A Man and Jiang Zhan stared at each other, both looking shocked.
A moment later, A Man reacted first, covering her face and turning to run.
Jiang Zhan jumped up: “A Man, come back here! You think I won’t recognize you just because you’re covering your face?”
Longdan reacted quickly, quietly sticking out his foot.
Jiang Zhan stumbled and nearly fell. When he got up, A Man had already disappeared.
Jiang Zhan returned with a dark face, walked up to Yu Jin, and glared at him without saying a word.
Yu Jin: “Hehe.”
“Don’t laugh!” The Second Young Master Jiang exploded, pointing at the liangpi on the stone table and asking word by word, “Did Fourth Sister bring this?”
Yu Jin rubbed his nose and didn’t make a sound.
“Why would Fourth Sister come here?” Jiang Zhan asked again.
Yu Jin remained silent.
Jiang Zhan grew impatient and pushed Yu Jin: “Say something!”
“Ouch.” Yu Jin frowned and clutched his abdomen, beads of sweat instantly appearing on his forehead, his face turning frighteningly pale.
“What’s wrong?” Jiang Zhan was stunned.
Yu Jin wore an expression of unbearable pain: “Just some internal injuries, it’s nothing…”
Jiang Zhan didn’t believe it: “If it’s nothing, why are you in so much pain?”
Yu Jin smiled bravely: “Really, it’s nothing—”
“You—” Seeing Yu Jin in this state, Jiang Zhan couldn’t settle accounts now. He could only swallow his anger, which made his ribs ache. He stamped his foot and said, “We’ll talk about this later!”
As Jiang Zhan rushed away, Yu Jin straightened up and regained his composure. He walked leisurely to the stone table, sat down, opened the box, and started eating the liangpi.
Hmm, the liangpi from Wang Fifth Aunt’s shop on East Street was indeed delicious. He was benefiting from Si’er’s kindness.
Erniu looked up at his master and barked dissatisfiedly.
His master was stealing its liangpi to eat, how shameless!
At the corner of the street under a tree, Jiang Si was waiting for A Man. Seeing A Man running over hurriedly, she was slightly alarmed.
She had walked here in a daze before realizing she had left the liangpi at Yu Seven’s house. If it were anything else, she would have let it go, but that liangpi was bought by Second Brother after queuing up, representing his thoughtfulness. She couldn’t bear to waste it, so she sent A Man back to fetch it.
But why did A Man look like this? As if someone evil was chasing her.
“Miss, Miss, it’s terrible—” A Man ran up to Jiang Si, holding her waist and panting.
“What happened?”
A Man didn’t bother to explain and pulled Jiang Si forward: “Quick, let’s go. If Second Young Master catches us, we’re done for.”
Jiang Si stopped: “Second Young Master? Did you run into him?”
“This servant went back and saw the Second Young Master talking with Master Yu. The second Young Master already saw me. If you don’t run now, you’ll be caught red-handed by Second Young Master!” A Man said urgently.
Wasn’t Second Brother supposed to have gone back to study? Why would he be at Yu Seven’s house?
Jiang Si had a headache but had no intention of running away: “If the Second Young Master has already seen you, what’s the use of running?”
A Man blinked, slapping her forehead: “That’s right, you can’t run from the inevitable! Miss, what should we do? I saw Second Young Master’s face turn black.”
The black-faced Second Young Master Jiang was already striding over.
Jiang Zhan usually always smiled at the servants in the mansion, but now his handsome face was ashen, clearly furious.
A Man, usually very brave, trembled at the sight of Jiang Zhan like this and quietly moved to the side.
After all, Second Young Master wouldn’t dare hit the young miss, but he might not be so kind to a little maid like her. She’d better hand over the young miss.
“Second Brother—” Seeing Jiang Zhan’s angry face, Jiang Si didn’t know where to begin.
Jiang Zhan grabbed Jiang Si’s wrist angrily: “Come with me!”
Jiang Si had never seen her brother so angry before and could only obediently follow him.
The siblings stopped in a secluded corner.
“Second Brother, what’s wrong?” Jiang Si asked innocently.
Jiang Zhan let go of her hand and looked at his sister’s pretty face. The anger he had built up dissipated by half.
Although he wasn’t as angry anymore, he couldn’t let her see that!
Jiang Zhan put on a stern face and accused: “Fourth Sister, you gave the liangpi I bought for you to Brother Yu Seven to eat!”
Jiang Si fell silent.
She thought Second Brother was angry about her going to a man’s house privately. Regardless of who that man was, it was understandable for an elder brother to be angry.
She never expected Second Brother to be angry about this.
“Second Brother, you misunderstand. I didn’t give the liangpi you bought to someone else. I accidentally left it there, so I sent A Man back to get it.”
Jiang Zhan’s face softened, but feeling that calming down so quickly would make him lose face, he coldly snorted: “Is that so?”
He had queued for so long, and when it was finally his turn, only the last portion was left. He didn’t even dare to eat a bite himself and sent it all to Fourth Sister.
Just thinking about the liangpi he had worked so hard to buy being given away by Fourth Sister, especially to a man who had no relationship with them, made him want to explode with anger.
“Does Second Brother not believe me?”
“I believe you, but—” Jiang Zhan belatedly grasped the key point, “Why did you go to Brother Yu Seven’s house?”
Damn that Yu Seven, it was bad enough that he flirted with Fourth Sister in front of him, but now he dared to lure Fourth Sister to his home behind his back.
“Uh, I went to feed Erniu. These past few days, Master Yu wasn’t around, and Erniu couldn’t eat—” Caught red-handed by her brother, Jiang Si felt more and more guilty as she spoke.
Although she did indeed go to feed Erniu, even she didn’t believe this reason—
Jiang Si quickly glanced up at Jiang Zhan, only to see that her brother, who had been furious just moments ago, had now quieted down and had a thoughtful expression.
She stopped talking and lowered her gaze to stare at her shoetips.
She didn’t expect Second Brother to have such a serious moment and wondered what he was thinking about.
Then she heard Jiang Zhan ask in a low voice: “Fourth Sister, do you… fancy Brother Yu Seven?”
Jiang Si’s eyelashes trembled.
The lake-green embroidered shoes came into view, the tips showing a bit of grayish-white—the originally embroidered white gardenia flowers that had been stained with dust from their earlier running, just like her currently obscure and confusing mood.
Jiang Si never knew that a person’s heart could be so complex, sometimes unable to clearly express even to oneself what one wants.
The young woman stood in front of her brother, who was a head taller than her, with lowered eyelids, hesitating and silent.
Jiang Zhan, however, took this silence as shyness and said regretfully: “I knew it, you can’t guard against a thief forever!”
That shameless Brother Yu Seven had finally won Fourth Sister’s heart, he had been careless!
“Second Brother, what are you saying?” Jiang Si came to her senses and denied, “I don’t.”
Jiang Zhan sighed: “Fourth Sister, don’t try to fool me. If you had no feelings for Brother Yu Seven, how could you possibly go to his house every day just to take care of a dog?”
He had raised crickets before, and when he was beaten by his father so badly he couldn’t get out of bed, why didn’t he see any beautiful young ladies coming to take care of his crickets?
Jiang Si opened her mouth but couldn’t find a reason to refute.
But Erniu wasn’t just an ordinary dog to her.
However… she did indeed still have feelings for that scoundrel.