Chapter 369

After the ceremony, the emperor and empress left, while others were not in a hurry to leave and still attended the small banquet after the ceremony.

Qin Jiu and Gu Zezhi send off the emperor and empress at the gate, and watched until the carriage was completely out of sight before Qin Jiu withdraw her eyes and looked up at Gu Zezhi beside her.

Gu Zezhi at this time was also looking at her, his dark obsidian eyes were a like a mirror reflecting a woman’s reflection like a mirror.

Qin Jiu felt a little shy seeing how he was looking at her, her face felt like burning and her head was hot, she blurted out and asked, “Do I look good?”

“Very good!” He seriously nodded and the corner of his lips slightly rose as he grabbed her hand and looked at her with eyes that seemed to sparkle like starlight.

Just looking at her and touching her like this made him surprisingly happy, and couldn’t help but smile.

Before meeting her, he has a carefree, relax and unrestrained attitude; after meeting her, he suddenly was full of concern…

And this feeling, felt great!

Qin Jiu also held his hand and the corner of her lips couldn’t also help but rise, feeling sweet and embarrassed at the same time, and complimented back. “No better than the two of us.”

Gu Zezhi was stunned for a moment, and then laughed out loud.

This laugh was different from his usual restrain smile, the laughter was like a clear and melodious spring water, it even sounded cheerful, this laugh makes his face shine like a spring glow, dazzling and beautiful.

A few birds fluttered past the treetops, their wings brushing against them, that rustled the leaves, and the summer flowers were as delicate as fire.

Qin Jiu smiled with arched eyebrows, and took Gu Zezhi’s hand leading him to walked inside, but Gu Zezhi didn’t move.

Suddenly a thought came to mind, “You…”

Was he….

Gu Zezhi seemed to know what she was thinking and interjected, “I’m going back to Minzhou soon.”

A tinged of sadness enveloped Qin Jiu’s heart.

Minzhou and the capital were thousands of miles apart, even if the fast horses travel day and night, it would still take at least a few days to catch up. One could imagine the hard work of this journey to him…

She also understands that this was a piece of his heart for her!

“En, I’ll wait for you to come back.” Qin Jiu said with a smile and instructed Du Ruo to fetch some food for Gu Zezhi.

Du Ruo quickly took the order, turned around and instructed another maidservant.

The moment Du Ruo turned her back to give instructions, Qin Jiu suddenly felt his grip tightened on her wrist and was pulled into Gu Zezhi’s arms, the tip of her nose hit his broad and warm embrace.

His strong arms wrapped around her slender waist, his face lowered against her ear, she could feel his scorching breath on her….

He whispered in her ear, “Wait for me to come back!”

He only hugged her for a moment before releasing her, so when Du Ruo turned around, she only saw the two of them standing face to face, holding hands, and the suspicious blush on her young miss’s face.

See no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil. Du Ruo silently recited this as she averted her eyes as if she didn’t see anything.

Gu Zezhi smiled and said, “The war is over, I will be back in two months at most.”

Minzhou sea bandits have been pacified, so they only need to stabilize the peace and maintenance matters to deal with.

“En.”

“I’ll bring you a present.”

“En.”

“Do whatever you want, I’m here.”

“…”

Qin Jiu almost said, “en” but when the word came to her mouth, she thought why does this word doesn’t sound right?

Does he mean, that she could cause any trouble right now and he could just take care of it?!

Qin Jiu’s eyes widened as she stared, and stared, and stared at him.

The warm summer breeze blew past, bringing a rich fragrance across the surrounding with the sultry and intoxicating fragrance of flowers.

On that same day, Gu Zezhi went back to the Xiao residence to change his clothes before leaving again.

Qin Jiu’s coming-of-age ceremony finally came to an end, and Qin mansion which had sent off the guests, returned its peace. All kinds of news about the coming age ceremony on that day spread throughout, describing it as a beautiful story in the capital.

Old Madam Qin also gives out porridge in the capital for three days dedicated to Qin Jiu’s hairpin ceremony.

Those poor commoners and beggars rushed to queue up to receive porridge, and since they got benefits, their mouths were full of praises.

“This Third Miss Qin is really lucky and kind-hearted.”

“She comes from a marquis’s family, so how can her fate be bad? I heard that the sky is full of haze when she speaks!”

“Have you heard, at Third Miss Qin’s coming-of-age ceremony not only they invited some noble guests even the emperor and the empress were there personally, the scene was so grand ah.”

“Aiya, I should have known that day, I would have also gone around the Qin family, and maybe pay my respect to the emperor!”

“…”

In front of the porridge stalls, the poor beggars waiting in line to get porridge formed a long, winding line and chatted.

In the middle of the group, a gray-clad woman with dirty face and ragged clothes lowered her head, but her dark eyes were full of resentment.

Qin Jiu, it’s all Qin Jiu’s fault!

Zhao Aman glanced towards the few beggars talking in front of her, and lowered her eyes again, clutching a broken bowl tightly in her hand, almost crushing it.

That day, when she and Li Jinzhu entered the capital, they deliberately entered separately and from afar she saw Li Jinzhu was caught by the Five Cities Army and Horse Division, this scared her witless. However, she was still able to take advantage of the chaos around her, and quietly hid under the dung cart, thus, she avoided the disaster.

Later, when the magistrate open the court hall, she also went there to watch, and secretly sneaked in among the crowd outside but didn’t dare to go too near, she could only infer what happened in the court from other people’s conversations.

And from that, she knew that her daughter’s real origin had been revealed, she also knew that her daughter had almost married that fool from the Xu family, finally, she also knew that Li Jinzhu, that irresponsible man had confessed, saying she was the one who killed the old matchmaker, making her more afraid to show her face.

But she was unwilling to escape from the capital, to be more precise, she was more afraid of being discovered while leaving the capital, so she could only stay in hiding in the capital.

Originally, she had some silver on her, but since she was a woman roaming alone in the capital, it took only one day before she was targeted by someone and stole her silver.

***