"Hey Qian, when are these two going to stop shopping? Don't they get tired?" Chang Yuanlu muttered to his companion after following them around for half the day and still eating a few sesame cakes outside Jinghua Restaurant.
The other was Yan Qian, who glanced at him upon hearing this and said, "If you're tired, you can go back to the manor first, or find a place to rest. I don't think you're planning to work here anymore? What's with all this whining from a grown man?"
He also knew that Chang Yuanlu was not a bad person, it was just that his mind was sometimes a little dull.
Last night, most of the guards in the mansion were sent out on errands by the master. Although the official story was that the master had finally found his grandson, a great joy, and he wanted to inform his close friends and relatives from all over the country to bring them to the capital.
Yan Qian, however, felt that this was absolutely not the case.
He didn't know, and couldn't guess, exactly what Yin Tou and the others were doing outside the manor.
"Brother Qian, what's wrong with you? I didn't say anything. Can't we even chat casually among brothers?" Chang Yuanlu muttered quietly.
It's good to work for Lord Wei. When he goes out on official business, he won't be given the cold shoulder or be secretly called a lackey. He doesn't want to leave.
Yan Qian gently shook his head. He had already given the necessary reminders before, and some things were left unsaid.
Seeing the two people, one big and one small, sitting down at a glutinous rice ball stall, Yan Qian also pulled over and stopped.
The steward had instructed us before we left the manor that we should just follow them and not disturb them unless someone dared to bother us.
Hong Xiaoduo ordered two bowls of glutinous rice balls from the stall owner and sat down at a small table with Kaiyang to wait.
She watched as the nearly seventy-year-old stall owner kneaded the glutinous rice balls and put them into a pot to cook. He then took out a large bowl, and soon two bowls of glutinous rice balls were served to the two of them.
The round glutinous rice balls are topped with osmanthus honey, and the aroma of osmanthus fills the air.
Kaiyang, who had been silently resting his chin on his hand, picked up a spoon, scooped up a glutinous rice ball, blew on it, and took a bite. The sweet aroma of osmanthus honey on the outside and the sweet aroma of peanut and sugar filling inside blended together in his mouth.
"The sesame balls I ate this morning were sweet, and this one is sweet too. I ate two kinds of sweets today," Kaiyang said to Hong Xiaoduo after finishing a glutinous rice ball.
He remembered that Hong Xiaoduo had told the seven of them that sweets were delicious, but they shouldn't eat too many, as it was bad for their health.
"Because eating sweets in moderation can make people happy," Hong Xiaoduo said with a smile, understanding Kaiyang's meaning.
Kaiyang stirred the glutinous rice balls in his bowl and whispered, "I didn't really have a choice, did I?" Before he finished speaking, his eyes were already red.
If he was abandoned by his family, if his family members were unkind, if his mother had other children besides him, if they had long forgotten him and were all doing well, then wouldn't he have a reason to choose not to stay?
But that's not the case.
Kaiyang remembered the way his grandfather looked at him when he first met him, the tone of his voice when he spoke to him, and his gray hair.
In that town, when the mentally unstable mother held him tightly, her face was pale, filled with joy and anxiety. She had cut her neck with a shard of porcelain, hoping to see him again.
During this period, after regaining her senses, her gaze towards herself was filled with joy in the first morning, and with reluctance and fear of not seeing him the next day in the evening.
Upon hearing the news from the household that Tong'er had been found, the mother looked at her with heartache, reluctance, and longing.
Kaiyang now seems to understand the inner turmoil and contradictions she has been experiencing lately.
This mother never accepted the fact that Tong'er was no longer alive.
Furthermore, Hong Xiaoduo also told him that when her mother entered the mansion yesterday and saw the child, she felt very distressed and guilty, and explained why.
It turns out that whether it was the moment she saw him or after hearing the news that Tong'er had been found and was already in the mansion, she always hoped that she was her Tong'er.
How could he bear to disown a mother like that?
And then there's my grandfather; at his advanced age, he also had it so tough.
"Actually, don't overcomplicate this matter. Keep it simple. Now that you know your background, just go back to where you were originally."
You don't need to worry. Once you're back to being a child of the Wei family, it has nothing to do with us anymore.
Our relationship isn't over just because we've separated, and we're not strangers anymore. We'll meet again in the future, and you'll always be the sixth child of our older brothers.
Besides, it's not like you abandoned us for wealth and luxury.
Tian Shu and the others will not only not resent you, they will only be happy for you and wish you well.
To you, your master is like a father for life. Even if you can no longer practice martial arts under his guidance, does that mean he is no longer your master? Unless, of course, you yourself no longer acknowledge him as your master.
We've been through so much together, and the bond between our family members will never fade or be forgotten just because we're apart.
"Kaiyang, do you lack confidence in yourself, or in us?" Hong Xiaoduo took the opportunity to comfort him.
Hearing her words, which touched his heart, Kaiyang's tears fell like beads from a broken string.
The glutinous rice ball vendor was busy mixing the rice ball flour and didn't notice what the two were saying. When he finished mixing the flour and turned around, he saw that the little customer was crying.
"What's wrong? Young lady, you must be his older sister. You can't be like this. No matter what he did wrong, you can't scold him while he's eating."
"You can wait until he finishes eating, then find a suitable place to talk to him properly. This young man seems well-behaved, sensible, and obedient. Talk to him nicely, and he will listen." Perhaps it was because Hong Xiaoduo didn't seem like a young lady from a wealthy or noble family, or perhaps it was because Kaiyang's crying evoked pity, but the old man couldn't help but speak up.
Hong Xiaoduo was about to say, "I understand, thank you, sir."
Kaiyang suddenly looked up, wiped the tears from his face with his sleeve, and said, "She is not my elder sister, she is my mother."
"What? She, she...she's your mother?" The old man looked on in disbelief, his eyes darting back and forth between Hong Xiaoduo's and Kaiyang's faces in astonishment.
Kaiyang then looked at Hong Xiaoduo, staring into her eyes and asked, "Tell me, are you my mother?"
Kaiyang's stubborn, childish question left Hong Xiaoduo feeling helpless, but even more heartbroken: "Yes, of course."
Upon hearing her response, Kaiyang's tears flowed again, and her little face looked even more aggrieved.
Hong Xiaoduo took one look and realized that she couldn't continue eating Yuanxiao (sweet rice balls). She took out a handful of copper coins, put them on the table without counting them, got up, put her arm around Kaiyang's small shoulder, and left the stall.
Passersby saw Kaiyang crying but didn't think much of it. He's just a kid; maybe he didn't get what he wanted and was throwing a tantrum.
Hong Xiaoduo didn't try to stop him from crying; he could just let it all out. Kaiyang didn't care at all whether others would laugh at him, because the tears just wouldn't stop flowing. He wiped them away with his sleeve as he walked.
Suddenly, several people blocked Hong Xiaoduo and her companion's path.
"Sixth Young Master, it's her." The leading man pointed at Hong Xiaoduo and complained to a richly dressed young man beside him.
The man was the same manager who had asked Hong Xiaoduo to order roasted duck at Jinghua Restaurant at noon...
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