Chapter 67
Chapter 67
Don’t Know Her (1)
[The State Preceptor’s residence]
“You may rest here. Don’t trespass anywhere else.”
Liu Yi followed close behind Cui Wang and looked around curiously. Even when facing such a cold face, she was still in an extraordinarily good mood.
A horse-faced elderly maid was standing at one side in a bow with her arms raised in an arch. She dared not raise her head at all. Even though another young lady often visited the manor, this was the first time the State Preceptor brought someone in, and one couldn’t help but speculate.
“My lord, this lady… how should we servants address her?”
“Just call me Third Lady.”
Liu Yi replied blushingly.
“Greetings, Third Lady.”
“If you have any needs, you may instruct the servants to take care of them.”
Cui Wang nodded and was about to leave, but was stopped by Third Lady Liu.
“Your Excellency, since it is Third Lady’s first time in your manor, I would like to thank you for your kindness. May I prepare some snacks in the kitchen and invite Your Excellency to have some with me as a token of my appreciation?”
“Third Lady, there are some things you don’t know,” the elderly maid said with a smile. It seems that this lady wasn’t very well acquainted with her master. “My lord generally doesn’t eat mortal food.”
Only when the other lady was around would he accompany her to have some.
Third Lady Liu was taken aback.
“Third Lady is ignorant.”
Cui Wang was about to leave, but was stopped once more. When he turned around again, his expression seemed somewhat impatient.
“What is it?”
Liu Yi bit her lip and asked cautiously.
“If Lady Zheng comes to the State Preceptor’s residence, does Third Lady need to stay out of the way?”
Cui Wang gave her a strange look.
“She goes to my place. You’re here.” She won’t come here.
“But I’m afraid that now the Lady will be unhappy when she thinks of me.”
Cui Wang thought for a moment, then nodded. “That’s fine. When she comes, you can just stay away. Don’t upset her.”
With this, the elderly maid at the side was able to come to some conclusions; it seemed like this person’s standing did not exceed that of the one from the Zheng family.
Liu Yi froze, and she looked a little embarrassed. Cui Wang specially waited a moment longer, and when he saw that she had nothing more to say, he left.
When he arrived at the study, the sun was already setting in the west.
The rain had stopped long ago. Rosy clouds spread out for miles, making the entire crabapple forest seem like it was shrouded in mist. Cui Wang seemed to have lost himself as he gazed at it, but his spirits were disrupted by the old ancestor.
“Aye, Xiao Wangwang, just now, did you believe Xiao San’er1 more or Xiao Wanwan more?”
Cui Wang did not say a word.
The old ancestor said again.
“Don’t play dead, come on, tell me, what’s going on?”
“What do you want me to say?”
“Tell me, did that beautiful young lady make you sad?”
“What’s there to be sad about?”
“Tsk tsk, look at you, acting all tough. It was all thunder and rain in the sea of consciousness just now, your old ancestor here almost drowned. That can’t be fake, right?”
Cui Wang did not say anything for a long time. Finally, he took a pot of wine from his Qiankun pouch and poured himself a drink.
The old ancestor looked on.
“Eh, the Lihua wine from the mortal realm! You’re actually having such a crude and astringent thing? Oh… ‘When Father came back from the morning assembly, he bought me a pot of good Lihua wine and some golden silk naan bread. If Mister Cui was at our residence, I would definitely invite you to have a drink, it is really sweet and refreshing…’ Tsk tsk, and you still say it’s nothing?
“Ah, if you ask me, if you want to know whether the young lady had lied to you or not, you can find out by testing her with your vermilion fruit tree, can’t you? Cultivators may escape detection, but how can it fail to detect the true heart of a mere mortal?”
The old ancestor lay on the sea of knowledge, put hands behind his head, crossed his legs and started humming a ditty. He then sighed and said, “I never expected that there would come a day when my good grandson, who fears neither Heaven nor Earth, would experience fear.”
Cui Wang tilted his neck and poured a mouthful of Lihua wine; the liquor really tasted crude and astringent, but after having it for several days, he actually got a little used to it.
After playing with the mouth of the pot, he suddenly said:
“She cried.”
“Oh, and so?”
“And so I wanted to believe her.”
Footnotes: