There was a moment of silence between the couple as Li Meirong questioned her conclusions.

A few moments later, Bai Qingyue saw Li Meirong's frown gradually relax and knew that he had successfully managed to mislead her. The invisible knot in his stomach had loosened up as well.

"Oh… then, I appreciate the assistance." Her face became flushed, as though she was the one in the wrong, misunderstanding the upright man's intentions.

"What did you think I tried to do?"

"... I…" Li Meirong began to explain her reasoning but found herself tongue-tied as she saw Zhu Qingyue's thin mouth draw into a grin that quickly escalated into a chortle.

"You! Can you stop teasing me?!" She gave the side of his shoulder a playful shove.

"Ow! Heartless girl," Bai Qingyue cried out in pain while clutching his own shoulder, "Now that you've grown stronger and no longer have need of me, you want to kick me to the curb."

Li Meirong rolled her eyes and pointedly pushed him again, "Can you stop fooling around?"

Over the course of last week, she found herself growing more familiar with the peculiar teacher. Right now, she already felt at ease exchanging these kinds of words with him, their silly conversations became an everyday occurrence. She discovered that Zhu Qingyue was quite the friendly, playful man who liked to joke around.

Though, he didn't seem to know when to stop teasing.

"Who is fooling around? I am deadly serious. You have to treat me with tender care, and you need to uphold your promise of marriage before the worst happens to me…" The silver-haired man's voice was both alluring and magnetic, despite his obvious pity talk.

Li Meirong squinted her eyes at him in contempt, "I already told you that I won't let you die. I'm working hard to find a cure for you. Don't say these kinds of things even as a joke, alright?"

"Mhmm… Even if you find a cure, you are still heartless for rejecting my genuine proposal." Bai Qingyue nodded his head at her words, but his playful grin revealed that he had no intention of changing his ways.

"I didn't reject," Li Meirong promptly interjected, avoiding his penetrating stare, "I just need some time to think about it." Her words were spoken so quickly, it barely sounded corrigible, yet the man seemed to have understood her all the same.

"I shall wait for you."

Following his statement, Li Meirong didn't answer. However, her whole face turned as red as a tomato and a somewhat foolish-looking smile was plastered across her face.

Pleased by her reaction, Bai Qingyue moved on to the next step in tonight's event and lifted his hand up high, clicking his finger and thumb together.

On cue, the assigned servants went out of the house at the same exact time, their faces were practically red as their deceived mistress. Each of them held a plate covered by an opaque lid.

"They are…?" At once, Li Meirong's shoulders grew tense, the corners of her lips curving upwards suddenly seemed stiff. She became both apprehensive and confused by the newcomers. Two beautiful, young girls had exited Zhu Qingyue's residence all of a sudden, the man who insisted on marrying her. What did this all mean?

Bai Qingyue glanced at his wife's distraught expression and felt a strange sense of satisfaction at perceiving her unease, though he had no intention of providing the girl with the opportunity to entertain any suspicions about him.

"These outer sect disciples are your new maids from this moment henceforth, their names are Xiao An Hua and Xiao An Fei. They are not very competent but I hope they will be able to assist you with your daily activities."

"..." The maids stayed silent, their heads bowing low and their expressions remained unseen.

Actually, they were busy shedding silent tears at the injustice made unto them.

'Sire, we are goddesses from the Heavenly Realm. How can you call us incompetent?!'

Li Meirong had certainly not expected this declaration, she stared surprised at the girls, "This…"

Without being given an option to refute, Xiao An Hua made a step forward and presented the main course, uncovering the lid, "We brought the main dish as requested, slow roasted short ribs."