An Jing walked outside with her husband and casually asked, "Se Se, you said that before you were always living on the mountain with your brother and master, but what about your parents?"
Gong Juese looked at Meng Zhuqing, and after getting her approval, she removed her hand covering her mouth and smiled, "I don’t have any parents; my brother and I only have our master."
An Jing was taken aback, stopped in her tracks, and looked back at Gong Juese, "How come you don’t have parents?"
Gong Juese smiled again, "It’s not that we don’t have parents, but we just don’t know who they are. By the time I could remember, my brother and I were already with our master on the mountain. According to what our master said, both my brother and I were picked up by him; he doesn’t know who our parents are either."
Understanding the situation, An Jing casually asked another question, "Then have you and your brother never thought about finding your parents?"
Gong Juese answered, "In the vast sea of people, how would we find them if we don’t know who they are? I originally wanted to look for them, but my brother said that since our master found us, it was destined that we don’t have parents. Even if we insist, it’s useless. After that, I stopped thinking about looking for them."
After a pause, Gong Juese smiled again, "Actually, I don’t really care whether I have parents or not. My master and my brother dote on me very much. They’ve never let me suffer a bit from as young as I can remember, and it’s usually me bullying them. They are much better than my parents, whose names I don’t even know."
An Jing: "..." If your brother is so good to you, why do you still let your husband keep bullying your brother? Your brother truly has a hard life...
When An Jing and Xiao Changyi returned from the rice shop, they saw Gong Juese’s "hard-living" brother still lying in the courtyard of their residence.
And when Gong Juechen woke up, it was the hour of You, just as An Jing and her family were having dinner.
An Jing: "..." You sure have precise timing for waking up...
As soon as Gong Juechen awoke and saw An Jing and her family eating, he didn’t care if the ground’s chill had made his whole body cold; he hurriedly added a set of bowls and chopsticks for himself and sat down to eat in front of An Jing and Xiao Changyi.
He ate while watching An Jing and Xiao Changyi.
An Jing said with silent irritation, "If you’re going to eat, just eat, don’t keep staring at us."
Gong Juechen replied, "It helps me eat more."
As Gong Juechen continued to watch them stuff rice into their mouths, he added, "Although you both don’t look as good as Lanlan, you really are pleasing to the eyes. I truly enjoy watching such delightful people; it really makes the meal better."
Hearing this, An Jing couldn’t bother to say anything more about Gong Juechen’s eccentric behavior, and instead, she added a piece of braised pork to her husband’s bowl.
Gong Juechen, not at all polite, helped himself to quite a bit of meat, eating with relish, and then spoke up again, "Jingjing, do you and Changyi want to go with me to enjoy the spring tomorrow? It’s the perfect season for it, and I’m thinking of going outside the town for a stroll."
"With your face like that, you’re still thinking of enjoying the spring? Didn’t you say you were too ashamed to meet people?"
"I’m going to cover my face tomorrow."
An Jing was speechless for a long while before she replied, "You go by yourself tomorrow, we won’t be joining. We have things to do tomorrow; we need to visit a few Agricultural Officials." To see them wash their concubines’ feet.
An Jing did not voice the last sentence, fearing that if she did, Gong Juechen might not go to enjoy the spring but instead might come to watch the excitement with them as people wash their concubines’ feet.