The back house of Jiedu Mansion is a remote single courtyard.

Zhu Xiu passed by this place while wandering around the mansion, and saw that the front door of the courtyard was locked with an iron chain as thick as a forearm. The courtyard was quiet, and he thought it was just an abandoned courtyard with no one living in it.

Unexpectedly, Shi Kuangwei would bring him here today.

"Your son...lives here?"

Standing in front of the courtyard, Zhu Xiu looked surprised.

Lao Shi nodded bitterly.

Looking carefully, the courtyard door was unlocked today. The door was ajar, and there were faint voices inside, like Shi Lingyan's.

Zhu Xiu turned around and looked around, seeing the difference in this independent courtyard.

The two courtyard doors are nailed together with two thick wooden boards, and the door panels are covered with iron nails.

The courtyard wall is much higher than other walls in the mansion. It is made entirely of bricks, earth and stones, and is almost twice as thick as an ordinary courtyard wall.

The entire single courtyard looks more like a prison.

"Let's go~"

Shi Kuangwei sighed and pushed open the heavy door.

The winter wind blew through, whirling in the courtyard, making a whining sound.

The snow was blown up by the biting cold wind, and large snowflakes fell all over the body like white cotton wool.

The patio is empty and spacious, and the side rooms on both sides have been demolished, leaving only a main room in the front.

In the courtyard, there is a tall sycamore tree hugged by two people. Its bare branches are covered with ice edges.

Under the tree, Shi Lingyan, wearing a thick winter coat and a felt hat, stood there handsomely, with a look of anxiety on his face.

There is a small mountain-like figure next to him, with his big head lowered and his eyes staring unblinkingly at the mud and snow.

"Old Shi, didn't you brag before that your son is tall and mighty, but he's not taller than me? He's chubby and cute, but a child's body can't just grow horizontally..."

Zhu Xiu followed Lao Shi and joked casually.

Shi Kuangwei curled his lips and said nothing.

When he got closer, Zhu Xiu's smiling face suddenly froze, and her mouth gradually opened wider.

It was a man wearing only a thin, sleeveless burlap jacket in the coldest month of winter, in the snowy weather, with his long, messy lion's mane hair hanging down his shoulders.

His arms were muscular, his upper arms were almost as thick as Zhu Xiu's waist, and his back was as thick as a wall.

Zhu Xiu lowered her eyes to look at his legs and swallowed hard.

It turns out he was squatting...

Zhu Xiu was shocked. A man squatting on the ground was almost as tall as him, and his body was wider than the two of him put together?

"Dad! Brother, he has been squatting here all morning and refuses to go back to the house no matter how hard he tries to persuade him!"

Shi Lingyan complained angrily, his face turned red from the cold.

Shi Xiangwen's body was covered with snowflakes, his long unkempt hair was twisted into ice strips, and he looked like a large snowman. The snow around his feet was piled up to his ankles.

Shi Kuangwei smiled bitterly, and just as he was about to reach out to brush off the falling snow on his son, Shi Xiangwen suddenly muttered: "Don't move!"

"Big brother won't let us touch him." Shi Lingyan complained with a pout.

Shi Kuangwei hesitated for a moment, but finally retracted his hand, smiled bitterly at Zhu Xiu and shook his head.

Zhu Xiu looked carefully and found that Shi Xiangwen's appearance was very similar to that of Lao Shi. He had grown a lush beard at a young age, and had a leopard head and eyes. His face alone was more fierce and majestic than Lao Shi's, but he didn't have the wrinkles on his black face.

There are many old people.

Zhu Xiu was now convinced that Shi Xiangwen was indeed Lao Shi's son.

"This is my son Xiang Wen."

Shi Kuangwei sighed: "My father said before he died that there will be a day when the world will be reduced to war and culture. He will never see it again. He hopes that his grandchildren can live in a stable world, so he named his unborn grandson."

Xiang Wen."

"When I gave birth to him, I was following the order of Emperor Mingzong to march into Qinzhou and fight fiercely with Meng Zhixiang. At that time, Weizhou was still under the control of Zhangyi Army, and his mother stayed in Longxi. She never thought that the Tibetans would take the opportunity to send troops to invade and besiege Longxi. Three days later,

The city was broken, and everyone on the mountain tried their best to protect the two of them from escaping from the city...

My wife was shot through the lungs with an arrow. Before she died, she ordered her bodyguards to perform a caesarean section to take out the child... Wen'er was less than a month old when he was born, and his brothers in Tashandu took him to escape. He survived by drinking goat milk and blood.

The bumpy road hurt my brain, and now I am seventeen years old, but my mind is not as good as that of a child..."

Lao Shi wiped the corners of his eyes and grinned: "Fortunately, although Wen'er is a bit silly, his body is extremely strong. He is truly the number one fierce general in our Zhangyi Army!"

Shi Kuangwei caressed Shi Xiangwen's big head lovingly, and patted away the gravel, mud and snow mixed in his messy hair.

Shi Xiangwen pushed his hand away and muttered without raising his head: "Don't move! We're coming out soon!"

Shi Lingyan pouted and said dissatisfied: "Brother is not a fool!"

Lao Shi smiled and said: "Yes, Wen'er is not stupid, but he hasn't grown up yet."

Zhu Xiu sighed, no wonder Lao Shi never mentioned his wife and children. It turned out that there was such a bitter past.

"Now you know why Wen'er has been holding the title of deputy commander of the Yanei capital, but can't command the troops and manage affairs!"

Zhu Xiu nodded silently.

Glancing at Shi Lingyan, Zhu Xiu whispered: "Miss Yan'er..."

Shi Kuangwei said softly: "Yan'er is not my biological child. Her father was the Tushandu brother who delivered Wen'er by caesarean section for my wife! Later, he died at the hands of the Tubo people on the road.

He is a member of my family of historians. He has worked for the family of historians for generations, and his surname has been changed to Shi since his grandfather's generation. Shortly after Yan'er was born, her mother became ill and couldn't bear it. From then on, I raised Yan'er by my side. In my eyes, she was

My dear daughter..."

Zhu Xiu sighed, Lao Shi's family had a really rough past.

Looking at Shi Lingyan's appearance, she had no idea about her life experience, and Lao Shi had no intention of telling her.

No matter how it is, this person has passed away and the living are like this. Living in the present is the most important thing.

Zhu Xiu squatted in front of Shi Xiangwen, looked down at the mud and snow, and found nothing.

"What are you looking at?"

Zhu Xiu asked, three times in a row, before Shi Xiangwen looked at him, carefully stretched out a finger, and pointed at a slightly raised mound in front of his toes. He pushed aside the snow around the mound, revealing a

A hole in the soil the size of a fingernail.

It turned out to be an ant nest, and Zhu Xiu burst into laughter.

"Are you waiting for the ants to crawl out?"

Shi Xiangwen's huge body trembled, and snowflakes shook off his body. He raised his huge head, looked at Zhu Xiu with gleaming eyes, and nodded his head: "Yes!"

"You also like to look at ants?" Shi Xiangwen muttered in a low voice, as if he was afraid that his loud voice would scare the little ants.

Zhu Xiu looked at those wide, pure and clear eyes and saw her own reflection in them.

"I like to watch ants, watching them busy looking for food, working tirelessly to move food that is bigger and heavier than their own bodies, watching them exploring the world in groups, and building their own nests with clear division of labor..."

Zhu Xiu said with a smile.

Shi Xiangwen's childlike and clear eyes blinked, and his smiling face gradually appeared. It was obviously a rough face, but it revealed a strong childishness.

"Dad! Brother, he smiled!?"

Shi Lingyan was extremely surprised, "Except for dad and me, this is the first time my eldest brother has smiled at anyone else!"

Shi Converse grinned like a fool, with tears rolling in his eyes.

Zhu Xiudao: "But you can't see ants in winter."

Shi Xiangwen blinked: "Why?"

Zhu Xiu pointed to the small mound and explained: "This is the entrance to the ant nest. Although it is only a little big, there is a cave inside, with many passages and caves, and thousands of ants live inside.

Ant colonies hoard a large amount of food in their nests. In winter, when the weather is cold outside, they no longer go out to forage and hide in caves.

Ants will also invite friends to their homes to spend the winter together, like scale insects and aphids. These little bugs secrete honeydew, which is like syrup. It is sweet and ants like to eat it..."

Shi Xiangwen's clear eyes were unblinking, and he listened with great fascination. Zhu Xiu's words seemed to open the door to a new world for him, leading him deep into the ant's nest.

"You are so awesome! You know what the little ant is doing in the hole!" Shi Xiangwen said with admiration in his eyes.

Shi Lingyan was also fascinated by what he heard. He wanted to interrupt several times to ask questions, but he couldn't find a chance and he stamped his feet anxiously.

Old Shi Mo stroked his beard and smiled lovingly with a dark face.

Sure enough, the decision to bring Zhu Xiu to see Wen'er was correct.

Only when two guys who are full of weird things come together can they be in tune with each other.

"So, if you wait here, you won't see the ants coming out of the cave. They can stay warm and survive by hiding in the cave, but they will freeze to death when they crawl out."

Shi Xiangwen was a little nervous. He fiddled with the soil awkwardly with his thick fingers and covered the ant hole again.

"Yes, that's it. Mud and snow can help keep underground caves warm. You are so smart!"
To be continued...