Chapter 623 - Rearing Chickens
Tang Si brought Mo Ruo to a noodle stall by the roadside. “See, this is how one should eat. Isn’t this much more comfortable?” Tang Si said.
Mo Ruo grimaced as he stared at Tang Si with an extremely disdainful expression. Then, he picked up a pair of chopsticks from the bamboo holder before he poked it grumpily on the table. He mumbled, “I, Mo Ruo, have always been a dandy. Never in my life would I have thought that I would be eating noodles at this kind of place with a wild brat. Out of all places, you had to choose this stall.”
Right after he finished his words, Tang Si, who was sitting before him, violently rapped him on his head. “What's wrong with this place? This is such a great place. We can gobble up the food however we wish to. I’m not like you who would go to such places to eat. Aren’t you scared you would be choked by the stench of all that rouge in the air?”
“At least there are beauties by my side when I eat, and the food will naturally taste delicious.”
“What's so good about those women?” She slammed the table as she asked.
“They are good in every possible way. At the very least, they are not violent like you.”
“How am I violent?”
“On top of that, at least they aren’t like you and won’t shout so loudly in public.” Mo Ruo rolled his eyes for the umpteenth time.
Tang Si hated it whenever people compared her with other people. She stuck her chin up and chest out. “Look at me carefully. How are they better than me? Which part of me is not as good as them? Is this lady not as pretty as them?” She raised her tone and immediately attracted the attention of all that passed by, provoking muttering and comments about her.
Mo Ruo felt extremely embarrassed. He covered his face with his hands as he asked Tang Si, “What are you so furious about?”
“Why do you think I’m furious?” She stood up abruptly and added, “You’re so dumb. Do you really need me to spell everything out for you?”
Huh? Before Mo Ruo could grasp her words, Tang Si stormed off. What’s going on?
At that moment, the chef served him two bowls of noodles. “Young master, your noodles are here.”
Mo Ruo nodded as an acknowledgement to the chef before he stared at the two bowls. All of a sudden, it dawned on him. What? He exclaimed, “This can’t be true!”
It is true! Tang Si has a crush on you, little brat! A shiver ran down his spine. He quickly took out a silver to place it on the table and headed back to the brothel. He wasn’t truly that promiscuous; he simply preferred to spend time with beautiful people, but he did not desire them.
From that day onward, Tang Si dared not to look Mo Ruo in his face. She always had her head lowered whenever she ran into him, feeling extremely bashful. In fact, she had been waiting expectantly for an answer from Mo Ruo. Yet, the brat pretended to not know her true intentions and continued to bury his head in the sand.
On the other hand, Jing Rong had decided to give up on learning how to cook ever since the day the critics tore him apart. Then, he embarked on a new hobby to rear chickens.
He vacated an entire courtyard to raise a hen, making his favorite pastime now watching the hen. He earnestly hoped that it would grow bigger, so he fed the hen diligently everyday. This lasted until one day he thought that the hen might feel lonely and bored. Therefore, he headed out for a stroll, and eventually came home with a rooster. Initially, he only wanted the chicken couple to keep each other company. However, as everyone expected, the two chickens quickly grew into a flock of chickens that were running freely around the courtyard.
At first, Jing Rong thought it was nice listening to the chickens’ cluckings. However, he soon got tired of it, and was annoyed by the noises. When he finally could not take it any longer, he decided to assign the chicken-rearing task to Lang Po.
This has to be retaliation for the time when he accidentally interrupted the prince. He was only trying to serve him his porridge and now he is giving him a hard time. Lang Po sat on a big rock as he idly poked the bamboo stick in his hand into the ground. He mumbled, “So much for rearing chicken. He’s the one who bought them, so he should be the one taking care of him on his own.”
Lang Po could only complain in secret because he had no guts to say those words in Jing Rong’s face. Otherwise, he would definitely get dismembered.
“Buck, buck, buck~” The chicks walked in a line as they followed their mother hen and casually strolled past Lang Po.
“Stop clucking, or I’ll kill you.”
“Buck, buck, buck~” The leading mother hen and its chicks surrounded his feet, clucking incessantly.
Lang Po was at his wit’s end when it came to handling the chickens. He dared not kill them, or he would possibly be buried together with the chickens.
Meanwhile, the owner of the chickens was bothering Ji Yunshu to teach him how to draw. He had beautiful handwriting, but was a complete amateur when it came to drawing.
Ji Yunshu, who was initially resting in her own room, was dragged out of her bed by Jing Rong. Left with no choice, Ji Yunshu taught him how to draw the simplest thing — a bamboo. Fortunately, Jing Rong was a very diligent student. Not only was he persistent, but he was also very eager to learn.
The bamboo he first drew resembled a chopstick, but toward the end of the lesson, it began to look like bamboo. Proud of himself, he announced that he wanted to paint a portrait.
For the first time in Ji Yunshu's life, she became a model. She stood there motionlessly. After about the time to burn a joss stick, Jing Rong said, “And, it’s done!” The portrait was completed.
Pleased, he brought the portrait over and showed it to Ji Yunshu. However, when Ji Yunshu saw the portrait, she was extremely startled.
It was clearly a person on the portrait. The facial features were properly depicted: the person had eyes, nose, brows and ears in their proper places. But all the facial features put together looked nothing like her; even worse, the person in the painting looked hideous.
Who is this? She stared at the picture for a long time, but could not recognize the person in the portrait at all. After all, Ji Yunshu was a beautiful girl who carried an effortless, natural and modest charm. Not wanting to destroy his confidence, Ji Yunshu flashed a faint smile and said, “At least, you used very nice colours for this painting.”
Jing Rong understood the meaning behind her words. Once again, his enthusiasm was crushed. He threw the brush aside, and swore to himself, call me a dog if I ever draw again!
After these few hiccups, he decided to be at peace with himself, and stopped distracting himself with all these pointless efforts.
On this day with perfect weather, he invited Ji Yunshu on an old-fashioned rowboat date. With both of them sitting on a rowboat in a serene lake, it made a rather picturesque scene.
It was supposed to be a date for Jing Rong and Ji Yunshu. However, when Mo Ruo heard that they were going boating, he quickly followed the couple to the lake. Naturally, Tang Si insisted on following Mo Ruo too.
The boat was cramped. The boatman rowed the boat down the stream. Jing Rong sat on the stern of the boat with a jug of wine in his hand, while Mo Ruo sat at the other end of the boat. Similarly, he had a jug of wine in his hand too.
In the meantime, Ji Yunshu and Tang Si were sitting between the two men.
“What unbelievably beautiful scenery this is!” Mo Ruo made an abrupt statement.
“Other than certain unwelcome and oblivious people,” Jing Rong spoke from the other end of the boat, implying that the extraneous ‘third-wheels’ Mo Ruo and Tang Si had ruined this beautiful scenery.
After hearing what Jing Rong said, Mo Ruo let out a laugh. He took another sip of the wine, and did not respond further, while Jing Rong put on a discernible scowl on his face.
Of course, Ji Yunshu understood what was going on between the two men, but unlike Ji Yunshu, Tang Si sat there motionlessly as she stared into space. What’s going on? She shook her head, and decided not to care about the two guys.
Nevertheless, she was thrilled with the outing. She was extremely excited every time she arrived at a place with water. Back when she was at Houliao, the place had nothing but barren fields. Being able to play with water cheered her up more than having delicious food to eat.
She took off her shoes and bathed her bare feet in the river. Occasionally, she kicked the water with her foot and splashed it onto Mo Ruo, who was constantly drinking his wine. Although his face and back were wet, Mo Ruo was not bothered at all. Instead, he only focused on drinking his wine as if he were nothing but a wine-drinking robot.