.....

This is already half of the book!

Yaay!!

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When Zuiju heard that He Xia had immediately agreed, her eyes were suddenly bright. She breathed in deeply and slowly sighed. "No wonder people say that Gui Le's Marquess of Jing-An is the only person that is comparable to our Duke. Such a hearty personality! Doesn't it make you wonder why he doesn't teach Yun Chang's Princess to handle military affairs properly?"

Yet this tactic was one that only Bai Pingting could propose and only one that He Xia would agree to.

Apart from those two, regardless of who was exchanged for another, it would have been an impossible situation.

Moran's thoughts remained full of worries. He frowned, "Miss Bai is fairly relaxed and says that Duke can definitely return by then. But what if the Duke is delayed over there, what should we do then? With the current assets in He Xia's hands, even if we put out lives at stake to fight, we will still be unable to rush out with Miss Bai."

Zuiju was silent for a long time but argued back, "Even if you could rush out with Miss Bai, Miss Bai wouldn't want to go with you. He Xia is risking death by granting her wish, so how could she betray the person she swore to? Not to mention..." She sucked her lip, staring down at her embroidered shoes for a long time. Her voice was a little sad, "Besides, why should she stay here if the Duke doesn't really see her as important and doesn't hurry back?"

That romantic, exquisitely carved Bai Pingting was not an ordinary person.

She could take a hundred times more pain but could not stand sadness.

The two were secretly upset.

Moran said, "Although He Xia promised not to move until the sixth, we must not underestimate him. I'd better do a few more adjustments to the defence arrangement of this residence."

Zuiju nodded and watched Moran turn to leave. She thought of something and said a soft, "Ah," but stopped herself from calling Moran, letting him leave.

Returning to the room, she saw Hongqian was sitting on a chair taking a nap. Her thoughts were the most shallow and had been recently subjected to much shock. Seeing that Pingting and Moran had safely returned, she realised that the danger had passed and finally slept. Hearing the sound of the door curtain, she slowly opened her eyes and realized Zuiju had returned. She placed a fingertip to her mouth.

"Hush..."She pointed at the inner room, closed her eyes, placed both her hands to one side and tilted her head, imitating a sleeping pose.

Zuiju gave her a look of understanding and quietly crept into the room, quietly probing.

Pingting was lying on the bed, her long hair scattered around. One clump was softly falling from the bed. Her eyes were closed and she seemed to be sleeping.

A thick blanket covered her, but the window was still opened, allowing cold wind to flow inside.

Zuiju whispered, "Such a bad habit ought to be corrected." She quietly tiptoed towards the bedside, carefully reaching out. She had yet to touch the window when she heard a soft voice coming down from below.

"Don't close it. The blowing wind refreshes my mind."

Zuiju lowered her head to look and saw that Pingting had already opened her eyes. How could they be considered sleepy when possessing such brightness?

"It's better to close it as it won't be funny if you get a cold." Zuiju stubbornly closed the window and turned to sit down by the bed. She reached out into the blankets, rummaging for PIngting's slender wrists which she pressed two fingers against to check her pulse. She calmly listened for a while before lightly laughing, "All good."

She returned the hand to its original place before lowering her voice. "I've already heard from Moran. I don't know what to say, really."

Pingting revealed a gentle smile and asked a question in return, "Don't tell me you're worried that the Duke won't be back too?"

Zuiju looked at Pingting in the eye.

She accompanied her teacher when saving lives and was familiar with nobles and officials. She was more or less a friend of all of the ladies of the big families in Dong Lin, perhaps even the concubines of the Royal Residence, yet she had never met someone like Bai Pingting.

Intelligence, joy, and aloofness were soaked into her bones. How could the House of Jing-An produce such a casually elegant He Xia of swords and song whilw looking after a person like Bai Pingting?

Pingting saw that Zuiju was silent and gently returned her stare.

The two pairs of bright eyes looked at each other silently, as if trying to measure the other's intentions.

Hongqian happened to come in and saw two people staring stupidly at one another. In a surprised voice, she said, "So Miss Bai wasn't sleeping? I restricted my movements to very small ones so that I wouldn't wake you. What on earth could you possibly be staring at each other for? A flower can't be formed from it."

Zuiju shifted her gaze and turned to look at Hongqian. She half laughed, half scowled, "You're so noisy, interrupting people when they're thinking deeply about things."

Pingting also looked at her, asking, "Why'd you come in?"

"Look at the time," Hongqian pointed outside. "Seeing that Miss was asleep, I didn't dare ask before, but aren't you two hungry?"

Zuiju raised her head to look outside. "True, no wonder I felt hungry. Thanks to all of the suspense today, I completely forgot about eating."

"The food has been made already, so I'll bring it over." Hongqian headed outside.

Although the kitchen's matron had been shocked all day, her workmanship was still excellent.

Several layers of the food package were brought over. As usual, there were two meat dishes, two vegetable dishes and a few side dishes.

Pingting's appetite had never been too good. Since she wasn't in the mood today, she had even less of an appetite than usual. She picked small bits and dropped them with her chopsticks.

Zuiju saw her put down her chopsticks and hurriedly said, "At least drink a bowl of soup and finish a bowl of rice."

She quickly put in a few slices of meat in Pingting's bowl, giving her a look.

Pingting had no appetite at all, but seeing Zuiju's evil look, she touched her lower abdomen before forcing the meal in her bowl down in silence.

Only then did Zuiju smile, satisfied.

After dinner, Zuiju and Hongqian quickly and methodically packed up the food container by loading the plates into it.

Zuiju then said, "Let me go." She left Hongqian to accompany Pingting and carried the heavy food container across the courtyard when she happened the see the kitchen's matron coming towards her.

"Miss Zuiju, it is cold. You don't need to personally return it; I can do it myself." The matron stopped when she saw Zuiju.

Zuiju handed the food package to her, and took something out from her sleeve."Nevermind this, I still have to give you the menu for tomorrow. Cook with this prescription and add other ingredients for flavour. Use the best ingredients and don't forget to use the right amount."

All of the people in the Zhen-Bei Ducal Residence obeyed her words. The matron looked at the recipe under the moonlight and said, "Such clear instructions. Good work, Miss Zuiju. You're meticulous enough to even cover diet. No wonder Miss Bai's face seems to be much healthier than before. However..." The matron's tone shifted, her expression becoming serious, "The acutiloba on this recipe has been used by Miss Bai a few days ago, so the kitchen has currently run out. The kitchen never had peony petals to begin with, but there's some aged aster."

Zuiju replied, "This mustn't be delayed. Even if I explained, you wouldn't understand. Just quickly collect or buy some according to my prescription."

"Geez, Miss must be confused. Who could possibly leave the residence right now? The security of the entrance is even tighter than the capital's entrance."

Only then did Zuiju remember that soldiers surrounded them. She slapped her hand against her forehead, "Indeed I must be confused. Speaking of that, does the kitchen have enough resources to last until the sixth?"

"The stocked rice is enough to last a year. It's unlikely that anyone would die of starvation, but there aren't enough vegetables. Even though there is a small vegetable garden at the back and poultry, Miss has to think about how many people there are in this residence. Forget the women, they don't eat much at all, but how could those well-built guards stay away from having a huge bowl of meat and rice? I reckon the meat and vegetables will only last a day."