Chapter 164

Chapter 164

Lunch was a lavish spread.

Zhou Wei had caught the fish himself. It had been cooked sweet-and-sour, just the way Sheng Zhaoning liked it.

Most of the vegetable dishes had come straight from the garden. They simply picked whatever they wanted to eat.

Whenever Zhou Lingsheng went up the mountain to gather medicinal herbs, he would occasionally bring back a couple of wild pheasants or rabbits as well.

The September breeze was neither chilly nor dry. With the whole family gathered around the table, chatting and laughing, the house was never short of cheer.

After lunch, Sheng Yao had wanted to run another lap around the mountain. Unfortunately, under the threat of Sheng Zhaoning’s gaze, she had no choice but to trudge dejectedly into the backyard and resume her sword practice.

The adults busied themselves with their own tasks, clearing the dishes, wiping the table, sweeping the floor, chopping firewood, and fetching water.

Sheng Zhaoning watched as Sheng Yao completed the sword technique. Whenever the little girl actually put her mind to learning, Sheng Zhaoning did not even need to demonstrate. Sheng Yao only had to run through the moves in the sword manual once to remember most of them. After a few repetitions, she would have them mastered.

“A genius, all right. She’s almost as good as I was at her age,” Zhou Wei remarked from the side.

Sheng Zhaoning gave him a long, sidelong look, her speechless expression saying it all.

With Zhou Wei’s paltry skills, saying something like that was practically an insult to her daughter.

“Go practice with her,” Sheng Zhaoning ordered sternly, tossing him a long branch.

Zhou Wei: “…”

Sheng Yao: “…”

In less than fifteen minutes, Sheng Yao had memorized the entire sequence from beginning to end.

Once sword practice was over, it was time to catch up on the lessons she had missed over the past two days.

Sheng Yao was just as gifted with the written word as she was with martial arts. She had a photographic memory and a brilliant mind.

Unfortunately, compared to practicing martial arts, reading and writing were torture akin to having her tendons pulled and her bones stripped.

Sheng Yuanzhong had opened a private school in the village. Its reputation had spread far and wide, and families from several surrounding villages sent their children there. Some were around Sheng Yao’s age, while others were older.

But not one of them could infuriate Sheng Yuanzhong until his face turned livid quite like she could.

Sheng Yao was simply too clever. She understood most things at a glance and rarely needed much instruction, but she was impossible to discipline.

During lessons, she was either snoring loudly enough to shake the rafters or chattering with everyone around her about anything and everything under the sun.

Even though she excelled in every subject, she still regularly drove Sheng Yuanzhong into a stomping rage. He would bristle and glare as he declared, “I can’t teach this child!”

Yet no matter how mischievous she was, he could never bring himself to actually hit her.

Apart from Sheng Zhaoning, who was genuinely capable of disciplining her with a firm hand, everyone else spoiled Sheng Yao rotten.

Dai Rong and Lady Lu were especially protective of her, treating her as the apple of their eye. Whenever Sheng Zhaoning struck her too hard, the two of them would give Sheng Zhaoning a thorough scolding.

Sheng Zhaoning was helpless in the face of it.

…

By the time Sheng Zhaoning had supervised Sheng Yao as she finished the writing assignments from the past two days, evening was already approaching.

Zhou Wei came over and looked at Sheng Yao’s crooked, uneven handwriting, then sighed and shook his head.

The girl truly could memorize books at astonishing speed, but her handwriting was just as astonishingly ugly.

Sheng Zhaoning had, after all, achieved Lianzhong Liuyuan and become the Zhuangyuan. Her essays had been eloquent and expansive, and her calligraphy was as vigorous and stately as an ancient pine. How had Sheng Yao somehow ended up writing as though a dog had dragged its paws across the page?

Sheng Yao set down her brush and let out a long yawn. Sitting in the chair with her feet unable to reach the floor, she swung her legs back and forth in the air.

Resting her chin in her hands, she watched Sheng Zhaoning turn and walk out the door. Then she tilted her head up and asked, “Uncle Zhou Wei, is Mother going to visit that uncle buried underground again?”

Zhou Wei froze.

Sheng Zhaoning visited that grave every day, come rain or shine. Sometimes, she would sit there for the entire day.

He watched her figure gradually recede into the distance, his eyes dimming. With a sigh, he said, “Yes. Be good from now on. Study hard, practice your swordsmanship, and don’t make your mother angry.”

Sheng Yao was at the age when children were naturally mischievous, and with her fondness for play, there was no way she would sit still for long.

Yet when she thought of the weariness Sheng Zhaoning so often revealed without meaning to, Sheng Yao still lowered her head and nodded seriously. “All right……”

She hopped down from the chair on her short little legs and stood by the door with Zhou Wei. Tilting her head against his waist and wrapping one arm around his thigh, she asked again, without the slightest hint of impatience, “Who exactly is that uncle?”

Sheng Yao had asked this question many times, but no one had ever answered her.

She was always curious about that person. She had asked his name and his identity, but everyone around her avoided the subject.

They only told her that he had been a very good person.

Zhou Wei watched Sheng Zhaoning’s figure disappear from sight. He stroked Sheng Yao’s hair but said nothing.

His gaze grew distant as memories surfaced.

Zhou Wei suddenly thought of five years ago, when Sheng Zhaoning had first arrived in Suizhou.

The carriage had traveled all the way from the Capital City. Knowing the knot in her heart, Zhou Lingsheng had taken her to Wei Heng’s grave at once.

It was a nameless gravestone standing beneath a pine tree, with a murmuring stream winding around it and dense pine woods all around.

Zhou Wei still remembered what Sheng Zhaoning had been like then. After getting out of the carriage, she had fallen countless times over that short distance.

He did not even dare recall the look of near collapse on Sheng Zhaoning’s face at the time.

He only remembered that everyone had turned away that day, their faces streaked with tears, unable to bear watching her.

She should have died that day.

But Sheng Zhaoning’s parents understood her so well. How could they fail to see that she wanted to follow him in death?

It was Sheng Zhaoning’s mother who knelt on the ground, weeping as she begged Sheng Zhaoning to live, even threatening to die herself. That was how Sheng Zhaoning came to live for the next five years.

Back then, nearly everyone was afraid that Sheng Zhaoning might die at Wei Heng’s grave at any moment. That continued until, after finally noticing the changes taking place in her body, Sheng Zhaoning was told that she was pregnant.

Zhou Lingsheng was filled with guilt over keeping it from her and had already prepared himself for the possibility that Sheng Zhaoning would kill the child.

But she merely locked herself away for an entire day without saying a word. She did not step out of her room until the following day, and she never mentioned the matter again.

Thus, Sheng Yao was born safely.

No one knew why Sheng Zhaoning had been willing to keep the child, but she had never once inflicted her hatred of Wei Yi on Sheng Yao.

She had chosen the girl’s name herself, taught her to read and write, and trained her in martial arts and swordsmanship.

She gave her the very best of everything and poured all her love into her.

Raised by her, Sheng Yao was mischievous but warm and kind. She was passionate and sincere in how she treated people and handled everything, living like a little sun.

Sometimes, in a daze, Zhou Wei could even faintly see that person’s shadow in Sheng Yao……

Zhou Wei pulled his gaze back and looked down at Sheng Yao. He answered, “That person…… was someone very important in your mother’s life.”

Sheng Yao was too young to understand what that meant. She scratched her head in confusion and asked, “Then why was he buried in the ground?”

Zhou Wei did not know how to answer, so he could only reply vaguely, “You’re still young. You’ll understand when you grow up.”

Sheng Yao immediately asked the question every child eventually asked: “When will I grow up?”

Zhou Wei bent down, picked her up, and hoisted her onto his shoulders.

“It will be many years from now. Many, many years.”