Chapter 8: You give me one, I return you one…

Wen Ru carefully turned through several paths in the garden, wound around the rockery, and then emerged from waist-high flower beds, finally stopping in front of the door outside the courtyard of Qingwu Courtyard.

While frequently looking back to guard against passing servants seeing her movements, she picked up the door knocker held in the mouth of the bronze beast statue on the door and gently knocked.

A servant inside came to open the door in response, and was about to bow when Wen Ru made a “shh” sound, slipped inside, and closed the door of Qingwu Courtyard tightly behind her.

That day when Hua Ting said he needed to take medicine to nourish his body, she struggled a little but obediently agreed, thinking how long could taking medicine last, just two or three days of enduring and it would be over. But half a month had passed, today was already the 15th, and early this morning, Hua Ting was still insisting she drink the medicine.

Just thinking about the bitter taste of that medicine made Wen Ru’s head ache terribly. She didn’t know what was put in it, but smelling it made her stomach churn and drinking it made her bile rise. Wen Ru was scared, scared, and thought she could avoid one dose whenever possible, so she took advantage of Hua Ting personally going to watch over the medicine pot to hide here.

Today being the 15th happened to coincide with the Wen family banquet. She estimated that in at most an hour, Hua Ting would have to go busy himself with preparing for the feast, and by then he certainly wouldn’t have time to force her to drink that bitter water.

“Good day, Young Miss. Why have you come over here? This servant will go inside and announce you to the young master.” Two coarse servants standing guard in the courtyard, seeing Wen Ru arrive, quickly put down their work and came over to bow.

“Alright, alright, no need for formalities. Before the family banquet starts, don’t tell anyone outside Qingwu Courtyard that I’m here, understand? You, you, you, do you all know?” Wen Ru raised her index finger and pointed at each servant in turn, solemnly instructing, though her body’s young age still made her commanding tone sound somewhat childish, lacking some authority.

The servants naturally weren’t very afraid of her, and covered their mouths laughing: “Don’t worry, Young Miss. If Lord Hua Ting asks us, we’ll just say we don’t know.”

Wen Ru nodded in satisfaction, a hint of a smile appearing in her eyes: “Good, go and announce me to the young master, I’ll go in after standing here for a bit.”

That day, after she woke up, she learned that Fu Jizhou had become the Wen family’s cousin young master, and would be staying at the Wen residence for a while. The matter of the marriage contract was put aside for now, to see how the two’s relationship would develop.

Clearly, Fu Jizhou’s life had already changed course. As long as he had less to do with the female lead and her man in the future, he could basically live on normally like an ordinary person.

Look, she had only made a small action, and Fu Jizhou was saved because of her. She was really amazing. Wen Ru silently congratulated herself.

However, when Wen Nianyue asked her for Fu Jizhou’s marriage contract, she still strongly resisted. No matter what Wen Nianyue said, she refused to hand it over. She was a freelance screenwriter who had seen countless scripts, and had seen many stories where the transmigrated protagonist changed one fate only for another to continue. She didn’t want to suppress one thing only for another to pop up, entangling a whole bunch of issues.

Moreover, with her interference, the Wen family’s connection to Fu Jizhou had become closer. If the Wen family were classified as part of the villain faction, they might not be able to escape unscathed in the grand finale. So no matter what, she absolutely would not produce it, and even wanted to hide it more securely. Come to think of it, she had hidden it well when changing out of her wet clothes that day, and no one would be able to take it away.

Wen Nianyue couldn’t help but laugh at her wary little face, and finally had to let things be, only instructing her to keep it safe. If it couldn’t be found when needed in the future, they would have to go back to Qianzhou to find Fu Jizhou’s mother Fu Ling to reissue it together, which would be very troublesome.

*

In the main room of Qingwu Courtyard, Fu Jizhou was wearing a cyan brocade robe with white magnolia patterns, standing bent over the writing desk concentrating on tracing characters in red ink. Because a servant had come earlier to inform that he needed to go to the front hall at the Wu hour to attend the Wen family banquet, he had the grooming servants tie his long hair neatly on top of his head in a bun, then wrap it with a dark gauze headband, tucking away the loose hairs obediently. The window lattice beside him was open, and warm sunlight spilled from outside onto his shoulders.

The household-born servant Gu Fan, who had just turned twenty this year and was selected by Zhu Sheng to be the steward of Qingwu Courtyard, hurriedly walked over to Fu Jizhou after hearing the announcement from the servants outside the courtyard.

“Young Master, the Young Miss has come.”

“Who?” The tip of Fu Jizhou’s brush trembled, and ink dripped down soaking the copybook. Fortunately he was using light ink, so it didn’t ruin the whole page.

Before Gu Fan could answer, he had already put down his brush on the hardwood brush rest and frantically gathered up his sleeves, anxiously asking Gu Fan: “Is there any ink stained on me?”

Gu Fan quickly circled around him, earnestly replying: “No, Young Master, there are no stains. You are always careful when tracing characters, and rarely get ink on your clothes.”

Although Gu Fan said so, Fu Jizhou was still not at ease. He walked out from behind the writing desk, turning his sleeves inside out to check several times: “Gu Fan, go bring the set of clothes I’m to wear for the banquet.”

“But…” There were still several hours until the family banquet, Gu Fan thought in confusion, wanting to dissuade him.

Wen Ru, who had been standing in the courtyard for a while thinking the people inside should be prepared by now, stepped across the threshold. Today she wore a crimson cross-collared short jacket and skirt, with a purple cloud gauze wide-sleeved robe over it. Her hair was simply adorned with a single misty rain-style hair ornament, her brows somewhat relaxed. Seeing Fu Jizhou standing to the right, her eyes brightened and she walked over to him with large strides, smiling and saying: “You’re dressed so formally today!”

As she spoke, she reached out to touch the gauze headband on his forehead.

Fu Jizhou turned his head aside with reddened ears, taking half a step back, and said to her: “Speak properly, don’t be so hands-on.”

Wen Ru wrinkled her nose and turned to sit on the nearby couch. Look at this little prude, she hadn’t done anything. She had only ever seen this headband on TV and in books before, and was just curious to touch it for a moment.

Seeing this expression, Fu Jizhou couldn’t help but tense up, regretting that his words had been a bit harsh. Just as he was trying to find a way to make up for it, Wen Ru had already thrown it out of her mind and said to him in a light tone: “Mother instructed me to take good care of you at the banquet. You must stay close to me at all times. The people from the Wen family’s second and third branches all have to act according to my mother’s wishes, so don’t be afraid of them. If anyone bullies you behind my back, just come tell me and my mother, and we’ll seek justice for you.”

Fu Jizhou pressed his lips together and took small steps to the other side of the couch, sitting down to pour her a cup of tea. He lowered his head obediently and responded with an “Mm.”

Wen Ru had taken many detours to come here and was indeed somewhat thirsty, so she picked up the teacup and took a big gulp.

Fu Jizhou watched her drink like a cow, his eyes showing helplessness: “Drink slower, don’t choke.”

“How could that happen,” Wen Ru waved her hand, taking out a plain-colored sachet from the handbag at her side and handing it to Fu Jizhou, “Here, this is for you.”

Fu Jizhou accepted it, knowing these were the preserved fruits Wen Ru gave him. She had already given him several times, saying she wanted to exchange them for the licorice honey in his medicine. In the past in Qianzhou, he had also taken medicine, but he didn’t feel the medicine sent recently was much different, and didn’t know if that Dr. Huang had listened to her and given her some of the licorice honey from the medicine.

After handing the sachet to Fu Jizhou, Wen Ru kept staring at him expectantly. Fu Jizhou understood and opened it in front of her. She always wanted to taste the first preserved fruit in the bag.

But when the sachet was opened, it contained not preserved fruits, but a pale green jade lock with intricate qilin patterns visible on the surface. Fu Jizhou couldn’t help but stare in surprise.

“Oh, I took out the wrong one.” Wen Ru was a bit embarrassed and lowered her head to take out another sachet, holding it up to Fu Jizhou’s eyes, “This one is definitely correct.”

Fu Jizhou slowly tightened the drawstring of the first sachet and returned it.

He had thought…

Lowering his head and averting his gaze to hide the disappointment in his eyes, Fu Jizhou took the second sachet and opened it to see that it indeed contained a bag of plump, glistening preserved fruits. He held it out in front of Wen Ru, offering her the first preserved fruit she wanted.

Wen Ru’s eyebrows curved in a smile as she raised her hand to put the topmost preserved fruit in her mouth, chewing and swallowing with a look of satisfaction. The ancient preserved fruit makers must have used some secret recipe, as it was sweet but not cloying and really delicious. But Hua Ting said that men were the ones who craved sweets, and told her to eat less.

This gender reversal was really unnecessary. She loved sweets, loved pretty dresses, loved beautiful jewelry.

But there were advantages too. Now she was the master, and if she wanted to eat something, she naturally had a thousand ways to do so. See, wasn’t she eating it now?

Thinking of this, Wen Ru found Fu Jizhou more and more pleasing to the eye. She smiled and reached into the sachet to take out the jade lock, shaking loose the ink-blue triple cord it was attached to. The small glass beads on the cord immediately clinked together with a delicate sound. Wen Ru raised her hand and beckoned to Fu Jizhou.

Fu Jizhou hesitated for a moment, but still walked over.

Perhaps finding his movements too slow, Wen Ru reached out to grab his sleeve and pulled him closer. With one sitting and one standing, Fu Jizhou could only stare blankly as Wen Ru tied the jade lock pendant at his waist.

“You…” Fu Jizhou’s heart trembled fiercely. He had thought… he had thought he was living too comfortably lately and dared to imagine all sorts of things, but it was actually truly meant for him?

“Yesterday I went to the shop with Mother and spotted this jade lock at first glance,” Wen Ru finished tying the knot and tugged at the tassel hanging from the bottom of the jade pendant, swaying it back and forth as she looked up with a smile and said, “Look, isn’t the style similar to that jade pendant of yours? But this one is made of green jade, which matches your clothes today even better.”

Fu Jizhou gazed at the jade lock hanging at his waist, somewhat dazed.

Wen Ru waved her hand in front of his eyes: “Hey, snap out of it. No matter how nice it looks, you shouldn’t be so entranced. It’s just an object. You give me one, I return you one, that’s how it should be.”

“Mm.” Fu Jizhou nodded and turned back to his seat, instructing Gu Fan to put the preserved fruits from the sachet onto a plate and bring it up with the other pastries.

Seeing him so agreeable, Wen Ru felt even closer to him and started chatting about her trip to the shop yesterday.

She had seen several foreigners there yesterday, with blonde hair and blue eyes, which wasn’t rare, but she had taken a liking to the spices they were carrying and brought some back. Tomorrow, when the cooks in the mansion had free time, she would have them make roasted meat for the two of them to eat.

Fu Jizhou listened with curiosity and chatted with her in detail.

Between the two of them was a small table on the couch, with tea, pastries and preserved fruits arranged on top. Beneath the table, Fu Jizhou’s hand was secretly clutching the jade lock at his waist the whole time.

He liked it very much.