"Mother, my Aunt Rou is now an official in the court, and Father has an adopted daughter who is a princess. Why won't you get back together with him? It's fine if you don't want to get back together, but you stay at home doing needlework all day long. It's so boring!"
"I am your mother!"
"You are my mother, but what you did was wrong! You can't just rely on your maternal grandparents to support you!" The girl's crisp voice was filled with anger. "Although I won't mind supporting you in the future, why are you so closed off and unwilling to go out and see the world?!"
"What are you looking at?!" This was followed by the sound of a basket being thrown to the ground. "Are you trying to emulate Zhao Zhi, who hasn't come home in over ten years? We don't even know if he's alive or dead!"
As Zhao Zhi was being led by the hand and carried down from the carriage by Lin Muhan, she heard a commotion coming from the courtyard.
When the person she was arguing with called her name, she touched her nose sheepishly and then rubbed her face. Today, she was using the identity of Zhao Zhi, the second daughter of the former Grand Secretary.
The people in the courtyard heard footsteps outside, and the arguing stopped.
Just as Zhao Zhi steadied herself, a girl in a pale yellow dress darted out from inside. She was tall, with a fair complexion and cherry lips. Upon seeing Zhao Zhi and Lin Muhan, the girl's eyes widened like saucers. "Mother—" she exclaimed, gesturing for them to enter while turning to call out to Zhao Yun in the courtyard, "The aunt in the painting is back!"
"What do you mean by 'aunt in the painting'—" Zhao Yun's voice stopped abruptly when she saw the two people walking towards her.
"Auntie, let me introduce myself. My name is Zhao Xi, also known as Li Xi. I'm your niece." Zhao Xi introduced herself familiarly and warmly invited Zhao Zhi and Lin Muhan to sit down, laughing heartily, "This must be your uncle, right? He and Auntie are a perfect match!"
Lin Muhan nodded and smiled, then took out a golden bird from his wide robe sleeve: "Hello Zhao Xi, nice to meet you. This is a gift for you."
Zhao Xi exclaimed "Wow!" as she took the item, played with it for a while, and said with great delight, "Auntie, wait for me, Xi'er has something good to give you too!" As soon as she finished speaking, she dashed into the house.
"Big sister, how have you been?" Zhao Zhi stood in the courtyard, smiling faintly at Zhao Yun.
"You, you still know how to come back." Fine lines crept around Zhao Yun's eyes, and the years had left their mark on her forehead. She looked at Zhao Zhi, who was dressed in brocade, and then glanced at her own Song brocade. Suddenly, she smiled. "Looks like you're doing well."
After speaking, she turned her gaze to Lin Muhan, "This gentleman is your husband, isn't he?"
Zhao Zhi nodded. "His name is Lin Muhan." She thought to herself, with her older sister's current knowledge, she probably doesn't know who Lin Muhan is. Sure enough, Zhao Yun's expression didn't change when she heard the name Lin Muhan.
"Where are your children?" Zhao Yun looked behind the two of them.
“The children have their own things to do, so we didn’t bring them,” Zhao Zhi said with a smile. Of their three children, two are emperors and one is a royal merchant; they are all incredibly busy and naturally don’t have time to wander around with them.
"Oh. The child is...busy too." Zhao Yun looked at Zhao Zhi with a blank expression, then suddenly seemed to remember something and said, "By the way, Father went fishing at Chun Chao River, and Mother went to the Princess's residence. Zhizhi, you've been gone for over ten years. Don't you know how highly Her Highness the Princess values Mother? Every year, Her Highness bestows many gifts upon our family. Although it was wrong of Shen Hanshan to come to our house and break off the engagement with you back then. Sigh, why bring this up now..."
Zhao Yun took Zhao Zhi's hand and, as they walked into the house, began to talk incessantly about the past.
Judging from her expression, it seemed as if she wanted to say everything that she hadn't said in over ten years all at once.
Lin Muhan watched the two figures disappear and smiled silently. This Zhao Yun, time has certainly smoothed out much of her personality.
"Uncle, look, these are all the gifts I saved up for Auntie."
Lin Muhan turned around, and the girl slowly walked over, carrying a huge basket in her arms. Inside were all the novelties she had collected from her travels over the years.
"I heard from my grandma that Aunt Zhi loves these rare and unusual things, so I buy all the new and interesting things I see. Will Aunt Zhi like them?" She asked, her big eyes sparkling with uncertainty.
"She will like it, she definitely will," Lin Muhan replied confidently.
"That's good." Zhao Xi breathed a sigh of relief and smiled.
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