Love from the Male Protagonist's Harem

Chapter 23-Youthful Romance Part 1
Translated by Snowfall77

Gu Peijiu rested a light gaze on Xia Ge’s left hand.

Stiff for a couple seconds, Xia Ge forced a ‘hehe’ and a smile: “Can’t hide anything from Senior Sister……”

Slightly moving her sleeve, she showed her bandaged left hand.

Gu Peijiu gave it a brief glance, then looked away: “So, it that why you didn’t come this afternoon?”

“Mmm, yes, because of this.”

If Senior Sister was kind enough to offer a way out, Xia Ge would gladly take it.

However—-

“Well, actually it’s just part of the reason.”

Gu Peijiu delicately raised an eyebrow: “Oh?”

With a heartfelt sigh, Xia Ge continued: “To be honest Senior Sister, in order to pay for treatment for my hand, I sold all my belongings.”

“Triple your usual salary was not sufficient funds to treat a hand injury?” Gu Peijiu’s tone was still detached.

Xia Ge covered her heart with her right hand, trying to give the delicate appearance of a second ‘Xishi’: “Senior Sister, the wound on my hand is easily healed, but not so easily healed is the wound to my heart!”

Gu Peijiu: “……”

System: [……] Wounded heart, my ass.

A barmaid silently brought two empty wine cups and another porcelain jar of peach blossom wine to the table. Setting the cups next to Xia Ge, the barmaid filled them with new wine.

Immediately tossing aside her heartbroken posture, Xia Ge rested her chin in her right hand, tilting her head to smile winsomely at the barmaid: “Sister, your eyes are beautiful, and your body very fragrant.”

“Young sir, you praise me too much.”

About fourteen or fifteen, the barmaid couldn’t stop herself from covering her mouth at Xia Ge’s flirtatious words, her long and narrow phoenix eyes amused: “But I’m afraid I cannot be as fragrant as our peach blossom wine.”

“The fragrance of wine, the fragrance of books, the fragrance of beauty.” Xia Ge’s tone was frivolous, her eyes a little romantic, “I do indeed appreciate this tavern’s fine wine and the beauties within.”

Gu Peijiu, listening the grinning youth spout nonsense, picked up a wine cup without thinking and took a sip. She found that the Mojia peach blossom wine had a light scent, but a long aftertaste.

Her thin eyebrows furrowed.

The boy was obviously still a child. How he could speak so flirtatiously?

“Young man, you are full of charming witticisms. However, you still have to pay full price for your drink.”

The barmaid sweetened her words with a smile, then gracefully walked away.

“Ai, that’s a shame.” Xia Ge watched the comely back of the barmaid retreating, chin still cupping in hand, making a sigh of admiration, “Shouldn’t offering my beauty be worth a discount?”

System: [……] What beauty?!

You not getting a dunce cap shoved on your head and being thrown out of the tavern for assailing barmaids with obscenities is already undeservedly merciful!

Gu Peijiu paid no mind to Xia Wuyin’s words about his supposedly charming self, instead contemplating the enchanting fragrance of the peach blossom wine. No wonder the young man opposite her had been made absent-minded and amorous. But it was the wine’s aftertaste that Gu Peijiu didn’t like. It was too sweet, like some extravagant yet fleeting illusion. No, not to Gu Peijiu’s taste.

Done with forming her judgement of the wine, Gu Peijiu suddenly noticed something amiss. Eyebrow raised, Gu Peijiu looked at the wine cup she’d just drank from, then looked over at the wine in front of Xia Wuyin.

……in front of Gu Peijiu was the wine cup Xia Wuyin had pushed over earlier.

The two cups of wine that the barmaid had poured were both on Xia Wuyin’s side of the table.

In a split second, Gu Peijiu’s mind went back to the image of the Xia Wuyin she’d seen when she’d arrived at the tavern. A youngster with smiling eyes, gracefully sipping wine from a white porcelain cup.

A romantic figure.

Her expression unchanged, Gu Peijiu placed her wine cup on the table.

“Delicious, isn’t it?”

Gu Peijiu lifted her sight to meet the cat-like eyes of the boy as he regarded Gu Peijiu with a grin: “Mojia’s peach blossom brew is known far and wide.”

(It’s also famous for its cheapness.)

Xia Ge silently tacked on that last part to herself.

Facing the youngster’s lacquer black eyes, and thinking of the two cups of wine poured for him, Gu Peijiu’s heart tightened. In spite of it, her tone remained equanimous as, ignoring the boy’s last question, she inquired of his previous statement: “You’re very young, from where do these wounds to your heart come?”

Closing her eyes and covering her heart like one who’d suffered great bereavement, Xia Ge answered: “Who wouldn’t be heartbroken at being reduced to bankruptcy?”

Gu Peijiu: “……”

Seeing that Xia Wuyin was keeping his eyes closed, Gu Peijiu calmly took one of his full wine cups and drank it.

When Xia Ge did eventually open her eyes again, after waiting a long time for Senior Sister’s nonexistent reply, she was very surprised to find that both of her wine cups were inexplicably emptied. At a loss, staring at her cups, Xia Ge finally heard Senior Sister’s indifferent voice.

“Why did you come here to drink, if, as you say, you’ve no money?”

Coming back to her senses, Xia Ge asserted: “Wine heals all wounds.”

“Oh?”

Gu Peijiu raised her eyebrows: “So your wound is now healing?”

“Right, haven’t you heard it before?” Xia Ge coughed, then solemnly spieled some bullshit, “If you feeling unwell, it’s fine to skip your meals, but the one thing you should absolutely never stop doing is drinking wine.”

“Drivel,” Gu Peijiu replied, “A mind full of crooked thoughts.”

西施Xīshī
Xishi (c. 450 BC), famous Chinese beauty, foremost of the four legendary beauties 四大美女, given by King Gou Jian 勾踐｜勾践 of Yue as concubine to King of Wu as part of a successful plan to destroy Wu
Also–
https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E8%A5%BF%E6%96%BD/674085

dunce cap
高帽子[gāo mào zi]
tall paper hat (worn as a sign of humiliation)