The Lucky Farmgirl

Zhao Liulang rolled his eyes and asked, "Does the bride know how to enter the bridal chamber?"

Manbao looked at him deeply and asked, "What do you think?"

Zhao Liulang met her gaze and immediately slapped his mouth. Wasn’t it obvious? This was someone who had even cured the Prince’s infertility and delivered babies. Concerning the truth of life, probably no one present understood it more thoroughly than her.

So was her explanation of the bridal chamber intentional too?

Zhao Liulang felt he had met his match and decided to forgo the battle of wits, opting instead for raw power. He picked an apple from the nearby table, tossed it, and said, "Let’s play the apple-eating game."

In the Imperial Music Bureau, he could not only make people eat apples but beans, and drink wine, although the latter two were not suitable here. Originally, he hadn’t wanted to suggest this idea; after all, messing around in the bridal chamber is usually done with words. But Zhou Man’s profession made her unbeatable in this respect, making it unlikely to make this bride lose in a verbal exchange and blush.

So let’s get physical.

They decided to focus on challenging Bai Shan.

Zhao Liulang tossed the apple in his hand and handed it to the nearby Jiu Lan. "Go, place it on your wife’s fingertip. Editor Bai, you have to eat the apple hanging upside down from the bed until you finish this apple."

Jiu Lan reached for the apple but couldn’t help looking at Bai Shan and Zhou Man.

Bai Shan then asked, "How long do you plan to mess around? An evening of spring is worth a thousand gold. I can’t always accompany your antics; there are senior guests ahead. How about we set a path, and after messing around, we head for a drinking competition in the front?"

Zhao Liulang laughed heartily, "Wow, Editor Bai, who normally keels over after three cups and who drank rice wine at his wedding, is now eager to compete with us in drinking."

Everyone heard Bai Shan’s urgency and immediately cheered happily; as long as the bride and groom got anxious, they were delighted.

Bai Shan sat on the wedding bed, waiting for them to make a decision.

The midwife also stepped up with a smile, "Young Masters, be considerate of our groom. This is his first time. Look at how shy our groom is; later, when the elders come to question, Young Masters, it won’t be easy to respond."

Madam Tang and the others watched, smiling without intervening, as it wasn’t excessive yet.

However, Zhao Liulang and the others, due to their watchful presence, took more consideration and smiled, "Alright, after eating this apple, let him eat a date according to our method, then answer one question, and it’s over for tonight."

Only then did Jiu Lan smile, taking the apple and placing it on Manbao’s fingertip.

Zhao Liulang looked on excitedly and said gleefully, "Let’s be clear, if the apple falls, we’ll get a new one until it’s eaten without falling during the whole process."

Bai Shan deeply glanced at Zhao Liulang, then stood up. He tied his wedding robe around his waist, looked at his own bed, lightly stepped onto the adjacent table, grabbed the bed top with one hand, bounced once, and swung upside down, his feet hung on the bed’s top, head hanging down, directly facing the startled Manbao.

Manbao looked at the white-skinned Bai Shan hanging upside down, his features like a painting, his face glowing with a tinge of red. The two gazed at each other from top to bottom, and he flashed a smile.

After her initial shock, Manbao exclaimed, "Did you learn from Jiechen? Such skill! Why couldn’t I learn it? No, I was confined in the imperial villa; I could have learned this too..."

The spectators, including Zhao Liulang, first froze, amazed that Bai Shan didn’t collapse the bed as they had hoped, then fell into silence. Zhou Man’s focus was too peculiar. Why did she want to learn even this skill?

Bai Shan, with the advantage of being upside down, facing Manbao, his head turned away from Zhao Liulang and others, smiled radiantly at her and whispered, "If you want to learn, I’ll teach you later."

Manbao thought it was a good idea; this way, she wouldn’t have to make special trips to the Guardian of the Nation Temple to learn the skill.

Zhao Liulang seemed aware of their silent communication, discontentedly shouted, "Stop the whispering! Hurry up!"

Manbao then looked at the apple on her fingertip, glanced at Bai Shan, and slyly bent her fingertip downwards, steadying the apple, then gently placed her thumb on one side of the apple and quickly inserted the other side into Bai Shan’s mouth.

Bai Shan cooperatively began to nibble.

Everyone heard him munching on the apple, then felt something was off. Bai Shan was hanging upside down, his back to them, wearing spacious clothes that blocked their view.

So Zhao Liulang and the others craned their necks to see, while Manbao cunningly lowered her thumb, and Bai Shan softened his actions...

Indeed, he was eating from her fingertip. Zhao Liulang and the others were stunned. They had played this game many times in the Imperial Music Bureau, hardly anyone could do this. Ultimately, they played other games, like stringing the apple up for two people to eat...

Zhao Liulang and the rest huddled by the side, scrutinizing intently, wanting to see how Bai Shan accomplished it. No, it wasn’t because Bai Shan was more skilled, but because Zhou Man was more skilled, allowing Bai Shan to succeed.

So the women in the Imperial Music Bureau and Spring Breeze Pavilion weren’t up to par.

Bai Erlang curiously squeezed to observe, and stared perplexedly back at Zhao Liulang, "Did you deliberately go easy?"

From behind, Zhou SiLang and Bai Dalang gave him a smack, asking, "Whose side are you on?"

Bai Erlang instantly went silent.

Bai Shan winked at Manbao, and Manbao carefully moved the apple out, Bai Shan swallowed the remaining apple in his mouth before continuing.

Zhao Liulang saw the apple being moved again and about to fall, and excitedly yelled, while Feng Zongping and others joined, "Fall, fall, fall..."

Falling was not an option. Manbao reached out to steady it, to which Zhao Liulang promptly cried, "Using hands is a foul, no hands allowed."

Manbao used her mouth to steady it, pressing the apple into Bai Shan’s mouth, and in Bai Shan’s suddenly widened eyes, fiercely took a bite out of the apple.

Zhao Liulang and the others were dumbfounded, even Madam Tang and others who were about to speak were stunned, each staring at Manbao.

Manbao chewed the apple and glanced sideways, silencing Zhao Liulang and the others who were about to oppose, overwhelmed by her dominant aura.

Then, Manbao and Bai Shan took turns biting the apple, until the rest of the apple was held tight between Manbao’s fingers, and they didn’t object anymore.

Bai Shan wiped his mouth and flew down from the upside-down bed to face them, "What’s next?"

Zhao Liulang’s face showed a look of pity, or is it sympathy, watching Bai Shan, finally saying, "Forget it, we won’t eat the date, just one final question."

The original plan with the date was to embarrass them a bit, but seeing Zhou Man fiercely faced Bai Shan to eat the apple with a gleam in their eyes like wolves, they dared not suggest it further.

So Zhao Liulang stepped back, retreating into the crowd, leaning on his companions for security before saying, "Our question is, in the bridal chamber, who’s on top, you or Lord Zhou?"