Chapter 821 Five Years Later (Part 10) Xu Jingzhen
Li San Niang watched Lu Zhu, who was kneeling on a cloth mat and chattering away in front of Fang Chengxian's tombstone, as she listened to Lu Zhu recount all the important events that had happened to her over the past six months to Fang Chengxian.
Li San Niang met Fang Chengxian when Lu Zhu'er was less than three years old. The pearl bracelet that Lu Zhu'er is wearing on her wrist now is a gift that Fang Chengxian gave her back then.
Since Lu Zhu'er turned five, Li San Niang sent her to a girls' academy that was specially opened for young girls.
In her first year of school, Lu Zhu'er was mostly picked up and dropped off by Li Erxiong, since most of the Li family members, including Li Sanniang herself, had their own jobs to do.
When Li Erxiong was unavailable, he asked Fang Chengxian, who came to the Li family to see Doctor Liang, to help with transportation on several occasions.
Over time, Fang Chengxian and Lu Zhu'er became good friends despite their age difference.
Not to mention that Fang Chengxian was a generous man. Every year on Lu Zhu'er's birthday, he would give her valuable gifts. Every New Year's Eve, when Fang Chengxian spent the New Year at the Li family's house, he would also give the younger generation of the Li family lucky money. Among these gifts, he would always secretly give Lu Zhu'er a separate portion.
Fang Chengxian used the following words to coax Lu Zhu'er: "Uncle and Lu Zhu'er are the best of friends in the world, so naturally, the best things should be given to Zhu'er."
Pearl, don't tell them.
And what about the dewdrops?
Like a little adult, she patted her chest and solemnly promised, "Uncle, don't worry, Zhu'er will definitely not tell anyone. Mother is saving it all for Zhu'er."
Therefore, when Fang Chengxian passed away, Luzhu cried uncontrollably. Li Sanniang spent a long time comforting her, making her realize that birth, aging, sickness, and death are things that everyone has to go through. She told her not to be immersed in grief, but to spend time with her loved ones while they were still alive. Only then did Luzhu accept the fact that Fang Chengxian had died.
After that, every year on the Ghost Festival and the anniversary of Fang Chengxian's death, Li Sanniang would bring Luzhu'er here to offer incense and burn paper money for Fang Chengxian, while listening to Luzhu'er and Fang Chengxian chatter about their big and small affairs.
After about half an hour, Li San Niang looked at the ashes of the paper money that were drifting away with the wind, and she walked to Lu Zhu'er's side and helped her up.
"Alright, your Uncle Fang is really patient, listening to you ramble on for so long."
The sky has darkened again. Say goodbye to your Uncle Fang; we'll come visit him again next time.
Dewdrop stamped her slightly numb legs and responded to Li San Niang's words. She turned around and bowed to Fang Chengxian's tombstone, "Uncle, I'll come to see you again next time and bring you sweets."
After Li San Niang and the others followed Duo Shou down the mountain, the sky grew increasingly gloomy and terrifying, and the wind picked up considerably, howling in their ears.
Li San Niang declined Duo Shou's invitation to come in for tea to warm up, saying, "It looks like it's going to snow heavily soon, so let's skip the tea and hurry back to the city. If we get stuck in traffic, that would be a real problem."
The clattering hooves seemed to know the weather was bad, and the horses ran much faster than they had on the way there.
Presumably due to the weather, there were far fewer carriages and horses on the official road back to Chang'an. They had been traveling for almost half an hour, and Li San Niang and her companions had only encountered one carriage.
Just as Li San Niang and the others were talking about how there were hardly any people on the road, a lone rider came galloping towards them from about a hundred meters away.
Li San Niang had excellent eyesight. Before the person even got close, she recognized him as an old acquaintance, Xu Jingzhen.
As they drew closer, Lao Shi could see the person on horseback clearly. He turned around and asked, "Third Sister, it looks like Xu Sanlangjun. Shall we stop?"
"Ah, is it Uncle Xu?"
Before Li San Niang could speak, Lu Zhu'er stood up abruptly and looked ahead with a joyful shout.
Seeing Lu Zhu'er's reaction, Li San Niang naturally agreed to Lao Shi's request, and Lao Shi then spurred the carriage to the side of the road and stopped it.
As for why Dewdrop was so happy?
That is thanks to Xu Jingzhen's well-maintained face at her age; she doesn't look like she's about to turn forty in just a few years.
Some people might believe he's in his thirties, especially since he has a beard.
According to Li San Niang, if Xu Jingzhen shaved off his beard and said that he was a handsome young man in his early twenties, few people would doubt it.
When Fang Chengxian was still alive, he secretly told Li Sanniang why Xu Jingzhen had started growing a beard.
"Haha, this is really funny."
Fang Chengxian was someone who could arouse people's curiosity, and Li Sanniang's gossip was stirred up by his words.
"Haha, didn't a group of envoys from small southern countries come to Chang'an to pay homage to the Emperor not long ago?"
Jingzhen was sent to work with the Honglu Temple to manage the envoys. Coincidentally, while he was communicating with the envoys from Tianzhu (present-day India) at the embassy, he was spotted by the daughter of an envoy from Zhenla (present-day Cambodia) who was passing by.
The Zhenla people are different from us; they respect women. The Zhenla envoy was a woman, and the young girl she brought was only fifteen or sixteen years old. Seeing that Jingzhen was handsome, she said she wanted to ask him to marry her.
Haha, haha, after that, Jingzhen grew a beard.
But what should Dewdrop say?
It wasn't that she only loved the handsome young man's appearance. As she grew older, she remained an innocent and adorable young lady in public. Only the Li family knew that she loved those with good looks the most.
Whenever Linglan came to the Li family to visit Xiaoping'er, Luzhu'er loved to stay by Linglan's side and watch her.
Li San Niang asked her what she was looking at.
Dewdrop replied quite naturally, "Mother, I've come to see the beauty."
Dewdrop's words made Linglan blush, but Li Sanniang was overjoyed: "Haha, my son actually knows what beauty and ugliness are!"
But you think your mother isn't beautiful enough?
Mother is so heartbroken. My precious little darling actually thinks his mother is ugly?
Seeing Li San Niang pretending to cry with her head down, Dewdrop was extremely anxious and quickly said, "Mother, in Dewdrop's heart, Mother is the most beautiful!"
No one is as beautiful as my mother!
"They, Pearl, though she may look at them, still love her mother the most in her heart."
Therefore, seeing Xu Jingzhen's face, Lu Zhu'er was naturally delighted to see the beauty arrive.
Sure enough, the person who arrived alone was Xu Jingzhen.
"uncle!"
“Pearl”.
Seeing that Lu Zhu'er was about to get off the carriage, Xu Jingzhen quickly said, "Don't get off the carriage. It's windy and snowing. Go inside the carriage."
"Did you go to see your Uncle Fang?"
Dewdrop was very obedient. Xu Jingzhen said there was no need to get off the carriage, so she obediently stayed on the carriage shaft and talked to Xu Jingzhen.
"Oh, I went with my mother, Sister Qiuxiang, and Uncle Shi, and we were just heading back."
Is Uncle also going to visit Uncle?
Why didn't you come by horse-drawn carriage?
It must be so cold riding a horse.
Upon hearing Lu Zhu'er mention herself, Li San Niang took the opportunity to lift the carriage curtain, exchange a glance with Xu Jingzhen, and nodded.
"It's alright, I'm wearing many layers, and I even have a cloak to keep warm."
Alright, that's enough. You guys should hurry back; it's going to snow heavily today.
I won't be going back to the city tonight; I'll be staying at Duoshou's place for the night.
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