Chapter 21: Concerned father.

Early morning,the sun shone brightly above the horizon. The early winter's snow melted to reveal green and lush patch over the land.

The orange sky painted with a hint of red was beautifully surreal. The birds chirped giving a morning call as life slowly awake. The environment permeated with the soft and fresh scent of nature.

The morning soundlessly encouraged after the night healed the souls.

The Jiang family was equally peaceful with it's residents running in and out. The elder's sat in the garden , leisurely sipping on teas with newspaper in their hands, chatting and laughing from time to time.

Where were the children though?

Haha.

The Jiang family's children were in the backyard , though not so peacefully. The four jiang siblings maintained horse stance as they half bent looking straight ahead. Little Yan Yixing stood straight in an seemingly military stance.

The five children sweated profusely under the morning sun, still maintaining their postures.

Well, they were punished by father Jiang to remain as it is until they were called over for their breakfast. They were allowed to take breaks however not allowed to leave the backyard unless asked to.

However,no one uttered a word of complain, aware that father Jiang was already lenient enough because of Jiang XueYue's injuries and Yan Yixing's age. He could have punished them differently but didn't want to be partial with his children as they were equally in the wrong in this time.

Old Madam Jiang craned her neck to look through the window from time to time.

"Just go over and ask them to come if you want to, stop acting like a kid."

Old Master Jiang snorted at his wife's childish behaviour.

" As if someone wasn't worriedly pacing around earlier."

Old Madam retorted, averting her eyes to look at the old man.

In fact, they both were aware of their concern. They were clearly worried seeing their grandchildren trembling under the sun, refusing to budge. They wanted to rush out and call them over and ask them to rest.

The children of Jiang family were never spoon fed since they could remember. Though they were never mistreated, it wasn't so right to say that they were pampered either.

The elders would only provide emotional and financial support,as for whether they could achieve it ,it all depended on themselves and their abilities.

However,they knew better then to intervene. They trusted their son and wanted to respect his choice of parenting. He was more than capable to teach his children well. After all, strict teachers produce outstanding students.

Though it was a painful sight to watch, they had to agree that it was indeed their fault for being reckless. Thus, all they could do was to patiently wait for their grandchildren to complete their punishment.

Yet again, Old Masters and madam were not the only one's fretting over the children. In fact Master Jiang too sneakily stealed glances of the backyard and then looked over the kitchen. All he wished now was that

Madam Jiang and Aunt Jiang could wrap up with the breakfast soon so that the children could come in.

Madam Jiang too took the initiative to help the helpers in the breakfast preparation so to take less time.

Aunt tan had already prepared the stuffing and dumplings wrappers the previous night as Jiang XueYue had requested for soup dumplings when they sat to watch the TV together after seeing soup dumplings in some random TV show.

As soon as Aunt Tan served the the congee bowl down, Madam Jiang quickly ran over to the living to announce.

"Breakfast's prepared, come over."

"Good. Good."

The elder's claimed with a sigh of relief. While Father Jiang almost jumped out of his seat to cheer but fortunately held back.

He had never been this happy over a breakfast before.

"Stop standing there, go call the kids."

Old Master barked at his dumb son, who had turned stupid with happiness.

"Yes, Father."

Master Jiang quickly remarked as he ran towards the garden to call his precious pearls back.

Yup, now that he felt bad, they were precious pearls unlike the little brats from earlier.

Back in the backyard, the situation was pretty stable despite the slight trembling of Jiang XueYue and Yan Yixing. The elder two Jiang brother's were in the military and Jiang Xuesheng despite being in his graduation second year would usually train with the males in military on regular basis.

Though Jiang XyeYue was feeling painful all over, she at least could hold this much pain given her good physical resilience. Yan Yixing strangely faired well too, except for the time to time instability.

It was not like they didn't feel the pain or didn't want to rush home, it was just that they realised their misbehave and carrying out the punishment was their form of reflection.

They had regretted their reckless behaviours truly when they witnessed the raw form of worry in the elder's eyes behind their fury.

The window was straight in the front and one could see the interior clearly if one was to look through it. They had witnessed their grandpa pacing around and grandma constantly looking over in their direction. They could see their mother who usually didn't cook rush in the kitchen to help fasten the process and their father constantly rushing behind the door to observe them.

He was not observing to see if they were carrying out the punishment properly or not but was instead making sure that five of them were alright and would not fall sick. As his children, the siblings understood this much about their stern but gentle father.

This man was the typical old example of military man, who came out to be stern and all strict but was in fact a kind and gentle father who just wanted his children following the right path.

"Come in now."

Father Jiang appeared with an emotionless face as he said indifferently. He thought he could act his pretence well but the newspapers in his hands gave him away.

How much of a hurry was he in to walk out from the from the house without even keeping the paper down.

"Yes Father."

The siblings cried out at once as they quickly ran inside while Jiang Xuejing carried little Yixing in his arms to rush inside.