Volume 3: Dragon and Snake Movement Chapter 414: Wherever My Heart Is at Peace Is My Hometown
No matter what kind of conversations Zhu Jing had with the Lady Dowager and Jiu Niang in private, the dinner at Duke Zhao's mansion that day still seemed to be a happy and harmonious family affair - the only drawback was that the brothers Zhu Tingfang and Zhu Er had not returned from Cangzhou, so it could not be considered a complete reunion.
But even so, Wu was still overjoyed. Whether it was the goodwill of the elders of the Zhu family, Zhu Ying's undisguised affection for Zhang Shou, or the calligraphy from the emperor that Zhang Shou received, she, who came from a humble background, felt that the hard work over the past decade was really worth it. Therefore, when she took the carriage back to Zhang Garden at night, when Zhang Shou sent her back to her room, she couldn't help but hold Zhang Shou's hand.
"A Shou, you have become famous in Cangzhou this time, and now you have been granted a name by the emperor. Can you report to the emperor and build a family temple so that the scholar and his wife can enjoy the incense and offerings at all times?"
Zhang Shou did not expect that Wu did not urge him to get married, nor did she make any other requests, but reminded him that he should build a family temple for his parents. Although the system of this dynasty requires that only officials of the fifth rank can build a family temple, the system is nothing more than human feelings. If he is willing to write a letter to request, it can be imagined that this matter should be approved as soon as possible. After all, his life experience has always been closely related to Zhu Ying and Princess Yongping.
He glanced at Wu, who looked pleading, and thought of the widow Zhang who risked her life to give birth to a child but died. He finally nodded: "I know, I will do it right away. Don't worry, mother, I have almost enough strength now."
"Okay, okay!" Mrs. Wu cried with joy, wiped her eyes, and then said with great relief, "I have been looking forward to this day. When the family temple is completed, I will go with you to worship the scholar and his wife. You will unfold the calligraphy given by the emperor. They will be so happy in their graves... Let's not talk about this at night. Go back and have a good rest!"
Zhang Shou had been running non-stop since he set out from Tongzhou early in the morning, and he was indeed very tired. Fortunately, he and Zhu Ying sent Ge Yong home first after leaving the palace, otherwise if he took Ge Yong to Zhu's house for dinner, he doubted whether this teacher would fall asleep at the dinner table out of exhaustion.
After sending Mrs. Wu into the room, Zhang Shou walked back, unable to conceal his fatigue and yawning endlessly. When he turned his head in a daze, he found that Ah Liu, who was only half a step behind him, was still full of energy. He found it unbelievable.
"Ah Liu, how long did you sleep last night? You are still so energetic now. Are you a night wanderer?"
"I'm used to it. I just need to get two hours of sleep a night." Ah Liu answered without any reluctance. Seeing Zhang Shou looking at him as if he had seen a ghost, he said as if it was a matter of course, "How else would I have the time to learn? The madman used to come to teach me at night."
Hearing this, Zhang Shou was stunned for a moment, and then he could not help but feel horrified. Indeed, since he came here, he remembered that Ah Liu was mostly at home during the day, and occasionally went out to chop wood or do some chores, but he would never leave his sight for too long. To practice the various skills of martial arts, riding, driving, etc., he really had to squeeze out time from sleep.
He was silent for a moment, then suddenly walked forward and touched Liu's head with mixed feelings. He thought that maybe it was because of lack of sleep that Liu was half a head shorter than him even though he was only a few months younger.
"I didn't know before that you are the guardian of the night." He said jokingly, then took two steps back and said in a relaxed tone, "From now on, whether you are out or at home, just sleep a little longer and don't be so alert like a cat. I'm not a prince or noble, so not many people want to kill me."
Seeing that Ah Liu didn't say anything and obviously didn't intend to listen to him, Zhang Shou thought for a moment and changed his words: "Didn't you recruit a large number of people for Zhang Garden? There are also Yang Haozheng and the other guys from Rongshui Village, plus the little peanut who came from Cangzhou this time. You shouldn't do everything yourself. Try to train and cultivate others and leave things to them."
At this point, he used himself as an example and said, "Look at me, when I do things, don't Zhang Chen and others do it for me?"
Ah Liu was somewhat moved by Zhang Shou's words, especially when faced with that clear but unquestionable gaze, he was unconsciously a little touched. Therefore, after hesitating for a moment, he nodded and said, "I'll give it a try."
Seeing that Ah Liu accepted his proposal, Zhang Shou immediately laughed. As he walked towards his own courtyard, he thought of Zhu Er who was still in Cangzhou, and asked, "I forgot one thing. Haven't you always been ordered to teach Zhu Er martial arts? He is in Cangzhou now, so you can't teach him, right? Remember to exempt him from his wages for the past few months."
Hearing this, Ah Liu muttered reluctantly: "That's a lot of money..."
Zhang Shou was both angry and amused at once: "Why are you so obsessed with money? Don't forget, when we left Cangzhou, we had already determined that Cangzhou would have a bumper cotton harvest this year. Coupled with the efficiency of spinning and looms, the price of cotton will not fall, but will only rise. After all, I have 500 acres of cotton fields, so I can sell them for a lot of money. Add to that the income from Zhang Chen, Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu, and I'm not short of money."
"Oh." Ah Liu agreed weakly. Thinking about the loss of income every month, he felt extremely painful.
However, thinking that Zhang Shou was not as short of money as before, he gradually stopped thinking about it, and instead thought about what happened when Zhang Shou and Ge Yong met the emperor today. Although he could not sit at the same table with them, he took turns eating at the side like the guards, and he had been listening attentively, so he did not miss a word of the conversation.
After walking a distance with Zhang Shou, he couldn't help but ask in a low voice, "Why didn't you ask about the construction of Cangzhou Port when you met the emperor today?"
Zhang Shou didn't expect that Ah Liu, who usually didn't care about foreign affairs, would ask this. He was slightly startled at this moment, and then he smiled and said, "Because this is originally the matter that the emperor has entrusted to Yingying's elder brother. I was just forced to participate by chance. There is no need to interfere. You also heard it at Zhu's house before. Duke Zhao already thinks I am too conspicuous. In short, I am too good at causing trouble."
"How can you compare to Zhu Da in causing trouble?" Ah Liu looked unhappy, and then added, "Zhu Er is not much better!"
"Yes, yes, they are troublemakers. Duke Zhao thought they were very honest."
Zhang Shou answered without even turning his head, and then suddenly asked, "Ah Liu, weren't you thrown into my house by your crazy master? Since you came here with a mission, when did you consider yourself one of my family members? With your ability, even if you weren't an imperial attendant, you should have had a promising future. But now you're stuck in a small family like this. Don't you regret it?"
For Ah Liu, this question was easy to answer. He said without thinking, "Master, remember, you always said that I was too short and needed to eat more to grow taller. No matter what Aunt Liu cooked, you would leave a portion for me, which made my appetite bigger."
Seeing Zhang Shou paused in a daze, he continued, "Madam, you usually live frugally, but every time you ask Aunt Liu to measure your size and make clothes for four seasons, she will remember to buy me a set as well. She said that when she picked me up, I was covered in rags and looked so pitiful. Later, when you grew taller and couldn't fit into the clothes, I wore them all, from silk to silk cotton."
Ah Liu paused, a rare look of regret on his face: "Old Liu makes fun of me every day, but he always gives me a few dozen extra coins during the Chinese New Year, saying it's lucky money from elders to younger ones, and he always brings me something when he comes back from going out. Aunt Liu has a sharp tongue but a soft heart. After learning to cook from the young master, she always asks me to be the food taster, in fact, she is finding ways to make me eat more."
He rarely spoke so much, but at this moment, he seemed to feel that it was not enough to say all this in one breath: "It was the young master who told me, Ah Liu, you should talk more, otherwise you won't be able to find a wife in the future. It was the lady who told me, Ah Liu, you should take good care of Ah Shou and treat him like a brother... As for the future that the young master mentioned, I regret it. I haven't thought about that."
A nonchalant smile appeared on the boy's face.
"The madman taught me so many things and asked me to protect you, and I have done it. I am even with him. If he asks me to do something else, then I can only let him down. This is my most important home, and I feel safe here. It is more important than any future. I have nothing to regret."
"You , let me tell you what's good!"
Zhang Shou always felt that he was a cold person. He seemed to be very gentle to everyone, but in fact, he was cold and distant. Even though Zhu Ying was so beautiful, sunny and lively, when he first met her, he was too lazy to stay away from her. Even when it came to Wu and other family members, he was only polite and courteous to them at first.
But at this moment, he felt that not only his heart was burning, but even his eyes were a little warm. He looked at the boy who was unusually inconspicuous in the crowd, usually silent like a shadow, but took care of him in every possible way, and couldn't help but sigh softly.
"Ah Liu , don't just remember how good we were to you. You should also think about how good you were to us and how much you did for us. Without you, if we were the only ones to rely on you, we wouldn't know what a mess this family would be in."
Seeing that Ah Liu raised his eyebrows in disbelief, he laughed and said, "Besides, go ask Zhu Er, Zhang Chen and the others what they say about you in private. Do they envy you for never getting tired and being able to do everything? Go ask Xiao Huasheng yourself how he admires you."
"You are an indispensable person in this family. However, you should also take your health more seriously."
Even after sending Zhang Shou back to his room and watching the door close, Ah Liu couldn't help but think in his heart, what does it mean to value your health more? He has been working hard to exercise, because with a good body, he has the ability to travel around with Zhang Shou, to deal with various emergencies, and to live longer.
Did Zhang Shou feel that he was not practicing hard enough, or that his martial arts were not good enough?
In this way, he is indeed far worse than a madman...
With such a profound understanding, Ah Liu went directly to the martial arts arena in the backyard. As the former residence of Prince Lu, it was fully equipped with facilities, including the martial arts arena where Prince Lu once personally watched the martial arts competition of his personal guards. On the weapon rack on the side, all eighteen kinds of weapons were polished to a gleam, obviously, the little guys at home did not slack off while he followed Zhang Shou to Cangzhou.
He casually pulled out a broadsword, tested its weight, and then began to wield it. At his age, it was impossible for him to be proficient in all kinds of weapons. Hua Qi only taught him the key points of using various weapons, so he was good at using some weapons, such as the bow and arrow, but not so good at using some weapons, such as this long and heavy broadsword.
And his every move didn't seem to have much method, but if there was an opponent in front of him at this moment, he would definitely feel the strongest murderous intent in that seemingly chaotic situation.
Because Ah Liu was not limited to fighting, but to killing. In the days before coming to the Zhang family, he had been taken by Hua Qi to various dangerous and desperate situations, using a dagger with a cloth handle, a rope, and various local to take people's lives in life-and-death struggles. As for whether he killed a horse thief, a villain, a ruffian, a bandit... or something else, he had long forgotten.
“Good practice.”
Hearing this sudden sound, Ah Liu's whole body tensed up. He tightly grasped the sword in his hand, which was not very handy. He did not turn around to look at the source of the sound, but secretly gathered strength.
"Very good, it seems that you still remember what I taught you. When people turn around in a hurry, they are most likely to be attacked by surprise."
Following the sound, a figure suddenly appeared on the wall. A middle-aged man with messy hair waved his arms and fell from the sky , landing more than ten steps behind Ah Liu. Almost as soon as he landed, the young man with his back to him suddenly swung his knife back. In an instant, the two exchanged more than ten moves. None of their moves were fancy, as if they were fighting for life and death.
After more than ten moves, the two suddenly separated. At this time, Ah Liu stared at the pair of black spikes on Hua Qi's fingers and couldn't help but raise his eyebrows and said, "You changed your weapons again!"
Hua Qi immediately laughed: "This is the weapon that Grandpa Taizu bestowed on his attendants, called the Emei Spear. I always use this, but I don't use it much outside, so you haven't seen it very often. Boy, it's only been a short time since we last met, and you can actually hold out for more than ten moves against my Emei Spear with your sword, which you are not good at. You have improved again."
Faced with such praise, Ah Liu's reaction was extremely calm: "When did you come? Did you hear what the young master and I said?"
"Hmm? What did he say to you?" Hua Qi seemed a little surprised. He raised his eyebrows and then said nonchalantly, "I'm here to tell you something. You have to train a few more helpers. The emperor has big plans. Your young master is already the target of public criticism and will be even more hated in the future. This garden is vast and sparsely populated. Don't let someone like me get in easily!"
