The remaining snow has not melted, the cold wind is still there, it's not yet spring, but in the streets of Chang'an City, the fragrance of spring is already being revealed. More than a dozen young girls with voices like silver bells and faces as beautiful as flowers are pointing and gesturing at the street scene, attracting the attention of countless passersby.

  The girls were wearing light-colored, open-collared long dresses with wide and beautiful belts tied relatively high, the style was very clear, and the knowledgeable citizens of Chang'an quickly guessed that they came from the Great River State.

  The Great Tang and the Dahe Kingdom have been on good terms for generations, with a natural affinity between their people. However, due to the long distance between them, it has become increasingly rare to see people from the Dahe Kingdom in Chang'an City over the years. Today, seeing so many beautiful young women from the Dahe Kingdom, the older Tang people couldn't help but sigh as they looked at the Ru skirts on their bodies.

  The old people began to recall the female king of the Great River State who came to Chang'an to study in disguise during the Kaiyuan era, and started telling the young people around them about the bitter love song between the queen and the Tang emperor.

  The young Tang people were even more excited, standing under the eaves of the houses by the street, waving their hands desperately at those girls from the big river country, shouting welcome to come and play in Chang'an. Some with bigger guts even chased after the team, running alongside the horses and asking for the girls' names and addresses.

  Although the Dahe people adore Tang customs, the women in the country are known for their gentle and quiet nature. Earlier, after entering the city, the young girls were chattering about the Osmanthus cake at the Wan Yan Temple, but when they came to their senses, they felt quite out of place, their faces burning with embarrassment. At this time, being chased by those young Tang people asking for their names made them even more ashamed, and they all lowered their heads.

  The little girl looked at the young man running and panting in the horse enclosure, saw the undisguised joy and excitement in his eyes, and shyly buried her small face in the fluffy collar, thinking to herself: I'm still so young, what's your hurry?

  Mo Shan smiled slightly, lowered the curtains and closed her eyes to rest. Her long eyelashes blinked slightly, seemingly still not completely eliminating the unease in her heart, but what exactly was causing her unease.

  Ning Que rushed to her side and lifted the window curtain to look outside.

  Most of the students who had been studying at Bian Sesu's academy followed him back to Chang'an City. The forced march of the past few days had left them all rather exhausted, especially Zhong Dajun, who was pale and thinner than usual, looking as if he might fall off his horse at any moment.

  It was clear why Ning Que had forgotten that he had ordered someone to lock up the real Zhong Dajun before disguising himself as him and entering the wilderness with Mo Shanshan. After revealing his true identity in Wangcheng, he forgot about this matter again. As a result, Zhong Dajun wasn't released until Ning Que left Tuyang City, and it was likely that he had suffered greatly during those six months.

  His behavior was absolutely not decent, but for someone like Zhong Dajun who had no qualms about his own indecent behavior, he didn't feel the slightest bit of guilt or shame, and instead just blew a whistle in front of him.

  Situ Yilan listened to the whistle, lightly lifted the reins and came to the side of the carriage. In this half year, she had made a great name for herself in the army by fighting bravely against the grassland barbarians and the allied forces at Bi Shui Ying with her fellow students and soldiers. However, her delicate face had been ravaged by the wind and frost, and the long journey of thousands of miles had left her looking somewhat disheveled with dust all over her head and face.

  Ning Que looked at her and said: "Wait a bit and go to my home, I'll treat you to noodles."

  "When can you be more magnanimous?" Si Tu Yilan said with a bad tone, then pointed to her dusty face and said: "Although I don't care about these things on the battlefield, now that we're back in Chang'an City, shouldn't you give me some time to clean up and dress properly? Don't forget that I'm a lady."

  Ning Que was feigning surprise and said: "I thought General didn't belong to the category of girls."

  Situ Yilan made a gesture of waving her fist to hit him, scaring him into hastily putting down the window curtain and hiding behind Shan Shan's body.

  Mo Shan opened his eyes and looked at him with a faint smile, but didn't say anything.

  Shu Yuan returned to the capital, and naturally received a grand welcome from the imperial court. The Ministry of Rites also sent several officials, including the young lady from Daheguo's Mo Chi Garden. Ning Que didn't have the patience to go through all the formalities, so he asked for the opinions of his senior brother and Mo Shanshan, and then took a carriage to leave the main group on Zhuque Avenue, heading towards the eastern part of the city.

  It wasn't long before they arrived at Lane 47, Ning Que jumped off the horse cart and looked at the familiar street scene, gray walls, and the winter trees that stretched out from the courtyard of the original Ministry of Revenue's treasury. He took a deep breath and felt very satisfied. From spring to winter, half a year had passed like this, disappearing without a trace. He firmly believed in the old study's armchair, ink fragrance, well water, chicken soup noodles, pan-fried eggs, and the silver notes under the bed. Today, he could finally re-embrace all of these things, feeling really good.

  Suddenly, he saw a black carriage parked on the side of the shop. Looking at the intricate patterns on the carriage, he fell silent for a moment, nodded towards the carriage, and then walked up the stone steps and pushed open the door of the old pen shop.

  In the shop, Chen Pippi and Sangsang had already finished playing three rounds of chess and were eating noodles.

  Sang Sang was a person who didn't like playing chess or gambling, but since someone insisted on giving her silver, she had no choice but to reluctantly accompany them for a few rounds. As the new silver notes with their ink fragrance arrived in her hands, she gradually forgot the loneliness and sadness brought by the departure of the two old people, as well as the melancholy mood brought by the university professor couple. Her mood improved greatly, so she made an exception and cooked two large bowls of plain noodles for Chen Pippi and herself.

  Just then, the door of the shop was pushed open and a faint creaking sound was heard.

  Sang Sang lowered his head, holding the bowl and sucking noodles into his mouth, thinking that judging from the sound, it was probably deformed at the bottom of the door hinge, and he needed to find some time to fix it.

  Suddenly she felt that the footsteps of the person who came in were somewhat unusual, somewhat too familiar, and couldn't help but curiously lift her head.

  Look at that guy, Sang Sang still remembers to eat noodles, the white radish soup noodles hanging on his lips, his willow leaf eyes smiled and said with a mouthful of food: "Rather lack..."

  Ning Que smiled as he looked at her, his eyes also smiling and narrowing into crescents, just like the new moon that didn't exist in this world.

  Suddenly, Sangsang discovered that there were others behind Ning Que. There was a scholar and also a girl in a white dress. The girl looked very pretty, especially her round little face which was very cute.

  Sang Sang suddenly came to her senses, realizing that at this moment her mouth was full of noodles and her face must have been puffed up too. However, she knew that she couldn't compare to the beauty of the white-dressed girl beside Ning, so she felt a little flustered for no reason.

  She hastily put down the bowl and stood up, making a slurping sound, swallowing the noodles hanging from her mouth at the fastest speed, but almost choked by the noodles. Coughing and speaking in a low voice: "Young master, you're back?"

  Then she lowered her head and looked at the tip of her shoes protruding from under her skirt, no longer speaking.

  Mo Shan stood quietly beside Ning Que, but slightly lagged behind him.

  She came to Chang'an City for sightseeing at the invitation of her senior brother from the Academy, she felt a little joyful, a little expectant, and a little uneasy. However, these emotions couldn't be seen on her calm face. She was very clear about what made her uneasy, and sometimes she even wondered whether her expectation of Chang'an City was due to its lack or because of that little servant girl.

  She followed Ning Que into the old study, saw the little maid eating noodles on a small stool, and from the moment she saw her, she knew that was the person she wanted to see, that little maid was Sang Sang.

  The two words at the top of the chicken soup post are those Sangsang.

  The SanSan of my family who always lingers on the tip of my tongue.

  Mosan had read the Chicken Soup Poster countless times on a summer night by the ink pool, she was clearer than anyone else, even more so than Ning Que himself, how much absolute trust and closeness were hidden in the scattered brushstrokes of the little maid's name at the top of the poster. So she always wanted to know what kind of little maid Sangsang was.

  On the grassland, she said she liked Ning Que's black horse. In the snowy field, she said she liked Ning Que's words. At the gate of the Devil's sect when she was about to die, she calmly said that what she liked was not just the horse or the words, but also Ning Que himself.

  At that time, she thought she would die, so she said what was on her mind. However, she didn't end up dying, and the words that came out of her mouth couldn't be taken back. So, she confirmed her own heart's intention, which was that she liked him, and thus she increasingly wanted to see Sangsang.

  Today she finally saw Sangsang, but was somewhat surprised. Because the other party is not the kind of beauty commonly seen in the world, but just a slightly dark-skinned, thin and ordinary little girl, still very young with eyebrows and eyes not fully open, especially holding a large bowl to eat noodles, mouth filled with soup and face filled with smiles, really making people feel nothing but pity.

  Facing such a young maid, Mo Shan felt that her previous guesses and conjectures, including the anxiety before arriving in Chang'an City, were all excessive, so she felt a little ashamed. After staring at the other person for a moment, she fell silent and lowered her head, looking at the shoe tips protruding from her skirt without speaking again.

  Sang Sang lowered her head to look at the shoes peeking out from under her cotton skirt, Shan Shan lowered her head to look at the shoes peeking out from under her white skirt. The scene looked a bit comical and laughable, the atmosphere in the old study became somewhat strange.

  Ning Que was still immersed in the joy of reuniting with Sangsang, and hadn't noticed anything. As for Eldest Brother, he was leaning against the counter, looking as if he had not detected anything, but in reality, he let out a soft sigh in his heart.

  Shang Shang suddenly came back to her senses, and exclaimed: "Guests are coming, I'll go make some tea."

  She bowed to the crowd, then picked up her own bowl of noodles from the table and snatched another one from Chen Pippi's hand, who was also in a daze, and hastily returned to the backyard.

  Ning Que watched as her frail figure disappeared behind the curtain, feeling somewhat bewildered. Although she had been busy for a long time and hadn't changed at all, it had been so long since they last met, why didn't this silly girl come to hug him?

  No matter whether there is a mouthful of noodles or not, Chen Pippi's cheeks are very round and bulging, much rounder than Mosan Mountain.

  The bowl of noodles in his hand was snatched away by Sang Sang like a whirlwind, and he came to his senses, looking at the scholar with his hands behind his back. He quickly swallowed the noodles into his belly, jumped behind the scholar, and bowed deeply, saying: "Greetings, Master Brother."

  The senior brother turned around, looking at his pretended serious appearance, couldn't help but laugh and shook his head, saying in a soft voice: "Pipi, now you are no longer the little junior brother of the back mountain, speaking and doing things..."

  Without waiting for him to finish, Chen Pippi opened his arms and hugged him into his bosom, saying excitedly and indignantly: "Brother, you've finally come back! The teacher doesn't know where he is playing dead, no one in the back mountain can handle the second brother, he's running amok in the mountains, forcing us to learn some ancient etiquette, brother and sister dare not get angry or happy, eleventh brother was even driven almost mad, seeing flowers and putting them in his mouth, you have to take charge for us!"