He always kept a stern face in front of Chiang Xiao.
But that evening, when his wife, who had been suffering for a long time, had a piece of pastry and even wanted more, he laughed until tears filled his eyes.
"I feel that fate has not been unkind to me, sending such a good student my way," he said.
Later on, he dedicated all his heart to teach her everything he knew. When Chiang Xiao needed help with her art exhibition, he offered all the help he could. He didn’t see her merely as a student but also as a daughter.
Of course, that’s a story for another time.
Song Xiyun was locked up.
Because of her, Chiang Baoguo was exhausted, and the landlord refused to rent the house to him anymore. He wanted to take Chiang Caijiao back to the factory to live, but the steward didn’t approve.
The money he had was almost all spent on fines, and Ding Meifen’s daughter had been sick and constantly urging him to return. With Chiang Caijiao by his side, how could he go back?
After all this trouble, the factory found a reason to fire him outright.
He saw Chiang Xiao’s coldness at the security bureau; how could he dare to bring Chiang Caijiao to her door again?
In the end, Chiang Baoguo could only return to Siyang Village in disgrace, carrying a surge of anger and bringing Chiang Caijiao with him.
When Chiang Songtao and his wife learned that Song Xiyun had gone to the county town and caused Chiang Baoguo to lose his job, they were so angry that they nearly fainted.
Ho Laidi was trembling all over, loudly demanding that the woman be divorced.
But in this new society, where was there such a thing as divorce anymore?
Chiang Xiao had no mind to care about what chaos the Old Chiang Family ended up in because of this incident. When Chiang Songhai and Ge Liutao learned that Song Xiyun had been imprisoned and Chiang Baoguo had lost his job and returned home, they could only sigh deeply.
It was only after hearing Liu Guoying that they knew the potted orchid of Chiang Xiao’s was actually worth thousands of yuan.
Liu Guoying took the pot home, enjoyed it for a few days, painted a few pictures, and then returned it to Chiang Xiao.
After the two boxes of pastries were finished, his wife’s condition seemed to improve slightly. In his delight, he deliberately kept a straight face when returning the plant, saying that he wanted to exchange it for more pastries with Chiang Xiao.
Chiang Xiao understood his intention and just smiled. From then on, every three days, she would send pastries to the master’s wife, and deliberately used a wheedling tactic to leave one of her own paintings, insisting that the master’s wife hang it in the room.
In fact, it was a medicinal painting drawn with the Magic Brush.
The end of the year was approaching, and the weather was getting colder.
Wrapped in a cotton-padded coat, Chiang Xiao walked out of the train station.
Chiang Songhai and Ge Liutao followed behind her, glanced at the sky, and said, "Let’s go back now. We’ll stop by the roadside market to buy some vegetables on the way and have Brother Chu join us for hotpot tonight."
Hotpot was the warmest meal to have in this kind of weather.
This year, the provincial capital seemed colder than the county town.
This was Chiang Xiao’s second time spending the New Year in the provincial capital.
As soon as the winter vacation started, Chiang Xiao took her grandparents by train to the provincial capital. Although the house here had been renovated and furnished, there were still many things, decorations and such, that weren’t completely finished.
Chiang Xiao would add a little each time she came.
Now, only Tyrant Meng’s room remained untouched.
But in her Space, she had actually prepared all the items for that room.
She just didn’t want to put them in the house so soon. The person hadn’t arrived yet, so why set it up only for it to gather dust?
"Sure, with Brother Chu around, our New Year will be livelier. Grandpa, shall we set off firecrackers this year too?"
"Yes, setting them off will bring a joyful and prosperous New Year," Chiang Songhai nodded.