Hongmin and Hongchen went to Xu Shida's residence every day as if it were their daily routine.
Hongchen and Xu Qingxue quickly established a revolutionary friendship.
Although Xu Qingxue is young, smart, and good at reading, she is just like Hongchen at heart, with a playful nature.
Xu Shida usually cherished her and doted on his granddaughter, so he always tried his best to meet her requests, which led to her being somewhat carefree.
That's not...
As autumn approached, the crickets chirped louder and louder. Xu Qingxue had caught four or five of them from somewhere, just waiting to compete with Hongchen.
The stakes for cricket fighting were the homework assigned by Xu Shida.
Whoever loses has to write for the other person.
Hongchen originally wanted to recruit Hongmin, but Hongmin showed no interest whatsoever. He even thought the crickets were too ugly and didn't want to look at them at all, which made Qingxue think he was a weirdo.
"Great General! Charge! Go for it! Go!"
"Tch, your Mighty General is no match at all. Look at my Unbeatable General! It's already won several rounds!"
In the yard, two little kids squatted on the ground, heads close together, sticking their little bottoms out and shouting enthusiastically.
There were two large, black crickets in the basin, fighting fiercely. The outcome was decided in the blink of an eye. By the time Hongyan arrived, the battle was over.
"Hahahaha!" Xu Qingxue clapped her hands happily. "How about it? My Hundred-Victory General is still more powerful! Your Mighty General is not mighty at all, it always loses. Hongchen, I think you should hurry up and change to a different one, otherwise you will have to do all my homework for me this month."
Hongchen curled his lip: "Tch, what's so smug about that! I was just letting you win, otherwise you would have cried again. You crybaby, you always cry when you lose and laugh when you win!"
Xu Qingxue retorted, "Aren't you the same? You're happier than anyone else when you win, and you even said my Hundred-Victory General is trash. Now I'm laughing at you too! Hehehe!"
"You!" Hongchen turned his head away angrily, not wanting to talk to her anymore.
Hongyan watched his sixth brother with great interest, silently counting "three, two, one" in his mind.
After counting to three, Hongchen turned around, seemingly having completely forgotten their earlier conflict, and took Xu Qingxue's hand, saying, "Let's go, I'll show you something even more fun."
Xu Qingxue successfully diverted the attention: "What's more fun?"
Hongchen said smugly, "I stole my third brother's slingshot. Let's go bird hunting later!"
Xu Qingxue was somewhat surprised: "You can also use a slingshot?"
"Of course, but my mother said we can't hit people. We can only shoot birds."
"Sure!" Xu Qingxue was delighted, her smile particularly bright. "Let's give it a try."
"Cough cough."
Just as the two little ones were about to leave, they suddenly heard someone coughing.
Hongchen turned around and saw his third brother's familiar figure. He smiled awkwardly and whispered, "Brother...brother, you're here."
Hongyan tapped his forehead: "You naughty boy, if I hadn't come, I wouldn't have known you took my slingshot. Didn't you promise Mother you wouldn't play with it secretly anymore?"
Hongchen quickly waved his hand: "No, no, I just wanted to show Qingxue, she's never played with this before."
Qingxue was a little afraid of Hongyan's aura. Although this older brother seemed easy to talk to, she just didn't dare to speak to him freely, just like a young beast has a natural fear of a king.
Hongyan didn't scold him much, only saying, "Alright, be careful when you go back to the palace tonight, your father will ask you questions about your studies. You still need to review what you need to review."
Upon hearing this, Hongchen could only lower his head and nod dejectedly, saying to Xu Qingxue, "I'm sorry, I can't accompany you to watch the bird hunt today."
Qingxue asked curiously, "Is your father very fierce?"
Hongchen thought for a moment and nodded: "Father is sometimes fierce and sometimes kind. We are all afraid of him. No, apart from Mother, no one is not afraid of him."
Qingxue looked a little envious: "It's so nice to have a father."
Hearing her say that, Hongchen asked curiously, "What about your father? What's he like? Does he swear? Is he fierce? Is he like Xu Anda?"
Qingxue shook her head, a hint of disappointment flashing in her eyes: "I don't know. I've never seen my father, and I don't remember my mother. My grandfather said that my father went to a very, very far place, and my mother has her own life now."
"Huh? Your dad went to a very far place? How far? My fourteenth uncle also went to a very far place. He went to become a great general. Do you know what a great general is? He's someone who leads troops into battle. Is your dad that capable too?"
Hong Yan naturally knew what was going on. Hearing Hong Chen's heartless words, he twitched his lips and wanted to stop him from rubbing salt into the girl's heart, but he couldn't say it out loud at this time, so he was in a bit of a dilemma.
Qingxue was young and didn't quite understand matters of life and death. She only knew that since she had memories, there had only been her grandparents in her family.
So when she heard Hongchen's words, she naturally assumed that her father must have gone to a distant place to become a general.
"That must be it! My grandfather said that Father might not come back for a very long time. Does becoming a general mean he can't come back?"
"Wow! Your dad is amazing! The Great General is the most impressive!" Hongchen quickly gave a thumbs up. "Qingxue is awesome!"
The two children then began discussing how the general fought battles and how he rode horses into combat.
Hong Yan sighed.
Xu Shida, who was not far away, also had tears in his eyes.
His son... will never come back.
Chengqian Palace...
Hongchen told Changning about what had happened at the Xu residence that day, his face beaming with excitement.
"Mother, do you know? Qingxue's father is just like Guo Luoma! They both lead troops into battle!"
"Huh?" Changning was stunned. If she remembered correctly, Xu Anda's only son should have died suddenly after passing the imperial examination.
At the time, Yinzhen felt it was a pity, after all, he was a rare talent, and his ranking in the examination was not low, it seems that he was either the second or third place, it's just a pity that he didn't live long.
However, she didn't say it out loud, as she couldn't bear to let her child be exposed to the truth about life and death so early.
However, Hongmin remained very calm: "Sixth brother, she didn't say her father was a general, she only said that her father went to a very far place. Generally speaking, this kind of talk is used to deceive children."
"What do you mean, 'fooling children'?"
"Her father should be dead. The idea that he went to a very far place or turned into a star is all false."
Changning was truly stunned.
How does Hongmin know so much? And isn't he too precocious?
Can a five-year-old child be so calm about life and death?
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