The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 1132 - 1111: Serve Tea and Send Off the Guest
CHAPTER 1132: CHAPTER 1111: SERVE TEA AND SEND OFF THE GUEST
Chen Fulin fell silent; the threat was effective.
Mr. Zhuang cared about the reputation of Bai Shan and his family; Chen Fulin cared even more about his own. Whether true or false, the rumor would greatly impact him. If Mr. Zhuang truly possessed the two items he mentioned, it would be a fatal blow to him.
This was also the absolute reason why he could not allow Mr. Zhuang to stay in the capital.
However, Mr. Zhuang was no longer someone he could simply banish at will.
Chen Fulin took a deep breath, stood up and was about to leave.
"Wait a moment," Mr. Zhuang lifted his head to look at him, his lips curling slightly, "Brother Chen and I have forgotten one thing, your nephew is only a few years younger than my Dalang, he has also entered officialdom, hasn’t he?"
Upon hearing this, Chen Fulin’s face turned pale, he quickly turned back, glaring at Mr. Zhuang, "What are you trying to do?"
Mr. Zhuang lifted the teacup in his hand slightly towards him as a gesture.
Chen Fulin’s face instantly turned red with anger. Offering tea to see the guest off!
Back then, when Mr. Zhuang came to him asking what he really wanted, he had raised his cup, remarking on his two years in the capital as if it was his home.
Offering tea to see the guest off was not explicitly stated, but the intention could not be clearer; he wanted Mr. Zhuang to leave the capital, and now this cup of tea was Mr. Zhuang’s return gesture.
Chen Fulin left Changqing Alley with a pale face.
Mr. Zhuang set down the teacup expressionlessly, seemingly in a bad mood; he pushed the teacup somewhat forcefully onto the table and stood up.
Turning around, he immediately spotted three little heads quickly retracting; Bai Erlang’s window shook for a while before settling down.
Mr. Zhuang then humphed and, with hands behind his back, returned to his room.
The door to Bai Erlang’s room was quietly opened, Manbao’s small head peeking out first to check. Seeing no one in the courtyard, she straightened up, let out a sigh of relief, waved her hand back, "Come, let’s go to the kitchen and see what good food there is."
The three of them orderly slipped out, running towards the kitchen at the back.
Once they ran far enough, feeling the teacher wouldn’t catch them anymore, they stopped and Manbao exclaimed, "The teacher truly lives up to his reputation, do you think Chen Fulin took his threat?"
Bai Shan replied, "He did, for sure he wouldn’t dare to spread the past incidents anymore, but what did the teacher mean by offering tea in the end? Why did he look so upset?"
Bai Erlang responded, "Offering tea is to see the guest off, feeling he lost face, so he was unhappy."
Manbao felt something was off, "That’s not quite right, he was already leaving, offering tea or not shouldn’t matter, right?"
Both remembered the teacher mentioning Chen Fulin’s son, although they still did not understand the meaning of offering tea, they felt it certainly had something to do with Chen Fulin’s son.
Of course, sensing that the teacher was not in a good mood, the three did not dare to ask Mr. Zhuang.
They made a pretense of going to the kitchen. Seeing Aunt Rong with two assistants had mostly prepared their meal, they simply helped themselves, each carrying a dish back.
Mr. Zhuang had slightly rearranged his mood and after washing his hands, came out to join them for dinner.
Mr. Zhuang sat at the head of the table, eating with an indifferent expression, while the three disciples below him exchanged glances without any restraint.
He could not help but lightly cough, putting down his chopsticks and looked towards them.
Bai Erlang kicked Manbao on the leg, and Bai Shan also bumped her with a shoe, leaving Manbao sandwiched between them, forced to look up and ask, "Mr. Zhuang, what does serving tea mean?"
Mr. Zhuang glanced down at them and said, "It doesn’t mean anything special, just seeing off the guests."
Manbao looked confused. "Seeing us out of our house?"
Mr. Zhuang slightly lifted the corners of his mouth and laughed, "Of course not, it means seeing off from the capital."
The three disciples opened their mouths in surprise, then couldn’t help but raise their thumbs in unison towards their mentor, "Mr. Zhuang, you are truly amazing!"
Bai Erlang exclaimed, "Has the capital become our house?"
Manbao, retracting her hand, casually slapped him on the head while Bai Shan gave him a sideways glare, "Why does that sound like a sarcastic remark about us?"
Mr. Zhuang laughed heartily, "If it’s sarcasm, then it’s not wrongly directed. How could we have the audacity to treat the entire capital as our own home?"
He paused before continuing, "However, that’s exactly how he drove me out of the capital years ago. Today, I’m merely returning the favor."
The smiles on their faces slowly faded, and Bai Shan asked, "Mr. Zhuang, are you still angry about what happened back then?"
Mr. Zhuang thought for a moment, then shook his head with a smile, "It’s been over twenty years. If I harbored anger for more than two decades, I would have died from it by now. Sometimes, I think not entering the official service wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. If I had, I would certainly never have met you three disciples."
"Especially Manbao," he glanced at her and gently said with a smile: "Without Zhuang Xun, there could be thousands of Wang Xuns, Zhang Xun in the world, but without a literate Zhou Man, there would truly be no more Zhou Man."
Without him, Bai Shan could find another mentor; he is smart enough to study and progress academically, to become an official. Bai Erlang likewise, without him, could study elsewhere, and even if he didn’t pursue academics or an official career, he could still become a wealthy landowner in his hometown.
But Manbao was different.
Without him, she probably wouldn’t be able to read, count, or study medicine. Given Manbao’s current intelligence and displayed talent, it would be such a pity, a real pity.
Mr. Zhuang glanced at Manbao’s head and thought, what a waste it would be not to make use of such a brilliant mind.
The Emperor thought so, too. He had said to the Empress, "I find Zhou Man’s mind to be really effective. Director Xiao said the child is like a water buffalo that sneaks drinks — she constantly steals knowledge from them. If it wasn’t for her continually providing unusual medical prescriptions and making insightful deductions about diseases, the physicians at the Imperial Hospital would have already forbidden her from entering."
The Empress laughed, "Then that’s their fault. Manbao even told me she doesn’t mind sharing her medical knowledge with everyone, but people in this world like to keep their skills a secret; because of that, she doesn’t teach others proactively, preferring to exchange her knowledge for other interesting information she doesn’t have."
The Emperor remarked, "She is indeed shrewd, but I heard her Junior Brother is even smarter."
The Empress laughed, "Didn’t Your Majesty meet them? Whose words are you listening to?"
The Emperor coughed uncomfortably and said, "At the time, I only noticed Zhou Man’s intelligence, I didn’t pay much attention to Bai Qizhi’s son. The child is shy, not as outgoing as her. But recently, from the reports I’ve seen below, his intelligence matches Zhou Man’s."
He laughed, "It would be such a pity not to utilize such clever children."
"So, what does Your Majesty think?"
"The day after tomorrow is the Empress Dowager’s thousandth anniversary celebration. My proposal is, how about having the Senior Sister and Junior Brother come to the palace to celebrate her longevity?"
The Empress looked up at the Emperor.
The Emperor smiled pleasingly at the Empress.
The Empress couldn’t help but chuckle, nodding and saying, "Alright, I understand."
The Emperor then held her hand delightedly, "It’s still you who understands me best."
The Empress, slightly annoyed, pushed him away and turned around with a smile, "You just like to tease me."