Chapter 660: Chapter 660: Friends Made Through Fighting
Gongliang Liao lay on the bed, watching Sikong Jian circle around his room as if searching for something, but finding nothing, a mocking smile tugged at his lips.
Thinking to himself, if you can find it, the infamous top three evils of Kaiyang County, the Beheading Master, the legendary Evil Ghost Lady wouldn’t be called Qin Yao!
Sikong Jian turned around and saw the fleeting smugness in Gongliang Liao’s eyes, secretly gritting his teeth in anger.
Yet, he had to pretend nothing happened and inquire with concern, "I heard from the servants that you finally decided to eat something these past few days?"
Gongliang Liao snorted coldly, closing his eyes, too lazy to deal with him.
Sikong Jian sneered, "Is teacher planning to never say another word to me? Back then... you used to say I was the smartest, most clever child in the world, your most satisfactory disciple. Now it seems people do change."
He rambled on, but the man on the bed showed no reaction, making Sikong Jian feel as if smothered under a blanket, suffocating and agitated.
Great, worthy of being his teacher, always easily stirring his emotions and making him angry.
Sikong Jian furrowed his brows, staring straight at Gongliang Liao, until his eyes were sore, and the man didn’t open his eyes even once, maddening him into a cold snort, and he swept his sleeves and left.
Since his teacher is merciless, then don’t blame him for being unrighteous. Liu Ji, is it? Well, let’s see how capable this so-called satisfactory disciple really is!
"Sun Jiang!"
"At your service."
"Write up a recruitment letter, release it immediately once I finish the prayer ceremony," commanded Sikong Jian.
Sun Jiang was a bit puzzled and asked, "What kind of person are you looking to recruit, Sir?"
Sikong Jian said, "Recruit a male servant to take care of the teacher, must have the title of scholar or above, with good looks, an adult male no older than thirty."
Listening to these conditions, Sun Jiang thought, which well-off scholar would come to be a servant?
However, if it’s serving Gongliang Liao, the revered scholar, there might be some scholarly admirers willing to come.
Sun Jiang more or less could guess his master’s thoughts, nodded, and agreed.
With half a month until the end of the prayer ceremony, he’d better draft the recruitment notice first, and once the prayer ceremony ended, post it at the mansion gate.
It’s just uncertain where the master wants to recruit the person from, Sun Jiang was a bit worried about the notice reaching the intended person.
Thinking about it, some clever ideas are needed to make sure the entire town knows, and conveniently boost the State Preceptor’s fame for respecting his teacher.
...
As night fell, amidst Yongtong Square under the east wall, households began loudly calling their children playing outside to return home.
In front of Qin Mansion gate, a group of children were playing "Eagle catches chicks," Da Lang and his three siblings were among them.
These days, their parents are gone from early till late, with no tigers in the mountain, the monkeys rule, the four siblings unrestrained, played wildly.
Yongtong Square had many children, each family seemed about the same, able to eat seventy percent full, celebrate holidays with meat.
But only a few families’ children attended school, most couldn’t afford it, spent the day running around the market streets, bustling with enthusiasm.
If they smelled someone cooking meat, they’d band together to climb over walls or sneak in back doors, naturally greeting neighbors, and might get a piece of meat from the kind-hearted ones.
Da Lang and his siblings got acquainted with this bunch of kids through squabbling.
Their family was always cooking meat or baking cakes, the aroma wafted far, making the children crave.
Add the sudden residence of Qin Mansion people, each family curious about who lived inside, a bit of lenience from their parents, and the kids fully unleashed.
That day, smelling the enticing aroma from the mansion, they gathered four or five resourceful buddies to climb the wall.
The wall of Qin Mansion was only two meters high, with an old locust tree extending from a corner, its branches reaching the wall top.
The children climbed the tree and reached the wall top.
Da Lang was practicing swordplay with a small sword gifted by his uncle in the courtyard, hearing rustling on the wall, thinking a daring thief was stealing in broad daylight, immediately crouched below the wall preparing.
Several kids had just climbed up when Da Lang pointed a sword at them, almost scaring them off the wall.
The commotion brought Second Lang, who was pressing the Dragon and Phoenix Twins to study, rushing over, the four siblings trapped them on the wall, shouting for Uncle Ah Wang and Senior Sister Le, claiming there were thieves.
The kids quickly shouted they weren’t thieves, just following the aroma.
Ah Wang glanced over, then returned to dealing with the goat milk bought from nearby herders.
Yin Le amusingly chased the kids outside, invited them in through the gate, presented a plate of freshly baked egg cake to Da Lang and his siblings, asking them to offer it to the kids.
Thus, after an egg cake feast, Da Lang and his siblings became new favorites in Yongtong Square.
Now, the kids would occasionally shout at Qin Mansion’s gate, "Liu Dalang, Liu Erlang, Liu Sanlang, come out, let’s catch crickets!"
And two eight or nine-year-old girls sweetly called, "Liu Si Niang, we picked red pistil flowers, would you like to dye your nails?"
Sometimes the four siblings were doing the tasks set by their father, then sent Sanlang to refuse politely.
Sometimes when Da Lang and Si Niang were free, they’d come out to play.
Anyway, they didn’t go far, stayed within the square, and they already knew the way home, not afraid of getting lost.
Kids from the mountains were naturally active and playful, this small mansion could never restrain their wild hearts.
Especially... with parents absent at home, the fun doubled!
The sunset barely lingered on the horizon, cooking smoke rose, the scent of food wafted from everywhere, reminding the children playing "Eagle catches chicks" to return home.
A robust shout from a father sounded, the Yongtong kid leader Ah Hu playing the eagle paused chasing the ’chicks’ and exasperatedly put his hands on hips, "I have to go home!"
Saying that he turned and ran, his father was a butcher, fierce as can be, dared not delay.
Without an eagle, the group of ’chicks’, still unsatisfied, decided to pick another eagle to chase them.
Unexpectedly, a grandma wielding a big spatula emerged from the diagonal door and effortlessly snatched two ’chicks’ away.
Faintly hearing the two caught ’chicks’ pleading "No, no," "Let’s play a bit longer."
Being the oldest, Da Lang waved helplessly at the bunch of kids in front, "Disperse, disperse."
His stomach growled, he wanted to go home for dinner.
Watching the children leave, Da Lang waved ready to call his three younger siblings home, when they heard hoof beats from the alley.
Horse riding, coming to this all civilian Yongtong Square, it could be the patrolling female guards, or the Southern Government Officials.
Of course, there’s another possibility—
The four siblings watched a towering horse approaching, excitedly shouted, "Uncle’s back!"
