Wu Ruo smiled as Hei Xuanyi frowned, “Are you scared?”
“Get away from me.” Hei Xuanyi’s face sunk.
“No.”
Hei Xuanyi narrowed his eyes and reached for his waist.
Wu Ruo immediately jumped away from him as though he got burnt by boiling water. But when he saw that Hei Xuanyi was about to lift the quilt and tuck himself in, he put his arm around his waist and said, “My apologies, my lord.”
He couldn’t afford to make him upset because he still needed him to force the worm out of his own body.
“What for?” Hei Xuanyi asked, brows puckered up.
“I shouldn’t have misjudged your kindness, nor tried to crush you with my weight advantage.”
Hei Xuanyi’s lips curved upward and was satisfied with his attitude.
After they forced the worm out, they went to sleep in their own quilt and got up in the next morning to see Numu off.
“Master shifu, I will go to wizard clan to visit you when I have time.” Wu Ruo said.
“OK.” Numu hated to say goodbye in a sad way. Therefore, he changed the subject and whispered to Wu Ruo, “How were you with the Hei boy last night?”
“Nothing happened.” Wu Ruo rolled his eyes.
Numu smiled and patted him on the shoulder, “I can tell that Butler Hei meant well to help you. So I helped you a bit. Well, it’s about time for me to go.”
“Hmm, shifu, have a nice journey home.”
Wu Ruo watched Numu and his fellowmen leave, until they were out of sight. Then he went back inside the mansion with Hei Xuanyi.
Hei Xuanyi went directly to the refining room.
Wu Ruo told Shiyou, “Wu Yanlan will send someone to search for Ling Mohan these days for sure. Try your best to blend him in Wu Yanlan’s team.”
“Yes.” Shiyou left and didn’t come back until noon. Then he brought Ling Mohan with him and left. After that, he came back to Hei mansion all by himself.
Two days after Ling Mohan left, it was 23th December which was the Kitchen Festival. On that day, every household ate homemade candies to beg the Kitchen God to bless them happiness and safety in the following year. The next day, on 24th December, it was Dusting Day when people cleaned every corner of their houses, such as tools, textile, floors, ceilings, sewers and etc. so that they could have a dry and clean new year. While the servants were cleaning the house, Eggie was making a mess right after. He could make a chaos in a yard that had just been cleaned. In the end, Wu Ruo grounded him.
Time passed swiftly and it was New Year’s Eve like in a blink of an eye.
Hei Xuanyi walked out of the refining room earlier than usual. He saw around the house which was basically red everywhere, the red leaves which seemed to sprout out of the old big trees overnight, the red strings hanging on it, the rows of big red lanterns hanging along the corridors and eaves. Thanks to the lanterns, the entire house looked cheerful and festival.
He walked toward the hall and heard laughter before he got in. He couldn’t help but smiled along.
In the hall, Wu Ruo was delivering red envelops to Hei Xin, Hei Gan, Shiyuan and other servants, “Shiyuan, Shiyou, Shiyi, you don’t need to wait on me tonight. The four of you can spend the New Year and have a wonderful New Year meal with the others in the kitchen.”
“Thank you, ma’am.” Shiyuan and the other three were thrilled.
Wu Ruo smiled as he saw Hei Xuanyi, “There you are. Let’s get dinner started.”
“Daddy, where is my red envelope?” Eggie jumped on Wu Ruo’s lap and asked while looking at him.
“Do you want a red envelope?” Hei Xin teased him.
“I will save your red envelope so that you have enough fund to marry a wife in the future.”
Eggie’s beautiful big eyes were fully of curiosity and he asked, “Daddy, what is a wife? Is it edible?”
“Yes, of course.” Hei Gan tried not to laugh.
“No.” Hei Xin, “Don’t lead the little master astray.”
“Sit down, all of you.” Wu Ruo invited Hei Xin and Hei Gan to sit by the table.
“Thank you, ma’am.”
Hei Xuanyi took out red envelopes from his sleeve and handed them out. Even Shiyuan and the rest three received one each, and Wu Ruo got the biggest one.
Wu Ruo thanked him, holding the red envelope tightly. It was the first time he had ever received Hei Xuanyi’s red envelope and was so excited.
Eggie was happy too because it was the first red envelope that he had ever received in his life. He unwrapped it and there were four silver bracelets in it. The bracelets had many tiny bells on them. “Thank you, father.” he said.
Hei Xin put the bracelets on his tiny wrist for him.
“Cuckoo.” The giant bird warbled to protest as everyone else got a red envelope.
“Do you want a red envelope too, Cuckoo?” Hei Xin asked,
“Is its name Cuckoo?” Wu Ruo was confused.
“Eggie named it.”
Hei Xuanyi took out a red envelope and gave it to Cuckoo.
Cuckoo took the red envelope excitedly with its beak and hid it under the wing.
They waited and started to dig in on the command of the master of the house.
“I wanna have a chicken leg.” Eggie said excitedly.
“Good.” Hei Xin picked a chicken leg for him.
And then Hei Xuanyi picked up the other chicken leg and put it into Wu Ruo’s bowl.
“Thank you.” Wu Ruo’s smile never stopped the whole time. If it were still in the previous life, he couldn’t imagine that he would spend New Year with Hei Xuanyi one day.
Outside the mansion, it snowed heavily. But the heavy snow didn’t pale the happiness of the festival. The entire Gaoling Town was filled with fireworks, firecrackers and laughter.
Wu Ruo was literally happy from the bottom of his heart. Therefore, he drank a lot. When he went back to his bedroom after the midnight, he was completely drunk.
He took the wallet that he had embroidered for Hei Xuanyi out of the pillow and gave it to him, “This is for you.”