The weather is cooler, but the sun is shining brightly, warming me, and I don’t have to worry about getting a tan.
After the afternoon class, Wanyi brought her three younger brothers to the garden.
Dalang and Erlang are both five years old. The former was born earlier. Sanlang is two years younger than his brothers. He is quite strong and looks tough.
The garden was small, and Wanyi spotted the princess sitting at the stone table at a glance. She ran over happily and said, "Fourth Aunt, you are here too!"
Huayang looked at his niece with a smile.
Chen Bozong is steady and dignified, polite but serious, Yu Xiu is cautious and a little dull. With such parents, Wanyi is well-behaved and cheerful, like a warm little sun, very likable.
"I came here to enjoy the maple leaves and bask in the sun. It's not good for your health to stay indoors all day."
Huayang pointed to two maple trees full of red leaves not far away. Of course, she would not tell the children that she had just been taking a walk and was concentrating on losing weight.
"Aunt Fourth, if you sit here, you will be much more beautiful than maple leaves." Wanyi said sweetly.
Huayang pinched her little nose.
Sanlang was the youngest and wanted to play, so he ran to the largest open space in the garden and jumped to urge his brothers and sisters: "Come quickly, it will be dark soon!"
Wanyi explained to the princess, "Sanlang wants to play the 100-wire jump and has been pestering us for a long time."
Huayang noticed that Erlang was holding a long rope and said with a smile, "Go ahead, I'll watch you guys play here."
The children ran away.
Dalang and Erlang each held one end of the rope and let Wanyi and Sanlang jump first.
Wanyi is light and graceful, while Sanlang is stocky and strong, and they jump quite high.
Huayang watched intently.
Chao Yun came over and said, "Princess, do you want to play with them? You loved playing with these when you were a child."
Moreover, compared to walking in circles non-stop, jumping rope is more tiring and more fun.
Huayang was very interested, and when Wanyi enthusiastically ran over to invite her to play together, Huayang agreed.
Chaoyun called Zhener over and asked them to swing the rope.
Huayang and the four children kept running and jumping around. Sanlang tripped the most, and his falls were funny, which caused laughter.
Chunhe Hall, where Chen Tingjian and Sun lived, is right next to Siyi Hall.
Waves of laughter came over. Chen Tingjian frowned, put down the book in his hand, and said to Sun, who was sitting on the couch doing needlework, "Although the children have been freed from mourning, it is not appropriate to laugh and make noise like this."
He was strict with his sons and grandchildren alike.
This severity, like all that knowledge, was deeply ingrained in his bones, and Sun knew that it could not be changed.
So she didn't speak for the children, but called the maid Lamei and asked her to go and tell the children.
Lamei left and came back soon. After entering the house, she looked at the old man, then at his wife, and said shyly, "Master, old lady, the princess was playing with the young masters. I only took a sneak peek and didn't dare to go over."
Sun curled her lips, looked at her husband at the desk, and deliberately said: "What's wrong with the princess? The princess must also observe etiquette, not to mention that she is still in mourning. You go over quickly and tell our elder that he is unhappy and ask the princess to go back to her room."
How could Lamei take it seriously? She lowered her head, and her shoulders were shaking from trying to hold back her laughter.
Chen Tingjian looked at his old wife helplessly: "It's not proper to make fun of the princess."
Sun put down her needlework, and Lamei saw that she was about to come down, so she hurried to help her put on her shoes.
Chen Tingjian: "What are you going to do?"
Sun: "Lamei doesn't dare to say it, I will go and say it myself."
Chen Tingjian shook his head and continued reading, not believing that his wife would really do that.
Sun basked in the sun in the yard for a while. When she heard the noises of playing in the garden gradually fade away, she slowly walked over.
Siyitang sent over some cakes and Huayang sat beside the stone table to entertain the four children.
Wanyi looked at Dalang and whispered to the princess, "Aunt Si, if my father finds out that we are out playing, he will definitely scold us."
Huayang smiled: "What should we do then?"
Wanyi said playfully, "Can I say that it was Fourth Aunt who wanted to watch us play? You are a princess, and my father doesn't dare to interfere with anything you want to do."
Huayang knew that the little girl was smart, so he agreed.
Sanlang was eavesdropping while eating cakes. His black eyes turned and he said to Erlang, "Let's say the same thing when we get back."
Erlang looked at his younger brother as if he were a fool. His uncle was strict and his own father didn't care about them. Even the rope was found by his mother at the request of his father.
"You little greedy guys, instead of doing your homework at this time, you come to the princess to beg for food."
Huayang turned around and saw his mother-in-law walking towards him with a smile on her face, bathed in the warm sunshine.
She smiled and stood up: "We just ate, don't scare them, mother."
Wanyi called out to her grandmother and gave up her stone bench.
Sun touched her granddaughter's head and asked her daughter-in-law to sit down with her.
The children's faces were rosy, and Huayang's face was as beautiful as a flower.
Sun pretended not to notice anything and ate a piece of cake. After the children left, she said to Huayang, "Time flies. We have been in Lingzhou for more than half a year. It's just a pity that the princess, a princess of wealth, has to stay with us in this small house."
Huayang: "Mother is being distant with me again."
Huayang looked curious: "What day?"
Sun looked at Si Yi Tang and said with a smile, "It's the fourth son's birthday. Actually, he's already so old, why should he celebrate his birthday? I told the princess this not to ask you to take care of anything, but we here are particular about longevity noodles. Later, the princess will ask the kitchen to cook him a bowl of noodles. You don't have to point out that it's longevity noodles. Just serve it to him and ask him to eat it."
For the children in the family, once they turned ten, they would no longer celebrate their birthdays. They would just eat birthday noodles the night before and ask the kitchen to make four more dishes the next day. That was considered a birthday. Later, the eldest child got married and had his own family. There were no more simple birthday celebrations like this. The couple would just hold it in their own yard. The third and fourth children would do the same, and today would be the last time she would tell the princess and her daughter-in-law about this.
If the princess and the fourth prince are in love, he will remember it after she tells him once. If they are not in love, she will only annoy others by reminding him every year.
Sun did the same thing to the eldest and third wives.
Huayang laughed secretly. In her previous life, her mother-in-law reminded her in a much more tactful way, fearing that she would be unhappy. In this life, the relationship between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is closer, and they are less restrained when speaking.
"Don't worry, mother. I will ask the kitchen to prepare a bowl of longevity noodles for the prince consort. I will also tell the prince consort about your kindness. He will definitely be happy to hear it."
Sun snorted, "Don't tell him, or he'll get complacent and refuse to change his stubborn temper."
.
As night fell, a whistle finally came from the west room.
Chaoyun stood under the eaves, looking at the prince consort who was walking towards her. She took a few steps towards him and said in a low voice, complaining and sympathetic, "Why did you come back at this time? The princess didn't even have her meal because she was waiting for you."
Chen Jingzong threw the prey in his hand to her. When he learned that Huayang was in the second room, Chen Jingzong walked to the window of the second room and explained through the closed carved window: "In fact, I came back a long time ago, but there were two neighbors I knew washing clothes by the stream. I was afraid that they would recognize me, so I hid in a tree temporarily. I didn't expect that I would be delayed until now."
He didn't want to make her angry. Before, when he was on the tree, he wanted to pretend to be a ghost and scare away the two women who were not concentrating on washing clothes but were chatting enthusiastically.
Huayang was reading a book. Hearing this, he said, "I see. Light a fire in the kitchen. Go take a shower before the meal is ready."
The voice was clear and lazy, like Guanyin on the lotus platform with half-closed eyes instructing the boy to do things, or like a flock of spring swallows whispering in the ear, tickling the heart.
Chen Jingzong thought about it carefully and seemed not to hear any anger.
The kitchen asked Chaoyun to run errands, and Chen Jingzong skillfully went to the water room to fetch water. He had already come back late, and if he had rushed in exhausted just now, she would have been even more disgusted.
The longevity noodles had already been rolled out and were cooked in boiling water for a while. Chen Jingzong also took a quick bath. After wiping with a wet towel and pouring cold water on his body, no trace of sweat was left.
He didn't care about anything. He just tied up his half-dry hair, changed into clean clothes, and strode up to the upper room.
Huayang came out from the side room, glanced at him, and sat down at the dining table.
Chen Jingzong looked at her with an expression that seemed no different from before.
Chaoyue brought Zhuer over dinner.
It was normal to eat noodles in cold weather, but when Chen Jingzong lowered his head, he saw an unusually beautiful poached egg in the middle of the bowl, with bamboo shoots and green vegetables on the left, and a row of braised beef in soy sauce that he had bought for her a while ago on the right. Beef was a rare commodity, and it was basically unavailable unless a nearby cow died unexpectedly. Beef was also low in fat, so eating it would not make you fat.
So much meat, and the presentation is like this...
Although Huayang's dish was presented in a similar way, only the portion was half of his, Chen Jingzong still felt something was not right.
Huayang looked at him and said, "Mother told me that tomorrow is your birthday. This is longevity noodles. Come and eat it."
Chen Jingzong's eyes changed slightly, and he looked over inquiringly: "My mother asked you to cook noodles for me, and you cooked it?"
Huayang: "Otherwise, would I be stingy with giving you a birthday noodle?"
Chen Jingzong smiled, looked at her with a more meaningful look, and then started eating.
Huayang clenched his chopsticks slightly.
On this night in his previous life, he also looked at her meaningfully. Huayang didn't understand, but he pounced on her at night. Even though she scolded him at the critical moment, he still pestered her like a hungry wolf for half the night.
After dinner, it was so dark outside that you couldn't see your hand in front of you.
After the maids left, the inner room became quiet.
Chen Jingzong was used to climbing up the pole. He first reached his hand into Huayang's quilt and tentatively touched Huayang's back. When he saw that Huayang didn't come to hit him or scold him, he moved over.
Although her eyes could not see, his breath swept over her whole body like fire.
Huayang turned his head and saw a small porcelain bottle hidden in the blurry outline of the dressing table drawer a few feet away. There were two contraceptive pills in the bottle.
She had taken it out of the box and put it back in the evening.
In his previous life, his birthday was also his memorial day.
Huayang didn't know what he was thinking before his heart stopped beating when he fell on the battlefield.
Perhaps what Chen Jingzong said was right, she was just a fairy who had descended to earth and couldn't bear to see others feel pity.
Raising his hands, Huayang hooked them tightly around his neck.
Just as Chen Jingzong was about to kiss her, he heard her whisper in his ear, "It's your birthday tomorrow. I'll do whatever you want tonight."
Chen Jingzong paused.
Huayang pulled his neck close to her to prove that she was not just talking casually.
Chen Jingzong's breath became heavier. After a while, he asked seriously, "Will it be bad for your health if you take too much medicine?"
Huayang felt his body as if it was stretched to the limit, and smiled: "Then don't eat, go to bed early."
Chen Jingzong: …
Who can sleep in such a situation? Even if there is another flood, he will sleep with her first!
(End of this chapter)