Chongfei Manual [I]

Chapter 24

These days Empress Chen had been troubled over this matter, but hadn't found a suitable candidate yet. At first, she'd meant to let Gao Qingyang be Zhao Liuli's study partner. The two of them were of similar age, and could play together as well. However, Gao Qingyang was very arrogant and willful, and also somewhat reckless. Empress Chen grew afraid that she would accidentally injure Zhao Liuli, thus she couldn't come to a quick decision.

Now, as she listened to Nurse Qiu's words, she actually thought Wei Luo was an appropriate candidate. The empress hesitated for a moment, then slowly asked Zhao Jie: "What do you think about the fourth miss of Duke Ying's house?"

Zhao Jie's lips curled enigmatically as he leaned back on the rosewood chair, both hands folded in front of him, his posture relaxed: "Your son thinks she's smart, witty, cute and sensible. A very suitable candidate."

This was a very high evaluation. Empress Chen threw an amazed glance at him, getting more and more curious about this fourth young lady. She hadn't been able to catch a glimpse of Wei Luo previously, feeling it was quite a pity now. She ought to call her over and see her once. Zhao Jie's judgment was so fastidious. The people he acknowledged were all above average. And now he gave such a high evaluation to a young lady. Just how outstanding was she? Making Liuli and Zhao Jie both sing her praises.

Empress Chen thought it over, then nodded and said: "Since she could make Liuli take her medicine obediently, letting her enter the palace as a study companion is not unreasonable."

Zhao Jie didn't reply, but used his hand to gently stroke over a spot on his right wrist back and forth. The wound there was all healed up, leaving behind uneven tooth marks. Recently, whenever he had something to think about, he would do this action involuntarily. Feeling the marks, he recalled the time he first met Wei Luo, the scene of her opening her small mouth and viciously biting him.

He laughed silently. Employing this sort of method to ask him for help, she was the first one ever.

He seemed to care too much for a little girl. While it really wasn't a good thing, he nevertheless entertained his curiosity instead of ignoring it. In any case, to him she was only a crafty and amusing little girl with many faces. She was unlikely to cause him any trouble. He even wanted to support her from behind the scene and help her raise hell. He had heard from Zhu Geng that her circumstances in Duke Ying's residence weren't too favorable. The stepmother was vicious, the father was weak, the several elders above them weren't dependable. She had to survive in that kind of environment, while she also wanted to protect her brother. It was a little difficult to deal with all that at her age.

Zhao Jie smirked. He actually didn't mind acting as her benefactor, but the young lady didn't seem to appreciate his intention.

Today he'd asked her whether she wanted to bully back. He had initially been thinking of assisting her, but she'd looked at him with a face full of suspicion, clearly showing she didn't trust him. She would rather rely on herself than ask him for help. Why was that? Was he really so untrustworthy? Zhao Jie was ruminating distractedly while touching his wrist.

Empress Chen spoke a few more words in addition, but Zhao Jie was too absorbed in his thoughts, so she didn't know whether he'd heard anything.

"Chang Sheng." The empress helplessly called out to him.

Zhao Jie paused, then looked up to ask: "What did mother empress say?"

Realizing at once that he hadn't been listening properly, the empress had to repeat herself: "Danyang looked for me earlier to complain. She said you were too careless toward her..."

His face remained expressionless. He'd already expected that Gao Danyang would come and complain to the empress. As for why he was said to be careless, he didn't need to think too hard to know the reason. It was nothing else but his wish to give away her cat that made her unhappy, so she'd rushed over here to protest, hoping that the empress would speak to him. He had gotten sick of dealing with such things for the past two years, so he'd long developed a selective listening ability.