Exile Chapter 66
When Jiang Mao returned home, he went directly to the bedroom. In the room outside the bedroom, there were several heaters with boiling water, which already overflowing. Jiang Mao took off his heavy winter clothes, scooped the boiling water from the basin into the barrel on the ground, and then added cold water to it.
Opening the curtain of the inner room, the inside which was a little quite at first, came a ‘bah, ah’ sound. The person inside seemed to hear him come in.
Jiang Mao went through the threshold and walked in. At a glance, he saw Jiang Fanfan who was rarely awake, was covered with a small quilt on the bed and had his eyes opened that extremely looked like his Gege’s eyes.
He laughed as he was picked up and held upright into the arms. During the day, it was better for him not to sleep, otherwise, he would toss people during the night.
Compared with Su Caicai’s condition at birth, this little one was much better. They didn’t need to worry too much about what he would eat and wear. Liu Yuqing had made everything properly ready at an earlier time.
Jiang Fanfan’s clothes were also prepared by Liu Yuqing. They were so thick that only his small hands could shake slightly when the baby was lying there wearing them.
Jiang Mao was playing with the baby and the maidservant came in at this moment. She was the maid looking after Jiang Fanfan. Just moments ago, she went to the latrine. It didn’t take long. By chance, Jiang Mao happened to be back in that short time.
The maidservant knelt down in a panic and pleaded guilty. Her reason was reasonable. Jiang Mao did not dispute with her. He held his son in his arms and asked her, “What about Su Gongzi?”
The maidservant was probably afraid of Jiang Mao, as she looked down and said, “Just now Su Gongzi was playing with Little Shizi here. But right now, this servant doesn’t know where Su Gongzi went.”
Hearing that, Jiang Mao put Jiang Fanfan on the bed and planned to go look for Su Qingbai. Pa.s.sing by the maidservant, Jiang Mao stopped, “don’t call him little Shizi later.” [Shizi=heir of a n.o.ble house/name]
The maidservant was shocked. Did Lord w.a.n.g not want Little Shizi to inherit his w.a.n.g t.i.tle in the future? However, Lord w.a.n.g seemed so fond of Little Shizi.
Jiang Mao did not know what she was thinking. After he thought about it, he went on to say, “Call him Second Gongzi.” After that, he left. [Gongzi=son of n.o.bility]
The maidservant only then realized. Lord w.a.n.g’s meaning… Was Little Gongzi not Lord w.a.n.g’s eldest son?
As soon as Jiang Mao came out of the threshold, he asked the residence’s servant boy. Then, he went all the way to the back kitchen.
Previously, when Jiang Mao was not at home, Hu Hong and Liu Yuqing were also taken out with him. The back kitchen of w.a.n.g Residence was idle with nothing to do, only raising five pigs. Now the pigs had grown up and it was time to slaughter.
The back kitchen planned to slaughter one today and leaving the rest for the New Year’s Celebration. Su Qingbai was idle with nothing to do and came to the back kitchen to enjoy watching the fun.
He leaned against the fence and even pinched melon seeds between his fingers. On one hand, he was cracking melon seeds, while on the other hand, he was watching.
At his side, Liu Wei reminded him closely, “Gongzi had better not eat while watching.”
Su Qingbai had never seen a pig being slaughtered before, so he looked at Liu Wei, not understanding.
In the gap between the two men’s talking, the butcher had begun the battle.
Su Qingbai took a glance and his face turned somewhat purple. He threw away the melon seeds and never mentioned watching pig slaughtering, he also turned his head and left.
As soon as Su Qingbai took a step, he was dragged by someone. Once he took a look, it was Jiang Mao.
Swatting away Jiang Mao’s hands, Su Qingbai said, “What are doing?”
Jiang Mao came near with a smile.
Su Qingbai didn’t have time to play with him at the moment. He just wanted to find a place to vomit. “Don’t pull me. Quickly, step away.”
Jiang Mao deliberately refused to let him go, smiling and wrapping him in his arms. “As soon as I got home, I heard that you came to watch pig slaughtering. How about that? Do you think it’s fun?”
Su Qingbai struggled to get away from him. “Come on, let me go.”
The skill of slaughtering the pig seemed not very good. It had been a while, the pig was still squealing. Su Qingbai really couldn’t listen to it.
At this time, Jiang Mao truly listened to him and let him go. Seeing Su Qingbai walked a few steps away, Jiang Mao rolled up his sleeve and said, “This skill of slaughtering the pig is not good. After all this time, the pig is still screaming. Let’s better take a look at my skill that certainly better than his.”
Hu Hong laughed and said, “When w.a.n.g Residence was poor, Lord w.a.n.g was still young and took us to slaughter pigs together.”
At that time, it was probably when Jiang Mao just came over and Yue w.a.n.g Residence had nothing at all. When they started to make money, everything had to be done by themselves. He and Hu Hong had done some dirty work.
Su Qingbai turned and said, “No.” He looked away from the butcher and pig, went to Jiang Mao and tugged at him. He gritted his teeth as he said harshly, “If you dare to, you don’t think of sleeping on the bed this whole month.”
Several big men on the other side blushed at this. Although everyone knew about Su Gongzi and their Lord w.a.n.g, they could not help blushing when he shouted this so loudly.
Jiang Mao laughed and walked away with him. He just teased Su Qingbai intentionally. He didn’t really want to kill pig, nor did he have that skill.
When they returned to the room, they stayed in the outer room for a while and waited for the chill on their body to dissipate before they entered the inner room.
It hadn’t been long and Jiang Fanfan had fallen asleep again.
Su Qingbai sat down at the side of the bed, grabbed his little hand and shook it. There was no reaction.
“Don’t let him sleep, or he will be noisy at night again.” said Jiang Mao as he pulled over a stool and sat down to watch the father and son.
This little brat slept soundly in the daytime, and would not wake up even in thunder and rain. But once it was evening, he refused to sleep. When the sky had darkened, he was wailing, not sleeping. The troubled adults could only rise up and accompany him.
Jiang Mao was busy with official duties during the day and had no energy to accompany him in the evening. Meanwhile, Su Qingbai was still in poor health and couldn’t stay up late. Because of this, they couldn’t help it, so they had to find a maidservant to watch over him specially.
Su Qingbai kneaded his fleshy little claw on his hand and handed it to Jiang Mao as he said, “You do it.” The little thing slept soundly, he could hardly wake him up.
Jiang Mao took a look at the chubby, snoring little fleshy face and made an excuse to go out. Su Qingbai couldn’t bear to and he too made an excuse.
After dinner in the evening, Jiang Fanfan’s eyes opened on time. After he was coaxed with great difficulty, he was handed over to the maidservant. Only then, the two parents went to bed.
After taking off clothes, Jiang Mao took the other person into his arms. “Was Caicai so noisy when he was this old?”
Su Qingbai rubbed against the neck he was nestled in and laughed as he said, “Caicai was easy to coax. He was much better than this baby brat.” But after a thought, he said, “say no more. When he was small, he was very well-behaved, but when he was a little bit bigger, he started to make a mess of people. They both brothers are tweedledum and tweedledee. You don’t know….”
Jiang Mao laughed and listened to him talk about the eldest son as a baby until they fell asleep talking.
Exile Chapter 67
There were many Cabinet Ministers’ houses to freeload a meal from, but when it came to which house serve the most delicious food, Jiang Jun felt that it was none other than his Fourth Elder Brother’s house.
Jiang Jun’s residence had a simple population. After the Emperor was ill, few people cared about him. He had a little disability on his leg. For that, the Cabinet Ministers believed that he had no chance to take part in the throne and so few people took the initiative to make friends with him.
Today, before lunch time arrived, he went out alone. Pa.s.sing through the downtown area, he went to Jiang Mao’s residence.
Jiang Jun was a bit thick-skinned, but when he wanted to go to Jiang Mao’s residence for a meal, he also purchased snacks from street shops.
Today, going to Yue w.a.n.g Residence, Jiang Jun went to the back door. He was afraid, if he went to the main gate, Fourth Elder Brother would not let him in. It was also the right time to take this opportunity to see his nephew.
Su Qingbai got up very early that morning because Jiang Fanfan had p.o.o.ped, which woke him up.
Su Qingbai really didn’t understand this baby. It’s you who p.o.o.ped, not someone else who made you cry.
After coaxing Jiang Fanfan to sleep, Su Qingbai couldn’t fall asleep again. He sent Jiang Mao off to the main gate and came back to the courtyard to watch everyone being busy.
He was idle and wanted to help, but who dared to let him help?
With no other way, Su Qingbai had to walk around the courtyard.
As he strolled around, he saw a man dressed to pose[1], and sneaked in through the back door.
[1 to pose= pretending to be what one is not]
“Who are you?”
Hearing that, Jiang Jun looked over and sized Su Qingbai up and down. From Su Qingbai’s clothes, he could see that this was not a servant of the residence.
“I’m looking for Yue w.a.n.g, my Fourth Elder Brother.”
It turned out to be Jiang Mao’s younger brother. Su Qingbai, who was not very familiar with him, but also dared not to neglect him. He invited the other in and poured a cup of tea.
“Gongzi is?” Sitting in his seat, Jiang Jun asked Su Qingbai over hot tea.
Su Qingbai’s deputy’s appearance made him curious.
“I… Surname Su.” After Su Qingbai thought about it, he didn’t say his name.
“Where’s my Fourth Elder Brother?”
“He’s out on business.”
“Out?” Jiang Jun scratched his head. Fourth Elder Brother went out; this made things a bit difficult for him. If Fourth Elder Brother was here, he would surely want to see his nephew. But Fourth Elder Brother was not here and it would be improper for him to break into his back courtyard. [Back courtyard=family esp. wives n children live. Without the Master, no guest can go to]
So Jiang Jun left without lunch.
When Jiang Mao came back in the evening, Su Qingbai told him about it.
He knew that Jiang Jun had probably guessed something. Today Jiang Jun had the opportunity to find out the truth. But because he’s not here, Jiang Jun didn’t.
Jiang Mao had a better impression of Jiang Jun.
Su Qingbai saw that he was not as disgusted with Third Prince as he was with Jiang Jun, the younger brother.
–
A month pa.s.sed in a blink. Su Qingbai had started packing up a few days in advance.
In Jiang Mao’s arms, Su Qingbai felt guilty. “If I go, I’m afraid I won’t be able to spend the New Year with you and Fanfan.”
Jiang Mao kissed him and said, “You can rest a.s.sured.” After thinking about it, he couldn’t help filling in another sentence, “You’ll be there to spend a good time with Caicai, but don’t forget the small one at home.”
Su Qingbai smiled and agreed.
Everything was fine, but on the day Su Qingbai was leaving, something suddenly happened.
“Gongzi, Lord w.a.n.g was attacked by an a.s.sa.s.sin.” As Su Qingbai was preparing to leave, he saw the young Imperial bodyguard under Hu Hong running back while panting.
Su Qingbai was in a panic. The bundle wrapped in cloth in his hands fell on the ground. “What’s the matter? Where is he now? What happened?”
Jiang Mao went to court this morning and was attacked by an a.s.sa.s.sin on his way back, not only him, but also Third Prince.
It was Du Cheng who laid down his hand on them.
These days, Du Cheng was almost cornered. He quietly sent away his little grandson some days ago.
Early this morning, Du Cheng leaked out what he and Third Prince had done in front of all the civilian and military officers at court.
It turned out that the emperor was not ill, but was given drug by them. It turned out that many of the previous cases involving the cabinet ministers were planted with false evidence by Du Cheng and Third Prince.
Du Cheng successfully pulled Third Prince down. However, he not only pushed Third Prince into a tight spot, but also Yue w.a.n.g.
“It’s not clear yet.” The little Imperial Bodyguard answered.
Su Qingbai had no time to tidy up or salute as he rushed to the palace in a hurry.