The Guide to Capturing a Black Lotus

“Aunt.” Miaomiao nodded her head vigorously, constantly checking on Mu Sheng out of the corner of her eyes. “I appreciate your kindness, but I……”

“I know you can’t let go of your husband. As they say, a day together as husband and wife means endless devotion for the rest of your life.” Her aunt sighed, “Aunt will say this, even if you remarry, we will still allow him to stay here and provide for him with a young master’s allowance. It will be considered as cherishing your old friendship. What do you think?”

Miaomiao was about to cry: “I can’t, I really can’t.”

She bolted up from the bed, dragged her aunt out of the door and locked the room: “Let’s go to a brighter place to talk.

Saying things like that here, it wasn’t her aunt’s fault as she was ignorant, but she, herself, was under a lot of pressure. In the past, this man was a pot of vinegar. He would become upset when she spoke someone else’s name, something which annoyed her to death. Were she to really go ahead with this idea, she didn’t know how he would blow up. Perhaps, her well-meaning aunt would not be able to safely leave her room. 

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Now, Mu Sheng looked at her blankly all day long with a half-understanding gaze, not even knowing how to be angry, but she was the first to feel aggrieved for him.

Ling Miaomiao refused sternly while secretly suspecting that she was being controlled by Mu Sheng and had become a masochist.

When she saw that she was determined, she gave up and shook her head with great regret: “What a pity, aunt has several picks in mind, all young and talented.”

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“Gde caykple rsaj akcp.”

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This bad habit of knocking on the side of the bowl was learned from Liu Fuyi. When he was drunk and excited, he would take his chopsticks and knock on the side of the bowl, making a crisp sound which felt very ritualistic. Especially when there was no one who could talk to her, this sound made it seem as if the other side was also answering.

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On the table were the chef’s signature brown sugar buns; Miaomiao put one in Mu Sheng’s hand and looked at him with her face propped up: “Eat.”

When Mu Sheng took his chopsticks to eat normal food, there was an illusion of aloofness, but when he bit into the sweet brown sugar filling, this illusion broke as the brown sugar dripped onto his fingers. He unhesitatingly licked his fingers and looked up at her with a momentary flash of strong aggression in his eyes, making this action appear somewhat wicked.

Ling Miaomiao looked at him with wide eyes for a moment. He took his finger from his mouth and also blinked back at her, looking very confused.

Ling Miaomiao felt that there was something wrong with herself, and hurriedly handed him another one.

Mu Sheng’s hand retracted for a moment, then he looked at her and shook his head.

“Young Master Mu, there was a time when you could eat three of them.” Miaomiao earnestly slipped the brown sugar buns into his hand, “Eat some more.”

He held the brown sugar bun with three fingers and squeezed it while looking down at them. His lower lip gently touched the small flower made of shredded carrot and radish on the top, and handed it back to her.

When Miaomiao didn’t take it, he patiently put the brown sugar bun at the edge of her mouth and looked at her with his black eyes, as if he was insisting that she eat it.

My, it was usually Miaomiao who would coax and persuade him to eat, but today it was the other way around.

Under Ling Miaomiao’s excitement, not letting him down, she ate until she was bursting.

When she was returning the tray, the hall was in chaos. Father Mayor had returned from a dinner party and was drunk. A man of several hundred pounds, spinning around like a gyroscope and dancing. A’yi and a bunch of maids were busy helping him, like a group of bees following an enticing fragrance.

“My precious darling!” His eyes sharpened and he saw Miaomiao. He then proceeded her way.

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Ling Miaomiao rushed up to support him, it was raining outside and he had not taken an umbrella. His clothes and shoes were covered with water droplets.

Father Ling’s nose was red from drinking, like Santa Claus. He stared at her left and right, sighing in satisfaction: “My darling is so cute.”

Miaomiao and Ah Yi, one on the left and one on the right, carried him back to his room, gritting their teeth and panting: “Not as cute as my father.”

He was lying on the bed, still waving his hands around and chattering: “I don’t believe it, who is your father? Let me take a look!”

Ling Miaomiao patted off the water on her body, smoothly tucking her messy hair behind her ears, stuck her hands on waist, made a face at him, and said clearly: “My father is a treasure, I won’t show him to you.”

“Miss!” A’Yi pressed down the mayor’s arms, which were raised like a corpse, and grimaced, admiring this pair of  father and daughter, “Please go out first, if this continues, the master will never stop.

“Oh.” Ling Miaomiao went out with her head hanging down and ordered the kitchen to make some hangover soup, leaving Ah Yi to solve the mess.

After this trip, she also became a half-drowned chicken, carrying a candlestick back to her room.

The candle in her hand went out as soon as she entered the door. The room was dark, so dark that the cold moonlight shone brightly. Miaomiao was so blinded by the darkness that she reached out blindly and touched the half-lit candle on the table. The wick was burnt.

“Strange, didn’t I leave a few candles lit?”

She usually had four to five lamps in her boudoir at a time, standing at various levels and filling the room with light.

She took out the flint from the drawer and just as she struck it, a spark flickered, reflecting a pair of obsidian eyes.

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The next second, a pair of cool hands held her wrist: “Don’t light them.”

Ling Miaomiao’s scream died in her throat before it could exit.

He was stroking her wrist with his fingertips, with some restrained agitation.

Once or twice could be taken as a joke, but she became suspicious the third time. Miaomiao’s anger rose, and she lit the candle, not believing her suspicions to be true. The candle flame in her hand suddenly lit up and he turned his head as if hiding from the light. The light shone on the side of his jade-like face.

“Are you a ghost? You’re afraid of light?” Miaomiao lit four to five candles in a row, staring at his face with rapt attention, waves raging through her heart.

Really…..

Mu Sheng looked at her, the red at the corner of his eyes even more pronounced.

Suddenly, he moved, reaching out and pulling her into his arms. His hands rubbed her waist somewhat roughly, rubbing it a couple of times. Then, as if unable to resist, he tore her skirt off.

“Miaomiao,” his lips were pressed against her ear, his voice unusually gentle, but his hands below caught her waist, keeping her from running, “Don’t wear the clothes if they’re wet.”

Ling Miaomiao was thrown inside the canopy by him. The kiss he placed on her neck was so fierce that she felt like a rabbit caught in the mouth of a wolf, with her throat in danger of being severed in the next moment.

Ling Miaomiao gasped for breath in a gap between being dazed, and only then did her mind clear up a bit.

“The three years are up?” His eyes were red, and when he gazed down at her, it was like a dizzying abyss, “So you want to remarry so badly, hmm?”

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For this look to appear on his face, it was a sign that he was close to losing control from overstimulation.

“It’s not as if I agreed……,” Miaomiao was subjected to his kisses. Even after biting his lips and crying out in pain, she was still unable to break free. She was kissed into a daze and scratched him a couple of times. He clutched both her hands and pressed them against his hot skin above his heart.

He had wanted to do this since long ago.

The hot warmth of her hand came out of her palm, and through his skin, she could feel his vivid heartbeat. She was in a daze, thinking about how she had been spending the past few years. Her eyes heated up, and she suddenly cried out in anger: “Mu Sheng …… you’ve been messing with me!

The young man hummed in response and scooped her up and changed her position. He crushed her against him, so tight she could barely breathe, but his lips were gently pressed against her side of the face. The flickering candle lights shone through the canopy, reflecting in his eyes, and changing to ever-billowing obsession, “I like messing with you.”

“……”

Usually, he was peremptory about these matters, but he would still take heed of her feelings, and when she said she didn’t want to do it, he would stop. But this time, he indulged himself and went on until late at night, refusing to stop no matter how much she begged, causing her to cry.

Miaomiao cried, sobbing and sniffling, lying limply on his body. Her body was covered with marks and her eyes were red. Tears rolled down his neck into his hair and the corners of the young man’s eyes were red. He kissed her face in an attempt to soothe her.

Miaomiao was like a rabbit struggling at the brink of death, with the little strength she had left, she bit his collarbone, “I don’t like…… like you anymore……”

Mu Sheng raised the corner of his mouth, stroking her hair, and smelled a faint familiar gardenia fragrance. The darkness of the night in his eyes, like the fog dispersed by the morning sun, disappeared little by little.

On this night, Ling Miaomiao let him hold her in his arms, tired and exhausted, but she did not feel sleepy at all.

“I…… am hungry……” staring at the top of the canopy, pink lips moving, she said this very reluctantly.

She now understood why he deliberately left the brown sugar buns for her.

The young man touched her face fondly, got up and tucked her in, put on a shirt and got out of bed silently.

“Where are you going?” Miaomiao asked uneasily.

He returned and pressed her under the covers again, his dark eyes only reflecting her face, his eyes containing a bit of deep tenderness: “It’s almost dawn, wait a moment for me.”

The night dew was draped over Mu Sheng, who brought back a bowl of steaming noodles which smelled very fragrant.

Miaomiao was propped up against the bed, took a spoon, blew on it, gobbled it up, and was moved to tears.

The young man casually leaned against the wall, his dark eyes gazing at her unblinkingly: “Does it taste good?”

“……” Miao Miao raised her head and stared at him blankly.

“Am I good?” Mu Sheng kissed her on the cheek, as if stamping a seal: “You’re not allowed to remarry.”

Translator Note:

Hello there, sorry about missing the releases for the last week and a half. But, here they are! We’re getting even closer to the end~

Thanks to everyone who’s followed and supported Miaomiao and Mu Sheng through their story, we’ve got six more chapters to go, woohoo!

P.S. Chapter 117 will be out within the next hour. With that, we’ll be all caught up on releases! See you soon <3