Liao Qing’er became in a daze for a moment. Then, she replied seriously, “A Snake Fell in Love with a Scholar is a pirate. Why didn’t a rich man like you support the genuine work named The Legend of White Snake? Actually, pay only three strings of 1000 qian and you will be able to drink tea, eat sunflower seeds, and watch the performance for a whole day in the theater. It was so worthy and even value-for-money. If everyone goes to watch the pirated A Snake Fell in Love with a Scholar, The Legend of White Snake will flop badly at the box office and I will not get enough income or motivation to write the next serial named The Legend of the Snow Lady in Tianshan Mountains.”

Meng Ying was in a daze as well and then, he apologized, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know that was a pirated work. You haven’t signed your names for the serials you’ve written and I didn’t know you were the creator of serials until I heard my mother’s discussion with others. Only the word ‘Serials’ was written on the lacquered boards outside all theaters. How would I know if those works were genuine or not?”

“I see.” Liao Qing’er was suddenly enlightened, “I’ve been wondering why I only get seven or eight hundred liang silver a month while serials are so popular here. It turns out that the audience can’t even distinguish the pirated works from the genuine ones! This is a question worth thinking about. Um, I should figure out a solution… I’ll start it from you. Tomorrow I will write down all the names of my works for you. You just recite them and you’ll be able to distinguish them.” After saying this, she realized she had strayed from the point and asked right away to return to the subject, “How will you help me find Xiaoyi? Do you have any assistants? If only the two of us do it, we will have to search a large area, won’t we?”

The two of us… Meng Ying thought about these four words for a while. Then, he answered, “The two of us will try and I’ll ask others to help us as well. They can search other places while we are looking for her somewhere.” He began to grab Liao Qing’er’s hand while saying it. This time he succeeded and caught her fat little hand.

Liao Qing’er was startled and withdrew her hand as if she had gotten an electric shock. She shook her head and hands together and explained, “I have acrophobia. I never dare to fly with my brother. I mean it. I’m a scientist that believes in serious science instead of people like you who go against the laws of physics. I feel nervous as soon as I float in the air. Moreover, I weigh fifty-eight kilograms. Even if I can fly with you to the height of dozens of meters, you will have to do it against gravity and that will consume much of your energy. You should save it to look for Xiaoyi or fight against bad guys. Can you defeat Duan Xiaolou?”

Meng Ying listened to her with great attention and tried to understand her long speech, but in the end, he only caught two points. First, she thought he grabbed her hand just to fly with her with arts of lightness. Second, she asked him if he could beat Mr. Duan. Well… Of course, he couldn’t. However, as a man, how could he say “I can’t” in front of the girl liking him while he liked her as well? Since he was a righteous and honest person, he would never lie to others. Thus, he refused to answer this question.

As for the first question, Meng Ying frowned because of confusion. Didn’t he tell her that he liked “the green snake”? After he had confessed and held her hand, how could she still not realize his obvious implication? He hoped they could make some progress in their relationship by starting from the moment when she gave him the love letter three years ago. Next, she should ask for being his concubine and writing good serials for him… Now that she had a relatively poor comprehension, he would condescend to remind her one more time.

“Miss… Miss Qing.” She must understand what he meant after he changed his way to call her. Staring at the girl who was looking up in a daze and slightly opening her mouth, Meng Ying continued, “I like Xiaoqing in The Legend of White Snake.” At the same time, he thought secretly, “You must feel moved, excited, and grateful! Go Ahead! Say you want to marry me!”

Liao Qing’er blinked her eyes several times and replied in disagreement, “People usually like Miss Bai. She is the heroine who looks elegant and queenly. She is omnipotent and also kind-hearted. Why do you like Xiaoqing?”

Her obtuseness upset Meng Ying while her prolonged “Eh” made him feel slightly hopeful. Liao Qing’er thought she finally got the truth and said in shock with her eyes wide open, “I got it! It must be because those theatrical troupes haven’t found appropriate actresses to play Miss Bai. A middle-aged heroine will never catch more attention than a young and beautiful female supporting role! Yes, this is an important question but I never realized it before. No, I should write to the heads of those theatrical troupes as soon as possible. Modify the script! Modify it! I want to modify it and change the age of Miss Bai to twenty-three! Xiaoqing is twenty so their age gap can be closed and Miss Bai will have fans in the future. Alas.” She sighed and continued, “I didn’t expect that ancient people have different aesthetic standards from us. They prefer young maids that are cute and petulant to the wives who are elegant and virtuous. Tut-tut. Can cute maids bring more fun than the wives do when it comes to sex? Men are shameless.”

After making such a long speech, Liao Qing’er looked up at Meng Ying who was down in spirits. She took a step closer to him, held his right hand with her both hands, and shook it gently.

Her bright eyes met Meng Ying’s slanted eyes that were full of surprise. She thanked him seriously, “Thank you, Third Childe. Thank you so much. Through the communication with you today, I have gained the answers to the two puzzles I’ve always had. First, why Journey to the West, a play that has no complete plots, would be more popular than The Legend of White Snake carefully made by me? It turns out that the character design of my heroine is wrong! Now I know, in the opinion of ancient people, Miss Bai who is in her thirties should be a mother of several children and there won’t be any feeling of freshness to fall in love with a woman of this age. Tut-tut, what a tragedy. The second puzzle is why I still haven’t become a rich woman. It turns out that there are too many pirated works that will mislead the audience!”

She patted the back of his slender and fair hand with her little fat hand in the way a star patted his fans amicably or a leader comforted the people kindly. With a smile, she said, “You’ve also enlightened me that I should talk to the audience face to face more frequently in the future and find out my shortcomings. Two heads are better than one. Meng Ying, thank you. You’re the first audience who communicates with me.” Then, she let go of his hand and took two steps back to keep a normal social distance from him. Gosh, she was fluttered. When did she become so bold to hold the hand of “the ancient version of Kenji Fujima”? By the way, since she had held his hand, should she commemorate this moment by not washing hands for three months?

Meng Ying felt slightly upset when the warm touch on his hand was suddenly gone. Although she had talked about lots of things that he didn’t care about at all, he still gained something from her speech.

First, she called him “Meng Ying” instead of “Third Childe”. His name sounded nice. Why didn’t he realize it before? Second, he suddenly found that she seemed to like money very much. She only cared about money other than her scripts. Put it simply, she also just thought about money when she was worried about those scripts… She cared about him before, right? He just got rid of her and rejected her utterly with some cruel words. Then, she ran away from home and came to Yangzhou City… Now did she care only about money and not pay attention to him anymore? Wouldn’t her eyes become bright like before when she saw him now? How could anyone blame him for that? She never introduced herself to him or tell him her brilliance and advantages. How could he know what kind of person she was from her appearance?

It was not too late now, was it? She would be so happy and throw herself on him as long as he confessed his love, right? If she could be less obtuse and show him some passion and bravery she had before, maybe he would be happy and agree to marry her as his concubine. As long as he confessed now, she would become his concubine. He just needed to tell her “I like you, too. I admire such a brilliant girl as you…”

“Uh, Miss Qing.” Meng Ying’s voice was a bit hoarse, “My family has lots of money and we can never run out of it. My father is Earl Baoding and my mother is the legitimate daughter of Su’s Family in Jiangbei City. My uncle is…” Gosh! Why was he beating about the bush? These weren’t important. Everyone knew his family background. Why did he bother to illustrate it to her? Um? Three and a half years ago, when she gave him the love letter, did she love him or just his identity as the successor of the title “Earl Baoding”? Did any part of him attract her? He was just an ordinary rich childe who looked the most handsome in the capital and had the highest scores in Yinghui Academy… Why was he woolgathering? He must have been bewitched. He felt something wrong all over his body. Why was his face so hot and his hands sweating? Why did he feel tightness in his chest?

“You, uh, Qingqing.” Meng Ying took a deep breath to pluck up enough courage and said, “In fact, I’ve always admired your brilli…”

“Ah!” Liao Qing’er suddenly screamed and interrupted him. Then, she jumped for joy and shouted, “You inspired me again. I will expand the varieties of ancient ball games! They must be more popular than serials because ancient people have good physical fitness. First, I should promote some common ball games that are easy to learn such as basketball, badminton, table tennis, tennis, and golf. I will make a fortune even just by selling sports equipment, renting exclusive sports venues, and offering training courses! Of course, I should patent all of them to prevent pirated ball games. Alas, ancient people are so in a lack of creativity. You’ve been playing polo and Cuju for thousands of years! My goodness! Ha, ha. I’ll do something great again. China and the Olympics in the future will thank me. Right! I can also promote the regular programs in the Olympic Games. If people like Meng Xuan and you have time-traveled to the modern times, you will directly be awarded the gold medal of decathlon!”

She got more and more excited as she thought and talked about her idea so she came up again to grab Meng Ying’s hand. She jumped up and down happily and Meng Ying’s hand and arm also shook with her. She grinned at him and he could see her little sticking out canines and molars. He had never seen a lady of a wealthy family laugh like this before.

Was that so funny? Why was she so happy? Why couldn’t he understand even one of her words? Why wasn’t she happy because of him? Why didn’t she listen to his confession? He had plucked up much courage before saying those words and he would never do it again after today. He thought, “Don’t be regretful, Liao Qing’er! My patience is limited! Don’t you like me, Liao Qing’er?”

Liao Qing’er jumped for a moment while holding Meng Ying’s hand. Then, she felt slightly embarrassed and wanted to loosen her hand. She didn’t do it on purpose. She didn’t. she was just too excited. Meng Ying reminded her of Kenji Fujima and Kenji Fujima reminded her of basketball and promoting ancient sports. Ha, ha! Xiaoyi and she would make a big fortune again. They would take all cash, cheques, and pawn tickets of people here and become the richest women in the Ming Dynasty. She would be on the way to a happy future together with Xiaoyi!

Uh? Where was Xiaoyi? Where was her now?

Liao Qing’er looked up at Meng Ying immediately. She tried to let go of his hand while urging, “We should go save Xiaoyi now. I’m familiar with Imperial Guards. I fear no one except for Duan Xiaolou!” She thought they would walk shoulder to shoulder at the same pace.

However, Meng Ying grabbed her hand with his big hand and showed no sign to loosen it. That almost hurt her. She thought in shock, “What’s going on? Third Childe! It hurts! I didn’t steal your money, did I? Why are you grabbing me as if you are catching a thief?” Meng Ying fixed his bright and watery eyes on her. Then, his red lips moved…

“Miss Liao? Miss Liao! You’re Qingyi’s good friend, aren’t you?” A deep male voice sounded at a distance, “I’m Feng Yang and also her friend. I need to talk to you.”