The osmanthus cake could barely fill one's stomach, but it was not enough.
Not far from Ruyi Lane, there was a noodle stall. Li Yi and Xiao Huan used to frequent it. He didn't expect the noodle woman to still be there. Li Yi ate another bowl of noodles. The woman didn't speak much and didn't seem to recognize that he used to be a regular customer of the noodle stall. She had many customers every day and it was difficult to remember one or two.
After finishing the noodles and returning home, he lit the lamp and sat at the table. He took out the things he got from Ruoqing and carefully flipped through them.
The handwriting on the paper was elegant and the content clear. Li Yi didn't have to spend much effort to have a comprehensive understanding of the current situation of the theater.
There were about twenty theaters in Qing 'an Prefecture, with the prefecture as the center and extending outwards. Because of the lack of manpower, it had almost reached the limit of expansion.
As for the jianghu and wulin, they were all handled by Old Man Sun. The authority of the Wulin Hero Ranking increased day by day. There were even some brothels outside the city that provided arenas for all kinds of masters to compete for rankings. The masters participating there were free of charge, but the spectators had to pay a certain fee.
Of course, no one was short of a few copper coins. Many people felt that watching two people fight on the stage was much more interesting than watching a group of people perform. Therefore, there was no lack of spectators for every competition, and the profits could not be ignored.
It wasn't easy to develop to this point in two months. No one knew better than Li Yi how powerful this force was.
Of course, the current development of the brothel had reached a bottleneck. If they wanted to keep the customers, they had to continuously innovate and have better stories and scripts. Fortunately, he still had to stay in Qing 'an Prefecture for a while longer. Taking advantage of this time, he could bring out the legendary cultural crystals.
He had slept enough during the day and didn't feel tired. He took out a brush and paper. Xiao Huan wasn't there, so he could only grind the ink himself. After a while, Li Yi raised the brush and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, a thick book that others couldn't see floated in front of him.
On the front page were three big words — Journey to the West.
"Before the chaos was divided, the world was in chaos, and no one could see it. Ever since Pangu broke the Primordial World and created the distinction between pure and turbid. As a few lines of small words appeared on the paper, the story of a monkey officially opened a new chapter in this strange world.
In the courtyard next door, the girl's body moved about, using the moonlight to practice her swordsmanship. She would look up from time to time. Even when she was about to rest, the lights were still on.
…
…
The moment Wan Ruoqing opened her eyes, she was stung by the sunlight shining through the window.
She covered her eyes with her hand and sat up on the bed with a trace of doubt on her face.
If she remembered correctly, she only wanted to take a nap on the table for a quarter of an hour. How did she end up lying on the bed?
Moreover, the sky was clearly turning dark at that time. Why did it suddenly light up now? Was it an illusion?
For her, from the time she laid on the table to the time she woke up on the bed, it seemed that only a quarter of an hour had passed. At this moment, her mind was still a little dazed.
"You're awake …"
Just as she was trying to make her mind clear as soon as possible, a muffled voice suddenly came from the direction of the room door.
Li Yi held a stuffed bun wrapped in paper in his hand and one in his mouth. Seeing that Wan Ruoqing had woken up, he gestured to her and said, "I just bought these buns with cabbage fillings. Do you want two?"
Wan Ruoqing looked at him in a daze, her face was filled with amazement and shock. For a moment, she was unable to come back to her senses.
After a while, she nodded and said, "Then, then I'll have one …"
Li Yi was very clear on how long it would take for a person to wake up after their acupuncture point was hit. Therefore, when he came early in the morning, he bought breakfast for two.
Wan Ruoqing washed up for a long time before appearing in front of Li Yi again. She did not have any makeup on and her face was bare. She seemed to be in better spirits than last night.
For a woman, someone who could meet her without makeup must have treated her as a true friend. Li Yi was very pleased about this, although he could not tell what had changed on her before and after putting on makeup.
"Sorry, I didn't know that you don't eat cabbage buns. Xiao Zhu has already gone out to buy new ones."
Just now, when Wan Ruoqing was washing up in the room, Xiao Zhu took a steamed bun and nibbled on it. When she realized that it was stuffed with cabbage, she told Li Yi that Wan Ruoqing never ate steamed buns with this kind of stuffing. She then went out to buy breakfast again.
Actually, Li Yi did not like cabbage buns very much. Unfortunately, he had stayed up all night copying books and got up a little late in the morning. The bun shop had sold out the other fillings, so he had no other choice.
Wan Ruoqing smiled and took a bite of a bun. After a while, she looked up at him and asked, "You — when did you come back?"
"Yesterday." Li Yi wiped his hands and said, "I came here last night. You were asleep at the time, so I didn't wake you up."
Wan Ruoqing somewhat regretted not insisting a little longer yesterday, but she quickly changed the topic and said, "The theater …"
Seeing that she was going to talk about the theater, Li Yi waved his hand and said, "Don't worry about the theater for now. Rest well in the next few days. I'll take care of those things."
The things he did related to the theater were only because he did not want to see the brothel close down at the time. He did not think about how big or how good it was. Although his thinking was different now, he could not make Ruoqing work so hard just because of this.
Wan Ruoqing nibbled on the bun and did not know what to say for a moment.
They had not seen each other for more than two months. She thought she would have a lot to say, such as asking how he was doing in the capital and if he would not come back in the future. However, when the words were on the tip of her tongue, she did not say them in the end.
"I advise you to let it go. That person is having fun in the capital. Maybe he has long forgotten about the things here …" Zeng Zuimo walked in from outside with a food box in her hand. She would persuade Wan Ruoqing like this several times a day, but today she closed her mouth before she finished speaking. Looking at the back of the figure sitting across from Wan Ruoqing, a trace of doubt and disbelief quickly flashed through her eyes.
A moment later, Li Yi took a sip of the porridge Zeng Zuimo brought over with a spoon. He looked up at her and asked, "By the way, what did you say about having fun?"
"Nothing!" Seeing his indifferent look, Zeng Zuimo gritted her teeth and said.
"Where did you buy the porridge today?" Li Yi suddenly asked.
"What?" Zeng Zuimo turned to look at him, feeling a little nervous for no reason.
"Don't go to that store in the future. You can't even control the heat of ordinary porridge. Sooner or later, you will have to close …"
"Eat it or leave it!" Zeng Zuimo snatched the bowl from Li Yi's hand, put it back in the food box, and walked out angrily.
"What's wrong with her?" Li Yi looked at Wan Ruoqing and asked in confusion.
He did not offend her in any way today. Could it be that she was still holding a grudge over that misunderstanding?
The first time they met was like this. Li Yi felt that the boat of friendship between the two might be overturned.
Wan Ruoqing pondered for a moment and said, "Nothing … It's just that the porridge just now was made by Zuimo herself."
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