of powder. Zhu Wansheng immediately took a liking to this little assistant.

She pushed several beakers towards him, “Wash these clean, you’ll help me prepare solutions later.”

He nodded, and she added, “Since you have nothing else to do anyway, I’ll think of the plan, and you help me make it. Extract some rose essence and such, we’ll make some perfume or something.”

He didn’t understand, but still said okay.

Looking back later, Gu Yingqing was a bit puzzled. She casually handed things over and mentioned tasks, why did he accept and agree without hesitation?