The horoscope was obtained smoothly. When Jiang Miao arrived home, his second uncle was not at home. When his second aunt took his horoscope, she asked him if he had found his ideal partner in the city.
Jiang Miao was a little embarrassed, and after a few vague words, he let the matter go. It wasn't that he wanted to hide it, but time was tight. If he told them that he was getting married to a man, his second aunt would probably ask someone to call his second uncle back from the field. It would be better to wait until everything was settled before telling them. Who knows, there might be some unexpected changes in the meantime.
After he got his horoscope, he rushed out. The carriage was waiting at the entrance of the village. Pei Che sat on it, opened the curtain and looked at the scenery outside. The last time he passed by this place, he never thought that one day in the future, he would be involved with this place.
"I'm so tired. Here, take it." As soon as Jiang Miao got in the car, Pei Che handed him a cup of tea. It was warm and just right for drinking. Jiang Miao took the tea and poured it into his mouth. Then he reached into his arms and took out a yellowed piece of paper. On it was written his birth date.
Pei Che took the paper, unfolded it and took a look, memorized the information inside, then folded it carefully and kept it safely.
It was already afternoon, and the two were in a hurry to get there. They only had some cakes in the car when they got here, so they were already starving. Unfortunately, there were no teahouses or wine shops along the way, so they could only bear it.
After entering the city gate, Pei Che suggested finding a restaurant to eat, but Jiang Miao thought it was getting late, so he declined. Anyway, the kids at home hadn't eaten yet, so he got out of the car and bought some food on the roadside, planning to cook it himself when he got back.
Pei Che's carriage had never been loaded with food before. Looking at the chicken with its feet tied and thrown in the corner, he couldn't help but feel a sense of novelty and strangeness. Before meeting Jiang Miao, he had never thought that he would one day ride with a chicken.
Seeing him staring at the chicken, Jiang Miao remembered that this man seemed to be very clean, so he said, "The chicken won't poop on the car. I put a cloth bag under it."
It would have been better if he didn't say it. After Pei Che heard it, he remembered something in his mind. His handsome face turned pale and a faint foul smell seemed to come from his nose. He even had difficulty breathing for a while.
"A Miao, can you put it outside?" Pei Che asked with difficulty. He really didn't want to sit with the chicken. But the chicken was Jiang Miao's, so he couldn't let anyone just throw it out.
Jiang Miao suppressed his laughter, went over to move the chicken outside, and asked the coachman to help look after it. Pei Che then breathed a sigh of relief, thinking, should he prepare an extra carriage when he goes out next time
The carriage was moving very fast, and before it got dark, they had already returned to Yifeng Street. Jiang Miao was carrying his things and walked in. Seeing Pei Che was about to get off the carriage, he said, "You stay in the carriage. I'll go in and bring your brother over. It will be too late if you don't go back now."
Pei Che said: "It's okay, just light two lights in front of the car when the time comes."
Seeing that he didn't understand what he meant, Jiang Miao continued, "I mean, if you don't leave now, there will be curfew. It will be bad if the guards catch you then."
"It's okay. The guards in the city know the signs of each mansion. They won't stop my carriage." Pei Che said as he got off the carriage in a casual manner.
Jiang Miao was speechless. Did the curfew only apply to the common people and not to the privileged class? This evil old society didn't allow ordinary people to survive!
Little Stone heard the voices and ran out to greet them. There was still some light outside, but candles had already been lit in the house.
"Brother, you're back!" Xiao Shitou ran over and reached out to help Jiang Miao carry things.
"No need. Where is Mu'er? Where did he go?" Jiang Miao asked casually when he saw that he was the only one who came out.
"He's writing in the room. I've already practiced." Little Stone said innocently, not noticing the shock his words brought to Pei Che.
He turned and walked into Xiao Shitou's study. Under the dim candlelight, Pei Mu was sitting at the desk, holding a pen with stiff fingers, staring expressionlessly at the spotless white paper on the table. Xiao Shitou also thoughtfully placed a piece of his own writing next to him so that he could imitate it.
When Pei Che approached, he found that Pei Mu's clothes and hair were a little messy. He didn't know what he and Xiao Shitou did together in the afternoon to make him look like this. But compared to his previous appearance, he looked more lively like this.
"Mu'er, do you want to learn how to write?" Pei Che walked behind him and held his hand holding the pen. "Brother will teach you how to write."
On the white paper, traces of ink were added. Pei Che wrote and read: "Pei... Mu..., Mu'er, this is your name." Pei Che held his hand and wrote stroke by stroke, wanting him to remember the movement of these two words clearly.
Pei Mu was fine at first, but after writing the words, a hint of anxiety appeared in his eyes, and the hand held by Pei Che began to struggle.
"Mu'er, what's wrong?" Pei Che didn't understand and quickly let go of his hand, thinking he had hurt him. He didn't know why his brother suddenly got angry.
After Pei Mu was released, he stopped moving his hands, but his eyes were fixed on the piece of paper next to him. On the paper were words written by Xiao Shitou. The words were very large and revealed the immaturity of a beginner.
Pei Che observed for a long time before guessing what he was thinking. Mu'er might have used Little Stone's handwriting as a model. She got angry just now because she felt that the handwriting she wrote was not very similar to Little Stone's. This guess made him laugh and cry.
He said carefully: "Mu'er, don't be angry, brother will teach you to write well this time, okay?"
Pei Mu paused and said nothing, but when Pei Che's hand came up again, he did not struggle.
Pei Che imitated Xiao Shitou's handwriting and wrote on the paper. After all, he had practiced calligraphy for many years, and it was difficult to change his habits. Although he tried his best to imitate, it was still only about 70% similar. Pei Mu frowned slightly, a little dissatisfied, but reluctantly accepted it.
The atmosphere in the house gradually became warmer, but the kitchen was very lively. Little Shitou sat in front of the stove and chattered non-stop about the afternoon he and Pei Mu had spent together.
After sharing each thing, he would sigh, looking very tired. He felt that Pei Mu was very disobedient. He kept touching the cat when he was touching it, and kept chasing the cat when it ran away. He sat there waiting to be fed when he was eating, and just watched without doing anything when practicing calligraphy. It took a long time for him to learn how to hold a pen. Little Stone finally understood today why the teacher always sighed when facing Yang Hua, a classmate who didn't like to study.
Jiang Miao was delighted to see this little adult. He said, "Thank you for your hard work today. I'll make you something delicious later. How about that?"
Facing the flattery of this little bootlicker, Jiang Miao said that he was very receptive to it. He was very skillful, boiling water, killing the chicken and plucking its feathers. In less than a moment, he had cleaned the chicken. Then he cooked rice in one pot and vegetables in another. After returning home in less than half an hour, he had prepared a table of sumptuous dishes.
After bringing the dishes out and placing them on the dining table, Jiang Miao went back into the study and called the two people inside. He could see the words on the paper clearly by candlelight and he smiled.
"I didn't expect your handwriting to be as ugly as Xiao Shitou's. It's even worse than mine!" Jiang Miao had only seen Pei Che's paintings. He thought to himself, no wonder he always painted. It turned out that his handwriting was ugly.
Hearing this, Pei Che remembered the handwriting Jiang Miao had written when he was discussing chess with him last time, and he smiled as well: "How about we compete next time?" The few words he had written before were covered underneath.
"Let's talk about it next time. The meal is ready, let's go out and eat." Jiang Miao greeted him. Guests are guests, so they must be fed well.
After Pei Che and Pei Mu washed their hands and sat down, they found four dishes on the table. Although the presentation was not as exquisite as in the mansion, it smelled very fragrant. The steaming hot air, under the reflection of the candlelight, enveloped everything around it, making this small hall seem particularly warm.
"This dish tastes delicious. I wonder what it is made of?" Pei Che pointed at one of the dishes and asked. He had lived in the mansion for many years and had never eaten this dish.
Jiang Miao looked at the dish of fried chicken giblets with pickled cabbage and was strangely silent for a moment, then told a white lie: "I just bought this dish and added some pickled cabbage to it. I don't know." A chicken made his face change drastically. How could he say that this was chicken giblets? The Duke's Mansion probably never dared to use chicken giblets to cook dishes for these masters.
Pei Che knew nothing about kitchen matters, but after hearing what he said, he believed it. He stretched his chopsticks towards the dish without any pressure and ate most of the plate by himself.
The chicken offal was delicious, and the chicken was good too. This chicken was a free-range chicken over three months old, weighing less than two pounds, and was perfect for making boiled chicken. Dipping it in the sauce prepared by Jiang Miao, it tasted very delicious and was very suitable for children. He divided the two chicken legs between Xiao Shitou and Pei Mu. Xiao Shitou couldn't hold the chicken leg with chopsticks, so he grabbed the chicken leg and bit it directly. Pei Mu looked at him and turned his head to refuse the dish that Pei Che brought to his mouth with chopsticks.
With the example in the study room before, Pei Che quickly understood what he meant. He picked up the chicken leg and tentatively put it next to Pei Mu's hand. Pei Mu stretched out his hand, took the chicken leg, and ate it like Xiao Shitou.
After the meal, Jiang Miao brought some warm water and asked the two children to wash their hands. Then he took out a clean cloth and wiped their hands.
"The last time I came here, you thought there was nothing to wipe your hands with." Pei Che remembered the last time Jiang Miao asked him to shake his hands dry. When washing hands before dinner, he and Mu'er waited for them to dry naturally before going to the table.
"You remember this kind of thing clearly. It didn't exist originally, but you got a piece of it later. Isn't that okay?" Jiang Miao said unhappily. How could a grown man hold a grudge like this
"Well, that's all I said." Pei Che pretended to cough to hide his embarrassment. He was not actually accusing Jiang Miao of treating him differently, he just suddenly remembered it.
"Okay, we've eaten and taken the food, you should go back quickly. It's hard to travel in the dark night, you can hang this lamp on the car to shine. By the way, tell the driver not to drive so fast." There are no street lights everywhere like in modern times, so it is quite inconvenient to travel at night.
When Pei Che first heard this, he thought Jiang Miao was trying to drive them away, but he realized later that he was worried about them traveling at night.
"Then we'll go back first. Goodbye." Pei Che took Pei Mu outside. Jiang Miao saw them out and then turned back to the yard.
"Brother Jiang, is this handsome young man coming here often recently?" Aunt Liu came out to fetch water and saw Jiang Miao coming over and asked hurriedly.
"Yeah, I've been here several times recently."
"Do you think he has taken a fancy to someone in the alley?" Aunt Liu asked in a low voice, her face full of curiosity.
Jiang Miao laughed: "Who told you that? It's not true." He concealed the matter of the imperial edict, and the news of the granted marriage only spread in the upper city. People here should not know about it yet.
"Everyone says so." They also analyzed which girl in the alley was most likely to be chosen.
"Please help explain it to me tomorrow. He came to me to discuss business, not because he has taken a fancy to any girl."
"Alas, such a handsome young man!" Aunt Liu felt a little regretful. If he really became the son-in-law of Tianshui Lane, she might see him often in the future. After finding out about this matter, she began to share another thing with Jiang Miao.
"Brother Jiang, you don't know, there's a flower-stealing thief on Ping An Street. I heard he specifically preys on girls from wealthy families, and he even dares to come to their homes in broad daylight! Those with daughters are discussing whether they should ask the government to come and investigate."
"So rampant?" Jiang Miao was also shocked. "This is under the feet of the emperor. Isn't he afraid of being caught?"
"Who says it's not true? I heard from someone that the flower thief yesterday was wearing a blue dress and standing on the wall of Mr. Huang's house, looking inside. Fortunately, Miss Huang was not in the backyard at the time. Only the housekeeper was there. She yelled and threw something over, and the man fled in a hurry..."
Aunt Liu was still talking, but Jiang Miao was stunned. Blue clothes, wall, throwing things, why do these three words sound so familiar when put together
After a long time, Jiang Miao silently apologized to Pei Che in his heart. He finally understood what the phrase "three people make a tiger" meant!
(End of this chapter)