The Blessed

After learning Ling Chenghu's sentence, Yan Shengrui and Ling Jingxuan only gave a sneer, didn’t even give a one word comment, only afraid to waste any saliva on him, even Ling Chenglong said nothing, just held Lady Wang’s hand wearing an expressionless face. In the afternoon, Ling Jingxuan again didn’t go into the mountain, but stayed home washing the wild fruit and made jam with his mom and Shuiling.

The kids would usually come home around half past six in the afternoon. They only had dinner around three quarters past six. Seeing that it was almost time, Ling Jingxuan asked his mom and others to rest while he himself went to his own room to change some clean clothes, and went to stand at the gate with Yan Shengrui waiting for them.

“Howl...”

Two cubs were even more expectant than them, since they were even earlier there. On seeing those two, the cubs howled at them as saying hello.

“Don’t you think they're smarter than human?”

Walking side by side, Ling Jingxuan turned to smile at Yan Shengrui. Since the two buns went to school, those two waited for them at the gate almost every day, be it rainy or windy weather. Most people wouldn’t so loyal like them.

“After you got them back, the kids took them everywhere and shared food with them. So it was only normal that they would be so grateful. Their loyalty is much higher than us.”

Holding his hand, Yan Shengrui looked at the two young children and said so. Most beasts were stubborn. Once they decided it was you, then they only had you in their eyes. Unlike human, nothing could fulfill their greediness. The more they got, the more they want. Human desire and ambition was like a bottomless hole.

“Dadada…dadada…dadada…”

Ling Jingxuan smiled and did not say more. Not long after, the sound of hooves came far on the road, and the two cubs rushed out howling, then ran back by both sides of the carriage.

“Whoa!”

The carriage steadily parked before their side. After giving them an embarrassed look, Song Gengniu jumped off, brushed open the curtain, but the little buns didn’t come out excitedly like before. They look at each other. As they were about to climb onto the carriage to check what was going on, under Ling Wen’s lead, four little buns came out in succession. And Song Gengniu held them down one by one.

“Master Xuan, punish me, I didn't protect the three little masters well.”

Song Xiaohu suddenly cried and knelt down in front of Ling Jingxuan. After seeing the obvious scratches on his face, Ling Jingxuan's eyes sank and he reached out to check the other three buns’ heads respectively. Each kid's face had light or heavy scratches or scrapes, which didn't look like it was left by an adult, but a little more like a child's doing.

“It’s none of his business. Daddy, those people are too bad. They laughed at uncle Chu and brother Yan saying they are widow and orphan, and said we are wild children having no parents. And they said we try to pretend to look noble only after learning a few words. I was so mad and fought them. Daddy, just punish me if you want.”

Ling Wen moved forward and stood before the others, looking up at him with tearful eyes. He knew it was not right to do that, but he just couldn’t stand that others bullied his younger brother and Tiewa.

“No, daddy, I started it. They were just trying to help me.”

Seeing this, small bun hurriedly waved off his hand and rushed forward to admit his mistake, while Tiewa also squeezed out from the other side and said pitifully with his head down, “Adoptive daddy, I am also wrong.”

“Master Xuan, it’s none of the little masters' business, I did not protect them well...”

“No, it's me...”

“It's me...”

Before Ling Jingxuan and Yan Shengrui said anything, the three buns had already had a fight trying to take the responsibility to themselves. Ling Jingxuan raised a hand to rub his swollen temple. Did he say he’d hold any of them responsible? At least he should know what had had happened first, right? Those ‘annoying’ little buns’ quarreling really gave him a headache.

“Master Xuan, Mr. Chu said that today Wang juren (举人, lit. "recommended man"), a qualified graduate who passed the triennial provincial exam) brought his students to visit him. As those childes from rich families saw that the little masters and others already started to learn The Analects of Confucius at such young age and can even detailedly explain the meaning of each sentence with their own understanding, and Wang juren gave some complimenting words, so they held the hatred in the heart. While Mr. Chu wasn’t paying attention, they had a fight with the little masters.”

Having served them for so long, Song Gengniu also learned to read their face. Seeing this, he hurriedly moved forward to explain the whole thing. Ling Jingxuan picked his eyebrows, saying with a grin, “Oh? Did you win?”

“Huh?”

Song Gengniu was stunned there with his mouth slightly open. The little buns who were fighting to take the responsibility to themselves now all looked at him with their heads tilted. Under normal circumstances, weren’t he supposed to scold them?

“I said, did you win?”

Squatting down to help him wipe the tears off his face, Ling Jingxuan repeated again. Ling Wu who was the first to react rushed to embrace his neck, “Daddy, we lost, they are all over ten years, we can’t win.”

“How do you even have the face to cy if you lost?”

Raising a hand to pat on his butt slightly, Ling Jingxuan pushed him back a bit gently and wiped his tears off while saying, “Only those who are wrong need to admit they are wrong. Since you think you are right, why would you admit that you are wrong? It doesn't matter if you didn't win this time. After all, your age difference is there. From now on, you should learn martial arts with your father and take revenge next time you meet them again. But daddy doesn’t like blood. Didn’t I give you some powder for defense. In the future, remember not to act on impulse, just deal with them quietly.”

Blahblahblah, he was saying on and on, while the others already got stoned there, especially those little buns, secretly thinking why what he said was so different from Wang juren. As for Mr. Chu, he said nothing about their fight thing, just drove away Wang juren who was mad at them, and asked them to go home to ask punishment from daddy, and then told him how daddy punished them today.