Chapter 668: Daughter-in-law (Part 2)

"The lady was overjoyed and held Jiang'er in her arms, saying, "My dear, your grandmother has been waiting for you to come back! Is Baoding fun? Where is your father?" As she spoke, she looked up at the door.

The curtain moved, and Xu Lingyi and Shiyi Niang walked in one after another.

Xu Lingyi stood tall, smiling, and looked radiant.

Eleventh Lady was wearing a pink plain jacket with a gentle look, like a spring crabapple, lazy and charming. It was very different from usual.

The lady was slightly startled, and felt something passing through her heart, but her mind was full of Xu Lingyi who was walking in front of her, and she quickly put this little bit of abnormality behind her.

"Why did you come at this time?" The old lady scolded, and looked her son up and down. She found that her son looked better than when he left. She nodded secretly and said with a smile, "Did you have a safe journey? Did you have lunch?" She felt relieved.

"I stopped at the post station along the way. Everything is fine. I'm sorry I missed you." Xu Lingyi bowed deeply to the lady, "I haven't had lunch yet! I came back after washing up and came here. I was just about to have a meal with you!"

Since you know I miss you, don't go out in the future.

When the words came to her lips, she saw the excitement between her son's eyebrows, and thought of what Shiyi Niang said about Xu Lingyi staying at home for the past two years, so the lady held back her words. Then she remembered that her son had not eaten yet, and hurriedly called the jade tablet: "Bring up the Laba porridge." Then she smiled and said, "Coincidentally, today is Laba Day, let's have Laba porridge first, for good luck, and then have lunch." As she said that, she thought of her baby grandson in her arms who was still hungry, so she stood up and took her son's hand: "Let's go, let's go have some porridge."

"It's time to eat Laba porridge!" Jian'er happily went to the banquet room in the east room with the lady, and couldn't stop saying, "Grandma, what have you done at home these days? I miss you so much. When I was in Rong, I ate donkey meat. Well, I brought some for you. But dad said it was too far and it would be spoiled if I brought it back. So I bought you a wooden comb." After saying that, he stopped and took out a big red purse from his pocket and handed it to the lady a little embarrassedly, "The workmanship of the comb is average, but I thought it had a good meaning, so I bought it..." "Oh my! ", the lady was very surprised, "our brother also brought me something..." She was so excited that she could not hide it, "Let me see, let me see" and stopped at the door of the east side room and opened the purse. It was indeed a very ordinary comb, made of yellow poplar wood, with a pair of longevity peaches carved on the back of the comb. It was similar to the ones used by the little maids at home.

"It's beautiful, beautiful!" The lady touched the pair of peaches on the comb and praised them endlessly. "This is indeed a good meaning."

Jiang Ge'er heaved a sigh of relief and explained, "We only had a meal in Rongcheng and then left. The food in other places is even worse. Next time I go out, I will definitely buy you something better."

"Good, good," the lady smiled happily, and went into the east room with Qin'er, "When you are not at home, Qin'er is always unhappy every time he comes." "Grandma, it's so deserted here..."

Jianger said sympathetically, "He must be unable to go out." Then his voice became cheerful again, "But I also brought him something. It's a horse whip. Jade pole" The whip is made of black gold, so beautiful. I have one too. It was given by a man who used to pull horses with my father. He knew that my father was in Bazhou, so he rode there for two days. Do you know Pingshun? This man is the Dianshi in Pingshun, an official of the ninth rank. Do you know what a Dianmu does? It is to catch thieves. When we were eating, he stood by and held the pot. When we left, he secretly stuffed me with two big gold ingots..."

As they talked, they sat on the Hu bed in the east room.

"Really!" The lady teased her grandson and said in surprise, "Then our brother must have met a lot of people this time!"

"Yes!" After going out and seeing so many strange people and things, Jian Ge'er wanted to share them with others. The lady's words seemed to have touched his itchy spot. He counted on his fingers and said incessantly, "I also got to know a county magistrate in Qingyuan, a Tongzhi in Dingxing, and a general in Luzhou..."

Xu Lingyi, who was following the two of them at a leisurely pace, suddenly leaned forward and whispered in Shiyi Niang's ear, "I brought you something, too!"

The two of them haven't said a single serious word since they met...

Eleventh Lady covered her sleeves with her hands and smiled, glancing at him.

But it was not like before, when he just blushed and said nothing.

Xu Lingyi felt his heart beating as he watched, and gently squeezed his hand.

There was a noise from outside, accompanied by the maid's low cry: "Seventh Young Master, please slow down, please slow down..."

The couple couldn't help but smile at each other and let go of each other's hands.

Chen Ge'er ran in excitedly: "Sixth brother, you're back!"

"Seventh brother!" Jian Ge'er came running over.

The two little guys hugged each other.

"Is Baoding fun?" Chen Ge'er asked impatiently, "Where did you go?"

“I’ve been to many places!” Jiang’er said excitedly, “Dingxing, Bazhou, Zhuozhou…,…” Before he could finish his words, Xu Sizhen and Jiang came over.

"Dad, you're back!" He saluted Xu Lingyi respectfully and touched his son's head with a smile.

Jiang bowed and asked him with a smile: "Uncle, you have been to many places, right? Tell us about it quickly." The boy smiled and told them what he had seen and heard along the way.

Soon, Xu Lingkuan, the fifth lady, Xu Si'e, Xiang and others arrived, and everyone sat around and listened to Jiang'er talk.

Jiange'er was so happy that his face beamed with joy. If Yuban hadn't brought in the porridge, he would have continued talking.

"In the afternoon," Jian'er pulled Shi'er back to his room and gave him the gifts he had bought for him. He also took out the ear picks, dough figurines, small bronze figurines that could do boxing, and a wine pot that could pour out two kinds of wine that he had bought along the way and showed them to Shi'er. He explained what each item was, when it was bought, and how it was bought. Shi'er's eyes lit up when he heard this, and Jian'er was very proud. He went with Shi'er to give gifts to everyone.

Xu Lingyi watched the two kids skipping out of the door, and smiled as he asked Shiyi Niang, who was packing his clothes, "Why didn't you ask me what I bought for you?" "I was just waiting for you to ask," Shiyi Niang said with a smile, "How can you ask for something yourself?"

He had bought her small things before, and she had just smiled and thanked him, but it was not like this time, which was very casual, yet revealing a bit of intimacy.

Xu Lingyi pulled her hand and said, "Come with me!" and went to the study.

A shiny red lacquered carved box was placed in the corner of the wall. It was obvious that it was a new addition during this trip.

He opened the box and found many scrolls inside.

Xu Lingyi placed the scroll on the ground.

"This is what I painted during my trip." He opened the paintings one by one. "Look, this was painted when I was at Fangshan Post Station." He pointed to the first painting. "This is the main street of Fangshan County. This is the county government office. There is a clinic behind the county government office. Next to the clinic is an inn that also sells food. We ate in this inn. Uh... Fangshan is very small, there is nothing to see... This is Bazhou... East Street Alley is full of food, the most famous is Wanjia Hutang." Jiange'er and I went there specially to eat." It felt so-so... This is Maijia Lane, it's full of people selling embroidery, pearl and jade headwear, and hats. It looks very ordinary to me." As he spoke, he smiled and took out an embroidery from the box. "Take a look..."

Eleventh Lady slowly opened the embroidery reel.

"I saw it in an embroidery shop." Xu Lingyi smiled, "It's different from what you usually embroider, right? I heard that this is the embroidery method of the Daliang area. It doesn't use ordinary embroidery needles either." He took out a small box from the box, and there were several embroidery needles lined up inside. "Look, this embroidery needle is three times thicker than yours. The thread goes through it, and when you embroider, you pull it up and leave the thread ends on the embroidery. Then you use scissors to trim it neatly, and it's done."

He gestured with a serious expression.

Everything in front of Shiyi Niang's eyes was blurry, his shadow was like a flower in the water or the moon in the mirror.

She gently put down the embroidery and hugged his waist tightly.

"I like... everything that Lord Hou bought for me, I like it very much..." She has been to many places and seen many landscapes. At this moment, she suddenly felt that it was also very interesting to be able to look at these landscape paintings in this small courtyard.

"I like it very much!" Eleventh Lady put her ear against his chest and closed her eyes. The heavy and powerful heartbeat was like a drum, boom boom boom reaching her ears, "I like it very much!" Xu Lingyi was a little dazed.

This was not his gift to her.

His gift to her was a necklace of red gold inlaid with tourmaline stones.

Prepare to take it out in the evening.

Wearing it on her neck, which was as white and delicate as mutton-fat jade... one can imagine the charm... On the first day at the post station in Fang County, he didn't want to see the officials in the county, so he went to bed early. Under the light, he saw Jiange'er's sleeping face, and he suddenly missed her very much.

If only she were around...”,…

Thinking of her love for reading "Records of the Nine Regions of the Great Zhou Dynasty", I got up and painted this picture.

Later, when the journey was slow and he rested early, he would draw a few strokes.

I didn't expect she would like it so much.

The corners of Xu Lingyi's mouth curved into a happy arc.

It's not like him to go against his own good luck!

He kissed her forehead hard: "I have something else for you!"

"What is it?" Eleventh Lady watched Xu Lingyi take out a carved red lacquer box from the chest, and then sat down side by side with him on the Luohan bed with great interest.

There was a glimmer of cunning in Xu Lingyi's eyes, and he handed the box to her: "Open it and take a look!" Shiyi Niang opened the box suspiciously.

It was a very strange thing. She had never seen it before.

"This is..." She looked at Xu Lingyi in confusion.

Xu Lingyi whispered a few words into her ear.

I've never seen pork eaten, but I've seen pigs run.

Like a hot potato, Shiyi Niang threw the thing on Luohan's bed.

"Where did the Marquis get this stuff from...", her face flushed so red that blood seemed to be dripping out.

"Someone gave it to me!" Xu Lingyi bit her ear, "I think it's not strong enough..., why don't we give it a try!"

"You bastard!" Eleventh Lady stood up with a coquettish look, "I just thought you were pretty good, and then..." Without saying a word, she started laughing first.