Chapter 95 Happy New Year "Do you think I'm a three-year-old?"...

A little over a month after their marriage, she and Zheng Tan learned Pai Gow, and later, he won so much that he wouldn't let her play at the table.

Two months after their marriage, Old Mrs. Qi taught her how to play gambling.

They were living a fairly comfortable life.

It was already New Year's Eve, but Jiang Ce still hadn't returned.

However, it gets dark very quickly in winter, and by the time Jiang Ce rode back, it was already completely dark.

On New Year's Eve, many bright red lanterns were hung in his and Xue Chan's courtyard.

The swing set was decorated with strings of small lanterns, with flowers hanging from the bottom, making it look extremely festive.

Jiang Ce smiled; this was his first New Year's Eve with Xue Chan.

He strode into the room, looked around, and saw only a few maids playing together.

Where is your wife?

"My wife has gone to Meixuan to admire the plum blossoms."

"oh"

He immediately went out and headed towards Meixuan.

The plum blossoms in Meixuan have been in bloom for a long time, and since it snowed a few days ago, the snow hasn't melted yet and is all piled up on the branches.

White snow and red plum blossoms, sparkling under the lamplight.

Xue Chan stepped onto the somewhat slippery snow, picked up the lamp in her hand, and carefully examined the plum blossoms.

The soft, yellow light illuminated the ancient plum branches, their vibrant foliage piled high, their fragrance penetrating to the bone. Looking at them for a while, one felt as if they had come to life, utterly captivating.

"It's hard to see at night, and the path is slippery, so please be careful, young lady."

Yun Sheng and Chu Tao followed behind her, carrying plum blossoms.

"Okay, okay, I know."

Xue Chan went deeper into the plum blossoms, wanting to pick the white plum blossoms on the other side of the Plum Blossom Pavilion.

After walking for a while, she seemed to have taken the wrong path, so she immediately picked up her lantern and headed back.

She turned around, and the dim light revealed a ghostly face, which startled her and made her fall.

Before she could even fall to the ground, she was caught in a full embrace.

The mask was removed, revealing a face with long eyebrows, beautiful eyes, and a grinning expression: "Was that fun?"

Xue Chan pushed him away and said irritably, "Boring, childish."

Jiang Ce followed closely beside her, smiling, "This is a Nuo mask I bought for the Lantern Festival this year. Today is Lunar New Year's Eve, tomorrow is the New Year, and the Lantern Festival is just a few days away. Shall we go see a Nuo opera then?"

Xue Chan said indifferently, "Whatever."

Jiang Ce immediately became displeased and said seriously, "You can't say 'whatever,' you have to say 'yes,' going out on the Lantern Festival is so much fun."

"Fun?"

"Yeah, it's fun."

Xue Chan suddenly stopped and stood under the plum tree, lost in thought.

Jiang Ce felt something was off, so he walked around to her side, bent down, and looked at her: "What's wrong?"

Xue Chan looked up from under the collar of her fur coat, her face red from the cold, but her eyes shining brightly.

"I also have something fun for you."

"ah?"

"ha!"

Jiang Ce only saw snakes falling on his body. He tried to dodge them, but tripped over his own feet and fell into the snow.

He fell to the ground with a thud, causing Mei Xiangxue to be covered in snowflakes.

Hahahahahahahahaha

Xue Chan's laughter filled the plum grove.

Jiang Ce suppressed his fear and touched one to examine it, only to find it was fake. However, it was so realistic that it was still quite frightening, and he grimaced and threw it away.

"You're such a coward, yet you try to scare people."

Xue Chan was laughing so hard her stomach hurt, so she kept laughing and clutching her stomach.

Jiang Ce, enraged and embarrassed, got up, brushed off the cold snow from his body, and went to harass Xue Chan.

Xue Chan pointed a finger and threatened, "If you dare to mess with me, I'll catch a real snake and give it to you. Anyway, spring is coming soon."

Jiang Ce stood beside her, arms crossed in obvious dissatisfaction.

Xue Chan found his expression amusing and continued to laugh for a while.

"Have you laughed enough?"

"Ahem, that's enough laughing."

Seeing Jiang Ce's somewhat resentful expression, Xue Chan suppressed a laugh and gently tugged at his sleeve, coaxing him in a rather tender manner.

"Now that the gifts have been given and Mei has had her visit, let's hurry to Yi'an Hall to prepare for our reunion dinner and stay up late on New Year's Eve."

Jiang Ce pulled his sleeves back, gave a heavy snort, and walked forward on his own.

Xue Chan smiled and followed.

After the reunion dinner, the whole family stayed up all night at Yi'an Hall to celebrate the New Year.

Youyu led Jiang Yao to sculpt a snow lion and set off fireworks in the courtyard.

Zheng Tanyu and her wife were playing chess in the warm pavilion.

Xue Chan and Fang Youxi were brewing tea when Jiang Ce suddenly appeared out of nowhere and stood behind them.

The two looked up and saw that he was holding a bowl of bright orange persimmons, and they smiled.

"Let's eat persimmons."

Fang Youxi stood up and said with a smile, "I won't eat these persimmons. I'll go outside and play with Ayao."

Xue Chan pulled her back, saying, "Don't go. If anyone should leave, it should be him."

"Why should I leave?" Jiang Ce stared wide-eyed, incredulous. "I kindly brought you persimmons, and you still want to kick me out."

Xue Chan glared at him: "You refused when I asked you to make tea with me earlier, so why are you rushing over here now, and trying to chase away my tea drinkers?"

Jiang Ce's eyes widened even more. He sat down and argued with Xue Chan: "Where did I kick people out? You're slandering me, slandering a good person."

Xue Chan said irritably, "This place is so small, and you're so big, you're almost twice my size. So if you come, one of us has to leave, right?"

Jiang Ce choked on his words, yet he was also angry. But then, a thought struck him, and he suddenly realized something.

"You have a problem with me, and I've known that for a long time!"

The two argued back and forth, while Fang Youxi, caught in the middle, tried to stop the escalating situation from getting out of hand.

"Hey, stop making noise."

The tea on the clay stove boiled, and she poured herself a cup of tea and took a persimmon from Jiang Ce's hand.

"I'll drink the tea, and I'll eat the persimmons too, okay?"

Xue Chan stood up abruptly, put down the tea in her hand, and tossed the persimmon back into Jiang Ce's arms: "If he's staying here, let's go out and play in the snow with A Yao."

After saying that, he simply pulled her away.

Jiang Ce felt that his good intentions had been met with no reward and that he had been left feeling humiliated. He said angrily, "Fine, I won't eat it then! I'll eat it myself!"

As soon as Xue Chan left, everyone else left the room, making it feel empty and cold.

Jiang Ce remained seated, removed the teapot from the stove, placed it on the rack, and began roasting persimmons.

The fire in the stove roasted the bright red, plump persimmons until they released their aroma.

Jiang Ce carefully turned over the persimmons. Someone else sat down in front of him and reached for the roasted ones.

He quickly moved the persimmon away and said casually, "I'm not sharing any with you."

"It's just a persimmon, you're being too stingy."

Jiang Ce looked up, and Jiang Ji, who was sitting opposite him, clicked his tongue twice.

"Why is it you?"

"What's wrong with me?" Jiang Ji crossed his arms and joked, "Your precious land can't accommodate me, and your persimmons are too precious for me to eat."

Hearing these sarcastic words, Jiang Ce became even angrier.

Why is everyone trying to upset him?

He threw the persimmon tongs onto the fire, and sparks flew from the charcoal, hitting his fingers and causing a burning pain.

Jiang Ce looked at the wound, the firelight reflecting in his eyes, and began to burn.

Jiang Ji wasn't intimidated by him and simply reached out and grabbed a persimmon to start peeling it.

He was left with the words, "Eat, eat, eat, it's all yours." He was busy eating and didn't have time to respond before Jiang Ce had already turned and left.

Jiang casually wiped his hands and rolled up the roasted persimmons.

Jiang Ce came out of the house and happened to run into Xue Chan and a few others making snow lions in the yard.

He stood with his arms crossed next to the pillar, staring at the group.

"snort"

Xue Chan had just put on the snow lion's eyes when she heard a heavy, cold snort. She looked up and saw Jiang Ce looking at them with a resentful expression.

She glanced at it, then shifted her position and turned her back to it.

Jiang Ce felt like he was about to burst out of his stomach, but she just ignored it.

"snort!"

Another sound, louder and more mournful.

Fang Youxi rubbed the snow and couldn't help but laugh, "You should go and coax him. It's almost midnight, don't let the anger from the old year carry over into the new year."

Xue Chan really didn't want to pay attention to him, but Jiang Ce's persistent gaze was always on her, clinging to her wherever she went.

She couldn't help but let out a long sigh, and after putting the snowman's eyes on, she turned and walked towards Jiang Ce.

Jiang Ce immediately took the initiative when he saw her coming over, raising his chin and glancing at her from time to time.

Xue Chan said, "Have you made enough of a scene?"

He suddenly got angry again: "What did I do wrong? You're the one who's making malicious assumptions about me. You're a heartless person."

"It's you, it's you, it's you." Jiang Ce couldn't help but reach out and poke her heart.

Xue Chan brushed his hand away and sighed, "Alright, let it go."

Jiang Ce didn't say anything more and accepted the offer.

Xue Chan breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that he didn't make a fuss.

The next moment, Jiang Ce raised his hand and held it in front of her, staring at her intently.

Xue Chan asked, puzzled, "What?"

Jiang Ce: "Hand"

Xue Chan glanced at it twice: "Your hand is perfectly fine."

Jiang Ce choked back tears, then brought his hand closer: "...Look again."

He spoke like that, and looked at her like that, so Xue Chan could only look at his hands.

Although there were lanterns overhead, she couldn't see very clearly, so she could only feel them.

As he touched it, Jiang Ce let out a hiss.

"It hurts, can't you be a little gentler?"

Xue Chan hesitated for a moment, then pulled the hand closer to examine it closely. After looking at it for a long time, she finally noticed a small blister on the right index finger near the base of the thumb.

"How did you do that?"

"The roasted persimmon was burned by sparks."

His voice was low, filled with resentment and grievance.

Xue Chan teased him with a serious expression, "Then it seems the stove is too broken. I'll go smash it."

Jiang Ce blushed instantly, pulled his hand back, and frowned, his face darkening: "Do you think I'm a three-year-old?"

"Oh?" Xue Chan smiled, her eyes gleaming softly under the lamplight. "Then it seems you don't need me to blow it for you."

She turned to leave, but Jiang Ce stretched out his long arm and half-tucked her under his arm, turning into the back of a pine tree at the end of the flower corridor.

Xue Chan lifted her head from his embrace without saying a word.

Jiang Ce brought his hand to her lips.

"It hurts, blow on it."

Xue Chan gently blew on his hand a few times: "Is it ready now?"

"Ahem," Jiang Ce tucked his hands back into his sleeves, calculated the time, and then said, "Let's go play in the snow and set off fireworks."

"good"

After saying that, he grabbed her and swept her away like a gust of wind.

After the snowman and snow lion were sculpted and they drank a few cups of freshly brewed pepper and cypress wine, Xue Chan and Jiang Ce walked along the corridor.

The veranda was covered with withered stems that rustled softly underfoot.

Yu lit the fuse with incense, and the fireworks swirled and sparkled.

The two walked side by side, and Xue Chan asked him, "You've been gone for a month or so, only returning on New Year's Eve. I heard you made a great contribution this time, why didn't His Majesty reward you?"

It was dark at night, and in the places where the lights couldn't reach, Jiang Ce's expression was indistinct.

He had been chasing Su Yun all the way, capturing and killing those who resisted. When he finally saw Su Yun, Su Yun was already sitting in the house, holding Su Yun's head, and smiling at Jiang Ce.

He said, "I know there's no turning back now, our fate is over, consider this a wedding gift for you."

The wind blows coldly, and the snow falls gently.

Jiang Ce said softly, "I suppose there are still areas where I haven't done well enough."

"What?" He crossed his arms, looked down, and asked with a smile, "You're already looking down on me?"

Xue Chan laughed out loud: "What are you thinking about?"

Jiang Ce took her slightly cold hand and continued walking slowly.

"Shall we go see a Nuo opera for the Lantern Festival?"

"good"