Chapter 65: Have You Ever Thought About Moving To Town?
At noon, Lin Xin contributed her skills again to make a lunch, and everyone ate their fill contentedly.
When she said she was going to pick up Lin Nan in the afternoon, Gao Yong boldly asked if she knew how to ride a horse, and if she did, he would lend her his horse to ride there, but Zhou Qi and Ling Qing together covered his mouth and dragged him out.
“Ahem,” Meng Yichen cleared his throat and said to Lin Xin: “Don’t mind him, Big Brother Gao is just like that, he says whatever comes to mind, without any intention of mocking or looking down on you.”
Lin Xin shook her head to indicate it was fine.
“Um, if you don’t mind, you can take my horse carriage in the afternoon to pick up Nan Nan.” Meng Yichen said again.
“Sure, then I’ll trouble you.” Lin Xin readily agreed. She knew what he wanted to do, but as long as she didn’t say it, he would never know the truth, hehe.
Sure enough, along the way, Meng Yichen kept indirectly asking about the situation when he left the day before yesterday, and about discovering him this morning.
Lin Xin calmly and steadily said the words she had practiced in her mind hundreds of times: the day before yesterday he had Gao Yong and the others leave first, saying he had something to do, and only drove the horse carriage away by himself after they left, without saying where he was going, and this morning he was sitting on the road she had to pass on her way home, so she woke him up.
The whole set of statements was flawless, and even someone as clever as Meng Yichen couldn’t find any loophole in it, so he awkwardly stopped asking.
Lin Xin lowered her head to hide her upturned mouth.
Arriving at Cui Shi’s medical hall, as soon as Lin Xin entered the door, she saw Lin Nan sitting seriously on a small chair listening to Cui Shi explain, with all kinds of medicinal herbs placed on the square table between them, and Lin Nan’s little chubby hands occasionally picking out one or two from the herbs to hand to Cui Shi, then putting them back after he looked at them.
The sound of her opening the door startled the master and disciple who were teaching, and they both turned their heads to look at her. Seeing it was her, Lin Nan’s big eyes immediately filled with surprise, and he screamed as he pounced over: “Sis, you’re finally back.”
Lin Xin picked him up into her arms, “Yeah, Older Sister is back. Did Nan Nan miss Older Sister?”
“Yes yes, Nan Nan missed Older Sister so much.” Lin Nan affectionately rubbed his cheek against his sister’s neck.
“Has Nan Nan been good these two days with Master? Has he made Master angry?” Lin Xin similarly rubbed her chin against Lin Nan’s little head, asking with a light laugh.
“No, Nan Nan has been very good. Master taught me to recognize medicinal herbs and even praised that Nan Nan learns well!” Lin Nan proudly lifted his head, his eyes sparkling as he looked at his sister.
“Really! Nan Nan is so awesome. Later, Older Sister will take Nan Nan to buy tasty treats to reward him, okay?”
“Okay!”
Cui Shi sat to the side, stroking his beard and smiling as he watched the siblings being affectionate with each other.
After being affectionate for a good while, Lin Xin finally let go of Lin Nan, took the back basket, and from inside took out a ginseng and the lingzhi mushroom she had shown to Gao Yong and the others before.
Cui Shi’s eyes went wide, and he impatiently reached out to pull those two things in front of himself, observing them carefully. After a long while, he looked at Lin Xin with a complicated gaze: “Your luck is too heaven-defying. How did you manage to encounter such good things!”
Lin Xin raised her eyebrows and thought this was nothing, she had as much of this stuff as she wanted, but she also knew she definitely couldn’t take out any more in the future. Three in a row had already made Cui Shi’s gaze at her look off.
“I went into the deep mountain to find these. Do you still need them?”
Cui Shi immediately hugged the things to his chest, afraid she would take them back, and ran into the room holding them: “Wait, I’ll get silver for you.”
Lin Xin was stunned and couldn’t help laughing.
With the room full of treasures in Feng Xing’s basement as backing, this time Lin Xin was very generous and only took one thousand taels of silver from Cui Shi.
Watching her casually stuff the silver notes into her pocket without much care, Cui Shi twitched his mouth, hesitated a bit, and still asked: “Um, have you ever thought about moving to live in town?”
“Move to town?” Lin Xin was stunned. She really hadn’t thought about it. First, the village backed onto the big mountain, which was very beneficial for her cultivating her supernatural ability; second, she had woken up in that small rundown thatched house, so she had some attachment to it.
“Yeah, you see, if you move here, it would be convenient for Nan Nan to study with me, and don’t you want him to take the imperial examination? If you live in town, Nan Nan can go to school without living there and come home every day!” Cui Shi said with extremely strong persuasion.
After thinking for a while, Lin Xin still shook her head and refused: “Even if we move, we’ll wait until Nan Nan is older and needs to go to school!”
Cui Shi thought it was okay too. After all, Lin Nan would only be four after the new year, still two years away from the age when the town school enrolls students, so he didn’t persuade further. After thinking, he said: “Then why don’t you take advantage of Yi Chen and them building a house to rebuild your family’s broken house too! That room won’t hold up through winter anyway, and you don’t lack money now.”
Lin Xin thought it made sense too. What was earning money for, if not to live a better life!
Right, and there was that box of treasure next to the house foundation. She had forgotten about it these past busy days and needed to dig it up quickly when she got back— she couldn’t let that He Luan’er have it.
“Alright then, on the way back I’ll ask Big Brother Gao and them when their house can be built. If time allows, I’ll wait until theirs is done and then have those people build one for me too.” Lin Xin said.
“That’s right,” Cui Shi said with a smile, stroking his beard: “When you build the house, remember to make the hall bigger, and build two more rooms. Nan Nan is growing up and should have his own room to sleep in.”
Lin Xin knew he said this for her own good and nodded in agreement, then realized belatedly: “You want me to make the hall bigger so it’s convenient for you to mooch meals in winter!”
Cui Shi’s old face immediately fell, and he huffed: “Stinky girl, you just don’t know how to speak nicely. I’m Nan Nan’s master, so what’s wrong with you as his sister treating me to a meal? What do you mean mooch? As if I don’t have a place to eat!”
Lin Xin was almost amused by his turning the tables on her, but thinking about it, it was nice for her younger brother to have such an old playful person doting on him, so she hugged Lin Nan and stood up: “Fine fine fine, filial respect, alright!”
“Hmph hmph, that’s more like it!” Cui Shi stroked his beard happily.
“Then I’ll take Nan Nan and go. I’ll talk to Big Brother Gao and them about the house when I get back.”
“Okay, you siblings haven’t seen each other for two days, you should have a good cuddle. Go go go!” Cui Shi waved his hand, then said to Lin Nan: “Don’t forget what Master taught you these two days!”
Lin Nan patted his little head with his small hand and said: “Master, don’t worry! Nan Nan remembers it all!”
After seeing off Lin Xin and her brother, Cui Shi sat down in the courtyard and called his little disciple to bring out the ginseng and lingzhi mushroom he had just hidden in the room, and began to process them.
Lin Xin led Lin Nan and shopped a big circle in town, buying quite a few snacks Lin Nan liked and some odds and ends, and also bought two winter clothes a size larger than Lin Nan’s measurements. Only then did the siblings set off on the dirt road back to the village.
Halfway there, they happened to run into Gao Yong and the others riding back to town. Lin Xin simply asked about the house, and Gao Yong immediately patted his chest guaranteeing he could absolutely get her house built before winter.
Lin Xin smiled and thanked him.
“No need to thank, just don’t forget to take us to the deep mountain to find good stuff.”
“No problem, I’ll definitely call you next time I go.”
The group chatted and laughed a few more sentences before each going home.
