Jiapingguan Chronicle

Chapter 2664 Still Vigorous in Old Age 48.0
Xue Ruitian watched with a sullen face as Master Jiang wrote down the list of people who went to see the lantern festival that year on the board. Apart from a few people, such as the old Duke Shen, the eldest princess, and Uncle Bai, the others had all suffered misfortune for one reason or another.

Some people lost their lives, such as his father and mother, the eldest prince of the Jin Kingdom, and the mother of Prince Ning, as well as the fourth grandfather who faked his death and escaped. Others did not lose their lives, but suffered some setbacks and injuries, but are still alive.

Thinking of this, Xue Ruitian sighed. He didn't know how to describe his current feelings. Although he was angry at the person behind Master Falian for killing people without asking any questions, he felt more powerless and fearful of the unknown. He didn't know how powerful or unpredictable their real opponent was. Could they really win?

"OK!"

In a daze, Xue Ruitian seemed to hear Shen Haolin's voice. He turned his gaze blankly to his best brother and saw his determined eyes.

"Just now," Xue Ruitian picked at his ear, "did I just hear you speak?"

“Brother Xiaotian, you asked if we could really beat them, and I answered you.” Shen Cha looked at Xue Ruitian with a smile. “I also answered you: we can beat them. No matter what kind of people they are, as long as we work together, there will be no problem at all.”

“Xiao Cha is right.” Chu Han also looked at Xue Ruitian with a smile. “Don’t worry about how powerful they are, or whether they have supernatural abilities. As long as we hold firm to our beliefs, we will definitely catch them all.”

At this moment, Xue Ruitian finally realized that he had voiced his doubts while in a daze.

Seeing everyone's kind smiles, Xue Ruitian's wavering heart finally calmed down. He smiled at everyone and said, "Yes, as long as we don't give up, no matter how difficult the other side is, we will definitely be able to find them!"

"That's right, that's how you should think!"

Xia Chen stood up first, walked to Xue Ruitian's side, and gave him a big hug. Then, Shen Haolin, Shen Cha, and Song Yaojia also went over and hugged them, as if they could transfer their strength to Xue Ruitian.

Chu Han and Master Jiang looked at the children huddled together with smiles, remarking on how wonderful it is to be young, while also unable to resist teasing each other.

"These kids are really full of emotion. They can be moved to tears by just a few simple words. They still lack experience!"

"What's wrong with being emotionally expressive? What's there to learn from that?" Chu Han rolled his eyes, curling his lip in disdain, and said, "I think they're great as they are. We're heartless ourselves, we can't expect children to be like us, can we? We became the way we are because we wanted our descendants to be happy and have more childlike innocence, right? Although they don't have that either, they're much better than us, aren't they?" He sighed and said, "If they were like us, distrustful of everyone and unmoved by anything, it would be our failure as elders, wouldn't it?"

“Uncle Wang is right.” Master Jiang smiled and turned to look at him. “You long for that?” “I do long for it, after all, we don’t have that kind of time.” Chu Han stroked his chin. “Well, you can’t say that. We may have had it, but it’s so far removed from us that we can’t even remember it clearly. Actually, sometimes I’m quite envious of them.”

"Envious?" Fourth Master Jiang looked at Chu Han and raised an eyebrow. "Although Uncle Wang looks young, his mentality is far inferior to these kids, isn't it? Once he starts envying the children, it means he's really getting old."

"It's only natural for young people to be energetic. If we were like them at our age, it wouldn't be considered energetic, but rather disrespectful to elders. Besides, how can envy prove that someone is old? It's the people who say such things who are truly old!"

"That's what you taught me."

Master Jiang sighed silently, deciding to end this pointless bickering. He never imagined that after so many years, his young uncle's tongue had become even sharper.

Seeing that Master Jiang had become obedient, Chu Han snorted, glanced at him, and asked in a low voice, "You've been dodging the question the whole time, refusing to say what you actually saw. Is there something you can't say, or did you not see anything at all?"

“I saw it, but it’s not that I didn’t want to talk about it, it’s just that I really didn’t know how to describe it. The scene was simply indescribable.” Thinking of that scene, Master Jiang looked disgusted. “I was just thinking that maybe it wasn’t that we recognized them, but that we saw what they were doing, which is why they killed us to silence us.”

"What did you do?"

"Do"

Just as Master Jiang was about to answer, he suddenly realized that the voice was wrong; it didn't sound like Chu Han's voice at all. He glanced over and saw that the children who had been hugging just moments before were now staring at him expectantly. The question he had just heard must have been asked by Xue Ruitian.

"Fourth Grandfather, what exactly happened that has put you in such a difficult position?"

“It was indeed a difficult situation, I was just worried that telling you would corrupt your minds, you children.” Seeing everyone staring at him expectantly, Old Man Jiang sighed softly. “Fine, you’ll find out sooner or later anyway, so I’ll just tell you!” He took a deep breath, preparing himself mentally, and said, “During the Lantern Festival, everyone can wear a mask to participate, of course, it’s voluntary, you can wear one or not. In our group, basically no one wore one; we felt it wasn’t necessary, and no one wanted to avoid us. We followed the people participating in the lantern festival, strolling towards the crowds, guessing riddles, eating snacks along the way, it was quite fun. Later, we got tired of walking, so we decided to rest at a teahouse nearby. That teahouse still exists, it’s called Zhixiang, and every year during the Lantern Festival it’s still the most popular teahouse because it’s right on the street, the food and drinks are pretty good, and the prices are reasonable.”

"So, you saw it inside this teahouse?"

“Yes!” Master Jiang nodded. “We entered the teahouse in batches. In a corner on the first floor, there was a square table for eight people. The table was quite large, but there were only two customers. And when we entered the shop, these two customers were…” He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and convinced himself for a long time before slowly saying, “kissing.”