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The Second Master looked at the children in front of him and let out a long sigh, saying, “She has a good son like you, who has earned her a title, requested an imperial decree for her, and can even have her buried in the ancestral grave. That is more than enough. I don’t think she would want to see me, so I won’t go.”
“Father, please…” Jiang Jiu started crying.
Jiang Zhankui also began to cry.
The Second Master turned his face away and did not speak.
Jiang Zhanwei had expected this outcome, but he still came to plead, hoping for a miracle.
But the miracle did not happen.
Seeing the Second Master’s coldness, Jiang Zhanwei’s heart also turned cold. He stood up and pulled his brother and sister to their feet.
They had all walked outside when they could still hear Jiang Jiu’s cries.
Madam Lin, who had been in the side room, came out to advise, “Master, the siblings have pleaded with you like that, you should go to ‘see her off’. She had a tough time in the residence for several years and also gave you a few children.”
The Second Master looked at Madam Lin with emotion and shook his head, saying, “Wife, I have already wronged you greatly and cannot wrong you further.”
Madam Lin continued, “But if you don’t go, the siblings will be sad, not to mention Lu Man saved Jiang Zhanyu’s life. Just go, I won’t be angry with you over this matter.”
The Second Master sighed, “I have already hurt them, and I don’t care about this one thing. That Zhou, alas, was originally a mistake. Let her rest in peace. If I go, she will still be upset…”
He listened to the second wife in everything, but he was extremely insistent on this matter.
The three siblings returned dejected, with Jiang Zhanwei having a cold expression, Jiang Zhankui appearing to have cried, and Jiang Jiu still sobbing.
Lu Man wasn’t sure whether the Second Master was truly heartless or not.
Seeing how upset the siblings were, she said, “I’ll go and plead with Grandmother and Grandfather, we’ll beat him into going if we have to.” She believed that once she mentioned it, the old Marquis would definitely go and beat the Second Master until he agreed to go.
Jiang Zhanwei held her back and said coldly, “There’s no need. Forcing him to go like that, my birth mother wouldn’t be happy, and we don’t want it either.”
On the morning of the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, at the end of the hour of the Yin (5 AM), Donghui Courtyard was brightly lit. The masters and mistresses dressed in plain clothes, finished their breakfast, and it was still not yet dawn.
Although it wasn’t snowing, the biting cold wind made the water freeze. Lu Man, dressed in plain clothes, led Jiang Zhankui and Jiang Jiu, along with Jiang Yue, who was sleeping soundly in Mama Li’s arms, to the front courtyard.
Several horses and carriages were parked in the courtyard. Not only was Jiang Zhanwei standing there, but also Jiang Zhanju, Jiang Zhanyu, Jiang Zhankun, Jiang Zhanpeng, and He Cheng.
People from the third branch had also come, which Jiang Zhanwei and Lu Man found somewhat satisfactory.
When the carriages arrived outside the city, it was already broad daylight. Xie Yu, Fourth Master Min, Second Master Chen, and several of Jiang Zhanwei’s military friends were all there, even little Song Mo was waiting there accompanied by a servant. Jiang Zhanwei thanked them one by one, and they all headed towards Qingzhao Temple together.
After another half hour or so of travel, they finally arrived at Qingzhao Temple. Jiang Zhanwei led his wife, children, and siblings to kowtow and offer incense to the coffin, while the others also bowed and offered incense. Jiang Zhanyu bowed three extra times and offered three extra sticks of incense, presumably on behalf of the Second Master.
Tearfully watching Jiang Zhankui and Jiang Zhankun escort the coffin further and further away until it was out of sight, Lu Man and the others returned to the capital, while Jiang Zhanwei went directly to the military camp. Song Mo, as he wished, followed Lu Man back to Donghui Courtyard and would stay there for the night.
With two people suddenly missing from the household, especially the little boy Jiang Zhankui, who they had been with day and night, not only did Lu Man, Jiang Jiu, Jiang Yue, Qichang, and Sweet Pea feel reluctant to part with him, but even He Mingzhu and the old Marquis were unaccustomed to his absence and kept sighing.
The old Marquis, tugging at his beard, said, “I used to think Zhankui was very annoying, but now I realize he was very, very good. Without him, it’s not as fun.”
Sometimes Jiang Jiu could also hold a grudge, and she pouted, saying, “Grandfather wasn’t nice to Eighth Brother at all, he often scolded him, said he was annoying, and even called him ‘hum hum hum.'”
When Jiang Yue heard that her great-grandfather often scolded her little uncle, she was unhappy and climbed onto the old Marquis’s knee, refusing to let go of his long beard, and loudly said, “Great-grandpa, bad, scold.”
Now the little girl could finally say great grandpa.
As soon as the old Marquis heard this title, he smiled broadly and quickly said, “Good great-granddaughter, great grandpa hasn’t called Zhankui ‘hum hum hum’ for a long time, nor has he scolded him.”
Lu Man went over and lifted Jiang Yue down, patting her little chubby butt.
That night, Lu Man got her wish to sleep alone in a big bed. Without the “charcoal stove” beside her, she hugged a warm water bottle and easily fell asleep.
In the middle of the night, she vaguely felt that the warm water bottle in her arms was getting cold, and she instinctively leaned towards the “charcoal stove” beside her. But no matter how she leaned, she couldn’t find anyone, and she realized that he was no longer at home.
She also became completely awake. She reached out to touch around and found that only her small nest had some warmth, while everything outside the blanket was freezing cold.
It turned out that with him by her side, she could sleep so peacefully. The man she had been psychologically rejecting before, after two months of intimate cohabitation, she seemed to have grown accustomed to his company…
After dinner the next evening, Song Mo was supposed to go home.
Before leaving, he spoke to Lu Man privately with a sorrowful tone, “Sister-in-law, on the twenty-first of this month, I will officially start studying with a teacher for the whole day. In the future, I will have a day off every ten days. If I don’t come, sister-in-law, remember to send someone to pick me up.” He then said resentfully, “I heard that my grandmother is looking for someone to matchmake for my father again. My father doesn’t want to, my grandmother cried, and she even angrily pinched my father. Sister-in-law, what should I do? I want my father to marry and have more brothers and sisters, so the family will be lively. But I also don’t want him to marry, I’m afraid he’ll marry a bad, wicked wife who might poison us.”
Song Mo furrowed his brows, looking like a little old man. The six-year-old rascal knew quite a bit.
Lu Man had no solution for this matter. Song Ming would definitely marry again, and she hoped he could find a good girl, someone who could be harmonious with him and also be kind to Song Mo.
Lu Man pinched Song Mo’s chubby little face to comfort him, saying, “Your father is wise, he will surely investigate her character before choosing a wife, and bring back a good stepmother for you. Good people won’t poison others…”
On the nineteenth night, thinking that Jiang Zhanwei, who had been away for a few days, would finally be returning, Lu Man and the others were all very happy. They didn’t eat and waited in the room for him to come back so they could eat together. However, Liu Chun come instead, who said that the Third Young Master was busy with official duties and couldn’t return today.
Liu Chun and several close soldiers were freed from their slave contracts and promoted after the war. Especially Liu Chun, who was promoted the most, to the position of a seventh-rank subordinate officer, equivalent to Jiang Zhanwei’s secretary or advisor. Before the New Year, he had already become engaged to Lu Ying. Since Xiao Zhong and Xiao Xi had not yet been fully trained, Lu Man couldn’t do without Lu Ying for the time being, so they planned to marry next year. Liu Chun also bought a two-entry courtyard, but because it was far from the Princess Changting’s residence, he still lived in the original servant’s quarters.
When Jiang Jiu and Jiang Yue heard that Jiang Zhanwei, whom they had been waiting for days, wouldn’t be coming back, they both cried, and Lu Man was also extremely disappointed.