Chapter 17 – An Oath He Swore to His Self (2)

It was another day at noon.

After being occupied with schoolwork for most of the morning, Mo Linyuan and Xiaolang had lunch with Ye Mu, together at the same table. At this time, there was only the servant girl, Xiaoqiu waiting on them.

Mo Linyuan had took two bites before stopping still…

He always had a bad habit of being a picky eater—he particularly hated garlic.

Rather, it would be more fitting to say he detested everything that smelled bad. It was due to his upbringing as a child, where he was raised in the Imperial family of the Mo Country. It was known to be the opposite of the damp and cold Yue country and had less spiced foods.

Therefore, not only did he detest garlic, but also other forms of cuisines with heavy spices. So, when every time they were eating, only Ye Xialong could be seen eating mouthfuls, while Mo Linyuan on one side is trying to slowly force small bites.

But today, he suddenly found out that there wasn’t even the faintest smell of garlic on the table. Almost every dish they had eaten before had been cooked with garlic, but today had been a different scenario.

“What’s wrong?”

Ye Mu saw that he had stopped eating and she slightly raised her eyebrows questioningly. But Mo Linyuan was still tight-lipped, almost as if he had seen a ghost. Ye Xiaolang who noticed this also thought something was wrong. He looked at Mo Linyuan strangely.

“What is it? Is there something bad about the dish?”

Xiaoqiu, the servant girl who had been silent throughout, smiled and said:

“The Young lady said she didn’t like the taste of garlic. However, cooking meals without garlic will only cause poor physical constitution. So, this servant told the kitchen to find a way to remove the flavour of garlic.”

Hearing this, Mo Linyuan looked at Ye Mu with even more shock displayed on his face, but Xiaoqiu wasn’t able to pay attention to this and continued revealing revelation after revelation.

“Our Young lady is very clever. The kitchen said they didn’t know a method to get rid of the smell. But the Young lady had solved this problem and told them to steam garlic with tea and other variants of fragrant spices. In the end, the steamed garlic doesn’t have the spicy smell or strong flavour of garlic at all! And now the big kitchen has started to follow this way of cooking meals with garlic.”

When Mo Linyuan heard this revelation, he was stunned and immediately sliced the pork meatball in front of him into half with his chopsticks. Looking closely, there was certainly garlic in it. But when he took one bite, he wasn’t able to taste that flavour at all.

For some reason, Mo Linyuan’s chest was filled with panic.

Back when he was a child, he always had bad stomach aches because he refused to eat garlic. Then, his mother and father were still there, but no one had thought of asking someone to find a way to remove garlic taste so he could eat dishes spiced with it without hurling from the pungent flavour. They would simply ask the imperial doctor to prescribe medicine for him when he was uncomfortable and thought nothing more of the matter.

But Ye Mu noticed even such a minor thing! She also thought of a way to remedy it. This gesture…

If this gesture is fake, then what else is true?

Ye Mu, sensing the weird atmosphere forming in the dining table, hurriedly knocked on the wood surface and said, “Eating a meal only to talk a lot—are you both thinking of avoiding this afternoon’s schoolwork?”

At the thought of the mountain of tasks they are to do this afternoon, Ye Xiaolang speedily ate up his meal.

The shell-shock Mo Linyuan also resumed eating silently. Even if he was only chewing food in his mouth, he felt that there were fishbones stuck on his throat.

He was only nine years old. At this age, his mood was subject to frequent fluctuations. He held his chopsticks in a vice grip, knuckles turning white.

He badly wanted to grab Ye Mu by the shoulder and shake her irritably. He wanted to know why she was doing these things for him! Why is she being so kind to him suddenly? What’s her purpose?!

Mo Linyuan felt that she was so confusing…to the point that he doesn’t even know what kind of disposition he must have to deal with her.

….

Time flies and a month rushes by quickly. During this time, Mo Linyuan’s wound has finally healed.