Chapter 574 - 213: The Power of a Brother-in-Law (Part 3)
Chapter 574: Chapter 213: The Power of a Brother-in-Law (Part 3)
"I want you more. A child right now would be a bit of an inconvenience."
Chen Wanqing chuckled and stroked his cheek. "We might not be in a hurry, but Mother is. She’s getting on in years, and other people her age are already holding their grandchildren."
Mrs. Zhao couldn’t make decisions about Xiang’er’s marriage, and Zhao Jing wouldn’t let her handle the matter. So, what else could she do?
Her children were grown, and there was very little she could manage anymore. She had lost her sense of purpose. Perhaps it was because she had left her familiar surroundings that her spirits were so low.
"Let’s have a child. If we have a baby, Mother won’t be so paranoid, always suspecting that I’m going to kick you out."
"Would you?"
"What do you think?"
"Probably not. After all, no one knows better than I do how to please you."
As he spoke, he leaned in for a kiss, his hands beginning to wander. He untied her sash and started on the knotted buttons of her robes. His advance was so fierce she was completely powerless to resist.
Zhao Jing truly did know her best. She melted in his hands.
That night, the lamps burned late, only going out as dawn was about to break.
A day passed, and then it was time for the Lu Ming Banquet.
The day before the Lu Ming Banquet, Xu Suying took her son to personally shop for the items needed for the engagement ceremony.
When Xu Shiling heard that De’an and Sheng Kaiyan were to be engaged, he clapped his hands and roared with laughter.
"I was wondering who that young lady had her eye on. I never thought it would be De’an! Excellent, excellent."
One was his niece and the other his nephew. This was certainly a case of not letting the family’s fortunes flow to outsiders.
But after all was said and done, they were once again tied to the Xu family by marriage. He had to wonder what Sheng Mingchuan truly felt about it.
Speaking of Xu Yanhe, De’an brought up the time he had coincidentally run into him at the City God Temple.
At the time, they couldn’t be sure why his mother had fallen into the water, nor did they know if the young man who bore a slight resemblance to her was friend or foe, so they had all hidden.
Afterward, he had asked Sheng Kaiyan about the man’s identity and origins, but she had brushed him off, simply saying she hadn’t inquired.
He was afraid of exposing himself, so he didn’t dare press the issue. Thus, the matter was dropped.
Upon hearing this, Xu Shiling slapped De’an on the shoulder several times. "You rascal! Come on, let’s go to the front and have a little spar."
If you had just shown your faces then, the siblings might have been reunited a year earlier! What was the need for such a delay?
But it also proved that Yanhe’s eyes weren’t playing tricks on him. The familiar person he saw was indeed a close relative.
It was a pity that when Yanhe told me about it, I didn’t pay it any mind. If Yanhe hadn’t insisted on investigating, Eldest Brother would never have sent Yanlin over. Even though they would have been reunited in the end, it caused too much of a delay.
Xu Shiling grabbed De’an and dragged him toward the open space in the front courtyard.
His nightmare was coming true. De’an started shouting and yelping.
"I’ve never trained before, Uncle! Even if you beat me, it won’t reflect well on you when word gets out!"
"Uncle, Uncle, please have mercy! I have to go to the Prefectural Magistrate’s Office for the engagement ceremony in a few days! What if the Sheng family calls it off when they see me show up with my face swollen like a pig’s?"
Xu Shiling scoffed. "They can’t back out. And if they do, I’ll find you another wife. Now stop dodging! If you’ve got any guts, fight me for real for a few rounds... You’re a young man, but your limbs are as weak and frail as an eighty-year-old’s. When your parents get too old to move, how can they possibly rely on you? Don’t cover your head. I know what I’m doing; I won’t hit you in the face."
Chen Song was just returning home from the government office when he happened upon this scene. De’an saw his father and immediately cried out for help. "Dad, save me! Save me! He’s going to beat me to death!"
His father pretended not to see or hear, not even glancing in their direction. With steps as swift as the wind, he quickly fled the scene of the conflict.
When De’an saw this, his heart sank. ’So this is it. I’m really going to be beaten to death.’
But that didn’t happen.
Xu Shiling was a man who knew his limits and stopped once his point was made.
But he truly couldn’t stand what a weakling De’an was. "I’ll send a martial arts master to you later," he declared. "From now on, you will wake up before dawn every day to train with him. If you dare to slack off, you’ll have my fists to answer to."
He then muttered, "With a physique like yours, forget about becoming a scholar. Even if you did, you’d never survive the Imperial Examination. You have to stay in the examination hall for nine days straight. A weak body like yours might just end up kicking the bucket in there."
"It’s not too late to start training. By the time you’re able to take the Imperial Examination, you’ll have built up your strength. Then, when you enter the examination hall, we won’t have to worry about you going in on your feet and coming out on a stretcher."
As Xu Shiling lectured De’an at length, Xu Suying and Chen Song, who were hiding in the flower hall, watched with expressions of deep sympathy.
"That’s the power of a maternal uncle for you."
"De’an is like a helpless little chick in front of my younger brother. I can barely stand to watch."
"I’d advise you not to go out there, or your brother will start lecturing you too."
"Do I look like an idiot to you...?"