Chapter 157
The strong wind made the big trees outside the house sway constantly, and one of the trees was blown down the next morning.
Lu Jiaxue took Yi Ning to the side room of his study. He asked the servant to find a copybook for her while he went to the outer room to handle some matters.
Seeing him so relaxed, so unconcerned about her refusal, Luo Yining wanted to kick Lu Jiaxue to death. He said she was stubborn, so was he a new person? He'd been that bad temper for years, smiling no matter what anyone said. But in reality, he was incredibly stubborn, and once he made up his mind, he wouldn't change. She said she wouldn't compromise, and that was a sure thing.
After a while, she calmed down her anger, threw the calligraphy aside, and spread out a piece of Chengxintang paper to practice calligraphy.
Sunlight streamed in through the bamboo curtains, and the wind outside was chilly. Luo Yining walked to the window, intending to close it, when he heard someone outside say, "My Lord, Zeng Yingkun has agreed to testify that Luo Shenyuan and his son were involved. But he has a condition: I hope you can spare his students..."
"Let him go?" Lu Jiaxue sneered, "When he sent people to hunt me down, he was very efficient."
Upon hearing this, Yi Ning turned slightly to look outside. Lu Jiaxue sat at the head of the table on the right, with several men in official uniforms standing before him, looking somewhat servile.
Yining's fingers picked up the bamboo curtain and listened quietly.
Although the surrounding furnishings have changed, the house remains the same as it was many years ago. Even the privet tree planted outside is lush and leafy.
"I understand what you mean, Lord. Shall I go back and pass on the message immediately?"
Lu Jiaxue waved his hand again: "Zeng Yingkun still thinks he is the general and is negotiating terms with me. Tell him that the lives of those people are now in my hands. Let him think carefully."
The man just accepted the order and left.
Only after seeing the man walk out of the study did Yining lower the curtain and go back to the table to continue practicing calligraphy.
Soon Lu Jiaxue came in through the curtain and asked her, "What are you writing?"
Walking over to her side, he noticed her handwriting was sharp and beautiful, without any trace of girlishness. Lu Jiaxue's smile faded. He remembered that Luo Yining couldn't write, so she had asked him to help copy the Buddhist scriptures for the old lady. He took it in one hand and saw that it was a piece of "Xiao Yao You".
He didn't like reading. His study only contained military books and maps, but no leisurely reading. Yi Ning was copying from memory.
He said sarcastically, "Your third brother, the top scholar, really taught you well."
Lu Jiaxue suddenly remembered something and looked carefully at Yining's handwriting, which seemed familiar. He immediately became cautious. He grabbed Luo Yining's hand and said, "--Your Third Brother Luo married you. What is your relationship with him?"
Luo Yining said calmly: "I grew up with him, and he taught me to study."
Lu Jiaxue smiled, narrowed his eyes and said, "Luo Yining, I tell you, I can let you go now, but don't let me find out that you have any connection with other men. Otherwise, I won't care whether you have a happy life or not, understand?"
Luo Yining endured it, after all, she couldn't beat him. She said, "I just heard you discussing with your subordinates about Zeng Yingkun's identification of Luo Shenyuan. What? Are you trying to frame a loyal and honest person?"
"Luo Shenyuan can be considered a loyal and good man? You think too highly of him." Lu Jiaxue sat down beside her and saw her standing beside him, wearing a light green calamus-patterned Hangzhou silk jacket and a plain white embroidered skirt. Although she stood straight with resistance, at least she was still standing beside him. His tone was much more relaxed. "Do you remember when I helped you copy Buddhist scriptures?"
"Your handwriting was terrible back then," he said with a faint smile, "I was afraid you would embarrass me if you showed it to others, so I copied it for you."
"I also wrote your betrothal gift list myself."
Lu Jiaxue leaned back on the armchair. This man, who had spent his entire life in the military and held immense power, spoke in an exceptionally gentle tone when he recalled the past, as he had already thought about it countless times in his heart.
"Among my brothers, I'm the worst at studying. Back then, I practiced calligraphy so hard for you, and it really helped me improve. A few days before I married you, I lay under the candlelight..." He pointed at the candlestick, "writing every stroke, you may never know."
"You're talking nonsense!" Luo Yining frowned, her heart skipping a beat for some reason, and she interrupted him, "You didn't even know me at that time, how could it be for me?"
Lu Jiaxue stared at her for a long time, his lips curled slightly: "Are you stupid? If I didn't want to marry you, with your status, it wouldn't be so easy to marry a bastard from a marquis's mansion."
The Luo family she was born into in her previous life was indeed incomparable to the current Luo family. Her father was the governor of Shunde Prefecture, but he was only a fifth-rank official.
She knew it wasn't easy... At the time, her stepmother wanted to marry off her younger sister, and it was only after she had acted politely and softly in front of her grandmother that she finally agreed. But thinking back, her grandmother had indeed agreed too quickly, and her stepmother's face always looked grim when she went to pay her respects.
"I've seen you before." He looked a little further away. "At the Shunde prefect's house. You were only fourteen at the time, with your hair in a double bun, and you were with your younger sister and your older sister. You probably don't remember, but at that time, there was a three or four-month-old puppy in the prefect's kitchen. It had just been bought, and the puppy was so active that it chewed up things. A servant knocked out its teeth, and it was almost dead..."
He talked about what happened back then.
Lu Jiaxue thought of the girl in the pink, diamond-patterned jacket. Her face, delicate and slender like a peach, shrouded in fine white down, reflected the early winter sun. She watched the puppy being beaten but said nothing at the time. Later, she secretly came back, carrying a small celadon dish filled with goat's milk. She searched the grass and flowerbeds beside the kitchen.
Following the blood trail, she found the puppy, shivering in the bushes, its mouth full of blood. She was still young and full of sympathy. Her hands trembled as she watched, but the goat's milk was placed near the puppy's mouth, and it wouldn't take it. Yining was so anxious she didn't know what to do. Her grandmother didn't like puppies, as they shed fur everywhere. Because of this, the sisters in the family didn't even dare to keep a cat. She wasn't favored by the adults, and no one would indulge her and let her raise one. She didn't dare take the puppy home, so she fed it with a small porcelain spoon.
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