Chapter 434 A Final Reunion (Second Update)
"Female benefactor? Are you a monk?" Princess Xinyang looked at him strangely.
Little Jingkong shook his head: "Hmm... I used to be, but I've gone down the mountain now! I'm not a little monk anymore!"
Princess Xinyang said, "Then I cannot call you benefactor."
Little monk: "Oh."
Seeing that familiar little expression, Princess Xinyang hesitated for a moment, then looked at the little guy and said, "You are Gu Jiao's...brother?"
Having investigated her, I naturally know who's in her family.
“Yes! My name is Jingkong!” Little Jingkong nodded. “You’re the mother of my bad brother-in-law, right? I’ve seen your portrait.”
He asked Jiaojiao, "Who is the fairy in the portrait?" Jiaojiao replied, "She is the mother of the little brother in the portrait."
The young man and his bad brother-in-law look so alike, they must be brothers at first glance!
Since she is the mother of the younger brother, then naturally she is also the mother of the bad brother-in-law.
He's just that smart!
Princess Xinyang's attention was drawn to the term "bad brother-in-law," and she neglected to ask him where he had seen the portrait.
“Bad brother-in-law?” she said.
"Hmm!" Xiao Jingkong put away the marbles, sat down on the small stool in front of the bed, and said earnestly, "You must have had a hard time raising such a troublesome son, it must have been exhausting."
"Not...worry-free?" Princess Xinyang was completely confused. It took her a while to realize that the bad brother-in-law he was talking about was probably Xiao Heng.
Xiao Heng was mischievous as a child, but he became much easier to manage as he grew up.
There is no child in the world more obedient than him.
Xiao Jingkong nodded: "Yes, that bad brother-in-law is such a worry. I have to worry about his health and his grades."
Children's logic is limited by their local context. Some phenomena that seem incomprehensible to adults are often overlooked or accepted by children. For example, if Xiao Liulang has a mother who seems to be very wealthy, why did he live such a hard life in the countryside for so long?
Seeing Princess Xinyang's silence, Xiao Jingkong assumed she hadn't understood and explained, "Look, your bad brother-in-law's leg is injured. He was injured while saving Brother Feng Lin from the fire. Alas, it's never fully healed, and he's now a little lame. He goes to school with a limp, and many people look down on him. He's always bullied, but luckily he has Jiaojiao."
Princess Xinyang fell even more silent.
Xiao Jingkong complained about his bad brother-in-law, but when he actually talked about him, he seemed to have activated his megaphone spirit and couldn't stop talking: "Back when we were in the countryside, we had to go to school in town. There were no horse-drawn carriages, only oxcarts in the village. In the dead of winter, the roads were slippery and the oxcarts couldn't go. So my bad brother-in-law had to walk to town to go to school by himself, limping."
"Can't we ride in a carriage?" Princess Xinyang asked.
Little Jingkong sighed like a little adult: "Sigh, my family was poor back then. Poverty isn't really scary, do you know what's scariest? It's that my bad brother-in-law's grades were so bad, he was always last in his class, and he almost didn't get to be the top student!"
Princess Xinyang's feelings were originally complicated, but the last sentence completely disrupted her emotions.
How can someone who is last in the class become the top scholar? Are all the students in the class great Confucian scholars like Zhuang Xianzhi?
Xiao Jingkong talked on and on about his experiences in the countryside, mainly complaining about his bad brother-in-law.
For the first time, Princess Xinyang learned about Xiao Liulang's whereabouts over the past few years from other people.
She couldn't imagine that a once-proud and privileged person would be reduced to riding in an oxcart, enduring the sun and rain, the changing seasons, going from being adored by thousands to being ridiculed.
He seemed to have fallen from the clouds into a swamp all at once.
"Jingkong, come here for a second!"
Xiao Jingkong was called away by Xiao Jiangli.
There was no one else in the room, not even Yu Jin. Long Yi was probably hiding somewhere.
He doesn't show himself often, otherwise even Wen Linlang wouldn't be unaware of Long Yi's existence.
Long Yi usually appears in fixed locations, but he is generally not recognized when he is outside.
Princess Xinyang threw back the covers, put on her embroidered shoes, and got out of bed.
A gentle evening breeze, carrying a hint of early autumn chill, tinkled the wind chimes beneath the window.
Amidst the hustle and bustle of the world, the courtyard inside this medical clinic possesses a unique tranquility, as if it were a secluded retreat.
She tightened the collar of her dress, opened the slightly ajar door, and slowly walked out.
Gu Jiao's courtyard is not large; it's a single-courtyard house. The second master specially set aside an open space to build it for her convenience. Even the second master himself doesn't have this privilege; he only has a small, separate room upstairs.
Princess Xinyang came to the corridor and, unsurprisingly, smelled the aroma of sweet potatoes and corn.
She then realized that she hadn't eaten all day and was feeling quite hungry.
She instinctively walked toward the small kitchen that was emitting a delicious aroma.
She didn't actually have to go there herself, but for some reason, something seemed to be attracting her there.
She arrived at the door, and before seeing the person, she heard a crisp sound of a dry branch snapping.
She was a royal princess, who had never lifted a finger in the kitchen and had never even stepped foot in it, so naturally she had no idea what those sounds were.
Only when she got closer could she see the actions of the people inside.
It was a boy dressed in plain white clothes, sitting on a small stool behind the stove with his back to the door. His right leg was stretched out on the ground, and his left leg was bent, covered with a large piece of burlap.
Behind him was a tall, messy, and mottled pile of dead branches. He grabbed two branches with his left hand, forcefully snapped them off by pulling them down on his left leg.
He placed the broken dry branch on his left.
Judging from the height of the pile on the left, he broke quite a few pieces.
A roaring fire was burning in the stove in front of him, and as he broke off dry branches, he would occasionally throw in a couple more.
Because of his injured right wrist, when breaking off a dead branch, he used his left hand to hold the branch on the left and his right forearm to press down on the branch on the right. This movement was very strenuous and easy to dislodge. If he dislodged the branch, he would press down again.
This process is repeated.
He was dressed in thin clothes, but the entire collar at the back of his neck was soaked with sweat.
There was a dead branch that was too hard to break; he tried several times but couldn't break it, and he accidentally touched the wound on his wrist, causing him to gasp.
Princess Xinyang unconsciously took a step forward.
But then, rationally, he stopped.
Xiao Liulang finally broke the dead branch. He didn't bother to wipe the sweat from his forehead. He bent down, picked up the fire tongs on the ground with his left hand, and turned over the sweet potatoes burning in the stove.
Once you've done all that, the corn and steamed vegetables in the pot should be ready too.
He stood up, limped around the stove, and skillfully lifted the pot lid. A cloud of hot steam rushed out. He then found a rag and took out the steamer.
He then washed his hands with the water beside him, turned around, opened the cupboard, and took out two sets of bowls and chopsticks. One set was Xiao Jingkong's personal set, and the other set...
When he had half of it, he suddenly realized something, and his eyes flickered slightly.
His eyelashes trembled; he wanted to turn around but didn't dare.
With a crash, the bowl and chopsticks in his hands fell to the ground.
It had rolled quite far, and his legs were weak. He dragged his powerless right foot forward a couple of steps, bent down to pick it up, when a slender, fair hand reached out and picked up the bowl and chopsticks from the ground before he could.
That's all for now, all chapters are out!
(End of this chapter)
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