The Marquis's line has ended? The pregnant maid is pregnant again!

The little girl's fine, thick eyelashes fluttered, and as if she hadn't expected him to ask that question, her voice was somewhat hesitant: "This servant... should know."

Then, Lu Jihan saw the little girl use her slender, white fingers to tentatively dip into the medicinal oil and then apply it to the bruises on her arm.

It looks like she's applying ointment to her daughter's face.

Obviously not, the movements are too clumsy.

Lu Jihan snatched the medicated oil from her hand, grasped her slender wrist, and began to rub the oil into her skin with large, sweeping motions.

He was a martial artist, used to handling heavy objects, and his strength was much greater than that of ordinary people. His commonly used gilded silver spear alone weighed several tens of kilograms.

He sat down with an imposing air, and with a sweeping motion, he heard the girl hiss instinctively, and her wrist twitched twice in his palm.

"Hmm?" Lu Jihan looked over and his gaze fell on Shen Qinghe.

To his surprise, the little girl, her eyelashes trembling, looked at him with large, watery eyes and said, "Be gentle, sir, it hurts~"

The woman's voice was like the rain in Jiangnan in March, hazy and melodious, as if it contained a bewitching spell. As soon as she spoke, Lu Jihan's heart trembled.

"Such a spoiled child." His Adam's apple bobbed, as if the sound was being squeezed out from his throat.

While his words sounded dismissive, his actions were actually quite obvious.

Shen Qinghe was unusually quiet as she looked at his profile. She thought she would be looked down upon by the burly general, but he resolved the issue with just two words.

She really did become a little gentler.

The man's taut profile was handsome yet cold and hard. His usually icy eyes were now fixed on her arm, as if his only focus was the bruises on it.

I must say, it's surprisingly good-looking.

A thought flashed through Shen Qinghe's mind, and she said softly, "It hurts~"

Lu Jihan didn't speak, but simply responded with a "Mm".

After saying that, he rubbed the medicated oil even more gently.

But Shen Qinghe still said, "It still hurts~"

This time, Lu Jihan paused for a moment, turning his head to give her a deep look.

Shen Qinghe winked at him, "It just hurts~"

Lu Jihan didn't speak, silently turning his head away to continue applying the medicated oil to her.

"Didn't you notice?" Shen Qinghe observed his expression and tentatively added, "It still hurts a little bit..."

As soon as she finished speaking, her cheek was immediately pinched by a large hand, and the scent of jasmine from that hand wafted straight to Shen Qinghe's nose.

Shen Qinghe looked closely and realized that when Lu Jihan turned to look at her, his hand, which was rubbing the medicated oil on her arm, was still suspended in the air and had not touched her arm at all.

Shen Qinghe felt a sense of foreboding. Her heart pounded as she met Lu Jihan's fierce eyes, and she stammered guiltily, "Master..."

"Does it hurt?" Lu Jihan raised one eyebrow and looked down at her.

Her already petite, oval face appeared even thinner in his palm.

"Hmm..." Shen Qinghe blinked uneasily, looking at Lu Jihan's fierce expression, and simply grabbed his arm: "Master, this servant was wrong!"

Lu Jihan sneered. She saw many people trying every means to curry favor, but few were as audacious as her.

The next moment, Lu Jihan saw an even bolder reaction.

Seeing that Lu Jihan did not react, Shen Qinghe reached out and cupped his cheeks tightly, her hands just the right size to hold him.

"How dare you?!" Lu Jihan stared at Shen Qinghe in disbelief, his eyes widening slightly, and he pinched her cheeks even harder.

Then, Shen Qinghe cupped his cheeks even more tightly: "This servant truly knows she was wrong! Please forgive this servant, Master?"

"Being coquettish won't work." Lu Jihan pinched her cheeks and wouldn't let go. The two of them were competing like three-year-olds until her red lips were pinched until they pouted.

Forced to pout, Shen Qinghe mustered her courage and kissed him directly on the lips.

In an instant, Lu Jihan noticeably loosened his grip on her cheeks, clearly not expecting Shen Qinghe to be so audacious.

Shen Qinghe didn't care. She had finally managed to kiss this man who adhered to male virtues, and she wasn't going to let this opportunity slip away easily.

Shen Qinghe lightly licked and nibbled at his lips, her fingertips slipping inside his collar as she pressed herself against him.

Lu Jihan's brows furrowed as deeply as he could, feeling the softness against his chest, the mischievous little hands on his waist and abdomen, and the haphazard kisses on his lips.

He wanted to push her away, but a voice in his head kept shouting: Just this once... just this once, just let her have her way this once.

As the woman's soft body drew closer, Lu Jihan's reason dwindled, and the cry from the depths of his heart grew louder and louder.

Until it overwhelmed all her reason.

A night of passion, a night of sound sleep.

But many people can't sleep.

"What a case of trying to steal a chicken and losing the rice instead! Who would have thought that idiot Shen Yun'er would actually switch Shen Qinghe's exquisite peony dish just to steal the limelight! She's as stupid as a pig!"

Chen Xiaoniang paced back and forth in the room, finding fault with everything: "Now look what happened! Not only did she not lose face in front of the young marquis, but she even made him feel sorry for her! It's a complete loss!"

Wu Xiaoniang remained calm: "Sister Chen, don't be too anxious. No matter what, they didn't find anything on you. This matter is over and has nothing to do with you anymore, which is already good enough. Who would have thought that so many people dislike Shen Qinghe?! Shen Yun'er is her own sister!"

Cao Xiaoniang didn't say anything, but just fiddled with the bracelet on her wrist.

Although Lu Huai'an concluded that the food Shen Yun'er made had gone wrong, they knew in their hearts what Chen Xiaoniang had done, and therefore understood that it was not Shen Yun'er's cooking skills that were lacking.

Unlike Chen Xiaoniang and Wu Xiaoniang, Cao Xiaoniang was not paying attention to Shen Yun'er, but rather to the role Shen Qinghe played in this incident.

Are they really just victims?

First, Chen Xiaoniang added tapioca flour to the exquisite peony dish she made, but later Shen Yun'er secretly switched it.

The entire process is very important; the order is crucial and there can be no mistakes. It's a matter of perfect precision.

Could it really be that Shen Qinghe was just lucky, and it just happened by chance?

Cao Xiaoniang didn't believe that Shen Qinghe knew nothing. Her eyes were filled with an ambiguous meaning. Shen Qinghe was smart and favored, so she was very suitable to be used as a pawn. She was definitely more useful than Chen Xiaoniang, that fool.

-

Buddhist hall.

Shen Yun'er was still kneeling on the ground, her hands trembling as she copied the Buddhist scriptures.

Just because of that bowl of exquisite peony slices,

Just then, some kitchen maids passed by carrying a bucket of hot water, and their voices drifted into Shen Yun'er's ears:

"Hey, the bamboo grove is calling for water again, hurry up and go."

"Who would have thought that the young marquis, who has always been indifferent to women, would become a completely different person ever since Shen Qinghe entered the Bamboo Garden?!"

Shen Yun'er gripped the calligraphy brush tightly, so angry she felt like her lungs were about to explode.

She was punished here, but Shen Qinghe received favor, and it was Lu Jihan who received it!

It was Lu Jihan from her past life, who was cold and ruthless towards her, and who found it tiring to even look at her!