A Time-Traveling Mishap: I Became an Ancient Nobleman

Chapter 222 Unknown Skills

Madam Jiang smiled indulgently at her, "Yes, yes, you certainly have your merits too."

She watched as the guests gradually arrived, but didn't argue with her. "Mingyun, take Hanzhang and Boss Zhou to the inner room for breakfast first. It's still early. You can go and admire the flowers after you've finished breakfast."

Jiang Mingyun led the two towards the dining hall, where they encountered Bitao along the way.

What are you doing here?

Jiang Mingyun was really annoyed. Why was Bitao everywhere?

Bitao was also very unhappy. She had already returned home late last night, and now she had to get up early to keep an eye on Jiang Mingyun and make sure she could attend the chrysanthemum appreciation banquet smoothly today.

Her stomach was starting to ache slightly.

"I noticed that you hadn't had breakfast yet, and I was worried you might be hungry, so I came to find you."

"Need not……"

Jiang Mingyun was about to refuse when Zhou Hanzhang pulled her back. "Bitao, you look a little pale. Are you sick?"

She then looked at Mingyun, "Mingyun, you too, Bitao has been with you for so many years, how can you not call a doctor for her when you're sick?"

Bitao was terrified. If a doctor were really called to examine her, wouldn't she be unable to hide anything from him?

In this era, if a maid became pregnant out of wedlock, she would be forced to have an abortion and then sold off.

"No, no, Your Highness is too kind. I may have caught a chill from the wind last night, but I know my own body and it's nothing serious."

"We should still be careful. It would be better to see a doctor to be on the safe side."

"Really, you don't need to!"

Bitao was afraid that things would be exposed, and she couldn't afford to make things go wrong at this crucial moment.

"What kind of attitude is this? Brother Hanzhang is just concerned about you."

"No, miss, I'm really fine. I just caught a chill. I'll be fine after taking a hot bath."

Zhou Hanzhang stopped Jiang Mingyun from speaking again, "Then you should take care of yourself. If you really feel unwell, it would be better to go back and rest today."

Bitao inwardly complained that Zhou Hanzhang was an outsider and had no right to arrange things for her, but on the surface, she still smiled respectfully.

"I understand, thank you, Your Highness. Breakfast is already laid out inside, please go in and eat quickly, otherwise it won't taste as good when it gets cold."

Jiang Mingyun kept pulling Zhou Hanzhang along, trying to get her inside as soon as possible so she wouldn't have to keep talking to Bitao.

However, Zhou Hanzhang seemed to have her own intentions and continued, "Bitao, have you had breakfast yet? Why don't you come in and have some with us?"

Looking at her expression, Zhou Hanzhang noticed that Bitao's expression was somewhat different. "I've already used it. I see that the guests are coming one after another, so I'll go down and get back to work."

Seeing her like this, Zhou Hanzhang let her be.

"Brother Hanzhang, why do you have to argue with her so much? You know perfectly well that she's a traitor!"

"Look at you, you wear your emotions on your sleeve. Are you trying to tell everyone what she did wrong and why you hate her? What if someone else comes to you and you don't even know it? Wouldn't that be even more disadvantageous for you?"

"But when I think about what she has done, I can't bring myself to be kind to her."

Zhou Hanzhang said seriously, "Then you have to bear with it."

Jiang Mingyun looked a little aggrieved. "I know."

Zhou Tong, standing to the side, seemed to sense a huge conspiracy, and a burning desire for gossip ignited within her. She stared intently at Zhou Hanzhang, asking, "What's going on?"

Zhou Hanzhang briefly explained the situation of the peach blossom to her, and Zhou Tong's eyes lit up.

"Oh ho, isn't this the classic trope? A charming but devilish maid climbs into my husband's bed and tortures me to death?"

"...Where did you get these names? They sound so much like the titles of those online novels by Tomato Novels?"

"Right? I found this in a history book. I remember there was a huge explosion of novels back then. When I wasn't doing research, I had a lot of free time and loved reading these novels. A lot of the plots in them are similar to what you just described."

Do you still have these books?

“I don’t have it, but Xiao Ba has it. If you like to see it, I’ll have Xiao Ba find someone to print it out.”

Zhou Tong quietly approached Zhou Hanzhang, "I also picked out a few of my favorites and printed them here. They've been very popular."

……

"You're awesome."

Zhou Hanzhang gave him a thumbs up.

"What are you talking about? What is a 'Tomato Novel'? What is an online novel?"

Jiang Mingyun once again displayed her curious nature.

Zhou Tong blurted out, "Tomato Novels is an organization I founded that specializes in writing romance novels..."

Jiang Mingyun immediately became interested, "Then what is online literature?"

"Ah~ that's one of our writing styles. We like to draw small grids on the paper, like a net, and fill the text into them..."

Zhou Tong was running out of things to say.

Fortunately, Jiang Mingyun didn't delve into it further. "Then was that book I read before called 'The Soul-Seeking Chronicle of the Azure Phoenix' also published by your organization?"

"You mean this book? It doesn't seem to be a romance novel. It's more like a collection of short stories about love, hate, and revenge among demons and monsters. How did you come to the conclusion that it was published by me?"

Jiang Mingyun's ears turned slightly red. "Actually, I've read others, but... this one left a deeper impression on me."

Zhou Tong nodded. "I see. Actually, this book was just one I randomly picked for reprinting. Not many people like it, so it's rare that you like it."

"It's a pity that not many people bought it, so I felt the ending was a bit rushed."

"That's true. I don't know if people nowadays aren't very receptive to this kind of book, or if the title is just not good, so the author rushed to the end."

"That's such a pity."

"There's nothing to regret. I have many other books here. If you like them, I can get them for you to read later."

"That's great."

Jiang Mingyun looked at Zhou Tong and instantly found her much more pleasing to the eye.

Unlike Jiang Mingyun, Zhou Tong may seem carefree at first glance, but researchers are masters at unraveling complex clues.

"You invited that maid over for breakfast just now, were you trying to see if she had tampered with the food?"

"That's true, but since she didn't eat with us, we need to be even more careful. It's best if we don't eat the food here."

"It's alright. If she had put the snake vine in this breakfast, I would have known."

"You have this skill too?"

"What's so special about this? I have many more skills that you don't know about."

"Seeing how cautious you are, I'll go first."

Zhou Tong first filled a bowl with porridge for herself, brought it to her lips and smelled it, "This porridge is fine, you can eat it."

"You can tell just by smelling it, whether it's real or not?"

"That's right, otherwise how could I stand out from thousands of people and become the best researcher in our country?"

"Alright then." Zhou Hanzhang also filled a bowl with porridge, took a bite, and was about to pick up a side dish.

Zhou Tong immediately stopped her, saying, "Don't eat this side dish."