Volume 4: Gathering of Sages Chapter 513: Double Critical Hit
Are you all dead? How could you not find out about such a big thing, or did you deliberately not tell me?
Being glared at by Master Zhu, the guards behind him instinctively lowered their heads, but they all felt extremely wronged. Every time the messengers went back and forth between the capital and Cangzhou, it was almost impossible for them to stay in the capital for too long. Most of the time, they would bring back whatever news the government told them. Who knew that such a big thing was hidden!
Who dares to deliberately hide this from you, my Lord? Are you trying to kill yourself?
Seeing Zhu Tingfang's cold eyes piercing those poor guards, Zhang Shou smiled without saying anything. He glanced at the door of Xiao's house and found that Xiao Cheng, who was surprised and happy, had already run out. Looking behind him, who else could it be but Ah Liu who had quietly left earlier?
Xiao Cheng hurried out just because of Ah Liu's report. He didn't know how to read people's faces. After rushing over like a gust of wind, he hugged Zhu Tingfang's thighs... and then shouted in joy: "Brother Zhu, when did you come back? Are you hurt? Sister Yingying said that you always don't cherish yourself. Did you eat well outside?"
After the little guy asked this series of almost incoherent questions, Zhu Tingfang's cold attitude of keeping strangers away could no longer be maintained. He sighed deeply and touched Xiao Cheng's head with his hand. Seeing that the man was still holding him tightly and refused to let go, he couldn't help but think of the scene when he saved this little guy.
He was also so small, but he was always very independent and self-reliant. Later, he even patted his chest and said that he would become his servant to pay off his debts...
Seeing Xiao Cheng clinging to Zhu Tingfang and refusing to let go, Zhou smiled and said, "The master has asked Lu Jijiu to go out of the city to look at the land of the public school, and he also wants to meet the kind people who generously donated money, so he left me to look after the house. Now that the eldest master is back, I will lock the door and go to Xiao's house to join in the fun! And by the way, make a sweet soup for Xiao Cheng?"
Seeing Xiao Cheng finally let go, he immediately stepped forward to thank Zhou. Finally seeing an opportunity, Young Master Zhu picked up Xiao Cheng from behind. When he heard someone exclaim, he started shouting that he had grown up and could walk. He laughed a few times.
"Okay, I know you're old enough to manage such a big home and provide food and lodging for so many people. Come on, show me what your home looks like now!"
Seeing Zhu Tingfang smiling and carrying Xiao Cheng inside, Zhou went to Liu's house to lock the door. Zhang Shou rubbed his chin thoughtfully, and when he turned his head to look, he saw that from Zhang Chen, Zhu Er to Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu, everyone had an expression as if their jaw was about to drop.
Zhu Tingfang was a guy who looked unlucky with women and even children - this was not what they said, because this young master Zhu had been engaged time and time again but none of the women came - how could he hold a child?
Zhang Shou had no choice but to wave his hand in front of them, then he coughed and said, "Okay, come back to your senses. Be careful, Master Zhu will turn around and see you looking so stupid, and beat you up!"
Zhu Er rubbed his eyes quickly, then laughed and said, "The last time I saw my eldest brother holding a child... it was when Yingying was little. He insisted on carrying little Yingying around the house and almost dropped her to the ground. He got a good scolding from his grandmother. Although I've heard before that the little guy was adopted by my eldest brother, I never thought that my eldest brother would still hold him even though he's so old, tsk..."
He had two more words hidden in his heart that he didn't dare to say. If his grandmother and parents knew that his elder brother also had this fatherly side, it would be much easier for him to pick up other people. Poor elder brother, he didn't even know how many girls he would have to meet when he returned to Beijing!
Even though my elder brother's previous marriage was enough to scare off countless women, and now he has a scary scar on his face, his glorious military exploits and his ability to be both civil and military are nothing compared to his. Not to mention, he is the natural heir to the Duke of Zhao's mansion.
He was still the best. When Jiu Niang came back this time, she told him that she had already visited Wang Datou's niece in person. She was a beautiful and virtuous girl! He had been suppressed by these powerful women in his family for so many years, and he would soon be able to turn things around and sing!
Zhang Chen saw Zhu Er's silly smile and immediately moved away from him, as did Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu. When the three followed Zhang Shou into the Xiao family's gate, they heard Lu Sanlang's loud shouting: "That's right, the weather is so good today, not too cold or too hot, don't put the table in the house, put it outside, hey, Brother Zhu, you haven't been back for so long, sit with Xiao Cheng..."
Seeing that Lu Sanlang was still calm in front of Zhu Tingfang, Zhang Shou could not help but glance at the three weaklings behind him - including Zhu Er, that's four. Then he said with a smile: "Look, you should learn from Lu Sanlang in the future!"
"Do you want to learn from him to say one thing to one person and another thing to another?" As Lu Sanlang's former friend, Zhu Er couldn't help but sneer.
However, when Lu Sanlang greeted the other Jiuzhangtang students warmly, and then, with the attitude of a senior caring for the younger, talked about the specialties and signature dishes of the chef invited today, and warned everyone with a smile not to overeat, and that they would organize monthly dinners in the future, but the daily food and accommodation would still follow the old standards, his face gradually drooped.
Zhang Chen said directly, "You can say that they were good friends in the past. Not only is Lu Sanlang's talent in mathematics so great that even the old Grand Tutor Ge can't stop praising him, but his ability to dance with the sleeves is also to the extreme. I say, Zhu Er, I don't know why you thought that you and Lu Sanpang were the same kind of people. You even claimed that you were like-minded with him?"
" Stop talking!" Zhu Er angrily stopped Zhang Chen from stabbing him in the back, and then said unhappily, "He is good at his tricks, and I am honestly busy with my work in the fields. Why should I learn from him? It is said that Ye Gong likes dragons, so can't I be my Zhu Gong who likes farmers in the future?"
Seeing that Zhu Er was now able to say the words "Zhu Gong is a farmer" very freely, Zhang Shou couldn't help but smile. He gestured to the four people to stop fighting and invited them to sit down together. Although the dishes on the table were dazzling, there were no exaggerated ingredients such as sea cucumbers and shark fins. Instead, they mainly featured hard dishes such as chicken, duck, fish and meat. As for wine, there was not a drop of it.
Zhang Chen was wondering if Zhang Shou was taking this opportunity to welcome Zhu Tingfang, but he was completely speechless when he saw this. It was obvious that this was really just to improve the diet of most of the poor students in Jiuzhang Hall, and it was even obvious that it was the work of a Shandong cuisine chef. But to be honest, he had eaten too many such elegant and magnificent dishes, and now he had no appetite when he saw this beautiful face.
But at this moment, he heard Zhu Er suddenly mutter in a low voice: "Lu Sanpang must have done this on purpose. He smiled and talked to my eldest brother, but he was doing bad things behind my back! He knew that my eldest brother would definitely come, but he had people make this greasy dish! Besides, even if there are classes in the afternoon, what's wrong with getting some rice wine to welcome my eldest brother?"
Xiao Cheng was sitting on Zhu Tingfang's left, and Zhang Shou was sitting on his right. At this time, Zhang Shou heard Zhu Er next to Xiao Cheng complaining about Lu Sanlang's arrangement. He was about to say something, but when he saw that Lu Sanlang, who had just gone to the table of younger junior brothers to toast and congratulate them personally, had returned and was standing behind Zhu Er with an expressionless face, he suddenly felt that there was no need for him to get involved.
Sure enough, the next moment, he only heard Lu Sanlang say sinisterly: "Shouldn't it be you, as your younger brother, who should be the one to welcome your elder brother? Besides, the chef I hired is only for cooking. As for buying groceries, Xiao Cheng and Xiao Huasheng went there in person. The two little guys pushed a cart back and forth twice, panting. You are still nitpicking here. Who are you being worthy of?"
Zhu Er was so frightened by the voice behind him that he jumped up and almost knocked over his chair. When he turned around and glared at Lu Sanlang, he saw that Lu Sanlang had already sat on the other side as if nothing had happened.
Moreover, he saw that Fatty Lu not only did not compete with Zhang Chen for the seat, but instead sat leisurely next to Peanut and patted Peanut on the shoulder in a friendly and cordial manner.
At this moment, Zhu Er just realized that his elder brother glanced at him unhappily, and the look of his future brother-in-law Zhang Shou was even a bit teasing.
He immediately sat down like a deflated ball, and then said hesitantly, "I just thought that since we happened to meet, I might as well host the welcoming party for Big Brother. How did I know that the grocery shopping wasn't done by Fatty Lu alone?"
Zhu Tingfang sneered, and seeing that Xiao Cheng was also glaring at Zhu Er angrily, he asked a few questions gently and learned that all the vegetables and meat on the table were indeed bought by Xiao Cheng and Xiao Huasheng. He couldn't help but look at Xiao Huasheng, who was sitting at the last seat and looked uneasy, with some surprise.
Of course, he knew this young man from Cangzhou, and he even had a vague idea that the eldest prince had abducted a commoner girl and ended up falling into Xian Yunhe's trap. The commoner girl who had disappeared after that seemed to have a hidden story. But when he heard Xiao Cheng excitedly talking about how he urged Xiao Huasheng to memorize his lessons, he put aside his thoughts for the time being, and then he realized something.
"With so many students living here, don't you have any hired servants to do the work?"
" Of course not, do your own thing!"
Xiao Cheng blurted out a sentence as if it was a matter of course, and then said proudly: "This is what Brother Zhang taught me. List the things to be done every day in a table, and then let each student living here take turns to undertake one of the tasks, and rotate every five days. Of course, there can't be more than 20 things to do every day, so those who are not on duty can take a break. This is called... a student on duty?"
Xiao Cheng tilted his head and said this unfamiliar name. Seeing Zhang Shou nodded, he was naturally greatly encouraged. He said happily, "Little Peanut also said that he would teach everyone to grow vegetables in the backyard. I can also take everyone to help Mr. Song sell sugar water on the street in the future... Brother Zhang said that this is called work-study. Well, it's the same as self-reliance!"
When Zhu Tingfang returned to Beijing from the Northern Expedition last time, he learned that Xiao Cheng had disguised himself as a ghost to scare people because the Liu family had suffered a great change, and he was almost starved to death. It was Zhang Shou who saved him and gave the little guy a job as a clerk in the Imperial College. At that time, he felt very sorry. But the little guy insisted on being self-reliant, and he had no choice.
But now, the little guy kept talking about "Brother Zhang" and so on, and his words were very convincing. He also saw that the group of students were mostly joking after hearing what Xiao Cheng said, and there was not much reluctance on their faces, which showed that they had obviously accepted such a small landlord.
He was filled with mixed emotions and completely forgot that he, as the one who had bought Xiao Cheng's house a long time ago, was actually the real landlord - although he had recovered the money from Xiao Cheng's evil relatives, he had already spent it all on repairing the house and Xiao Cheng's food and lodging over the years.
At this moment, he only felt a sense of sadness that his child had grown up, but unfortunately became someone else's child.
Xiao Cheng, far from understanding his elder brother Zhu's subtle mood, was still talking about his recent events with great interest, including what books he had read, what poems he had memorized, what calligraphy he had written, which students from Jiuzhang Hall and Banshan Hall would often come here to teach him, and what they had learned... When he got excited, he even grinned.
"Thank you, Brother Zhang, for bringing Peanut and so many others to keep me company. And now Elder Liu and Sister Zhou are here too. I'm not lonely at all. I'm really happy!"
When Zhu Er saw Zhu Tingfang's subtle expression, he couldn't help but feel a little sympathetic towards his eldest brother. He didn't even have any children yet, but his eldest brother had already experienced the feeling of his children falling in love with someone else. If Zhu Ying, whom he had always loved, was to get married...his eldest brother would suffer a double blow!
Of course, Zhang Shou would not miss Zhu Tingfang's somewhat reluctant expression - he could even understand Brother Zhu's depression from the double blow, but he had been planning to make a small counterattack today for Zhu Tingfang's attitude towards him, so he just stood by and watched, letting Xiao Cheng talk about his wonderful life.
It was not until he saw Zhu Tingfang gradually returning to normal, not only eating and drinking freely after the food was served, but even his expression gradually relaxed, that he was sure that Young Master Zhu was still Young Master Zhu, and had gotten rid of those little emotional problems.
In an occasion like today, three rounds of drinking is naturally not possible. However, Ji Jiu led the team, the Third Prince guarded the team, and a bunch of elementary school students finally came to offer Zhang Shou tea. Although tea is not intoxicating, drinking too much will make your stomach bloated, so Zhang Shou simply drank three cups and signaled everyone to stop. When he sat down, he suddenly felt someone gently press on his shoulder.
"Zhang Shou, go out for a moment. I have something to tell you."
Even though Zhu Er was particularly eager to hear what the gossip was about, even though Lu Sanlang, Zhang Chen, Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu were curious about whether the uncle and aunt would confront each other, or even Xiao Cheng who was particularly confused, and Xiao Huasheng who was thoughtful, they could only watch Zhang Shou still with a decent smile, calmly follow Zhu Tingfang out.
However, even though Zhu Tingfang's powerful aura could stop a large number of people from following him, it still couldn't stop one person. He walked out of the middle door, glanced helplessly at Ah Liu who was following him quietly, and said casually, "Your shadow is indeed doing your job well." Then he said to Zhang Shou lightly, "You have to be careful, someone wants to use you to become famous."
