Chapter 343: Cultivating the Younger Generation
The moonlight fell like frost all over the courtyard, and the bright white moonlight peeked through the crack of the door, three times brighter than the inner room illuminated by the fire.
The dusty silk cloth that fell to the ground shook and draped over the bedpost. Zhao Xiping leaned against the headboard with his bare chest, breathing heavily, and a big hand with thick calluses unconsciously rubbed the round shoulder.
"I'm thirsty." Sui Yu came back to his senses from the trembling.
Zhao Xiping picked up the pants thrown on the ground and put them on. He opened the door and went out. The moonlight outside the house couldn't wait to flow in with the wind.
The moonlight outside was so beautiful that Sui Yu took down the red silk cloth hanging on the bedpost and wrapped it around herself. She put on her shoes and walked slowly into the cool night breeze.
Sui Liang and the little guy had already fallen asleep. The yard was quiet. The running water behind the house and the chirping of insects in the grass echoed each other, making the night particularly peaceful.
Zhao Xiping brought the water over and stopped at the door. Her waist-length black hair and smooth red skirt were tangled in the wind. The sharp contrast of colors stimulated her eyes, whose lust had just subsided.
Sui Yu gave him a bright smile and asked softly, "Is there anyone outside?"
"No."
Sui Yu walked out and said, "It's a beautiful night tonight. I can't sleep, so I'm going for a walk by the river."
Zhao Xiping didn't agree with her. He walked in, closed the door, and bolted it. He took a few big steps towards her, bent down, and picked her up with one arm.
Sui Yu suppressed her laughter and let the silk knot tied under her armpit unravel. The gorgeous red liquid flowed down the man's arm, then meandered to the ground, swaying with her hurried steps.
Half of a bowl of water was spilled, and only a small half went into the stomach. The rest, along with sweat, was imprinted on the gray-green bed sheet.
He fell asleep at the first crowing of a rooster. When the rooster crowed for the third time, Zhao Xiping heard the door of the next room open.
"It's so cool." The kid exclaimed "Wow".
Sui Liang yawned and stretched. He pushed his nephew out and said, "Go, go, don't disturb your parents' sleep."
"My dad will soon wake up, and it will be dawn."
It was still early before dawn, but many people had already gotten up. The camels in the livestock pen were released, and Li Mutou whipped them to go downstream to drink water.
Sui Liang and Xiaozai went to get the horses. Uncle Niu stood outside the pen and watched Li Wu and Gan Er shoveling camel dung in the livestock pen. The old cat official lay at his feet and slept soundly.
In the past, the cat owner stuck to A Shui, but after winter last year, it suddenly started to like sticking to Uncle Lao Niu. The old man and the old cat kept each other company, and they would sit at the foot of the wall and bask in the sun for most of the day.
Sui Liang went over and touched the cat owner's head. The cat didn't even open its eyes, and just meowed as a greeting.
The boy led out two horses, and he took the pig-bristle brush and said, "Uncle, let's go."
"Say hello to your cat brother."
"Good morning, Cat Brother. Did you sleep well last night?"
Uncle Niu laughed. No wonder the uncle and nephew, who were more than ten years apart in age, could play together. One dared to talk nonsense, and the other dared to respond nonsense.
Sui Liang and Xiaozai took the horses to the river to brush their fur. Hongri and Jinmaisui were comfortable after being served. When golden light appeared in the sky, they carried their two masters and galloped across the wilderness, running from west to east, then along the city wall to the east gate, and went around the city to pick up Aning and Jinhua, and then slowly went to the north of the city.
"It's my third uncle." Aning saw the man riding a camel coming towards him and shouted, "Third uncle, are you on duty again?"
Zhao Xiping said "hmm" and got closer. He looked at Jinhua a few more times. This little girl was not familiar with him and was a little afraid of him. When she saw him, she pursed her lips and said nothing.
"Dad, where are you going today?" asked the kid.
"Patrol the cotton fields to prevent any trouble."
"What's going on?" Aning wondered.
"The cotton has been planted, and someone might steal it."
"Dad, I want to go too. I want to go with you. No, I still have to study with the old teacher later. Dad, I will go with you in the afternoon. I don't have anything to do in the house." said the kid.
"You're not doing your mulberry leaf business anymore?"
Sui Liang lowered his eyes and thought for a moment before he said, "I'll take care of the mulberry leaf business, brother-in-law. Let the kid go with you."
"That's fine." Zhao Xiping nodded. "I won't tell you anymore. I'm going to the fields."
As she watched Zhao Xiping ride off on his camel, Aning muttered, "My third uncle is in great spirits today. He's standing so straight."
"Really?" The kid didn't notice. "My dad never seems to be in low spirits, does he?"
"Let's go, let's go back and eat. I'm hungry." Sui Liang shouted "Go!" and he rode away on his chestnut horse holding Jinhua.
Sui Yu had just woken up. When she opened the door and came out, she saw two horses carrying people coming back. She greeted them with great energy: "Aning, have you and Jinhua had breakfast? What have your parents been busy with recently?"
"My parents are busy watering the goldenrod. The weather has been hot recently and the fields are drying up quickly. We need to water them every seven or eight days," Aning replied.
"That's tough." Sui Yu went over and picked up Jinhua, saying, "Go eat with your brother now. After dinner, come play with your aunt. You can't go to school and bother your brothers."
"Mom..." The cub was unwilling to be ignored. He jumped off the horse and said, "Mom, I told my dad that I will go with him to inspect the cotton fields this afternoon."
Sui Yu's eyes lit up, "I had the same idea, but I just didn't have the chance to say it. We are mother and son, and we think alike."
"Really?" The kid was happy.
"Well, your father has just been promoted and is not convinced by others. He has no help and no one to assist him. You are his son, so go and help him." Sui Yu led him to the kitchen and said, "Go and help me keep an eye on him and don't let outsiders bully your father."
"good!"
"Come in and have dinner quickly. Your classmates will be here soon." Sui Yu escorted them in and went to the river to wash her face.
On the open ground across the river stood a grave mound half a leg high, with a stone tablet buried in front of it. Sui Yu glanced at it as he stood up, and raised his hand to say hello as he left: "Good morning, I'm going to eat."
Inside the city, when Supervisor Hu was on duty at the government office, he called Anger and said, "Around noon, lead a donkey to find me and deliver the camp prostitute's household registration to your uncle."
An Ge'er nodded and said, "My uncle will be home for lunch at noon?"
"Well, go around in front of him and see if he needs you. I don't have anything I can assign you to do."
An Ge'er agreed and sent Supervisor Hu out.
After the person left, he went back home to pay his respects to the first wife. Even though he had returned to his biological mother's care and had a backer, he did not abandon the image of a filial son he had cultivated for more than ten years, and continued to treat his stepmother as his own mother.
"What does your father want to see you for?" asked the eldest wife.
"He asked me to run an errand and deliver something to General Zhao."
The eldest wife remained silent. Supervisor Hu had previously told her not to stop them, and she didn't dare to. After all, the lives of her family depended on Sui Yu and his wife. She could only resent the fact that Concubine Wen was still alive, but even with that resentment, she could only curse her silently, not dare to take action. Furthermore, she had to hope that she and her son would establish a good relationship with Sui Yu, so that Zhao Xiping wouldn't sue Supervisor Hu for altering the slave indentures and forging a new household registration.
It's really like the tide of change. The person she looked down upon in the past is now demanding of her.
"Well, go ahead." She said coldly, "your aunt shouldn't go over there, lest anyone suspect their relationship."
Ang'er should be.
"Sister, come here, it's time for us to go back." Aning came out of the school and shouted loudly to Jinhua who was following behind his aunt.
"Aunt, my brother is calling me, I'm going back." Jinhua walked back with her short legs.
"You can stay for lunch and I will take you back in the evening," said Sui Yu.
Jinhua waved her hand, "I need to go back and catch some bugs to feed the chickens."
Her mother told her not to stay at her aunt's house every day and eat and drink for free.
"Then come back tomorrow." Sui Yu instructed, "I won't take you there, so walk slowly."
"good."
When Sui Yu saw Aning coming to pick up the golden flower, she stopped staring at her, bent down to pick up the wooden ruler, and continued to measure at the next place, while marking the dimensions and tracing the layout on the wooden board.
Aning and Jinhua took Gu Dalang and Gu Erlang's camel back to the city. On the way, they met a boy pulling a donkey. The donkey was struggling with the rope and wanted to go down to the ground to nibble on wheat seedlings. The boy pulled the rope and refused to let it go. The man and the donkey were deadlocked in the middle of the road.
When Anger saw the approaching people, he was so excited that he immediately called out for help: "Two brothers, please help me get rid of the donkey. It's stubborn and won't obey me."
"Are you going to Changgui Guesthouse?" Gu Dalang asked as he jumped off the camel.
"Yes, I am the son of Supervisor Hu, and I came here to deliver something to General Zhao."
Gu Dalang said, "Oh!" "My father is Captain Gu, and our two families are only three blocks away from each other. How come I haven't seen you before?"
"I don't go out much." The donkey finally agreed to leave. Ang'er thanked him gratefully and apologized, "Let me go first, otherwise this stubborn donkey will go out again after you leave."
As Aning drove the camel to the side of the road, he warned, "Don't hit the donkey. Did you hit it? The donkey is a weakling. It won't move if you lead it, and it will move backward if you hit it."
Gu Erlang pulled a handful of coarse salt from his pocket and said, "Come here and take it. If it doesn't behave, let it lick some salt. Is this your first time using a donkey? From now on, whether you're leading a horse or a donkey, you must have a bundle of hay or a handful of salt with you. They'll only behave if they have something to eat."
An Ge'er took it gratefully and said, "Thank you for your advice, brother. My name is Hu Ansui. May I ask what your names are?"
"Just call me Brother Gu. It's my brother who's helping you drive the donkey."
"My name is Aning. Do you know Xiaozai? I'm his younger brother."
"I've met him, I've met him." Hu Ansui found it funny. It seemed that Xiaozai, as an older brother, did a really good job. The boy named Aning introduced himself as Xiaozai's younger brother, not the nephew of General Zhao Zhonglang.
The donkey licked the salt and followed its young master obediently.
Seeing that the donkey was no longer refusing to move, Gu Jiaerlang and his wife also rode their camels back.
When Anger arrived at the guesthouse, Sui Yu was accompanying the little one to pick mulberry leaves. He and Sui Liang were going to collect silk cocoons this year and sell them to Jinxiu Weaving Workshop. The number of silkworms hatched was more than in previous years.
"Master, a guest is coming." Hua Niu shouted.
"Madam, how are you?" Anger said, leading the donkey to the river. He smiled and said, "I haven't congratulated Madam on receiving the imperial award yet. People are in high spirits when they are happy. Madam looks younger than she did the winter before last."
"You kid..." Sui Yu smiled. "Ding Quan, come here and unload the boxes from the donkey's back and put them in the warehouse first. Come on, follow me into the house."
Ang'er went to the river to wash his hands. He smiled at the cub and said, "Do you still remember me?"
"I remember." The kid nodded. "Brother, do you raise silkworms? I'll give you ten."
Ang'er peeked into the box and saw so many tiny silkworms that he got goosebumps all over his body and quickly refused.
"I'm going to talk to your mother. Do you want to come in?" he asked.
The boy shook his head. What the man said was boring and he didn't want to listen.
Hu Anyui went in by himself and called her "Aunt" as soon as he entered the door. Since there were no outsiders around, he didn't call her "Madam".
"Is your mother okay?" Sui Yu asked.
"Okay, with you and my uncle as our support, our life in the mansion will be much smoother." Hu Ansui knelt down and bowed.
Sui Yu quickly lifted him up and said, "Just speak, don't kneel down, you are a grown man now."
"I am a junior in front of you. Not to mention a grown-up man, even if I am old, I have to kneel down." Hu Anyui skillfully made the jokes funny.
"We don't like that at home. Sit down and be quiet." Sui Yu pushed him down on the chair. "You're not in a hurry to go home at noon, are you? Why don't you eat here?"
Hu Ansui nodded and said, "There's no rush to go back. I said hello to my father before coming here."
"I'll go to the kitchen and tell him to come over and take you for a walk. Your cousin is still doing his homework in school, you can go and take a look." Sui Yu had nothing to talk about with the child, and didn't want to ask too much about his family.
When Zhao Xiping came back, he saw Hu Ansui and thought that the old supervisor Hu was quite anxious. It had only been a month, and hundreds of household registrations had already been produced.
"How are you feeling now? Can you handle the wind and sun?" Zhao Xiping asked. "I'm mainly busy working in the fields right now. If you work with me, you'll have to work in the fields too, and running around in and out of the city is inevitable."
"I can do it. I'm just a little thin, but I'm not weak," Hu Ansui assured. "When I was seven, my mother stopped making me sit still. Although I never practiced proper martial arts, since she couldn't teach me, I did a lot of running and jumping."
"Go back and ask your father. If he has no objection, you can come here every morning after breakfast and study with the teacher together with your cousin and brother. You can also learn when my servants practice. In the afternoon, you and the kid will go to the fields with me to work. Can you ride a camel?" Zhao Xiping asked.
Juan Sui shook his head, "I can learn."
"Okay, I have a camel at home. Come and learn. Riding a camel is not difficult. The kid could ride a camel by himself when he was seven years old, and now he can ride a horse too." Zhao Xiping said with pride.
Juan Sui agreed with a smile.
"Your aunt and I are planning a banquet at the end of the month, firstly to celebrate your promotion and secondly to hang a plaque. You and your father should come over and make an appearance in front of the adults," Zhao Xiping hinted, then pointed him in the eye, "Most of the children in the academy are from families of thousand or hundred households. Children from military officers' families tend to be straightforward, so you should be more frank with them."
Hu Ansui expressed his sincere gratitude, "You are the only one willing to guide me in the subtleties. I will always remember your great kindness."
"It's not a great favor, there's no need to remember it. I'm just repaying a favor on behalf of your aunt." Zhao Xiping explained calmly.
"Dad..." the kid came running over, "Dinner is ready, mom is calling me to eat."
"Coming." Zhao Xiping walked out immediately.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com