Extra 2: Another Daily Life
The tea stalls in Que County are very lively. Recently, everyone is talking about a person, a foreigner. It is said that he is very good-looking, seems to be very elegant and refined, and has excellent painting skills.
Sometimes he would paint in the Wangjiang Pavilion, and sometimes he would pick up candies and cakes from the food stalls in South Lane, but the place he went to most often was Ni's house.
Because he was the one who married into the Ni family some time ago, the husband of Su Niang from the Ni family.
No one knew his origins, only that he happened to have the same name and surname as the long-deceased General Yujie. When he married into the Ni family, the saint's reward was sent from Yunjing to the small Que County, with BMWs and luxury cars filling the streets for ten miles.
"Could he be a young master from a noble family? Otherwise, how could he receive such a generous reward from the saint?"
There is never a shortage of people gathering together to chat in the teahouse.
"In my opinion, that Xu Langjun might be someone from the Saint's mother's family..." Someone stroked his chin and analyzed it, then made another "hiss" sound and frowned, "But the Saint's surname is Li, not Xu."
"Although the saint's last name is not Xu, it is possible that a woman from the saint's mother's family got married and gave birth to this Mr. Xu."
Someone took over the conversation.
For a moment, everyone felt that what he said made some sense. Suddenly, someone exclaimed, "Isn't that Mr. Xu?"
Everyone's eyes then fell on the outside of the tea stall.
Today is September 9th, which is the Double Ninth Festival.
Yongxu Hall was a place that specialized in selling rice paper scrolls and bluestone pigments. Mr. Xu walked out of it. He was wearing a frosty white round-necked robe, with one hand holding a scroll and the other holding some stationery such as pigments and brushes.
He is not a person who likes to laugh. Even on a sunny day, when people see him, they always feel that he carries a bit of the cold and snowy feeling. But no one thinks that he is difficult to get along with, because he actually has a very good temper and is very gentle when speaking to anyone.
"Mr. Xu, would you like some fresh fruits?"
The lady working the vegetable stall saw him and smiled with her eyes narrowed.
"I want some, but I don't have any empty hands, so please deliver it to me." Xu Hexue said, putting a few more iron coins on the vegetable stall.
"Okay, I'll pick the freshest ones for you and send them to you in a moment!"
The old lady said with a smile.
Nowadays, no one talks about what is wrong with Mr. Xu taking care of the household chores. Everyone knows that many celebrities pay huge sums of money for his painting skills. Some time ago, the Ni family's female medical school was about to be completed, and many people rushed there to ask for prizes and watch the fun. At that time, a craftsman slipped on the eaves, and countless people saw Mr. Xu use the force to jump, and in just a few breaths, he brought the craftsman down steadily.
He is neither a gigolo nor a gentleman as he appears to be. He is skilled in martial arts and is willing to cook for his wife.
No one knows where Ni Su, the female owner of the Ni Family Clinic, found such a good husband.
"Mr. Xu seems a little unhappy today."
The vegetable seller realized it later.
“…Is there?”
The man at the stall next to him turned around and glanced at the tall figure walking away. "Isn't Mr. Xu always like this?"
"The emperor is going to war! Many people are paying respects to General Yujie!"
Xu Hexue was walking towards home when he met a few children running back and forth on the street. They were chasing a shadow puppet held by a child. The puppet was wearing a scarlet robe, silver-white scale armor, riding a horse and holding a gun.
"Brother, let me see..."
The little girl pouted and said, "My mother is making braised pork today. Let me play for a while, and I will invite you to my house to eat meat!"
Another boy immediately interrupted and said, "I'll treat you to candied haws! Let me play with it!"
The child put his hands on his waist, raised his chin and shook the shadow puppet in his hand, "No, no, my father only made this one for me, what if you break it?"
Several children were chasing him. He ran forward holding the shadow puppet and almost bumped into a young lady. He looked up and saw that the woman in front of him was wearing a light green shirt and skirt, with a cloud-like shawl on her arms, her black hair was tied in a bun, and she wore a very eye-catching gold hairpin with pearls, flowers and birds on her head.
"Can you sell me your shadow puppet?"
The young lady lowered her head gently, and the golden bird feather earrings with pearls on her ears swayed slightly.
"No, you can't."
The child quickly refused.
"Then I'll trade you some cookies and candy?"
As she spoke, the young woman handed him the cakes and candies wrapped in oil paper. "The cakes have meat fillings and milk fillings. I also buy this candy often. It's very sweet and delicious."
After hearing her description, the other children couldn't help but swallow their saliva. They seemed to smell the fragrance of the cakes.
The child holding the shadow puppet also smelled it. He looked at her full bag of biscuits and candies, then looked at the brightly colored shadow puppet in his hand. He shook his head vigorously, "No, I won't change it!"
He resisted the temptation of biscuits and candies.
"Ah Xi."
When the young lady heard the call, she immediately looked up. People were coming and going on the street. The man wearing the clothes she made was standing not far away, with both his hands full.
The breeze made his wide sleeves flutter slightly, revealing the vermilion hem underneath, which only made his wrist bones look even colder.
Ni Su distributed some biscuits and candies to the children. When she saw him coming, she took his hand and said, "I really want his shadow puppets, but unfortunately he doesn't want money, biscuits or candies."
Xu Hexue was looking at her face. Her cheeks were slightly red, which was not normal. "You have a fever, why are you still out?"
"My husband is angry with me. How can I rest at home alone?" Ni Su noticed his expression and sighed deliberately, "I have to come out to pick him up and coax him."
"I'm not mad at you."
Xu Hexue wanted to hold her hand, but his hands were full, so he could only say: "You caught a cold because of me..."
"Why is it because of you?"
As Ni Su followed him, she said, "You know I have been providing free medical treatment to women in the countryside these days. It was windy yesterday and I didn't have enough clothes on. Besides,"
She paused and snorted, "You were unwilling last night. If it was really your fault, then it was my own fault, right?"
"...Ni Axi."
Yingchen floated away without warning. In the light of dusk, Xu Hexue entered the house with her and whispered, "I'm not unwilling."
"What reluctance?"
A female voice suddenly came.
Ni Su and Xu Hexue looked up at the same time and saw Ni Mizhi coming from the moon cave gate.
"nothing……"
Ni Su blushed, and seeing that Ni Mizhi looked exhausted, she changed the subject and asked, "You just came back from Luan Town?"
"yes."
Ni Mizhi seemed to be in good spirits. "Your maid Xingzhu and her husband insisted that I bring you some fruits from Luanzhen. So I came to your house as soon as I came back."
When Ni Sucai returned to Que County in the first year of Xiyou, Ni Mizhi was being treated harshly by her husband's family because of a miscarriage. Her father Ni Zong was thinking about the betrothal gift from her husband's family to help him with his urgent cloth business, so he didn't care how she lived in her husband's family.
Ni Su and Ni Zong went to court, and Ni Zong was sentenced to three years in prison. Ni Mizhi's brother Ni Qingwen had his legs broken because of a gambling debt. Her sister-in-law Tian saw that the family was about to break up, so she divorced Ni Qingwen and returned to her parents' home with her children. Overnight, no one was left in the second branch of the Ni family.
After Ni Mizhi followed Ni Su's advice and divorced the man from the Chen family, she went home and followed Ni Su's example, taking care of the family's cloth business. She lived with her mother Liu and unexpectedly enjoyed a stable and leisurely life that she had never imagined before.
These days, she is selecting a suitable shop in Luan Town, preparing to expand her business there.
"Then why are you in such a hurry to go back? Today is Double Ninth Festival. Ask your people to go back and invite Second Aunt to come over and have dinner with us."
Ni Su said with a smile.
Xu Hexue nodded slightly to Ni Mizhi and put down the things in his hand. Ni Mizhi turned around to look at his back, and then looked at Ni Su, "I have always wanted to ask you, where did you find such a good man? He looks like a gentleman who is very knowledgeable in literature. On my way back, I heard that he saved a craftsman working in the Women's Medical School? He also knows martial arts?"
"He is so talented in both civil and military affairs, and he has never eaten free meals in your house. But how could such a person be willing to marry into your family?"
Ni Mizhi still finds it confusing.
Ni Su just smiled, "Let's go."
Qingqiong was learning medicine from the old doctor in the clinic. He left home early and came back late every day. Today was no exception. He came back only after it got dark. He peeked outside the kitchen door. The young man turned around with his sleeves rolled up and his hands wet. He said, "There are guests at home. Come and help."
"Right on!"
Qingqiong ran in immediately.
Not only Ni Mizhi and Liu were present at the dinner tonight, but also the craftsman couple who were rescued by Xu Hexue on the eaves of the school. They came with wine and rice to express their gratitude, so Ni Su invited them to have dinner together .
"If it weren't for Mr. Xu, my husband would have fallen from such a high place and would have been disabled," the middle-aged craftsman was not very good at speaking, but he had a wife who was very talkative. The woman picked up the wine bowl enthusiastically, "The two of us, toast to Mr. Xu and Miss Ni!"
Today is Double Ninth Festival. In addition to a table full of delicious food, there is also a plate of Double Ninth Festival cake and a pot of chrysanthemum wine.
Ni Su and Xu Hexue raised their wine bowls together, the fragrance of chrysanthemums filled the air, but Xu Hexue was also a man of few words, he only spoke a few words to the craftsman occasionally, and the rest was the laughter of Ni Su, the craftsman's wife, Ni Mizhi, second aunt Liu, and Qingqiong.
"Mr. Xu, your paintings are very expensive, right?"
The craftsman was indeed not good at speaking, and it took him a long while to utter a word.
"Do you need anything?"
"Our son is well educated, and he's going to get married in a few days. We want to buy some things for his house, but everyone says that your paintings are wonderful and elegant, and people like us dare not ask for it." The craftsman's wife smiled embarrassedly.
“Elegance is not about highbrow music that few people can appreciate; Yuntai thatched cottage is also appreciated by the common people.”
Xu Hexue said, "If there is a happy event in your family, my wife and I will send you a gift."
"Oh, thank you so much!"
The craftsman and his wife were very happy. They came to toast again. Xu Hexue picked up the wine bowl. He was used to the aroma of chrysanthemum wine and was also used to the taste of it being as light as water in his mouth.
But after taking a sip, he suddenly paused.
"What's wrong?"
Ni Su noticed something was wrong with him, "Don't drink it too quickly. Even if it tastes tasteless, you can't drink as much as you would water."
Without a sense of taste, whatever he eats or drinks tastes bland.
But because of this, if he wasn't careful when drinking, he would get drunk without any assurance.
Ni Mizhi just took a sip, and when he heard what Ni Su said, he raised his head and asked, "How can this wine be tasteless?"
"...Miss Ni means that this wine is not as strong as other wines."
Qingqiong didn't have time to eat the duck, so he took over the conversation and started to make up for it.
"That's true,"
Liu smiled and said, "This wine tastes very soft. It has a spicy taste at first, but then becomes sweet."
Spicy and sweet.
Xu Hexue was thinking about these two feelings in his heart. At night, the corridor was lit with lights. Ni Mizhi helped Qingqiong and Ni Su wash the dishes in the kitchen before leaving with his mother Liu.
After taking a bath, Ni Su returned to the room and saw Xu Hexue sitting by the window. There was a book called "A Xi's Food List" on the desk. The night wind blew, and the pages of the book turned.
A song "Youthful Travel" is immersed in the warm light of candles.
"Why are you so absent-minded?"
Ni Su wiped her hair and sat next to him, but she found some red dogwood on the table. She was startled, "Xu Ziling, what did you do?"
“Tasted the dogwood.”
He raised his head.
"You..." Ni Su forgot to even wipe her hair for a moment. She opened her eyes wide and held her breath. "Do you know what it smells like?"
“Spicy and aromatic.”
If the first taste of chrysanthemum wine is spicy, then the dogwood that Xu Hexue just tasted should also taste that way.
This was really a sudden thing.
He suddenly tasted the last sip of chrysanthemum wine, it tasted spicy and sweet. His wife in front of him seemed to have forgotten what to say. She stared at him blankly with her clear eyes, her wet black hair disheveled, her face full of disbelief.
"Ah Xi,"
Xu Hexue said, holding her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder, "I can remember the taste of sugar cakes."
At this moment, Ni Su's tears were about to fall, but she held them back and moved her eyes to the corner of the table, where there was a bowl of black medicine that he had boiled to treat her typhoid fever.
She picked up the bowl of medicine in one hand, stood up and put it to his lips. Xu Hexue was caught off guard and she fed him a mouthful.
Ni Su saw his brows slightly frowned, she smiled, but there were tears in her eyes, "Does it taste good?"
"have."
But Xu Hexue couldn't remember what it felt like.
“It tastes bitter.”
Ni Su said softly.
As the night deepens, the candlelight flickers.
The silvery moonlight spread through the window lattice onto the table and the floor. Ni Su had just drunk the medicine, and there was still a bitter taste on her lips. Xu Hexue put his arm around her waist, but she pressed his shoulders with both hands, and his back was pressed against the table. The neatly stacked books on and under the table were now in disarray.
During the kiss, Xu Hexue suddenly heard Ni Su's laughter.
He raised his eyes in confusion, just as her hand fell down, but she did not touch his face as she usually did when they were close to each other. Instead, her sleeve lightly brushed his earlobe, and there was a sound of paper pages sliding against each other.
She held a small booklet between her fingers. The booklet was very long and when it was spread out, it was clearly illuminated by the candlelight.
"Xu Ziling, what is this?"
She asked even though she knew the answer.
The dust scattered everywhere, and there was not much expression on Xu Hexue's face, but his cold eyebrows and eyes were faintly flashing with a subtle divine light.
"If I had known you'd buy it, I wouldn't have bought it."
Just when he was at a loss, he suddenly heard her say.
Just as Xu Hexue was about to speak, she kissed him again. He instinctively wanted to grab more from her kiss and put his arms around her waist. In a flash, Ni Su became the one lying on the desk, while Xu Hexue looked down at her, with his hands on the desk, looking at her with a pair of clear eyes.
His outer robe was a little loose, with two buttons missing and his belt almost untied. The cinnabar-red collar inside made his neck skin look even colder and whiter, and his face looked handsome and neat.
He suddenly lowered his head to kiss her cheek, and the delicate and slightly cool kisses fell on her eyelashes, nose tip, and finally on her lips, "Ah Xi, you are still sick."
He could have controlled himself quite well if she hadn't put her arms around his neck and kissed him like he did.
"With your hands."
He gasped softly and compromised.
"don't want."
Ni Su threw the book on the table to the ground.
"Ni Axi,"
There was some forbearance hidden in his usual cold voice, "Don't say it."
"If I don't tell you, then you tell me."
“…What did I say?”
"Who knows what you're going to say?"
She snorted softly, but was unprepared for him to bite her neck the next moment. The temperature of her lips and teeth was a little cold. Ni Su pulled his sleeve tightly.
"Ah Xi."
He only knew how to call her name.
"Don't call me anymore," Ni Su's cheeks flushed, her palms pressed against his body, the candlelight was dim, the temperature under her fingertips was inch by inch, and the delicate skin was no longer scarred, "Actually, Xu Ziling, I don't think you are as cold as before."
He could taste it.
The temperature of my body is still like snow, but only the cleanliness and coolness of snow remains, no longer bitingly cold.
"This is probably the warmth that the world gives you."
She said.
In the dim room, there was only the sound of one person's breathing. He was still a ghost, but he was no longer as distinct from her as before. Xu Hexue leaned over and buried his head in the crook of her neck:
"It's you who gave me warmth."
