After returning home, Xue Huan discovered that there was a guest at home. The guest was a man in his forties or fifties, with a clear face and wearing a blue cloth robe. He was playing chess with Xue Rong on the stone table in the yard.
"Hanhuan is back? Come, let me introduce you. This is my good friend. You can just call him Grandpa Deng." Xue Rong waved and called Xue Huan to his side.
Then he said to his good friend Deng Sheng, "Where's the gift? Bring it out."
This was truly rude; who would ask for a gift in person? However, this also demonstrated the depth of their friendship, unnecessarily emphasizing empty formalities.
Deng Sheng glanced at Xue Huan and saw that she had a beautiful face and clear eyes. She was indeed a good-looking woman. He felt a little envious of Xue Rong. "You old man, you are so lucky to have such a beautiful granddaughter. I am just a poor censor and don't have much to offer. You can keep this seal."
He handed over a small dark blue cloth bag, which contained a small seal. The seal was delicate and smooth, bright yellow in color, and had the words "Only my virtue is fragrant" engraved underneath.
Xue Rong laughed heartily, "Hunhuan, take it quickly. Besides being a ginseng dealer, your Grandpa Deng's only decent skill is seal carving."
Deng Sheng glanced at him unhappily and placed a chess piece down. "Old man, it looks like I've won this game."
"I told you not to call me old. You're just jealous that I look younger than you even though I'm two years older than you... Wait, you want to beat me? I'll block your path."
Xue Huan only then realized that her grandfather had such a narcissistic side, but he would only show it in front of old friends.
In the evening, Xue Huan prepared a table full of delicious dishes. Xue Rong also took out the wine that he usually didn't want to drink, and had a drink with his old friend.
Xue Huan sat aside and ate quietly and obediently, occasionally pouring wine for the two elderly people and listening to their chat.
Perhaps he had been drinking too much, as Deng Sheng could no longer suppress his anger. "Your Majesty is now blindly pampering the Imperial Master, daydreaming of immortality and eating the messy elixirs that rubbish Imperial Master makes. In my opinion, if he keeps eating like this, let alone immortality, he'll probably die sooner or later."
"Poof!" Xue Huan almost vomited.
Grandpa Deng is such a warrior. How dare he say this about the emperor?
Xue Rong, who had remained clear-headed, was startled when he heard this. "Old Deng, you need to change your outspoken nature. If people knew you were so disrespectful to the Emperor, you'd lose your head."
Deng Sheng snorted coldly, "What am I afraid of? Now that I've been stripped of my official position, I've come to this faraway place, and you're not even allowed to complain privately?"
Xue Huan was very interested in the Imperial Master he mentioned. Seeing that his glass was almost empty, she filled it up for him. "Grandpa Deng, who is this Imperial Master you're talking about?"
"Who is he? Just some charlatan who came out of nowhere! I don't know how the emperor was deceived by him, but he actually appointed him as the Imperial Master and gave him the highest honor. Ever since that rubbish Imperial Master deceived the emperor, the emperor has been lazy, often not attending court or handling state affairs. He just retreats with that charlatan, talking nonsense, and doing nothing at all!"
Cough cough cough! Xue Rong choked and looked at his old friend speechlessly.
Among all the civil and military officials in the court, only Deng Sancan dares to say that the emperor is not doing his job, right?
How did Deng Sancan get his nickname? Deng Sheng once submitted a memorial impeaching a dandy who bullied men and women. Because the emperor and the dandy's father were childhood friends and had a close personal relationship, the emperor turned a blind eye to the incident and ignored it.
Normally, seeing the emperor act like this, a sensible official would stop pursuing him. But Deng Sheng was so stubborn and outspoken that he wouldn't give up.
He submitted another memorial, still about the same thing.
The emperor continued to ignore him, but Deng Sheng continued to complain! He seemed determined to do so until the end of time.
The ancestors of the Daji Dynasty set a rule that scholars should not be killed, so no matter how dissatisfied the emperor was with Deng Sheng, the stubborn donkey, he could not do anything to him.
After all, he is not afraid of being punished by having his salary cut, nor is he afraid of being retaliated by those nobles. He is only concerned about the people and wants to bring down those evil guys!
What else could the emperor do? He could only follow his wishes and punish the dandy boy severely, and also reprimand his father.
Since then, Deng Sheng has been nicknamed "Deng Sanshen".
The "three" here does not refer to three specific times, but means many times, saying that as long as he does not overthrow the ginseng, he will continue to submit impeachment memorials.
Even the emperor couldn't do anything to him.
Xue Rong was quite aware of his old friend's stubborn temper, but he also knew that this was his nature and he had lived like this for most of his life. There was no way to persuade him because no matter how much he tried, it would not work.
He then picked up a piece of food for him with chopsticks and said, "Come, eat more food and drink less wine, otherwise you will get a headache tomorrow."
Seeing that it was getting late at night, Xue Rong asked Xue Huan to go and rest first and not to worry about the two old guys.
Xue Huan returned to her room.
She filled the tub, took off her clothes and stepped in.
Yuan Xi, who was wearing a flying squirrel vest, just woke up and was caught off guard by this scene.
He quickly turned his head, his face flushed. If he hadn't been possessed by a little flying squirrel, his face would have turned red.
Xue Huan leaned on the edge of the bathtub, looking at the little flying squirrel that turned its face away. She felt inexplicably that it seemed to be shy?
She reached out and grabbed the little flying squirrel, held it in her hands, and looked at it closely.
Yuan Xi had nowhere to put his eyes so he could only look at her face. His two dark eyes looked as if they were covered with a layer of mist, perhaps out of shyness or smoked by the water vapor. He looked both pitiful and cute.
Its flying membranes were gathered behind its back and it squatted in her palm like a little squirrel.
The fur on its back is red, while its belly and paws are white. In terms of appearance, it should be considered the prince of flying squirrels.
It was a small fluffy ball, about the size of her fist, and looked very cute.
Yuan Xi stared at the water, wanting to jump in and take a bath. After spending several days in the tree hole, he must have been covered in a lot of dirt. But Huanhuan was still washing herself. Wouldn't he dirty the water if he jumped in? It would be better to wait until Huanhuan was done washing herself before he took a bath.
Seeing it staring at the water, Xue Huan flicked a drop of water at it, "Do you want to come in and take a bath too? I'll wash you after I'm done."
After washing and putting on pajamas, Xue Huan washed the little flying squirrel with her own bath water, dried its fur, put it in its simple nest, and patted its head: "Don't run around at night, and don't run onto my bed, understand?"
Lying on the bed, Xue Huan covered herself with the quilt and fell into a sweet sleep.
*
After Xue Huan left the woods in the evening, the child who had been perched on the tree came down and ate all the food.
After finishing his meal, he picked up the clothes and when he was putting them on, his nails accidentally caught on the clothes and he pulled them, and the clothes were torn.
He tried to crawl through the hole in his clothes, but ended up trapping himself inside. After struggling for a while, he finally managed to free his head.
At this time, his clothes had been torn into rags and were barely hanging on his body.
The child pulled it curiously, jumped up the tree, and ran towards a certain place with a purpose.
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