#101 - Xiao Mochi! Just a coward!

Zhu Cici, the Zhu family's daughter who was just coming of age, left Moon Altar.

Leaving Nan Wenmo, already an "old maid," standing alone in this water pavilion.

Taiwan Novel Network → 𝗍 𝗐 𝗄 𝖺 𝗇 . 𝖼 𝗈 𝗆

Zhu Cici invited Sister Nan to go to the peach blossom forest to take a look, saying that the peach blossoms were in bloom.

However, Nan Wenmo refused with "What's so good about a few peach blossoms?"

Nan Wenmo watched the younger generation gradually move away, and couldn't help but sigh, with a hint of worry in her expression.

Proposing marriage to the Xu family was to repay a favor for her old father. As for whether it would work out in the end, Nan Wenmo didn't care. She even hoped that Cici wouldn't agree.

Although the eldest son of the Xu family in Minghai County was a good match, the Xu family was too materialistic, and that eldest son gave her a similar feeling.

Cici's leisurely personality might not be suitable for being with him.

But Nan Wenmo really didn't want this promising junior to be burdened by the word "love."

"A few ounces of longing, a few ounces of sorrow, yellow flowers fall, people bid farewell to the old." Looking at the girl in the distance, Nan Wenmo shook her head, "Why bother?"

Nan Wenmo withdrew her gaze and looked at the Moon Altar under the water pavilion. In her mind, she couldn't help but recall a scholar walking and reading a book, eventually falling into the water in a disheveled state.

The corners of the woman's mouth couldn't help but curl up, and the eyes under her long eyelashes carried an unspeakable color, like reminiscence, like self-deprecation: "Yeah... Why bother?"

Sighing again, the woman put away her thoughts, kicked that man out of her mind, carried her hands behind her back, and strode down the mountain.

Time to go back and report.

Just say that she, the matchmaker, did her best.

Just as the woman was walking down the mountain, she couldn't help but be stunned and stopped.

In the distance, there was a man digging bamboo shoots with his butt in the air, looking very energetic.

The woman looked left and right.

Then she smiled happily, but didn't dare to laugh out loud.

The woman secretly approached the man, then found an angle, raised her foot, and kicked the man directly in the butt.

"Ouch!"

The man who was kicked fell forward and landed on the grass, getting a mouthful of mud.

"Who is it? How can you be so immoral? Why kick me for no reason? Confucius said—"

Just as the man was cursing and patting his butt, getting up angrily to reason with the other party, the man's voice stopped abruptly.

"Confucius said, said what?" Nan Wenmo looked at him with a smile.

"Sister-in-law! Long time no see, why are you back at the academy?" The scholar said with a smile.

"I came to the academy to find a junior." Nan Wenmo crossed her arms, "Xiao Liu, you haven't told me yet, what is it that you wanted Confucius to say."

"Confucius said: The plan for the year lies in spring, and bamboo shoots are the most delicious." The man, whose full name was Lu Xiaoliu, said with a smile, wiping the bamboo shoots with the Confucian blue robe on his body, "Sister-in-law, why don't you take a few bamboo shoots? The bamboo shoots in this academy are very crisp. They are even more delicious when stir-fried with meat."

Nan Wenmo didn't care at all about the other party's address of her as 'sister-in-law': "Xiao Liu, you're still a gentleman of the academy, but you look like you're digging bamboo shoots with a dirty face and your butt in the air. It doesn't look like a gentleman."

"Hehe, sister-in-law, what you said." Lu Xiaoliu wiped the mud from his mouth, "Didn't Brother Xiao used to be the academy's 'righteous gentleman'? He almost became the youngest head of the academy. Didn't he also steal a chicken from the dean back then?"

"You still have the nerve to say it!" Nan Wenmo was so angry that she grabbed a stone and threw it at Lu Xiaoliu (Lu Xiaoliu dodged nimbly), "That guy made me copy the Book of Rites a hundred times back then!"

Lu Xiaoliu was a little aggrieved and muttered in a low voice: "Wasn't it you who said you wanted to eat the chicken raised by the dean, so Brother Xiao caught it for you? You ate both chicken legs at that time, and I only ate the chicken butt..."

"What did you say?" Nan Wenmo asked, squinting her eyes.

"Didn't say anything, didn't say anything..." Lu Xiaoliu quickly shook his head.

Nan Wenmo snorted twice: "Xiao Mochi has been down the mountain for nearly ten years, why are you still here? Aren't you going back to your Yue Kingdom?"

"Why go back to Yue Kingdom?"

Lu Xiaoliu spread his hands, with a hint of grievance in his tone.

"Now that my mother has redeemed herself, she is living very well and won't let me go back no matter what. She said that as soon as I return to Yue Kingdom, she will take a rattan and beat me out. Where can I go?

I said I would go to Wu Kingdom, but Brother Xiao said I would cause trouble for him and told me to get lost."

As he spoke, Lu Xiaoliu raised his head and sighed heavily: "The world is so big, why is there no place for me to go?"

Nan Wenmo rolled her eyes at Lu Xiaoliu: "I heard that the first dynasty of the human race—Qin Kingdom—invited you to go, why didn't you go?"

"Qin Kingdom is too big." Lu Xiaoliu spread his hands, "If I, an outsider, go to Qin Kingdom to be an official, wouldn't I be squeezed to death by those officials?"

Lu Xiaoliu weighed the bamboo shoots in his hand: "So, it's still more comfortable in White Deer Academy. Going to the dynasty to be an official will also be affected by the Qi Luck of the mountains and rivers, consuming the origin of life.

Once you enter the officialdom, it's as deep as the sea. If the origin of life is consumed too much and you haven't escaped from the officialdom, or you can't break through the realm to continue your life after escaping, then wouldn't that person be dead?

Sister-in-law, you see, I dig bamboo shoots, fish, and pretend to read every day, and I've already become a gentleman.

As long as I continue to muddle along and outlive those old guys, then won't I become an old scholar?"

"." Nan Wenmo hesitated, she wanted to say something to refute, but after thinking about it carefully, it seemed that what Lu Xiaoliu said was not wrong.

Nan Wenmo shook her head: "Your Brother Xiao said that your ambition is in the court."

Lu Xiaoliu wiped the bamboo shoots in his hand: "Maybe it was before, but I'm not sure now."

"Stop dawdling, like a woman." Nan Wenmo snorted and continued to walk down the mountain, "Go, continue digging your bamboo shoots."

"Sister-in-law." When Nan Wenmo gradually walked away, Lu Xiaoliu shouted from behind.

"What?" Nan Wenmo turned around.

Lu Xiaoliu smiled:

"Sister-in-law, don't think that Brother Xiao is very stubborn, and don't think that Brother Xiao is ruthless. I heard that Brother Xiao knew you were engaged, and he drank until he was unconscious that night.

Sister-in-law, you also know that what Brother Xiao wants to do is very difficult. A little carelessness will lead to falling into the abyss. To accomplish those things, great courage is needed. In fact, Brother Xiao just doesn't want to burden you.

Everything Brother Xiao does is for the pursuit in his heart."

"Heh."

Nan Wenmo sneered, turned around and continued to leave, her voice coming from behind her.

"For the pursuit in his heart? He doesn't even dare to marry me, how can he talk about realizing that ideal?

Xiao Mochi! Just a coward!"