Jiang Zheng suddenly attacked, and the tip of the silver lance had already touched Mrs. He's throat. While Lvbin and others were too shocked to speak, he spoke unhurriedly with an awe-inspiring look, "First Miss is quick in respond, but you are still not calm enough."

"Uncle Jiang, you almost scared me to death!" Over the years, Wei Changying has been practicing martial arts with Jiang Zheng. Coming from the armed-escort background, Jiang Zheng was extremely experienced in martial arts and Jianghu experience. He paid more attention to the teaching of experience in actual combats. Therefore, even at this moment, he did not forget to point out the mistakes Wei Changying made in her reactions.

Yet Wei Changying got used to combating with Jiang Zheng. Thus, seeing him using the lance, she instinctively wanted to get a sword to save Mrs. He. And she did not reflect that it would be impossible for Jiang Zheng to kill Mrs. He until she ran several steps away.

She then stopped, turned and complained, "If you want to test my composure when facing enemies, you should at least speak it out first!"

"If I remind First Miss, how can it be an effective instruction?" Jiang Zheng said earnestly, "First Miss, do you understand? In actual combats, the calmer you are, the easier for you to win. It seems that First Miss responded very quickly. But it is not necessarily right to respond quickly. If First Miss wants to keep up with the first-cla.s.s masters, you will still need to practice more. Especially the calmness when facing unexpected situations, which is the fundamental law of winning in danger."

Wei Changying thought his words were reasonable, "That's true. If this is the case, Uncle Jiang should do it more in the future."

Her goal was to become a first-cla.s.s master and make Shen Cangfeng be no fighting match for her whole life. Then she could live a beautiful and happy life!

"Besides, the most honorable person in this yard is First Miss. Just now, you went straight to the weapon rack to save your wet nurse. Yet, you have revealed all your weaknesses before my lance. This action is not only not right but also a very wrong one!" Jiang Zheng said earnestly, "If it were a very experienced master when facing this situation, he would take advantage of the chance that I stabbed your wet nurse to come close to fight with me as my lance had not yet been pulled out. Would it not turn the unarmed weakness into an advantage? Therefore, as First Miss has been practicing hard, you still have more to learn about the reactions when facing the enemies!"

He kept a serious face and seemed to only concentrate on teaching, but he could not hide the complacency in his eyes. He then took back the lance and made a slight gesture of obeisance by cupping one hand in the other. Almost in a way that fearing others could not see his perfunctory, Jiang Zheng said, "Sorry to scare you, I was trying to give an instruction to First Miss!"

Let's see how dare such a shrew to have the nerve to rattle on anymore!

Jiang Zheng quickly thought through everything in his head that Wei Changying had never restricted him in order to practice martial arts well. It could be said that Jiang Zheng had the final word on what to do in this courtyard, especially when combating. Jiang Zheng had always been making surprisingly attacks to train Wei Changying's reactions in the face of the sudden enemies. Although it was frightening to attack Mrs. He, when he made the excuse saying he was training Wei Changying, this pesky woman would not be able to do anything to him in front of First Miss!

Although he could not really hurt the wet nurse of Wei Changying, it would be fine for him to build up the momentum and give her the impression that she could be killed at that moment!

Jiang Zheng gloated and thought, "Just a woman in the back house, is she thinking that I spent the time in vain when I was in charge? I won't be able to kill you because of First Miss, but I can actually scare you to death!"

Yet he belittled the daring of Mrs. He. While she was petrified for a second, at the moment Jiang Zheng apologized to her, she responded quickly and immediately became furious, "You G.o.dd.a.m.ned old b.a.s.t.a.r.d! You..."

Seeing that they were going to get into a fight again, as Wei Changying was about to mediate in between with exasperation, someone suddenly ran out from the half-open door of the courtyard. She was a girl about 13 or 14 years old with round face and plump cheeks and dressed in a fairly new pine-green robes. In a hurry to come to this place, her wooden clogs rattled the floor of the wooden corridor. She rushed down the courtyard, saluted hurriedly and shouted surprisingly, "First Miss, Granny He! Family Head and Third Master are back! They are now in the front yard. Madam sent someone to tell First Miss to come and welcome them along with the Old Madam!"

"Grandpa and Third Uncle are back?" Hearing this, Wei Changying was overjoyed and immediately put aside the dispute between Mrs. He and Jiang Zheng, "I don't know what the result of bandit suppression is."

She was born to be the one who preferred martial arts over literature. This made her an absolute weirdo in the Wei Family which family members served as civil officials from generation to generation. All thanks to her father's status as the eldest son and the only adult son in the family, so that Wei Huan and Old Madam Song loved Wei Changying accordingly. In addition to this, they pitied the son and the daughter of the eldest branch that it was difficult for them to get the protection and teachings from their father. Thus, they treated Wei Changying and Wei Changfeng with lenient love and allowed her to involve in martial practice.

Before that, when Wei Huan set out with Song Han to suppress the bandits in Fengqi Mountain, Wei Changying, who thought she was already proficient in martial arts, volunteered to accompany them several times. The last time she requested to do so, Wei Huan almost agreed. Yet when Old Madam Song heard about that, she forcefully dragged her back to the backyard which deeply disappointed Wei Changying.

Even so, when Wei Changying heard Wei Huan and Wei Shengnian were back, she turned happy again and eagerly asked about the result of the suppression.

The little maid Zhu s.h.i.+, who was sent to report the news, said vexedly, "Sister Huamei just came to Xianshuang Court and urged me to come and invite First Miss, I also don't know about the result of the suppression yet!"

Mrs. He was no longer in the mood to dispute with warrior Jiang Zheng and said hurriedly, "First Miss, let's go back to the Xianshuang Court and change our clothes!"

Although Wei Huan dotes his granddaughter as much as Old Madam Song and didn't mind that Wei Changying occasionally arrived late for a few times, he was very happy to see pampered granddaughter waiting for him as he returned from the tiring journey of suppressing the bandits. Therefore, Mrs. He advised Wei Changying to go to the front yard as soon as possible.

"It should be like this!" Wei Changying nodded, made a bow with hands folded in front to Jiang Zheng and said, "Uncle Jiang, that's all for today. I'll go and welcome my grandfather!"

Jiang Zheng saluted back, "The return of the Family Head is a big thing, First Miss please go!"

... Seeing Wei Changying made the gesture of greeting in Jianghu much more fluently than sorting up clothes, Mrs. He's face turned darker!

When she returned to Xianshuang Court, she hastily wiped the sweat from her forehead and hanged her tight clothes into the broad-sleeved costume of a young girl. Mrs. He quickly made a new hairstyle for her and added a few hairpins. Then they rushed to Old Madam Song's side and saw everyone in the house has arrived but Wei Huan and Wei Shengnian.

Wei Changying let out a sigh of relief. After formally greeting the Old Madam Song, she also greeted the elders and the peers who arrived earlier than her. Glared by Madam Song, she grimaced and hid behind Song Zaishui before she said anything.

Song Zaishui pinched her and whispered, "Be disciplined! You are about to marry!"

"Why hasn't Grandpa come yet?" Wei Changying didn't take her words seriously at all that she simply ignored them and asked in a low voice.

Seeing she wouldn't listen to anything, Song Zaishui sighed inwardly and said, "I don't know either. My great-aunt just sent someone to ask about this. It seems that vice-governor Song has also come, and they are discussing things at the front yard."

"Wouldn't it be enough for vice-governor Song to have Third Uncle as accompanying to talk? Why does Grandpa also get stuck?" Wei Changying immediately became curious about the situation.

Although Song Han is the heir of Jiangnan Song Family, he was born in a side branch and only the vice-governor of Fengzhou. No matter his age or ident.i.ty, it should be enough for Wei Shengnian to go and receive him. With his positions, it would great luck for someone like him to even meet Wei Huan.

On second thought, Wei Changying suddenly thought, "Is there anything else going on in suppressing bandits, so my grandfather has to stay in the front yard to talk to vice-governor Song?" After all, it is no secret that Wei Sheng is incompetent.

If something really happened, Wei Huan would have no choice but to deal with things personally.

Not only she thought about this, but the rest of the people at present were also a little worried. Fortunately, they already knew that Wei Huan and Wei Shengnian had come back safe and sound. Thus, everyone in the court just looked solemn but did not think of anything bad.

They kept waiting for almost an hour before someone from the outside to come to report, "Family Head has finished talking with vice-governor Song, and he is now coming to the back hall with the accompany of Third Master."

Everyone's spirit was uplifted when they heard it.

After a while, a sound of cough came from outside, and a group of servants in fine clothes surrounded the two men into the door.

The one that came in first was a tall figure who had thick eyebrows and beautiful eyes. In addition to this, his complexion is fair, and his face is slender. If he were forty or fifty years younger, he would look exactly like Wei Changfeng. He wore a round-necked purple robe, a jade belt, a goldfish bag, a soft cloth hat on his head, and a pair of bear brocade and satin boots. As one of the six senior commanders in Vi Dynasty, Duke Changshan Wei Huan was already sixty years old. But because of his n.o.ble-born and his good health, he still had black hair and eyelashes and seemed only to be someone who was less than fifty years old.

Not only did Wei Huan looked much younger than he really was, but his action was also very neat and vigorous. On the contrary, the Third Master behind him, Fengzhou governor Wei Shengnian who was only over thirty years old, looked particularly restrained and awkward in comparison with his strict father due to his cowardice and incapability. The ages of father and the son seemed to be reversed.

Old Madam Song came from the same level of background as Wei Huan, and their marriage had been in harmony for decades. Moreover, the Old Madam had a strong temperament that Wei Huan had to make allowance for her in many ways. Therefore, when Wei Huan returned from suppressing bandits like this, he had used to see her only gathered her children and grandchildren to wait in the back hall but not get into the door at frontal places. Wei Huan did not feel snubbed by her. After sitting down and being greeted by everyone, he said softly, "You all get up now."

When everyone stood up, Wei Huan took a sip of the Agarwood drink pushed over by Old Madam Song and first turned to her to explain, "We have won the suppression at the Fengqi Mountain, but an urgent report came from Liao City so that we could not completely wipe out the remaining iniquity but to come back to deal with it first... That's what I was talking about with Song Han."

Old Madam Song had always looked calm and unable to see her joy and anger, but now she frowned after listening to the explanation and said, "Liao City?" The Old Madam was very measured. She knew that Liao City was not a big place, but its position was extremely important, right on the bank of the Nu River where one can overlook the Eastern Hu County.

And since the early years of this dynasty, Eastern Hu has been attacked by northern tribes that Eastern Hu had almost unable to bear its disturbance... Thus, when Wei Huan mentioned this place, Old Madam Song knew the contents of this urgent report immediately and her face became serious. But because this was closely related to military secrets, Old Madam Song would not ask more about this in front of everyone. She frowned and let go of it, then said, "Shengnian and you must be tired. Now you have met the children, would you like to have a rest first and talk about it later?"

Although Wei Huan was energetic, it would be impossible to say he was not tired as he hurried back from Fengqi Mountain in the midsummer and then consulted with Song Han for a long time. After listening to the words of the Old Madam Song, he silenced for a bit and took a look at his descend. He nodded slightly and said, "Gaochuan and Changfeng, you two stay for a while. The rest of you can leave now."

Everyone understood that Wei Huan aimed to check the homework of the fourth young master Wei Gaochuan and the fifth young master Wei Changfeng. Hearing his words, Wei Changfeng looked calm, yet Wei Gaochuan immediately showed a touch of bitterness on his face and he tried to hide it in front of the elders. However, everyone could see his dejected look. His Mother Mrs. Pei, the third Madam, sighed in her heart and glanced at Madam with bitter.

Mrs. Pei was very cautious in her words and deeds since she married into the Wei Family because she married above herself. Yet over the past ten years, she had only given birth to Fifth Miss Wei Changyan. Now, among the two girls and two boys in the third branch, yet there were three children giving birth by concubines. This not only made Mrs. Pei feel increasingly uneasy but also made her treat the daughters and sons of concubines as her own and tried her best in the teachings of the two sons.

However, Wei Gaochuan's talent is limited and he was not interested in studying. Despite Mrs. Pei's careful teaching, he did not make much progress. He was one year older than Wei Changfeng and started studying a year before Wei Changfeng, but he had already been left behind by the Wei Changfeng in study two years ago. Although it was already the time when no upper-cla.s.s people were poor, and no lower-cla.s.s people became prestigious. Therefore, with the ident.i.ty as the heir of the Wei Family, Wei Gaochuan did not have to study well to gain fame and wealth, and to worry about the future. However, Wei Huan is proud of his family discipline and paid a lot of attention to the schoolwork of his children and grandchildren.

Especially the third branch, which did not have direct sons and the seventh young master Wei Gaoya, who was the son of the concubine, just turned ten. In the future, Wei Gaochuan would certainly become the pillar of the third branch. Being considerate for the third branch, Wei Huan similarly trained Wei Gaochuan and Wei Changfeng personally. Even though Wei Changfeng was not the eldest grandson, he was one of the most outstanding grandchildren at Ruiyu Hall. He was not only intelligent, knowledgeable and studious but also the only direct grandson of Wei Huan.

Comparing with Wei Changfeng, Wei Gaochuan, as an elder brother, naturally could not make Wei Huan satisfy with him. Thus, every time Wei Huan checked his grandson's schoolwork, Wei Gaochuan always hid away as much he could and got punished by family discipline when he was not able to hide. Therefore, when Wei Huan traveled a long way back, yet still did not forget to give instruction to the two grandsons he personally trained, Wei Gaochuan did not feel he was treated with special regards but complained secretly.

Mrs. Pei did not know how much effort she took in teaching Wei Gaochuan, yet it was not very effective. In contrast, Wei Changfeng was intelligent and studious that he did not need Madam Song to worry too much.

It was impossible for Mrs. Pei not to have bad feelings.