Chapter 43 Three Years Later—
Three years later—
In the nineteenth year of Xiantong, Hanze Town
The sky was high and the grass was lush and green. The autumn air seemed to have no effect on the grasslands of the border region. A group of children were sitting around a haystack, playing a game of dropping the handkerchief.
The handkerchief was thrown behind a girl wearing a sky-blue dress. The girl glanced back, immediately stood up, and grabbed the boy who had thrown the handkerchief behind her.
The boy who was caught was quite indignant and turned to the girl, saying, "No, Mu Zhaozhi, you secretly looked back, and I hadn't even put down my handkerchief before you got up!"
"I didn't!" the little girl called Mu Zhaozhi said confidently. "You're just too slow. I caught up with you in no time."
“You…” The boy’s face turned red with anger, and he seemed even more unconvinced.
“You’re the one who’s slow!” he yelled. “I’m not slow at all! You’re the one who peeked and that’s why you caught me!”
"I didn't peek." No matter what the boy said, the little girl surnamed Mu remained unmoved.
"You lost, you have to accept the punishment!" she said sternly.
The boy was furious and struggled to escape the girl's control, but the girl was stronger than he thought, and he couldn't break free.
"Mu Zhaozhi, let me go!" the boy shouted.
Mu Zhaozhi's expression remained calm; though her small frame seemed to contain an energy that others could not foresee.
Her voice was young, but she looked very mature.
"I won't let you go unless you admit defeat according to the rules!"
The boy refused to admit defeat, and the two remained locked in a stalemate, soon attracting the attention of their friends who gathered around them.
They chattered amongst themselves, splitting into two factions centered around Mu Zhaozhi and the boy. The girls naturally spoke up for Mu Zhaozhi, while most of the boys also sided with the boy on the other side. However, there were also some opportunists who, while seemingly siding with the boy, didn't actually say a word, secretly plotting to join the girls' camp and defend Mu Zhaozhi.
In short, a group of immature children started arguing and chattering, and even the passing cattle and sheep dared not approach them, for fear of being annoyed by them.
They stood under the blazing sun, their feet planted on the green grass, crowded together on the grass.
It wasn't until the arrival of a woman that this war without gunpowder was finally brought to a complete halt.
She was a very beautiful woman—or rather, the children preferred to call her "older sister."
Because she was so incredibly beautiful, even though everyone knew she had already given birth, her fair cheeks, large, grape-like eyes, and her radiant smile always made people think she was still a young girl. The children all felt that even the fairies in the heavenly palace would pale in comparison to her.
"Mu Zhaozhi!" Yunzhu, riding her horse at the edge of the grassland, saw her child caught in the turmoil, dismounted, and walked towards them, asking, "What are you doing?"
"Master Mu!" A boy saw Mu Yunzhu and rushed forward to complain, saying, "Mu Zhaozhi doesn't follow the rules, we don't like playing with her!"
"Disobeying the rules?" Yunzhu was taken aback. She looked up at her daughter and saw that she was calm. She quickly looked down at the boy and asked, "Then how does our Azhi disobey the rules?"
The boy then explained the whole story.
Of course, the "cause and effect" he mentioned was the version where Mu Zhaozhi turned back in advance.
After hearing this, Yunzhu raised an eyebrow and looked at her daughter, then focused her attention back on the boy in front of her.
"So you're saying she turned back beforehand, do you have any evidence?"
"Evidence?" The boy scratched his head and thought for a moment. "We saw it all, isn't that evidence?"
“Seeing is believing, and it certainly counts as evidence.” Yunzhu nodded patiently. “But are you all sure you saw her turn her head? Or are you just repeating what others say because Wu Xiaoyi said he saw her turn her head?”
"Following the crowd?" The boy was too young to understand this idiom.
Yunzhu smiled knowingly: "I will teach you this idiom in class later. Since today we are going to discuss whether Mu Zhaozhi cheated or not, let's have a fair and square competition to determine the result, shall we?"
"A competition?" The children looked at each other, wondering what kind of competition it was.
Yunzhu then said, "Let the two of them compete in running speed. If Mu Zhaozhi can run faster than Wu Xiaoyi, wouldn't that prove that she didn't cheat and is just that fast?"
"Hmm..." That seems like a good idea.
After a moment's thought, the children all nodded in agreement to the competition.
However, Wu Xiaoyi seemed to disagree, muttering, "Even if she outran me, that doesn't prove she didn't peek back just now!"
"I could have outrun you, why would I have looked back?" After confirming the match, Mu Zhaozhi walked up to Yunzhu. She stood straight, raised her chin, and looked back at Wu Xiaoyi.
Wu Xiaoyi paused for a moment, and under the watchful eyes of his friends, he finally walked up to Yunzhu as well.
Yunzhu then set a starting line and a finish line for them, and with a command, she told them to start at the same time.
All the children were extremely nervous, fearing that their chosen team would lose.
The autumn wind blew fiercely across the grassland, more so than elsewhere. They remained silent amidst the fierce wind, and then, not long after, the results of the contest were revealed.
Mu Zhaozhi was the first to reach the finish line.
Mu Zhaozhi won!
The girls all started to shush and stick their tongues out at the boys.
Wu Xiaoyi was extremely indignant, his face turning redder and redder, like a ripe apple on a tree: "My legs are a little sore today..."
He tried to argue, but the girls laughed even louder. Mu Zhaozhi chuckled and ignored him, walking back to her mother's side.
Wu Xiaoyi was helpless. He had lost the competition and lost face. All he wanted to do now was to escape underground.
But Yunzhu is still here. This sister, who looks like a fairy, is Mu Zhaozhi's mother and now also his teacher.
Under Yunzhu's gentle gaze, he lowered his head and returned to the crowd.
With the matter resolved, Yunzhu naturally announced Mu Zhaozhi's victory with considerable ease.
Amid cheers, she didn't criticize Wu Xiaoyi, but instead said to him, "It's not shameful to lose to a girl. Xiaoyi ran very fast today. I just remembered that I need a little helper for tomorrow's class. So, Xiaoyi, how about you prepare and come help me tomorrow?"
“…Alright!” Wu Xiaoyi’s cheeks were still burning, but Yunzhu’s gentleness was so captivating that he couldn’t look away. In no time, he agreed to Yunzhu’s request.
Just then, as dusk began to fall, Yunzhu led a group of children away from the grassland and they all returned home.
—
"Mother!" As soon as they got home, Mu Zhaozhi tugged at Yunzhu's sleeve and said, "Wu Xiaoyi is no good person!"
Yunzhu looked down at her in surprise and asked, "How is he not a good person?"
"He's lying! I look down on him!" The three-year-old girl spoke much more fluently than her peers. Yunzhu sometimes wondered whether this was a good thing or a bad thing for a three-year-old child.
She crouched down, intending to explain to her daughter, when just then, someone else pushed the door open and entered the room.
As Yunzhu turned her head, she heard Mu Zhaozhi call out loudly again, "Aunt Yan!"
It was Ayan who came back, and she brought back a bucket of goat milk.
"Today I helped Grandma Jiang deliver a lamb, and she gave me a whole bucket of goat milk!" Ayan excitedly shared her day's haul with the mother and daughter in front of her.
"Wow!" Mu Zhaozhi immediately ran forward, gazing longingly at the bucket full of goat milk, and exclaimed, "There's so much! Aunt Yan is amazing! Grandma Jiang is so generous!"
"You little rascal!" Ayan tapped Mu Zhaozhi's little head and asked her curiously what she and Yunzhu had been talking about.
Yunzhu wasn't in a hurry for the child to speak, and watched as Mu Zhaozhi recounted what had happened on the grassland that afternoon in her own words. At the end, she added, "Wu Xiaoyi won't admit defeat, he's bad!"
"Azhi!" Yunzhu finally spoke up, stopping Mu Zhaozhi's increasingly outrageous remarks.
She and Ayan said helplessly, "It's perfectly normal for children to have disagreements. Just teach them well and it will be fine."
Ayan wholeheartedly agreed.
So she carried the goat milk to the kitchen, pouring it into a pot as she said, "Alright, our little Azhi isn't angry anymore. Aunt Yan got so much goat milk today, I'll make you goat milk cake!"
"Okay!" Mu Zhaozhi nodded, and immediately stopped worrying about Wu Xiaoyi.
Yunzhu sighed, having no other choice. She stopped watching the children for the time being and turned to go inside to prepare what she would be explaining to them the next day.
This is Yunzhu and Ayan's third year in Hanze Town, and also the third year since she gave birth to little Mu Zhaozhi.
Before arriving in Hanze Town, Yunzhu and Ayan were completely lost, unsure of what kind of place they had found for themselves. But after arriving in Hanze Town, Yunzhu and Ayan gradually realized that they had come to the right place.
This place has a simple and honest folk culture, and the people are kind and honest. It is famous for herding sheep and horses, and there is also a large grassland. Yunzhu and Ayan bought a house in the town. They have their own yard where they can grow vegetables and flowers, and a backyard where they can tether their horses. Most importantly, after settling down here, Yunzhu finally found the peace she had been looking forward to.
There will be no more frantic rushing, no more frantic running around, no more homelessness, no more pursuers, and no more panic.
She stayed there for three months at first, and after giving birth, she and Ayan decided to stay permanently.
And as it turned out, her choice was indeed correct. Living here for three whole years, the biggest thing Yunzhu encountered was the arguments between neighbors. It was no different from the children's argument just now.
As for becoming a female instructor, that started in the second year.
Although Yunzhu and Ayan left Huanwang's mansion in a hurry, they still took the necessary silver with them. There was nothing in the small town that required much money. As long as they didn't spend money extravagantly, they could live a carefree life without any problems.
There used to be a female instructor in the town who taught the girls to ride horses and shoot arrows. Yunzhu had a good relationship with her, but the instructor left after less than a year. With no female instructor to teach the girls to ride horses, Yunzhu was appointed to take on this responsibility, which also allowed her to earn some extra money for her household expenses.
Yes, at first, she only wanted to teach the girls to ride horses and shoot arrows. As for teaching many children to read, that was a job she only recently took on.
Hanze Town is located on the frontier. Some people in the town speak the Western Regions dialect, while others speak the Central Plains dialect. Therefore, it is convenient for teachers to teach children to be proficient in both the Central Plains dialect and the Western Regions dialect.
In this town today, besides Yunzhu, there is only one old scholar who is fluent in both languages.
The old scholar, who was the children's original teacher, now needs to leave the town for a month due to some matters. So Yunzhu was once again appointed as the children's teacher in a time of crisis.
While Ayan and Mu Zhaozhi were chatting, Yunzhu sat down at the table and opened the children's calligraphy practice sheets that she had collected yesterday.
Three years have passed, and now, her Central Plains script is finally at a level that anyone who comes here will applaud. Yunzhu looked at the children's writing on the table, dipped her brush in ink and was about to put pen to paper when she heard Ayan's footsteps behind her again.
She turned around and saw Ayan acting suspiciously. After closing the door, she dared to whisper to her, "I went out today and heard some news from outside. It is said that the Western Regions have been defeated again this time."
Yunzhu's expectations were met.
In the past three years, the Western Regions have repeatedly harassed the peace of the Central Plains border. At first, the Central Plains court tolerated it, but eventually it could not bear it any longer and sent troops to fight against the Western Regions again.
Over the course of several years of war, the two countries fought back and forth, but in the end, the Western Regions suffered more defeats.
When Yunzhu first met Mu Chenxiao, she advised him not to harass the people of the Central Plains, but he didn't listen at all. Later, when the two countries went to war, she secretly wrote to Mu Chenxiao several times, hoping that he could persuade his father and mother to stop. However, Yunzhu didn't know if he received those letters or not. In any case, she was certain that Mu Chenxiao didn't listen to a single word she wrote in his letters.
Since she couldn't persuade them, whatever happens to them afterward is none of her business.
Ayan quietly observed Yunzhu's complexion. Seeing that her complexion was alright, she crouched down and whispered in Yunzhu's ear, "But I also heard something else. The troops sent by the Central Plains to fight against the Western Regions this time are no longer the Liangzhou Army, but the Huanwang Mansion Army from Yunzhou. The one who personally led the troops this time is... the heir of the Huanwang Mansion."
In a flash...
The ink from the tip of the Yunzhu pen spread out in large patches on the paper...
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