Because of Xiao Qing Yan’s unreasonable demands, Xu Chang An hardly slept well all night. The next morning, when the people beside him got up, he had already woken up, but he did not get up as usual to attend to him, but continued to sleep well.
After Xiao Qing Yan came out of the room, Xu Chang An just turned over and looked at the bed curtain on the top of his head and sighed.
Will he live this way in the future? In this small courtyard all his life, facing all sorts of backyard trifles all day long, and occasionally a few women come to his door either because they are jealous or because they are in contention for favor, and them consuming his mood, the argument is just a matter of boredom.
“Those are the future events. At the moment….. how should I make the clothing?” Xiao Qing Yan had spoken to let him do it, Xu Chang An himself did not want to let the yatous know about this, but he knew nothing about needlework, did not know how to start.
He was going to visit Yang Momo today and sent her two good cloths, but now he could only let Dongxue ran by herself.
After breakfast, Xu Chang An let the Wu brothers and DongXue go to Yang Momo's. He sent all the yatous away and shut himself up in the room alone.
Xu Chang An put his clothes flat on the bed and observed them carefully for a long time. The more he looked at them, the more complicated he felt. There was no clue at all.
“Is Xiao Qing Yan deliberately trying to embarrass me?” After careful reflection and thought, Xu Chang An could not imagine where he had offended him. Yesterday, he kindly asked Xiao Qing Yan if he wanted him to arrange for Nanxi to serve him. According to the rules, besides the noble women of good birth, Xiao Qing Yan was required to go to the door and seek an alliance marriage. If an ordinary woman or slave servant in the house were taken fancy by Xiao Qing Yan, Xu Chang An should come out to give them a status.
Xu Chang An felt that he had done a good job and did not know why Xiao Qing Yan was not satisfied. Supposing that he was only temporarily unhappy, and thought of wanting to play a trick on him, but if this was Xiao Qing Yan's purpose, later he would try to torture him in all kinds of names, then his life would be really difficult.
Dongxue went to Yang Momo, and Chunyu was anxious outside the door. She did not know what was going on with her young master; he had shut himself up in the room for a long time. Not only did he not let anyone wait on him, he also did not let her bring a cup of tea in. “Young master? Are you thirsty, young master? Shall I bring you some hot tea?” Before, Chunyu had once touched the wall, it was only a period of 'a piece of incense to burn' passed by, and she could not help it anymore. Did young master suffer any grievance last night? How could he be so abnormal today?
Xu Chang An was upset, it seemed that for a long time, he could not see how, only knew that this thing was much more difficult than reciting a lesson from memory and said it out loud, this was what a woman should do, it was useless for him to waste his brain.
“Forget it, he didn’t set up the due date. I could drag and delay. No guarantee he could just forget it for a few days.”
Knowing that Chunyu was worried, Xu Chang An didn’t ask anyone to come in, so he simply went out himself.
“Chunyu, I’ll take you out for a while. Let’s go to the cloth store and pick out some cloth suitable for you and Dongxue, and pick out some for the yatous in the courtyard by the way.” Hearing that they would go out of the house, Chunyu was naturally happy, seeing her young master did not seem to have any troubling look, she then happily went to prepare.
Seeing Chunyu's excitement, Xu Chang An did not go out in Wang Residence's sedan chair, nor did he ride on his own Flying Snow, but walked directly out of the residence with Chunyu.
Only brought out Chunyu, Xu Chang An could wander around at will, he had not been out shopping for several years, walking around today was also good.
First, he went to the book store with Chunyu, bought a lot of books for people to send directly to Wang Residence, and took Chunyu to a tea house to sit down, intended to drink tea and eat something, and then went to the cloth store.
“Young Master, you heard the storyteller. The story he told seemed to be… the matter of Xu family." In many places like tea houses and wineries, in order to attract business, people like storytellers and jugglers were always invited to do storytelling and performances in the shops to invite customers.
Xu Chang An didn’t pay attention to it at first. He began to pay attention to it when he heard Chunyu's reminder. The old man with white hair seemed to end the story with excitement on his face.
“That Yiniang, dressed in red, hanged herself directly in her own daughter’s room, and I wondered whether she would turn into a terrible ghost and go back to collect her debts. Pitiable and pathetic ah!”
“What’s so pathetic? That Yiniang committed all sorts of wicked things, she harmed the family's Furen to die prematurely, the family’s legitimate son was left to lead a wandering life in poverty outside. She died so clean, it's very cheap of her!"
“Right, right. But the heartless and brainless Laoye is the most hateful. How could he be okay ah?! This is not good! Storyteller, hurry up and talk about what happened to the Laoye; if he had been good, this manners and morals of the time surely unfair!”
Didn’t know what script the storyteller wrote about the Xu family’s affairs, listening to the voice of the people around him, Xu Chang An was curious, and didn’t know if the storyteller was lying, Liu Shi really died? And in Xu YingHui's room?
“Hey, how can this story be the same as that of Xu family? That ill-treated legitimate son of Xu Family has become a Xian Wang Fei ah, what say everyone ah!" A burly fellow just beside Xu Chang An suddenly came to this sentence, and then many people echoed. Xu Chang An had been listening carefully. He really wanted to know the fate of Liu Shi and Xu Family.
“Really! I heard that the unruly Yiniang of the Xu family was really dead. As for how to die, I don’t know, but it seems that the person was not buried, but was carried directly into the mass grave by several servants! Ouch, this person, not to live a lifetime can't be concluded ah, who could have imagined that the former scenery of the people who died so miserable."
Dead… Not even giving her body a place to be buried? Ha, Xu Yongnian… As expected he was really a selfish and self-centered person, not making any allowances for the needs of one’s relatives! Who would have thought that Liu Shi’s death was so miserable, Xu Chang An had no sympathy for Liu Shi’s death, but at the end he was not satisfied! Xu Yongnian, who had done all the wrong things, was still doing well now, merely being Liu Shi’s accomplice yet resulted to such a conclusion!
Sure enough, people who were attached to people… eventually could not live in peace and prosperity.
“Young Master?”
“Chunyu, let’s go.” He did not want to continue to listen, Xu Chang An did not expect to hear about the Xu family again, nevertheless his heart would be melancholic and felt embarrassed to mention, it seemed that he still could not put behind the past.
“Eh, young master, slow down.” Looking at her young master’s sudden melancholy look, she knew that the young master must be sad thinking of the past. Chunyu did not say much, but hurried up.
When he returned to the residence, Xu Chang An didn’t want to go back to his room. He simply went to the martial arts training ground to practice. To tell the truth, he was very happy to hear Liu Shi’s fate! But he was extremely angry and distress at the thought that it might be Xu Yongnian who gave Liu Shi such end! The most damned person was Xu Yongnian, why even Liu Shi’s had fallen into this wretched situation and Liu’s children were doomed to have no future, but Xu Yongnian could still be well?
He really was not reconciled!
“Go!” He usually felt that the residence’s martial arts training ground was very broad, but now it felt like a small courtyard, in a blink of an eye he could gallop all over, absolutely not able to feel contented.
“Be careful, young master, be careful!” Didn’t know what happened to the young master, it was a good news to hear today, it was just right that Liu Shi was dead now. Why did the young master get upset? Young master should not be sympathetic to Liu Shi, right? Impossible!
Chunyu wanted to think about it, but did not know what happened to her young master, she could only anxiously looked at the figure galloping not far away, her eyes had been following her young master, afraid that he would accidentally fell down.
He didn’t know whether it was the feeling of sorry for the horse underneath, or the heart's melancholy, he finally vented his anger more or less. When Xu Chang An finally stopped, his face looked much better.
“Why did you suddenly be unhappy, young master? That Liu Yiniang deserved it. You don't have to feel sorry for her despite your good heart!”
“Feel sorry? Where did you get this idea, you girl? No, I am not. Even if I have a Bodhisattva's heart, I can't produce that emotion for that woman." He did not know what this girl Chunyu was thinking, unexpectedly thought that he was sympathetic toward Liu Shi, in fact, why would he be sympathetic to Liu Shi ah! This was… he had no way for Xu Yongnian, he felt that his mother’s hatred was not really rewarded, his heart was just uncomfortable. Xu Chang An did not know the recent situation of Xu’s family, naturally thought Xu Yongnian was still comfortable as the master of Xu’s family, thinking that Xu Yongnian had just lost Liu Shi as a cushion back, but he was still living an easy life. Xu Chang An then suffocated a breath in his heart, it was a dilemma that made him suffering endlessly.
He was galloping in hot sweat, now that he stopped, he felt sticky, Xu Chang An wanted to go back to his courtyard to take a bath, he went straight back, but did not expect to meet Qinxin halfway.
“Paying respect to Wang Fei.”
“An Cefei can forego with formalities.” The stud-farm of Wang Residence was going through the back garden, and Xu Chang An met Qinxin in the back garden. Today, Qinxin was accompanied by only one girl and no one else, not even Minyu, who had always been inseparable from her.
Since Minyu’s uprising, Xu Chang An had made a point of moving Qinxin to another courtyard, and now she was no longer living close to Minyu. Now remembered that the place where Qinxin now lived was quite close to Nanxi’s Tongxin Garden, which were two adjacent courtyards.
“Wangfei, Qinxin has one thing to ask for, but also hope that Wang Fei can fulfill.”
“What is it? Say it.” Unexpectedly Qinxin would have something to ask for him, Xu Chang An really wanted to know. Wasn't this Qinxin always had an appearance of lacking desire and demand, and knew her place? In this Wang residence, what she wanted was nothing but the love of Xiao Qing Yan, but he could not help her with this ah.
“Wang Fei, my milkmaid recently sent letters to Wang Residence, hoping that I accept their family into the residence. She was very fond of me since small, and even my wedding dress was done by her and my Yiniang. Since I got married, my mother (1) had arranged for the milkmaid family to move out, but the family had a hard time in the small village and milkmaid was getting older. I wanted to take them over and hope that Wang Fei would be all right with it." Qinxin said to here and she already went down in obeisance toward Xu Chang An. Xu Chang An let Chunyu lifted the person up, he did not think much directly agreed.
“It’s not a big deal either. You can pick them up. Able-bodied men can do work in the outer courtyard, and women are arranged in your own courtyard."
“Thank you, Wang Fei! Thank you, Wang Fei!” Qinxin was thankful, her thanks was filled with excitement.
Xu Chang An didn’t think it was a big deal. He answered the person and went away. However, he didn’t know why so many things happened today. He had not taken two steps, but he was stopped by a yatou to be brought to Nanxi's place.
Xu Chang An didn’t understand what Nanxi wanted to do looking for him, but he didn’t follow the yatou to Nanxi's courtyard. Originally this was not a big deal. In the past, to see people were all right, when he was just ready to answer the people’s words, suddenly he remembered what Xiao Qing Yan had said to him.
Xiao Qing Yan said, when he was not there, he (XCA) had better not meet with Nanxi alone.
(1) not Qinxin's birth mother, but she was obliged to call the step-mother (formal wife) mother. Her birth mother is the Yiniang.