Chapter 169.1
Upon arriving, Lin Chengye and Feng Lin realized that there was another Granduncle at home.
Feng Lin wondered, wasn"t the elderly woman just a leper who fainted in front of Lady Jiao and Liulang"s house?
How come there was even a Granduncle now?
Stil, he didn’t suspect that this Granduncle might be a fake and only thought that the two of them had been separated at the beginning.
"How did he arrive in the capital?" Feng Lin asked.
The place where the elderly woman had fainted was in the county, which was hundreds of li away from the capital.
Gu Jiao scooped the fried meatb.a.l.l.s out of the pot and replied, "Maybe he went to the village to inquire."
Feng Lin nodded, "That"s right. Anyway, being reunited is a good thing!"
Last year in the countryside, there were Xue Ningxiang and Gouwa; this year, there were Lin Chengye, Gu Yan and Old Chief. Even though there was only one more person, it still felt much livelier.
After getting familiar with Gu Jiao, Feng Lin became the second trumpet player in the family after Little Jing Kong.
Xiao Liulang found him so noisy that he regretted the eased relationship between him and Gu Jiao!
Since today was also Xiao Liulang and Little Jing Kong’s birthday, the family had prepared gifts for them.
Gu Yan gave them little clay figurines made by himself.
Since his woodcarving was mistaken for a monkey by Gu Changqing, his self-confidence suffered greatly, and he never learned to carve anything from Gu Xiaoshun again.
Gu Xiaoshun’s present was still woodcarvings. He carved a piece of Buddhist scripture for Little Jing Kong and a poetry collection for Xiao Liulang.
His skill had gotten even better from Gu Jiao"s birthday two months ago.
Gu Jiao deeply felt that this younger brother"s talent could not be neglected any longer.
When the New Year pa.s.sed, she would find him a reliable carpenter master to start learning from after school.
As before, the elderly woman gave the two people embroidered pouches, and they were also better looking than last time.
"Grandaunt is awesome." Gu Xiaoshun praised.
The elderly woman raised her chin proudly.
Then she heard Little Jing Kong say, "Granduncle was the one who embroidered them! I saw it all!"
The only thing that Grandaunt did was cut the thread!
The elderly woman: Little monk, you just can"t stop talking, can you!
Old Chief: Exactly! I don"t want to lose face!
The old enemies who had fought each other for half of their lives breath from the same nostril for the first time!
Old Chief gave Xiao Liulang a set of Four Treasures of the Study.
[T/N: brush, ink, paper and ink stone]
Gu Jiao didn’t understand the point of giving these, but seeing as Xiao Liulang"s eyes flash a trace of surprise, it was obvious that this set of things was of great origin.
Although Old Chief was an incorruptible official, leaving not much silver for himself, he was favored by His Majesty. He had many imperial gifts in his hand, and any one of them was of extraordinary value.
"Granduncle! Granduncle!" Little Jing Kong looked at him with adorable eyes.
Old Chief"s heart was instantly melted by his cuteness.
Old Chief naturally prepared a gift for Little Jing Kong. Knowing that Little Jing Kong was learning foreign languages, he translated several folk stories into six languages, one of which was Sanskrit.
Old Chief was the most knowledgeable person in the whole State of Zhao, which was a fact that even Empress Dowager Zhuang couldn’t deny.
Moreover, to make reading them more interesting, he also drew and added some ill.u.s.trations.
Little Jing Kong fell in love with them at first sight!
Feng Lin and Lin Chengye also presented their own gifts.
When it was Gu Jiao"s turn, Gu Jiao gave the two people a box each.
Little Jing Kong opened the box he received from her on the spot. It was a Chinese checkers customized by Gu Jiao. There was no gla.s.s to make gla.s.s marbles in ancient times so she replaced it with iron beads of different colors.
She loved to play this game when she was a child and thought that Little Jing Kong might like it.
Besides the Chinese checkers, there were several paper cranes that she folded by herself, mainly for decorative effect.
Little Jing Kong loved them all so much!
All the gifts given by others were placed directly on the table. Gu Jiao’s gifts were boxed and Xiao Liulang did not open his own on the spot.
During Gu Yan’s birthday, he didn"t open the gift he received from Gu Jiao in public, which made Little Jing Kong think about it for a long time.
However, there were simply too many gifts today and Little Jing Kong"s attention was completely attracted by these gifts, unable to care about his brother-in-law at all.
Not only that, but he also asked Gu Jiao for a big kiss on the grounds of his birthday!
Feng Lin and Lin Chengye would stay here tonight to celebrate the New Year.
Hence, Xiao Liulang and Little Jing Kong vacated their room for the two of them to stay overnight.
Little Jing Kong was almost abducted into Grandaunt’s room again. Fortunately, he was clever and used the excuse of being a birthday boy to brazenly stay in JiaoJiao’s room.
Little did he know.
As soon as he snored, the elderly woman carried him to her room to be her pillow.