zChapter 1275 - [YeXi] Stupefied (1/2)

Qin Min lowered her head like a misbehaving servant girl. Seeing her pitiful state, Gu Beiyue didn’t know how to comfort her and unexpectedly smiled.

“What did you do wrong?” he asked.

“I shouldn’t have run about,” Qin Min replied, before amending, “At least, not without my ball.”

“Ball?” Gu Beiyue was lost.

“The fake stomach!” Shaoyao hastened to explain. “Master, the ball is the fake stomach!”

Gu Beiyue was having trouble keeping a straight face. “Why didn’t you take it with you?”

Before Qin Min could reply, Shaoyao said, “It’s heavy! Master! Why don’t you try running around with a big ball strapped to your waist? It’s hard to stand or sit and hurts your back too. Plus, you have to act all careful because you’re pretending to be pregnant. Isn’t that uncomfortable?”

Qin Min was shooting Shaoyao looks to shut up, but the girl pretended not to notice.

Yet how could anything escape Gu Beiyue’s eye? As a silent witness, he asked, “Where did you go?”

“After coming back from a river cruise, I went for some shopping,” Qin Min admitted honestly.

Shaoyao could only fret on the sidelines. Immediately she added on, “Master, Madam wanted to make you some pastries so she bought some beans. If we hadn’t done that, we could’ve gotten home earlier instead of running into the emperor and empress.”

Once again, Qin Min shot her a look, but Shaoyao feigned blindness again.

“Did you know they were coming?” Gu Beiyue asked.

“No,” Qin Min spoke the truth.

“Do you often go out without your ball?” Gu Beiyue asked while knowing the answer. In truth, he knew everything about Qin Min’s situation.

Qin Min thought it over before she replied, “I go out three to four times a month, usually for shopping trips and cruises.”

“So where was your mistake?” Gu Beiyue went back to the beginning. “Eldest Miss Qin, the ignorant are blameless. It was my fault for not anticipating our masters would head south.” He truly miscalculated in thinking those two would head north and find Jin Zi while rewarding the meritorious generals. Who expected them to go south for the autumn?

Qin Min was enlightened. She looked up at Gu Beiyue, only to see him smiling gently. With the sun shining behind him, Qin Min couldn’t tell whether he or the light was the warmest thing in her eyes. In any case, the sight warmed her heart. He hadn’t blamed her and even used this method to find her an excuse.

“But…” Qin Min wanted to ask. What about that child? Before she could finish, Gu Beiyue turned and noticed the swathes of forsythia blooming in the yard. Autumn in the south was full of golden yellow hues with similar flowers blooming everywhere. But this was the first time he’d seen a garden full of forsythias. He quickly walked amidst the blooms to study them carefully. Not only were these forsythia blooming out of season, they were also a specimen well suited for medicinal purposes. It was hard to keep them alive, much less have them thrive.

He looked back and asked, “Eldest Miss Qin, you planted these?”

“I had nothing to do so I did it to make things more lively,” Qin Min hesitated, then asked, “Academy Head Gu, do you like forsythia too?”

On her wedding day, the room had been full of these flowers. She wouldn’t forget the sight, but she couldn’t fathom him knowing these were her favorite blooms. Perhaps he liked them himself.

“I rather do,” Gu Beiyue replied as he waded deeper into the flowers. Soon enough, he circled around a stone wall and saw another miraculous sight: the hydroponic pineapples that Han Yunxi had noticed before. This was his first time seeing such plants and the sight was refreshingly new. He examined one specimen with detail and noted that the flowers had no roots beyond being planted in a dead tree.

“What is this?” Gu Beiyue asked.

“These are hydroponic pineapples. They don’t need roots, but take nutrients from water and the air to survive. When they mature, they bloom into flowers.” Qin Min surveyed the tree full of plants and only lamented that like them, she was a child without roots into the Qin household after loosing use of her legs. But since then, she’d grown up.

Gu Beiyue gently stroked the blossom in his hands and studied it for a long time. Finally he asked, “Eldest Miss Qin, could you give this one a flower?”

He had forgotten how long it’d been since he became a man without roots, wandering about the lands and busying himself.

“If Academy Head Gu doesn’t mind, you can have your pick,” Qin Min smiled. She loved sharing good things.

Gu Beiyue wasn’t picky and chose the one he was holding right then. The petals and leaves were open, the core a goose-yellow. The size was just right, neither too big nor small. Shaoyao held back as much as she could, but eventually spoke up again.

She chuckled and said, “Master, you can take this flower with you wherever you go and just sprinkle it with water now and then. How about this servant find some thread and sew it to your waist?”