Chapter 181 - 181 Xie Sangou

181 Xie Sangou

Lu Jiao didn’t decline. Since she decided to teach him, she was going to teach him everything.

“Sure, I will go with you.”

The two of them headed out the trellis. Behind them, Lady Ruan watched them leave in excitement. She snuck back into the east bedroom and looked for the contract.

In the living room, Xie Yunjin saw how Xie Erzhu asked Lu Jiao to go check out the pond while his mother stayed in the east bedroom.

He frowned a little but quickly realized that his mother must be looking for the signed contract.

Xie Yunjin found this hilarious. He had given the contract to Lu Jiao and he knew Lu Jiao didn’t hide it in the east bedroom.

Despite this, Xie Yunjin was very exasperated at Lady Ruan’s actions. What kind of mother was she to look through her son’s room?

Xie Yunjin lowered his head and asked the First Born, “First Born, go to my desk and get me “Great Learning”.”

Though the four children just started learning the Hundred Surnames, they were aware of four books and five classics. They knew of the Great Learning book since Xie Yunjin often talked to them about it. The First Born ran to the east bedroom right away.

When he went inside, he saw Lady Ruan searching through the room. The First Born’s expression changed and shouted, “Grandma, why are you searching through our stuff?”

Lady Ruan was caught red-handed and her face froze. She quickly pretended to be cleaning and organizing, “What are you talking about? Searching through your things? I’m organizing for you.”

The First Born was not a clueless idiot. On the contrary, he was sharp and observant. He didn’t believe Lady Ruan at all.

He turned around and ran outside, “Daddy, grandma’s looking through our stuff!”

The Second Born jumped up after he heard those words and ran into the east bedroom, “Grandma! To take things without telling is stealing! You’re a thief!”

The Third Born chimed in, “Grandma, are you stealing from us?!”

The Fourth Born also yelled, “Are you stealing our yummy food?”

The four little ones’ words alerted all the other children, “Oh my, the First Born’s grandma is a thief.”

“She’s so old yet she’s here stealing?”

“She’s a bad person. Bad people steal.”

Lady Ruan’s face turned dark and she rushed out and stood by the door. She crossed her arms and glared at the children as she cursed, “**** stealing! This is my son’s house! I can take whatever I want! Stealing is not a thing!”

The First Born reminded Lady Ruan, “Grandma, you have to say something when you take something. If you say nothing, then you’re stealing.”

Lady Ruan’s face twisted from anger. The more she looked at the First Born, the angrier she got. She raised her hand to slap him.

The Second Born screamed, “First Born, she’s trying to hit you! Get away!”

The First Born turned around and dodged the slap. She then snapped at Xie Yunjin, “Xie Sangou*, this is how you educated your kids?!”

All the children were stunned, including the four little ones.

Everyone here thought of Xie Yunjin as an idol figure. Not only was he good-looking, and smart, but even his name sounded refined. Why was Lady Ruan calling him Xie Sangou?

The children were in shock. The four little ones exchanged glances. Who was Xie Sangou? Was that their dad?

Xie Yunjin’s face was unspeakably cold as he glared at Lady Ruan, “It looks like you really want to be shunned out of the village.”

Lady Ruan’s expression dropped and she ran out the gate. As she ran, she yelled back, “Xie Sangou, you’re a heartless man! If I knew you’d be so unfilial, I would’ve drowned you in the manure bucket!”

Lady Ruan then ran away, leaving behind a frigid Xie Yunjin.

The children were too scared to speak.

The four little ones, however, weren’t afraid and went to comfort their old dad.

“Daddy, don’t be mad, grandma left.”

“We won’t let her come into our home anymore.”

“Yeah, if she comes again, we will keep an eye on her to make sure she’s not stealing.”

Xie Yunjin’s eyes softened after he was comforted. He was about to ask the children to continue reading when the Fourth Born spoke up, “Daddy, so your name is Xie Sangou?”

Xie Yunjin’s warm face froze up. It took him some time to finally grit through his teeth, “Go read.”

Before Xie Yunjin was sent to school, he was named Xie Sangou. In school, his teacher changed his name to Xie Yunjin.

When he first started studying, many people still called him Xie Sangou. Only when he became a child student, did the Village Leader ask the villagers to stop calling him by that name. Xie Yunjin was someone who will take the scholar exam and the name Xie Sangou just didn’t make sense. After so long, people have forgotten all about his previous name.

Today, he had been exposed by Lady Ruan and it made him feel so uncomfortable.

The children inside the room were very surprised. So their scholar of an uncle had similar nicknames as them, ahahaha.

Though the children studied seriously, they would occasionally look up and peek at Xie Yunjin, as if checking out something strange.

Xie Yunjin felt weird but he wasn’t mad. To be peeked at by a bunch of kids for so long did annoy him, however, and so he decided to finish up early today.

The children cheered and closed their books.

They left the Xie home happily, but their excitement about their finding today could still be heard.

“Third uncle Xie is named Xie Sangou.”

“He’s just like us! He has a nickname.”

“That means I should go study. Maybe I can get a better name then.”

“I think that’s how it works.”

The four little ones noticed that Xie Yunjin wasn’t in a good mood and went to comfort him, “Daddy, Sangou is a nice-sounding name.”

“Yes, Sangou sounds better than ‘Second Born’.”

“I’m ‘Third Born’, you’re ‘Sangou’. Our names are similar.”

The Fourth Born peered at his brothers and then back at his daddy. What should he do? He wanted to laugh! He shouldn’t. Laughing would make his dad unhappy.

The father and sons were still chatting in the living room when Lu Jiao came back home.

Xie Yunjin was facing outward and saw her right away. He whispered to the children, “Don’t tell your mom my nickname. Got it?”

The four little ones exchanged glances and looked back at Xie Yunjin with difficulty.

They didn’t want to lie to their mom.

Xie Yunjin saw that Lu Jiao was about to enter and frowned at his sons, “If you dare to tell her my nickname, I will get angry.”

His threat made the four little ones promise, “Daddy, we got it. We won’t tell mommy.”

Note:

*Sangou’s literal meaning is “third dog”.