Chapter 607 He's not stupid anymore.

Song Chunxue patted his shoulder, "Silly child, your senior brother is more capable than me."

"That's true, I'll go see how happy they are." Tudan jumped down the steps. "Changyun, what are you busy with? Come in!"

"You've only been cultivating for a few years and you're already taking on disciples? Aren't you afraid of misleading others?" Yun Qiu said with a look of disdain.

"At least in the future, I won't let others point fingers at them and curse them. If the upper beam is crooked, the lower beam will be crooked too."

“You…” Yun Qiu instinctively wanted to curse back.

"Yunqiu, go tidy up the house. The easternmost room is yours. You two should stay away from each other." The Taoist priest said in a deep voice, "You've been a mother before, you don't need me to tell you these things."

Yun Qiu was so angry that she quickly left, and the flowing pearl on her head slapped her face in panic.

With the surroundings quiet, the Taoist priest clasped his hands in front of him, looked up at the clear blue sky, and softly asked, "Is your mind at peace?"

"It's been quiet all this time."

"Oh, you've been quite diligent these past two days."

Song Chunxue glanced at the Taoist priest and couldn't help but ask, "What exactly is our fate?"

"I don't know," the Taoist priest stroked his beard. "If you're interested, just go find them. Why ask so many questions?"

"But I'm old, I'm over eighty years old, and if he finds out..."

"If they don't mind, why are you panicking?"

"But I still want to travel around with my senior brother. Didn't you promise to take me to Jiangnan?"

The Taoist priest pulled out a handful of pockmarks from somewhere and started tapping them. "Are you afraid he'll fall into a jealous trap? He said last night that he wasn't jealous at all seeing you two together."

"Then..." Song Chunxue lowered her voice as she listened to the lively sounds from the kitchen, "What if we can't get together and find out it's not all that great? Wouldn't our senior brother lose two junior brothers and end up with nothing?"

The Taoist priest wiped the pockmarks from his lips, staring at the shifting white clouds. "What, you still want to live a life of blissful intimacy, treating him like a precious flower, like a married couple..."

"Shh... Who wants to be a couple? Keep your voice down."

The Taoist priest was taken aback and glanced at him sideways. "You want to take advantage of someone for nothing?"

"..." Song Chunxue covered her face with her hands, wishing she could find a block of tofu to smash her head against. "I shouldn't have asked you, I should have asked someone else."

"Who? Yao Man?" The Taoist priest scoffed. "Then she would definitely want to pounce on Xie Zheng for you, or she would suggest that you pester him all the time."

Song Chunxue walked down the steps. Why was she so impatient?

"I was just asking, don't take it seriously."

"Coward, you haven't practiced virginity training. Matters between men and women are nothing more than sweet at first and then mundane. But Xie Zheng is hard to say. What are you afraid of? At worst, we'll get tired of each other after the sweetness and go our separate ways. Anyway, you won't lose out."

She certainly wouldn't suffer a loss, but she was afraid of trouble.

"That makes sense. If there's a next time, I'll see how it goes."

The Taoist priest opened his eyes wide. "Determine the situation? Couldn't you just wave your hand and it would be fine?"

Song Chunxue looked at her toes. "It's not the right time yet. It's okay if we miss it."

This time, the Taoist priest was truly astonished.

"Have you figured it out?"

She took a deep breath. "Let's talk about it after we get back from Jiangnan."

...

With Tu Dan'er and his apprentice, along with Yun Qiu, as witnesses, she drank the tea offered by Chang Feng and Chang Yun as a formal apprenticeship ceremony.

They were so excited that they wanted to massage Song Chunxue's shoulders and legs, but Song Chunxue said she had to hurry down the mountain, so they stopped.

When she returned from Jiangnan, she took their teaching seriously.

After descending the mountain, she prepared a birthday celebration for the third child and a lot of steamed buns for the second and fourth children.

Just like when she used to celebrate the Lunar New Year at home, she spent the whole day circling around the stove.

I made fried dough sticks, fried twisted dough sticks, steamed buckwheat buns, steamed rice cakes, and boiled chicken and meat. I put them in three bowls, one for each of the three children.

Whenever this happened, she would think of her other two children and write another letter to Hongying, asking her to withdraw some silver from the account, ten taels each for her and the eldest son.

Mulan and her mother were inside the house comforting their child. The two adults and two children went to sleep shortly after eating, while she sat in the yard waiting for her child.

After the three Jiang brothers had drunk their fill, they put their arms around each other's shoulders and staggered in through the door, by which time it was already quite dark.

Song Chunxue was squatting on the steps, gnawing on a chicken neck with both hands, watching the second, third, and fourth brothers chatting, laughing, and playing around, as if in a dream.

Sometimes she couldn't help but ask herself, is this really true?

All the children lived close to her, and now, she could visit any of them at any time without having to worry about anyone's opinion.

"Mother, here's your sword back." Sanwa suddenly staggered toward her, holding her short sword in his hand.

"Lord Xie said this sword will run away by itself, hahaha, he really knows how to coax people. We're drunk, not stupid."

"..." Song Chunxue reached for her waist and realized she didn't even know when it had disappeared.

"Hahaha, that's right, Lord Xie isn't joking. Why are you talking nonsense like this today? If swords can run, then oxen can fly." The fourth brother walked over and plopped down next to Song Chunxue, throwing his head on her shoulder and muttering childishly, "Mother, I can hardly remember what you looked like when you were farming."

The second child sat on the other side, while the third child sat on one of Song Chunxue's legs. They were quiet and didn't say anything, but they had a smile on their faces. They looked up at the sky, leaned back, and snuggled into her arms.

Alcohol emboldens the timid; in the past, Sanwa would not have dared to be so close to his mother.

Song Chunxue's eyes were moist, and she was still holding the chicken neck in her hand. She pushed her elbows left and right and moved her feet, but she didn't move.

“My hands are all oily, what are you doing? You must be feeling unwell from drinking. I’ll go make you a bowl of noodles to warm you up.” She looked at the chicken neck in her hand and couldn’t help but mutter, “If those two wolfhounds were here, they’d have enough bones for tonight.”

The fourth son clung tightly to her arm, refusing to let her get up. "I'm not hungry. Mother, why are you still thinking about the dog at a time like this? The three of us are the ones you gave birth to."

“That’s right, Mother misses the dog, but she’s going to abandon us and fly away. When are you going to Jiangnan? Take us with you, we all want to go.” The second son hugged her other arm. “There are all sorts of people out there. Maybe you shouldn’t go. Even if the Taoist priest goes with you, we’re not comfortable with that.”

Song Chunxue didn't break free and continued to gnaw on the chicken neck while sitting there.

"It's been a month since I last went. If I don't go, I'll keep thinking about it."

"But it's the hottest time now, even hotter in the south than here."

"Then let's walk slowly. By the time we reach Jiangnan, it won't be hot anymore."

She has made up her mind and will absolutely not change it.

Today is the fifteenth of the lunar month. The moon quietly climbs to the treetops, and thin clouds surround the full moon, half-hidden and half-revealed.

A gentle evening breeze rustled the poplar leaves, bringing a sense of coolness to the heart.

"Get up quickly, aren't you hot? Eat a bowl of noodles and then go to sleep."

They agreed, barely able to stand themselves, and pulled Song Chunxue up, squeezing and jostling their way to the kitchen.

They chattered away, talking about what they had seen and heard at the dinner table, and how they had benefited from Sanwa's presence that night, witnessing how officials celebrated their birthdays.

When Sanwa mentioned the jade bamboo-shaped brush that Lord Xie had given him, Song Chunxue suddenly remembered that Xie Zheng had already given her many trinkets, both expensive and practical, and he always gave her something every time they met.

"By the way, Mother, when we were drinking, we heard that you and Lord Xie went to the Wang family's Peach Blossom Banquet?" The fourth son asked curiously. "Tell us quickly, what is a Peach Blossom Banquet?"

"…………"