Chapter 362: Chapter 340, Childhood Sweethearts Theory_1
Xiao Yeyang had polished off the cake in no time.
Daohua looked on admiringly, then asked, “Don’t you feel queasy?”
Xiao Yeyang gave her an annoyed glance and belched, “What do you think?”
The cake was delicious, sure, but eating one or two jin in one sitting was bound to make anyone feel sick.
Daohua snorted, “It’s your fault for giving me such a big piece of cake. If you divided it among others, you wouldn’t feel sick.”
Xiao Yeyang looked at her sideways, “This piece of cake had my name on it. Are you saying you want to give me away to someone else?”
Daohua was speechless, “It’s just a cake, not about giving you away.”
After saying these words, Daohua paused for a moment.
Wait, that sounded a bit ambiguous… and oddly unsettling.
Before she could think further, Xiao Yeyang said, “Even the cake won’t do. Aren’t you disgusted by the thought of someone else eating the cake with my name on it?”
Daohua laughed, “Why would I feel disgusted?”
After all, it was he who was eating it, not her.
Xiao Yeyang glared at Daohua fiercely, too lazy to argue any more. Seeing a bit of cream lingering at the corner of her mouth, he reached out to wipe it off.
He had intended just to clean off the cream, but as his hand touched Daohua’s soft, smooth cheek, he didn’t want to pull it back anymore.
“Smack!”
Daohua slapped away Xiao Yeyang’s hand and looked around nervously to see if anyone had noticed. Seeing no one, she glared fiercely at Xiao Yeyang, “Good heavens, can’t you keep your hands to yourself?”
“I… I was just trying to wipe off the cream at the corner of your mouth.” Xiao Yeyang showed her the cream stuck on his hand.
Upon seeing the cream, Daohua pressed her lips together, her tone softening somewhat, “Even so, you shouldn’t just touch me. You should have told me so I could wipe it off myself.”
“If others had seen what you just did, they wouldn’t scold you; they would criticize me. Especially now that you’ve got a childhood sweetheart for a cousin.”
Hearing the term “childhood sweetheart,” Xiao Yeyang stood up abruptly, “What childhood sweetheart? Don’t talk nonsense!”
Daohua, “Am I talking nonsense? Go and find out for yourself, see if that’s what others are saying.”
Xiao Yeyang furrowed his brows and looked at Defu.
Defu, grudgingly, nodded his head.
Xiao Yeyang’s expression cooled instantly, “What exactly is going on?”
Daohua was surprised, “You’re the person in question, and you don’t know?”
Xiao Yeyang glanced at her and said nothing, merely staring at Defu.
Defu, “…. Madam Jiang often tells the ladies at various banquets that you and Miss Jiang grew up together in the Empress Dowager’s palace. Later, those who wanted to ingratiate themselves with the Jiang Family started the rumor about the childhood sweethearts.”
At this, Xiao Yeyang suddenly emanated a chilling aura.
Daohua couldn’t help but shiver, glancing at the big sun in the sky and discreetly moving to the side.
After a moment of silence, Xiao Yeyang suddenly turned to Daohua, “Don’t believe what those people say; they’re all talking nonsense. How could my cousin Wan Ying and I ever be considered childhood sweethearts?”
“Yes, I grew up in the Imperial Palace, but I lived with the Princes. Cousin Wan Ying often played in the Taihou Palace, and I only spoke with her when I went to pay respects.”
“If that’s all it takes to be childhood sweethearts, then I’m also childhood sweethearts with the Princesses, and she with the Princes.”
Seeing Xiao Yeyang so agitated, Daohua quickly comforted him and pulled at his sleeve to sit down, “If it’s not true, then it’s not. Why get so worked up?”
Xiao Yeyang frowned, “It’s you who misunderstood me.”
“…”
Daohua fell silent for a moment, then smiled wryly, “My mistake.”
Xiao Yeyang, “It’s obviously your mistake. If you want to talk about childhood sweethearts, you and I would be more likely candidates, not my cousin Wan Ying who’s merely a slightly more familiar playmate.”
Daohua, “…”
Defu felt like looking up at the sky again.
After all this talk, wasn’t his master just trying to lead up to that last point?
Daohua was stunned for a moment, then laughed awkwardly, “Us two… we can’t really be linked to childhood sweethearts, can we?”
Xiao Yeyang wouldn’t have it, “How is it not? Aren’t we getting along very well?”
Daohua chuckled and averted her gaze, “You get along pretty well with Yuanyao and Jingwan too. Does that mean you are also childhood sweethearts with them?” She said, then suddenly stood up.
“To me, all this childhood sweetheart business is nonsense, we’re just playmates.”
Xiao Yeyang glanced at Daohua, noticing her eyes wandering and her expression evasive, as if she felt somewhat embarrassed. The corners of his mouth immediately curled up, but he didn’t press the topic any further.
“Come here, see what I’ve brought you.”
Seeing Xiao Yeyang changing the subject, Daohua let out a sigh of relief, readjusted her expression before turning back. As she did, she saw Xiao Yeyang taking a plate of lychees out from a food box filled with ice cubes.
“Lychees!”
Daohua’s gaze was immediately drawn in.
Seeing her eyes light up instantly, Xiao Yeyang smiled, took a lychee, peeled it, and then fed it directly to Daohua’s mouth.
“Eat!”
Seeing Daohua frozen, Xiao Yeyang had to urge once more.
“Oh!”
Daohua blankly opened her mouth and took the lychee into her mouth in one go.
The lychee was rather large, and Daohua’s mouth was small. With a lychee in her mouth, she looked like a greedy hamster, her cheeks all puffed up.
Xiao Yeyang laughed outright.
Daohua glanced at him and held a fan up to her face, “What are you laughing at?”
Xiao Yeyang didn’t say much but asked, “Is it tasty?”
Daohua, “Why don’t you try one for yourself and see?”
Xiao Yeyang looked at the plate of lychees, “Never mind, I’ll save them for you. They’re a rarity, and this is the only plate I got. If we were in Beijing, I could get you some more, but here, once eaten, they’re gone.”
Hearing this, Daohua felt extremely uncomfortable inside. She wasn’t paying attention and choked.
“Cough cough~”
Xiao Yeyang quickly got up to pat her back, “Look at you, how could you be so careless?”
Daohua coughed for a while before she recovered.
Xiao Yeyang, “Are you okay now? How did you end up choking all of a sudden?”
Seeing the concern in Xiao Yeyang’s eyes, Daohua’s gaze was somewhat evasive, and her heart felt a bit chaotic, “Xiao Yeyang, you don’t have to be so nice to me in the future.”
Xiao Yeyang was initially taken aback, then seeing Daohua’s flushed cheeks, he laughed again, “It’s just a plate of lychees, how does that count as nice?” He then peeled another lychee, “Here, have another one.”
Seeing the lychee near her mouth, Daohua turned her head away, “You eat it.”
Xiao Yeyang’s eyes flickered, and he smiled, “Then you peel it for me.”
Daohua, “Why should I?”
Xiao Yeyang, “I peeled for you, so you should reciprocate. Don’t you know how this works?”
Daohua glared, “Keep dreaming, I’m not peeling it for you.”
Xiao Yeyang ‘hmphed,’ “Fine, don’t peel it then. Are you going to eat this one or not?” He stretched out his hand, holding up the peeled lychee.
Daohua turned her head away, “I won’t eat the one you peeled; I can do it myself.”
Xiao Yeyang looked at the lychee in his hand, “If you won’t eat it, I will.” Saying this, he ate the lychee in his hand.
Upon seeing this, Daohua stamped her foot in frustration.
He had just offered that very lychee to her moments ago.
Xiao Yeyang, seeing Daohua staring at him, feigned innocence, “You were the one who said no, so I ate it.”
Daohua, huffing, turned away, no longer wanting to look at him.
How had she never noticed before that this man could be so brazen?
Xiao Yeyang, seeing Daohua sitting motionless, pushed the agate plate with the lychees closer to her, “These lychees need to be chilled to be good. Once they warm up, they won’t be as delicious.”