Chapter 727 - 729: The Letter
Chapter 727: Chapter 729: The Letter
「Gaoling Village, Fu County.」
Li Cuicui saw Hu Dong walking in with a face full of smiles. Ignoring the work in her hands, she hurriedly stood up and asked, "Manager Hu, is there a letter from Old Seventh?"
She had been eagerly looking forward to this family letter day and night for over two months. It took much longer than their previous journey to Lu City.
"Yes, Old Madam, it is indeed a letter from the Master and Madam.
"The moment I received it, I didn’t dare delay and brought it over right away."
After Hu Dong finished speaking, he immediately pulled out a letter from his chest pocket. "Madam also prepared some local specialties from Yi Province. Where should I put them, Old Madam?"
At this moment, the shop assistants had already arrived outside the door with the goods, awaiting Hu Dong’s instructions.
Li Cuicui told the maid to first set the items down in the courtyard, then ordered someone to fetch her eldest son from next door.
"The journey is so far. Tell your masters not to go through so much trouble in the future." Looking at the things piled up in a corner of the courtyard, Li Cuicui said to Hu Dong, "It costs so much silver to bring all these things back with the escort agency. It’s really not worth it."
Hu Dong replied, "Rest assured, Old Madam. These were transported nearby and brought back by our own escort team.
"Moreover, the Master and Madam took manpower with them this time. I believe it won’t be long before we have our own escort team over there as well."
"Old Seventh’s wife is quite capable," Li Cuicui praised, leading the man into the living room. "Sit down and rest for a bit. I’ll have the servant woman pour you some tea."
"There is no need to trouble yourself, Old Madam. I still have matters to attend to and must head back. However, if you have a family letter, you can send it to town the day after tomorrow, and I will have someone take it along."
"That’s wonderful." Li Cuicui felt that Old Seventh and his wife were truly too considerate of them. Having a Chief Steward like Hu Dong at their home base in Fu County gave them a lot of peace of mind.
They didn’t even have to worry about the social obligations between the two places, as Hu Dong handled everything.
When Gu Yuanjin came in, Hu Dong was just heading out. The two ran into each other and chatted for a few words before Hu Dong returned to the city.
"Yuanjin, come quickly and look. Old Seventh sent a letter, but why is it so thick?" Li Cuicui still hadn’t dared to open it.
She had received many family letters before, but none had ever been packaged as solidly and thickly as this one.
"Maybe they wrote a very long letter. Let me take a look."
"Can you even read it? Should I go call a boy over to read it?"
It wasn’t that Li Cuicui didn’t trust her eldest son, but Gu Yuanjin was usually too busy. Even if he occasionally went to the schoolhouse to listen to lessons, what he managed to learn was likely limited.
He could understand letters now, but he stumbled through them. Sometimes, it took him a long time just to read a single sentence.
With her impatient temperament, Li Cuicui didn’t think she could endure waiting for him.
Gu Yuanjin replied, "Where are you going to find someone at this hour? Everyone has gone out. Besides, in the time it takes to run to the schoolhouse and back, I could finish reading the letter. Does Mother really not trust me?"
Li Cuicui said bluntly, "You’ve got that right. I really don’t trust you.
"If Old Seventh wrote so much, tomorrow’s sun would probably be up by the time you finished reading.
"Doesn’t your eldest son’s wife know how to read? Why don’t we get her?"
Hearing his old mother distrust him so much, Gu Yuanjin’s stubborn temper flared. "No need. She has to stay home and look after the children."
As he spoke, he directly tore open the kraft paper envelope. "This letter really is remarkably different, wrapped up so tightly.
"I bet Old Seventh didn’t write all of this. He always just writes a few brief words. Sometimes, even without listening, I know what he said in the letter."
Li Cuicui curled her lips. "Read it if you want, but why must you belittle your own younger brother?
"Is Xiao Qi the same as you lot? He has endless things to do all day long. It’s already good enough that he finds the time to write a family letter, yet here you are, picking faults..."
Gu Yuanjin remained speechless.
But as the large outer kraft paper was torn open, a stack of letters suddenly spilled out.
Li Cuicui immediately realized what was happening. "So it wasn’t just Old Seventh who wrote! The other kids replied as well.
"Hurry up and check if everyone wrote one! If so, we need to send them over to their families. Even though they haven’t mentioned it these past few days, I know exactly what’s on their minds every time they pass by my door."
As the saying goes, a mother worries when her child travels far from home. After all these years of partings and reunions, Li Cuicui had long grown accustomed to it, but the others were different.
Now, they were just waiting to receive a word or two from their end so they could know how their children were doing out there.
"What’s there to worry about? Could they possibly suffer any grievances when they’re out with Old Seventh?" Gu Yuanjin gathered the letters together. It was easy to see who the recipients were on the envelopes, and he set aside the ones that weren’t for their family.
Watching him still picking and choosing, Li Cuicui wanted to snatch them out of his hands.
"Then find Old Seventh’s letter first. I’ll send the others out to them later."
Seeing his unhurried manner, Li Cuicui felt she had called the wrong person. She should have called Old Fourth over; he probably would have started reading the letter by now.
Unaware that he was being secretly despised, Gu Yuanjin continued to slowly peruse the envelopes one by one.
After sorting through all the letters, he finally picked out the one from Gu Wenheng and Jin Qianqian.
He opened it. Just like before, there were only two sheets of letter paper.
One was written by Gu Wenheng, containing a few brief words of greeting, no different from his previous letters.
Gu Yuanjin looked up with a smile. "Mother, Old Seventh still wrote the same few sentences. There’s not much difference whether I read it or not."
Li Cuicui snapped, "You think you can slack off like that? Even if it’s exactly the same as the last letter, you will read it to me once over.
"Your seventh brother is so busy, yet he still found the time to write back. What? Am I not allowed to hear you read it out loud?"
Gu Yuanjin put on an apologetic smile. "You can, of course you can.
"It’s just that Old Seventh’s letter is too lacking in sincerity. It just reports that they’re safe and then asks after the well-being of you two elders."
"Dashi’s wife! Dashi’s wife..." Just as Li Cuicui was about to lose her temper, shouts rang out from outside the door.
"Look at these people. They’re more well-informed than anyone else. They probably saw Hu Dong when he entered the village, and now they’ve already come knocking, yet you still haven’t gotten everything ready?"
Although Li Cuicui was complaining verbally, she had already stood up and walked to the door. "I didn’t expect you to come. That was fast. I was planning to visit you personally later.
"A family letter has arrived, and the boys from your families brought letters as well. It’s perfect that you came over; it saves me a trip."
This was undoubtedly great news. Without even waiting for Li Cuicui to invite them in, everyone swarmed inside, their eyes sparkling as they stared at the letters in front of Gu Yuanjin.
"Don’t rush. I’ll have Yuanjin find them for you, but you’ll still have to find someone else to read them. My eldest son is only half-literate."
Everyone in the village knew each other inside out, and they believed the old lady’s words. Yu Zhu’s mother rubbed her hands together. "Please, Mr. Gu, give me the letter from our Yu Zhu. I’ll go back and have my second boy read it to me."