Will Chapter 331 get me scolded?

"I am just an inflexible nobody, and I dare not take credit. All of this is thanks to you. I have also been able to overcome so many obstacles thanks to your help."

Xie Zheng stood up and raised his glass, "Meeting an old friend in a foreign land, a cup of wine to comfort a lifetime, I'll drink first as a sign of respect."

Everyone then drank the wine in their glasses.

The three children, smelling the aroma of the wine, licked their lips with envy.

I could only pick up the bowl and drink two mouthfuls of the chicken soup.

It smells very good too.

After sitting down again, Song Chunxue noticed that her senior brother was dressed quite smartly today, while she hadn't changed her clothes for several days because she was afraid of getting them dirty while cooking.

After the children finished eating, they couldn't sit still on the stools and started clamoring to go play in the yard.

Jiang Hongying accompanied the child out of the yard. The others had almost finished eating and were chatting and drinking, occasionally picking up a piece of food to go with their drinks.

Xie Zheng couldn't help but sigh, "I've been wandering around the Northwest for the past two years, but I haven't been able to find any good chicken blood noodles. I wasn't a glutton before, otherwise I wouldn't have been so ungrateful as to offend the Emperor."

"But in the past few years, whenever I eat out, the noodle soup is either too salty or too oily. That's when I realized how delicious your noodles are. For the first time ever, I tried making the noodles myself, and my fingers hurt from it."

At this point, Xie Zheng laughed, "I forced Liu Chunshu to pick out several cooks for me, but in the end, I sent them all away. He started making noodles himself, and now he makes pretty good noodles with meat sauce, but I still need to ask you for advice."

The Taoist priest shifted his gaze from Xie Zheng to Song Chunxue, thinking to himself, "This Lord Xie used to call my junior brother and sister-in-law 'sister-in-law,' but now that title is too hot to say."

Moreover, after saying so much that chicken blood noodles are delicious, does he really think the noodles are delicious?

"Perhaps it's because Lord Xie hasn't eaten this for so long that he finds it unforgettable. But I never expected that Liu Chunshu would be forced into becoming a cook by the Lord. Now he has an extra skill and can stick with Lord Xie to secure a good future," Song Chunxue said with a smile. "But if he really wants to learn, I can teach him how to add seasonings."

"When are you leaving? Come to my house for a meal before you leave."

The Taoist priest's ears twitched.

"Senior brother, when are we leaving?" Song Chunxue hadn't decided yet, but she wanted to ask her senior brother if he had finished dealing with his affairs.

"Me?" The Taoist priest slowly picked up a piece of fish and put it in his mouth. "The day after tomorrow, anyway, I don't have anything important to do."

Song Chunxue nodded, "Then let's go to Lord Xie's residence tomorrow. But Lord Xie will be staying in Liangzhou City for a few years. Don't you plan to return to the capital?"

Xie Zheng chuckled helplessly, "Now that I'm out here, it's not so easy to go back. The higher-ups' idea is that if I like staying here, I can stay for a few more years."

The Taoist priest laughed, "Lord Xie is stubborn and has a tough neck. The higher-ups want Lord Xie to clean up the officialdom. Anyway, no matter how tough someone is, with the higher-ups protecting him, no one dares to touch Lord Xie. Who wouldn't want such a cushy job?"

"It's better to become a mountain king in the Northwest than to suffer humiliation in the capital."

Xie Zheng shook his head, "Daoist Master, you really think too highly of me."

"I never think highly of people, Lord Xie, there's no need to belittle yourself. You've had good fortune these past few years, and if you wanted to return to the capital, you would have done so long ago."

At this point, the Taoist priest stretched out his fingers and casually pinched, "However, your official career is indeed in the Northwest. In the capital, you will be overwhelmed by those wood-related officials. The Northwest belongs to metal, and you like metal, and earth generates metal."

“This Northwest region is all yellow earth, and gold is born from the soil. You must be quite comfortable here, sir. It’s good that you don’t have to go to the capital.” As he spoke, the Taoist priest poured him a cup of wine. “Perhaps you will be summoned back to the capital when you turn fifty.”

Listening to her senior brother's serious nonsense, Song Chunxue wondered if he knew that Lord Xie wanted to return to the capital and was deliberately trying to trick him into staying.

"Fifty years old?" Xie Zheng pondered. "Wouldn't that mean we'd have to wait more than ten years?"

The Taoist priest glanced at Song Chunxue and said, "It's hard to say; nothing is set in stone."

“Let’s not talk about this. I don’t usually do these kinds of calculations for acquaintances. Let’s drink instead. In the past few years, what places have you visited, and what interesting things have you seen? Tell us about them.”

Lord Xie did not want to skip this step. "Actually, there is something I would like to ask the Taoist priest."

The Taoist priest glanced at Song Chunxue again, who looked somewhat puzzled and gave him a sidelong look.

"Heavenly secrets cannot be revealed, especially since it's already evening. How about I perform a divination for you tomorrow morning?"

Lord Xie nodded, "Very well."

He picked up a piece of shallot with his chopsticks, "This dish goes well with alcohol."

He Chuan listened quietly to their conversation, thinking to himself that people are truly worlds apart.

In the past, when we ate at home, after the food was served, my mother and father would sit on the kang (a heated brick bed) and talk with long faces. They would talk about this family and that family, about which daughter-in-law was unfilial, and which old woman had walked by their wheat field today and trampled down a few stalks of wheat.

She would either scold Hongying for not taking good care of the children, or say that this dish was tasteless or that dish had too much salt. Even if it was a rare treat, her mother would still find fault with it.

The reason he always wanted to separate the family was not because he felt he was at a disadvantage, but because he wanted to have a quiet meal.

These past few days, the family dinner table has been very harmonious.

The mother-in-law doesn't scold or be stern with the child; instead, she prepares a variety of delicious meals for him.

Such a person, even if they didn't have money before, will become very rich in the future.

He didn't understand what spiritual practice was before. He only thought his mother was a superstitious person and that she was only vegetarian because she had to ask an old charlatan for advice.

His mother had claimed to be a spiritual practitioner, but now, comparing the two, he realized that her talk of spiritual practice was nothing but self-deception.

If you can't control your mouth, you can't be considered to be practicing spiritual cultivation.

He had also heard that the best feng shui was family tradition and upbringing, which he didn't understand before, but now it was a revelation.

Hongying once said that her mother-in-law used to complain about everything. Although she was very hardworking, she was biased and unfair towards her children.

But now, my mother-in-law is a completely different person.

...

They ate and chatted for two hours before Lord Xie left.

Midway through, Hongying and He Chuan went to wash the dishes.

After finishing the three jugs of wine, two more dishes of stir-fried shallots were served, and Lord Xie had a very pleasant chat.

Before leaving, Master Xie repeatedly reminded the Taoist priest, "Tomorrow afternoon, I will be on leave at home. The Taoist priest knows my address."

"I know, I know, be careful, sir."

The Taoist priest helped him onto the horse and watched as two attendants escorted him away.

Song Chunxue couldn't help but sigh, "Lord Xie talks so much, and he's become much more cheerful."

The Taoist priest put his hands behind his back and looked at Song Chunxue meaningfully.

"Senior brother, just say what you want to say. What are you doing?" Song Chunxue felt a chill run down her spine from his gaze.

"Oh, by the way, he gave me thirty acres of land before, and I've been thinking about it for the past few years. What do you think I should give him in return?"

She leaned closer to the Taoist priest and whispered, "If I give him a piece of gold, will I get scolded?"

The Taoist priest seemed to be deep in thought. “Actually, he has recently encountered a small hurdle. If you can help him overcome it, it will be more valuable than a piece of gold.”

Song Chunxue frowned, "Aren't you revealing a secret?"

It wasn't that she didn't want to help, but rather that she didn't want to get too involved.