Chapter 844 Boiling noodles and eating fried dough sticks, it's the Lantern Festival again.
This year, on New Year's Eve, Li San Niang only took Lu Zhu'er, along with Lao Shi and Lao Wu, to the Li family for dinner in the evening, which marked the end of the New Year.
“Mother, Linglan is still at my house taking care of Qiuxiang. Tonight, Luzhu and I won’t be home to keep watch.”
Although Li San Niang was speaking to Li's mother, her eyes were actually looking at Li's sister-in-law.
Looking apologetically at Sister-in-law Li, Li San Niang quickly explained, "Sister-in-law, you've been so kind as to clean the house for me and Lu Zhu'er. Now that this has happened, we can't stay here anymore."
Sister-in-law Li stepped forward and grabbed Li San Niang's hand: "It's alright. If you can, it would be nice if you could come and stay at our house for a few more days during the Lantern Festival."
Li San Niang naturally nodded in agreement and returned the handshake with Li Da Sao's.
Before leaving the Li family's gate, Li San Niang spoke to Li Da Xiong: "Brother, I heard from Mr. Bu Ke that more people have been assigned to protect our house. The Jinwu Guard has also been notified to patrol our street more often."
Even though it's the Lunar New Year, after what happened last time, the person behind the scenes probably won't send any more assassins.
It's still best to be cautious. Eldest brother, please tell Father and Second Brother about this later."
Brother Li nodded, and Third Sister Li lowered her head, saying in a muffled voice, "Now it seems that I was lucky to have moved out of the house a long time ago. If you had been implicated because of my affairs, I would have felt really bad."
Brother Li raised his hand and patted the top of Li San Niang's head: "What are you talking about?"
We are one family, and we share both honor and disgrace.
We benefited from your position as an official, but now that you're facing risks, do you want to bear them all alone instead of sharing the burden?
"Don't talk nonsense. Come on, your elder brother will take you back."
Upon returning home, the first thing he did was to check on Qiu Xiang. "Linglan, I brought Ping An back with me."
Come on, wash your hands and eat these dumplings, they're still warm.
Li San Niang watched as Lu Zhu'er sat by Qiu Xiang's bedside, holding a bowl, and carefully fed Qiu Xiang dumplings.
Qiu Xiang was young and had practiced martial arts for many years. She received timely treatment when she was injured and is now able to sit up on the bed with her head slightly bent.
Although her face was still a little pale, Qiu Xiang was in good spirits and said with a smile to Lu Zhu'er, who was feeding her dumplings, "Haha, I am so lucky to have caught the eye of Miss Lu Zhu'er and have her feed me."
What Qiu Xiang was talking about was about how, half a month ago, a young man from the boys' academy opposite the girls' academy on Lu Zhu'er wanted to talk to Lu Zhu'er, and specially invited the girls from the academy to drink sweet soup on the street.
Dewdrop wasn't annoyed by Qiuxiang's teasing. She simply put down her chopsticks, picked up a soup spoon, and fed the soup to Qiuxiang.
The time passed quickly as the group chatted and laughed, and the watchman's clapper sounded on the street, signaling the end of New Year's Eve.
On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the Lantern Festival, the imperial guards lifted their curfew and allowed people to travel at night.
For the past two weeks, Li San Niang's house has been bustling with activity. From doctors she knew from the Imperial Medical Bureau to women from the streets who had received her help, people came to visit her, bringing gifts or baskets of their own chickens.
Xu Jingzhen also came today.
His arrival was quite coincidental; Tang Mingyue and Chen Yanfu, along with their two sons, also happened to be visiting.
Song Fuling looked at Xu Jingzhen, who was dressed in casual clothes and came alone, with some surprise, thinking to herself, "This must be the third young master of the Xu family."
"What Dewdrop said is true; he really does have handsome features and is very good-looking."
Xu Jingzhen was already well aware that his appearance could attract the attention of many women, so he didn't take Song Fuling's peeping seriously.
However, Xu Jingzhen, who was already thirty-seven years old, couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "This appearance that everyone thinks is beautiful seems to be nothing more than ordinary in the eyes of Third Sister."
As soon as Xu Jingzhen entered the main hall, he saw Tang Mingyue and Chen Yanfu sitting and drinking tea. Li Sanniang got up and introduced the three of them.
Tang Mingyue and Chen Yanfu are an interesting couple; they understand each other's meaning after exchanging glances.
"Since Lady Qiuxiang is alright, and it seems that you and Luzhu are doing well, I can finally relax."
You don't need to worry about the maternity ward; I can handle everything. If anything happens, I'll definitely let you know first.
"Then Mingyue and I won't bother you any longer. Bring Luzhu over to play sometime when you have time."
After seeing off Tang Mingyue, Chen Yanfu, and their two sons, Li Sanniang and Luzhu'er returned to the main hall.
Dewdrop was very happy to see Xu Jingzhen. As soon as she returned to the main hall, she pushed the food on the table toward Xu Jingzhen.
Then, he chattered away while watching Xu Jingzhen, talking about how scared and brave he was that night, about the taste of the dumplings he ate on New Year's Eve, and kept telling Xu Jingzhen to stay at Li San Niang's house today and eat dumplings with them.
"Uncle, please stay."
My mother said that besides boiling dough balls, she also frys dough sticks to eat.
Dewdrop hadn't eaten with her uncle for a long time.
(It's called "flour silkworm", but the ingredients have nothing to do with silkworms.)
The main method involves using mung bean flour, glutinous rice, wheat flour, and sugar as ingredients, and then adding offal meat to make a soup.
According to contemporary records, the noodles were soft, tender, and elastic, and because they were cooked with meat broth, they absorbed the aroma of the meat, making their texture even richer.
(Oil hammer, similar to modern sesame balls, but a glutinous rice product that is pointed at both ends, thick in the middle, filled with filling, and shaped like a spindle.)
Xu Jingzhen didn't want to refuse Lu Zhu'er's coquettish request, but he also knew that Li San Niang didn't want to have too much contact with him, probably because she was afraid of getting involved with him.
So Xu Jingzhen looked up at Li Sanniang, who was sitting at the head of the table drinking tea. The clever little Luzhu'er naturally figured out who was in charge.
"Mother, Mother, please have Uncle Xu have dinner with us."
Mother, there is no curfew today. Even if we eat late, Uncle Xu can still go home. The gates of the neighborhood are not closed.
Mother?
When has Li San Niang ever refused Lu Zhu'er's request?
"Alright, since we're inviting your uncle to stay for dinner, why don't we all go back to your grandma's place? Your aunt has been missing you a lot these past few days."
"Qiu Xiang's injury shouldn't prevent her from walking a few steps, how about it?"
When Qiu Xiang was called out, she replied directly, "It's nothing. If it weren't for Third Sister's objections, I would have been able to do my morning exercises the past two days."
Li San Niang wasn't worried about rumors spreading if Xu Jingzhen stayed for dinner; rather, she didn't want anything to go wrong, even though they were both officials in the imperial court, and even though they weren't related by connections, she still didn't want any trouble to arise.
However, since Lu Zhu'er likes Xu Jingzhen, and Xu Jingzhen had just visited her after being assassinated, it would be quite nice to take her to the Li family for a meal.
So, they packed up the glutinous rice flour, took all sorts of other ingredients, and drove the carriage, letting only Li San Niang and Qiu Xiang ride in it, while Xu Jingzhen held Lu Zhu'er's hand outside the carriage, and everyone headed to the Li family together.
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