Second Young Master Wei Jinyi, he was the most unusual person in this household besides her.
In the original novel there had not been much description of him, he had been like a transparent person in the entire Military Prefecture.
They had only known that, while Wei Mingting had been alive, Wei Jinyi had lived a fairly decent life in the Wei Family, whatever the legitimate young master had, he had also had.
Wei Mingting had even allowed him not to eat with the rest of the family, and had set up a small kitchen in his own courtyard for him, although this had been in part so as not to irritate his wife Madam Yun, it had also been a sign of special affection for Wei Jinyi.
After Wei Mingting had died in battle, the Wei Family had fallen to rock bottom and had remained in a slump until the male lead appeared, and it was likely that during this period Wei Jinyi's life had not been easy either.
In the original novel there had been no scenes between Wei Ruo and Wei Jinyi, one had been the family's invisible man, the other an ever-jumping cannon-fodder supporting female character, the supporting female's main task had been to make trouble for the heroine, so there had been no need to write her interactions with other irrelevant minor characters.
Thinking of this, Wei Ruo had had some ideas, she stood up and returned to her room, and while Xiumei was still chatting with the servant boy, she went back into the room and carried out a jar she had brought from Mo Jiazha.
Then she went to the doorway and said to Wei Jinyi's servant boy, "I am really sorry, I disturbed Second Brother's rest just now, I will go over right now and apologize to him."
"Huh?" The servant boy looked at Wei Ruo in surprise, then quickly waved his hand, "There is no need, it is not that serious, Second Young Master just had me come to give you a reminder, Miss, just lower your voice a bit!"
"It is not just an apology, I have just returned to the residence and have not yet met Second Brother, as a younger sister I should naturally go pay my respects."
Wei Ruo had already made up her mind.
Hugging the jar, she headed straight out the gate, and the servant boy could not stop her even if he had wanted to.
The Tingsong Garden where Wei Ruo was now living and the Yingzhu Garden where Wei Jinyi lived were adjacent, separated only by a wall.
Once Wei Ruo stepped out of her courtyard gate and walked a few steps, she reached the entrance of Yingzhu Garden.
Tingsong Garden was fresh and elegant, Yingzhu Garden was even more plain than Tingsong Garden, with very little decoration, making it seem desolate and even a bit shabby.
Only the patch of light bamboo in the courtyard was lush and vibrant, very pleasing to the eye.
Next to the bamboo grove there was an Octagonal Pavilion, and at a glance Wei Ruo saw Wei Jinyi sitting in the pavilion reading.
He wore plain-colored clothes, and the fabric was not satin, just before Wei Ruo had entered, he had been quietly reading.
He only raised his head when he heard movement, his gaze meeting Wei Ruo's.
Those were a pair of excessively cool and clear eyes, with a misty look between his brows, and his skin was on the fair side for a man.
But his features were extremely handsome, every part of his face looked like a carefully carved work of art.
Wei Ruo could not help inwardly marveling at how impressive the Creator was, to have made a man this good-looking.
After seeing clearly who had come, Wei Jinyi's brows furrowed, showing a strong sense of rejection.
"Xiaobei." Wei Jinyi called his servant boy over.
"Second Young Master, Miss said she wanted to come apologize to you, I... I could not stop her..." Xiaobei's face was full of guilt.
Wei Ruo seized the initiative and quickly stated her purpose, "Do not be upset, I will not take up too much of your time, I just came to express my apology, chopping bamboo today really was a bit loud, I did not think it through enough, so I came specially to apologize to you."
As she spoke, she offered up the jar she had brought as a gift of apology.
Wei Ruo's maneuver left the master and servant in front of her somewhat dumbfounded.
The second young master had been born of a concubine, his birth mother unknown, the main wife disliked him, and he had almost no presence in this residence, even the servants would seize opportunities to make things difficult for him.
Wei Ruo, although only recently brought back, was a proper legitimate young lady, so how could she be this polite and respectful toward the second young master, could it be that she had not yet figured out the situation?
"I was not angry with you, and I do not drink wine, you should go back." Wei Jinyi gave Wei Ruo only one glance, then that cool gaze returned to the book on the desk in front of him.
"This is not wine."
"No matter what it is, take it back, I was not angry, I only had Xiaobei go give you a reminder, you did not need to specially prepare an apology gift."
"It was soy sauce, not anything valuable, if you do not need my apology, then just take it as a meeting gift from me to you."
What, soy sauce?
Seeing the confusion knitting Wei Jinyi's brows, Wei Ruo explained, "This was soy sauce I learned to brew from an old lady in the countryside, it tasted very good, and most importantly, when brewing it I added some tonic herbs, it had the effect of strengthening the body."
She had learned to brew soy sauce from an old lady in the countryside, and it even had health benefits?
Why did that sound so far-fetched?
Good brewing methods for soy sauce had all been family secrets that were never passed to outsiders.
And those with extra medicinal value were even more rarely known, most people had never even heard of such a thing.
Wei Jinyi did not want to get entangled with Wei Ruo any further, so he did not pursue the matter.
"I understood, I would accept the apology gift, you can go back now."
Wei Jinyi only wanted to get rid of Wei Ruo as quickly as possible, so he had Xiaobei take the dark, pitch-black jar from Wei Ruo's hands.
"All right, remember to use this soy sauce, it was quite good with seafood too."
The Taizhou prefecture was by the sea, and before the Japanese Pirates had begun their troublemaking, many fishermen had gone out to sea to fish, the docks had sold large quantities of fresh seafood, and the nearby residents' daily diet had lacked no seafood.
Having said this, Wei Ruo did not linger to risk annoying anyone, and she turned and left.
Hugging the jar, Xiaobei was at a loss, "Young Master, what should we do with this jar?"
"Put it anywhere." Wei Jinyi had not wanted to waste time on such meaningless things.
Seeing that his young master's attention had already returned to the book in his hands, Xiaobei could only think of a way to deal with it himself.
He eventually chose to put it in a corner of Yingzhu Garden's small kitchen.
As for the act of gifting soy sauce, Xiaobei found it extremely novel.
When others gave gifts, they would all send elegant items, if not flowers and spices, then at least fine wine, but this young lady was quite unique, giving someone a whole jar of soy sauce, how rare.
However, he had heard that this young lady had been in the countryside for the past few years, farming the fields, so it was understandable that she was a bit different from other young ladies.