Yu Luo asked Ziming to take the kite.
The maids of the residence were very shocked by Li Xiao’s skills, because they had never seen anyone who could perform qinggong before. Such abilities usually only appeared in storybooks.
Yu Luo herself had only ever seen it on television.
However, the other party was the male protagonist—the favored son of destiny in this entire world. No matter how many villains jumped around in front of him, they would eventually end up miserable at his hands.
Whatever the male protagonist did was nothing surprising to Yu Luo.
“Since you’ve done it, I won’t go back on my word.” Yu Luo took out the bottle of lingzhen ointment from her sleeve. “This bottle of medicine is your reward.”
She reached out and handed it to Li Xiao.
Li Xiao glanced indifferently at Yu Luo’s fingertips.
Yu Luo had naturally snow-white skin. Her fingers were soft and boneless, slender and tender, with a faint rosy hue at the tips.
Compared to before, she was completely different—there was not a single similarity about her.
Yet she still insisted on pretending to be the same as before.
He accepted the bottle of medicine from Yu Luo’s hand. “Thank you, Eldest Miss.”
Yu Luo let out a sigh of relief and quickly led the maids toward Yanzi Islet.
Yanzi Islet was surrounded by water on all sides and planted with various rare flowers and strange herbs. Since it was now autumn, it did not look as lush as it had a few months earlier.
Yu Luo crossed over by boat, and several maids helped her down from it.
“The two young masters and Biao Xiaojie should be up ahead.”
Yu Luo looked around and thought that the scenery here was more suitable for fishing rather than flying kites.
She slowly walked forward and saw a large red butterfly kite floating in the sky. The weather was bright and clear today, and the kite had flown very high.
Second Young Master of the Yu Family Residence, Yu Che, was leaning together with Liu Yanran. The two of them held the same kite string.
Eldest Young Master Yu Yuan of the Yu Family Residence had already been betrothed.
Among the young masters of the Yu Family Residence, only Yu Che had not yet been engaged.
At first, Liu Yanran had wanted to get close to Yu Yuan, because he was the legitimate eldest son. In the future, most of the Yu Family Residence’s inheritance would belong to Yu Yuan.
Later, Liu Yanran learned that the young lady betrothed to Yu Yuan had an extremely powerful background. If she dared to snatch that marriage, not only would it be difficult to succeed, but it might even bring disaster upon herself and her family.
So she turned her attention to Yu Che and developed a closer relationship with him.
Among the two young masters of the Yu Family Residence, Yu Yuan was steady while Yu Che was gentle. Both of them were objects of admiration for countless noble ladies.
Even Eldest Miss Yu liked her two brothers very much and always tried every way possible to please them.
Yu Luo glanced at them.
To be honest, these two cheap brothers of hers did indeed have very good looks.
Even the movie stars Yu Luo had once liked could hardly compare to them.
But Yu Luo had no interest at all in pleasing them.
She would much rather go and linger around Madam Yu, after all Madam Yu looked exactly like Yu Luo’s own mother.
Liu Yanran also noticed Yu Luo.
Her face turned slightly pale, and she said to Yu Che, “Second Cousin Brother, Cousin Luo has come over. Perhaps because we didn’t invite her to play with us, she’s come to question us.”
Yu Che frowned.
This kind of situation had not happened just once or twice.
Whenever he and Yu Yuan did something together with Liu Yanran and forgot to call Eldest Miss Yu along, Eldest Miss Yu would always go crazy and make everyone unhappy.
Just as he was about to speak, Yu Luo had already walked over.
Yu Luo said, “I heard that my two brothers and Cousin are flying kites here, so I came to join the fun.”
Hearing that Yu Luo did not seem to be here to cause trouble, Yu Che said nothing further.
And Yu Luo truly had no intention of causing trouble.
After all, she was not the original Eldest Miss Yu. They were two completely different people. For her to pretend and come here merely to act as an eye-catching third wheel was already not easy.
As for picking up a whip and beating people—
Sorry, Yu Luo really had no such hobby.
As long as her identity was not exposed and the people around her did not suspect that she was some ghost or demon who had possessed a corpse, she would already be satisfied.
Yu Luo let her own kite rise into the sky and then found a clean patch of ground to sit down.
Ziming placed the pastries and tea from the basket onto a nearby bluestone.
Today, Eldest Miss was behaving properly. She had neither scolded Biao Xiaojie nor beaten them to vent her anger, which was rather rare.
Ziming thought that perhaps this was because Eldest Miss had suffered a hidden loss at the hands of Biao Xiaojie last time, damaging her image in the eyes of the two young masters. That was why she was not stirring up trouble this time.
Yu Luo held the kite string with one hand and looked at the pastries Ziming had set out.
“What are these?”
Ziming hurriedly replied, “This is poria eight-treasure cake, and this is milk osmanthus cake. Eldest Miss, would you like to try some?”
Yu Luo was holding the kite string and could not free her hands for the moment.
Ziming picked up a piece of milk osmanthus cake, placed a clean white handkerchief beneath it, and brought the pastry to Yu Luo’s lips.
Yu Luo carefully took a bite.
Her eyes immediately lit up.
The pastry was soft and glutinous, melting the moment it entered the mouth. The light taste of milk blended with the fragrance of osmanthus, making it more delicious than any cake she had eaten before.
Leaning toward Ziming’s hand, she ate the entire piece bit by bit.
Ziming was stunned for a moment.
It was the first time she had ever seen Eldest Miss eat so quietly. In the past, if she had brought her hand this close, after Eldest Miss finished eating, she would definitely rake her long nails across the back of Ziming’s hand and scold, “Take your cheap claws away.”
But today, after Yu Luo finished eating quietly, her moist eyes slightly narrowed, looking very satisfied. There were still a few crumbs at the corner of her lips, like a little white fox that had secretly stolen some food.
For the first time, Ziming realized that her own Eldest Miss was actually so delicate and beautiful, so pitifully charming that one could not help but feel tenderness toward her.
“Miss, would you like another piece?”
Yu Luo said, “I’ll eat another later. This tastes quite good. You and Bitong should each take a piece to try.”
After saying this instinctively, Yu Luo felt that it did not quite match her character setting. She coughed and straightened her small face again.
“I’m only rewarding you because you’ve been obedient these past two days. If you don’t behave in the future, I will punish you severely.”
For the first time, when words of punishment came from Yu Luo’s mouth, Ziming did not feel frightened. Instead, they seemed somewhat cute.
Ziming answered, “Yes.”
Then she hesitated. “Miss, there are pastry crumbs on your face. Should this servant wipe them off for you?”
Yu Luo obediently leaned her face forward.
Ziming carefully wiped the faintly red corner of her lips.
Over on the other side, Liu Yanran watched Yu Luo. Seeing that she was not acting willfully and unpleasantly as usual, Liu Yanran could not help but frown.
Then Liu Yanran deliberately said, “Yanran already told Aunt long ago that she wanted a bolt of patterned brocade satin to make clothes. Who would have thought that the satin would be given to Cousin Luo instead? Cousin Luo possesses peerless beauty, so she truly deserves such things. I lost my mother and live under someone else’s roof—how could I possibly deserve something so fine?”
Yu Luo: “…”
That fresh, refined, and utterly natural green-tea tone sounded as if it had come from the same womb as Yu Luo’s stepsister and stepmother.
Yet Yu Che and Yu Yuan—two utterly straightforward men—happened to fall for exactly this kind of act.