Chapter 283: Chapter 166: Aunt Song Rolls Around
At the Zhao Mansion’s dinner table, Gu Ziyue was eating with the Zhao family, her mouth stuffed full of food.
Gu Ziyue kept her head down, focused on her food. The dishes tonight were all made from the hybrid crops Lu Yuan had cultivated.
It was far tastier than the food typical of this era.
The Zhao family had eaten Lu Yuan’s fruits and vegetables many times before.
Gu Ziyue, however, being from the Imperial City, had never had them.
Now that she was eating with everyone at the Zhao Mansion,
Gu Ziyue found the food to be so much more delicious.
At the table, Su Liyan placed a piece of chicken on Lu Yuan’s plate.
"Brother, eat more," she said. "You worked hard today."
Lu Yuan put a piece of meat on her plate in return, then playfully squeezed her breast.
"It was nothing," Lu Yuan said. "Just selecting some Mansion Guards. That’s not hard work."
"You’re the one who should be eating more meat and drinking soups, like chicken or fish. It’s good for your milk."
Su Liyan blushed.
Even though there were no outsiders, she always felt a little shy when anyone besides Lu Yuan was around.
"What are you doing, Brother?" Su Liyan whispered, her head lowered. "I have more than enough milk. Bengbeng is getting big, but she still can’t drink it all."
The others might not have clearly heard her last words.
But Zhao Qiao’er, who was sitting right next to Su Liyan, heard every word.
"Oh, I’m so envious of Liyan," Aunt Zhao teased. "Her milk supply is so good. I wonder what mine will be like after I give birth."
Hearing her friend, Aunt Song shot back, "You? With a big frame like yours, you’re worried about not having enough milk?"
"Why, if you gave a little squeeze, you’d probably spray the baby right in the face! Might even drown the poor thing!"
Aunt Zhao and Aunt Song were always bickering.
And since Zhao Qiao’er was about to give birth, she had packed on more pounds than anyone.
"I’d be thrilled if I could spray the baby in the face!" Aunt Zhao declared proudly. "If there’s any extra, I’ll give it to my little sweetheart to drink."
"Our nephew wouldn’t want any of yours," Song Meiqin said with a raised eyebrow. "It’s not as sweet as our Liyan’s."
Listening to the two aunts, Su Liyan was too embarrassed to say a word.
Lu Yuan watched the two aunts bicker, and now they had dragged him into it.
Back then, his wife’s milk had come in before Bengbeng had even "hatched," and they were worried her supply would recede.
’It was a measure born of desperation, wasn’t it?’ Lu Yuan would die before admitting he was just greedy for a drink.
For a few days back then, everyone could smell the faint scent of milk on him, but no one had the heart to call him out on it.
Now that over a month had passed, it didn’t really matter.
Lu Yuan cut off the two aunts’ squabbling. "Miss Yue’Er is still here, let’s not get carried away."
Gu Ziyue still had a mouthful of food when she heard Lu Yuan speak.
She nodded frantically in agreement. ’I’m still an innocent young maiden!’
Zhao Qiao’er, ever blunt, jumped in. "That’s no problem. It’ll be fine once Yue’Er marries into our Zhao family."
Upon hearing that, Gu Ziyue coughed violently, nearly choking on her food.
She hastily grabbed a cup of water from the table and took several large gulps, patting her chest.
It took Gu Ziyue a moment to recover before she could speak. "Aunt Zhao, what are you talking about? I’m still just a kid."
"You’re not a kid anymore," Su Liyan’s mother said. "When I was your age, I was already pregnant with Liyan."
Su Liyan’s mother hadn’t said anything up to this point; it wouldn’t have been proper for a mother-in-law to join the previous conversation.
But now that the topic had turned to marriage and having children, she found something she was interested in and decided to speak up.
Indeed, in the countryside, a girl of eighteen would have been married long ago, with a child old enough to run errands.
Liyan was only a few years older than Gu Ziyue, and she already had a daughter, didn’t she?
Song Meiqin also chimed in, happy to help change the subject.
Gu Ziyue looked up at everyone around the table as they teased her.
Gu Ziyue felt her heart hammering in her chest.
’What’s wrong with me?’
She glanced at Lu Yuan across from her, wanting to say something but holding her tongue.
Then, she turned to Aunt Zhao and said, "Auntie, you’re all just bullying me! Hmph! I..."
Gu Ziyue didn’t know what to do. An image of herself and Lu Yuan lying naked in bed flashed through her mind.
When she snapped back to reality a moment later, her face flushed beet red, all the way to the tips of her ears.
She cursed herself inwardly. ’What is wrong with me? What the hell am I thinking?’
Seeing Yue’Er’s reaction, Zhao Qiao’er and Song Meiqin giggled.
Su Liyan tried to smooth things over. "Yue’Er, don’t listen to them. Our aunts just love to joke around."
Lu Yuan also quickly tried to mediate. Back in the Imperial City, no one would have dared to joke with her like that.
But Gu Ziyue knew in her heart that everyone in the Zhao Mansion treated her like family, which was why they felt free to tease her.
Gu Ziyue calmed down, tilted her head up, and said in a mock-pouty voice, "Hmph, you two aunts just love to pick on me. I’m not friends with you anymore."
Zhao Qiao’er patted Yue’Er’s head. "Our Yue’Er really is a proper young lady now. It was my fault. Your auntie apologizes."
Gu Ziyue giggled. "It’s okay, I’m not that petty~"
And so, everyone continued their dinner amidst jokes and laughter.
「In a guest room at a Post House in Taiping City, some twenty-odd people were standing.」
A middle-aged man sat before them, holding a tea bowl and noisily slurping his tea.
"PTUI!"
The middle-aged man spat the tea leaves from his mouth onto the floor. "How did it go today?" he asked.
