The lady was overjoyed and she opened her arms and hugged Jing'er in her arms: "My dear, your grandma has been waiting for you to come back! Is Baoding fun? Where is your father?" As she spoke, she looked up towards the door.

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

Xu Lingyi stood tall and straight, with a smile on his face, looking energetic.

Eleventh Lady was wearing a plain pink jacket with floral patterns on it. She looked delicate, like a spring crabapple, lazy and charming. She 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 strangeness behind her.

"Why did you come at this time?" The lady scolded, looking at her son from head to toe. She found that her son looked better than when he left. She nodded secretly and smiled, "Did you have a safe journey? Did you have lunch?" Only then did she feel relieved.

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

Since you know I miss you, don’t go out anymore.

The words came to her lips, but she saw the excitement between her son's eyebrows, and thought of what Eleventh Lady said about Xu Lingyi staying at home for the past two years, so she held back her words. Then she remembered that her son hadn't eaten yet, so she hurriedly called the jade tablet: "Bring up the Laba porridge." Then she smiled and said, "Coincidentally, today is Laba, let's have Laba porridge first to pray for good luck, and then have lunch." As she said that, she thought of her precious grandson in her arms who was still hungry, so she stood up and held Jing'er's hand: "Let's go and have some porridge."

"It's time to eat Laba porridge!" Jing'er excitedly went to the banquet room in the east room with the lady, saying non-stop, "Grandma, what have you done at home these days? I miss you so much. When I was in Rongcheng, I ate donkey meat. I wanted to bring some for you. But dad said it was too far and would be broken 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 bosom a little embarrassedly and handed it to the lady, "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 Jing'er also brought me something..." She was so excited that she could not hide, "Let me see, let me see," she stopped at the door of the east room and opened her purse.

It was indeed a very ordinary comb, made of boxwood, with a pair of longevity peaches carved on the back. It was similar to the ones used by the maids at home.

"It's beautiful, beautiful!" The lady touched the pair of longevity peaches on the comb and praised them highly. "It really has a good meaning."

Jing Ge heaved a sigh of relief and explained, "We only had one 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."

"Okay, okay, okay." The old lady smiled happily and went into the east room with Jing'er. "When you are not at home, Jing'er is always unhappy every time he comes. It's so cold and deserted here..."

Jing'er 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. The handle is made of jade and black gold, it's very beautiful. I have one too. It was given by the man who used to lead the horse with my father. He knew 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? He specializes in catching thieves. When we were eating, he stood by and held the pot. When we left, he secretly gave me two big gold ingots..."

As they talked, they sat down at the table in the east room.

"Really!" The lady said in a pleasant tone to please her grandson, "Then our brother Jin must have met a lot of people this time when he went out?"

"Yes!" After going out and seeing so many strange people and things, Jing'er wanted to share them with others. The lady's words seemed to have tickled his heart. He counted on his fingers and said incessantly, "I also met a county magistrate in Qingyuan, a Tongzhi in Dingxing, and a general in Jizhou..."

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

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

Eleventh Lady smiled and glanced at him sideways, hiding her sleeves. But unlike before, she just blushed and said nothing.

Xu Lingyi felt his heart beat faster as he looked at her and gently squeezed her hand.

There was a noise 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!" Jing'er ran over.

The two little guys hugged each other.

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

"We've been to many places!" Jing'er said excitedly, "Dingxing, Bazhou, Zhuozhou..." Before he finished his words, Xu Sizun and Jiang came over.

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

Jiang bent down and asked him with a smile: "Uncle, you have been to many places, right? Tell us about them soon." This made Jing'er's eyes smile and he told them what he saw and heard along the way.

Soon, Xu Lingkuan, the fifth lady, Xu Sijie, Xiang and others arrived, and everyone sat around listening to Jing'er talk.

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

In the afternoon, Jinger took Shigeer back to his room and gave him the gift he bought for him. He also showed Shigeer the ear pick, dough figurine, small bronze figurine that could do boxing, and mandarin duck wine pot that could pour two kinds of wine. He told Shigeer when and how he bought each item. Shigeer's eyes lit up when he heard this. Jinger was very proud and went with Shigeer to give gifts to everyone.

Xu Lingyi watched the two little guys skipping out 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'm just waiting for the Marquis to speak up," Eleventh Lady said with a smile, "How can you ask for something by yourself?"

He had bought her small things before, and she had just smiled and thanked him, but not like this time, it 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 purchase during this trip.

He opened the box and found many scrolls inside.

Xu Lingyi put the scroll on the ground.

"This is what I painted when I went out this time." He opened the paintings one by one, "Look, this is what I painted when I was at Fangshan Post Station." He pointed to the first painting, "This is the main street of Fangshan County. This side is the county government office. There is a medical shop behind the county government office. Next to the medical shop is an inn that also sells food. We had dinner in this inn... Fangshan is very small, there is nothing to see... This is Bazhou... East Street Alley is full of food. The most famous one is Wanjia Hutang. Jing'er and I went there specially to eat it, and it felt just 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 took out an embroidery from a box with a smile, "Take a look..."

Eleventh Lady slowly opened the embroidery scroll.

"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 Daliang. It doesn't use ordinary embroidery needles either." He took out a small box from the box, and inside it were several embroidery needles lined up. "Look, this embroidery needle is three times thicker than yours. The thread goes through it, and when you embroider, you lift it up after it's inserted, leaving 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 Eleventh Lady's eyes was blurry, and 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 it very much... I like everything the Marquis bought for me..."

She had traveled to many places and seen many landscapes. At this moment, she suddenly felt that it would be equally interesting to look at these landscape paintings in this small courtyard.

"I like it very much!" Eleventh Lady put her ear to his chest and closed her eyes. The heavy and powerful heartbeat sounded like a drum, booming into her ears. "I like it very much!"

Xu Lingyi was a little dazed.

This wasn't his gift to her.

The gift he gave her was a necklace made of red gold and inlaid with tourmalines.

Prepare to take it out at night.

Wearing it on her neck as white and delicate as mutton-fat jade... one can imagine the charm of it...

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 Jing'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 drew this picture.

Later, when the journey was easy and he rested early, he would paint a few strokes.

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

The corners of Xu Lingyi's mouth curled up 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 a carved red lacquer box from the box, and then sat down with him side by side in the Arhat Palace with great interest.

Xu Lingyi's eyes flashed with cunning, and he handed the box to her: "Open it and take a look!"

Eleventh Lady 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 leaned over and whispered a few words in her ear.

Even if you haven’t eaten pork, have you seen a pig run?

Like a hot potato, Eleventh Lady threw the thing at Luohan**.

"Where did the Marquis get this thing..." Her face turned red enough to look like blood was dripping out.

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

"You guy!" Eleventh Lady stood up with a pouty look, "I just thought you were pretty good, and you..." Before she could finish her sentence, she started laughing.

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Post a draft first!

O(∩_∩)O~

PS: The update is a little late, please get up tomorrow morning and read it!