Hard Work Experience Card

“I’m leaving.”

Jiang Danhe wiped his mouth with a handkerchief. Compared to Li Shouji, who was casually wiping his mouth with his sleeve, he seemed much more civilized.

“Why are you leaving so early?”

Li Shouji looked at Jiang Danhe, who looked exceptionally energetic today, and felt a little puzzled.

Jiang Danhe did not speak. He just stretched and left.

Yesterday, he had deliberately gone to sleep two hours before his usual bedtime. This morning, he had an extra bowl of rice. He was also wearing the minimalist-style clothes that Xiaoguo made for him.

Although he didn’t know what minimalist style really was, the clothes were really comfortable.

They arrived at Mr. Kong’s residence based on the given address.

When Jiang Danhe arrived, there were already many carriages parked at the entrance of the residence. There were even servants moving wooden boxes out.

Jiang Danhe wanted to get someone to inform Mr. Kong of his arrival, but no one seemed to have noticed him. He ended up walking in himself.

Weaving through the busy crowd, Jiang Danhe arrived at the hall. Coincidentally, he bumped into the servant who was always by Grand Tutor Kong’s side.

The servant also saw Jiang Danhe. In fact, he had specially gone to the door to wait for the general, but he bumped into him shortly after.

Jiang Danhe followed the servant to Mr. Kong’s room.

At this moment, the Grand Tutor was packing his luggage with his wife. It was not appropriate for others to handle his personal items.

Those belongings that had to be brought home were all packed into their luggages, while those that had to be left behind were placed in their rightful positions.

“Old woman, try not to miss out on anything. I don’t think we will come back here. Make sure that you have everything packed.”

“Sigh, I understand. Stop nagging.”

At this moment, the old couple had already changed out of their palace clothes and were wearing commoner’s clothes. No one would be able to guess their true identities looking at the way they were dressed now.

After leaving the palace, they were unlikely to return again. At this age, they couldn’t endure the long journey to and from the capital. After taking their last breath in their hometown, their bodies will be buried there.

At this moment, the servant informed them of Jiang Danhe’s arrival. Only then did the old couple see him at the door.

“Grand Tutor.”

“No, I am no longer the Grand Tutor. General, just call me Teacher.”

Mr. Kong waved his hand. Yesterday was his last day as a grand tutor. This morning, after taking off his official uniform, he was no longer the grand tutor. He still preferred the title of teacher.

Mrs. Kong glanced at him and muttered under her breath, “You’re so troublesome.”

Mr. Kong was old, but his hearing was still fine, let alone after spending more than sixty years together as husband and wife. He could tell what the other party meant with a single look.

Hearing this, Mr. Kong didn’t seem to care. However, his mouth, which was hidden under his white beard, twitched slightly. He didn’t dare to express his dissatisfaction blatantly, so he could only protest with small subtle actions.

But his protest went unnoticed. Mrs. Kong did not even look at the old man beside her. Instead, she smiled brightly and nodded at Jiang Danhe before leaving the room reluctantly. Before leaving, she glared at Mr. Kong.

She didn’t know what the old man was thinking. Why did he make the general come over to do manual labor? Was he trying to bully the man by using his old age as an excuse? If she were the general, she would beat him up and teach him a lesson.

Mr. Kong snorted loudly at the departing figure. “You only know how to scold me.”

The anger that he felt for his wife was all vented on Jiang Danhe.

After instructing him, the old man left the room.

Jiang Danhe was left alone in the huge room, staring at the boxes in front of him.

If he didn’t hear wrongly just now, Mr. Kong had asked him to move everything to the carriage outside.

Jiang Danhe gulped. He finally understood what Shao Zhan meant.

He must have known that he was going to do manual work today.

“Sigh…”

Jiang Danhe let out a long sigh. “Forget it. I will do it for my son’s sake.”

Jiang Danhe rolled up his sleeves and worked until the afternoon. Mr. Kong, who was supposed to set off today, had pushed back his departure until the next morning.

Looking at Jiang Danhe, who had been busy all day, Mrs. Kong’s heart ached for him. She brought him tea and poured drinking water for him. Mr. Kong rolled his eyes at her. Her liking for handsome men had not changed even in her old age. Why wasn’t she as attentive when her husband was working?

Mrs. Kong stood at the door and looked at the general’s departing figure with heartache. She scolded Mr. Kong, “Look at you, old man. You didn’t have so many things to move initially. Why did you have to pack all the useless things into those boxes for him to move? Later on, the servants will have to move them down again.”

At this point, she pinched him angrily. “Are you trying to stir up trouble?”

Mr. Kong retreated in pain. “Who said that I was creating trouble? I did this for a purpose.”

“To what end?”

“You wouldn’t understand even if I told you.” As soon as Mr. Kong said that, he knew that he had said something wrong. He immediately tried to salvage the situation. “I’m not…”

“Alright! Kong Daniu! You are actually despising me for being uneducated!”

“Who is despising you? And we agreed not to mention each other’s nicknames again!”

“Kong Daniu, Kong Daniu, Kong Daniu! You actually dare to despise me now. If I hadn’t pulled you out of the cesspool back then, would you be what you are today?”

Mrs. Kong disregarded Mr. Kong’s words and carried on calling Mr. Kong by his nickname. She pushed him away and pointed at his nose as she started to nag at him. Although she was old, her lung capacity was pretty powerful.

Every sentence was mentioned with the words Kong Daniu. Hearing this, Mr. Kong covered his ears and ran into the house. Mrs. Kong followed closely behind. As she chased after him, she did not stop calling him names.

Hence, the following scene appeared in the residence.

The two seniors started the chase at their fastest speed. One covered his ears and pretended not to hear, while the other picked up her skirt and chased after him, cursing non-stop.

What the others saw was the old couple moving forward at turtle speed.

Kong Ni, who was looking for the two elders, quietly covered his youngest son’s ears. He only let go when the old couple had gone out of sight.

“Father, what are Grandfather and Grandmother doing?”

The child looked at Kong Ni innocently, wondering why he was covering his ears and mouth.

“It’s nothing. Your grandparents are taking a walk.”

His youngest son nodded. “I see. No wonder they were walking so slowly. So they are taking a walk.”

“But why did you cover my ears and mouth?”

“…” Kong Ni pulled his youngest son in the other direction. After a moment of silence, he said thoughtfully, “It’s just part of life’s experiences.”

His youngest son didn’t seem like he fully understood what was going on. Kong Ni didn’t say anything else. He just rubbed his head and looked ahead, completely absorbed in his thoughts.

He still remembered hearing those beautiful words when he was young. Recalling the scene from back then, it was almost heart-breaking.

From that day onwards, the gentle, generous, and understanding mother in his heart was gone forever.

–

When Jiang Danhe returned to his residence, it was already late.

The guard looked at the tired-looking general. The admiration in his heart was like a surging river. It looked like the general had worked hard in the military camp today.

Jiang Danhe waved his hand casually. When there was no one around, he rubbed his arm tiredly. He had an old ailment in his arm previously, and he had been exerting weight on his arm the whole day. It seemed like it was going to hurt for the entire month.

As soon as he reached the door, he was acutely aware of a presence that shouldn’t be there.

“Who is it!”

He subconsciously reached for his weapon at the waist, but there was nothing there. Only then did he remember that he was not wearing his usual clothes today. Therefore, he was not armed with the knife that he usually wore on his waist.

“It’s me.”

As soon as he heard the voice, Jiang Danhe felt relieved. “Why didn’t you light the lamp?”

As he spoke, he moved around easily in the darkness, as if it was no different from daytime.

He took out a torch and lit the candles. The room was instantly lit up. He could see Shao Zhan sitting at the table and the table in front of him was filled with food.