Chapter 21: Misdirection

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  The magpie chirped with a smile, “... Brother Wen and Brother Wu like him, it's always good news.”

  "What's good about it?" Zhen Shi Niang gave her a white eye, and the topic turned around. "You'll stay here with Qiu Ju today, Qiu Ju has never served anyone before, once he wakes up in the middle of the night and calls for someone, you're also more stable here."

  "The slave has already spoken with Zhang He, and will be staying here tonight."

  After chatting for a while, listening to Shen Zhongjie finishing washing up and entering the east house, Zhen Shimu quietly went out of the door.

  Chrysanthemum was accompanying Jian Wen and Jian Wu playing a grid game with small stones on the ground when they saw Zhen Shi Niang carrying bedding in. They quickly got up to take it from her, "......No wonder I felt familiar with General as soon as I saw him today, originally he is......" Before she could finish speaking, she was interrupted by Zhen Shi Niang, who smiled and looked at Jian Wen and Jian Wu, "What are you two playing?"

  "Sister, sister!" Without noticing what Qiu Ju had almost blurted out, Jian Wu and Jian Wen jumped up and ran over to Zhen Shi Niang, "We're playing 'Suffocate the Cow'!", Jian Wu exclaimed, "...I just suffocated my brother!"

  After hearing this innocent remark, Zhen Shiniang couldn't help but laugh and cry at the same time, correcting him by saying, "It was you who suffocated your brother's 'cow' to death."

  The game of "Choked to Death Cow" is played on a grid drawn in the shape of the character "" with a circle added to the right side between the two corners, which serves as a "well". The players must not cross over this "well" during gameplay. Each player holds two stones, referred to as "cows".

  There are five intersections on the board, and four of them are occupied by pieces. Therefore, each player can only move one position at a time, and must land on an intersection point. It looks simple, but it's actually brain-wracking to play. The goal of "dying cow" is not to capture the opponent's piece, but to "suffocate" them. During the alternating moves of the two players, when one side is completely blocked by the other side's pieces and has no way out, the side that is blocked loses.

  These were all games that Zhen Shiniang had played in her previous life, including Go, although simple, it was helpful for developing children's intelligence, so she would often play with Jian Wu and Jian Wen when she had nothing to do.

  After hearing Zhen Shi Niang's words, Jian Wu stuck out his tongue at Jian Wen and shouted loudly, "I won six rounds!"

  "I won four games!" Jianwen also didn't show weakness.

  They've been waiting for a long time, and surprisingly they didn't make a fuss about going to the front room. It's really hard on them. Zhen Shi Niang stroked the hair of the two little ones, "You're so great!" The topic shifted, "Why don't you listen to your mother and stay at Ji Kuai's house?"

  Jian Wu Jian Wen giggled, "...... We want to hear Mother tell the story of Sun Wukong fighting the White Bone Demon!" He asked curiously, "I wonder if Tang Monk was cooked and eaten?"

  Unlike modern times, with computers, internet, movies and games galore, ancient times had almost no entertainment. On long sleepless nights, Zhen Eriang would often tell them stories. She had already told all the short fairy tales she remembered, so these days she started telling the long epic "Journey to the West". Every day a small segment, and where she couldn't remember, she'd make it up as she went along. The two little ones were surprisingly hooked.

  "Really want to know if Monk Tang was cooked and eaten?" Zhen Shi Niang asked with a smile.

  Jianwen nodded vigorously.

  "That's settled then, you'll have to go to Aunt Xique's house early tomorrow morning and hide there." Zhen Shi Niang said, taking advantage of the situation.

  "Don't worry, Mother, we've already told Uncle that he'll meet us at the back door tomorrow morning." Zhen Shi Niang never scared people, but today she spoke so solemnly that Jian Wu and Jian Wen were especially afraid of being separated from their mother.

  "Hmm..." Zhen Shiniang nodded and turned back to instruct Qiuju, who was laying out the bedding, "You can go now."

  "The slave will first serve Wen Ge and Wu Ge with their toilette..."

  "No need." Zhen Shining shook her head, "......the magpie still left a way for you."

  Qiu Ju responded with a "yes", then bid goodnight to Jian Wu and Jian Wen, before turning around and heading to the front room.

  After washing up, I took off the clothes of the two little guys and got into bed. Zhen Shiniang was about to continue yesterday's story when she suddenly remembered something and asked, "Mother, who is that person? Why did he want to take us away?"

  "Did Magpie Auntie say he's a ruthless general who kills without batting an eye?" Jian Wu also batted his eyes, "...is it true?" He puffed out his chest again, "He looks like me, I'll definitely be this majestic in the future!" Xi Que Autumn Chrysanthemum was afraid of the aura of murder on Shen Zhong Shuo's body, but Jian Wu admired him even more.

  It's up to you whether it's good or not.

  Pffft! Zhen Shining suddenly started coughing violently.

  "Sister!" Jian Wu's small face turned bright red.

  "Alright, Wu Ge will be even more impressive in the future." Calming down, Zhen Shi Niang smiled and said, "Hmm...". She coughed lightly, "Where did we leave off yesterday?"

  "Let me tell you..." Jian Wu had just opened his mouth when he was interrupted by Jian Wen, "Mother, who is he exactly and why does he have to live with us?!"

  "This...". Originally wanted to laugh it off, but didn't expect Jian Wen hadn't forgotten this yet. Zhen Shi Niang's voice paused for a moment, "He... ah...". Thought for a moment, "Is your grandmother's son." Just went around in circles, this doesn't count as deceiving the child, "We're all relatives of the family, naturally we should live in our home."

  Zhen Shiniang was overjoyed with her own cleverness in a moment of urgency.

  Simple words and simple texts have blinded his eyes.

  "Is this...the son of Grandma?" Jian Wu and Jian Wen looked at each other.

  "I know, it's Big Brother!" Jian Wen was the first to react, and he sat up from under the covers.

  "It's Uncle!" Jian Wu also didn't want to fall behind, and pulled him down, arguing, "He's younger than Dogzi's father, and so handsome, how could he be Big Brother?"

  Mother said, Da Bo is Father's elder brother, naturally very old and ugly.

  "It's Big Uncle!" Jian Wen refused to show weakness, "He is still a general, how can he be an uncle?"

  Uncle is Father's younger brother, so young, how can he be a great general?

  "It's Uncle!"

  "It's Big Uncle!"

  ……

  In the blink of an eye, the two little guys were kicking each other in the quilt.

  Zhen Shiniang shook her head helplessly and said with a straight face, "Do you want to hear the story of San Da Bai Gu Jing?"

  "Think!" Jian Wu and Jian Wu replied in unison.

  Seeing her mother herself pinching her face without speaking, the two of them quickly lay down and stared at her with eager eyes.

  The story goes that Sun Wukong transformed into the Golden Toad Immortal and arrived at the Cave of Waves to attend a banquet... Seeing that they were no longer making trouble, Zhen Shi Niang nodded in satisfaction, dimmed the oil lamp, and began to speak in a gentle tone.

  ……

  A good night's sleep, Shen Zhongxiang opened his eyes to find the sky already bright. He looked at the water clock and saw it was already 4 o'clock. He sat up with a start, shook his head with a wry smile, "It's been ages since I slept on this warm kang, today I overslept." Having led troops for many years, he had long formed the habit of getting up at 4 o'clock.

  "The general woke up." Rong Sheng brought in a basin of water.

  "What about them?" Shen Zhongjie asked, not hearing any movement outside.

  "Chrysanthemum had gone up the mountain early, and magpies and Grandma were picking vegetables in the backyard..." Rong Sheng put down the water basin, took off his shoes, and climbed onto the kang to open the window. He lowered his head and couldn't help but exclaim, "The general actually slept with this quilt for a whole night?" He touched it with his hand, feeling its stiffness, and looked at Shen Zhongshu in disbelief.

  Speechless, Shen Zhongjie raised his head and looked towards the backyard.

  Outside the window was a low cherry tree, it was late autumn, and the cherries had fallen off, leaving only one tree's withered yellow leaves swaying in the faint morning breeze. In his memory, this back window was very open, and every day he would lie on the windowsill and see a row of houses behind, and vaguely see the pond behind the house. Now it's good to be holed up in this room, and it's really become a mouse's vision.

  The dark alley was quiet, Shen Zhongjue had put on his shoes and gone downstairs. After washing up, he heard voices in the front yard, so he pushed open the window to look out, and his face suddenly turned pale with anger.

  Zhen Shiniang was standing at the gate of the courtyard talking to a tall and robust man.

  The joy in that voice was something he had never heard before.