Chapter 552: Thoughts
Editor: Atlas Studios
Although Mu Yangling did not mention this matter again and did not punish Chen Ming’s wife, she called Spring over and said, “Take Chen Ming’s wife down a notch and make sure she takes the rules to heart.”
“Fourth Madam, why don’t we detain her at home?”
“No, although we don’t interact much with the villagers, we can’t cut off our contact with them entirely.” A distant relative was inferior to a close neighbor. Even if Mu Yangling wasn’t counting on the villagers to help them in the future, she wouldn’t want them to add insult to injury should anything happen. And Chen Ming and Chen Ming’s wife were the link between them and those villagers.
Spring understood and went down to take Chen Ming’s wife down a notch.
After the seventh day of the New Year, the excitement in the village subsided a little. Guard One came back excitedly and reported, “Fourth Madam, good news. West Xia retreated.”
“How did it happen so quickly?”
Guard One smiled. “It’s Fourth Master. He got someone to bypass the West Xia army and attack West Xia from Tongchuan. Together with the Jin Kingdom army, they attacked the West Xia army from both sides. West Xia was in danger, so they transferred the army left in the Great Zhou back to provide support. Fourth Master immediately took back the prefecture capital that West Xia had previously occupied.”
“Where did he get so many people?” Mu Yangling asked anxiously.
Guard One’s smile widened as he replied, “That makes Fourth Master all the more brilliant. He recruited a few soldiers from the bandits and quickly gathered enough troops.”
“Because of Fourth Master’s great victory at the front line, Eldest Master’s side has also relaxed a lot. The Second Prince, who had been using the West Xia army to fight against Eldest Master, lost many state capitals in an instant. It’s said that those West Xia cavalrymen have all rushed back to West Xia to provide support and abandoned the Second Prince.”
Mu Yangling couldn’t help but smile. “Doesn’t that mean we can go back soon?”
Guard One hurriedly said, “Now that Eldest Master has almost eliminated the rebels who followed the Second Prince, there are only bandits running rampant. However, those people are nothing to be afraid of.”
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Guard One was actually just comforting her. Now that the rebel army occupied a third of the Great Zhou, how could they not be afraid of them?
However, Mu Yangling was still very happy and ran to share this news with Li Jinghua.
Li Jinghua heaved a sigh of relief and sincerely chanted a Buddhist prayer. “No wonder everyone says that Fourth Brother is brilliant at war. I rarely hear him lose battles here. It’s mostly good news.”
Mu Yangling said humbly and proudly, “Sister-in-law, don’t praise him. He’s just a little shrewd when it comes to war. He doesn’t have any other skills.”
However, Li Jinghua said, “This is a chaotic world. Being able to fight in wars is already a great ability. Don’t be greedy.”
After saying that, she said worriedly, “Considering wars cost a lot of money, I don’t know if Eldest Master has enough money. Ah Ling, I want to tidy up my dowry and get someone to convert the items into silver and send it to Eldest Master. Although it’s not much, it’s something.”
Mu Yangling opened her mouth slightly and said, “How can we use your dowry?”
Li Jinghua said calmly, “Eldest Master and I are husband and wife. Why not?”
Seeing her frown, Mu Yangling instantly understood that Li Jinghua was feeling uneasy. She thought for a moment and said, “Then Sister-in-law, go and do it. Write a letter and I’ll get Guard One to send it back. Someone will handle the matter.”
Smiling, Li Jinghua nodded. She held Mu Yangling’s hand and said, “Thank you. If not for your help, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything even if I had the heart.”
Mu Yangling smiled and changed the topic. “Aren’t Little Treasure and Little Bear with you? Where are they?”
“They’re reading inside. At their age, they can’t read yet, but they enjoy flipping through books.” Happy at the mention of the kids, Li Jinghua entered the inner room with Mu Yangling to see the two children.
The two children were sitting together with their heads leaning against each other, holding a picture book. There was a window behind them, but because it was still the first month of the lunar calendar and the weather was very cold, the window was closed. Wen Cui was probably worried that there wasn’t sufficient lighting, so there were even candles lit at the side. The room was brightly lit.
The picture book the two children were looking at was ‘A Hundred Beasts’ illustrated by Qi Haoran. There were drawings of tigers, lions, rabbits, chickens, and ducks, complete with titles and descriptions. Qi Haoran had gotten someone to send the book over before the new year.
This was one of the reasons Li Jinghua was envious of Mu Yangling.
They were both only sons. Although Qi Xiuyuan’s tone was gentle when he wrote about his son and often got someone to bring him some things, those things were all bought, unlike Qi Haoran. Most of the things Qi Haoran gave his son were made by himself.
Examples range from small items like grasshoppers woven from weeds to large items like a cart. As for this picture book, Qi Haoran had spent half a year preparing it.
The picture book was not thick and would only take two to three days to complete if one had the time to dedicate to it. In addition, they were claborate-style drawings. Someone who was good at drawing would definitely be able to finish it in two days if they weren’t too picky about the details. However, one must consider that Qi Haoran was currently fighting at the front line.
According to the person who sent the things over, Qi Haoran only slept for four hours a day. Sometimes, when the battle was tense, it was common for him to only sleep for an hour a day. However, he would set aside 15 minutes a day to do the illustrations in this picture book. It could be seen how much effort he put in.
When she saw this album, Li Jinghua thought of the little things that Qi Xiuyuan had given her when they got engaged back then. At that time, she was very happy and felt that no one would be more blissful than her because of that.
But now that she looked at Mu Yangling, Li Jinghua felt that the Qi brothers were just good at coaxing women. Qi Xiuyuan had bought those things for her personally, but Qi Haoran had made the gifts himself.
Mu Yangling didn’t know that Li Jinghua was envious of her. Seeing that the two children were flipping through the picture book, she went forward to pick up Little Bear. Then, she casually flipped to a page and pointed at the animal on it. “What’s this?”
Little Bear mumbled a few words and excitedly picked up the picture book. He pointed at the things on it as he conversed with Mu Yangling.
Mu Yangling listened for a long time but could not understand a word. However, Little Treasure had already answered it first. “I know, it’s a tiger.” After saying that, he even let out a roar. “A tiger!”
Little Bear also let out a roar and continued to gurgle excitedly in the language of the children.
Mu Yangling was a little worried. “Why can’t he speak at this age? I remember that when Little Treasure was his age, he could already speak simple words.”
Li Jinghua said with a smile, “What’s the hurry? Little Bear isn’t even a year old yet. Little Treasure started speaking early, but Little Bear started walking early. Have you ever seen a child learn to walk as early as him?”
Mu Yangling became smug again. “That’s true. Everyone has their own strengths. Perhaps he’s just like his father, outstanding in martial arts.”
Mu Yangling nudged him and asked, “Do you miss Daddy? Do you know who gave you this picture book?”
Ignoring his mother, Little Bear struggled to crawl onto the couch. He started to stand up shakily and even pulled Little Treasure. Then, he pointed at the applique decoration on the window and cried out, “Ah, ah, ah.”
Little Treasure immediately stood up and ran over to pat the window. Little Bear also stumbled over and slapped the decoration, making the two wet nurses extremely worried that they would hurt their little hands.
Mu Yangling sat with Li Jinghua and accompanied the children for most of the day. She only got up to carry Little Bear back when it was time for an afternoon nap.
Little Treasure wanted to sleep with Little Bear, so Li Jinghua waved her hand with a headache. “Alright, alright, quickly take him away. Your little brother is much more important than Mother.”
Mu Yangling smiled and asked the wet nurse to carry Little Treasure and leave with her.
Back in the room, Little Bear arched his head and asked for milk. Mu Yangling fed him before putting him on the bed to sleep with Little Treasure.
Seeing that there was no one else in the room, Spring asked curiously, “Fourth Madam, Eldest Madam has been a little strange recently. She even let Second Young Master and Fourth Young Master play together. Also, she seems to pay more attention to your matters than before.”