Chapter Fifty-Three: The Peach Blossom

  Thank you ps little drunk, x9x9, towards skin doll, purple snow reward.

  Guar Jia's family made some arrangements, purchasing grain and medicine, doing things in secret. Guar Jia used people she trusted, without alarming anyone, even the people in the Duke's mansion didn't know about it. It wasn't that Guar Jia was afraid they would follow her example, but rather because the ladies of the various houses in the Duke's mansion wouldn't be able to handle such matters, and it would easily lead to trouble. The grain and medicine were transported out of the capital and stored in a villa in Fangshan, which was Guar Jia's dowry. After more than a decade of management, it had become quite different from before, with enough space to store the grain.

  Shu Yao followed the example of Mi Chong, spending her days in leisure and idleness. Gu Er Jia was too busy to keep an eye on Shu Yao, fearing that she would stay cooped up at home and harm herself or sleep all day long. Every day, she drove Shu Yao out the door, ordering her to take a stroll for half an hour. Shu Yao gazed longingly at the dropped door curtain, "Mother."

  Guarjia was almost softened, but for Shu Yao's sake, Guarjia said: "I don't care where you go, half an hour later the pastry will be out of the oven, and you can come back then."

  Xiu Yao's small shoulders trembled, and she left with three glances back. Guajia shook her head and sighed behind the curtain, "How did I raise such a lazy girl?"

  Wang's wife didn't dare make a sound. Didn't you yourself spoil them? Guwalgiya ordered: "Let someone keep an eye on them."

  "The sixth daughter does not get lost."

  That's all she's good for.

  Xiu Yao's sense of direction is very good, and no matter how complex the courtyard is, she will not get lost. Guajia said: "I'm not afraid that she'll get lost, I'm worried that she'll be hiding somewhere, calculating the time to come back."

  "Even if the slave follows, she doesn't dare to urge Sixth Miss." Wang's mother was in a difficult situation. Gua Erjia thought for a moment and sighed: "Forget it, as long as she can go out and move around, Shu Yi is not returning to the mansion all day, Yao'er is hard to let her out, and Shu Xuan has another temperament. Alas, my three children are all not considerate."

  Guarjia's hand rested on the kang table, looking sulky. Wang Nainai smiled and served tea, "Madam, your son and daughter are filial."

  Guar Jia's face turned cold. She couldn't bear to hear anything about brothers and sisters. Wang Nian forgot Guar Jia's quirk, "Slave speaks rashly."

  "You're not allowed to make this mistake again." "Yes."

  Guarjia took the teacup and instructed, "Send a little maid to tell Yeo that I want her to personally pick two branches of flowers for me." "Yes, I'll go right away," Wang's nanny replied, not daring to delay. Guarjia sipped some tea water, sometimes Shu Yeo was also quite considerate.

  Shu Yao was originally sitting on a stone bench with her chin in her hands, gazing up at the sky. When she heard Xiaoyu relay Guer Jia's orders, Shu Yao looked at Taozi and asked, "Do you want me to pick some?"

  Peach stepped back a step, "Yes, madam instructed so."

  Shu Yao pouted and got up, moving towards the back garden of the Duke's mansion. Since Guale Jia had instructed her to do so, Shu Yao would help pick flowers for her. The purple and red flowers were in full bloom, and Shu Yao intended to choose the most beautiful ones to please her mother. Perhaps tomorrow she wouldn't have to come out for a walk? Shu Yao wandered around, searching for pretty flowers. Ordinary ones weren't worthy of her attention, nor would they match Guale Jia's status.

  Suddenly, Shu Yao's eyes lit up and she ran quickly to the peach blossom tree. The branches were full of pink peach blossoms, blooming in clusters. Shu Yao liked them at first sight. The peach blossom tree was not too tall, and Shu Yao stood on tiptoes, stretching out her hand to pick a branch. Tao said, "Miss, I have scissors in my basket, be careful not to hurt your hands."

  "It's okay, it will be over soon."

  Shu Yao picked a few hawthorn flowers and handed them to Taozi, who put them in the basket. She then chose another beautiful one and picked it again. Shu Yao thought about when she could plant hawthorn flowers in her space. She remembered that the system had given her hawthorn seeds. Yesterday evening, Shu Yao went to her space to roast sweet potatoes, which were quite different from hawthorn flowers. Shu Yao still had a lot of work to do.

  "Ah, ah, ah, my Hawthorn tree! Which little brat dared to harm the hawthorns I planted with such care?"

  Shu Yao stopped in her tracks, looked up and saw the old man from the Duke's mansion hiding behind a tree with Taozi. How was it possible? Shu Yao had only seen him once on the day she returned to the mansion, but never again. Grandfather... no, he should be called Marquis. According to her cousin Li Xiangqin, he rarely left his quiet courtyard because he liked peace and quiet, and even exempted his sons and grandsons from paying their respects in the morning and evening. He also ate alone, as if he was avoiding the world, and not even the old lady could see him.

  Shu Yao's ears, which were still in a daze, were pinched and she was pulled out from behind the sea buckthorn tree. Shu Yao grasped one of the branches with one hand and held onto the hand that was pinching her ear with the other. "Let go, it hurts." Shu Yao directly used the branch to hit back at him, causing the sea buckthorn flowers to fall off. The furious old man loosened his grip, "You are... you are... the daughter of the Zhiyuan family."

  Shu Yao pouted and rubbed her reddened ear, "You're right, I'm Shu Yao."

  "Like, like, too alike." The old man stared at Shu Yao, how could the eyebrows and eyes of Zhiyuan's daughter be so similar to hers? Shu Yao raised her eyes to look at the obviously dazed old man. In her past life, her grandfather had a bad temper, and in this life, this grandfather was said to have a good appearance but a strange temperament. It was best to slip away quietly. Shu Yao gave a signal to Taozi, taking advantage of the old man's daze, she quickly lifted her feet and stepped lightly, almost as if she had covered her face with a black cloth. Before she could take a few steps, her arm was caught, Shu Yao said: "Grandfather, no, it's not good."

  Just now I thought Shu Yao was like her when she whipped him with the sea buckthorn branch, but now it doesn't seem that way. Shu Yao is sweeter than her, but lacks her refreshing and bright beauty. "You broke my sea buckthorn branch and wanted to run away? Do you know how much heart and soul I put into planting this sea buckthorn?"

  "Ma Fa, we should think this way, just because you put your heart into planting the peony, I picked the peony branch among all the flowers in the garden." Shu Yao's meaning is that she looks down on ordinary flowers, "It's because yours are too good-looking."

  "Are you saying it's my fault?"

  Xiu Yao first nodded, then shook her head and said: "I picked the begonia flowers and put them in a vase, so that more people can see them. Mafa, I did it for you, to make your skill of cultivating begonias widely known."

  "Ah... ah..." The old man tapped Shu Yao's forehead, laughing and scolding: "You're just like your mother, both of you come to pester me for debts."

  Xiuyao covered her forehead, "Mafa said something wrong, we are not debt collectors, Ama and I are very filial to Mafa."

  "Filial piety?" The old man really couldn't see any filial piety in the father and daughter, one lecturing him on grand principles, making him feel annoyed and suffocated, the other breaking his begonia flower, and a pile of principles, "Recite a poem about begonias, and I won't blame you."

  The old man was under the stairs of Shu Yao, Zhiyuan was a scholar who had passed the imperial examination, listening to his lengthy arguments would know that he had read many books. Zhiyuan's eldest son had also passed the third place in the imperial examination, and the old man took great pride in his grandson. His daughter Shu Yao, even if she wasn't as good as her brother, wouldn't be defeated by a few poems about crabapples.

  Shu raised her eyes to look at the old man and said sincerely, "What is Haitang poetry? I don't know it, I've never recited it before."