Ning Dao Covered with Snow

Chapter 175: Not Even a Word

Xiao Wang's eldest brother was named Xiao Qie. His wife was from the Jiang family of Beidu. Her maiden name was Tingyue. They had a son and a daughter.

Their family of four lived in Pinghuju behind the county government office.

As the New Year is approaching, festive red lanterns are hung at the gate of the courtyard, and a red plum tree extends out from the courtyard wall, adding a bit of joy to the gray tiles and white walls.

Ah He led Xiao Wang and his group into the main hall, and soon Xiao Qie came in from the left door with his wife and children.

Xiao Wang was the first to call out, "Brother, sister-in-law, I haven't seen you for a long time, and I miss you very much."

Xiao Xi is twenty-six years old this year. He wears a dark blue round-necked shirt and a black fu hat. He has long eyebrows, deep eyes, fair skin, a three-inch beard under his chin, and his temperament is restrained and dignified.

He looked at his sixth brother who was slightly taller than him by two inches, and said slowly: "Time flies. The last time I saw you, you were only as tall as my chin, and now you look like an adult."

Xiao Wang said: "Brother looks the same as before, nothing has changed."

"Are you feeling well after coming here? Is your old illness still flaring up?"

Xiao Wang said that everything was fine.

Seeing that he looked indeed good, Xiao Xi felt relieved and then talked about another matter.

"I have heard about the Chao family. Although the Chao family is not doing well now, the marriage contract between our two families still stands. When we return to Chang'an this time, grandpa will probably arrange a marriage for you and Chao Erniang."

When Chaolu heard this, her heart tightened and she looked uneasy.

Until now, the Xiao family still doesn't know that she has proposed to cancel the engagement. When the Xiao family finds out about her decision, they will definitely think that she is ungrateful.

Thinking of this, she couldn't help but lower her head.

Xiao Wang lowered his voice and said, "We can talk about this matter alone later. Let me introduce my friends to you first."

Li Chengge and Du Lingzhou were both acquaintances, so there was no need to introduce them specifically, so he only mentioned the identities of Yan Ciwan, Chaolu, and Liu.

Xiao Yu and Jiang Tingyue were both very surprised. They didn't expect that their future sister-in-law and future mother-in-law would also come.

Since the other party was an elder, Xiao Yu and Jiang Tingyue quickly asked Liu to sit in the main seat and apologized for their neglect. Their attitude could be said to be very humble.

Liu smiled and said, "We are sorry for disturbing you by coming here without permission. We hope you can forgive us."

Jiang Tingyue said hurriedly: "No, it is our honor that you are willing to come to our humble home."

Then she called her two children over to greet the guests.

My daughter is seven years old and my son is five years old, both of them are very cute.

They first saluted Liu, and then saluted Xiao Wang and Chao Lu. The whole set of movements was very standard, which showed that Xiao Qi and his wife were very dedicated in teaching these two children.

Mrs. Liu liked the two children very much. She took out a pair of longevity locks and gave them to the two children as a gift.

Jiang Tingyue thanked her with a smile and accepted Liu's kindness on behalf of the children.

Xiao Xie handed the task of entertaining the female family members to his wife, and took Xiao Wang, Li Chengge and Du Lingzhou to the nearby training ground.

On weekdays, the detectives in the county government would practice martial arts here. Next to the training ground was a stable, and when they had nothing to do, they would hold polo matches here.

Although Xiao Yu was a civil servant, he loved riding horses. He introduced to the three people several good horses he raised.

Du Lingzhou was jealous and expressed his desire to ride it.

Xiao Qie waved his hand and let them ride as they pleased.

So Du Lingzhou and Li Chengge each picked a horse and began to gallop back and forth in the training ground. Xiao Xie saw that his brother had something to say, so he did not ride with the guests. He gently stroked the mane of his beloved horse and said, "There is no one else here, so you can say whatever you want."

Xiao Wang said directly: "I have cancelled my engagement with Chao Erniang."

Xiao Xi paused in touching the horse.

He turned his head to look at his brother, his brows slowly furrowed, obviously very dissatisfied with his brother's decision, but due to his reason he still resisted the urge to get angry, and instead asked patiently.

"reason?"

Xiao Wang said truthfully: "Chao Erniang is concerned about her mother and doesn't want to be separated from her."

Xiao Qi immediately gave a solution.

"It's not difficult. We can bring Madam Chao to live in Dongdu. If she is willing to live in the old house of the Xiao family, we will make room for her in our house. If she doesn't want to, we can also arrange a house for her near home. Anyway, our family has many houses in Dongdu, so we don't have to worry about not having a place for her to live. In this way, Madam Chao and Second Lady Chao won't have to be separated too far. If they want to meet, they can meet at any time."

"Chao Erniang has no romantic feelings for me."

Xiao Yu was helpless, as if he thought his brother's words were too childish. He advised: "Feelings can be cultivated slowly. As long as you spend a long time together, you will naturally have feelings for each other. When your eldest sister-in-law and I first got married, we didn't have any feelings for each other, but now you see that the relationship between us is pretty good, isn't it?"

Xiao Wang said, "We met in Xiangzhou and it has been more than four months since we came to Yizhou. It's not that we haven't spent time together, but it's true that we can't develop feelings for each other."

"Then tell me, how do you get along with each other on a daily basis?"

Xiao Wang couldn't answer.

Because Chaolu is extremely wary of men, she generally will not communicate with men unless necessary. Therefore, Xiao Wang's interaction with her is limited to daily greetings when they meet.

When Xiao Qi saw him like this, he knew that he and Chao Lu didn't have much contact at all, so he continued to persuade him.

"You haven't gotten married yet, and you're young and shy. Even if you have some thoughts in your mind, you're too embarrassed to show them on your face. Once you get married and get to know each other, things will naturally get better."

Xiao Wang knew that he had to tell the truth today, so he took a deep breath and said seriously.

"Brother, actually I have someone in my heart."

Xiao Xi didn't react immediately, and subconsciously asked back: "Isn't it Chao Erniang?"

Xiao Wang shook his head.

Xiao Xi's brows furrowed tighter and tighter, and his expression became more and more ugly.

He scolded her in a deep voice: "Nonsense! You knew that you were already engaged to Chao Er Niang, how could you still like someone else? Are you doing this to Chao Er Niang?!"

"In fact, it was Chao Erniang who first proposed to cancel the engagement..."

But Xiao Xie didn't believe it at all. He stared at Xiao Wang with a gloomy face and asked in a low voice: "Tell me the truth, is it because of the matter between Chao Yuanzhi and Chao Yue that you have a grudge against Chao Erniang and don't want to marry the daughter of a criminal?"

"No, it has nothing to do with her family. She is a good girl, but there is really no possibility for her and me."

"Then who is the person you like?" Xiao Qi really wanted to know who had such great ability to make his sixth brother, who had been self-disciplined and polite since childhood, lose his mind and even cancel the marriage arranged by his family.

Xiao Wang said softly: "We haven't even started talking about her yet, so we can't tell her her name yet, so as not to make things difficult for her in the future."

Xiao Qi was so angry that he laughed.

"So it's just your wishful thinking?"

(End of this chapter)