Chapter 115 - You Don't Know Reciprocity?

Shen Ninghua looked at Chu Junyi’s serious expression, but she was unswayed in her heart. Xiao Huanxi had been spoiled since childhood and was treasured like a pearl by the Xiao family. Such a person could not bear to have something that was out of her reach. In her heart, if she held Chu Junyi in affection, Chu Junyi must not ignore her. Once she couldn’t achieve her goal, it was the obstacle’s fault. Now that Xiao Huanxi had suffered such a huge loss, how could she let it go! The only way was to hurt her and scare her to such an extent that she would never dare to think of retaliation again!

Chu Junyi frowned slightly. “I will ask my foster father to choose a good husband for her and marry her out of the capital!”

Shen Ninghua paused and then laughed. “Chu Junyi, I thought you were smart. I didn’t expect you to be so stupid. I was wrong about you.”

“Ninghua, keeping her away from the capital is the best method for now.” He knew that this method wasn’t the most thorough, but it was relatively the best. When she was far away from the capital, she naturally wouldn’t be able to find trouble with Ninghua.

Shen Ninghua laughed for a long time before she slowly stopped. “Chu Junyi, how about we making a bet?”

“Bet?”

“Right, I can promise not to take action against Xiao Huanxi for now. Just do as you want and see if the result will be as you wish.”

“What are the criteria and condition for winning and losing?”

Shen Ninghua said firmly, “If you can persuade Xiao Jingran to marry Xiao Huanxi out, and Xiao Huanxi gets married as you wish, then I lose. I will marry you as your wife. If Xiao Jingran doesn’t agree and Xiao Huanxi doesn’t give it a rest, then you should stop interfering in this matter and leave Xiao Huanxi at my disposal!”

Chu Junyi suddenly raised his head to meet her gaze, and an extremely fast streak of light flashed through his eyes. “Ninghua, are you serious with your words?”

“A word spoken is an arrow let fly. Of course, I’m serious. What, you don’t dare?”

“Haha, why wouldn’t I dare?” Chu Junyi’s eyes shone brightly, and the smile on his lips was full of confidence. “Ninghua, prepare your dowry and wait to become my wife.”

Shen Ninghua curled her lips and said, “I’m warning you right now. Don’t underestimate women. If they want something, they can come up with tens of thousands of ways to get it.”

Chu Junyi raised his eyebrows and waited for her to continue.

Shen Ninghua’s eyes darkened. “Take the emperor’s harem for example. The emperor married the empress and many concubines to balance the powers of the court. But think carefully. Did the emperor succeed in using those women to balance the situation, or did the women manage to use the emperor to elevate their families’ statuses?” The fastest way for a man to gain power was to fight on the battlefield. But for a woman to gain power, it was enough to simply find a man with overwhelming power. However, the man who was used by women was often complacent and ignorant of this.

Chu Junyi’s heart trembled and the smile in his eyes gradually dissipated. Shen Ninghua’s words shocked him greatly. He knew that sometimes women had some influence over a family, but he never paid too much attention to them. Even in the case of Shen Ninghua, it was because he liked her so that he worked hard to cooperate with her. He had been looking out for her well-being, but he never noticed how powerful she was. Now that he thought about it, he realized that he had made the mistake of dark under light. If he kept ignoring this problem, he might really fall into the hands of women sometime in the future!

Seeing his expression, Shen Ninghua smiled in her heart. If she really lost the bet this time, she would not reject marrying him. In this case, the bet this time could be regarded as part of her effort to educate him, right?

Chu Junyi restored his senses. He raised his head and wanted to say something, but when he saw the brilliant smile on Shen Ninghua’s lips, he immediately stopped. A doting smile surged in his heart. Perhaps what she said was correct, but the real situation was not that exaggerated. The reason why she told him this was to warn him, and also to change his opinion of women.

He knew Shen Ninghua’s character. If she didn’t care about someone, even if they died in front of her, she wouldn’t even open her eyes to take a glimpse. Therefore, that meant he still had a place in her heart, and she even considered him as her future husband. Since that was the case, wasn’t he obliged to do his best to cooperate?

“I have been so seriously wounded. If I went back before recovering, I’m afraid that my secret would be exposed. So I would have Ye Yi come here to disguise himself as me and then return to the Xiao Mansion.”

Shen Ninghua frowned slightly. “What about you?”

“Me? I’m homeless now. I can only beg you to accommodate me temporarily.” Chu Junyi pulled the quilt to cover his body and he was careful not to touch the wound. Then, he took a deep breath and smelled the fresh smell of the quilt. His heart throbbed with excitement.

Looking at his roguish behavior, Shen Ninghua’s heart burst with anger. “Whatever. I saved your life again. Don’t forget to send 5,000 taels of gold with the money for Xiao Huanxi’s antidote.”

Chu Junyi stiffened. He sighed slightly in his heart. It seemed that his wealth was not big enough. With such a black-hearted wife, he had to try his best to earn more money.

Yang Yingxue was extremely frightened by Xiao Huanxi’s incident. She was in state of extreme nervousness about going out to meet people. She didn’t even go out of her courtyard and was wholeheartedly seeking advice from Xia Jingqiu on how to get along with other young ladies. When Shen Ninghua heard this, she smiled and allowed them to do whatever they wanted.

Inside Ruixi Courtyard, Hong Ling brought in some washed fruit. She reluctantly placed the tray on the small table beside the bed and secretly glared at Chu Junyi, who was lying motionless on his stomach on the bed. She wished she could gouge out a piece of meat from his body with her eyes. This person was really brazen. He didn’t go home to recover from his injuries, but hung on to Miss’ room where he was provided with delicious food and drink. Because of him, Miss couldn’t even sleep on her own bed. He was truly annoying.

Sensing Hong Ling’s gaze, Chu Junyi turned around and glanced at her. A trace of coldness flashed in his eyes, which shocked Hong Ling. She hurriedly put down the fruit and ran out.

Shen Ninghua, who was reading the ledger at the side, raised her eyes and caught a glimpse of Chu Junyi’s movements. She snorted coldly. “I see that you are very energetic. Nobody would find out you were wounded even if you returned to the Xiao Mansion now.”

Chu Junyi slowly got up from the bed, taking care not to pull the wound on his back. He picked up the fruit and placed it beside Shen Ninghua’s hand. Then he leaned against the table and watched her going over the ledger. “Ninghua, you can’t be so ruthless. You see that I am still unable to move freely. Xiao Huanxi definitely won’t notice it, but my foster father and eldest brother will definitely notice the abnormality. It would be better for me to stay with you to recover. Besides, we will get married soon. We should spend more time together these days and strengthen the bond between us. Isn’t it a good thing? ”

Shen Ninghua put aside the ledger and said, “Are you sure you won’t lose the bet?”

“That’s for sure.” In order to marry her, he could not lose the bet no matter what.

“Alright, let’s wait and see.” In order to ruin her reputation, Xiao Huanxi could even gamble on her own health. It could be seen that she was a decisive person. Such a person loathed the most being manipulated by others, especially if she was arranged by the man of her dreams to marry someone against her will. She would like to see how Chu Junyi ended up with frustration.

Chu Junyi did not notice Shen Ninghua’s expectation for a good show. He took a lychee, peeled it and handed it over to Shen Ninghua.

Shen Ninghua looked up at him and said, “No need, eat it yourself. If I want to eat it, I will do it by myself.”

Chu Junyi raised the lychee in his hand and did not give up. “Ninghua, we are currently boosting our emotional bond. If you can order me about, just do it as much as you can. Otherwise, it would be useless to regret in the future.”

Shen Ninghua giggled. She took the lychee and put it in her mouth. “Didn’t you remove the core?”

“Ah, my mistake.” Chu Junyi peeled another lychee and carefully picked out the core with a silver needle. “Alright, have another one.”

One focused on feeding and the other enjoyed eating. After Shen Ninghua ate seven or eight lychees, she stopped. “Enough.”

Chu Junyi’s eyes lit up as he looked at Shen Ninghua with expectations. “You are full?”

“Yes.” Shen Ninghua’s attention was still focused on the ledger as she casually answered.

Chu Junyi lowered his voice and said, “Ninghua, have you ever heard of the phrase ‘One good deed deserves another’?”

Shen Ninghua did not even raise her head. “Never heard of it.”

“…” Chu Junyi choked. But he persevered. “Then you must have heard of reciprocity.”

“Not either.”

Chu Junyi took the ledger from her hand and put it aside. He turned her shoulder and made her face him. “I helped you peel lychees, but you won’t even help me peel one?”

Shen Ninghua raised her eyebrows. Reciprocity? He could directly say that he wanted her to peel lychees for him. Why bother beating around the bush? She didn’t want to dote on him.

“No!”

Chu Junyi paused. He directly took a lychee and peeled it. Then, he grabbed Shen Ninghua’s hand and stuffed the peeled lychee into her palm. Without saying anything else, he directly held her hand and fed the lychee to his mouth. “Mmm, delicious.”

Shen Ninghua looked at the self-deceiving Chu Junyi and the corner of her mouth twitched. “Do you always like entertaining yourself like this?”

Chu Junyi looked at her with a sad expression. “If you can help me peel lychees, why would I do it myself?”

“Then you can keep entertaining yourself.” After Shen Ninghua finished speaking, she stretched out her hand, opened the ledger, and continued to read.

Chu Junyi sighed. He held the few lychees left in the tray and slowly lay back on the bed with his back facing towards Shen Ninghua. His figure looked rather pathetic.

Shen Ninghua raised her head and looked at him. The corner of her lips curled slightly, and a smile flashed in her eyes.

Three days elapsed in a flash. Shen Ninghua looked at Chu Junyi who was still lying on her bed recovering from his injuries. “Today is the third day. If Xiao Huanxi is not detoxified, she will be in real danger. Aren’t you going back?”

“There’s no need for me to go back. Ye Yi will bring you the gold. Just give him the antidote.”

“Although Ye Yi’s disguise is almost flawless, he is still different from you. Aren’t you afraid that Xiao Jingran or Xiao Fengjue will notice it?”

Chu Junyi smiled. “Only you can tell us apart at a glance.” Not to mention Xiao Jingran and Xiao Fengjue, even Xiao Huanxi, who kept claiming to have a deep affection for him, could not tell the difference between Ye Yi and him at a glance. How deep could that affection be?

Footsteps came from the door. Hong Ling quickly ran in. “Miss, the Treasure Pavilion was raided. Many jewels there had been painted with Zi Mian. Madam Shao, the wife of the Minister of War, the Left Censor’s eldest daughter, the Cabinet Sub-prefect’s third and fourth daughters, were all found to have fainted in their rooms and they are in a coma now. They must have been poisoned by Zi Mian.”

“What?”