Chapter 113
"Look, I'm not lying. These pastries are all spoiled. Young Master Yao, were you scammed?" Xu Qingshi looked at Yao Shuheng with a strange expression again.
It was as if to say, how could a grown - up like you be scammed?
Yao Shuheng felt extremely frustrated. Just now, when he saw the shopkeeper packing the pastries in the shop, they were clearly fine. How could they all be spoiled?
However, the pastries had been in his own hands all the time, and Yao Shuheng himself couldn't explain what had gone wrong.
Li Zhiwei was also stunned and didn't know what was going on for a moment.
"It's all this servant's fault. Just now when I came in, I accidentally bumped into a young servant. I think that's when they were accidentally damaged," Jiu'er quickly stepped forward to apologize.
"It's okay. It's just that the pastries are broken. They're still good," Li Zhiwei saw that Yao Shuheng didn't look happy, thought for a while, and then comforted him.
"Cousin, it's my fault. I wanted to buy you some pastries, but unexpectedly..." Yao Shuheng looked at the broken pastries and couldn't come up with a good explanation.
At this moment, Yao Shuheng hated Xu Qingshi even more. This kid was really an eyesore!
After such an incident, Yao Shuheng didn't have the face to stay in front of Li Zhiwei. He could only make an excuse that he had something to do and left first.
"Mother, the pastries he sent are so stingy. Could it be that he deliberately picked the cheap ones?" Xu Qingshi's voice was neither too loud nor too soft, just loud enough for Yao Shuheng to hear every word clearly.
Yao Shuheng was shocked and clenched his fists tightly.
Jiu'er beside him lowered his head even lower. In fact, he didn't know what was wrong with the pastries either.
He just didn't want his young master to lose face, so he came up with such an excuse.
However, it was impossible for the young master to buy cheap pastries to give to the young miss. The young master wasn't short of silver.
"If you don't like them, just leave them," Li Zhiwei also knew that Xu Qingshi was the young heir of the Prince An's Mansion. Naturally, he had seen many good things, and such pastries definitely wouldn't appeal to him.
So she whispered to comfort him.
"Mother, I want to eat that milk tea you made last time," Xu Qingshi glanced at Yao Shuheng who hadn't gone far with the corner of his eye and deliberately coquettishly said.
He thought to himself, hum, with your level, you still want to compete with my father for someone?
You're still too inexperienced. Mother belongs to my father!
He must clear all obstacles for his father!
"Have you found out the identity of that kid?" After walking out of Li Zhiwei's yard, Yao Shuheng asked Jiu'er beside him coldly.
"Master, our people only found out that this child was brought back from the capital by the young miss. The noble sons from the capital aren't within the scope of our people's investigation," Jiu'er said with a distressed look on his face.
Yao Shuheng just wanted to strangle Xu Qingshi to death. If it weren't for Li Zhiwei being present and it being inappropriate to cause a scene, he really would have dealt with the kid directly.
Every time, no matter what he did, that damned kid could precisely ruin his plans.
Every time, he made himself lose face in front of his cousin. How could he win his cousin's heart like this?
What annoyed him even more was that every time, that stinky kid would affectionately call Li Zhiwei "Mother" right in front of him.
And Li Zhiwei never refuted it.
Thinking of this, Yao Shuheng went to Lady Yao's courtyard.
"Is that you, Heng'er?" Lady Yao saw her nephew coming and greeted him with a smile.
"Aunt, are you feeling better today?" Yao Shuheng changed his expression to one of gentle courtesy and asked Lady Yao.
"Much better. It's an old problem with my body. Thank you for your concern, Heng'er," Lady Yao said with a smile.
"Aunt, now that you've seen cousin, your complexion has improved a lot. I'm sure that with cousin by your side in the future, you'll be happy, and your health will naturally get better," Yao Shuheng's words implied that he wanted Li Zhiwei to stay by Lady Yao's side.
"Yes, I was so worried these days. When I saw Zhiwei come back, my hanging heart finally settled down," Lady Yao didn't treat Yao Shuheng as an outsider and said with a smile.
"Aunt, are you worried about cousin's matter? Now, although cousin has a child with her, cousin is back safely, so you don't have to worry about her anymore," Yao Shuheng deliberately mentioned the child.
"However, Aunt, I have a question. Is that child cousin's own child?" Yao Shuheng deliberately looked at Lady Yao with a puzzled expression and asked.
Hearing this, a look of embarrassment flashed across Lady Yao's face. Her daughter had only been away from Li'an County for less than two months. How could she have given birth to such a big child?
However, she hadn't asked her daughter about the child's identity.
These days, she had only been happy and had forgotten about this. Yao Shuheng's words reminded her.
That child followed her daughter around all day long, calling her "Mother" all the time. People who didn't know might think that Li Zhiwei had had a child with someone without anyone knowing.
"Heng'er, you're joking. That child is the child of a friend of your uncle. The child is pitiful. He lost his mother when he was young. He is fated to be close to Zhiwei, so he calls her 'Mother'," Lady Yao still made up an excuse for her daughter and perfunctorily replied to her nephew.
She also thought that she should have a good talk with her daughter. This "Mother" couldn't be called casually.
It would only lead to unnecessary misunderstandings.
Everyone in Li'an County knew about her daughter's previous marriage in the capital.
Coming back with a child who called her "Mother", what would the people in Li'an County think of her daughter?
The Li family didn't care about other people's looks, but she was just worried that her daughter wouldn't be able to stand the gossips outside.
"I see," Although Yao Shuheng was a little skeptical of Lady Yao's words, since Lady Yao had said so, it would be inappropriate for him to ask further.
If the child was just the child of a friend of Li Tianyou.
Then he should be just the child of an ordinary merchant family.
Thinking of this, Yao Shuheng's eyes darkened.
Then don't blame me for being rude.
After Yao Shuheng left, Lady Yao thought more and more about it and felt more and more uncomfortable.
Finally, she decided to call Li Zhiwei over and find out Xu Qingshi's real identity.
After all, Li Zhiwei had brought a lot of people back this time, but all of them were strangers. Even Cuiguo didn't come back with her this time.
Li Zhiwei soon came to Lady Yao's yard. Seeing that Lady Yao was okay, Li Zhiwei breathed a sigh of relief.
"Mother, did you call me?" Li Zhiwei sat down beside Lady Yao with a smile and asked.
"Zhiwei, you've been back for two days. I haven't asked you all this time. That child is..." Lady Yao deliberately looked at Li Zhiwei with a look of embarrassment and asked.
"Mother is talking about Qingshi?" Li Zhiwei didn't want to hide it from Lady Yao. It's just that before, she didn't know how to explain Xu Qingshi's presence for a while.
Now that Lady Yao had asked, she had an opportunity to speak.
"He is the heir of the Prince An's Mansion," Li Zhiwei said softly.
Hearing this, Lady Yao gasped. The heir of the Prince An's Mansion. What kind of noble young master was he?
When had such a person with such a prominent family background ever come to Li'an County?
No wonder there were so many people following him. Those were probably the royal guards mentioned in the operas.
"But why does he always call you 'Mother'?" Lady Yao looked at her daughter with a puzzled expression again and asked.
