Chapter 105 – Farewell (1)
Lu Lingzhi returned to the upper wing of the mansion. Upon doing so, he saw that everyone waiting for his return—they had not yet touched the dishes on the table that had gone cold.
He smiled and saluted to Old Madam Lu then sat down beside her. “Eldest Madam Lu is sick. She can’t join us anymore.”
Seeing the solemn faces around the table, he couldn’t help but add, “What are waiting for? Let’s all get our chopsticks!”
“Since your mother is not feeling well, let her have a good rest.” Old Madam Lu uttered.
“Grandma, I’ll call a doctor to see her tomorrow.” Lu Lingzhi nodded while urging everyone to start eating.
When they least expect it, Lu Jing, the fourth miss of the family, made herself known.
She suddenly spoke in a rather queer voice. “Isn’t Third aunt a physician?!”
Pei Shi glanced at Lu Jing indifferently. With her sister-in-law’s disgust for their third house, Liu Shi certainly didn’t want Pei Shi to look after her.
With that, Pei Shi fell into silence…and so did everyone. The miss had chosen the wrong time and place in voicing out her absurd opinion.
Neither Old Madam nor Lu Lingzhi spoke a word.
After a moment, plates and bowls started to clatter as everyone ate.
“Third uncle, I want to take my fourth brother to see Mister Xu tomorrow.” Lu Lingzhi told Lu Shiming.
“Xu Lao?” Lu Shiming was somewhat surprised. “Haven’t he resigned? Will he still accept students?”
The Xu family is a centuries-old family in the capital that served three prime ministers.
Xu Lao resigned six months ago. At that time, Mo Rongzhan had not yet ascended the throne. However, when Mo Rongzhan became a new emperor, Xu Lao himself refused to enter the imperial court again.
Lu Lingzhi laughed and said, “Xu Lao accepts students from whom he sees potential. I am certain fourth brother has some.”
“I’m afraid Xu Lao will dislike this boy’s stupidity.” Lu Shiming spoke while glancing at his son.
Naturally, Lu Xiangzhi protested. “Father! You can’t say that about your son!”
The surrounding atmosphere lightened up, and everyone was smiling again as if the unpleasantness brought by Liu Shi not long ago forgotten.
Lu Jing’s face turned blue with shame. She regretted saying that just now. How foolish she was to announce the first thing that came to her mind!
She didn’t expect that she would be ignored so thoroughly as if she was only a buffoon, and everyone became dismissive of her.
For the first time, she felt so embarrassed in the presence of her family.
However, no one cared what she felt at this time.
Ye Zhen was sitting beside Lu Jing. Indeed, she didn’t care how embarrassed Lu Jing must have felt at this moment. Instead, she just looked at Lu Xiangzhi thoughtfully.
She knew Xu Lao; her father used to take her to the Xu family before.
It seemed that Xu Lao had still not forgotten his friendship with her father. She guessed that the reason why he refused to become an official was mostly related to the Ye family extermination.
Her brother wanted to learn from Xu Lao, but Ye Zhen knew he was not likely to succeed.
When the banquet was over, Ye Zhen looked for an opportunity to throw Lu Xiangzhi a wink and motioned him not to go back to the front yard so quickly, gesturing that she had something important to tell him.
Lu Xiangzhi saw the vivid expression on her sister’s face, slowed down with a smile, walked up to her and asked, “What’s the matter?”
“Come and see me before you go to see Xu Lao tomorrow.” Ye Zhen whispered.
“Why?” Lu Xiangzhi’s right eyebrow raised before his mouth completely broke into a snicker.
“Do you want to go too? That one won’t do, eldest brother won’t agree!”
“What won’t do?” Lu Lingzhi came over and happened to hear what Lu Xiangzhi said.
Ye Zhen pouted her mouth and glared at Lu Xiangzhi.
“Eldest brother! My sister wants to go with us to meet Xu Lao.”
“I didn’t say that.” Ye Zhen had the urge to kick this idiot to death! She wanted to tell him everything that he needed to pay attention to when meeting Xu Lao, not to follow him.
“Let’s go then.” Lu Lingzhi smiled faintly. He glanced at Ye Zhen with sunken eyes and saw that she did not seem particularly happy. “Yao Yao, are you worried about the entrance exam the day after tomorrow?”
“I am not worried at all.”
The corners of Lu Lingzhi’s mouth lifted when he saw how confident she seemed to be.
“I’ll go back first.” Ye Zhen said that with Lu Lingzhi here, what she wanted to tell Lu Xiangzhi have to wait.
Back in the room, Mister Shan was earnestly waiting for her in the study.