After Zheng Hui finished speaking, he froze for a moment, only then realizing that Li Qingxian had come to see him first upon returning. His eyes immediately reddened, and he hastily lowered his head.
Everyone noticed.
Li Qingxian smiled. "I'm not busy these days anyway, so I stopped by to see you. How are things? Everything all right at home?"
Zheng Hui hurriedly said, "Fine, everything's fine. His Majesty is wise, there's peace under heaven, and all is well. Especially after Gao Jue reached the seventh rank-even ninth- and eighth-rank people I hadn't heard from in ages came here with congratulatory gifts, asking about him. I didn't hide anything, either. I said he was serving under you. That... doesn't break any taboos, does it?"
"What taboos? It's not as if we're sneaking around."
"That's good, that's good," Zheng Hui said.
Han Anbo opened his mouth to say something, but Zheng Hui seized his wrist and squeezed it hard. His gaze swept over Han Anbo before he turned to Li Qingxian with a smile. "You're heading home, so let's skip the wine. We'll have some tea together and chat."
"All right."
They chatted for two hours. Li Qingxian left some local specialties and a spiritual medicine to strengthen Zheng Hui's foundations and nourish his vitality. After watching him take it, he returned home to see his aunt, uncle, and cousins.
Not long after Li Qingxian left, word spread among Zheng Hui's neighbors.
Gang Feng's son, Li Qingxian, the Marquis of Far-Reaching, had come to visit Zheng Hui.
Just after lunch, a dozen or so neighbors gathered in Zheng Hui's courtyard and sat around him.
"Brother Zheng, how did your complexion suddenly improve so much?"
"Yes, you still looked sickly this morning, but by noon, you were completely different."
"I heard the