Every time the mention of sending things to Meng Xinian came up, Chiang Xiao felt a sense of powerlessness.
The last time she sent him something, two days later, he sent a letter back complaining bitterly about Zhao Xin for an entire page. The force of his writing almost pierced the paper, some strokes even tore through it! You could tell how furious he was.
He said that Zhao Xin had taken all the food and shared it with the soldiers in his troop without even asking for his permission! His dozen or so soldiers were all like little wolves. When there was delicious food, they all scrambled for it so fiercely! By the time he got there, only one morsel of each of the three kinds of food was left for him!
Reading the letter, Chiang Xiao could almost feel Tyrant Meng spitting up three liters of blood in frustration.
At the time, it made her laugh so hard her stomach hurt. But then, on the next page, Tyrant Meng shamelessly cajoled her into sending more stuff, and she couldn’t laugh anymore.
He even told her that no matter how her homemade food turned out—even if it was stinky, turned green with mold, or bred maggots—he would definitely eat it.
Wasn’t this an insult?
Was she so unreliable that she would send food that could get moldy and breed maggots?
However, she hadn’t been up the mountain for a while, and in the end, she only managed to send him some shredded chicken and stir-fried chestnuts.
This time when he replied, he said he managed to guard the food and eat it himself. But the pack of little wolves kept giving him resentful glances all day long, looking like a group of scorned women he had abandoned—enough to make his scalp tingle. In the end, he still had to share most of the food with them.
Then the same person made a request—since the food had to be shared, could she draw another painting for him?
Drawing wasn’t a problem, but his request was to paint a portrait of him!
A portrait of Tyrant Meng...
Chiang Xiao couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something vaguely romantic about it.
But she actually went ahead and did it.
The painting took her a whole half-month to complete.
She had just finished it yesterday and was hesitating whether to send it to him when Hu Xibing asked her about it, which made her think that maybe it was indeed fated to be sent to him.
"Brother Hu, I have a painting for him. Could you please wait a moment while I go to Osmanthus Alley to get it?"
In reality, Chiang Xiao had placed the painting in her Space.
"Sure, go ahead. I have some shopping to do here anyway," Hu Xibing said.
Chiang Xiao was worried about troubling him, but little did she know that Hu Xibing was relieved. After all, he was traveling from Peace Town, and if he hadn’t brought something or a letter from Chiang Xiao, Captain Meng would probably be displeased.
So, whatever Chiang Xiao offered would do.
After a while, Chiang Xiao brought over the painting she had carefully rolled up and wrapped in cloth, and Hu Xibing headed off to catch his bus. Chiang Xiao then went to the bookstore, where, indeed, they had stocked up on plenty of drawing paper. She bought a lot, and they even gave her a discount.
As for the next afternoon, Meng Xinian met with Hu Xibing.
Hu Xibing’s trip to the provincial city was also a chance to visit Chu Liang at the hospital.
When he had a room to rent, he had asked Hu Xibing to handle it. It just happened that Hu Xibing was busy that day and had sent a friend instead; otherwise, he would have met Chiang Xiao’s grandparents then and there.
Later, when he found out, he felt somewhat embarrassed. Chiang Xiao, however, felt that the rent was already at a great rate. It wasn’t his property, so he couldn’t be expected to give a discount as well, right?
She had also told Hu Xibing not to mention this to Meng Xinian.
Meng Xinian knew that Hu Xibing had come to the city, so he made time to meet him at the hospital.
"Captain, this is the painting from your sister-in-law!" As soon as he saw him, Hu Xibing hurriedly handed over the painting.