Chapter 129.1: Brothers
Chapter 129.1: Brothers
“Grandaunt! Lady Jiao! I have come! I miss you guys a lot!”
Feng Lin screamed as he ran into the courtyard.
Xiao Liulang, who was correcting Little Jing Kong’s homework in the study, shook his hand in surprise, streaking a long line of ink on Little Jing Kong’s homework.
Today, the weather was fine. The elderly woman was currently basking in the sun on the rattan chair in the backyard, grabbing a handful of melon seeds from time to time and crunching on them.
Gu Jiao, on the other hand, was cooking in the kitchen.
Xiao Liulang waited for Feng Lin in the study, but after waiting for a long time, Feng Lin didn’t come to see him.
That silly guy who had always chased behind him from the beginning… finally stopped sticking to him!
After paying the elderly woman a greeting, Feng Lin then went to the kitchen to find Gu Jiao and enthusiastically recounted his trip home this time to her. He took a trip back to Song County by water and met his elderly parents again after a long while. He also met his married sister and soon-to-be-married sister.
At the beginning, in order to support his studies, one of his sisters married a widower as a second wife while the other was promised to a tea merchant who was over half a century old.
Feng Ling could no longer do anything about his older sister who had already been married. Besides, the widower was also nice to his sister, who was already pregnant with his child. The couple was living a good life and were very filial to their parents.
“As for my little sister’s marriage… I canceled it!”
Feng Lin said in a grumble.
“Oh?” Gu Jiao opened the pot lid and added a ladle of water into the pot.
Feng Lin added a handful of firewood to the stove chamber skillfully.
Xiao Liulang watched this scene at the door and felt a throb on his temple. Boy, you’re actually more adept at tending JiaoJiao’s kitchen fire than I am!!!
“That tea merchant is not a good man! He’s already at such an old age too, his son is even older than me! Moreover, his reputation is extremely bad. I heard that he beat up his people at home. I don’t want my sister to get married to such an old guy and suffer, so I returned the betrothal gifts in full to him and canceled the marriage.”
If it had been the Feng Lin in the past, it was impossible to have revoked this marriage. After all, that tea merchant was in cahoots with a local yamen officer. Who could possibly offend him?
But Feng Lin had passed the provincial exam.
He was now a Lord Juren. Not only that, but he also got recommended to study in the Imperial Academy in the capital.
At that time, Feng Lin told the tea merchant, ‘Today, if you agree to cancel the marriage, I, Feng Lin, will owe you one. Otherwise, when the day comes that I become successful, you will be the first one that I will deal with!’
Frightened by Feng Lin’s words, the tea merchant finally withdrew his marriage after much deliberation.
“Technically, I have to thank Liulang. If it weren’t for him, I probably wouldn’t have passed the exam.” Feng Lin was well aware of his own ability. Like Lin Chengye, he couldn’t be classified as a talented student; all his grades were acquired through hard work. But although it was true that diligence was one important aspect, having a good teacher was also very important.
Feng Lin listened on the sidelines many times as Xiao Liulang was tutoring Lin Chengye, and he benefited a lot from it.
“There’s also the Imperial Academy’s recommendation slot. I really didn’t expect Liulang to give it to me. Was he not afraid that he would fail to become a Jieyuan? How risky…”
Feng Lin didn’t know the truth about Steward Liu interfering with the recommendation slot, which only ended in Steward Liu eating a loss himself. He thought that it was Xiao Liulang who personally told the County Magistrate to give the slot to him.
Xiao Liulang would have really wanted to, but his current identity made it impossible for him to bribe the County Magistrate to do his bidding. Fortunately, there was Steward Liu to undertake this task.
Xiao Liulang, who was standing at the door, stared at him with a gaze as sharp as a knife!
Since you came to thank me, what are you doing expressing your gratitude to my wife then?
Feng Lin was chattering nonstop when he suddenly felt a slight chill on his back. He wondered what was up!
Gu Xiaoshun and Gu Yan were out together.
Little Jing Kong looked at the pointer on the sundial in the yard. Usually, both of them would be out for only half an hour (as stipulated by Little Jing Kong), but today, they had been outside for a quarter of an hour more.
Little Jing Kong’s OCD was acting up again!
He frowned gravely.
They had been playing outside for so long! They truly had no sense of time at all!
Little Jing Kong decided to get his two naughty big brothers back.
He knew exactly where they had gone— the orchard near the marketplace, where one could enter freely, but if you picked off the fruits there, you had to buy them by catty. The fruit in this orchard was actually fresh and not expensive.
The grapefruit from there the other day indeed tasted quite good. They should have gone to pick grapefruits again.
Little Jing Kong went to where the grapefruit trees were in the orchard, and sure enough, he saw Gu Yan sitting on a high branch while clinging to the tree trunk with both hands.
But Gu Xiaoshun was nowhere to be found.
Little Jing Kong raised his little head and looked at Gu Yan atop the branch, asking, “Big brother Yan, why did you climb up the tree?”
Gu Yan answered coolly, “Because I’m very awesome?”
At present, Little Jing Kong didn’t yet have the ability to distinguish ridicule and sarcasm, so he took his words as they were.
“But you’re obviously not awesome.” He said in a firm tone.
Gu Yan：“…”
“Where’s big brother Xiaoshun?” Little Jing Kong asked again.
“He can’t climb up himself so he went to get a ladder!” Gu Yan would never admit that he couldn’t climb down, and Gu Xiaoshun went to get a ladder and rope to help him get down.
Little Jing Kong said, “It’s getting late. It’s time for you two to go home. Get down quickly!”
Gu Yan replied, “I’m not coming down!”
Little Jing Kong rested both hands on his hips as he spoke, “Why not? It’s already past your play time! I’m going to deduct your play time tomorrow by how much time you overplayed outside today!” [T/N: This little nanny, lmao.]
Gu Yan stuck out his tongue at Little Jing Kong and said, “If I say I’m not coming down, then I’m not! Why don’t you climb up here and catch me!”
Little Jing Kong really couldn’t fathom the mischievous behavior of his big brother Gu Yan. He himself was just slightly over three years old, but he had already stopped climbing trees, let alone making faces at people. He was a mature child, on the contrary, his big brother Gu Yan seemed to have yet grown up. He really was still a baby!
“Don’t tell me you’re afraid to come down, aren’t you?” Little Jing Kong made a bold guess.
“No, I’m not!” Gu Yan firmly denied it!
According to Little Jing Kong’s close observation, whenever big brother Yan was telling lies, his eyeballs tended to move sideways, or he would look at the sky with both eyes, or avoid making direct eye contact with others.
He just did all three!
“You’re just scared to get down!”
“I’m not! You’re scared to climb up!”
“Why should I climb up there?”
“…”
Gu Yan was choked up badly.
He wondered where Gu Xiaoshun, who was looking for a ladder, went to find it.
Gu Yan’s strength was already running out. He felt that he could no longer keep hugging the trunk. If Gu Xiaoshun didn’t come yet, he feared he would fall down soon.
Just when the atmosphere turned awkward and concerning, Gu Changqing, who was passing by in the vicinity, heard the voice of Little Jing Kong.
It wasn’t that he deliberately went this way, but that this was the only route from the Marquis Ding’an Estate to the military camp. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have met Little Jing Kong last time.
Listening to Little Jing Kong’s voice, he seemed anxious and was as if he was arguing with someone. He paused before urging his horse over.
“What are you doing?” His horse stopped behind Little Jing Kong.
Little Jing Kong looked up and his big black eyes lit up as he said, “Big brother, it’s you! We meet again!”
“En.” Gu Changqing nodded faintly, then asked, “Are you quarreling with someone?”
Little Jing Kong let out a sigh, “No, it’s one of my big brothers in the family. He can’t climb down the tree, so I’m very worried!”
His speech was remarkably alike to those of the adults, “It’s the mischievous child of my family, he climbed up the tree but can’t even get down, it truly worries me to death!”
A three-year-old with the heart of a thirty-year-old. Gu Changqing could feel his eyelid twitching.
He looked up at Gu Yan on the tree, jumped up without saying another word, and carried Gu Yan down.