For some unknown reason, when he heard his wife’s words, "I say, you’re really doing well," Yue Ning couldn’t help but blush, although he didn’t understand exactly what his wife meant by "doing well." "Ahem," he cleared his throat and then lowered his head, muttering softly, "Not as good as you..." "Nothing!" he quickly corrected himself, waving his hands in a panic, "I didn’t say anything, really! Absolutely nothing!" Why was he acting like the guilty party hiding something obvious? Besides, she really hadn’t heard anything! She asked, puzzled, "What did you just say?" He frowned, "Really, I didn’t say anything..." Those words of shame were hard for him to utter, unlike Third Brother, who he did not want to mimic. Looking at his burning red cheeks, although he denied it, Huiying felt that she could probably guess what it was all about. If he didn’t want to talk, she wouldn’t press him. Because understanding someone requires truly taking them to heart. Some people are slick talkers, and their words shouldn’t be trusted. Others might be awkward with words but sincere at heart. Laughing and talking in this way, the couple and their wife arrived at the Old place of Liang family. Upon arriving, even Huiying and Liang Shujun, who both knew that Yue Ning had been fixing up the house, couldn’t help but look shocked. The renovations were truly impressive. It looked completely renewed, no longer bearing any resemblance to its former dilapidation, and that wasn’t all—it wasn’t just that it had been enlarged. It was still a rural courtyard, with one large room in the east side and two smaller rooms in the west side, one of which had always been locked; that locked room had been where Mother Liang lived. But the space distribution had been unequal; the room Huiying stayed in was large and spacious, whereas the Liang brothers had to squeeze into a tiny room. Everyone used to barely fit on the small kangs, even having to take turns sleeping on the floor. But now it was different. Black tiles, white walls. Only a third of the white walls had been painted, with two-thirds still remaining, and although there were construction materials and bricks piled around during the renovation, Huiying noticed that the layout of the courtyard was very good. Not counting the drawing rooms and kitchens for entertaining guests... there were a total of seven main rooms. Each of these living quarters had a kang and a partitioned screen created a small hall, laid with wooden planks instead of the common yellow clay floors seen in most mountain homes. With a face full of curiosity, Huiying was led by Yue Ning from room to room. He pointed around as if showing off his empire: "This room is yours, the easternmost one, where you can see the sunrise just by opening the window each morning. Then, from east to west, they belong to first brother, second brother, third brother, fourth brother, mine, and Yixuan’s!" Yue Ning shared enthusiastically with his wife: "I’ve been thinking, since you always potter with those bottles and jars and herbs, I’ve set up a small pharmacy in your room. There’s no furniture yet, but when we bring fourth brother over later, we’ll let him handle all the furniture—fourth brother is good at woodworking!" "In the big brother’s room, there’s a small study; second brother likes to drink tea and play chess, so I’ve put in a tea and chess room. I haven’t decided yet for fourth brother’s room... I don’t know what he likes; I’ll discuss it with him later. Yixuan likes to paint, so I made him a studio!"
