The three of them strolled around until evening before heading home. As they passed Benevolence Hall, Qin Baitang happened to be seeing off a guest. He smiled and said, "Happy birthday, Anci."
Meng Anci bowed respectfully to Qin Baitang, saying, "Thank you, Shopkeeper Qin."
Seeing how well-mannered and polite he was, Qin Baitang felt a pang of emotion. He recalled how they had been timid and cowardly little kids when they first met, and how they had become so confident and poised.
He took out twenty coins and gave them some, saying, "Happy New Year."
"Happy New Year, Shopkeeper Qin!" The two little ones grinned from ear to ear as they received their money.
After saying goodbye to Qin Baitang, the three of them walked happily home. As soon as Meng Anci stepped across the threshold, his smile froze on his face.
His head was buzzing as if he'd been struck by lightning.
Who could understand? I was having a perfectly good holiday, and then I bumped into my teacher at home. My great mood instantly plummeted.
Meng Anci shoved all the food in his hand into Qing Yang's hands, smoothed out his clothes, and bowed to Master Zhao, saying, "Happy New Year, Master."
Master Zhao nodded in satisfaction. As expected of a student taught by the Crown Prince, his manners had indeed improved greatly. " Anci, have you finished your homework?"
Meng Anci's eyes widened. Oh no... He'd been too busy playing these past few days, but he wasn't a three or four-year-old anymore; he was five now.
Meng Anci said casually, "A few more policy essays are still needed."
Master Zhao nodded perfunctorily. He had come to deliver a letter and had no intention of staying any longer. After greeting Jin Shanyao, he patted Meng Anci's head.
He said "study hard" and then walked away.
Jin Shanyao her head in confusion. She was the mistress of this house, so if Master Zhao came looking for neither her nor Meng Anci, then who was he looking for?
Before she could even think about it, she was pulled into the inner room by two little kids.
"Auntie, you're not allowed to move!" Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci whispered mysteriously to Jin Shanyao smiles, leaving her completely confused.
"Auntie, we've prepared a New Year's gift for you."
Jin Shanyao was surprised. This was the first time in her thousand years of life that someone had given her a gift. Even the book by Taishang Laojun was something she had to return after reading it.
Just as she was in a daze, a delicate wooden hairpin appeared before her eyes, with a ginkgo leaf at the top and two small water droplets clinging to it.
The wooden hairpin has a pointed and rounded tip, and the body of the hairpin has been finely polished, with no burrs visible.
Jin Shanyao looked surprised. "When did you buy this? I didn't know about it."
Meng Anzhi smiled, her eyes crinkling. "The pattern was drawn by Anci, and I had the old carpenter next door make it."
She pointed to the hairpin and said softly, "The ginkgo leaf is my aunt, and we are two little water droplets. We are a family, and we will never be separated."
Jin Shanyao a strange swelling in her chest. She had come to repay a debt of gratitude, treating the two children as mere quest subjects, but she hadn't expected them to be so devoted to her.
Jin Shanyao it, her voice slightly strained, "It's so beautiful, the most beautiful wooden hairpin I've ever seen."
Meng Anci exclaimed, "Auntie, Auntie, bend down, I want to put it on for you myself."
"Okay," Jin Shanyao leaned her head closer to Meng Anci, Meng Anci inserted the wooden hairpin into her hair bun.
Before Jin Shanyao stand up, she felt her cheek go soft, followed by a kiss on the other side. The soft touch seemed to seep into her heart through her skin.
Jin Shanyao seemed a little lost, bending over blankly. After a while, she reached up and touched her cheek, looking at the two smiling cubs, and smiled along with them.
She couldn't help but think that whether she obtained the divine position a day earlier or a day later didn't seem to matter that much.
Jin Shanyao out and stroked the hairpin on her head, reluctant to take it off. This hairpin was made by her two cubs after a month of secret planning and using all their savings.
No one knows how many drafts Meng Anci revised, or how many trips Meng Anzhi made to the carpenter's shop. She had to wear it every day so as not to disappoint the two children.
Wait a minute? This hairpin looks like it's made of expensive wood. Does she give it too much pocket money?
Forget it, I won't think about it anymore. Jin Shanyao happily enveloped the wooden hairpin in a layer of Spiritual Power. As long as she was there, the hairpin would not be eroded by time.
There's an old saying that goes something like this: excessive joy leads to sorrow.
While sleeping that night, Jin Shanyao, trying not to knock over the wooden hairpin, ended up with a stiff neck.
She, who had stood in the tree pit for a thousand years without her feet going numb, actually got a stiff neck—what a strange and unusual illness!
The two little ones were the first to notice her odd behavior. "Auntie, why aren't you looking at us properly?"
Jin Shanyao couldn't very well say that she had just gotten a stiff neck from being so happy, could she? As a dignified goddess, didn't she have any pride?
She blurted out, "Auntie is showing off," pointing to the hairpin on her head, "I want everyone to see that this hairpin was a gift from you."
Meng Anzhi felt both happy and sad. She remembered the first time she met her aunt, whose hair was a mess and who didn't even have a stick, let alone a hairpin.
She stepped forward and took the hand that Jin Shanyao, comforting her, "Auntie, don't worry, when I grow up I'll buy you hairpins every day, so don't look up like that yet."
Jin Shanyao didn't want to be a crooked tree, but she couldn't move her neck and could only maintain a 45-degree angle, striking a cool pose as she looked up at the sky.
Lu Chi didn't sleep a wink last night, clutching the reply letter. He hadn't grown up with his father, but he couldn't help feeling close to him every time he saw him.
He harbored a secret: he particularly envied the son born to his stepmother, who had a mother's love and a father's indulgence.
When my younger brother was little, he could ride on his father's shoulders in the streets, and his father would teach him archery and martial arts. Even his brother's horse was tamed by his father.
Occasionally, the younger brother would cling to his father's leg and act spoiled, refusing to do his homework.
He also tried to act like his younger brother, trying to be affectionate with his father, but he was always met with cold rebukes. Sometimes he wondered if his father would have treated him better if his mother hadn't died.
But the truth is, not only could he not find out the cause of his mother's death, he was also sold himself.
Before this letter arrived, he had been imagining whether his father would be anxious and panicked because of his disappearance.
Lu Chi laughed self-deprecatingly. It turned out he wouldn't, because he was busy submitting a memorial to the throne to request that his younger brother be granted the title of heir apparent.
He raised his hand, set the letter on fire, and tossed it into the air. Since they didn't want to acknowledge him as their son, then he might as well consider him dead.
Lu Chi opened the door and stepped out of the house. The cold wind blowing on his face actually made him a little more awake. The poison in his body had been completely neutralized; it was time to...
Lu Chi's thoughts were interrupted. He watched as Jin Shanyao, with her head tilted to the side and a look of disdain on her face, walked past him.
No, he only found out last night that he wasn't the heir apparent anymore, Jin Shanyao hasn't given him a second glance this morning.
Lu Chi felt a deep sadness in his heart. He was still waiting for the day when he could make Jin Shanyao his slave and avenge his humiliation.
Fine, fine, you all bully me, but I'm the easiest to bully.
Lu Chi angrily squatted at the door, his hands tucked into his sleeves, saying nothing. Jin Shanyao took a couple of steps and noticed that Lu Chi's luck had become even stronger.
He retreated without hesitation, tilting his head back arrogantly and saying, "Congratulations."
Lu Chi looked up in disbelief. Congratulations... What does she mean? Ah, my father killed me, and you're here congratulating me?