He even enthusiastically invited them to stay for lunch.
Song Shi’an lifted his gaze to look at Jiang Chun, asking: “Wife, what do you think?”
Han Xiao, being a lively personality, tilted his head at the sight, glancing sideways at Song Shi’an and teasing:
“Brother Song, even such a small matter you have to ask sister-in-law? Your husband’s authority is weak, huh.”
After speaking, he lifted the lidded cup and sipped his tea.
Song Shi’an, speaking as though dropping a bomb, calmly said: “My wife is my wife-lord, I am her live-in son-in-law. Naturally, I have to ask for her opinion in everything.”
“Pfft…”
Han Xiao sprayed a mouthful of tea, directly spraying a sleeve of the Qiu family’s woman sitting across from him.
So angry that Qiu-shi shouted, “Husband!”
The two maidservants standing behind immediately came up holding silk handkerchiefs, surrounding her to help Qiu-shi wipe.
And Han Xiao, who had sprayed tea, was also choked, his mouth coughing “cough cough cough” non-stop.
The other two maidservants saw this and hurriedly went forward to pat his back.
The scene turned into a chaotic mess.
Jiang Chun’s mouth twitched; she glanced sideways at Song Shi’an, suspecting that he did it on purpose, but there was no evidence.
Han Xiao coughed for quite a while before stopping, and the moment he stopped, he looked at Song Shi’an, disbelief written all over his face, and said: “Brother Song, you are a live-in son-in-law?”
Song Shi’an replied calmly: “I, a government slave sold off here and there, to have someone willing to take me in as a live-in son-in-law, it’s already quite good. Also lucky enough to have met such a kind-hearted person like my wife. If it weren’t for her spending money and effort to help me nourish my body, I’m afraid I’d have long breathed my last breath. Even if I managed to barely survive, this body of mine would’ve been completely ruined, no different from a cripple.”
When Han Xiao heard this, he restrained the shock and disbelief on his face, stood up, cupped his hands towards Jiang Chun, and sincerely praised: “Sister-in-law, noble in virtue.”
Jiang Chun waved her hand and said: “Husband, quickly don’t crush me with such words. He is my husband, and I just happened to have a few coins in my hand, helping him seek doctors and medicine is only right, nothing much.”
Han Xiao didn’t say anything more, but in his heart, he knew that such kindness, to a down-and-out and half-crippled man like Song Qingzhi who had come out of the Sky Prison, was heavier than a mountain.
No wonder he prioritized her in everything.
Han Xiao couldn’t help but hold a bit more respect for this Jiang woman in his heart.
With Jiang Chun’s approval, they had a meal at Han Xiao’s place.
Jiang Chun, upon seeing the dishes on the table, couldn’t help but have her eyes opened wide.
Han Xiao clearly knew that Song Shi’an was vegetarian, so there were a total of ten dishes on the table, five meat and five vegetarian.
The vegetarian dishes were fine. Now it was just early September, the time when many vegetables were being harvested, so it wasn’t hard to put together five dishes.
But the meat dishes shocked her—there were fish and shrimp, that was fine, since the boat was traveling on the river, the boatmen would catch some fish and shrimp daily.
But there was even chicken, duck, and goose.
It seemed that every time the passenger ship docked at a port, they would send people down to make purchases; otherwise, such a lavish spread couldn’t be made.
As expected, not undeserving of being from a high-ranking noble family—when it came to enjoying life, they were truly the most skilled.
Jiang Chun, at most, would buy some fish and shrimp from the boatmen to eat daily. Even this, she felt, was too extravagant. If it weren’t for Song Shi’an persuading her, she wouldn’t have been willing to spend that money.
Tsk, a small household girl like herself, truly petty-minded.
Qiu-shi, on the other hand, was completely unwell.
This Song Shi’an fellow, while drinking and chatting with her husband, didn’t forget to ask for an extra pair of chopsticks from the maidservants, and every so often would help Jiang woman pick dishes, every so often would help Jiang woman pick dishes.
And her own husband, this idiot, had eyes only for his most admired Brother Song—serving him in every way, picking dishes for him, pouring him wine, urging him to eat, completely throwing his own wife to the back of his mind.
She could no longer endure it, and pointed at the iron pot braised goose in front of Han Xiao, coquettishly pleading: “Husband, I want to eat goose leg, I can’t reach it, help me pick it.”
Han Xiao waved a hand toward the maidservant behind Qiu-Shi and instructed: “Haitang, your madam wants to eat goose leg, quickly help her pick one.”
Then he lifted his wine cup, smiling broadly as he said to Song Shi’an: “Brother Song, come, let’s drink another cup.”
Qiu-shi, so angry, “pa!” slapped her chopsticks onto the table, puffed up with anger, said: “I don’t want Haitang to pick it for me, I just want husband to pick it for me.”
“You are just so troublesome!” Han Xiao muttered a sentence, raised his chopsticks, unwillingly picked a goose leg, and placed it into Qiu-shi’s bowl.
With such an impatient attitude from him, even though Qiu-shi got the goose leg, she wasn’t happy.
Without giving him any face, she complained: “Look at other people’s Song Langjun—without Jiang niangzi even asking, he proactively picks this and that for her. But you—it’s so hard! I have to open my mouth and ask, and even then you do it unwillingly. Truly, comparing people makes one angry to death, comparing goods makes goods throw away.”
Han Xiao was in the middle of talking with Song Qingzhi about recent major matters in the court, and being interrupted by her already made him a bit annoyed. Hearing her complaints, the anger in his heart surged, one wave after another.
He said coldly: “Brother Song is both scholarly and martial, has a photographic memory, a person like an exiled immortal, how could I compare to him?”
Jiang Chun: “…”
This guy is a Song Shi’an fanboy? Otherwise, why even in an argument with his own wife, his mouth still praises Song Shi’an?
Song Shi’an said speechlessly: “You two, if you have something to say, then say it, don’t drag in me, a live-in son-in-law.”
Jiang Chun: “…”
What’s up with this guy? Earlier it was already enough that he asked her for everything—just thought he was showing respect.
Now he kept putting the words “live-in son-in-law” on his lips over and over again, what for? Is this something to be proud of?
But unexpectedly, the effect of these words was quite good. Qiu-shi, upon hearing the words “live-in son-in-law,” realized she was being a bit unreasonable. After all, Song Shi’an was Jiang niangzi’s live-in son-in-law, but Han Xiao was not her live-in son-in-law. To hold Han Xiao to the standards of a live-in son-in-law seemed a bit too much.
She pressed her lips together, and generously declared: “Forget it. I have maidservants to serve me, no need to bother you to pick dishes for me. Go drink your wine.”
In front of guests, Han Xiao also didn’t want to blow up, so he took the opportunity to step down, lightly snorted:
“Of course, it’s important to drink with Brother Song.”
He personally picked up the wine pot, first filled Song Shi’an’s cup, then filled his own, then raised his wine cup, leaned over to clink cups with Song Shi’an’s, smiling broadly, said: “Come, Brother Song, let’s continue drinking.”
A couple’s argument that seemed ready to explode, just like that, vanished into thin air—making Jiang Chun feel quite emotional inside.
This Song Shi’an fellow really understood the art of speaking.
No wonder, in the future, he’d become the Grand Secretary of the Inner Cabinet, an old fox in officialdom who navigates without fail.
Many things, it wasn’t that he couldn’t do them—it all depended on whether he wanted to or not.
••
This lunch lasted for a full hour.
By the time it ended, Han Xiao had drunk himself under the table, while Song Shi’an was slightly stronger but still walked swaying, and was supported back by Jiang Chun.
Jiang Chun placed a few pieces of charcoal into the small red clay stove, lit them, and used a small clay pot to boil a pot of water.
When the water warmed, she poured a cup, helped the Song Shi’an lying on the bed to sit up, and fed him water.
A drunk person shouldn’t lack water—drinking more water helps the body expel alcohol and avoids harm to the body.
Song Shi’an half-closed his eyes, inhaling the familiar fragrance of orchids, completely without any guard in his heart, parted his lips, and gulped it down, “gudong gudong.”
After feeding a large cup of water, Jiang Chun placed the teacup back on the table, returned, and wanted to help him sleep more comfortably. She helped him take off his shoes, then went to take off his outer robe.
When the outer robe was halfway removed, Song Shi’an suddenly reached out and pulled her into his embrace, burying his head against her neck, softly muttering: “Wife, I drank too much.”
The drunken Song Shi’an’s voice softened a bit, compared to the usual elegant and magnetic tone, it had an extra touch of youthful charm.
Jiang Chun laughed and said: “Do you still need to say that? Can’t I tell myself?”
Song Shi’an felt dizzy, as if the sky and earth were spinning, but his mind was unprecedentedly clear.
He mumbled vaguely: “They say after drinking, one speaks the truth from the heart. I have something I need to confess to my wife.”
Jiang Chun felt amused.
This male supporting character of hers was a figure she had carefully crafted, all his storylines she knew as clear as day—what secrets could there be that she didn’t know?
But her mouth still gave a light snort: “Oh? What matter? Could it be that you secretly did something unspeakable, hiding it from me?”
Song Shi’an shook his head in the crook of her neck and said: “No, it’s something from the past.”
Jiang Chun nodded and said: “Alright, then confess. I’m listening.”
Song Shi’an knew she had a clear grasp of his future matters, but he wasn’t sure how much she knew of his past.
After seeing Qiu-shi today, he thought of Second Brother’s former fiancée, Qiu Er Girl, and then also thought of his own former fiancée, Cheng Da Girl.
Realizing he had never informed Jiang Chun of this matter—if he kept hiding it, and in the future, after they returned to the capital, she heard about it from others, she would definitely quarrel with him.
Not quarrel about him having had a former fiancée, but about him hiding it from her, not telling her in advance.
Happened that now he was half-drunk, so might as well take advantage of the liquor’s courage to say it out.
Even if she felt uncomfortable, she wouldn’t make a fuss over a half-drunk man.
He said weakly: “Actually, in the past, before the Song family met its downfall, I had already been engaged to the eldest daughter of the Cheng family, a family of generations of scholars. But later, after the Song family’s incident, the Cheng family returned the engagement token, and the engagement was annulled.”
Ah, it was this matter.
Jiang Chun curled her lips, thinking: As expected, there’s no secret of his that I don’t know.
This Cheng Da Girl, his former fiancée, was a character she had personally written—of course she knew.
And she also knew that Cheng Da Girl had been deeply devoted to him. After being forced by her family to break off the engagement, she secretly sabotaged one marriage proposal after another arranged by her family, never marrying.
When the Song family’s injustice was overturned and Song Shi’an returned to the capital, upon learning that he was already married, she still didn’t give up.
When the matter of the original host’s adultery and pregnancy with a bastard child broke out, and Song Shi’an had her drowned in a pig cage, Cheng Da Girl even personally went to him to express her feelings, asking him to marry her.
Song Shi’an coldly and ruthlessly refused her.
Cheng Da Girl waited for him until she was twenty-eight, and seeing no hope, she finally married a military officer as a second wife.
Jiang Chun understood everything, but after hearing this, she immediately reached out and pushed at his chest, her mouth huffing with anger: “Good! So you actually had a former fiancée! Why didn’t you tell me earlier? If it weren’t for running into Han Langjun today, and you feeling you couldn’t keep it hidden any longer, were you not planning to tell me at all?”
Song Shi’an hurriedly reached out to hug her waist, not letting her push him away, and hastily apologized:
“It’s my fault, I didn’t tell you earlier. Truly, I never cared about her at all, long ago I’d forgotten there was such a person. If not for seeing Qiu Niangzi today and thinking of Second Brother’s former fiancée Qiu Er Girl, I really wouldn’t have remembered this matter.”
Jiang Chun raised her head from his arms, looking into his eyes: “Truly never cared about her?”
Song Shi’an solemnly said: “Truly no. I swear to the heavens, if there’s any deceit, let Heaven strike me down with thunder—”
Before the words finished, they were blocked by Jiang Chun’s lips.