Traveling through time and space to become a lady of a noble family, but she only wants to escape

Chapter 132 Meeting old friends

Chu Yunchuan's face fell visibly.

Bai Zhi was about to go to the appointment, but found that no matter how hard she pushed Chu Yunchuan away, she couldn't move him away, and he was still holding her tightly.

...How much does this person not want her to see Lu Jiliang? Bai Zhi thought it was ridiculous and funny, and patted Chu Yunchuan's arm: "If you don't want me to see my old friend, why did you bring me to the state capital?"

Chu Yunchuan said sullenly, "I brought you here because I want to see you all the time, not because I want Lu Jiliang to see you."

Bai Zhi spread her hands and said, "You want to have your cake and eat it too. How can it be so good?"

"…It's just dawn now. It's too early to catch up with old friends. Let's wait a little longer."

"Even if we wait another ten days, Lu Jiliang won't return to the capital." Bai Zhi said helplessly, "Why do you always treat Lu Jiliang as a tiger, leopard, jackal, and wolf? Nothing has happened between him and me. If he is really my old lover, wouldn't you eat him alive?"

"...Did you have an old lover in your previous life?"

Why did it bring up the past life?

"In my last life, I cared about nothing but money, so I had no time to find a lover. The number of men I met in my two lives combined is not as many as the number of girls you met in a brothel in the capital."

Chu Yunchuan suddenly looked down at Bai Zhi and said seriously, "I have never done anything out of line in a brothel."

"...No, I just said it casually. I didn't mean to ask about this." Bai Zhi said indifferently, "Even if there is, it's okay. At that time, every step was difficult, and special cases were treated specially."

Chu Yunchuan thought she didn't believe him, so he anxiously said, "Really, even if it was a special situation, I didn't..."

"Okay, okay, I believe it." Bai Zhi raised three fingers, "I believe everything you said."

His expression finally relaxed.

"That's getting off topic. Chitose, can I go meet my old friend now?"

"..." Chu Yunchuan pondered for a while, pointed to the hairpin on his head, "Then you have to promise me that during this time in the state capital, we will wear each other's hairpins."

Bai Zhi then noticed that Chu Yunchuan was wearing her sick plum in his hair today.

Bai Zhi was familiar with the custom of wearing hairpins to each other. She shook her head and said with a smile, "Okay, as you say. Let's go and find your hairpin now."

Chu Yunchuan packed all the luggage. He took Bai Zhi to the desk and dug out some tree branches.

Bai Zhi: "..."

The good news is that it is indeed a hairpin, but the bad news is that it looks too much like a tree branch.

Bai Zhi sighed mercilessly: "No wonder you don't wear hairpins, where did you pick these up?"

Chu Yunchuan laughed, "Boss, you really don't know what's good." He picked a relatively pleasing one and pinned it on Bai Zhi's head. "This is made of agarwood. It was given to me by a Taoist priest when I was practicing martial arts in the mountains. If I sell it outside, it will cost at least a hundred taels. I kept it in my house because I was afraid that the expensive hairpin would reveal my identity."

"One hundred taels?" Bai Zhi was stunned. She dared not move even with the hairpin on her head, as if she had a piece of gold pinned on her head.

Chu Yunchuan went to rummage through the box again, found a lotus-colored dress of Bai Zhi, and helped her put it on.

This was the one Chu Yunchuan bought for her in Donkey Shop Street a few years ago. It was very popular in Beijing, but this style was not popular in Zhuzhou. Bai Zhi asked in confusion, "Isn't this a bit casual?"

"It's okay. If Lu Jiliang asks, just say that I gave you this dress before." Chu Yunchuan took the belt and twisted it around a few times, tying it carefully at the back of the waist. Bai Zhi looked down and reminded him, "The belt is tied the wrong way, the knot should be tied in the front."

"Only when it's tied in a knot at the back," Chu Yunchuan leaned over to whisper in Bai Zhi's ear, "can you tell that someone tied the belt for you."

"..." Bai Zhi held her forehead and said, "Why are you so serious? Last time Yang Jinlang came to my house, you didn't say anything when I met him. Why do you treat Lu Jiliang like a monster?"

"Different."

"What's the difference?"

"I knew you earlier than Yang Jinlang, but Lu Jiliang knew you much earlier than me."

"……so?"

Chu Yunchuan tied a complicated and beautiful knot on his belt and said, "If you talk about old times with him, I will become an outsider, so I want to declare to him that I am the person closest to you."

Bai Zhi smiled and stroked Chu Yunchuan's long hair, saying, "Why worry about nothing?"

After a stick of incense, Bai Zhi went to the garden to keep the appointment.

Lu Jiliang had been waiting in the pavilion for a long time. When he saw Bai Zhi, he stood up suddenly and stared at her in a daze: "Bai Zhi, it's really you."

My old playmate looks a lot more haggard and older than he did a few years ago. I wonder what kind of experiences he had in the officialdom to end up like this.

"Why, do you know anyone named Bai Zhi?" Bai Zhi chuckled, "Long time no see."

"I... When I heard the news that the Xuanping Marquis's mansion was wiped out, I thought you were dead. It turns out that you have already escaped." Lu Jiliang said in a trembling voice, "That's great."

If it weren't for what happened today, Bai Zhi really wanted Lu Jiliang to think she was dead. But now that the opportunity had come to this, there was no need to hide it.

It's not very kind to make people worry for no reason. Bai Zhi said with a little regret: "Yes, I got away with it. I didn't tell you that I was safe because I didn't want to implicate you."

Lu Jiliang didn't ask any more questions, but nodded in understanding: "Then how did you get to know His Royal Highness Prince Jing later... and how did you suddenly get engaged to His Royal Highness Prince Jing?"

"They are all romantic affairs, not worth mentioning." Bai Zhi avoided the main point and said, "It is you who surprised me more. You have changed a lot, Your Excellency."

"Don't make fun of me." Lu Jiliang smiled bitterly, "I can be an imperial envoy because of your majesty's trust. Otherwise, how could I have such great ability? To be a scholar, you need to rely on others to support you. To be an official, you need to rely on others to support you. To be an imperial envoy, you still need to rely on others to support you. Now think about it, I used to brag about the clean world... but now I am also trapped in the mud."

"If you walk along the river often, you will inevitably step on mud." Bai Zhi picked up the teacup and clinked it with Lu Jiliang's. "Congratulations, Your Excellency the Imperial Envoy. The more mud you step on, the more you will know what innocence looks like."

"...I've stepped on it so many times that I'll mistake the mud for innocence."

"In a place where there is no innocence, mud is innocence." Bai Zhi looked at Lu Jiliang, "Where you are, it's not completely dark, right?"

Lu Jiliang stared at her for a while, then suddenly burst into laughter: "Hahahahahaha, Baizhi, you're still the same, you haven't changed at all."

Bai Zhi raised her teacup to him: "It's mutual."

The sun climbed all the way up to the top of their heads, but the two of them were chatting in the pavilion, completely unaware of it.

It was a wonderful feeling to talk about trivial matters with an old friend whom I had not seen for a long time. However, everyone has their own pursuits in life, and Bai Zhi felt that things had changed.

What will happen when old friends get together again ten years later?