"Huh?" The girl in the yellow dress blinked.
"Who told you snakes like to eat grapes?" Ah Qing pinched the little girl’s nose again.
"I’m not a doll... Ms. Qing, please don’t always pinch my face." The girl in the yellow dress squird and then said, "My sister always says so, and besides, under the grapevine in our town, don’t we always see long... snakes?"
She wanted to say ’worms’ initially, but seeing Ah Qing, she dared not say it.
"Even that snake you keep, Xiaoqing, likes to coil under the grapevine. I almost stepped on it a few tis while passing by." The girl in the yellow dress nodded. "So, people thought you might like eating them too."
"..." Ah Qing’s eye twitched slightly.
What could she say?
The helplessness one feels with ordinary girls was also one of the pleasures she found at the Flower Moon Building.
Ah Qing explained, "Staying under the grapevine is just to cool off..."
Unlike warm-blooded girls, snakes can’t regulate their body temperature. When the temperature is too high, their organs may have problems, leading to damage from high temperatures or stiffness from low temperatures.
And in sumr, it’s quite cool under the grapevine, providing a place for snakes to cool off and possibly catch food like lizards or mice.
They don’t love eating grapes.
As Ah Qing began her explanation, the girl in the yellow dress started to understand, blushing, "So, my sister doesn’t like eating grapes."
It’s truly like Ms. Qing being a half-demon of the Cyan Snake; of course, she knows about snakes.
"Snakes eat mice, why don’t you get so?" Ah Qing asked.
"Those are eaten by Li Hua." The girl in the yellow dress replied.
"... Did you really go looking?" Ah Qing’s eyes widened a bit.
"Just kidding." The girl in the yellow dress stuck out her tongue.
Even if she was clueless, she wouldn’t really go looking for mice.
"You mischievous girl..."
Ah Qing was montarily at a loss for words.
"Anyway, Auntie told you to read more books, but you didn’t listen. Now you’ve made a joke. Just rember that Xiaoqing is under the vine not eating grapes." Ah Qing sighed.
"But it was Auntie who first said... you might like to eat grapes." The girl in the yellow dress muttered.
Auntie herself hasn’t studied much either.
Ah Qing: "..."
She sat there, watching the girl subtly criticize the rule-keeping aunt, feeling a dull ache in her head.
Is raising a younger sister really like this?
Are all the elder sisters in the world so helpless with their younger sisters?
She never had a younger sister, so she wasn’t sure, but from the occasional look she threw at Li Zhibai, she thought it might be the case.
Maybe, she would unexpectedly have sothing to talk about with Li Zhibai?
"Alright, sister, don’t be upset. Let feed you so shrimp." The girl in the yellow dress tried to butter up to her, peeling a shrimp tail, dipping it in sauce, and feeding it to Ah Qing, silencing the lecture she was about to give.
Her sister’s mouth is so pretty, it’s a waste to use it for scolding.
"..." Ah Qing ate the shrimp tail and thought it tasted nice this ti, so she stopped urging her to study.
"Sister, eat, ah~"
As one tail of shrimp after another entered her mouth.
The sound of pleasant string music nearby, the girl with her head down beside her, Ah Qing soon relaxed, lazily resting her left hand on her cheek, glancing up at the high platform.
Though she didn’t know how the food the gentleman had made tasted, she thought... the shrimp tails the girl peeled for her mustn’t be bad.
Tilting her head, watching the young girl carefully handle the food, Ah Qing asked, "You really have so patience, peeling so many shrimp one by one; if it were ... I’d have lost patience long ago."
"In fact, the shrimp at Flower Moon Building are clean. You can eat them without removing the vein, but the family used to be poor. We always cleaned the ones we caught from the river, so I’ve gotten used to it." The girl in the yellow dress laughed. "It’s a quirk that cos from poverty. You can’t say it’s annoying, especially when I’m feeding my pretty sister; who could get annoyed?"
It’s relative.
Both the one being fed and the one feeding are happy.
"Are you saying I’m pretty?" Ah Qing asked.
The girl in the yellow dress was surprised, "Ms. Qing, you think you’re not pretty?"
"I’m not young anymore," Ah Qing suddenly said.
"If you’re just over twenty and that’s not young, then what about Pingniang? An old woman?" The girl in the yellow dress shook her head. Her Ms. Qing was certainly not so old maid.
As she spoke, she wrapped the peeled shrimp tail soaked with sauce in a pancake, then leaned forward, "Ms. Qing, ah~"
Ah Qing wanted to speak, but was slightly stunned. The shrimp pancake was presented in front of her.
She ate the shrimp tail in one bite, then watched the girl in the yellow dress begin to prepare more food, chewing much faster.
Swallowing, Ah Qing curiously asked, "Did you have a tough life before?"
"It was alright..." The girl in the yellow dress blinked, exhibiting a nostalgic look. "At ho, there was one elder brother and two younger brothers. After encountering a demonic disaster, I was sold for silver."
The girl in the yellow dress smiled, revealing a small fang.
"It’s normal, really. After all, the boys at ho need proper food to grow. They have to eat at."
"Weren’t you the girl who cried the most? Now you seem so relaxed." Ah Qing stopped the girl’s hand, pushing the shrimp tail into her mouth.
"I cry, but only for certain things." Eating the shrimp tail, the girl in the yellow dress shook her head. "If I cried over unimportant people, it would be worthless."
Ah Qing said nothing.
The implication was that previous parents, brothers, and siblings had beco unimportant to her.
When talking about her parents, there’s no emotion, but because I didn’t wake her when she was asleep and ’secretly’ changed Wen Li’s clothes, she cried until her eyes were red?
Ah Qing beca slightly more serious.
She suddenly realized that maybe this girl liked her more than she thought.
"Do you hate your parents?" Ah Qing asked.
"Why do you always ask such things?" The girl in the yellow dress was very puzzled.
She didn’t feel like she was worth asking about; after all, she was just sold off.
Her Ms. Qing is a half-demon and has endured so much hardship. Compared with Ms. Qing, she could say she’s living a blessed life because she at least once had parents.
But she still said,
"I don’t hate them; isn’t the Flower Moon Building nice?" The girl in the yellow dress took out a handkerchief, gently wiping away so sauce from Ah Qing’s mouth corner. Lifting her head, she said, "If I stayed ho, when a younger brother got married, they’d just exchange for money, or if I looked good enough in the future, they’d try to raise so dowry."
How could it compare to the Flower Moon Building now?
"Can you eat spicy food? If so, I’ll make it spicier. A different sauce gives a different flavor when eating shrimp."
She rubbed her hands, clearly addicted to feeding Ah Qing.
"I can eat it," Ah Qing replied, then said helplessly, "Is the Flower Moon Building really that good?"
"Of course it is. I like Ms. Qing most, and then Pingniang." The girl in the yellow dress smiled brightly. "If Flower Moon Building wasn’t good, what would you be doing here?"
Ah Qing: "..."
Ouch.
She felt like she got stabbed.
There was indeed no way to argue.
If Flower Moon Building wasn’t good, why would she stay here?
"You also think Pingniang is nice, don’t you?" The girl in the yellow dress couldn’t stop laughing.
Being a half-demon, if soone said Ah Qing wouldn’t survive outside the Flower Moon Building... she wouldn’t believe it.
None of the sisters nowadays believed Ah Qing was as harmless as she appeared.
As a half-demon, surviving safely to this age already proved enough.
Seeing the girl preparing food cheerfully in front of her, Ah Qing lowered her head. She felt so heartache for this overly sensible girl, but had no position to express it.
"Have you thought about cultivation?" Ah Qing asked.
"Cultivation, like Ms. Qingluo?" The girl in the yellow dress waved her hand. "Thought about it, but... it depends on Pingniang."
If Pingniang allowed, she’d cultivate.
If Pingniang didn’t, it ant she wasn’t suitable for cultivation, and it was fine to stay with peace of mind.
"I see." Ah Qing smiled.
There are many girls at Flower Moon Building, and the so-called sisters should be like puzzle pieces... pieces that fit together perfectly when you find the right one.
In a more refined expression, it’s like a good friend with whom a thousand cups aren’t enough.
So at Flower Moon Building, you can see oddly mismatched girls sticking together and becoming friends.
"Do you like ?" Ah Qing asked.
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