Chapter 178: New Clothes, New Shoes
A night of wind and cold.
Leaves falling everywhere.
Gong Qichi woke up to the sound of leaves being swept.
“Swish, swish, swish.”
“Swish, swish, swish.”
For a moment, he actually found the sound quite pleasant.
It felt almost healing.
He woke up to find he had changed his clothes, with a new set laid out at the head of the bed.
He suddenly remembered chatting with Brother Jiang late into the night.
For some reason, he had been in high spirits last night and had wanted to talk with Brother Jiang all night long.
Then, the younger sister-in-law sent over a bowl of stewed eggs in the middle of the night.
Gong Qichi appreciated it very much.
They were treating him like family.
He had been rushing about a lot lately and felt his health wasn’t what it used to be.
But he felt very energized at Brother Jiang’s home.
As it turned out, Brother Jiang fainted after eating the stewed eggs.
It turned out they had been stewed with wine.
Brother Jiang had a low tolerance for alcohol.
Brother Jiang was carried back by the younger sister-in-law.
He had felt quite energized after finishing his, but as he walked back to his room, a gust of cold wind hit him, and he actually vomited.
He had vomited up a lot of black sludge and felt like a mess.
He smelled awful.
Then a servant cleaned him up and changed his clothes.
Waking up this morning, Gong Qichi looked at his body and was startled.
It hadn’t been “like that” for a long time.
He had thought that, being middle-aged, he had become calm and devoid of desires.
Yet today, it stood at attention.
This, this, this…
Gong Qichi felt he could rebel for another five hundred years!
He woke up early, full of vigor.
He wore the new robe the younger sister-in-law had prepared for him.
The younger sister-in-law was truly thoughtful; the size was perfect, neither too long nor too short, and the sleeve length was just right.
Perhaps because of his physical habits, his right arm was half an inch longer than his left, so ready-made clothes were never quite right, but this garment fit him perfectly.
It had been made with care, and it was his favorite shade of blue.
A blue that leaned towards black but still held a hint of blue.
Even the shoes were new.
He had vomited so much yesterday.
They had even changed his room.
The shoes were also the right size—cloth cotton shoes that matched the color scheme of his clothes.
The insoles were very soft.
These little details made one feel very comfortable.
Gong Qichi got up, full of energy, feeling that the sun was shining brightly today and everything was good.
Seeing Zi Wenxin emerge from the guest room next door, limping with a swollen face, he was bewildered.
Zi Wenxin had no new shoes or clothes.
Gong Qichi gathered his new robe and smiled:
“San Jin, what happened to you?”
“Old Gong, don’t call me San Jin. I was sparring with Brother Feng and Meng Shaoxia. I got a little too excited. My injuries are light, but theirs are worse.” Zi Wenxin hissed as he spoke, the movement pulling at his wounds.
At breakfast, he saw the more seriously injured Meng Shaoxia, whose eye was as black as a crow’s, looking rather comical.
Zi Wenxin thought to himself that he hadn’t lost; he had finally sparred with this young general famous throughout the capital and had even narrowly won.
As for the birthday boy, that lunatic Jiang Feng, all they did was spar, but he had started biting people the moment they disagreed. He was crazy and terrifying…
He had been so startled yesterday that he had accidentally used hidden weapons.
He couldn’t help it; he was a scholar. It was normal for a scholar to have a few extra tools and a bit of cunning.
Jiang Feng had been injured by him too; he had won by being treacherous. In war, there is no such thing as being too deceitful, and for a scholar, playing dirty didn’t count as cheating.
Zi Wenxin was still making excuses for himself when he looked up and saw Jiang Feng approaching. He looked fresh and radiant, walking with the grace of a jade tree in the wind. His eyes weren’t swollen, his face wasn’t bruised, and he wasn’t limping.
Impossible, absolutely impossible. He had used hidden weapons yesterday and had seen him get hurt.
“Brother Jiang, you aren’t injured?” Zi Wenxin asked in disbelief.
“I was, but I recover very quickly. I used to get injured often and would be fine after resting for two days. The worst time, I was nearly dead, but I was fine after sleeping for one night. Perhaps the heavens favor me specially,” Jiang Feng smiled.
Zi Wenxin:…
Meng Shaoxia:…
The breakfast was very rich.
Zi Wenxin found the breakfast very much to his taste.
It was just that the young Madam Meng seemed dissatisfied with him and kept glaring at him.
For some reason, he felt a chill down his spine.
Gong Qichi and Zi Wenxin still had official duties, so they left with the band early in the morning.
Originally, the nine of them had relied on selling their looks and their art, unable to control their own fates, but they hadn’t expected to be packaged up and lent out.
The young master had said they were on a business trip, going out to run errands with subsidies—daily travel, meal, and accommodation allowances. Calculated this way, they were earning several times their monthly wages for every day they were out.
They were even provided with guards to accompany them.
In the past, they had always felt that leaving the mansion meant being given away or sold to the next master, never knowing if the new master would be human or a devil.
Now, they were actually just being “lent out” and could come back…
There were even subsidies…
And guards were provided…
It felt simply magical…
When saying goodbye to the young master, several of them felt a strange sense of reluctance.
They put on these robes, as if covering the dust of the past.
With their spines straight, they walked onto a different path.
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