20 years of the Republic of China

Chapter 592

In the north of Fengtian City, there is the Jiang family mansion.

The snow in the yard had just been swept away, a layer of frost had formed on the glass windows, and a few sparrows were jumping back and forth among the bare branches.

It was just after noon and the sun was shining brightly, but not warm.

The area outside the Great Wall is different from the south of the Yangtze River. After all, it is already deep winter.

The house was strangely quiet. The servants were all taking a nap. Only the grandfather clock in the corner of the living room was still ticking...

In the study room on the second floor, Hu Xiaoyan was taking a nap on the desk.

It's cold, and time seems to go slower.

After being quiet for a long time, she suddenly woke up inexplicably.

Sitting in the wheelchair, he slowly regained consciousness, rubbed his eyes, then reached out to wipe away the frost on the window, leaned forward and looked into the yard.

Unexpectedly, the next second, the gate of the house opened and a black car slowly drove into the house.

Looking closely, it was indeed Jiang Lianheng who had returned.

He was seen coming out of the carriage carrying large and small bags. When others offered to take them, he ignored them and hurriedly walked towards the yard.

When he was near the door, he was inexplicably startled. He looked up and saw Hu Xiaoyan in the window. He smiled and hurriedly quickened his pace.

"What a fool!"

Their eyes met, and Hu Xiaoyan smiled faintly. She then left the windowsill, smoothed her clothes, and tidied the hair around her ears.

At the same time, the whole mansion gradually became agitated.

The servants came out one after another to greet him and say "Hello, Master".

Jiang Lianheng responded casually with a few words, and without even bothering to change his clothes, he immediately ran to the second floor.

As usual, the first thing I did when I got home was to pay my respects to my aunt. I had done this for many years, but today I came to a disappointment.

When I opened the door, Xu Ruqing was not there.

Jiang Lianheng was a little surprised. Without even asking the servants, he turned around and went back to the study.

When he saw Hu Xiaoyan in the room, he hurried over with a smile, still feeling cold, and asked in a low voice, "Wife, where is your aunt?"

Hu Xiaoyan was about to answer, but suddenly frowned, turned her head slightly, and looked at Jiang Lianheng steadily, as if she had discovered something unusual.

Jiang Lianheng seemed a little guilty, and he immediately stood up and dodged, saying, "What's the matter? Did you miss me?"

"What's wrong with your ears?" Hu Xiaoyan asked worriedly.

"Oh, you're talking about this, it's nothing!"

"Come here and let me take a look."

Jiang Lianheng carelessly piled the gifts on the table, then bent down in front of Hu Xiaoyan.

Seeing his wife was about to reach out her hand, he took the opportunity to step forward, gave her a deep puff, and then immediately dodged away, as if he was joking and not serious at all.

Hu Xiaoyan was a little anxious, so she shouted: "Let me see!"

"Hey, what are you looking at? I'm not disfigured. If I stand there, who would think I'm not a pity?"

Jiang Lianheng didn't care at all. He waved his hand and pointed at his right ear. He smiled and joked, "Hey, wife, I seem to have heard someone say that if your ears are broken, you will walk off the track. Can you help me check if I am still walking in a straight line now?"

Having said that, he immediately started walking back and forth in the study, his behavior being somewhat absurd and funny.

He tried to ease his family's worries by making fun of himself.

Hu Xiaoyan understood and stopped asking questions.

Her eyes followed his figure for a moment, and finally she shook her head and said, "That's right, where did that come from?"

"No?" Jiang Lianheng smiled and sat down, "Maybe I remembered it wrong."

Hu Xiaoyan remained silent, suppressing her concern and pretending to be calm.

She knew that when he wanted to talk, he would talk. If she insisted on asking him questions, it would only make him more upset and ruin his mood to go home.

After a while, Sister Hua came over to pay her respects.

Soon after, Song Ma and Yingzi also came into the house with servants to greet and obey orders.

Hu Xiaoyan ordered: "There will be many people at home tonight, everyone who should come should come, start preparing now, and remember to ask someone to cook a few bowls of noodles."

Song Ma agreed, and then asked someone to make a pot of hot tea for the master and the mistress.

When the tea was brought into the room, Jiang Lianheng waved his hand and said, "Go and do what you need to do. Let's talk in the room for a while."

Everyone left in response, leaving only Jiang and Hu in the room chatting.

Jiang Lianheng picked up the tea bowl, blew on it, took a few sips, and asked, "By the way, I was just talking about this, where is my aunt?"

Hu Xiaoyan said calmly, "I took the two children to the street to buy New Year's goods. Didn't you notice that the house is particularly quiet today?"

Jiang Lianheng almost choked and was stunned for a moment.

Over the years, Xu Ruqing's mental state has not been very good.

Most of the time, people are a little dull. Occasionally they get better, but it is fleeting and they are unable to do anything.

Normally, he hardly goes out of the house. At most, he just takes a walk in the yard to change his mood.

It is really surprising that nowadays, not only do they take the initiative to go to the streets, but they also help their family buy New Year's goods.

Jiang Lianheng was pleasantly surprised, but also a little worried, so he asked, "Will that work?"

Hu Xiaoyan looked out the window and murmured, "It should be nothing. I asked Dongfeng to go with her."

"Oh, this is really strange. There's nothing wrong with just strolling around the streets, but she doesn't need to worry about the New Year's goods. Can't she ask someone to do it?"

"You'll have to ask your daughter about that."

It turned out that Jiang Ya had been bringing her brother to Xu Ruqing's room since early morning, insisting that their aunt take them to the street to buy snacks.

The love between generations is the real love.

The two children's words were more effective than anyone else's, and after begging for a long time, Xu Ruqing finally agreed.

Hearing this, Jiang Lianheng couldn't help but smile and said, "Alright, just go out and find something for your aunt to do. Maybe it will be fine in two years!"

Hu Xiaoyan said, "No matter how good it is, I am already over 50 years old. What else can I expect? As long as I am healthy and have no disasters, I will be very lucky."

"There's nothing wrong with that."

"right?"

The couple sighed for a moment, feeling that a short separation made love better, and finally they stopped arguing.

Jiang Lianheng put down his tea bowl, put his coat on the chair, and suddenly asked, "When I mentioned these two children just now, I suddenly remembered something."

"What's the matter?" Hu Xiaoyan picked up her coat again, straightened it out, and put it back on the chair.

Jiang Lianheng smacked his lips, spat out two mouthfuls of tea leaves, and asked, "How are these two children...doing in school?" Hearing this, Hu Xiaoyan couldn't help but widen her eyes and asked in surprise, "What's wrong with you today? Why are you asking about children?"

"If I don't ask, who else will I ask?"

"Even if you ask, what are they learning? Do you know it?"

Jiang Lianheng was stunned for a moment, then waved his hands and said with disdain: "Don't be so disrespectful as you. How old are they? What can they learn at such an age? I can't do it, and I can't do it. Do you know how to do it?"

"I don't know how to do it anymore." Hu Xiaoyan said frankly, "There are still many words I don't know."

"Hey~ That's right!"

Jiang Lianheng said in a strange voice: "I am different from you. Remember, our Jiang family has a scholar in our family. That is a scholar. What do you think? My family has no illiterate people for generations. I am a real scholar family. You should know this in your heart in the future!"

Hu Xiaoyan rolled her eyes and agreed with him: "Okay, I know, I am marrying above my station, you've said it eight hundred times."

"Eight hundred times is too much?" Jiang Lianheng said, "My father has been bragging about the fact that everyone in my family can read all his life. You have to listen to me even if it's eighty thousand times!"

This is truly a remarkable thing.

Hu Xiaoyan did not refute.

Jiang Lianheng became more and more excited as he spoke, and then he continued, "Don't forget, I studied with my third uncle for five years! People are born good, first filial and respectful, then honest and trustworthy. I know all this, how can I be defeated by those two brats?"

"Then wait for the kids to come back and ask them directly!" Hu Xiaoyan was annoyed and changed the subject, asking, "Why did you suddenly think of this?"

Jiang Lianheng suddenly became emotional, sighed and said, "You still have to study. If you study hard, you can become a high-ranking official. It's better to rely on yourself than on others."

"Studying well or not has nothing to do with becoming an official." Hu Xiaoyan said, "Look at the provincial government and those government-run factories now. How many people got in through the back door? On the contrary, few people who are good at studying become officials."

"What kind of a shitty official position is that!" Jiang Lianheng curled his lips after hearing this. "He's just an official the size of a sesame seed. At most he can make some money. We don't lack money."

"How high a position do you want to hold?" Hu Xiaoyan asked.

"It's not that I want to, it's too late for me, I'm talking about the child!"

"Do you have an idea?"

"Well, I've already thought about it. I'll let Chengye go to the Military Academy. If he can become a corps commander or something, then our family will be awesome!"

"What about my daughter?"

"What's wrong with my daughter?" Jiang Lianheng looked confused.

Hu Xiaoyan frowned, but asked: "Let me ask you, where will our two daughters develop in the future?"

"Well, what's the point of a girl developing herself? She's almost old enough, just find someone to marry." Jiang Lianheng said nonchalantly, "Of course, it would be best if she could marry a high-ranking official. If my son can't become a corps commander, it would be fine if my son-in-law can."

Hu Xiaoyan looked a little annoyed and her tone became stiff.

"Jiang Ya is your and my child, so why don't you care about me?"

"Why wouldn't I care? I'll find him a good one when the time comes. It won't go wrong. Don't worry!"

Jiang Lianheng naturally has old-fashioned ideas. He always feels that no matter how good his daughter is, she belongs to another family after all.

Hu Xiaoyan is no exception, but she only has this one daughter, so naturally she is wholeheartedly devoted to Jiang Ya.

Today, she is no longer worried about her position in the Jiang family, but she still doesn't want her daughter to suffer any injustice.

Jiang Lianheng stopped struggling and picked up a few gifts on the table, handed them to Hu Xiaoyan, and said with a smile: "Wife, these are for you. I picked them myself. Don't keep them to yourself. Don't tell me. I don't like to hear them."

Hu Xiaoyan glanced at the gifts on the table and asked lazily, "What are these?"

"There's everything!" Jiang Lianheng counted them one by one, "Jewelry, perfume, clothes, this is for my aunt, I took the wrong one, and there's..."

Hu Xiaoyan suddenly interrupted and asked, "Did you bring it to Xiaohua?"

"Oh, my lady has been very conscious recently!" Jiang Lianheng gave a thumbs up and said pretentiously, "Not bad, not bad, I am very pleased with your behavior!"

"I treat Xiaohua as my younger sister. We grew up together. I don't want to see her being wronged in this family."

"Really? Then please feel sorry for me. I am the one who suffers the most in this family."

Hu Xiaoyan snorted coldly and asked again: "What about the slut and the foreign devil?"

Jiang Lianheng thought for a moment and said with a smile: "Wife, I'd rather lose one round than lose one person, what do you think of me..."

"I didn't say you can't bring them!" Hu Xiaoyan suddenly stretched out her hand, "Let me see what you bought for them."

"What are you looking at them doing? Yours is right here!"

"I just want to see them!"

Jiang Lianheng didn't understand, so he had to take it to Hu Xiaoyan to see.

Hu Xiaoyan didn't say anything. After reading it, she threw it over. After a long silence, she suddenly asked, "When are you going to go find Lao Zhang?"

"Let's go tomorrow morning." Jiang Lianheng thought, "I need to take some time to think about how to tell him."

Hu Xiaoyan nodded and said thoughtfully: "You know, the war is about to start."

"The newspapers talk about war every day, but we never see a war break out."

"This time it's true. You were away at the beginning of autumn. I heard that a lot of food was requisitioned this year!"

Hearing this, Jiang Lianheng immediately became alert and asked, "Is Lao Zhang going to fight with Wu Xiucai? What about Bei Feng?"

"I'm talking about Bei Feng." Hu Xiaoyan frowned and said, "Before, the military camp had lax supervision, and Bei Feng could go home for a meal from time to time. Recently, he hasn't been home for several months. I asked people to find out where he is, but they couldn't find out anything. They said it was confidential. Even if they did find out, it would be outdated information."

"Hiss - if that's the case, then there might really be a war."

"That's what I'm worried about. You said... he used to be in the guard company. Guard companies shouldn't have to go to the battlefield, right?"

Jiang Lianheng thought for a moment and said, "How can we score points then? If we really want to have a big fight, not to mention the guards, even the cooks will have to go."

Hu Xiaoyan immediately became worried and whispered, "You say... is it possible to find a way to stop Beifeng from going? Just say he's sick, or do something else, like transport things or something. I'm afraid something might happen to him."

Jiang Lianheng frowned and said, "You old woman are really not worthy of your words. That's a war, do you think it's a joke? You're still asking for leave. If you're really desperate, you'll have to go even if you lose your limbs!"

"I know that too." Hu Xiaoyan said with a sad face, "How about you help me ask around in the city these few days? Isn't your brother Zhang a general? He should know something, right?"

"It's okay for me to ask, but..." Jiang Lianheng said with a wry smile, "Brother Zhang, as a general, may not be as effective as Bei Feng!"

"Then go ask him. He even helped you find connections when you went to Shanghai this time!"

"Okay, I'll go find him after I finish reporting to Lao Zhang."

The couple was talking to each other when they heard a burst of clear and hearty laughter suddenly coming from the courtyard outside the window behind them.

It doesn’t take much to guess who the person with the loud voice is.

Jiang Lianheng frowned, leaned forward and looked around, and sure enough, he saw Zhang Zhengdong escorting Xu Ruqing into the courtyard.

Jiang Ya was holding a piece of candy in her hand, jumping and shouting as she walked towards the house with joy.

Jiang Chengye was still the same, following his sister happily.

Jiang Lianheng looked at him and shook his head, sighing softly: "The girl doesn't act like a girl, and the boy doesn't act like a boy!"

(End of this chapter)