Chapter 67: Gifts
After the rain, the sky cleared.
Jiang Wan changed into that set of male attire.
Jiang Rong also changed his clothes.
He had gone out early in the morning and gotten caught in a little rain.
By lunchtime, Jiang Huaisheng discovered that his son, Jiang Rong, was actually not going to the County School again today.
He pulled out a whip on the spot.
Jiang Rong resisted, feeling aggrieved, and shouted for help.
He ran to his grandmother.
“Father, Father, listen to me. It’s not that I don’t want to go, but I’ve felt lately that there are suspicious people on the street watching me. It’s quite scary.”
Jiang Huaisheng didn’t believe him; this child would make up any excuse just to avoid going to the County School.
The others didn’t really believe him either.
However, Old Madam Jiang spoke up: “Guard Wu Liu is gone. Ronger, your kind heart and sorrow are understandable, but you should take this as a warning and must not neglect your studies because of it.”
With his grandmother having spoken, Jiang Rong could only nod obediently.
“However, those two young masters are in a hurry to return, which shows that the world is indeed a bit chaotic now. Huai’er, write a letter to your sister and ask her to send some guards over,” Old Madam Jiang said.
Jiang Huaisheng felt that it wasn’t good to trouble his sister with such matters. His sister and her husband, the Seventh Prince, already had sensitive identities, and sending guards would draw attention.
But he was a devoted son and always obeyed his mother’s words.
Since his mother had spoken, he could only agree: “I will go and write it now.”
Jiang Wan was very happy to hear her grandmother say she would have her aunt send people over: “Grandmother, Wan’er has painted a picture of us worshipping Buddha at the temple. Let’s send it to Aunt together, so that when Aunt misses you, she can look at the painting.”
Old Madam Jiang tapped her nose: “You little rascal, how could I be that young? It looks more like your aunt. But your aunt doesn’t like worshipping Buddha; she has a very wild temperament. I wonder if she has calmed down a bit now.”
After the rain, the sky cleared.
Jiang Mianmian lay in a wooden tub.
Looking up at the big tree above, there was a red string on the tree, drifting and swaying.
When she got tired of looking, she would look at her little black ant.
The little black ant had brought her red bubbles, helped her bite the Kidnapper, and even rallied a group of ants to try and carry her away.
Now it was even more impressive.
It had dragged a horse to her.
This horse, how should she put it? Jiang Mianmian didn’t quite understand the purchasing power of silver nowadays, but it felt roughly like an ordinary commoner’s family suddenly acquiring a Ferrari.
They couldn’t even afford the gas money…
Surely they couldn’t feed the horse hot pot water every day? Or just grass?
Eating grass seemed okay…
Although her family’s meals were simple, watching the two boys with the fine horse eating with such gusto was something.
It smelled so good she even wanted to have a taste.
Jiang Mianmian really wanted to communicate with Little Black that not every beast that entered their territory had to be kept.
But after the Kidnapper incident, Little Black seemed to have gotten a little smarter and had a stronger sense of autonomy. Jiang Mianmian didn’t even dare to give it spiritual spring water casually; she was worried she wouldn’t grow as fast as Little Black.
Little Black didn’t care if things had owners or not; once they reached its territory, it wanted to keep them.
The fine horse of the young masters was currently tied to the tree. It would go eat a mouthful of wild onions and then come over to sniff Jiang Mianmian.
It was very friendly.
Little Black had newly carved out a nest on the horse’s head.
A little black ant lived on the horse’s beautiful, fluffy mane, acting all cocky.
Quite a few people came to the village.
To watch the excitement.
They hadn’t expected that Jiang Feng would actually amount to something and make friends with important people.
As expected of a young master from the capital, he was generous.
The things he sent were piled up in stacks.
In the village, people would gossip even if someone had one extra blade of grass. With the Jiang Family making such a commotion over the past two days and even hosting guests, the villagers were naturally curious.
However, before, the noble was there, so they didn’t dare to look.
Once the noble left, they all came to watch the excitement.
A-Cui’s Mother was green with envy.
She poked A-Cui’s head hard and scolded: “You blockhead, look at others, how savvy they are. You were saved too, so why didn’t you know to go up and build a connection? There are so many things gifted here.”
A-Cui didn’t dodge when her head was poked, just murmured: “Wasn’t it you who said we couldn’t make it public, that it would damage my reputation?”
A-Cui’s Mother was rendered speechless for a long time. Looking at the white horse, she said: “How can they afford to keep such a big beast? People don’t even have enough to eat.”
Just then, some guards arrived carrying things and said: “My young master’s beloved horse is entrusted to Young Master Jiang. Here are the provisions for the horse. It eats a lot and is picky, so please take care of it. The young master said he will come to retrieve this horse later.”
Only then did everyone think it was reasonable.
This was a horse, after all; how could it just be given away?
It didn’t look like an ordinary horse, either.
So they were just being asked to help look after it for a while.
And he was going to come back to take it away.
Doesn’t that mean the young master from the capital will come back?
The few jealous people in the crowd calmed down a bit.
Everyone looked around out of curiosity. There was no money, just some provisions for the horse. The horse was extremely precious; they heard it even ate eggs. Feeding a horse for a noble—if it got skinny and the noble returned, they might even be punished.
It spread around that Jiang Feng was helping a noble raise a horse and had gained the noble’s favor.
The villagers dispersed to work after watching.
The excitement dissipated.
The small courtyard became quiet.
Jiang Yu had received so many delicious things for the first time and was momentarily bewildered: which piece should she eat first?
She hadn’t expected that there would come a time in her life when she would worry about such things.
Although she was worried, she was so happy.
She couldn’t help but press her head against her sister’s belly and nudge it gently.
“Jiang Mianmian, Jiang Mianmian, you are luckier than me. You are so small and can already taste so many delicious things.”
Jiang Mianmian felt ticklish from her sister’s head nudging her and couldn’t help but giggle.
Jiang Yu happily thought about what to eat.
Jiang Feng was tidying up the gifts.
There were really a lot of gifts, which diluted the sadness of parting.
Of course, only Jiang Feng felt a bit sad; Jiang Yu was too busy being happy.
She was jumping around.
Jiang Mianmian, in her sister’s arms, felt more jolted than usual.
“Brother, they are so generous, why didn’t you go with them? If you went, maybe you would become a general in the future and come back to take us to eat and drink well, with snacks at every meal.”
Jiang Feng’s little bit of sadness was chased away by these words from Jiang Xiaoyu.
“Eat, eat, eat, you only remember to eat, and you don’t use your brain at all.”
Jiang Yu got a knock on the head, but it didn’t hurt at all.
She was very hard-headed.
She laughed: “Isn’t using your brain to live a good life? And living a good life means having delicious food. If I just eat the delicious food and skip the brain part, wouldn’t that work?”
Jiang Feng:…
Jiang Mianmian:…
What her sister said seemed to make a lot of sense, even though she felt something was wrong.
The gifts from Meng Shaoxia and Young Master He Chen were divided into two piles.
The poorer a family was, the more they valued others’ gifts. They all had a little notebook in their minds, keeping track of needing to return the favors.
Their family had only kept the two young masters for one meal—a meal that was very simple for the young masters—yet they had received so many gifts.
They really felt undeserving.
And as for repaying them, what could a family like theirs offer that a family like theirs would need? They might not be able to repay them in their lifetime, which made them feel even more ashamed.
When seeing them off, they gave them each a bag of dried meat. They really had nothing else at home. They gave everything they could, even pulling two handfuls of wild onions and putting them in.
Jiang Feng was tidying up Young Master He Chen’s gifts. The brush, ink, paper, and inkstone were each incredibly precious to him. Besides these, the guards had actually dragged over a milk goat…
While Jiang Yu carried her sister on her back and looked at Meng Shaoxia’s gifts.
She thought Meng Shaoxia was better; the gifts he sent were more to her liking.
So many snacks, floral cloth, and there were even hair ornaments.
She opened the box at the very bottom.
“Ah!” Jiang Yu exclaimed, then covered her mouth.
In the box lay a pair of rainbow-colored embroidered shoes, with a large pearl embroidered on top, dazzlingly beautiful.
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