"Didn't the master agree to co ho once a month to visit? How did things change?"
Hongji looked at the guard, disappointed. His honest heart ached, having longed through the endless autumn for his wife, only to find she wouldn't be returning ho.
"Brother, didn't I just tell you I don't know? We who work in the Tang Mansion are not masters of our own fate. Though a day's leave to visit family is promised, if the master's household has affairs to attend to, it's likely there will be no leave."
The guard tried his best to explain, but the Li family still couldn't understand the lack of freedom that ca with their jobs.
"Oh... Is my wife doing well?" Hongji asked, sitting there disheartened.
"Hmm, Mrs. Li is doing quite well." The guard, stationed outside in the courtyard, had seen Mrs. Li walking in the garden with the Young Master a few tis.
"Wow, pastries and candies..." Upon hearing her daughter's words, Mrs. Lai opened the parcel on the table, seeing the exquisite pastries and candies, she couldn't help but salivate and wanted to eat them all herself.
"Pastries and candies, I want to eat..." Ye Shuzhen quickly grabbed a pastry and stuffed it in her mouth while grabbing a candy with her hand.
"Hehe... tasty," Ye Shuzhi did the sa.
"You... why are you taking so much? I'm putting these away."
Seeing her two daughters grabbing so much, Mrs. Lai's heart ached. She grabbed the parcel and hurried a few steps, planning to hide the treats back in her room.
"Dad..." Siwa heard the noise outside but didn't dare to go out, yet her sister sitting with her on the bed in the room made her carry her, and with difficulty, they step by step walked out.
Upon leaving the room, they ran into the second and third aunts munching on pastries, and Siwa couldn't help but swallow hard, though she dared not ask her grandmother or aunts for sothing to eat, she could only look for her dad.
"Siwa, you are so young, how could you carry your sister out? What if you had dropped her?"
Hongji, not understanding the expression on Siwa's childlike face at the mont, was nervous for his youngest child.
As an adult and a man, Hongji could choose to eat or not eat pastries and candies. Due to his slight carelessness, he hadn't considered the children at ho.
When Mrs. Lai saw Siwa, fearing that the pastries and candies in her arms would be reduced, her stout body started to run, and with a "bang," she closed the room door and also shut the windows. Then, secretly in the room, she rrily ate pastries and drank candies, happy that not only did she have two extra taels of silver today, she also had plenty to eat.
Hongji lifted both Siwa and Qing, holding one child with each hand, then said to Siwa:
"Siwa, don't carry your sister out like that in the future; you're so young, if you fall, how will your sister fare?"
"Dad, Qing asked to carry her out, she wanted the pastries and candies." Siwa looked at her grandmother's room door with a wronged expression, tears swirling in her eyes.
"Ah," Hongji carelessly just realized there were no pastries or candies for the children. Knowing his mother's temper, the treats she now held would definitely not be shared with his children. For a mont, he felt awkward looking at Siwa's face.
Shiqi, in Siwa's arms, saw everything. Honestly, coming from a wealthy family in her past life, she didn't care at all for the pastries and candies Mrs. Lai had.
It's just that since arriving in this era from the book, she had been nursing for the first month and eating plain porridge for the last two months, making her taste buds quite bland. Just now, seeing Mrs. Lai opening the parcel and slling the aroma, she couldn't help but swallow her saliva.
"Order, order"
Honest Hongji couldn't resist his little girl's gaze and shouted toward Mrs. Lai's room door: "Mother, share so of the pastries and candies with the children."
"What to eat? They only know how to eat and can't work, costing money. Feeding them is a waste,"
Mrs. Lai mumbled through her pastries, speaking hazily, while crumbs of pastries sprayed out as she spoke in the room.
"Mother, why are you cursing in front of outsiders again? This is my daughter, your granddaughter, hmm..."
Hongji, this honest man, beca angry. Even honest people have their pride, and he felt aggrieved under the guard's watchful eye.
"Hmph, sour girl, sour girl, it's not a grandson, look at you, so disappointing, protecting those money-losing goods."
Mrs. Lai didn't care about her son's angry tone. Her son was so filial that a few harsh words wouldn't matter; she was eating sothing, making her speech even more unclear.
"Second Sister, Third Sister, share so candy with the kids." Hongji, unable to reach his mother, turned his gaze toward Second Sister and Third Sister.
"I won't... this is mine." Ye Shuzhen, fearful of her brother taking it, quickly ran back to her room.
"I can only give two pieces..." Ye Shuzhi, reluctant to part with the candy, but caring about the handso guard's gaze, endured the pain and placed two candies, one for Siwa and another for Qing.
"Thank you, Second Aunt... hee hee, Dad, I have candy now." Siwa thanked Second Aunt, his happy face looking at Hongji, carefully hiding the candy, yet not daring to eat it, thinking in his little heart to save it to share when his sisters ca back.
"It's fine, it's fine," Ye Shiqi blew bubbles for Ye Shuzhi, holding the candy in her hand without eating it.
"Yes, rember to be obedient from now on, alright?" Ye Shuzhi behaved tenderly and virtuously in front of the foreign man.
"Sir, old man, I've been out for quite so ti now, I should head back." The guard, having finished his last sip of tea, stood up, approached his horse and mounted it to leave.
"This..." Ye Shuzhi wanted to keep the guard but couldn't say what was in her mouth, looking disappointedly at the guard's retreating figure.
The guard's body stiffened on the horse for a mont, but he didn't turn back. He had learned about the family's situation from the housekeeper's mouth and knew that this Second Miss was betrothed. He couldn't withstand such enamored glances.
"Brother, take it easy!" Hongji and his father watched the guard's retreating figure.
Hongji took the two kids back to the room, telling Siwa to take good care of his little sister.
Siwa, holding a piece of candy, hugged Ye Shiqi gleefully, laughing.
Ye Shuzhi returned to her room, emotionally distant and stunned. Ye Shuzhen hardly noticed her elder sister's mood, yet felt a bit sorry about the two candies Second Sister had given out.
"Second Sister, you don't eat the candy, give it to , why did you give it only to those two kids?" Ye Shuzhen said this as she tried to snatch the candy from Ye Shuzhi's hands.
"Not giving it... Why are you so greedy? You are 13 years old, right? Why aren't you cautious around foreign n?" Ye Shuzhi glared at Ye Shuzhen, tucking the candy into her bosom, montarily too reluctant to eat it.
"A foreign man, that's just a guard. For , he is a servant. My husband will be a young master," Ye Shuzhen pouted at Ye Shuzhi, left only to eat the candy in her own hand since her elder sister wouldn't share.
"Get real? Look at you. Dream on about marrying a servant, let alone a young master..." Ye Shuzhi mocked her sister's foolish fantasies.
"Second Sister, you're going to marry the boss's son; my fate will definitely be better than yours," Ye Shuzhen retorted stubbornly to her elder sister.
"Hmm, we'll see..." Ye Shuzhi argued back.
Daya and the two younger sisters returned from the fields, hoping their mother would co to et them like the last ti. Yet, waiting and waiting, they didn't see her. Anxious, the three kids returned ho from the fields earlier than planned.
"Dad, has Mom co back yet?" Daya, dropping the farming tools, looked around at ho.
"Mom... Mom..."
Er Ya and Sanya ran back to the room, incessantly calling out.
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