The shopkeeper did his business sincerely. Seeing that she liked the jade, he didn't try to swindle her. His price was reasonable for this quality of jade. However, the price of a thousand and eight hundred coins would be extremely expensive for an ordinary person. Even if an average person didn't eat and drink and diligently worked for an entire lifetime, he or she wouldn't be able to save this much money!
Zhao Liuli didn't have a concept of money. Besides, when she left the palace today, Mama Qiu had given her a lot of money. She had more than enough to buy these jades. She had the palace servant girl pay for the jades, then she happily took the two pieces of jades into her hand and left the store without even taking the box.
At the store's entrance, Yang Zhen was standing as straight as a pine tree.
Zhao Liuli looked in the direction of the carriage. She checked that Zhao Jie hadn't come out before walking over to Yang Zhen. She held up his hand and placed one of the jade into his palms. Her little face smiled, "Today is older brother Yang Zhen's birthday. This is my gift to you."
Yang Zhen was surprised for a moment. He hadn't expected that she would remember.
"There's another piece that's mine." She held the remaining piece in her palm. She stared at him as she said, "Older brother Yang Zhen, you have to wear this every day. I'll inspect you everyday to check that you’re wearing it.”
His heart moved. There was finally a disturbance in his indifferent and silent eyes. He looked at Zhao Liuli with deep eyes. He tried his best to repress him emotions. If they weren't outside on a busy street and if Prince Jing wasn't sitting in the carriage, he wouldn't be able to resist bringing her close to his chest and hugging her. A long time later, he finally nodded and solemnly said, "Okay."
Zhao Liuli smiled in satisfaction.
After she sat down in the carriage again, she impatiently had Wei Luo help her put on the jade necklace.
Zhao Jie glanced at them.
She didn't tell Zhao Jie that this jade was part of a pair or why she wanted to buy it. Zhao Jie didn't ask her about it either.
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After they shopped in the morning, noon soon arrived and it was time to eat lunch.
Zhao Liuli asked Zhao Jie where they would be eating.
After thinking about it, he said, "Let's go to Yu He."
Zhao Liuli wasn't familiar with these restaurants and was fine with any place he wanted to go to.
A little while later, they arrived at Yu He's entrance and came out of the carriage. Just as Zhao Liuli was going to walk inside the restaurant, Zhao Jie stopped her by saying, "Liuli, there's a tofu store not far from here. I heard that you recently wanted to eat jellied tofu. The flavor that the store makes is pretty good, but they're only open until noon."
(T/N: Below is a picture of jellied tofu. Jellied tofu is similar to dohua (tofu pudding), but it has savory ingredients instead of sweet ones.)
Ch 71 - jellied tofu.png
After hearing this, Zhao Liuli was very excited. After thinking about it, she said, "Then I’ll go there with older brother Yang Zhen and come back here after I finish eating the jellied tofu. Second brother and Ah Luo can go inside to request a private room and start ordering food."
Wei Luo frowned. Didn't this mean she would be alone with Zhao Jie when they were waiting? She opened her mouth to say she also wanted to go with them, but unfortunately, Zhao Liuli had already left with Yang Zhen. In addition, those two had deep feelings for each other that were as thick and sweet as honey. They finally had a chance to be together without other people around. How could she follow them? Wei Luo looked at their back figures and could only give up. She obediently followed Zhao Jie inside Yu He.
At this time, there weren't many people inside and there were still private rooms available upstairs.
The waiter led them to a private room on the western side, pushed open the door, and respectively said, "Please enter."
The spacious private room was fairly neat and faced the street.
Zhao Jie sat down at the round table and ordered various dishes, then he finally looked at Wei Luo and said, "And a bowl of yuanbao wontons."
One by one, the waiter listed out the ordered items to confirm. Then at the end, he recommended, "Our restaurant has made a new dish. It's called lovers' lotus seed congee. It's most suitable for people like Sir and Miss. Would Sir like to order two bowls?"
Was he treating them as a couple?
Wei Luo discontentedly looked up at the waiter. What kind of eyes did he have?!
Zhao Jie was very cheerful and quietly laughed. He looked at the girl across from him, "Ah Luo, do you want to drink this?"
Wei Luo pursed her lips and without even thinking about it, she refused, "I don't want it."
The waiter bumped into the wall, touched his nose, smiled, didn't think anything of this, turned around, and went to the kitchen to order the food.
After the waiter left, there was only Wei Luo and Zhao Jie in the room.
Normally, they usually had endless words to say when they were together. But, now, she was deliberately ignoring him and the private room was very quiet. However, Zhao Jie didn't seem to feel uncomfortable. He comfortably sat at the round table carved with lions and his phoenix eyes looked at her for a long time.
He still hasn’t looked enough?
At first, Wei Luo ignored him. If he wanted to look, he could look. She would just ignore him. After a while, she finally couldn't tolerate it anymore. Her almond eyes stared back at him, "Older brother Prince Jing, don't look at me."
In a deep and low voice, Zhao Jie said, "Oh, why can't I look?"
She thought of the recent words said by the waiter and deliberated her words before saying, "Other people will misunderstand."
Even though he already knew everything, he still smiled and asked, "What will they misunderstand."
Wei Luo chose to be silent and didn't continue speaking.
But, Zhao Jie didn't intend to let her go. His dark eyes stared at her and he slowly said, "Ah Luo, what will they misunderstand?"
She refused to answer, so he stood up and walked to her. He placed one hand on the round Chinese cedar table, then he slowly leaned over her and said, "Tell me."
Wei Luo reflexively pushed him away. But his chest was as hard and solid as a mountain. She wasn't able to push him away. He slowly moved forward and she could only slowly retreat. But, the Chinese cedar kaiguang stool beneath her wasn't steady, so it gradually started to tilt over. Her body started to fall backwards.
Her eyes widen and she subconsciously grabbed Zhao Jie's sleeve.
Fortunately, Zhao Jie was able to timely respond. One hand held the back of her head and the other hand tightly held her waist as they both fell to the ground. He closely held and protected her so she didn't suffer from the slightest injury.
However, their bodies were very close to each other without any distance between them. The two small peaches on Wei Luo's chest were pressed against his hard chest. They had already felt sore to begin with and after being pressed against him, it hurt so much that her face paled.
Zhao Jie seemed to have also felt something. His hand came out from behind her head and he slightly propped up his upper body. But, he didn't let go of her. His very hard and long legs were still sticking close to her legs. One leg was even inserted itself between her legs and pushed them open.
The difference between a man and a woman was embodied in the finest detail at this moment. Her body was soft, but his body was hard and powerful.
Wei Luo's small face was blushing. She wasn't able to even slightly move underneath his body much less get up, "Let me go..."
Zhao Jie didn't move. One hand was on her side and the other hand was tightly wrapped around her slender waist. His tall body was covering her as he stared into her eyes.
His eyes held a tide of deep emotions that seemed to drown her.
Why weren't Liuli and Yang Zhen back yet?
Wei Luo almost wanted to cry.
But, then strange sounds came from the next room. It seemed as if it was a man and a woman calling out together ambiguously and gently. One voice was coarse and the other was soft.
The sound insulation for the private rooms weren't very good. Wei Luo could clearly hear the sounds from the next room. She even heard the female calling out, "Ah.... Don’t bite there..."