"It was your three sons who volunteered to be my godsons. They even took more than half of my life's savings; they have to be responsible for burying when I die." Tong Mo raised his chin slightly. He never made a losing deal.
"I rember that silver was your uncle's private stash," Ye Yunniang reminded Tong Mo.
"What belongs to my uncle belongs to ." Tong Mo's words made Ye Yunniang laugh.
"If your uncle knew you said that, he would definitely beat you out of anger."
"With his broken and frail body, he wants to beat ? Impossible."
Tong Mo suddenly stopped talking here. He glanced at Ye Yunniang and, seeing that she hadn't noticed anything amiss, breathed a sigh of relief.
"Li An wants to study dicine?"
"Yes, he wants to take Imperial Physician Gu as his master," Ye Yunniang replied.
"As expected of my son, so ambitious." Tong Mo looked smug. If one were to learn, they should learn from the best.
Ye Yunniang rolled her eyes at him, utterly speechless.
"If you like sons so much, go have your own. Miss Zhong is quite a nice person."
Tong Mo dropped his smile and looked at Ye Yunniang with a rare serious expression.
"It's fine if you don't like , but don't keep pushing toward another woman ti and ti again."
"I didn't. I'm not, I..." Ye Yunniang paused. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. The kind of life you want to live is your own freedom."
Ye Yunniang's earnest apology left Tong Mo sowhat at a loss for a mont.
"I didn't an to bla you."
"I know."
"If Zhong Zhaoli looks for you again, tell her to co find ." Tong Mo glanced at Ye Yunniang's pregnant belly.
Ye Yunniang suddenly grew curious. "How did you two et?"
Tong Mo's expression turned unnatural, and his eyes darted away evasively.
"We just t."
"Just t, how?"
"Ugh, you know how it is. We t at one of those boring banquets."
If Tong Mo's face had looked normal, Ye Yunniang might have believed him. But his evasive deanor made it obvious there was a story there.
"Tell , let hear it for so amusent."
"You've really been corrupted by Jiang Mingzhe," Tong Mo grumbled at Ye Yunniang.
"Are you going to tell or not?" Ye Yunniang stroked her belly, her face wearing an expression of 'I am a pregnant woman, you can't bully '.
"Fine, fine, I'll tell you." Tong Mo then began to tell Ye Yunniang about how he t Zhong Zhaoli.
Tong Mo rembered that their first encounter was when he was fifteen years old.
At that ti, his relationship with Bao Shao was incredibly tense.
Bao Shao wanted Tong Mo to enter the military camp and eventually take over his position.
Tong Mo refused; he loved freedom and wanted to live a life without restraints.
Bao Shao pulled rank as Tong Mo's father, insisting that he must do whatever he was told.
Tong Mo retorted, "I even changed my surna. What kind of father are you to ?"
Furious, Bao Shao ordered his n to seize Tong Mo, gave him thirty heavy strokes of the cane, and locked him in a confinent room.
Jin Huilan couldn't bear it, so she secretly brought him dicine for his injuries and deliberately left the door to the confinent room unlocked.
Tong Mo took the opportunity to escape.
Not wanting Tong Tiei to find out and argue with Bao Shao, Tong Mo didn't go to Prince Jing's Manor. Instead, he went to a very remote small manor belonging to Tong Tiei to recover from his injuries.
Recovering was boring, so Tong Mo often wandered into the mountains behind the manor.
He unexpectedly discovered an open-air hot spring.
Tong Mo loved it. Whenever he had free ti, he would soak in the hot spring and eat so wild ga he had hunted himself.
That day, Tong Mo was soaking in the hot spring, gnawing on a chicken leg, thoroughly enjoying himself, when he heard the sound of galloping hooves behind him, accompanied by a young girl's screams.
Tong Mo turned his head just as a young girl flew over his head and crashed into the hot spring.
Tong Mo sprang out of the hot spring in a flash, grabbed his clothes, and wrapped himself up tightly.
"I'm the one who's disadvantaged here, what are you wrapping yourself up for, you big man?" This was the very first sentence Zhong Zhaoli ever said to Tong Mo.
Zhong Zhaoli lay on the edge of the hot spring, showing not a hint of nervousness or fear after being thrown into the water by a horse. She examined Tong Mo with great interest.
"You're quite fair and tender-looking. Which family are you from?"
"Hahaha... I'm sorry... hahaha... I can't help it." Ye Yunniang clutched her stomach; she couldn't take it anymore, her stomach hurt from laughing so hard.
Tong Mo knew Ye Yunniang would react like this, which was why he hadn't wanted to tell her.
Ye Yunniang finally managed to control her laughter.
"And then what happened?"
"Later, my mother found out about being beaten. She went and had a 'sparring session' with my father and brought ho. Once I got ho, I saw the so-called famous talented lady of the capital—Zhong Zhaoli."
Even now, Tong Mo rembered how absurd he felt when he saw Zhong Zhaoli.
On the second day after Zhou Yunluo and Tong Mo arrived, Cai Dai slowly opened her eyes.
"Mother~" Ye Yunniang wept.
"Don't, cry," Cai Dai said with so effort.
"Okay, I won't cry." Ye Yunniang wiped away her tears.
But the more she wiped, the more her tears flowed.
"Mother, I can't control it."
"Cry, just this once."
"Mhm, Mother~" Ye Yunniang leaned on the edge of Cai Dai's bed, crying hard.
For the past half year, she had been far too worried.
Cai Dai struggled to raise her hand and placed it on Ye Yunniang's head.
"Go on, cry."
Tong Tiei quickly learned the news of Cai Dai waking up. She brought generous gifts to visit her.
"I'm sorry, it's my fault for not teaching Bao Min well, making you suffer such grievances."
"It's all in the past," Cai Dai said dismissively.
Seeing her attitude, Tong Tiei didn't say anything more about Bao Min.
Tong Tiei walked out of the Jiang household and got into her carriage.
Inside the carriage, Bao Min was waiting anxiously.
"She's awake and recovering quite well."
"That's good. As long as she's awake." Bao Min took a deep breath to calm his emotions.
"Xiao Min, are you really not going to see her? You two have Shushu, maybe there's a chance."
"Sister, I'm the one who let her down; I can't harm her again."
"You had your own difficulties too, you didn't do it on purpose."
"It's exactly because it wasn't on purpose that I can't say anything." Everything Bao Min had done wasn't intentional, but it was a fact that these things had hurt Cai Dai, and it was also a fact that his initial motives hadn't been pure.
"What do you plan to do?"
"Separate from the family, and stay in Jiang City from now on. I'll watch over their mother and daughter."
Everything Bao Shao and Jin Huilan had done made Bao Min completely give up on his brother and sister-in-law; he didn't want to have any more ties with them.
Looking at Bao Min's gloomy expression, Tong Tiei didn't know how to console him. In her heart, she blad all of this on Bao Shao and Jin Huilan.
They wanted to use her younger brother and son to climb the social ladder? Keep dreaming.
With Cai Dai awake, the dark clouds looming over the Jiang family finally dissipated.
Even more delightfully, after an observation period, Gu Cundong decided to accept Li An as his disciple.
Ye Yunniang prepared the apprenticeship gifts.
Jiang Mingzhe took Li An to the Gu family residence to formally acknowledge his master.
Jiang Mingzhe returned alone and explained Li An's future study arrangents.
Li An had a lot to learn every day, and running back and forth would waste ti, so Li An would live at the Gu residence.
He would have one day off every ten days to co ho.
After hearing this, Ye Yunniang personally packed Li An's luggage and delivered it to the Gu residence.
"The child is growing up, you have to learn to let go and let him fly," Cai Dai advised Ye Yunniang.
Ye Yunniang understood the reasoning, but she still couldn't bear to part with him.
"Sister-in-law, I'll keep you company." Cai Shuyi hugged Ye Yunniang's arm.
"Thank you, Shushu." Ye Yunniang hugged Cai Shuyi.
With Shushu around, Ye Yunniang felt much better and showed a rare smile.
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