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"Never mind. She..." Seeing Imperial Noble Consort lift a pair of innocent cat eyes, trembling with aggrieved teardrops, and cooing and acting spoiled toward him, he instantly felt endless heartache, raising his sleeve to block the way for her. "She isn't used to drinking this kind of tea."

"Oh! That's true, beasts or whatever, casually drinking some ditch water is fine, how is there any reason to learn from people drinking tea? Hahaha, right?"

"..." Young Master Piao smiled without answering, the corners of his eyes surging with black smoke.

Brimming with murderous intent, Zhu Bafu had no situational awareness whatsoever, failing to see the pet cat's standing in Young Master Piao's eyes. She raised her head and drank a large gulp of tea, wiped her mouth, and boldly probed, "Since you came specifically to look for me today, is there something we can discuss?"

"There is indeed an imposition. I hope Piggy will grant it to me for the sake of you and me spending a spring night together."

"Young Master Piao is too polite. If it wasn't for your generous action that night helping me see that... Miss Liu of yours, I wouldn't have been able to complete the task so smoothly and earn silver, so your matter must be kept in my heart!" While uttering polite falsehoods on the surface, Zhu Bafu's inner abacus was clicking away loudly. Looking at this gigolo's brocade robes, he must be of extraordinary wealth; if she could successfully hook up with him, she wouldn't be so tight on money in the future. "Don't speak yet, let me guess what unspeakable difficulty Young Master Piao has. Parting that day, Young Master Piao must have added many more youths' sorrows anew."

"Well said. This sorrow cannot be considered as only having arisen recently; actually, all along I have..." Stroking the cat's fur, Young Master Piao's eyes held deep meaning. "...all along I have considered him my person. Who knew that day he would actually go behind my back..."

Seeing that he had completely lost the romantic and dashing air of visiting courtesans upon the building that day, cradling a small cat cub and revealing the lovesick, insecure face of someone suffering from lovesickness, Zhu Bafu finally understood. Oh! So he was betrayed by a friend and had nowhere to vent, so he specifically came to find her to pour out his heart and chat. That was easy; her profession was that of a sentiment consultant who soothed human hearts and resolved worries.

"Did you truly say it to him, to Young Master Chenjing? The phrase 'You are my person'?"

Young Master Piao nodded.

"And his reaction was?" Possessiveness and all that was a great taboo in romantic love!

"If you ever dare to learn vulgar words from street ruffians again, I'll force you to kneel and kowtow to the ancestors."

"Puff!" It seemed the feeling was mutual only on one side... Originally, this taboo love was already complicated enough, and with a woman sandwiched between the two of them, heavens above, this kind of two-man-and-one-woman circular triangle romance was simply a dead end inside a bull's horn, where drilling through to the end still yielded no exit.

It even implicated her, an innocent, passing-by newly minted examination candidate, who was inexplicably hit with a Secret Order of the Unspoken Rule to try things out with her by the depressed examiner lord who found no outlet to vent and claimed disappointment in women. Oh, you two young masters, please hurry up and untie your emotional knots, and return to her her innocence and a bright, brocaded future! Be quick about it!

"Young Master Piao, this humble scholar dares to be presumptuous with one extra word: haven't you figured out your own feelings yet?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean Young Master Chenjing and Miss Liu, which of the two carries more weight in the depths of your heart?" He couldn't possibly hog both and claim they were both his people, could he? With triangular relationships and all, someone had to figure things out first for things to proceed.

The hand stroking the cat paused. Young Master Piao looked with interest at Zhu Bafu, who wore a worried expression. She seemed very invested in his story and role, even moving her stool closer to him by a fraction, wishing she could lean her entire body over to help him untie his distress.

"Brothers and women, you see..." Young Master Piao gazed distantly, indifferent.

"Mhm, limbs and clothing, you see..." An eternal mystery! She gazed distantly along with him.

His distant gaze finished, he glanced at the tea bowl she had already drunk more than half of, pushed aside the tea bowl before his own eyes that hadn't touched a single drop, lifted his robes, and stood up. "Shall we go for a walk by the river?"

"Eh? Why?" The leap in thought was too big, wasn't it?

"The atmosphere of such a place directly affects my mood for discussing private matters."

"...Oh?" Wasn't the atmosphere of the tea stall good? Wasn't it precisely the best place for discussing private matters? What was fun by the river? Rolling up trouser legs to catch river crabs?

Without answering, Young Master Piao hung the cat on his shoulder and walked around directly to the back of the tea tavern, only to see a servant carrying a large bucket of water and heading toward the post station stable nearby.

Turning back to glance at Zhu Bafu, who had finished paying in copper coins and was trotting up after him, he deliberately thrust his head forward and asked right in front of her, "May I ask, what kind of water is in the bucket?"

"Hey! Of course it's the cheapest tea dregs in this tea tavern! Feeding livestock or whatever is the most suitable! The post station's steeds all love to drink our shop's tea water, oh!"

"Pfft--"

"Spit, spit, spit, spit, spit, spit, spit, spit, spit... Young Master Piao, you, what are you snickering at?"

"Nothing." Heh, was ditch water tasty? How could the things swallowed into one's belly be spat out so easily? Who told you to insult my Imperial Noble Consort!

By the willow trees beside the river, Zhu Bafu's sad past was stirred up. How wonderful the connections of all things in the world were: just a few days ago, it was right here that she lost her footing and fell into the water, beginning her entangling and unbreakable bond with the Prime Minister's Son. Now, she was wandering back to this place to counsel his good friend—

The setting sun slanted down. An elite young noble with a lazy Persian cat atop his head walked gracefully by the riverside.

"Young Master Piao, whatever matters you have on your mind, you may speak of them freely now." Hurry up, make it snappy! She had just finished drinking ditch water and was feeling depressed! Feeling like even her speech carried a rich livestock flavor, who still had the mood to accompany him strolling a cat!

"Piggy, help me investigate something at Dongxu Mansion."

"Dongxu Mansion?" How did he know she was taking the Dongxu Mansion examination?

"Not only do I know you're taking the Dongxu Mansion examination, I also know you want to serve as an official in Qingzhou, your family lives in the outer city's poor alley, you have a younger brother below you, and recently your finances are a bit tight."

Na... Nani!?

Zhu Bafu guardedly knitted her brows tightly. This person was meticulous and of terrifying background, actually digging out all her files. Could it even be that her gender discrepancy and lineage details had been discovered?

Rankings

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Historical Romance

Cross-Dressing as a Man