Chapter 332 People from My Hometown
As spring arrives and flowers bloom, some families in Beijing are holding spring banquets and flower-viewing parties.
Sheng An received several invitations and attended a few after consulting with Xu Jinnian. At the banquets, she met many ladies and young women.
Attending these kinds of banquets too often actually gets boring. Most people aren't there to have fun; they're mainly there to solidify relationships, build connections, and kill time.
Therefore, even if she felt bored, Sheng An would still participate.
To be realistic, if Xu Jinnian hadn't been valued by Emperor Jinghe, she wouldn't have received so many invitations given her position as a seventh-rank compiler.
That day, Sheng An, unusually, didn't make any invitations and stayed home to play with his baby.
Li Tian hurriedly came over to report: "Madam, today I picked up some people from my hometown at the dock and, as you instructed, settled them at the Da Shun Inn in the south of the city."
Half a month ago, Xu Jinnian received a personal letter from the clan chief, saying that he had sent someone to the capital to collect the bodies of Xu Huaining and his son, and hoped that Xu Jinnian could help settle the messenger.
To estimate the arrival time of the person, Xu Jinnian instructed Li Tian to wait at the dock every day. They waited for three days before the person arrived.
Sheng An asked, "How many people came? How are they?"
Li Tian replied, "Three people came. The leader is Xu Sangui, who can eat and drink well and is in good condition."
Sheng An nodded and instructed, "Take care of these three people for now. Their accommodation and food expenses will be covered by the manor. Tell them to stay here without worry."
Li Tian agreed and went to Aunt Niu's place to collect the money.
In the evening, Xu Jinnian returned home, and Sheng An brought up the matter with him.
Xu Jinnian nodded: "I'll go see him the day after tomorrow when I have a day off."
After saying that, he picked up the little baby who was crawling around on the bed, his eyes full of smiles: "Crawling so fast, it won't be long before he can stand up."
Mentioning this, Sheng An had a headache: "I didn't notice it when she was little, but ever since she started crawling, this girl's energy has been getting more and more abundant. It will be even more incredible when she can walk."
She could almost see the near future, with her daughter running ahead on her short legs while she followed behind, exhausted like a dog.
Xu Jinnian was quite satisfied, looking at his daughter with admiration: "It's alright, we'll hire a martial arts master for her in the future."
Sheng An was surprised: "You want to raise our daughter to be both scholarly and martial?"
Xu Jinnian put down the struggling little dumpling in his arms and watched her adjust her posture and crawl happily like a crab: "Learn some martial arts to protect yourself, so you won't be bullied in the future."
Upon hearing this, Sheng An raised both hands in agreement: "Okay, our daughter can't afford to be at a disadvantage when it comes to food!"
On his day off, Xu Jinnian went out to Dashun Inn, and Xu Chenglin went with him.
He didn't feel it when he was in Qingzhou, but after nearly a year in Beijing, he missed every blade of grass and every tree in Xujiaba and longed to hear the sounds of his hometown.
When a few familiar faces finally arrived, he was eager to talk to them and learn about the latest happenings in the village.
When Xu Chenglin mentioned it to Grandpa and Grandma Sheng, the two elders showed envy on their faces, and they also missed everything about Huai Shu Village.
Seeing his grandparents' reaction, Sheng An couldn't help but feel a little guilty.
If it weren't for the sake of the couple and their children, the grandparents and elders wouldn't have had to leave their hometown and travel thousands of miles to the unfamiliar capital city.
Grandpa and Grandma seem to be adapting well, but they probably miss their hometown all the time and are bound to worry about not being able to return to their roots.
Sheng An knew that words of comfort would be useless, so she could only carry her daughter to her grandparents and ask, "Grandpa, Grandma, Zhuozhuo is nine months old now. Shouldn't we teach her to stand?"
Grandma Sheng, disregarding her sadness, quickly dissuaded her granddaughter from trying to force her to grow too fast: "She's only nine months old. Her legs aren't strong enough to support her yet. You mustn't let her fall!"
Having said that, fearing that his granddaughter would actually do it, he quickly snatched his great-granddaughter away.
Grandpa Sheng chimed in, "You should listen to your grandma. Children will naturally stand up on their own as they crawl. We don't need to teach them. You were like that when you were little."
Sheng An was skeptical when he heard this.
Seeing this, Grandma Sheng's face showed a look of nostalgia: "Back then, your grandfather and I were busy farming and didn't have time to teach you to crawl or stand. You rolled around in the fields every day and gradually learned how to do it."
But things were different back then. An'an had hardly ever drunk milk since she was little, so her health was much worse than other children.
Other children can crawl at seven or eight months old, but An'an didn't start until she was ten months old, and she didn't learn to walk while holding onto the wall until she was a year and a half old.
Ultimately, it's because those two old folks are useless and incapable of raising An'an properly that she was always a few months slower than other children when she was little.
Looking at her great-granddaughter who is being pampered, she always feels that she owes An'an a lot, and that she was not able to work harder to make An'an's childhood better.
Sheng An didn't know what the old lady was thinking, but she also felt that this body had a strong vitality: "Then my self-learning ability is quite strong."
After saying that, he reached out and pinched the little dumpling's restless chubby hand: "You seem a bit too fat. Have you been eating too much lately? You should eat less in the future, so you don't become a little fat pig."
Sheng An remembered that when Yu Bao was this size, she didn't look like this chubby and round little thing.
The two elders loved to hear this and said in unison, "Being able to eat is a blessing; how can we skimp on a child's food!"
Fearing her granddaughter wouldn't believe her, Grandma Sheng added, "It's perfectly normal for a child this age to be a little chubby. When we take Zhuozhuo out, everyone will praise how well we've raised her!"
Hearing his grandmother say that, Sheng An felt a little proud: "It's all thanks to my good cooking skills that this girl isn't picky about food."
Before, when she was exclusively breastfed, she didn't look chubby at all. But since we started introducing solid foods, she's become noticeably rounder.
While chubby children are cute, being too fat is not good either, as it can affect their normal development.
Unsure if the little one was overweight, Sheng An promptly took him to a nearby clinic to consult a doctor.
Only after receiving the reply that "the baby is doing well and there is no need to reduce its food intake" did she feel relieved enough to take the baby home.
At noon, Xu Jinnian and his son returned.
Seeing her father-in-law looking radiant and in a good mood, Sheng An felt much more at ease.
Before anyone else could ask, Xu Chenglin began to excitedly recount his meeting with his hometown relatives:
"Since the village established a clan school, the boys who are about to grow up have been able to study, and everyone has more hope for the future. They talk about Jin Nian all the time, and the clan is planning to build a memorial archway at the entrance of the village to inscribe Jin Nian's deeds."
Of course, the clan had this intention, but lacked the financial resources.
Xu Sangui brought up this matter to test Xu Jinnian's opinion.
If he agrees to build the memorial archway, then naturally a sum of money will have to be spent on it.
Xu Jinnian refused, instead instructing Xu Sangui to convey a message to the clan chief: every penny of tax waived should be used wisely to cultivate more talented individuals, which would truly bring glory to the Xu clan.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com