Chapter 195: What a Coincidence?

Chapter 195: Chapter 195: What a Coincidence?

In Lihua Village, an electric light glowed in the main room. To save electricity, everyone was gathered close together.

Zhang Dazhuang was focused on carving a floral pattern into a piece of wood he held. Zhang Su and Zhang Kai crowded around, watching with great interest. As he watched, Zhang Kai clicked his tongue in amazement. "I can’t believe Grandpa’s so skilled! He can even carve flowers into wood."

"Yeah," Zhang Su added, his voice a mix of curiosity and confusion. "Why haven’t you ever shown us this skill before, Grandpa?"

"Your great-grandfather learned this craft after more than ten years as an apprentice, serving his master with utmost dedication. In my generation, though, none of my brothers were interested in woodworking, and even I only dabbled in it. But this one particular skill," he said, "I worked hard to learn directly from your great-grandfather. It’s just that, apart from making a jewelry box for your grandmother back then, I’ve never had a chance to formally use it on any other furniture. Sigh, it’s been so many years. I’m rusty."

Zhang Dazhuang smiled nostalgically. "This work is time-consuming. In the past, people could barely get enough to eat. Just getting an unadorned piece of furniture made was a burden, so who could afford to pay for the extra time and money to have something like this done? If I hadn’t noticed that you two have some talent for woodworking, and if this wasn’t a good chance to make a decent vanity for Nuannuan while passing this skill on to you, I probably would’ve taken it to my grave."

Wen Xiu, who was spinning thread off to the side, glanced at the floral pattern Zhang Dazhuang was carving and laughed. "You two had better learn this skill well from your grandpa. It may be an old craft with not much use nowadays, but if you learn it, you’ll be able to personally carve a small, flower-adorned box for your wives when you get married. That’s a good way to score some points, and you can show it off to your own grandsons someday."

Wen Xiu’s words made Zhang Su and Zhang Kai roar with laughter, and Zhang Minzhen chuckled along. "Mom, you two really kept this under wraps. How is it that even I never knew about this?"

"Forget you, even your older brother has never seen that jewelry box," Zhang Dazhuang said, a little defensively. "Your mother claims she found the box I carved for her back then ugly. If it was so ugly, why does she hide it away like a treasure and never let anyone see it?"

"Don’t even get me started. For all these years, I’ve been too embarrassed to take it out and let the kids see it. That flower you carved just looked so crude. It was barely presentable, but back then, I didn’t have the heart to tell you."

Zhang Dazhuang: "..." He shot his wife a deeply wounded look. ’She didn’t have the heart to tell me back then, and she hasn’t said a word about it for years. Did she really have to undermine me in front of our daughter, daughter-in-law, and grandsons like this?’

"But while the flower carving wasn’t great, the pair of sika deer inside the box looked much better. It would have been perfect if their positions were swapped." Seeing her husband’s expression, Wen Xiu couldn’t suppress a laugh. "You should just teach them how to carve what you’re actually good at."

"Grandpa, isn’t carving flowers easier than carving animals? How is it that you’re not as good at that?" Zhang Kai asked, his curiosity piqued.

"What part of carving flowers is easy? You have no idea how much work I put into that ’Flowers of Prosperity’ carving. It took me more than half a year to finish! And what was the result? Your grandma didn’t like it but never said a thing. I saw her keeping the box hidden in a trunk, wrapped in a layer of cloth, and I thought it was because she cherished it so much. Turns out she was just embarrassed by it!" Zhang Dazhuang felt a surge of indignation.

"Who said I don’t like it?" Wen Xiu retorted, her face flushing a little. She shifted uncomfortably. "Liking something is one thing, but telling the truth is another. I never said anything before because I knew you wouldn’t be able to take it."

"You say that as if I can’t handle the truth." Seeing his wife blush made Zhang Dazhuang feel a little better, but he still couldn’t help muttering under his breath. Zhang Su and Zhang Kai looked at each other and smiled, then chimed in together, "Grandpa, Grandma, can we see the jewelry box?" Zhang Minzhen nodded. "I want to see it, too."

"That’s not my call to make," Zhang Dazhuang said with a dry laugh.

"Fine," Wen Xiu said, shooting Zhang Dazhuang a glare. "If you’re not afraid of losing face in front of your daughter and grandsons, what have I got to be afraid of?" Her comment made Zhang Minzhen, Zhang Su, and Zhang Kai laugh all over again.

While this group was full of laughter, Lin Qin was clearly distracted, as if she couldn’t even hear the joyful noise around her. She was holding a needle and thread to mend some clothes, but she hadn’t made a stitch in a long time. Her eyes kept darting toward the door, and after a long while of seeing no one, she finally couldn’t help but mutter, "Why aren’t they back yet?"

Wen Xiu finally noticed her strange behavior at her words. "The road to your parents’ home is a long one," she said, a bit dismissively. "And they’re on bicycles. It’s only a little after seven, they can’t be that fast. Don’t the two of you usually get home around eight or nine o’clock?"

"But Zhang Family Village is far from town. You can’t compare it to Lihua Village, which is so close," Lin Qin retorted. For some reason, her heart was starting to race with anxiety. She felt increasingly unsettled, especially when she remembered how nervous Gu Nuan Nuan had looked yesterday.

"She’s right," Zhang Minzhen agreed with a nod. For some reason, after her sister-in-law spoke, she started to feel uneasy too. Anxiety is contagious, and soon the entire family grew distracted, until the sound of a car and Zhang Wei Qiang’s voice talking to someone drifted in from the doorway. Everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Lin Qin reacted the fastest, shooting to her feet. The others in the room exchanged puzzled glances and followed her out the door.

「Outside.」

"We’re here. This is it." Having finally reached his own front door, Zhang Wei Qiang let out a breath of relief and smiled as he tried to persuade Xiao Li. "Come in and have something to eat before you go. It’s not good to drive on an empty stomach; you’ll lose focus. There’s no need to rush. Besides, I bet by the time you drive all the way back hungry, Manager Shao and the others will have finished their dinner, with nothing left for you. You’ll definitely regret it if you have to stay hungry all night."

"That’s a good point. Heh heh, Brother Qiang, in that case, I won’t be polite!" Xiao Li chuckled. As both men had been keen on befriending the other during the trip, they had already grown very familiar.

In Xiao Li’s mind, two things were clear. First, Zhang Wei Qiang was the Shao family’s great benefactor. Given the Shao family’s inherent nature of repaying kindness, the man before him was bound to become an honored guest of theirs in the future, making him a very important person to befriend. Second, like most men, Xiao Li had a passionate streak and deeply admired a hero like Zhang Wei Qiang—a man of great skill, daring, and extraordinary abilities.

For these reasons, Xiao Li had deliberately dropped hints throughout their journey. It was from him that Zhang Wei Qiang learned that Mr. Shao and the little boy named Little Heng, whom he had accidentally saved, were actually from the Shao family in Beijing.

When he heard "the Shao family of Beijing," Zhang Wei Qiang paused. He wasn’t stunned because he knew how powerful the family was in the capital, but because he was wondering. ’Could this be the same Shao family that my sworn brother, Mu Zhe—Mr. Mu’s grandson—always talks about? The one his sister married into... If it is, what a coincidence. Wouldn’t that make Little Heng, the boy I saved, Mu Zhe’s own nephew?’