Wei Luo's eyes widened. How did he know?

When did they hug? Why did he say it so seriously? Although she didn't know why he was saying this, she still had to explain, "He didn't hug me... I accidently bumped into him and we were crowded together by the people around us."

At that time, she couldn't control her own movement because of the bustling crowd. If she could, she wouldn't have wanted to bump into Li Song. But, not only did she bump into him, he also firmly pressed her against the wall. But, why would Zhao Jie know this? Didn't he go home last night without going out into the streets?

Zhao Jie saw through her doubtfulness. Without changing his expression, he explained, "Yang Hao returned to the capital earlier. On the way back, he saw the two you by chance." His eyebrows were furrowed when he said, "Are you two still in contact with each other?"

Wei Luo shook her head no. Who would want to talk to that person? It would be best if she never saw him again. "We just met on the street by coincidence and exchanged a few words."

She recalled something and after hesitating for a moment, she still chose to be honest, "He was with the fifth prince. The fifth prince also invited Chang Hong and older brother Song Hui to participate in the Spring Hunt Ceremony."

Zhao Jie seemed lost in his thoughts. He smiled and asked, "What else did old five say?"

Wei Luo shook her head, "He didn't say anything else."

He stroked her head, "You should go too. This prince will hunt a fox for you at that time."

"Older brother Prince Jing, you're going too?"

He nodded.

The Spring Hunting Ceremony was an opportunity for the nobility to show to their abilities. Although Emperor Chong Zhen wouldn't be present, the results would be reported to him so that he would know. Every year, the emperor would bestow a reward for the top three hunters, so this was a good opportunity to stand out and be noticed by the emperor.

The youths were hot-blooded. They couldn't wait to show off their youthful vigor. While they were hunting, they liked to invite young woman from noble families to watch their hunting. After all, the presence of women was necessary to energize hunting's excitement. It would be too regretful for a bunch of young men to fight and sweat profusely without young women to admire and appreciate them.

This wasn't a rare event. There was a villa on Zhang Xun Mountain with scenic views. The imperial family devoted this villa for young men and women to stay during the hunt for two days and one night, so there wasn't a worry about a place to stay.

Wei Luo didn't immediately agree. Instead, she said, "I'll go if Chang Hong goes."

She didn't enjoy going to this type of lively event. Compared to watching a group of men competing with each other for hunting the most animals, she would enjoy fiddling with scented lotions in her own room more. Also, she didn't like foxes... She feared all long-fur animals. When she was a child, she had been scared to death of the three kittens being raised by Zhao Jie. Foxes were even worse. She understood that Chang Hong wouldn't be going, so these words also had the meaning of refusal.

If they stood outside for too long, it would inevitably attract the attention of people passing by.

She said her good-bye to him, "Older brother Prince Jing, if there's nothing else, I'm going inside."

He didn't stop her this time. He stood at the entrance and watched her entering the residence until her figure disappeared, then he turned around and mounted the horse.

——–

Wei Luo plucked half a basket of roses from the greenhouse, brought them over to Han-shi's Orchid Courtyard, and asked Han-shi to help her by creating a new scented lotion.

Han-shi agreed and said to come back after three days.

Wei Luo still didn't leave after she finished talking about this matter. She sat down on the beautiful wooden couch and embarrassedly mumbled, "Aunty Han, do you have any method for dealing with a sore chest?"

Because she had already experience this in her previous life, she couldn't tolerate having to the go through this again. Her breasts felt sore and swollen, especially when she was walking. It would be great if there were a way to make them not hurt, or make them finish growing faster... So that she wouldn't be in pain every day. Han-shi knew so much. She probably knew a way to fix this problem, right? She didn't have a mother and wouldn't be comfortable asking fourth aunt this type of thing. She could only come here to ask Han-shi.

Han-shi listened to her problem and as expected, she did have a method. Han-shi turned around, took a small cloisonné enamel bottle from her cabinet, put the bottle into Wei Luo's hands, and said, "Pour a little bit of this medicine into your palm, after its warmed up, rub it on the area that hurts every night. This medicine can only speed up the growth a little bit. It can't actually remove the pain, but the result is the same. They won't hurt anymore after they're done growing. Consistently try using this medicine for a few months."

Wei Luo blushed from her blunt words. She accepted the bottle and made a sound of acknowledgement. She held the bottle in her hand as if it were a hot potato, quickly said her good-bye, and didn't continue staying in Orchid Courtyard any longer.

After she finished bathing that night, she sat down in her bed, put down the bedside curtains, and tried the medicine that Han-shi had given her. Her skin felt hot after she had finished rubbing the medicine into her skin in circles. She couldn't tell yet if the medicine would be effective.

The effect wasn't obvious in the first few days. It still hurt. About half a month later the medicine showed it effects, the pain of growing was still there, but it was a little bit lighter than before. Not only that, when she was wearing her dudou, it felt tighter than before. At the very least, she was growing up.

Without a better option, she had Jin Lu sew her a few more dudou with her new measurement. She continued using the medicine that Han-shi gave her, closed herself off in her rooms, and wouldn't allow anyone to see her.

Today, Wei Luo was currently in the greenhouse watering the roses and saw Bai Lan hurriedly walking over.

"Miss, a really bad thing happened!"

Wei Luo put down the watering can she was holding. She turned around to look at her, "What happened to make you so hasty and impatient?"

Bai Lan composed herself and organized the words she wanted to say, "Master and fifth young master had a dispute. In his anger, Master punished young master to kneel in the ancestral hall."

Wei Luo paused in her movements. She almost couldn't believe her. How could Chang Hong have an argument with daddy? What happened? She furrowed her eyebrows and started walking in the direction of the ancestral hall. As she walked, she asked Bai Lan, "What happened exactly? Tell me in detail."

Bai Lan wasn't sure either. She had heard this from another servant girl. It seemed that master wanted to arrange a marriage for young master, but young master wouldn't agree with it. The two of them couldn't come to an agreement and master eventually lost his temper during their talk.

As Wei Luo listened to this, her eyes sunk. Arranged marriage? In her previous life, Chang Hong had only been married to one person. Could it be that father had settled Chang Hong's engagement with Li Xiang at this time?

Her eyebrows deepened. She quickened her steps as she rushed to the ancestral hall.

The ancestral hall was in the back of Pine Courtyard. When she arrived there, Wei Kun was already gone and there was only Chang Hong kneeling on the praying mat in front of Wei family's ancestor's memorial tablets. Chang Hong's head was slightly hanging down, but his back was very straight and showed an unyielding wish to continue kneeling rather than assent.

She walked forward and patted Chang Hong's shoulder, "What did daddy say to you?"

Chang Hong looked. Seeing that it was her, something flickered in his eyes, "He didn't say anything."

Wei Luo was actually able to laugh at his words. Her lips curved up as she said, "Don't lie to me. If he didn't say anything, why would he punish you with kneeling? I already heard everything from Bai Lan. He wanted to arrange a marriage for you?"

Chang Hong didn't open his mouth to admit or deny.

She continued asking, "Who is the other person? Why didn't you agree?"

After a while, Chang Hong finally said, "Prince Ru Yang's daughter, Li Xiang."

When Wei Kun came home today, before he had time to change clothes, he had called him to the main room to ask him about his impression of Prince Ru Yang's daughter, Li Xiang. He rarely saw her, so naturally he didn't have much of an impression of her. Who would have expected that Wei Kun's next words would be that Prince Ru Yang wanted to become relatives with Duke Ying by marriage? In their residence, Chang Hong's age was the most suitable with Li Xiang's, so he wanted to arrange a marriage between the two.

Chang Hong refused without even thinking about it. Li Xiang was Li Song's younger sister. Li Song had pushed him into the lake when they were children and he had bullied Ah Luo by inappropriately touching her when they were outside on Spring Lantern Festival. Thus, he didn't have a good impression of any member of House Li.

However, Wei Kun said that he wasn't considering the current situation and that he was being too willful. He wouldn't agree no matter what Wei Kun said. In the end, Wei Kun couldn't do anything about his refusal and had him kneel at the ancestral hall to carefully think this over.

What was there to think about? Even if he thought about this for three days and three nights, he wouldn't agree.

Hearing that it was indeed Li Xiang, Wei Luo was slightly astonished. So, they had set their engagement so early? She very much approved of Chang Hong's actions. Li Xiang wasn't a good thing. In her previous life, it was because of this engagement with her that she and Li Song had destroyed Chang Hong. Naturally, in this lifetime, she wouldn't let Chang Hong jump into this living hell. There wasn't anyone good in House Li. She didn't care who married Li Xiang, but Chang Hong definitely couldn't agree.

She thought about this and then said, "First, stop kneeling. I'll go talk to daddy and persuade him to give up on this idea."

Chang Hong slowly nodded.

Wei Luo left the ancestral hall and asked the servants to check Wei Kun's location. The servant said he was in the study, so she quickly walked there.

When she arrived at the study's doorway, she pushed the door open and saw Wei Kun in front of a black table inlayed with golden spirals and engraved with clouds. He was holding a painting of a woman in front of him. His eyes were sentimental. He was so enthralled with looking at the woman that he didn't even notice her entering the room.

***************************

"Red Underwear", a painting by Liushi Zong

The dudou (literally 'belly cover') is a type of old-fashioned Chinese bra first worn in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and then in the Qing Dynasty. Unlike bras today, the dudou was worn to flatten the breasts as flat-chested women were thought to be graceful while busty women were considered a temptation.