Erlangzi was a stubborn and rough man. Jian Ning was worried that he might not be careful enough and hurt Xu Dali. After all, he had just recovered from his injuries and was just a bodyguard.
As for the bodyguard, she subconsciously equated him with Brother Tian Er. Brother Tian, like Xu Dali, learned martial arts in a martial arts school. She was not optimistic about him, otherwise she would not have let Tong Bajin try his martial arts.
Jian Ning handed the baby to Dali's wife so that she could stop the two of them in time if anything went wrong.
This family is the first to return, and we don’t want anything to go wrong.
Fearing that Cao and Xiuqin would worry, she wanted to comfort them with a few words, but when she looked over, she saw that the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were very calm, and did not seem to worry at all that Xu Dali would be hurt by Erlangzi.
Before she had time to think about it, Xu Dali and Erlangzi had already exchanged moves. As soon as they had exchanged half a move, Jian Ning could see that Xu Dali's martial arts skills were not only better than Tong Bajin and Erlangzi, but were even on par with Huo Jincheng, and his martial arts style was somewhat similar to Huo Jincheng's.
Huo Jincheng frowned when he saw this.
Even a layman like Ding Youtian could see something was going on. His moves were lightning fast, each one imbued with immense power, yet his movements were nimble and agile. Seeing this, he blurted out, "This strength is a bit like Uncle Wei's."
Huo Jincheng glanced at Ding Youtian sideways, pointed his toes, and suddenly jumped up from the ground, "Let me try." He took over the moves from Erlangzi and Xu Dali.
As soon as they engaged, they instantly became two balls of light and shadow. During her months in the capital, Jian Ning had seen Wei Dong feeding Huo Jincheng his moves, and the two had also fought like this, becoming two balls of light and shadow. She was overjoyed. Ding Youtian had won big this time. Xu Dali certainly couldn't be Wei Dong's apprentice, but his master and Wei Dong must have been from the same school.
After several dozen moves, Huo Jincheng leaped aside, bowed, and asked, "Excuse me, is your master's surname Lei?"
"That's right. Is your master's surname Wei?" Xu Dali also asked with a fist salute.
Huo Jincheng raised his head and laughed twice. "How is my uncle? I once heard my master mention him and he seemed to miss him very much. We haven't seen each other for nearly thirty years. I didn't expect to run into his disciple here today."
Xu Dali immediately knelt on one knee, clasped his fists and said, "Xu Dali greets Senior Brother."
"Life is full of encounters. This is truly wonderful." Ding Youtian stepped forward, pulling Xu Dali up, and said with a hearty laugh, "I was originally planning to make you a yamen runner. The yamen is short of staff. Since you're Jincheng's junior fellow apprentice, you should follow me from now on. After all, you'll have to do the work in the yamen if you follow me."
"Thank you, sir. I will definitely live up to your expectations."
"Son!" Cao's face was full of smiles. She came over a few steps, raised her hand and patted his arm, saying, "Follow the master and work hard. The master saved your life, and the lady also saved your wife and daughter. If you don't do your job well and protect the master with all your heart and responsibility, I will see if I will still recognize you!"
Everyone in the courtyard laughed. Tong Bajin and Erlangzi were both upright men who always admired the strong. They did not feel resentful because he was a latecomer and his martial arts were better than theirs. Instead, they were very happy because there was a strong man in the team.
"Brother Xu, you have to give us more guidance in the future and don't hide anything from us." Tong Bajin patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile.
"How dare I? I will obey any order from my two brothers." Xu Dali bowed hurriedly.
"From now on, the three of us brothers will be a family. I, Erlangzi, have been wandering around without relatives or friends for most of my life. Now, I have two older brothers." Erlangzi scratched his head habitually. He and Tong Bajin had met Xu Dali when they were in Yancheng, and they knew each other's age.
Among the three, Tong Bajin is the oldest, he is thirty-four, followed by Xu Dali, he is thirty-one, and Erlangzi, who looks the oldest, is actually only one year older than Ding Youtian, not yet thirty years old, only twenty-nine years old.
Xu Dali called Ding Youtian his brothers because he followed him later than them. Jian Ning asked them to still follow the order of age, regardless of who came first. She went to stir-fry two more dishes and put the cold ones back into the pot.
After dinner, Tong Bajin and Erlangzi went to help Xu Dali's family settle down. Jian Ning took Qiaofeng with them to help clean up. Duan Xinping also followed them when she saw them.
Xu Dali's home was not far from the yamen, less than five miles away. He could not stay in the yamen because he had infants and young children at home. When he learned that Jian Ning and others would get up early every day to practice martial arts, he promised Tong Bajin and Erlangzi that he would get up early every day and go to the yamen on time to practice martial arts with them.
When Jian Ning heard him mention martial arts training, she thought of asking him, "Brother Dali, I once heard your mother say that you learned martial arts in a martial arts school. Was that martial arts school run by Huo Jincheng's uncle?"
"Oh, that's my fault." Upon hearing Jian Ning's question, Cao hurried over, bowed to him, and said with an apologetic smile, "I didn't tell you the truth earlier. There's a reason. My son did start practicing martial arts when he was five or six, but he didn't learn it in a martial arts school. He was taught by his master."
Cao revealed the truth: Xu Dali's master was a eunuch named Lei Jiang. When Xu Dali was five, Lei Jiang fell ill and passed out with a high fever outside their home. Cao's husband had already died, leaving the orphan and his son struggling to make ends meet. But Cao couldn't bear to see him die before her eyes, so she bought him medicine and took him in in her straw hut for a few days.
After Lei Jiang recovered from his illness, he proposed to teach Xu Dali martial arts so that they and their mother would not be bullied by others in the future. He also said that he was a eunuch and that staying in their house to teach Xu Dali martial arts would not affect her reputation, so she could tell others about her identity.
Long before Dayan Kingdom pacified the Central Plains, Lei Jiang and Wei Dong worked together in the palace of Yan Kingdom. They practiced martial arts together with the old eunuchs of Yan Kingdom, and they had a very deep relationship.
Later, Emperor Yongping and Nanyangzi led the Dayan Army to the city. On the day the city was broken, Lei Jiang, who was seventeen years old at the time, and Wei Dong, who was nineteen years old at the time, argued for a long time, and neither could convince the other. Finally, Lei Jiang changed into civilian clothes, bid farewell to Wei Dong and left the palace.
Even though he was a eunuch, the neighbors often gossiped about him behind her back for the first few years after Cao had him stay. Later, she became a decent person and never took it to heart. Gradually, the gossip grew boring and stopped.
When Cao talked about this with Ding Youtian, she thought that since she was a widow, if she said that there was a eunuch living in her house teaching her son martial arts, she was worried that Ding Youtian would look down on her, so she just said that he had sent his son to a martial arts school to learn martial arts.
"Mother!" Xu Dali was a little dissatisfied after learning about this. "Master has been so kind to me. How could you, mother, make up such a lie to deceive Master and Madam just because Master is disabled?"
"It's all my fault." Cao raised her hand to slap herself, but Jian Ning quickly held her back. "Don't be like that. I understand, and my husband won't mind." She turned to look at Xu Dali. "Don't blame your mother. If she had any disdain for your master, she wouldn't have kept him in your house to teach you martial arts."
"That's right. I didn't think too much about it at the time, and I certainly didn't expect you to save my son's life. I just thought it was better to have less trouble than more, so I blurted out what I learned in the martial arts school."
"I hope you don't mind, Madam."
As she spoke, she bowed to Jane Ningfu again.
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