In a small courtyard at the northernmost end of Dayuguan Town, six children and a girl squatted in a horse stance, focusing their energy on punching, but their eyes kept glancing towards the courtyard gate.
Quan Jinghuai held a thin bamboo stick in his hand, watching the six children, one big and one small, frequently lost in thought, but pretending not to notice.
Actually, it's not just the children; he's getting impatient too. Hong Xiaoduo has been gone with Kaiyang for a month now, and they should be back in the next few days.
Unless, something special is holding her back.
She's even more capable than me, nothing will happen to her!
"Alright, that's enough for today. Cool off and help Tianxuan prepare dinner." Quan Jinghuai said, seeing that the sun was about to set.
Upon hearing their master speak, the six children and the one adult stood up, stretched and moved around a bit, glanced at the courtyard gate, and then went about their business.
After parting ways with Hong Xiaoduo that day, we arrived in this town. Since we weren't going to be there for just a day or two, we simply asked the people in town if there were any vacant courtyards available for short-term rental.
So they arrived here. The courtyard was small and had been deserted for a long time, so it was quite desolate. The person who was looking after the courtyard on behalf of his relative had no one to buy it. Since there were short-term rentals available, and the renters had their own bedding and didn't have to do any cleaning or tidying, they asked for one or two taels of silver. However, Quan Jinghuai thought that one or two taels of silver a month was a reasonable rent for such a courtyard, but Tian Shu insisted on bargaining and managed to get it down to seven hundred coins.
Quan Jinghuai teased Tian Shu, saying, "Now that we have plenty of money, we don't need to worry about these three hundred coins."
Tian Shu said, "Even if we have plenty of money, we should still be careful with it. Why not save as much as possible? No matter how much money we have, it's money that my mother earned with her life."
As a master, Quan Jinghuai wasn't particularly upset about being lectured by his disciple. However, he really wanted to say that it was a bit of an exaggeration to say that his mother had risked her life for it.
Each situation was dangerous, but their mother handled it with ease, barely breaking a sweat, let alone bleeding!
Every time, it's those wicked people who lose their lives and their money!
Quan Jinghuai thought so, but he knew he couldn't say it like that. If he did, the other five kids would join their leader in refuting him.
"Brother Quan, have some tea." Fei Yan went to the eaves, brewed some hot tea, and served it to Quan Jinghuai.
Quan Jinghuai took it and shook his head with a wry smile, saying, "If Xiaoduo doesn't come back soon, I'm afraid I, as her master, won't be able to keep those six little ones in check."
"If I were skilled in martial arts, I would have led them here to wait, so Brother Quan could have gone to the capital to see what was going on," Fei Yan said with some annoyance.
She dared not go to the capital alone, much less wait here with her six children; she felt utterly useless.
"No need to go see her. She told us to wait, so we'll just wait. Feiyan, you don't need to blame yourself. Let's take good care of these six little ones. Don't let her be heartbroken to see how thin they've become when she comes back." Quan Jinghuai had no choice but to quickly comfort Feiyan again.
After joining Hong Xiaoduo and the others, he was no longer the lone wolf who could go wherever he wanted. He had to take care of the younger ones and comfort the older ones.
However, Quan Jinghuai feels that he is now living a more fulfilling life.
He wasn't entirely alone; he had a master and mistress, senior brothers, and junior brothers. He would go back to visit them, but he wouldn't stay by their side all the time.
Master Yu and the others are like a grown eagle, and now there are fledglings under his wings who need his care.
However, what I was doing was what a female bird should do. But what could I do? I wasn't as capable as Xiao Duo!
After dinner was ready, Tianji ran over to call for his master and Feiyan.
On the large round table, there were six dishes and a soup, which looked quite presentable. Tianxuan's cooking skills are becoming more and more impressive.
He also acquired a lot of cooking utensils, including several knives: one for cutting meat, one for mincing meat, and one for chopping ribs. At each bookstore he visited, he would also look for recipes.
However, my cooking skills have been off these past few days; I either add too much salt or forget to add it altogether.
After Quan Jinghuai and Feiyan took their seats, the six children picked up their chopsticks and began to eat.
Quan Jinghuai had just picked up a piece of food in front of him and taken a bite when, sure enough, it was another dish that had forgotten to be salted.
Looking up, Quan Jinghuai saw Xiao Yaoguang chewing her food with a wrinkled face, and guessed that the little girl's food might have been too salty.
Even so, no one present complained, and no one even spat out the unpalatable food.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I'll be careful tomorrow and won't make any mistakes." Tianxuan ate the food that hadn't been salted and the food that had been salted twice, and with a somewhat insincere sense of guilt, she offered a half-hearted apology!
"Second brother, it's alright, it's good that Mother is back." Yao Guang swallowed the extremely salty food in her mouth, not even bothering to bite into her steamed bun, and quickly comforted her.
Yao Guang's words only made Tianxuan's eyes redden.
"Stop holding it in, you're supposed to be the older brother. If you cry, what will happen to the younger ones? Are you even less capable than Yao Guang?" Tian Shu, standing beside Tian Xuan, whispered a reminder.
Tianxuan lowered her head and stuffed steamed buns into her mouth, not daring to refute, saying that Yaoguang had secretly cried several times, and everyone knew that, it wasn't a secret. Only that silly Yaoguang thought she had hidden it well and no one knew.
The little guy woke up with red and swollen eyes, insisting that there was sand in his eyes and that he had been rubbing and massaging them.
Every few days, sand gets into my eyes, and it seems to specifically target little girls' eyes!
"I heard there's a temple fair in that town to the south tomorrow. Shall I take you there?" The atmosphere at the table was a bit tense, and Quan Jinghuai had no choice but to think of a solution.
The six children shook their heads in unison: "Master, let's not go. What if Mother comes back and can't see us?" Yao Guang said on behalf of everyone.
With their mother not around, even their favorite temple fairs have lost their appeal!
When all that failed, Quan Jinghuai was at his wit's end. He figured he might as well let them cry; they'd been holding it in for too long anyway. The courtyard was a bit far from the town, so it wouldn't disturb anyone.
However, one thing did reassure him: at least, even though his six disciples missed their mother terribly, they didn't sneak into the capital to look for her, for fear of getting lost and never seeing her again.
"Shh, listen, there's the sound of a carriage," Tianquan suddenly said, looking up.
The children immediately put down their chopsticks and ran towards the gate of the courtyard.
Yao Guang jumped off the stool the fastest, but fell behind after only a few steps.
Fei Yan and Quan Jinghuai remained motionless, shaking their heads with helpless smiles. Every day, when a carriage occasionally passed by, they would do the same, then hang their heads and turn away dejectedly...
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