Do you know: I am Xu Jiazi

Chapter 700 A Good Teacher Returns to the Capital [Thank you! Bow again! 38K words owed]

Sheng Family School

When school ends,

“After Yuanruo and Changfeng finish their homework, have someone deliver it to my courtyard. The rest of you may leave.”

Xu Zaijing and the others bowed and agreed.

"Ah."

Zhuang Xuejiu nodded, stood up, put his hands behind his back, and walked outside.

As he approached the school gate, Zhuang Xuejiu looked up at the overcast sky and whispered, "It's going to rain!"

Meanwhile, the maids and servants sitting on the wooden platform at the back quickly stepped forward to help their young masters and ladies pack their things.

After a while,
Gu Tingye and Xu Zaijing exchanged a glance, then smiled at the person beside them and said, "Yuanruo, Changfeng, we'll be leaving now."

"Second Uncle, brothers, please take care." Qi Heng raised his head and said.

Changfeng looked up and smiled.

Xu Zaijing said, "Don't rush, or you'll easily make a mistake."

“Brother Xu Wu, I know.” Changfeng said, then continued writing with his head down.

Then, Xu Zaijing and his classmates walked to the door.

Before I even stepped out of the house, a cool breeze blew in my face.

Xu Zaijing twitched his nose and could smell the rain in the wind.

As soon as I stepped out of the schoolyard, some large raindrops began to fall sparsely.

"Run! It's about to fall!" Gu Tingye shouted with a laugh as he quickly ran towards the stables.

After a dozen or so breaths,

Xu Zaijing looked at Gu Tingye sitting in his own carriage with a sense of helplessness.

Gu Tingye ignored Xu Zaijing's gaze and looked at the interior of the Xu family's carriage, saying with a sigh, "Fifth Brother, no wonder you ride a horse every day, but let the maid ride in the carriage!"

"With a carriage on hand, we won't be afraid of such sudden weather changes at all! I should get one too, Goro, what do you think?"

After hearing this, Xu Zaijing smiled and shook his head, saying, "I don't think you need it, Erlang."

Gu Tingye: "Huh?"

Xu Zaijing: "Anyway, Yuanruo always travels by carriage, so you don't need to prepare anything for him, Erlang."

“That’s true!” Gu Tingye said with a smile.

Hua Xiang and Zhi Que, who were sitting in the carriage, also laughed.

Xu Zaijing lifted the car window curtain, looked at Qingyun and Shitou outside the car who were wearing waterproof leather jackets, and said, "Let's go."

"Yes, son!"

"drive!"

After the carriage drove out of the stable
Without the canopy for shade,

The sound of raindrops dripping from the roof of the carriage came instantly.

It has been raining for more than 15 minutes.
In the school,
After finishing his homework, Changfeng handed the paper in his hand to the servant behind him.

Seeing Qi Heng staring blankly at the side, Chang Feng asked, "Young Master, what are you looking at?"

Qi Heng, who was looking at Minglan's desk, turned around and said, "It's nothing, I just think the rain scene is quite beautiful."

"Young Master has quite the refined taste," Changfeng said with a smile.

Qi Heng waved to Buwei, signaling him and Changfeng's servant to deliver the homework.

After the two servants left the school, Qi Heng turned to look at Chang Feng and said, "Brother Feng, didn't you say that the two younger sisters came out of the ancestral hall the day before yesterday? Why haven't they come today?"

Upon hearing this, Changfeng smiled at Qi Heng and said, "Young Master, I suppose you've never knelt in an ancestral hall before?"

Qi Heng was taken aback and asked in confusion, "Brother Feng, how...how did you know?"

Changfeng laughed and said, "If you've ever knelt before, you'll know that knees like Fifth Sister and Sixth Sister, who knelt for more than ten hours, would inevitably swell and hurt, making it difficult to walk and move around."

"Oh!" Qi Heng exclaimed with sudden realization, "I see! Then, how many days will it take to recover?"

Looking at the rain outside, Changfeng said, "That depends on the quality of the medicine used; it will take at least two or three days."

"Oh—" Qi Heng nodded thoughtfully.

quickly,

Buwei and Changfeng's servants each carried an oil-paper umbrella as they walked back to the school.

After picking up their respective sons' book boxes, the four of them walked outside together.

They boarded the Qi family's carriage.

Qi Heng sat in the carriage, seemingly lost in thought.

The carriage was dimly lit on a rainy day, and Qi Heng looked out through the thin gauze curtain.

"Young master, there is something I am not sure if I should say."

Qi Heng didn't turn his head: "Speak."

"I think you should be more restrained and discreet in the school."

"Huh? What restraint and self-control?" Qi Heng turned his gaze away from the window and looked at Buwei with a puzzled expression.

Buwei said, "Young master, you've looked out the window dozens of times today. Anyone could see the meaning in your eyes and understand that you're hoping someone will come."

"What could I possibly be hoping for?" Qi Heng countered.

Buwei pursed her lips: "Naturally, it's Miss Sheng Liu."

"Nonsense! I was just concerned about my classmate."

Buwei sighed softly.

Qi Heng said, "By the way, after we return to the manor, I'll take you to my maternal grandfather's house."

"Just say that I have a friend who was forced to kneel in the ancestral hall for more than a day and needs some good ointment."

Upon hearing this, Bu Wei frowned: "Young Master, what do you mean?"

Qi Heng put on a stern face: "Don't talk back! If I tell you to go, then go!"

"This humble servant," seeing Qi Heng's gaze, replied helplessly, "Yes, young master."

It was already dark.

The rain continued to fall.

The Marquis of Xiangyang's residence

In the candlelit hall,

Sitting in his chair, the Marquis of Xiangyang looked at Buwei standing in front of him and said with some doubt, "Being punished to kneel in the ancestral hall? Whose child is it? I haven't heard of Xu Zaijing causing trouble!"

Not because of a sudden change of mind,

Names like 'Qiao Jiulang', 'Liang Liulang', and 'Chai Erlang' flashed through my mind.

After a quick consideration, Buwei bowed and said, "Your Excellency, it is the young master's classmate: Sheng family's third son, Changfeng. He offended Lord Sheng before and was punished by kneeling for a day."

The Marquis of Xiangyang suddenly exclaimed, "Oh—no wonder! So he's the child of a civil official. I don't know many of those."

They did not bow or nod.

At this time,

An old woman carrying a tray walked in through the door.

Seeing the Marquis of Xiangyang's gesture, the old woman stopped the tray in front of Buwei.

"The application method is all written on paper, so you can give it to Yuanruo."

"Yes, Lord Marquis."

Watching the figure that did not leave, the Marquis of Xiangyang nodded and said, "Yuan Ruo, that kid, has really grown up."

Quyuan Street,
The Marquis of Yongyi's Residence

After the rain,

"Quack quack. Quack quack"

Frogs were croaking merrily in the pond beside the racecourse.

Xu Zaijing's courtyard
in the yard,
The candlelight from the main house faintly illuminated the branches and leaves of the flowers and trees, which were soaked by the rain.

There were many small puddles on the dark ground. The water surface had become much calmer, with only a few drops of rain causing ripples.

The rain has lessened.
The water surface was no longer bubbling from the dense raindrops, as it had before.

Under the grape trellis not far away,

Water droplets slid down the grape leaves and fell into the large fish tank below.

"belch--"

A toad, whose hiding place was unknown, also began to croak.

"Squeak."

The door opened,

The toad's croaking disappeared instantly.

The exquisite bamboo curtain hanging at the entrance of the house was lifted from the inside.

The figure who came out walked to the porch and stretched out his palm to feel the raindrops.

"Aunt Xia, the rain has lessened, could you bring me a ladle?" the person who came out said.

"Hey, Miss Green Grass, please wait a moment."

After receiving the water ladle,
Qingcao held the water ladle above her head to shield herself from some raindrops, then stepped down from the porch and walked toward the grape trellis.

Looking at the water level, which was almost level with the fish tank due to the rain, Qingcao muttered to herself, "There's so much water! If you jump out, you'll be asking for trouble!" As Qingcao scooped water out with a ladle...
In the main room and study,
Xu Zaijing was sitting behind the table writing.
Hearing the maid's mutterings outside, Xu Zaijing smiled slightly.

After writing the letter, Xu Zaijing put the letter into an envelope and placed it on the table.

This reply was addressed to Zheng Xiao, and its content mostly concerned matters in Bianjing (Kaifeng).

Zheng Xiao couldn't directly inquire about the situation of a certain noble lady in his family, after all, Madam Zheng was an upright and most proper person.

However, since Zhang Jia'er, with whom he had a good relationship, was also Zhang Jia Wu Niang's older brother, he couldn't bring himself to speak up.

They eventually found Xu Zaijing and, in a roundabout way, inquired about the recent situation of Zhang's Fifth Sister.

Looking at the envelope, Xu Zaijing smiled and sighed, asking, "Who's outside?"

"Young Master?" Yun Xiang stepped in.

"Deliver this letter to the Zheng family first thing tomorrow morning and ask them to take it north."

"Yes, son."

The next day,

noon,

White clouds drifted across the azure sky, occasionally blocking out the sunlight.

Sheng Family School Courtyard

Everything was wet, covered in traces of the rain.

I couldn't tell if it was from a neighbor's pond or from the surrounding waterways, but the croaking of frogs drifted over from the street with the noise of the street.

In the school room,

While helping Qi Heng pack his things, Buwei whispered, "Young Master, I saw Xiao Tao in the outer courtyard, but I couldn't pass the things in."

Qi Heng frowned upon hearing this and said in a low voice, "How could this be?"

Buwei whispered, "Young master, Xiaotao is the sixth young lady's personal maid. I am an outsider. How could she easily take over?"

"Even if we take it over, everything in the inner courtyard is accounted for. If the old lady of the Sheng family or the other mothers see it and ask about it, there will definitely be problems."

"Can't we ask someone for help?" Qi Heng asked in a low voice.

Without showing any difficulty, he said, "The only people in the school right now are the Fourth Miss's personal maids. If we ask them to deliver it, I'm afraid the Sixth Miss will have to kneel in the ancestral hall again this afternoon."

Qi Heng sighed upon hearing this and said, "Okay, I understand."

Although Xu Zaijing overheard this uncontrollably, he didn't pay attention and just looked at the sky outside.

There's nothing else,
Xu Zaijing felt as if he were having a fit of madness; the croaking of frogs and the blue sky and white clouds at this moment seemed no different from what it would be like in later generations.

Under the same blue sky and white clouds,

South Lecture Hall Lane

Rong family

Returning to Snow Courtyard
Rong Feiyan was standing in the courtyard, looking up at the sun that was obscured by white clouds.

A gust of wind blew by,

The fragrance of the flowers caused the blooming blossoms around Rong Feiyan to sway slightly, and a few strands of hair drifted onto Rong Feiyan's fair and delicate face.

After taking a deep breath and stretching, Rong Feiyan opened her eyes with a smile on her lips and looked at the veranda at the entrance of the courtyard.

A maid carrying a fruit basket walked over, and her movements caught Rong Feiyan's attention.

Seeing Rong Feiyan's puzzled look, the maid Ningxiang who came over smiled and said, "Miss, the apricots sent from the estate have been tasted by the Second Young Master, who said they are very sweet."

Rong Feiyan smiled and nodded upon hearing this.

As Rong Feiyan drew closer, Ningxiang continued, "Miss, the Second Young Master also said that it just rained, and Madam Wu said there's some water on the polo field outside the city. Our family is going to hold a polo match, and it looks like we'll have to wait another two days."

"Hmm! That's alright, we'll just wait a few days."

As Rong Feiyan spoke, she turned and walked towards the main room.

On the way, Rong Feiyan said, "That's right. Before, it was my sister who urged the Second Prince to come into this world. For nearly a year, she has been asking Taoist temples and monasteries to chant scriptures and pray for him every day."

"We'll be setting up soup kitchens and doing charity work to pray for blessings in the next couple of days. You and the stewards around your brother and sister-in-law need to keep a close eye on things!"

The maids and servants beside Rong Feiyan quickly curtsied and replied, "Yes, Miss."

After lifting the curtain and entering the room,
Ningxiang went to the side to wash the fruit.
When Rong Feiyan went to the side room, she casually adjusted the flower arrangement on the long table.

After sitting down behind the table, Rong Feiyan reached out and picked up a calligraphy brush, dipped it in ink, and prepared to continue copying.

With a keen eye, Xibu picked up the ink stick inlaid with gold foil and began grinding it in the inkstone.

As she ground the ink, she said, "Miss, I think I'm almost finished copying this scroll of Taoist scripture!"

Rong Feiyan smiled and nodded.

outside the house,

The clouds were slowly blown away by the wind, no longer blocking the sun, and the room became much brighter.

I do not know how long it has been,

On the plate in front of Rong Feiyan were several apricot pits.

After putting down her brush, Rong Feiyan moved her neck.

Ningxiang quickly stood behind Rong Feiyan and began to massage her.

Just then, a young maidservant announced from the doorway, "Miss, the elder sister from the second young master's courtyard has arrived."

As the announcement was made, a maid from the Rong family entered and curtsied: "Greetings, young lady! This is the list of families who will be going to the polo field in a couple of days. The young master ordered me to bring it to you for your perusal."

Xiao Bu, who was standing nearby, quickly stepped forward to take it.

Rong Feiyan unfolded the papers and said with a smile, "Thank you for your trouble."

“You flatter me, young lady,” the maid replied.

After quickly skimming through the text, Rong Feiyan paused, then said softly, "The second eldest daughter-in-law of the Marquis of Yongyi's mansion, Madam Sheng, is her father Lord Sheng Hong of the Ministry of Personnel, isn't he?"

"Yes, girl."

Rong Feiyan said, "Then why didn't I see any names of the Sheng family girls on this? Could it be that none of the three younger sisters of the Sheng family are coming?"

"Yes, miss."

"Is there any reason?" Rong Feiyan asked, her brows furrowed, her tone tinged with worry.

"Sister Cuichan, who serves the second eldest daughter of the Xu family, did say a few words to me when she saw me off from the mansion."

"They say the Sheng family hired a nanny, and that nanny even worked in the palace for many years!"

“These days, the young ladies of the Sheng family have to stay at home and be taught by their nannies, so it’s really not good for them to go out.”

"Oh?" Rong Feiyan straightened up and asked with a hint of curiosity, "Do you know what that old woman's surname is?"

The Rong family maid's face was full of recollection. After a moment, she said uncertainly, "It seems to be surnamed Kong."

Xi Bu and Ning Xiang, who were next to Rong Feiyan, exchanged a surprised glance.

in the afternoon,

The weather was neither too hot nor too cold.

East of the palace,

The occasional croaking of frogs could be heard from the moat surrounding the palace.

Not far from the moat is the Chai family residence.
The Chai family's backyard,
Autumn Sound Garden
There is a pavilion in the courtyard, and fine gauze is hung around the pavilion to keep out mosquitoes.

Several well-made armchairs were arranged around a table, on which seasonal fruits were placed.

Chai Zhengzheng sat lazily in a chair, holding a half-rolled book in her hand.

Opposite Chai Zhengzheng, her sister-in-law, Madam Lu, was intently weaving a colorful rope.

During a break from reading, Chai Zhengzheng looked up at the person opposite her, then put down her book and said curiously, "Sister-in-law, your method of weaving the hundred ropes is quite rare."

Madam Lu smiled and said, "I specially invited a clever lady from the capital to teach at the Lu family before. That lady seems to be surnamed Liu, and she is very beautiful."

"Oh? Can you be prettier than your sister-in-law?" Chai Zhengzheng asked with a smile.

Madam Lu shook her head at Chai Zhengzheng with a hint of helplessness.

Chai Zhengzheng continued, "Sister-in-law, why don't you teach me?"

Mrs. Lu nodded: "Okay!"

At this time,

The mother next to Mrs. Lu came over.

After entering the pavilion and bowing to the two sisters-in-law, he said, "Madam, the maidservant from Miss Rong Feiyan's side just came by. She said she heard that Granny Kong will be returning to the capital soon."

"Ah? Granny Kong?" Upon hearing this, Madam Lu stood up with a look of joy and surprise.

Looking at Lu Shi's appearance, Chai Zhengzheng asked with a puzzled expression, "Sister-in-law, what's wrong with you?"

A few days later,
Around 10:00 AM (巳时正刻)
West of Bianjing City

A carriage drove along the official road, with several knights following beside it.

Upon seeing several luxurious carriages under the shade of trees by the roadside, one of the knights waved happily.

quickly,

The carriage, accompanied by a knight, approached.

Several women and girls stepped off the luxurious carriage parked under the shade of the trees.

The carriage stopped, and Granny Kong got off with a smile on her face.

"Meet Mammy."

Women with hairstyles resembling young girls or middle-aged women, who were in front of the carriage, all gave a curtsy.

After returning the greeting with perfect posture, Granny Kong said with deep emotion, "Why did you ladies and young women go to the trouble of welcoming me back to the capital, an old woman like me?"

(End of this chapter)