vrcanaries Chapter 390 Epilogue (1)
Chapter 390 Epilogue (1)
Another winter is here.
The snow in the north came exceptionally early this year, with light snow falling as soon as November began.
In the afternoon, after Zhang Xueming finished his official duties at the City Lord's Mansion, he drove to Changling Medical College to pick up Gong Yuanzheng from his duty.
On the way, she asked the driver to take a detour to Xianpinju to buy the crispy chicken that her family loved. Thinking of Gong Yuanzheng and the two little cuties, she also went to Tianfuji to buy two pounds of chestnut cakes and half a pound of salted egg yolk cakes.
When they arrived at the entrance of the medical school, they happened to see Jin Miao holding an umbrella high, and Gong Yuanzheng, who was protected by the umbrella, was walking towards the gate.
Gong Yuanzheng was wearing a black long gown with dark patterns and arrow sleeves and a stand-up collar, and a silver-grey fur collared cloak on the outside. His handsome face was stern, and he walked fast and steadily in a square step, his mouth opening and closing as he spoke something.
Twenty or thirty people in lake blue thick velvet college robes followed closely behind, men, women, young and old, holding notebooks and pens in their hands, taking notes as they walked, with admiration and conviction written on their faces.
Zhang Xueming held up an octagonal oil-paper umbrella with red cherry blossoms on it and looked at the large group of people approaching from afar with a smile on her face.
The handsome man who stood out from the crowd in the center of the crowd raised his eyes towards her. When their eyes met, his expression melted away and his smile became as bright as the sun.
"Madam!" he called her loudly.
He quickened his pace and took two steps, then stopped. He glanced at the people who were surrounding him and refusing to leave with a cold face, and said in a deep voice, "That's all for today. For the remaining questions, go find a classroom to discuss them together. If you really can't determine the answer, come back to me tomorrow to ask."
The researchers and students who had been chasing him to ask questions hurriedly put away their notebooks and pens, first bowed respectfully to Zhang Xueming, calling him "Young Master", and then bowed and said goodbye to Gong Yuanzheng.
The crowd dispersed, Gong Yuanzheng smiled again, and his steps were so fast that he seemed to be flying.
When he got to Zhang Xueming, he took the oil-paper umbrella from her hand, put his arm around her shoulders and walked towards the carriage: "Why are you so early today? I said I was going to pick you up."
"It's snowing." Zhang Xueming smoothly switched to the private chat channel: [I don't know why I remembered the first time I saw you at the palace gate on that snowy day... I missed you, I quickly finished my work and ran to see you. ]
Gong Yuanzheng was slightly startled. Seeing her eyelashes trembling as if the petals could not hold the dewdrops, he lowered his umbrella, bent down quickly and kissed the corner of her eye.
Zhang Xueming was startled and turned his head to look at him.
He had straightened up, looking straight ahead as if nothing had happened, his ears turning red.
……
In the carriage covered with brown wool blankets, a half-sized incense burner exuded warmth with the faint aroma of Epiphyllum.
Gong Yuanzheng discovered that next to the low table in the car, where he usually sat, there was a three-layer food box with the Xianpinju logo. He opened it and saw his favorite crispy chicken inside.
Looking at the low table again, there are two large bags of chestnut cakes packaged by Tianfu Ji. They are warm when touched, and it is obvious that they have just been out of the oven.
Glancing at the small package of inconspicuous salted egg yolk pastry next to it, the scheming puppy unconsciously puffed out his chest, and was so proud that he wanted to lift his tail to the sky.
He poured out two cups of hot tea, and the couple shared a bag of chestnut cakes sweetly, wiping each other's mouths to destroy the evidence.
When they got home, the two of them went straight back to the main courtyard, locked a crispy chicken and the remaining chestnut cakes in a large wooden box under the pharmacy laboratory bench, then went to the bathroom to take a shower and change into casual clothes. They asked Jin Miao to carry the salted egg yolk pastry and the food box of crispy chicken to the east courtyard to meet Zhang Wenling and his wife who were staying there for a while.
As soon as I entered the door, I saw Qing Zhi, who was in charge of the East Courtyard, coming up to greet me and saying, "Young Master, Young Master, the Third Madam had to go back to the mansion for some urgent business. The Third Master is in the West Wing teaching Xiao Jie'er and Qi Ge'er to recite the "Book of Filial Piety."
The "Sister Xiao and Brother Qi" she mentioned were the children of Zhang Xueming and Gong Yuanzheng.
When the two children turned one year old, they were given names.
The Zhang family loved girls, so her eldest daughter took her surname Zhang, the character "Ling" in the generation name, and the name "Xiao", which was taken from the phrase "aspiration to soar to the sky". The family had high hopes for her, and it was clear at first sight.
The second brother, Gong Qizheng, and Gong Mingjiao from Gong Shangjiao's family, were both named by Gong Shangjiao, which together form "Qiming", which means the particularly bright morning star that appears in the early morning. There is no need to explain Gong Shangjiao's thoughts.
"My dad is teaching two one-year-old babies to recite the Book of Filial Piety?" Zhang Xueming suspected that he had heard it wrongly. "Is he rushing things?"
Qingzhi just smiled and said nothing.
……
The west wing is not as ornately furnished as the main hall. Apart from a tea table, a bed and a few chairs, there is only a screen with a dancing crane pattern blocking the back window.
The window paper was newly replaced, and there was still a faint smell of paste in the room.
The wall of fire provides heating, and the whole room is cozy and warm, which is completely different from the outside.
Zhang Wenling was wearing a green Taoist robe and sitting cross-legged on the Arhat bed.
The two little boys, wearing goose yellow monk's robes on their upper bodies and pink and purple open-crotch pants on their lower bodies, were holding onto his thighs, one on the left and one on the right, and looking up at him.
The three people had no expression on their faces. One was reading, and the other two were repeating what he said intermittently.
Suddenly, Zhang Wenling's ears twitched slightly. He closed the military strategy book in his hand, took the two children away, fetched a cushion, opened the secret compartment on the bed, put several books next to it together with the military strategy book into the compartment and hid them, restoring the bed to its original state.
He picked up the "Book of Filial Piety" on the low table, lifted the two children to sit in his arms, and reminded them in a low voice: "Your mother is here."
The two children immediately clapped their hands and giggled, accompanying Zhang Wenling's reading.
Zhang Xueming could hear the children's laughter coming from the window from afar, and couldn't help but smile: "Dad, what you call teaching the children to recite, doesn't it mean that he just reads from beginning to end while the children laugh beside him?"
"Probably. No matter how smart our child is, he can't recite the Book of Filial Piety when he's just over one year old." Gong Yuanzheng agreed with a smile, lowering his eyelashes to hide the complicated look in his eyes.
……
On the small carved table in the middle of the bed was a plate of swallowtail cakes and a plate of red carp cakes, and on the tray next to it were three sets of covered bowls and a purple clay pot. Next to the bed was a small red clay stove, and the long-mouthed copper pot on the stove was gurgling, with milky white steam constantly gushing out of the pot's spout, and it was obvious that the water had been boiling for a long time.
When the two children saw Zhang Xueming, they smiled until their eyes narrowed. They scrambled to crawl towards her, shouting as they crawled, "Mom! Mom!"
Zhang Wenling laughed and scolded: "You little heartless ones, your grandfather spent the whole afternoon with you, but you don't want your grandfather anymore when you see your mother?"
The two children turned a deaf ear to it.
The youngest son climbed first. He grabbed the hands that Zhang Xueming stretched out with both hands, stood up tremblingly, took a step forward unsteadily, and then his legs went limp and he sat back on the bed.
The eldest daughter nimbly went around her younger brother, grabbed Zhang Xueming's thighs, and used her hands and feet as if climbing a mountain. Finally, she rolled into her arms, looked up at her with her fingers in her mouth and smiled.
Zhang Xueming couldn't stop laughing.
After a busy day at work, she would go home with Gong Yuanzheng. When she could see her parents and lovely children, she would feel all her tiredness disappear and all the hard work of the day would be worth it.
Zhang Xueming picked up his daughter, took the black handkerchief with gold edges handed to him by Gong Yuanzheng, wiped the saliva off his daughter's hands, patted her head and face, kissed her, and then handed her to Gong Yuanzheng's arms: "Ling Xiao, play with your father for a while, he missed you today."
She stretched out her arms and grabbed her little son who was sitting blankly, buried her face in his bulging belly and made a "humming" sound, which made her little son lean back and laugh so hard that his saliva was streaming.
But she didn't see that when she was playing with her youngest son, her eldest daughter, who fell into Gong Yuanzheng's arms, looked at him with dead eyes, and both father and daughter turned away with disgust.