Chapter 110: Let’s Chat
“You think there’s anything about your little matters that I wouldn’t understand?” Gu Yan closed his folding fan, tapping it halfway in front of Li Xiaonan, then pausing in mid-air and spinning it back.
“That’s a very arrogant statement,” Li Xiaonan eyed Gu Yan, her finger reaching for the dish of milk candy.
“How is it arrogant?” Gu Yan replied, twirling his folding fan. Just as Li Xiaonan’s finger was about to touch the milk candy, he flicked his fan, pressing down on her finger and pushing it back.
“There’s so much about my little matters that you don’t understand. You don’t understand the matters of beggars or fools, and of course, I don’t understand your matters either,” Li Xiaonan retracted her finger sullenly and picked up her cup to drink tea.
She could at least drink tea, couldn’t she!
Gu Yan glanced at Li Xiaonan. “Are you trying to spar with me with words?”
“Let’s just talk properly, why spar? My words are perfectly normal, why would you think I’m sparring? Do you really think you understand everything?” Li Xiaonan eyed the dish of milk candy.
It was strange. Before, she would eat at most two or three of these milk candies and feel tired and not want any more. Now, why did this candy seem so fragrant, so sweet, so delicious, and so tempting?
Alas, now she couldn’t even eat fried eggs. Meat dishes were once a day, only one serving, and it was mostly vegetables with a little bit of meat. For five adults, she ate the most, maybe three to five slices of meat!
Mei Jie’s knife skills were truly excellent; the meat slices were cut so thin they were transparent!
With no oil or fat in her stomach, it was no wonder she found these high-oil, high-sugar things so fragrant and sweet.
No wonder traditional pastries were all high in oil and sugar; it was all because of poverty…
“What are you thinking about!” Gu Yan tapped his folding fan in front of Li Xiaonan. “You can’t even hear me speaking!”
“What did you say?” Li Xiaonan sat up straight.
“What are you thinking about?” Gu Yan leaned forward slightly, looking at Li Xiaonan.
“I’m thinking about why this candy is so delicious,” Li Xiaonan looked at the dish of milk candy.
“Because you’re craving it!” Gu Yan said bluntly.
“Because I’m poor!”
Gu Yan’s eyebrows shot up. After a moment, his folding fan slapped in front of Li Xiaonan. “A simple meal and a cup of water, yet you don’t lose your joy; you can be considered a scholar!”
“A simple meal and a cup of water, and one cannot bear the hardship, yet Yan Hui does not lose his joy.” Li Xiaonan bit down hard on “cannot bear the hardship.” “People, the vast majority of ordinary people! Cannot bear the hardship, only a sage like Yan Hui does not lose his joy. Do you think anyone who is a scholar is like Yan Hui, a sage?”
Gu Yan glared at Li Xiaonan, held back for a good while, then reached out and pulled the dish of milk candy towards himself.
“You’re right. However! You still can’t eat too much of this!”
“Then why fill it so full? Since you can’t eat too much, let people eat a few pieces and then put them back,” Li Xiaonan grabbed her cup and drank tea.
Gu Yan chuckled, reached out, picked up the dish of milk candy, and held it up. Shi Gun, standing in the corner, darted forward a few steps, took the dish, and quickly retreated.
“I asked you just now, and you said I didn’t understand. Then explain to me carefully, where is it that I don’t understand?” Gu Yan unfolded his folding fan and swayed it.
“Alas!” Li Xiaonan sighed deeply, resting her chin on her hand as she looked at Gu Yan.
He reminded her of her former boss, whose most frequent saying was: “You think I really don’t understand? With the little work you have, is there anything I wouldn’t understand?”
Her boss’s company had only a few hundred people, yet they were so puffed up they thought they were a combination of Gates and Musk, and only lacked good fortune from being the richest person in the world.
This person before her was an imperial prince. From what she understood, this empire seemed quite vast…
“Daydreaming again!” Gu Yan tapped his folding fan in front of Li Xiaonan.
Li Xiaonan jumped in fright. “No! I was hesitating!”
“Hesitating about what?”
“Eldest Sister just lectured me yesterday.” Meeting Gu Yan’s sidelong glance, Li Xiaonan spread her hands. “Eldest Sister said: If you don’t speak, no one will think you’re mute.”
“So you can’t tell me where I don’t understand, can you?” Gu Yan swayed his folding fan, smiling.
“Wan Jing said that before they enter the inner chambers to serve, they have to study for five or six years. Do you know what they study? Wan Jing also said that people like those around you, after being selected layer by layer, still have to study for one or two years, or two to three years, before they can truly take on a task. They study for so many years, what do they learn?” Li Xiaonan asked, looking at Gu Yan.
Gu Yan was speechless.
“The preserved egg business next to my house is a shoe shop. The apprentices in the shop start learning their craft from eight or nine years old, and by seventeen or eighteen, they can graduate. They say even if they are very smart, it’s considered remarkable. They study for over ten years, what do they learn?
“Also, do you know the trick to rhyming? Do you know how to write classical discourse so that the examiners can’t find any fault?” Li Xiaonan smiled at Gu Yan.
“I can compose good poems and lyrics without needing to force rhymes.”
“It’s because you don’t have to take exams,” Li Xiaonan retorted unceremoniously. “People like you, everyone who can show their face in front of you is the cream of the crop, the elite of every industry. Who do you think you are…”
Li Xiaonan let her tongue slip and slapped herself on the mouth.
“That sentence was wrong, that sentence doesn’t count! I’ll say that sentence again!”
Gu Yan tapped his folding fan in front of Li Xiaonan. “Your Eldest Sister’s lecture was very right! Also, not everyone who can show their face in front of me is the cream of the crop, for example, you!”
Li Xiaonan pressed two fingers to her lips, looking at him without speaking.
“I won’t argue with you. But~” Gu Yan drew out the last syllable, “if you talk too much nonsense, I will lecture you on behalf of your Eldest Sister.”
Li Xiaonan glanced at Gu Yan’s folding fan.
“What are you looking at!” Gu Yan turned his folding fan back and flicked it open with a swish.
“A Wu said your folding fan is a weapon; it hurts a lot when it hits you.”
“I don’t need this folding fan to discipline you, and you wouldn’t be able to take it. Besides milk candy, what else do you like to eat?”
“You don’t need to send me food,” Li Xiaonan refused directly.
“Why? Your Eldest Sister doesn’t allow it? To discipline you?”
“No, your family’s things are too delicious. If I eat them for a few months and then can’t have them, it will be too unbearable. When are you returning to the Capital City?”
Gu Yan drew out his words with a long “Oh~,” “Even if I return to the Capital City, I can’t take the Villa with me. As long as the Villa is here, you can eat as much as you want.”
“Never mind,” Li Xiaonan shook her head. “Although I’m not comparable to Yan Hui, I can still control my appetite. By the way, are there many books in your Villa?”
“Of course,” Gu Yan said slowly.
“Can I borrow a few to read? It’s too boring without books,” Li Xiaonan said with a smile.
Gu Yan slowly hummed, fanning himself, and glanced at Li Xiaonan.
Lu Xiu was chosen by Shi Shi and placed by his side, but before long, Shi Shi became extremely disgusted with Lu Xiu and tried every means to send her away. Shi Shi was currently at the Villa…
“No,” Gu Yan said slowly.
Li Xiaonan looked at Gu Yan in disbelief.
“Let Wan Jing bring you to the Villa to read books. You can read whatever you want in the library, but you can’t take them out of the library,” Gu Yan continued.
Li Xiaonan hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
“There are a few guests at the Villa,” Gu Yan looked at Li Xiaonan. “One of them, the Eldest Miss Shi, was once engaged to me. Miss Shi also likes to read very much.”
“You were engaged? Then what happened? It ended? Why did it end? Did you break it off? Why? Where is Miss Shi from? Coming to your Villa, did she come chasing after you? You’re so handsome, of course, she’d chase you. Is Miss Shi handsome?” Li Xiaonan asked a string of questions in one breath.
Gu Yan raised his eyebrows, his folding fan spinning rapidly in his hand.
He wanted to hit her!
