Chapter 83 Gift
Xin Zhen patted Xia Jingdu's hand and said, "My foolish brother's fiancée is also in the car. I brought her here specially to pay my respects to my teacher and let my teacher's wife see her."

Xia Jingdu said happily: "Then I want to see what kind of immortal figure can catch the eye of my brother Weizhi."

Xin Zhen smiled and said to the person in the car, "Yingying, I'm going to lift the car curtain to pick you up. Are you ready?"

Ren Yingying took the initiative to open the curtains, and then jumped out of the car directly, very quickly and neatly, but Xia Jingdu frowned slightly.

Xia Jingdu thought, this is not very ladylike. How could a lady jump out of the car by herself? Could it be that my brother Weizhi was so disheartened that he just married a country girl?
Ren Yingying glanced at Xin Zhen, who smiled and said, "You can just call him Brother Jingdu."

Xia Jingdu frowned even more.

He looked at Ren Yingying. Although she was extremely beautiful, she could be seen to have a rebellious look between her eyebrows.

Ren Yingying and Xia Jingdu bowed and said, "Ren Yingying greets Brother Jingdu."

Xia Jingdu was even more displeased now. The bow was a courtesy between men of the same age, and Brother Jingdu was not a name that Ren Yingying should address him. He wondered how his good brother Weizhi could have fallen to such a state. As the saying goes, marry a virtuous woman. Although this girl was beautiful, she was not a good match for him.

But Xin Zhen came to pay his respects to his father after all, so he didn't want to embarrass himself, so he forced a smile and said, "Okay, okay, come on, come in quickly."

Ren Yingying could see his expression and her face changed immediately.

Xin Zhen took a step back and stood with Ren Yingying, whispering, "Don't worry about these things. Brother Jingdu has the bad habits of a scholar. After today's condolences, we may not have any intersection in the future. I live in the underworld and he is an official. I came here today to express my gratitude for my mentor's support in the past. I have no other intentions."

Ren Yingying gently held Xin Zhen's hand, indicating that she didn't need to worry about it.

Xin Zhen patted Ren Yingying's arm with relief.

Xia Daxueshi had long been laid to rest, and the so-called condolences were just burning incense to the token. Then Old Madam Xia came out, and when she saw Xin Zhen, her eyes were red. She said in a tearful voice: "My dear Weizhi, your teacher not only failed to help you make progress, but also brought trouble to you. You had such a bright future, but it's all ruined in an instant!"

Xin Zhen held Madam Xia's hand and said sincerely, "If it weren't for the teacher's support, Weizhi wouldn't have reached this level. And this is not the teacher's fault, but the result of the treacherous officials' exclusion. I only regret that I couldn't help the teacher, but made the teacher depressed for the rest of his life."

Old Madam Xia sighed and said, "I heard from Jingdu that Prime Minister Yan had asked someone to invite you to come out of retirement, but you didn't want to go. In fact, there's no need to do this. Your teacher mentioned this before he died, saying that you didn't need to do this at all."

Xin Zhen smiled and said, "The teacher will definitely not say that. He knows my temper."

Old Madam Xia was immediately amused. She wiped her tears and said with a smile, "You two, master and disciple, both have bad tempers!"

At this point, she looked at Ren Yingying and said happily: "What a pretty girl! Standing with Weizhi, they look like a golden boy and a jade girl. What a blessing."

As Old Lady Xia spoke, she took off the gold bracelet on her hand, grabbed Ren Yingying's wrist, and put the gold bracelet on her. Ren Yingying looked at Xin Zhen, who smiled and said, "Master's wife is no different from my mother. Just accept what Master's wife gives you."

Ren Yingying nodded obediently.

Seeing this, Old Lady Xia was overjoyed and said, "When you and Weizhi get married, I will definitely give you a big gift."

So the Xia family kept the two of them for a meal. In the afternoon, Xin Zhen wanted to say goodbye. Xia Jingdu said, "Weizhi, please stay for a while. I have sent a letter to my father's former friend to find you an official position." Xin Zhen shook his head and said, "Forget it. Prime Minister Yan is in office. If I don't want to rely on him, it will be difficult for me to get anything done. I don't want to suffer this filth."

Xia Jingdu advised: "There is no official who is not bullied. Flowers do not last forever. Even if Prime Minister Yan is arrogant, he cannot remain the same for decades.

You and I are still young, so we just need to wait for the opportunity. My Xia family has been officials for generations, but it hasn't always been smooth sailing. As long as we can stay, there will always be a day when we can make a name for ourselves.

Besides, your family is poor. If you don’t have any income, your life will be hard in the future.”

Xin Zhen shook his head unwillingly, but did not give any further reasons.

Seeing Xin Zhen like this, Xia Jingdu did not try to persuade him much. When he said goodbye to Xin Zhen, he took out the box and gave it to Xin Zhen, saying, "Take it out and have a look at it when you get back. It is not a valuable thing. Since you do not want to hang around in the officialdom and want to retire and return to the countryside, I cannot persuade you.

You are talented, whether writing books or teaching students, these are your strengths. I hope you will not give up on yourself. When the time comes, you will naturally rise again."

Xin Zhen sighed and left with Ren Yingying. Returning to the inn, Xin Zhen opened the box and found a thick stack of silver bills inside. After counting them, he found that there were as many as a thousand taels.

Ren Yingying said: "Brother Jingdu has a bad temper, but he is really nice to you."

Xin Zhen nodded and said, "Don't blame him, he comes from a family of officials, so naturally he has different ideas, and they are not targeting you.

He is a kind-hearted person and has never been nice to me.

When I was in Beijing before, he helped me to build up my network of contacts one by one. His expectations of me were no less than those of my teacher, but I am going to disappoint him."

Ren Yingying nodded and said, "Since it's for your own good, then I will forgive him."

Xin Zhen smiled and held Ren Yingying's hand and said, "But no matter what, he treated my wife badly, I will always scold him. Next time I drink with him, I will scold him well."

Ren Yingying smiled and said, "Why bother?"

Xin Zhen smiled and talked about what happened next: "I will go to Songshan in the near future, first to Shaolin, then to Songshan. Do you want to go with me?"

Ren Yingying shook her head and said, "How can I go to these places? If people see you with the demon cult witch, it will be very bad. I plan to go back to Luoyang Green Bamboo Lane. You can find me after you finish your business."

Xin Zhen suddenly felt a sense of separation and sighed, "It's hard for you to be with me. We won't be able to be together openly in the short term. It's so unfair to you to hide it like this."

Ren Yingying comforted Xin Zhen instead, saying, "As long as you have me in your heart, I won't feel lonely even if we are at the ends of the earth."

Xin Zhen nodded: "If love lasts forever, why should we be together day and night? Having said that, now that I think about not seeing you for a while, I feel that time is passing slowly."

Ren Yingying rested her head on Xin Zhen's chest and said softly, "Brother Zhen, I'll wait for you."

(End of this chapter)