Chapter 177 - 177 Aunt
177 Aunt
Wei Ting quickly opened the door for him.
Su Ergou scratched his head. “Brother-in-law, you’re really up?”
Wei Ting asked, “I just woke up. What’s wrong?”
Su Ergou handed the steamer to him. “Oh, Sister asked me to send you a basket of buns. Do you want to go down and eat with us?”
Wei Ting said, “No, I’ll eat in the room.”
Su Xiaoxiao and the others had to do business and ate quickly. If he sat with them, he would be alone not long after. In addition, he had to look after the three little fellows next door.
Wei Ting said, “Put it in your sister’s room.”
Su Ergou agreed. “Aye, alright!”
Su Xiaoxiao was almost done eating in the lobby. She had a choice of place to sit. She happened to be able to see her and Wei Ting’s two rooms. The other two rooms were around a corner, which was her blind spot.
She glanced at Wei Ting on the walkway.
Wei Ting entered her room with the three little ones’ room with a calm expression.
The three of them only fell asleep in the middle of the night. They would probably wake up late today.
She did not believe that Wei Ting had followed her to the prefecture city for the three little fellows. Wei Ting was too shrewd. He must have his own motives.
Su Ergou was also full.
The group set off for Half Moon Mountain.
The tomb of the rich family was located on a piece of treasured land. The two sides of the top were tall, and the middle part was sunken inward in the layout of the Incense Burner Mountain.
It was already good enough for ordinary families to have a grave, but this family had an entire cemetery.
Not only that, but they also built a separate family temple.
On the way here, Su Xiaoxiao asked Wei Ting many questions about the sacrifice.
The ancestral hall of the Great Zhou was also called a family temple. Commoners were not qualified to build a family temple.
There were seven temples for the emperor, five temples for the vassals, three temples for the physician, and one temple for scholars.
In short, to build a family temple, one had to at least be an official.
She had only learned from the innkeeper this morning that the big family that had hired them to make snacks had built five temples.
In other words, the head was a duke.
The vassals from the capital had too big a background.
What was Prefecture Lord Li in front of them? What? He was not even worthy of carrying shoes?
No, this sentence was already a scam.
Moreover, the gossip Manager Sun had heard yesterday was also inaccurate. The family was not here to move the grave. They were here to worship their ancestors and perform a crown ceremony for a direct descendant.
In the Great Zhou, men were considered adults when they were 20 years old. If they were married early, they would perform the crown ceremony on the day before the wedding.
The location was all at the family temple.
It was already difficult for country bumpkins to fill their stomachs, so they were naturally not so particular. They probably could not even afford a hair crown, even if they were adults.
Only these vassals and physicians could afford to talk about such red tape.
Su Xiaoxiao felt that she had to buy a hair crown for Father Su when she returned this time. She didn’t want to buy fake jade. She wanted real jade.
Father Su wandered to Willow Village during the year of the disaster. He had been a cowherd for ten years and grew up eating all kinds of food. He had no elders, so he naturally did not have a crown ceremony before he became a husband and a father.
“The red-tiled hut at the foot of the mountain… That’s right, it’s here!” Manager Sun lifted the curtain. “Xiaowu, stop the carriage.”
Manager Sun pointed at the towering buildings in front of him and said, “Do you see that? That’s the Su family’s temple. It’s a true energy sect! Unfortunately, we can’t enter. In a while, we’ll make snacks in the kitchen here. Someone will come and get them.”
“Yeah.”
Su Xiaoxiao calmly got out of the carriage.
Su Ergou had taken a nap in the carriage and was in good spirits.
The person who came to contact them was a steward with the surname Yu.
Probably knowing that they were introduced by Grandmaster Hui Jue, Steward Yu’s attitude was very polite. After bringing her to the kitchen, he asked if there was anything else she needed.
Su Xiaoxiao said, “We brought the ingredients ourselves. May I ask where the water is?”
Steward Yu smiled and said, “There’s a clean well in the backyard. If you don’t want to use the well water, there’s a natural mountain spring half a mile east. It tastes sweeter than the well water.”
Su Xiaoxiao decided to try the spring water.
Su Ergou picked up two buckets with a shoulder pole and followed.
They soon arrived half a mile away. Su Xiaoxiao watched as the winding spring water flowed down from a naturally formed stone cave. She stretched out her chubby hand and took a sip.
How sweet!
“Sister, does it taste good?” Su Ergou asked.
Su Xiaoxiao nodded without hesitation. “It’s delicious. It’s sweeter than the water on our mountain.”
“I’ll do it too!” Su Ergou put down the shoulder pole and bucket. He did not hold it with his hand. Instead, he tilted his head and took it with his mouth.
“It’s so cold!”
His collar was wet.
However, he could also taste that the spring water here was indeed sweet.
“Sister, can we bring two buckets for Dad when we go back?”
“Eh? Sister, what’s wrong? Why aren’t you saying anything?”
“Sister!”
Su Xiaoxiao said softly, “I heard it. Ask Steward Yu later how much the spring water is. Buy some and bring them back.”
Between the siblings, one really went all out to take care of his loved ones and the other went all out to spoil them.
Su Xiaoxiao frowned slightly.
She… seemed to have seen Jing Yi just now.
Surrounded by a group of luxuriously dressed people, he entered the temple of the rich family.
It was too far away and she could not see it clearly. Perhaps she had seen wrongly.
But in the next second, she didn’t think so.
Because Changping had come over.
Changping was also here to get spring water. The difference was that he was holding two small bamboo tubes.
“Su Su Su… Miss Su?”
Changping looked at the siblings in disbelief. “Why are you here?”
To meet them wherever he went, he felt they must really be haunting him!
Changping was Young Master Xiang’s personal follower. If he was here, it meant that Young Master Xiang was also here. Jing Yi was most likely here.
No wonder neither of them was there when she went to the academy to look for them. It turned out that they had gone to the prefecture city.
… .
Jing Yi and the others arrived at the entrance of the family temple.
A middle-aged man in his forties had long been waiting here with his family. He first cupped his hands at Jing Yi. “Young Marquis Jing, long time no see. How have you been?”
Jing Yi nodded slightly and moved aside.
The man took a look and his expression changed drastically. He bent his knees and knelt down. “Greetings to the Third…”
Young Master Xiang reached out and stopped him from bowing. “When you’re outside, just call me Young Master Xiang.”
The man understood. “Yes! Young Master Xiang, please come in!”
Young Master Xiang and Jing Yi followed the man into a courtyard beside the family temple. This place was mainly used to guard the family temple.
After they sat down, the servants served tea.
Young Master Xiang asked, “It’s been half a year since we last met in the capital. I wonder how your health is?”
The man sighed. “It’s a little better. It’s almost Aunt’s death anniversary, and Father can’t sleep at night.”
Young Master Xiang also sighed and said, “Has the Marquis not let go?”
The man shook his head helplessly. “Father has always been brooding over what happened back then and feels guilty for not protecting Aunt well. Father often said that if only he hadn’t brought Aunt back to the village to pay respects to her ancestors. That way, he wouldn’t have caused Aunt to die tragically and her flesh and blood to wander among the commoners for many years.”