Chapter 426: Can’t I Play the Lute for a Donkey?
"Do you remember? You're not with your parents now, and no one will spoil you. You're an adult now, and you have to take care of yourself." San Ya said, "Don't you have to pretend when you visit someone else's house?"
"Sister," Liu Jian lowered his voice and said sadly, "I want to go home."
"Can you go back?"
“I can’t go back.”
"Then it's over, isn't it?" San Ya felt that she had never said so much nonsense before. "If you can't go back, just stay here and make a good living so that your parents can rest assured."
"Okay." Liu Jian nodded. "I'll listen to you, sister. My father said that if I have any problems, I should go to your father. So, sister, can I come to your house?"
San Ya: "That won't work. My mother is pregnant and not feeling well. I have to take the trouble to entertain you. When she gets better, I will take you to my house to play."
"Okay." Liu Jian said obediently.
"Don't worry, there are so many people here. My dad knows you best, so he'll definitely be partial to you. Besides, I'm here. If anyone bullies you, tell me!"
San Ya said that she is the eldest sister and has the greatest responsibility, and she can do everything.
But one dares to brag, and the other dares to believe it.
Liu Jian looked at her with immense trust and blind admiration.
"Okay, go back to study."
Liu Jian went back, looking back every few steps.
Xiao Yan suddenly had an idea and encouraged San Ya, "Since you are the boss, you should act like one. If you can even say 'playing the lute to a cow' as 'playing the lute to a donkey', how can others believe you?"
"Dad, I want to ask, why is it okay to play the lute to a cow, but not to a donkey?"
May I ask, what did the donkey do wrong?
Xiao Yan has a headache.
"You'll understand if you learn more."
"Dad, you don't know either, do you? You've learned a lot!"
Xiao Yan frowned, "Alright, you should go listen to the teacher's lecture too."
The teacher is very strict because he has received the emperor's order. Even though they are the sons of the emperor and the phoenixes, they can still be punished with a ruler if they make mistakes.
Those rulers were bestowed by the emperor himself.
If he treated them like this, he would naturally not be polite to San Ya either.
So poor San Ya was spanked on the hands almost every day at the beginning.
She didn't feel much pain, but she had to save face!
In particular, Liu Jian was not beaten as often as she was, and he would come to comfort her every time.
How can I bear that?
She is the boss!
So later on, San Ya became more attentive to her studies.
She is actually very smart and can avoid being punished if she works a little harder.
But she refused to do more.
The biggest motivation for going to school and studying every day is not to be punished.
The emperor would come occasionally and when he saw San Ya studying with them, he would smile and reward her with a set of four treasures of the study.
San Ya smiled on the surface, but felt miserable inside.
It's over, it's over. Before, she always told her father that she shouldn't take advantage of the royal family and shouldn't come here to study.
As a result, now that she has passed the emperor's door, she can't escape!
It's so scary.
Lu Qiniang always heard San Ya mention Liu Jian.
She was a compassionate person by nature, and now because she was pregnant, she felt a little pity for Liu Jian who had to leave his hometown at such a young age.
"You said that the Prince of Yan and the Princess only have this one son. How sad they must be right now. And I heard San Ya say before that the Princess is not open-minded. She always likes to cry, like a beauty made of water. Isn't she crying so hard that she will go blind?"
The emperor has done a very bad thing in this matter, causing family members to be separated.
"You should take care of yourself first." Xiao Yan shook his head helplessly, "The Princess of Yan is not as weak as you think."
What these people appear to be is often very different from what they actually are.
The Princess of Yan was a courageous and resolute woman.
But if she wasn't "crybaby and weak", she wouldn't be able to marry the person she loved.
Lu Qi Niang: “!!!”
Is it really like this?
"Then Liu Jian, could it be that he is also pretending?"
"Looking at it now, it doesn't look like it." Xiao Yan said, "He really loves to cry."
Lu Qiniang: "...Have I been led astray by the princess? I must be more careful in the future."
Can't lead her child astray.
Xiao Yan said: "Don't worry, I'm here. If he gets crooked, I'll fix him."
If it was a daughter, forget it, I couldn't bear to let her go.
If it were a son, he would be spanked to pieces if he dared not to study hard.
"You can only say harsh words now, but when you see a little bitch, how can you bear it?"
Anyway, she can't bear to do that because she spoils her child.
She hoped it was a daughter. After all, she had not raised her daughter in the wrong way by following her previous method of raising her.
But she wasn't sure about raising a son the same way she raised a daughter.
Time quickly came to the end of the January month, the New Year atmosphere gradually faded, spring was approaching, and everything began with new hope.
Zhang Heyao came out of the flower hall where the palace held meetings and stood in the corridor. When the wind blew, he realized that it was still very cold outside.
Just now, he had been arguing with the heads of various departments in the duty room, haggling over some old outstanding debts. He was exhausted and his forehead was slightly swollen.
At this moment, the chilly wind not only did not make him feel awake, but an indescribable fatigue seeped out from between his bones and weighed heavily on his heart.
He subconsciously gathered his cloak and looked into the distance.
The palace walls are majestic, and the glazed tiles have a cold and hard luster under the thin sunlight of late winter.
The branches of the ancient trees in the yard are gnarled and have not yet sprouted new buds. Only a few dead leaves are stubbornly hanging on the tips, shivering in the wind.
In the cracks of the blue bricks and stones under my feet, a few clusters of tiny grass buds timidly poked their heads out, stained with a very light green. They are the messengers of spring, but they also look particularly thin and fragile.
Is this the position and glory he has been striving for with all his efforts?
The Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue was in charge of the country's finances and held a high position of power. Just after the New Year, he became the busiest "accountant" in the account books of this vast empire.
At the end of the year and the beginning of the next year, people check accounts, reconcile accounts, collect payments, and make payments, while dealing with the six ministries, five temples, and various prisons. Behind every number are the thoughts and calculations of countless people.
A deep feeling of fatigue, mixed with an indescribable emptiness, quietly spread.
This painstaking pursuit of fame, wealth and power, working day and night, exhausting all his energy, even at the risk of... at the risk of disappointing Lu Qiniang... is it really worth it?
Taifu Lu and Taifu Xie, a humble family and an aristocratic family, two towering mountains stood above the court.
Zhang Heyao prides himself on being smart and capable, and just wants to survive in this gap, gaining a foothold based on his own abilities, without bias.
But in the eyes of those who have already formed clear barriers, "not taking sides" itself is already a sin.
Every reconciliation of accounts and every political discussion is like walking on thin ice. Not only do we have to settle the accounts, but we also have to carefully avoid those invisible minefields.
Just now in the duty room, there were only a few discussions about the allocation of local taxes, and Tutor Lu's students and Tutor Xie's old friends were already arguing with each other. He mediated, carefully choosing his words, and spoke until he was dry-mouthed, but all he got was a temporary cessation of hostility between the two sides.
That invisible pressure is more suffocating than mountains of account books.
The cold wind swirled the remaining snow foam and hit his face, chilling him to the bone.
He closed his eyes slightly and took a deep breath of the clear and solemn air.
He knew he couldn't go back.
So, the only thing is to move forward.
"Sir Zhang." A flattering voice sounded behind him. It was a minor official in the Ministry of Revenue, who was always good at scheming and flattering others.
Zhang Heyao doesn't like him.
It’s just that this person has no self-awareness and always gets in front of him.
So Zhang Heyao just said "hmm" lightly and wanted to walk out.
Instead, he heard the man say, "Master Zhang, I heard that your ex-wife—"
Zhang Heyao stood firm again.
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