Xin Chaoyang dismounted and walked into the courtyard gate. From a distance, he saw Master Xin waiting eagerly in the corridor with his hands behind his back.
"Why are you back..." Mr. Xin walked over quickly when he saw him. After taking a few steps, he noticed that he was losing his temper and stopped quickly. He coughed, put on a solemn expression, and asked, twisting his beard.
"What makes dad so anxious to send someone to call me back?" Xin Chaoyang asked, with a clear look on his face.
Scanned by his son's eyes, Mr. Xin seemed to feel guilty.
"How's the business deal going? It's been half a month..." He coughed and asked solemnly, "The Guan family are all cunning people. Don't be careless and be deceived by them..."
Xin Chaoyang laughed and stepped up the steps.
"That's right..." He raised his eyebrows slightly and said, "I didn't want to bother my father. Since you asked, I will tell you about this business in detail, so that dad can check it..."
Saying this, he stretched out his hands to help Master Xin enter the hall door.
Master Xin immediately became anxious.
"If you're not at this moment, you should go back to your yard to rest..." he said hurriedly.
"Why rest? It's not like I'm going out to do hard work. How can I be so tired..." Xin Chaoyang said with a smile, "I haven't had a drink with my father in a few days. Today is just the right day..."
As he spoke, he ordered the boy beside him to prepare wine and food.
"Your son hasn't eaten for a whole day, but you think I'm an old man and you can still keep eating!" Mr. Xin couldn't help but stamp his feet.
"Awei got into trouble again?" Xin Chaoyang asked, with an expression that showed that he knew why you called me back.
"... There's nothing wrong with teaching the child a lesson..." Mr. Xin said in a low voice, "It's just that we can't deny him food... In this cold weather... it's time for Asafoetida to grow taller again... "
Xin Chaoyang smiled, nodded and said, "I'll take a look," and then walked towards his yard under the eager gaze of Master Xin.
As soon as he entered the courtyard, he saw a small man kneeling in the courtyard, his head lowered and looking listless.
Xin Chaoyang, who originally planned to ignore it, couldn't help but softened when he saw this.
In this cold weather, I was kneeling straight on the bluestone floor without even a cushion...
Hearing the sound of footsteps, the child turned his head. Although Ahwei, who was already seven years old, had baby fat, she had delicate features and looked very similar to Gu Shiba Niang's face. Her little face turned red from the cold. When she saw Xin Chaoyang, she immediately blushed. His eyes were filled with tears, but he still held back the tears.
"Dad..." He called softly with a nasal voice.
This call made Xin Chaoyang's only remaining thoughts of a strict father vanish into thin air.
"You haven't memorized the book yet?" he asked in a low voice, resisting the urge to reach out and pick up his son. His eyes only wandered on the stone slab, how hard and cold it was...
Awei nodded, with a bit of grievance and a bit of shame, and turned his eyes in front of him, where there was an open medicine book. He began to read silently again, sobbing from time to time.
Now Xin Chaoyang could no longer pretend, and reached out to pull his son up. A slight cough came from the door of the house, and the father and son immediately straightened their postures.
"I can't learn what I should learn, but I'm just familiar with it by pretending to be pitiful..." Gu Shiba Niang raised her eyebrows and said, "Tell me what I did wrong and let your father know whether I should be punished!"
Awei lowered his head and replied honestly: "You shouldn't skip school and go to the mountains to catch snakes..."
"Catch a snake?" Xin Chaoyang immediately lowered himself to look at his son's hand, "Have you been bitten..."
Gu Shiba Niang coughed and glared at him.
Although the great pharmacist does not personally collect herbs, collecting herbs and catching snakes and insects is still a basic skill. Although he is young, Asafoetida is not like ordinary children. He will be scared when seeing snakes and insects, so it is not a problem to reach out and catch them.
Xin Chaoyang chuckled, stood up straight, nodded with a straight face and said that he deserved the punishment.
"When you should study medicine, you should study medicine, and when you should study, you should naturally study..." he continued, "Studying in the school is also to learn medicine better..."
"Yes, Awei realized he was wrong,..." Awei immediately nodded and looked at his father pitifully.
"Well..." Xin Chaoyang nodded with a straight face and pretended to be serious, and looked at Gu Shiba Niang.
Gu Shiba Niang glared at him.
"Stop doing this!" She raised her eyebrows and looked at Awei, reached out and grabbed the feather duster on the side, and walked out, "Tell me, where did you go wrong! Don't evade the important and take the easy!"
Seeing this, Ahwei shrank his head again, and Xin Chaoyang suddenly realized that he was being coaxed into becoming an ally by this kid pretending to be pitiful again...
"You shouldn't put the snake in your husband's quilt..." Awei replied in a muffled voice.
The Xin family has a school for the enlightenment of the younger members of the family, and Awei naturally also went to the school to study and learn literacy. Since he entered the school, in just one year, two teachers have been angry away. In addition to the one who left yesterday, he is the third Already.
Xin Chaoyang personally took the feather duster and gave his son a good lesson before allowing him to get up. Master Xin, who was hiding outside the courtyard gate and watching, his heart breaking, immediately came in and left holding his grandson without touching the ground on the pretext that he also wanted to teach him a lesson. .
"What nonsense..." Gu Shiba Niang glanced at him, "In your eyes, your son is not wrong..."
Xin Chaoyang put down the tea cup and hugged her with a smile, "Madam, don't be anxious, the child must be taught slowly..."
Gu Shiba Niang looked at him angrily, but did not speak or move away.
"Are you tired from socializing these days?" She raised her hand and rubbed his forehead and asked.
"Good wine and good food, singing and dancing with silk and bamboo, lying drunk on the knees of beauties..." Xin Chaoyang said with a smile, "How can I be considered tired?"
"The older I get, the more glib I get..." Gu Shiba Niang glanced at him and sighed suddenly.
"What's wrong?" Xin Chaoyang raised his hand to stroke her frown, "Awei, don't worry too much, I'm sensible..."
"No..." Gu Shiba Niang sighed, "This kid has no interest in medicine..."
"How old is he..." Xin Chaoyang said with a smile, "Not to mention others, how old are you before you can enter this profession..."
"That's different..." Gu Shiba Niang shook her head and smiled bitterly. It's different. For her, medicine is not a hobby, but a matter of fate. This is like the flying general Li Guang who mistakenly thought that a tiger was coming and shot an arrow into a stone at night. But it doesn’t make sense afterwards.
"Mother..."
A child's cry sounded from inside.
The couple hurriedly went inside, lifted the curtain, and saw a girl less than three years old sitting on the bed, holding a book in her hand, looking up and looking over.
"Lengdou, are you awake?" Gu Shiba Niang asked, as if she was used to this scene. "You need some water, right?"
This is the daughter Gu Shiba Niang gave birth to after returning from Qizhou, and her nickname is Do Liandou.
"Compared with asafoetida, lentils look like big children..." Gu Shiba Niang smiled and went to pour her water, "It's really worry-free..."
"What are you reading in Lian Dou?" Xin Chaoyang walked over, sat on the bed, held her doughy daughter in his arms, looked at the book in her hand, and saw that it was a medicine book, knowing that Gu Shiba Niang sometimes He used the medicine book as a story to coax her to sleep, and then laughed, "Does Lentil know the words?"
Lentil shook his head and pointed with his chubby little finger at the picture of an herb in the book.
"Look at the pictures of lentils..." she said in a milky voice.
"Oh, do you know what this is?" Xin Chaoyang said with a smile, and asked casually while taking the water from Gu Shiba Niang to feed her.
Gu Shiba Niang hurriedly called the maid to come over and follow them. She stood at the door and watched them go, slightly stunned.
"What's wrong?" Xin Chaoyang came over, put his arm around her shoulders and asked with concern.
"I won't teach Lian Dou any medicine books anymore..." Gu Shiba Niang sighed softly.
"Why?" Xin Chaoyang was stunned for a moment, "I think Lendou is quite talented..."
Gu Shiba Niang was silent.
Xin Chaoyang patted her shoulder gently.
"I know you are worried about Diandou's daughter..." He said slowly, holding his wife in his arms, "Don't think so much... just let nature take its course..."
Gu Shiba Niang nodded, smiled, said no more, and looked outside the door again, where the faint sound of children's laughter could be heard.
That’s it for the extra chapter. I wish you all a happy old age and see you in the next book.