Chapter 76: with translation of chapter title

Li Qingluo felt weak all over from the pain of the two ear piercings.

She was lying in bed, about to fall asleep, when the indoor candle flickered and suddenly went out again.

In the darkness, a somewhat familiar voice sounded again: "Miss, our master invites you."

Li Qingluo clenched her fists and heavily pounded a lump on the bed.

Do people still have to live?!

What immortal insists on making us eat dinner at night!?

When she stood again in the kitchen of Guiyuan, Li Qingluo's expression was dazed.

Last time she came, she still thought that making a meal could repay the kindness.

But she didn't expect that the masked guard who sent her back would actually say: "Our master ate well tonight; next time, we'll still have to trouble you, miss."

Next time?

There's actually a next time?

She then knew that a life‑saving favor couldn't be cancelled out by just one meal!

Otherwise, should she make tonight's food less tasty?

But her conscience bothered her, Li Qingluo sighed and could only roll up her sleeves again.

The mute servants bustled happily beside her, lending a hand.

Li Qingluo quickly joined in after a moment.

Tonight, she saw fresh fungi in the kitchen and used a clay pot to stew a pot of fresh fungus chicken soup.

She simmered a jar of cured meat with smoked bamboo shoots.

Knowing that the young master preferred light food, she also stir‑fried two small dishes lightly.

Li Qingluo had also researched a yam and purple‑potato pastry during these days at the Jiangjun Fu; seeing the ingredients were available here, she also steamed one.

When everything was done, it happened to be exactly two hours.

The mute servant, however, came in with a note saying the master hadn't returned yet, so there was no rush to serve the dishes.

Li Qingluo couldn't help but be surprised: "It's already this late, and he still hasn't prepared dinner?"

She didn't know that it wasn't just dinner; Duan Rongshi hadn't eaten anything all day.

So, in fact, she had been summoned by Zhui Yu acting on his own initiative.

Li Qingluo had wanted to leave, but the masked guard had run off somewhere; at this time, the city was under curfew, and she feared she couldn't even get out the door.

Thus, she could only rest by leaning against the small table by the kitchen window.

After leaning for a while, she actually fell asleep without realizing it……

Faint moonlight poured over Li Qingluo's body, gently illuminating half of her side face.

A string of pearl earrings lightly dripped onto her now fair, plump cheeks.

The girl breathed evenly, her prone body rising and falling with each breath.

Obviously, she had already sunk into a deep dream.

Duan Rongshi stood outside the window and stared at her for a while.

As if he were looking at a painting……

After returning to his room, Duan Rongshi looked at the table full of food and at Zhui Yu who had come forward; he flung aside the hot towel he'd been using to wipe his hands: "Reward ten boards; go collect them yourself tomorrow."

Zhui Yu felt bitter inside, but he knew his lord never liked others meddling in his affairs, so even though he was to be punished, he hurriedly thanked him.

As long as the lord can enjoy a happy meal, what are ten boards?

Seeing the lord already seated and eating, Zhui Yu then said: "My lord, I have discovered that the Imperial Guard's Yang Qinwu's sister died a year ago in the Li mansion; when she died, she was pregnant with Li Kechuan's flesh and blood."

"Moreover, Yang Qinwu had obviously been pulling strings everywhere to find his missing sister, but now he suddenly dropped the matter. I suspect he knows the truth, so……"

Duan Rongshi: "It seems he is indeed taking revenge. Then Li Kechuan losing a leg is not unjust."

"But I've heard Yang Qinwu is a big, burly man; how could he himself devise such a clever way to exact revenge using influence?"

He thought of Li Qingluo.

Duan Rongshi has heard quite a bit about her these past two days.

Since she returned to the capital, he has basically known all the major and minor events concerning her that occurred in the Jiangjun Fu.

She indeed has some talent, and is even more tenacious than he imagined.

Just based on her daring to jump alone into the Qinhuai River and soak there for almost a whole day yet still survive, there is no maiden in all of Jinling City who could do that.

She is very smart and also very bold.

And she is a maiden with strong will.

Although there is no evidence for Li Kechuan's broken leg, Duan Rongshi has a gut feeling that she is inseparably involved!

Now she even dares to get involved in the matter of the Pei family's third son!

It's getting more and more interesting.

He actually wants to see what else she can do next.

Li Qingluo woke up in the middle of the night and discovered she had already returned to the Jiangjun Fu.

She let out a long sigh; obviously, her self‑protection ability is still too weak, so it seems she needs to have her grandmother find her a more capable master again.

The second day.

Pei Lao Furen specially had Zhang Mama personally come to groom and dress Li Qingluo.

Seeing that she had already put on her earrings and had tidied her originally somewhat unruly eyebrows, Zhang Mama nodded in satisfaction.

"Miss, don't blame this old servant for being clumsy, but the Old Lady's makeup when she was young was all done by this old servant!"

"Our Old Lady, when she was young, was also quite beautiful and graceful; although she loved to practice swords and spears, when attending these banquets in Jinling, she never lost."

Powder and rouge were applied to her face, her eyebrows were drawn, and her hair was combed.

One by one, beautiful hairpin step-sways were placed on her hair bun.

A pair of white jade earrings were gently hung.

She put on a jade bracelet on her wrist and hung a jade pendant around her neck.

Even her fingernails had Que'er carefully applying nail oil beside her, making each trimmed long nail look pink and bright.

Finally, after applying lip rouge, Li Qingluo lifted her head to look at herself in the bronze mirror.

Bright as the sunrise's morning glow, brilliant as a lotus emerging from the water.

As it turned out, she could also be a beauty.

Li Qingluo put on a new blue-white outfit and went out.

Because the weather had already turned cool, she also draped herself with a blue cloak.

After meeting with Pei Lao Furen, seeing her dressed up, Pei Lao Furen naturally nodded in satisfaction: "Luò'er, you are exactly as grandmother imagined, identical! Good child, from now on, when it's time to dress up, dress up; as a young lady, you ought to be this vivid and lovely, so as not to have lived in vain."

Li Qingluo thought of her previous self, and her eyes involuntarily grew a little moist.

"Yes, grandmother."

The grandmother and granddaughter arrived at the gate, and Li Qingluo saw Qu Shi.

Today, at the birthday banquet of the Old Lady of Zhongyi Hou Fu, is she also going?