Tangli Fried Snow

Under the blue sky, white clouds, and rolling waves of grass in the northern frontier, the boundless grassland gallops swiftly backward with the thunder of hooves. Yinglonghua, along with his several good brothers and his three sons of varying ages, is lost in the joy of riding through the herd of horses.

Zi Chuan was already sixteen years old, and had fully grown into a strong and upright man. His smile and carefree attitude were more striking than anyone else's. He was agile and took the lead, closely chasing several wild horses that had mixed into the herd. He accurately lassoed a black horse, shouted, and rode closely alongside it into the distance.

Seeing his excited expression, Yinglonghua sighed to his second son beside him, "Your eldest brother is so reckless and unreliable. Who knows how far he'll run off to in a moment."

He shouted, "Are you coming back for dinner tonight?"

Zi Chuan had vanished without a trace, so naturally no one answered him.

He winked at the people around him, and they immediately sped off, following him at a distance.

A dark brown eagle circled overhead, and with a wave of his hand from his attendant behind him, the eagle slowly descended. This mighty messenger brought the latest news from afar.

After reading the two letters from afar, Ying Longhua's eyes flashed with a sharp light. He murmured, "The brightest stars are easily broken, and the purest things are easily stained."

"I hope he can live the life he wants."

As dusk fell, the group rode back to their camp. A group of about a dozen children and women were playing and laughing. Tents of various sizes stood by the stream, and amidst the rising smoke, dozens of women and cooks were preparing a meal.

Hong Yao and Qingshan were watching the children play when they noticed Ying Longhua returning from hunting with his men. The cries of children drew near, and several maids hurried back to inform their mistress that their lord had returned. Normally, Xue Li would have gone out to greet her husband immediately, but now, looking at the letter in her hand, she couldn't care less about anything else.

. . .

When Shirley saw the news of Jin Cheng's death, she was deeply shaken.

At this time, she was in her thirties, and she and Yinglonghua had a child every two or three years on average. Now they have six sons and daughters.

She was eating while holding her youngest son. The food stuck in her throat, like dry yogurt, which made her face contort. Tears streamed down her face onto her youngest son's head.

Sisha was already sixteen years old, a beautiful young woman. She quickly took her younger brother from her mother's arms, and to prevent Shirley from fainting from excitement, she leaned her head against herself to support her.

That jerk is still so stubborn, disobedient, and won't listen to reason. We tell him to leave, to leave right now, but why won't he listen?!

When Yinglonghua entered the room, he saw his wife crying in their daughter's arms. Her beautiful eyes were red and swollen with tears, and Sixia's front was soaked. She was still unable to recover from her pain.

Yinglonghua patted Sisha's head and took his daughter out. Sisha hugged her younger brother and kissed her father before slowly walking out of the yurt, leaving only the couple to talk.

Yinglonghua took the letter that was clutched in her hand, glanced at it casually, and waited until Xueli calmed down before asking, "Are you feeling better?"

After being married for so many years, their relationship has evolved from romantic love to familial affection. Sometimes, they don't need to say much to understand what the other means.

Sherry wiped her nose, feeling a rare sense of shame. At her age, she was still crying over an old flame. After a long while, she choked out, "Aren't you jealous?"

Yinglonghua chuckled and said in a doting tone, "A common person may not need three bushels of rice, but a sincere heart is worth more than a million pieces of gold."

"Judging from your sincerity towards Jin Cheng, I know you feel the same way about me."

Before Sherry could even be happy for two seconds, she realized something was wrong; what he said made no sense at all.

She said gently, "I'm not sincere with just you, but with two people. Aren't you angry?"

This is a time for them to have a heart-to-heart talk; they've never discussed this topic before, and time is of the essence.

Yinglonghua patted her back and said with a smile, "As long as you are here with me now, and your heart is with me, that's enough. Memories and love are beautiful things, there's no need to deliberately forget or run away from them."

"Without sincerity, no matter how eloquently love is described, it is not love."

"It's nice to have once had a sincere relationship and to reminisce about it from time to time."

Sherry chuckled at his words, "Are you still thinking about your first love?"

Yinglonghua quickly confessed, "My heart is set on the bright moon; I've long forgotten about first love."

Sherry was completely comforted by his sweet words, and this warm feeling made her temporarily forget about Jin Cheng's death. She felt comfortable in his embrace, and her tone became calm, "That's more like it." She clearly adopted a "double standard" attitude.

Yinglonghua didn't say anything, but only whispered a few words of comfort to her.

Sherry took a deep breath, her emotions completely calming down.

She seems to have let go of the past, acting as if nothing's wrong when she's busy. After all, she now has six children to take care of personally, and when she gets busy, her eyes are filled with her children, leaving no room for anything else.

But once she calmed down and had some free time, she still felt a sharp pain in her heart, couldn't eat or sleep, and visibly lost weight.

Seeing that she had eaten half a bowl of rice and still had more than half left, Yinglonghua waved his hand to send away the child and the servants in front of him. After looking at her for a long time, he said to her with difficulty, "Don't do this."

Tears welled up in Sherry's eyes again. She lowered her head, not daring to look at him, and after a long while, she finally replied, "I can't control myself."

Yinglonghua sighed, and said slowly as if making a decision, "Actually, he's just like me."

Sherry looked up at him in surprise.

He still maintained his composed and steady demeanor, but the sudden glint in his eyes was hard to decipher.

"He's just like me back then, simply going with the flow and getting out of there completely."

"In fact, ever since Zhao Xi'an became mentally impaired, his heart has no longer been in the court. Dying in battle is his only way out."

Sherry immediately understood the implication in his words, and her heart, which had been shrouded in gloom, brightened as if the clouds had parted and the sun had shone through.

It turns out he listened to what I said.

The cold rice in Shirley's hands suddenly tasted delicious. She ate it in big mouthfuls, wiped her mouth, and called the children who had been chased away back. When everyone saw that their mother had regained her energy, they all returned to their seats and started eating again.

Yinglonghua shook his head helplessly. He was already so old, yet he was still like a child, acting like a cat or a dog, not like an adult at all. Sometimes he wasn't even as steady as Sixia.

Sherry put her worries aside and regained her happiness. When she was in a good mood, she would leave her whole family behind and ride horses with Yinglonghua, slowly galloping across the grassland. People, horses, grassland, and the setting sun would blend into one, forming a beautiful picture called happiness in the cool afterglow of the sunset.

Of course, there were also downsides. The couple's relationship was getting warmer, and the pills had long been finished. In a few months, there would be the side effect of getting pregnant again. She was getting on in years, and her eldest son was about to get married. Was she going to have to go through postpartum confinement with her daughter-in-law? Thinking of this, she couldn't help but blush with embarrassment and cursed that stinky man from head to toe.

The man paid no attention to his wife's sour face, only touching her protruding belly and busying himself with naming the soon-to-be-born child.

(End of the book)