Raiders of the Duke and Duchess

Chapter 957: Climbing the Roof and Uncovering the Tiles
The night is dark.

Shangguan Chu squinted his eyes and looked at the crescent moon in the sky. The moonlight was like silver sand pouring down. How much time and effort have the ancient and modern scholars spent to describe and praise the moon? But how many people have ever mentioned the inconspicuous stars beside the moon?
In fact, because they are closer to the moon, they appear dimmer and less noticeable than stars elsewhere.

Shen Luoxin is actually not a very "eye-catching" person.

She was like a star in the sky, no different from all the other stars, not the brightest, nor the dimmest. If one really had to describe Shangguan Chu's first impression of Shen Luoxin in one word, it would be "indistinguishable from the crowd." However, since Xiao Ning was on good terms with her, he would always give her some preferential treatment, and thus, their interactions naturally increased.

At first, she was just like his subordinates, and even less convenient to use than those people. He had to teach her everything, but for Xiao Ning's sake, he still took her with him. Gradually, he found that the little girl had good talent, but her temperament was too soft and easy to bully. No wonder she was bullied by a concubine before - he began to be angry at her for not fighting back, and always felt that the people around him should have the capital to be arrogant.

"I always thought she was too soft-tempered and couldn't be taught no matter how hard I tried, so I deliberately tormented her and bullied her, hoping that one day she couldn't stand it anymore and would jump up and slap me..." Shangguan Chu squinted his eyes and looked up at the sky. His voice was scattered in the wind, low and deep, as if he was talking to himself, or as if he was talking to others. "But no matter how I bullied her, made her run around on an empty stomach, and made her run into difficult obstacles, she didn't mind and smiled as if she was worthless. But there was one time when I finally showed my strength... She drank and looked up at me, asking me whether I looked down on her or myself..."

The moonlight that night was more beautiful than tonight.

That night, the girl stood under the beautiful moonlight, looking up with a smile on her face, like a beautiful and proud white swan. She said, "Shangguan Chu, listen carefully, I... Shen Luoxin, just fell in love with you."

Without explanation, with a clear conscience... Perhaps because he had been with Xiao Ning for a long time, his temperament had also been tainted with the aura of a bandit. How could a girl confess like this, not shyly and timidly saying "I like you, I am attracted to you", but such a firm sentence "Listen to me, I have been attracted to you"?
Moved, but not moved.

In fact, Shangguan Chu also knew that this was the last way out left by Shen Luoxin, the last way out for the two people who lived under the same roof and were bound to see each other every day. Otherwise, how could they get along as if nothing had happened? How could they deal with it?
Ji Wuyan didn't know about this episode. Even if she knew, she would just let it go.

Luo Xin and his brother are not the type to be manipulated. If they like each other, they can achieve the right result. If they don't like each other, even if they force it with coercion and bribery, I'm afraid they will just hate each other and end up as a couple with resentment.

But listening to it at this moment, she couldn't help but sigh. She could see that her brother felt different towards Luo Xin, but whether this "difference" was an emotion of wanting to be together for a lifetime, perhaps even her brother himself didn't know.

Precisely because he was unclear, even though he was reluctant to see the other person leave, he could not and had no right to ask him to stay. In the end, he could only carry two jars of wine to drown his sorrows. Unfortunately, he was not the kind of person who could get drunk, so he pretended to be seven-tenths drunk and did something stupid for the first time in his life - he searched the yard for a ladder, climbed up to the roof and looked at the stars.

Ji Wuyan wanted to persuade him, but she didn't know how to persuade him to let go or to pursue bravely. She tilted her head to look at Shangguan Chu for a while, and suddenly called out, "Brother."

It was the first time in his life that he talked about emotional matters with someone. Even Shangguan Chu, who was always as thick-skinned as a city wall, felt a little embarrassed. He turned his head to avoid Ji Wuyan's sight and replied softly, "Yeah."

Then he asked Ji Wuyan, "What is your dream in life, brother?"

The topic changed so quickly that Shangguan Chu looked surprised. After a while, he reluctantly told the truth, "Climbing up the roof and removing the tiles." He said it in a sullen voice, looking a little embarrassed. Ji Wuyan smiled and asked, "Isn't it about making money? Father said that you used this reason to piss off your teacher, saying that you just want to make money, make a lot of money, make all the money in the world, and don't want to learn these sour and pedantic things...are they all fake?"

"It's better to not want to learn and just want to make all the money in the world than not want to learn and just want to break the roof, isn't it?"

Ji Wuyan was slightly stunned, thinking that this statement did make some sense...but she really didn't expect that her brother, who had been a young minister since childhood, had always dreamed of climbing up the roof and removing the tiles? She pursed her lips and smiled secretly, but seeing the fierce look in his eyes, she stopped smiling a little, nudged him with her elbow, and suggested, "How about we remove it today?"

"Reveal what?"

"Go up to the roof and take off the tiles!"

This time, Shangguan Chu was really shocked. He stared at Ji Wuyan without blinking, trying to see any hint of joking in her eyes. However, the little girl looked as if it was a matter of course, as if she didn't think that at their age, if they still climbed up the roof and robbed the tiles, they would be considered crazy.

Seeing that he didn't say anything, Ji Wuyan kicked him again and urged, "Are you coming?"

Shangguan Chu was drunk and bewitched. He didn't even think twice and just said, "Uncover it! But..." He pointed to the old man's yard, and said with a bit of arrogance and willfulness, "I want to remove the tiles in my grandfather's yard!"

Ji Wuyan raised his eyebrows, and stood up from the roof with his hands and feet, pointing in that direction as if he was a king pointing out the world, "Okay! Let's go and remove the tiles! Qingshan! Take your master there!"

The total age of the people was over 30. They stayed up late at night and did things that three-year-olds did after drinking. For a moment, it was hard to tell whether they were drunk or not.

The older boy, Shangguan Chu, reached out and grabbed Ji Wuyan's sleeve, looking up at her and asked, "What about you? Are you not going?"

"Go! I don't need Qingshan to take me there, I can go there by myself...fly there." The little child Ji Wuyan smiled proudly.

“No.” The older boy refused. “Old Chen said that you are not allowed to use your internal energy recently. Old Chen specifically told us all to keep an eye on you.”

"..." No, how could she not know about this? It turns out that the whole family is now full of this old man's spies? Ji Wuyan blinked, and after a while, he said weakly, "It's okay, it's just a short distance, and I don't need much internal strength."

"No. Qingshan——"