After the wrong flirtation, I became the villain's favorite

At the same time, Xie Yunjie had returned to the Xie Mansion from Linyi.

If you say that I was exhausted from the journey, I wasn't really.

The young man seemed more composed than before he left.

After reporting to Mr. Xie's study, I was inevitably tested and answered questions fluently.

Xie Yunjie lifted his robe and came out of the study, walking towards the courtyard where he lived.

"Hanlin is back." The maid Molan said to Xie Yunjie who came in through the door.

"Yeah." Xie Yunjie responded.

He had an impression of this maid.

Generally, maids were married off at the age of seventeen, and there were very few maids of this age who remained unmarried in the mansion.

The woman's movements were neat and tidy, and she was calm and composed when giving orders to the people in the mansion. At first glance, she was obviously a maid who served her master closely.

She is usually cold, but it’s not that she is pretending to be noble, it’s just that way.

But today, there was a faint smile between her brows that she herself was not aware of.

Xie Yunjie asked one more question, "What are you going to do?"

Molan said, "The carved rosewood chair in the young master's room is cracked, so I replaced it with a new one. I'm going to put it there."

The only person who can be called "Young Master" is Xie Yunji.

Since Xie Yunji passed away, all the things he used, from the ornaments in the study to the bedding, have remained in their original appearance.

There are maids guarding the inner study and living rooms.

Unfortunately, most of the things he used during his lifetime were very exquisite. It is very difficult to find exactly the same ones, and it requires a lot of manpower and resources.

But this is nothing to the Xie family.

If he were alive, as the only son of the eldest branch of the Xie family, all the wealth and huge family business would belong to him.

"I understand. Go ahead." Xie Yunjie said with no expression on his face.

Molan took a few steps but couldn't help looking back.

My cousin is too much like the eldest son, not in terms of appearance, but in terms of character.

The cousin looks cold on the outside, but he is actually a warm person in his heart. Unlike the eldest son, who treats everyone like a spring breeze and spring water to melt the ice, but in fact, no one can warm up his heart.

How can such a cold-hearted person's death still make people so sad...

Thinking back to those days, the young master was so suave and handsome, and followed by the equally tall and handsome Xie Ming. He was truly a sight to behold in the mansion.

But now, the master is obsessed with elixirs and is aiming to become an immortal, Madam Wei stays indoors and doesn't even pretend to be one, and even Xie Ming, the most talented person around the young master who can write and calculate, has disappeared.

The entire Xie Mansion lost its vitality with the departure of the eldest son.

Alas. Molan sighed and hurried to Liufeng Courtyard.

Xie Yunjie returned to his own courtyard, and the maids came up to him and said, "Hanlin, it has become hot in Yunjing these days. The spring clothes have been cut, please change into them, Hanlin."

It was winter when I left, and it was spring when I returned.

Xie Yunjie looked at the moon-white robes in their hands. The elegant color and neatly cut style, he nodded and raised his hand to let the maid help him put it on.

With a white jade belt around his waist and fluttering sleeves of his robe, and his spring shirt made of thin fabric, the young man is as clear as jade, and his movements are elegant and refined, which fits people's imagination of "a young man as clear as jade".

The maids' eyes lit up, and then they quickly lowered their eyes, thinking that the cousin was becoming more and more like the eldest son...

"I'll use less fragrance on my clothes in the future," said Xie Yunjie.

The maids looked at each other and silently smoothed the edges of the hem.

"Who made this fragrance?" Xie Yunjie suddenly asked.

The maid replied, "Yes... Young Madam. The former Young Madam loved incense, and when she was in charge of household affairs, she replaced all the incense in the mansion with this kind, which was mixed with snow water that was permeated with the fragrance of plum blossoms in winter."

"I won't use scent on my clothes anymore from now on." Xie Yunjie said, his voice was calm, yet it revealed a sense of pressure.

Didn't the maids understand what they had done to displease him? Several of them shrank back, carefully answered yes, and lowered their heads even more.

Xie Yunjie paused and said, "How is the young lady?"

"what?"

"I'm asking, how does the young lady treat you on a daily basis?"

These maids were assigned to serve in his courtyard, and could be said to be his people. It was up to him to decide whether to employ them or not, so Xie Yunjie did not want to explain to the maids why he asked this.

"The young lady doesn't talk much. She is... gentle and kind. She never beats or scolds her servants." said the maid.

"Tell the truth." Xie Yunjie said.

"Hanlin, we are telling the truth. The young lady is indeed kind to the servants. But the young lady is...jealous and does not allow the young master to take a concubine. She herself has no children. In the past, the master gave the young master three concubines, and the young lady ran away to the nunnery on the mountain in anger. The young master was so anxious that he sent the three concubines back home."

Xie Yunjie frowned, but his expression did not change much.

"Well, go down," he said.

After the maid left, Xie Yunjie sat down. The more he thought about it, the more upset he felt.

During these days, he heard from the maids that Song Nihuan was jealous and domineering, and from Mrs. Wei, she was said to be of humble family but noble and self-respecting. And what Mr. Xie revealed intentionally or unintentionally was not good at all.

She was the daughter of a demoted minor official, and her future husband, Xiaoqi, was suddenly sent by her parents to live in the upper class of this aristocratic family. She didn't know how cautious she had to be, which made him feel a sense of sympathy.

After four years of marriage without any children, as the eldest daughter-in-law of the Xie family, I don’t know how much pressure she has to bear.

Thinking of all this, Xie Yunjie felt extremely dissatisfied with the pretentious Master Xie, the hypocritical and unkind second wife Madam Wei, the narrow-minded and ungrateful maidservants, and even the family of Pan Jiang who sold their daughters for fame and fortune.

It is said that at that time there was a princess who was deeply favored by the empress dowager and competed with her for Xie Yunji.

Being suppressed and ignored by these people, it's no wonder that she left the Xie Mansion.

But he once asked her how she was doing, and she actually told him that the Xie family was kind and her husband favored her, and she had lived a very comfortable life in the Xie family during the years.

Thinking of this, Xie Yunjie felt sad.

Once officials return to Yunjing, they cannot avoid social engagements.

When the moon rose, Xie Yunjie had already arrived at the scholar's residence. The Grand Secretary of the Hanlin Academy held a banquet to entertain his disciples. All the guests were famous Jinshi who had passed the imperial examination that year.

When everyone saw Xie Yunjie, their eyes lit up. More than three months of travel had not buried the brilliance of this young man.

The Grand Secretary had an unmarried daughter, and he also wanted to fulfill the fun of finding a son-in-law through the list of successful candidates, but he did not want to be too revealing and wanted to observe a little more.

During the banquet, the literati first recited poems and wrote couplets, and then criticized the current political situation. After three rounds of drinking, I don’t know who first suggested going to Cangxianglou to continue the next round.

Cangxianglou is the number one brothel in Yunjing, and it can also be said to be the former Furaoting. It has some relationship with the Jiaofangsi, and is full of beautiful ladies who are proficient in poetry, chess, calligraphy and painting.

A talented man and a beautiful woman, reciting poems and composing couplets, with the beauty adding fragrance, and being the lover of the courtesan, isn't that wonderful.

Xie Yunjie was drunk, but he closed his eyes slightly and shook his head.

She was jealous, and Xie Yunji had no concubines or maids, let alone prostitutes, so she would definitely be sad and angry.

Other young Hanlin scholars came to pull him, "Why don't you go? Mr. Xie is not married yet, how can you be so unromantic?"

The young man's eyes were slightly drunk, but his words and actions were still upright and solemn. He bowed to the scholar and said, "I don't want to make my future wife sad."

The Grand Secretary looked at him intently. The drunken young man had a somewhat romantic side, but what he said came from his heart and could not be faked.

The young Hanlin scholars present were either puzzled, or sneered, or expressed admiration.

The Grand Secretary nodded secretly.