Chapter 413: They Really Do Look Exactly Alike
Wu Yunfeng hurriedly turned to Jiang Yichun, a puzzled expression plain on his face.
Jiang Yichun, somewhat exasperated, looked at his senior brother and said, "Senior brother, your imagination is going into overdrive. The child is probably about four months old. Counting back, I was still on a mission outside during his conception. If it’s my child, why would I deny it?"
Xu Huilin rolled his eyes, retorting, "Weren’t you injured and missing for a while? Perhaps you secretly went off to get married and have a child."
At the mention of this, Jiang Yichun’s expression darkened. He was already frustrated about the matter.
Wu Yunfeng frowned, seemingly thinking of a possibility. However, he quickly shook his head. If the two had ever been together before, wouldn’t Bai Ruozhu have told him?
Feeling annoyed, Jiang Yichun decided to excuse himself from his master and leave.
Nothing was more important to him than Ruozhu. Now that Ruozhu was in Beiyu City, he had to rush to find her.
By the time Jiang Yichun found Bai Ruozhu, she was leisurely eating snacks outside with Dengdeng in her arms. He had trouble finding her. He went to Linjiang Inn where she left the message for the Commerce Association, but Bai Ruozhu had gone out for sightseeing, so he had to look for her all over the city. Luckily, he guessed that Bai Ruozhu might go to the Market to snack, otherwise he wouldn’t have known how to begin searching.
When Bai Ruozhu saw him, she could not help but open her mouth in surprise, "You, you, you... how..."
How was he not wearing a mask? Had he stopped hiding his identity?
Jiang Yichun couldn’t help but laugh. She was eating hot steaming soup dumplings, with a circle of sauce smeared around her mouth, and was staring with her mouth wide open, completely lacking feminine reserve.
"I have a public identity here, so I don’t need to wear a mask. As long as people don’t connect the current me with the past me from Anyuan Town, it’s fine." Jiang Yichun understood her doubts and explained in a lowered voice.
Only then did Bai Ruozhu close her mouth, but she immediately looked worried again, saying, "But won’t people suspect if they see you with me?"
Jiang Yichun raised an eyebrow, "The sky is almost dark, it’s not a worry. Eat quickly, and after that, I’ll show you around."
Bai Ruozhu immediately brightened up. With a gleeful smile, she offered a dumpling to him, "Have you eaten yet? Let’s have some together?"
In fact, Jiang Yichun didn’t like such greasy food. But looking into those smiling eyes, he suppressed his dislike for oily food, directly taking Bai Ruozhu’s hand and popping the dumpling into his mouth.
Bai Ruozhu’s face turned beet red instantly. Why wasn’t he aware of the occasion? This was ancient times – should they be this open?
Before she could voice her reproach, Jiang Yichun’s tongue brushed her fingertips. It seemed accidental, like it happened while eating the dumpling, but she was certain, absolutely certain, it wasn’t a coincidence. It had an air of teasing about it.
She instinctively withdrew her hand as if she had been electrocuted. If she wasn’t holding Dengdeng in her other hand, she definitely would’ve jumped up in surprise.
Just as she was about to scold him, before she could open her mouth, he preempted her by saying, "I’ll hold Dengdeng while you eat."
With that, he stretched out his hand to take Dengdeng into his arms. He had to hold him upright now, which still felt unfamiliar to him, making his movements clumsy and nerve-racked.
Dengdeng chuckled merrily, reaching out his tiny hands to touch Jiang Yichun’s chin. Bai Ruozhu suddenly realized that her little Dengdeng recognized him by counting his chin.
Jiang Yichun’s stubbly chin had been cleanly shaven, but Dengdeng’s little hand still felt a prickly sensation when he touched it, which was totally different from touching his mother. So Dengdeng happily waved his short little arms in excitement.
As a result, though Bai Ruozhu had been about to speak, she swallowed her words. She couldn’t possibly ruin her darling son’s cheerful mood, could she?
"Oh my, this really is striking." A startling voice suddenly echoed from not far away, a man with squinted eyes and a folding fan in hand made his way over. Judging by his clothes and demeanor, he appeared to be from a prominent family.
Bai Ruozhu immediately recognized this man. Wasn’t he the one she’d previously mistaken for someone else?
"You’re so bored you’ve come to stalk me?" Jiang Yichun said, casting him a sideways glance.
Seeing the two knew each other, Bai Ruozhu breathed a sigh of relief and whispered, "I mistook him for you earlier."
Jiang Yichun gave her a reassuring look then turned to Xu Huilin and said, "I told you it wasn’t me. If you have nothing better to do, please leave. Don’t get in the way of our meal."
But to everyone’s surprise, Xu Huilin sauntered to the stall’s bench, flipped the hem of his garment, sat down and cheerfully ordered, "One basket of soup dumplings, please."
Jiang Yichun was seated to the left of Bai Ruozhu. But Xu Huilin, clearly on purpose, didn’t sit next to Jiang Yichun. He went around to sit next to Bai Ruozhu instead.
Confused by their relationship, Bai Ruozhu felt a twitch at the corner of her mouth. They seemed familiar with each other, and without such familiarity, they surely wouldn’t have spoken so bluntly.
She quietly sidled closer to Jiang Yichun, careful not to attract attention. Xu Huilin couldn’t help but laugh at her cautious actions.
"Junior, where did you find this interesting woman?" Xu Huilin asked, bursting into laughter.
Jiang Yichun glared at him but didn’t answer. He turned to Bai Ruozhu and asked, "Finished eating?"
With a bit of a showoff sitting next to her, even if she was still hungry, she wouldn’t dare eat more. She quickly nodded to Jiang Yichun, "Let’s go."
Jiang Yichun seemed pleased with her response. A touch of fondness appeared on his face. He carried Dengdeng with one hand, and with the other, snatched the handkerchief from Bai Ruozhu’s hand to wipe the sauce off her mouth.
Bai Ruozhu froze. His gentleness touched her. But they were in public, and her face was burning!
The man next to them chuckled softly, seemingly trying to suppress his laughter, but it came out brazen anyway.
After Jiang Yichun finished wiping her mouth, Bai Ruozhu noticed a lot of sauce on the handkerchief. She imagined how she must have looked with her mouth covered in sauce just now. She wanted to bury her face in her hands and cry. No wonder Xu Huilin found her "interesting", he was implying her image was comical.
"I didn’t realize little Yichun could be so gentle and attentive. If our master saw this, he would be greatly pleased." Xu Huilin forced a laugh.
When Jiang Yichun looked at him, his face turned cold again, "Why don’t you go back and report this, see if our master will be as pleased as you say."
Ignoring Xu Huilin’s reaction, he picked up Dengdeng with one hand, pulled Bai Ruozhu with the other and left.
"Hey, you didn’t pay for your dumplings!" Xu Huilin shouted from behind.
"You pay!"
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I’ve seen many of you complaining about slow updates recently, and for that, I, Mouka, would like to apologize. I’ll strive to update four times today! But keep in mind that I’m not a superhero, my typing speed isn’t great, and it’s impossible to maintain five or six updates daily without a backlog. I can’t just update for the sake of updating, none of us want to see a drop in quality, right?
I hope you guys understand, I’ll try my best to adjust the update frequency. Again, thank you so much for your patience and understanding~