When Lin Qi arrived, Li Liheng was rolling his trousers slightly, bending over to find something in the water.
The shallow part of the lotus pond only reached to his calves, and his forehead was slightly sweaty, with a few strands of wet hair sticking across his forehead, the always gentle eyes are inspecting closely the water while dabbling his hands inside, and the handsome face is full of anxiety…
"Hey, what are you doing?! If you catch cold in such cold weather, no one will take care of you!" The juvenile on the edge of the pond was obviously running hurriedly because his complexion is kinda ruddy, and at the moment, he was roaring with a bad mood, but it was not hard to heard the concern in his words.
Li Liheng heard what Lin Qi has said and straighten up to look at him, smiling gently, he said : "Why are you here? Go back quickly, the day has cooled down, go back so you don't get a cold yourself."
Lin Qi blushed and unconcernedly stated : "I'm fine." And with a little harsher tone, he said : "What the hell are you looking for? Is it that important to make you stay in the water in this kind of cold weather? ”
Li Liheng paused. His always gentle face looks somewhat embarrassed, he said sheepishly : “Yes… This…” as he spoke, he unfolded his palm, his hands was somewhat paler because it got soaked in the water, and a piece of green jade1 lying quietly on it.
…If it was the original body owner, then this scene will move him deeply, but what a pity —— it is Lin Qi now.
Lin Qi looked at what Li Liheng had in his hand and was speechless for a moment.
Li Liheng approaching him slowly, took one of Lin Qi hands, put the green jade on his palm, and stared closely at Lin Qi, he slowly said : "A Qi, for so many years, I've been carrying it on my side all the time… Whenever I feel unhappy, as long as I see it during that time, my mood will feel better right away. Seeing you again this time, your childish, your willfulness, your sharp tongue… I remembered all of your movements clearly, and this piece of jade has condensed all of my heart, now I'll give it to you for keep, will you?"
Lin Qi stared at him blankly. (Little Egg saying in the back angrily —— the both of you are male, this meaty goods2 is not disgusting at all!3 Xiao Qi is a cliff of goosebumps that fall and cannot be moved!4)
Li Liheng looked at the other's innocent appearance and blurted out : "A Qi, I like you…" He took a step forward, as if he want to hold the other in his arms.
Only then did Lin Qi soul returned5 and he took a step back in a panic in which his hand slipped and he accidentally threw the green jade back into the water. The eyes of the two person turned to splashing water for a moment.
Lin Qi watched Li Liheng go down to the pool again, desperate to find it everywhere; he shouted with a guilty conscience : "If that kind of thing is lost then it's lost! Who wants it?" After saying that, he walked away from here quickly.
Li Liheng, who was still groping in the water behind him, heard his word and was stupefied —— leaving just like that?!
Then he smiled bitterly, but it was just like his character. Really, the number of times I smiled forcedly these past few days is even more than in these ten plus years! Say, in the end, where did it all go?
……
Lin Qi, who had gone far away, was in a very cheerful mood. He could feel that Li Liheng still had some sincerity in him, it seems that this image works well; the Little Egg is also very happy —— Letting you got deceived by Xiao Qi to lose the jade! Now that you really lost it, look for it slowly! Ah, maybe you can even make the lotus pond a little bigger!6
It is said that Li Liheng had been searching for all evening that day, and the next day he was naturally fallen ill, so the housekeeper of Li's family came to take him back.
However, he waited at the gate for a long time, and did not see a certain someone who had been hiding from him to send him off, at long last, he returned silently.
And Lin Qi, it's not that he didn't want to send him off, but he was called into the study by Father Lin, so there's no chance to go. But, even if he didn't got called here, he wouldn't necessary go.
However, Father Lin called Lin Qi but he didn't even talk. For a long time, Father Lin wrote a good one roll of letter before unexpectedly waving his arm to let him go back. But in the end he tell him with a great emphasis —— "A Qi, you must remember that you are the only heir of the Lin family."
It seems that Father Lin knows what happened in the backyard. Lin Qi was stunned and said : "Father… I definitely will make the Lin Family to be the number one wine merchant family."
Father Lin looking at him with a sigh, and finally waving his hand to let him go.
樊城街上
The street on Fancheng7
Lin Qi sat alone by the window of the private room on the second floor of his restaurant, looking at the passers-by while leaning his head on one hand, and fiddling with the wine bottle in front of him with boredom.
More than half a month has passed since the last meeting with Li Liheng, a few days ago, Father Lin somehow got an information that Li Liheng has received two concubines and told Lin Qi about that —— How surprised the expression on his eyes at that time! The feelings that his own son is being abandoned is really infuriating: Now I know that this servant8 is not reliable!
At the same time, Lin Qi also remembered that if Li Liheng had no beautiful woman on the rear9, then that would be very baffling! After the original owner of the body breaking up his relationship with his family, he followed him to the Li family house, where there were two women in the backyard. Li Liheng felt that the other party's value that he can take advantage of was not high, and naturally he was too lazy to pay attention to it; and the original host has a soft temperament so he naturally got bullied often.
Lin Qi is still very fond of the little sisters, of course, the premise is that it best to not provoke him.
Originally, Father Lin also mentioned that he want to put two peoples in Lin Qi's room, which was rejected by Lin Qi. It's not that Lin Qi want to protect his chastity —— but is he only thirteen, alright? He sincerely thought that it would be better if it was said two years later!
这些天，林奇老是在家里闷闷不乐的；林父担心他闷坏了，所以，以视察酒楼为名让他出来散散心。
其实林奇是闲的无聊发闷。
These days, Lynch is always looks unhappy at home; Father Lin worries that he is depressed, so in the name of inspecting the restaurant, let him come out to relax.
Actually, Lin Qi is only bored because he has nothing to do.
Sitting by the window and fiddling with the wine pot for a while, Lin Qi decided that if there was nothing interesting happening yet, he will to go and “play” with Li Liheng.
But live to his expectation, there was a disturbance, at last…
A servant anxiously running to him and said, “Young Master, there's a man who's been ransacking the venue downstairs… The shopkeeper wasn't able to take care of him…”
林奇撑着头笑了笑，他想他知道是谁了。
他起身抚了抚衣襟，慢慢的向着楼下走去。
Lin Qi smiled in his mind, he think he know who it was.
He get up and smothered his clothes, and slowly walked downstairs.
There are a group of people downstairs, surrounded in the middle of the table, a man are sitting.
He looked to be around twenties, the outer corner of his eyes are slanting upward, and when you looked at that man, there's an attraction that cannot be explained. Right now, the could like long hair was scattered loosely behind his back, leaning on the table and tilted his head, the long, fair fingers were loosely holding a wine cup ——
He took it to his nose and sniffed it lightly, after a moment, the corners of his mouth lit up with a smile and he said : "This wine is made with an excellent quality raw materials [sorghum](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorghum_bicolor "Title") and [millet](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millet "Title") with a high temperature yeast, and the special aspect lie in how much yeast were used with the raw materials; the process passes eight times of fermentation and nine times of distillation, the production cycle lasted for nine months, then aging it for more than three years, bending them up, then store it for another year to make the wine became even more fragrance and mellow. Soft and mild… isn't that right?
There was a wave of applause around him, and the face of the shopkeeper that's standing opposite him was brimming with cold sweat.
There were already a dozen or so wine cups scattered around the man, he put down his wine cup and his slanted eyes appear to be smiling, he said —— "No way, it seem like the so-called number one wine shop in Fancheng only amount to this…"
"If you can even know this —— the recipe of the wine one commonly drink, if you can't guess the making methods, how can you be called the apprentice of the Wine God?" The juvenile voice passed around from the above to the bottom, and in second, everyone turned around in unison to looked over.
Only to see a juvenile aged 13 to 14 standing upright on the stairs, he have an exquisite facial features, and at this moment, he raised his chin and saying those words arrogantly, his eyes are full of fierceness, he looked arrogant, and also charming! That pair of bright, blank pupils enchanting peoples as to sink into it, surrendering involuntary.
The noisy crowds losing their voice and be lost in the eyes of the bewitching demon momentarily. Even Mei Xiao was stunned for a while.
"Young Master…" until the shopkeeper turned to his back, and saying that with a respectful tone, the souls of the crowds finally comes back.
"Oh? The Lin family's young master? How did you know that I'm Mei Xiao?" Mei Xiao tilted his head, the glance on his eyes looks like he's thinking of something, curving his eyebrows and said in an playful manner : "Could it be that —— you were secretly in love with me, so you already checked my background thoroughly?" Those pair of eyes that looks like the glittering waves of water under the sunlight seemingly have an indistinct and hazy looks that appears like they contain a deep feelings.
"He10, this young master only guessing, you're the one that admitting it yourself!" Lin Qi scoffed coldly, and walking down the stairs step by step; Standing in front of Mei Xiao, he raised one side of the corner of his mouth, saying it proudly and disdainfully.
Mei Xiao stunned, and then he laughed heartily after the astonishing event and said : "Funny, really funny! But, little young master, no matter what, it is a fact that your family wine is no more than this, you can't say nothing more! Didn't know ——" Mei Xiao height was a full head taller than Lin Qi, and at this moment, he bend slightly and tapped his finger softly at Lin Qi chest, and raised his eyebrows, dragging his word's slowly : "Does the little young master dare to take out the Hundred Li Fragrances to try?"
"Why are you so provocative?" Lin Qi casted a sidelong glance at the alluring face in front of him, then he narrowed his eyes and said proudly : "I will make a type of wine in the spot, if you can guess the methods and ingredients, what does it matter if the secret recipe of the Hundred Li Fragrances were to be given to you?"
The gathering crowds sucked in a breath and the shopkeeper on the side was frightened, "Young Master…" he just barely speaking, but Lin Qi cold glance make him lose his voice.
"However, if you lose, you have to comply to a condition of mine. Are you agree to the dare?" Lin Qi raising his voice at the end, and at the same time, he's slanting the corners of his eyes up while looking at Mei Xiao, cannot said how arrogant those looks are, the black and bright pair of pupil also has the unspeakable charm to entice peoples!
Mei Xiao was staring dazedly and after his soul returned back : This is a honey trap11! —— The precipice did not want to admit that this goods can charm himself and the people's heart in the capital!!! (T/N : I honestly didn't know what he's sprouting about and he did called Lin Qi a goods/commodity/money too)
He immediately smiled and his eyes narrowed his eyes once again, and even the time of his voice are a little rippling, he said : "He he~~ you're so interesting, then I want to change the condition —— If I win, you have to help me with something."
准备旁观某人悲剧的小鸡蛋默默地：话说这是在cos赵敏么？
The Little Egg that was waiting so watch the tragedy of a certain someone silently : Is this the so-called cos Zhao Ming12?
Raws words count : 3.262
This new guy obviously have the phoenix eyes (I GUESSSSS???), and I was hoping the author would wrote it with this kind of name rather than slanting, raising to be like smiling, etc kind of eyes (what the f*ck with the long description just to say his eyes are glimmering?). That was really a pain since I don't know how to describe this kind of eyes clearly.
Mei Xiao did call Lin Qi 'Little Young Master'. It is not a typo.
Plus sorry, I'm not an wine expert, so I'm sorry if my translation ended up wrong. You can check the link on the translation up there directly if you're curious about the grains mentioned (and yes, all of them were used in the making of liquor). I don't know what I did wrong that the link never appear properly.
翠玉 (cuì yù) could mean bluish-green jade, green jade, or blue jade… there's actually no definite naming for green and blue in Chinese, so its always in between and confused a lot of other translator too. ↩ ah well, in case you forgot, they called Li Liheng as goods (货), now Little Egg added 肉 which mean meat or flesh, so I made it as meaty goods for the lack of words to call him, and the word for disgusting is 肉麻, so. ↩ it is said in a sarcastic way, but I'm not sure. Raw : 都是男人，这货肉不肉麻呀喂！ ↩ I fookin have no idea what the duck is this egg talking about. Raws : 小七绝壁是鸡皮疙瘩掉一地动弹不能！ ↩ as in… his sense coming back to him. it's not literal. ↩ I just realized that Little Egg is one sarcastic system. If you don't get it, he can make it bigger by scooping the mud on the bottom of the pond because he need to do that to search for the jade. ↩ 樊城街上. 樊 (fán) mean cage, fence, and Chinese surname. 城 (chéng) means city walls, city, town. Fangcheng is also a district of Xiangfan city (襄樊市) in Hubei. ↩ it only have the character 丫 which can both mean bastard or (servant) girl or fork. It is too vague so idk. Raws : 现在知道这丫不靠谱了吧！ ↩ it actually mean backyard, like, backyard, but it is also a metaphor for 'behind'. The next backyard also use the same character. ↩ onomatopoeia for exhaling breath (in disdain, usually). ↩ 美人计 měirén jì. honey trap; sexual entrapment. use a seductive woman to corrupt
use of a woman to ensnare a man
sex-trap
badger game ↩ not entirely sure but it seems like it is about the cosplay of Zhao Ming from 'The Heaven and Dragon Sword' [倚天屠龙记] (eh, I don't know the correct title translation) and I don't know the connection here. Please enlighten me, mastah~~~ ↩