Princess Consort Jing jokingly scolded, “Stinky brat, you dared to threaten your lady mother. Be careful of your lord father spanking your bottoms!! Alright, Lady Mother understands. I will send your younger cousin back as soon as possible.”
Looking at her youngest son’s broad and straight back, Princess Consort Jing’s heart was filled with emotions. Her son had finally grown up. He could gradually control his emotions without being affected by the negative energy that he perceived. Didn’t her son appear quite cunning and amusing with his childish ‘threat’ earlier?
Early the next day, Jiang Zixian missed another opportunity at the dining table again. Her aunt told her that Older Brother Yang had gone out early in the morning. Was Older Brother Yang really this busy? He must be avoiding her! She refused to accept this. With her beautiful appearance, alluring figure, and excellent schemes, there was no way that she couldn’t get Royal Prince Yang!!
In the main courtyard’s parlor room of the General’s Estate, Yu Xiaocao carried the chubby Little Linlin with slight difficulty to the dining table. She looked strangely at Royal Prince Yang, who sat calmly at the table, and joked, “Young Royal Prince, could it be that the breakfast at the Prince Jing’s Estate doesn’t suit your taste so you’re bumming a meal at our General’s Estate?”
“This child, is that how you should speak to Royal Prince Yang?” Lady Fang glared at her in disapproval, and then smiled at Royal Prince Yang, “This lass is used to speaking casually, so please don’t take it to heart.”
Zhu Junyang’s gaze didn’t even shift as he nodded seriously and said, “The chef in the Prince Jing’s Estate is definitely not as skilled as Xiaocao.”
Yu Xiaocao rolled her eyes at him and said, “Who are you coaxing? You think I don’t know that your family’s chef came from a family of imperial chefs. His culinary skills are even higher than that of the chefs at Zhenxiu Restaurant. Heh heh… are you hiding here because you can’t endure the attention of the beauty?”
Zhu Junyang looked at her, raised his eyebrows, and said, “Can’t endure the attention of the beauty? Where did you learn such an impudent remark? It’s enough to just mention it here in this parlor room, lest other people heard you and say that the young miss of the general’s household acts in an undignified manner!”
Yu Xiaocao curled her lips, made a funny face at him, and said, “Since you’re evading the topic of our discussion, I must have guessed correctly!! Who would have thought that the young royal prince has the potential of being ‘a handsome man who causes calamity’ ah!”
Seeing that she was speaking more and more outrageously, Lady Fang patted her shoulders twice and said, “What ‘a handsome man who causes calamity’? I have only heard of ‘a beauty who causes calamity’! Why do you have so many weird phrases in your brain? Cao’er, if you continue to speak so recklessly, I will invite a senior palace servant to teach you some proper etiquette!”
“There’s no need, right? I have a new project, so I need to go back to Dongshan Village in two days…” Yu Xiaocao’s face instantly turned pale. When she heard about a senior palace servant teaching her manner, she thought of the scene of the ugly old palace servant pricking the female lead with needles in My X Princess [1].
Zhu Junyang thought of those noble young ladies who all seemed as if even their breathing were calculated. They all seemed to be exactly the same, which was extremely boring. Hence, he said, “Actually, Xiaocao is very good right now. She’s carefree like a little wild horse, so there’s no need to restrict her.”
Yu Xiaocao blinked her eyes at the young royal prince and nodded in agreement, “Yes, that’s right! I think that those so-called noble young ladies are all really fake, like they’re wearing masks. They’re not living in an unrestrained and free manner at all, so there’s nothing to be envious about.”
Lady Fang also felt that her daughter’s temperament was pretty good and was just somewhat eccentric at times. She thought about it and said, “After this year’s autumn harvest and when it isn’t as busy at home, you come to the capital again. I’ll teach you how to engage in social activities and some etiquettes of interaction. You should also know some of the rules of the imperial palace. There’s nothing bad with learning a little more!”
Zhu Junyang nodded and said, “Mhm, that works!”
Yu Xiaocao lowered her head to look at Little Linlin’s chubby hands and thought, ‘We can think about the matters in autumn when it’s autumn.’ The project that she had in mind should be implemented by autumn. At that time, she could just come up with another excuse to avoid coming again!
Little Linlin, who was nestled within his older sister’s hands, saw the fish porridge in front of himself. His eyes immediately lit up, and he stared at the bowl of porridge without blinking. He patted Yu Xiaocao’s arm with his plump little hands and mumbled, “Eat, eat…”
Little Linlin, who was almost one year old, had begun to learn to speak. Lady Fang never expected that she had taught him to say ‘father’ and ‘mother’ for such a long time, but her son’s first word ended up being ‘eat’! He would definitely grow up to be a foodie.
Seeing the skinny Yu Xiaocao holding a chubby baby and her fair hands had turned red from the patting, Zhu Junyang felt somewhat displeased in his heart, “Isn’t there a wet nurse? Why are you always taking other people’s jobs? Would they be able to take their wages with ease?”
The wet nurse, who stood on the side, sweated profusely within her heart. She quickly tried to take the young master back, but Little Linlin didn’t cooperate. ‘Older Sister’s embrace is so comfortable ah. It’s fragrant and soft. Older Sister feeds me yummy food. I don’t want the wet nurse: I want Older Sister!!’ Little Linlin desperately pushed away the wet nurse’s hands, and anxiously cried, “No, no!!”
Zhu Junyang stood up. With his hands under the little guy’s armpits, Zhu Junyang picked him up and stuffed him into the wet nurse’s hands. Little Linlin kicked his chubby little legs, but when he turned and saw the dark-faced royal prince, he pouted in fright. He turned his body and looked in the direction of Yu Xiaocao, “Sister! Sister——”
Lady Fang felt sad in her heart. She took her son and carried him in her embrace. She tapped his small nose and said, “You little heartless fellow. Your older sister has only come for two days, yet you already got bribed by her tasty food. I have taught you to say ‘mother’ for so long, but you still haven’t learned it. However, you can say ‘sister’ quite clearly ah!”
Linglong laughed on the side, “Madam, this shows that Young Miss and Young Master are fated. You should be very happy that they have such a deep sister-brother relationship.”
Yu Xiaocao picked up Little Linlin’s personal bowl and broke the fillet into smaller pieces. She scooped up a spoonful and carefully checked whether there were any bones inside. The fish porridge was made with snakehead fish, which didn’t have a lot of bones. However, it was still better to be more careful since it was being fed to a child.
“Come on, follow Older Sister and call—Mother…Mother…” Yu Xiaocao lured the little fellow with the fish porridge.
Sure enough, Little Linlin was lured by the fragrant smell. All of his attention was focused on the spoon, which he was very familiar with, “Eat, eat… Sister… Eat!”
His cute appearance was seriously too adorable, but Yu Xiaocao didn’t compromise. She suppressed her smile and said, “You can only eat the fish porridge if you learn how to say ‘mother’! Come, follow me—Mother… Don’t grab it. If you don’t call ‘mother’, Older Sister will eat up all of the fish porridge!”
As she said that, she delivered the spoon to her own mouth. Seeing this, Little Linlin immediately became anxious and turned to look aggrievedly at Lady Fang. He pointed at Yu Xiaocao, who had already put the fish porridge into her own mouth, and complained tearfully, “Mother—eat… eat…”
When Lady Fang heard her son calling her ‘mother’ for the first time, she was so elated that tears welled up in her eyes. She softly said, “Good, good! Since our Lin’er wants to eat fish porridge, Mother will feed the fish porridge to Lin’er!!”
Yu Xiaocao washed the spoon with boiled water, and then she scooped up another spoonful of the porridge. This time, she didn’t tease the little fellow and directly delivered it into Little Linlin, who was waiting to be fed. Yu Xiaocao had woken up early in the morning to make the fillet porridge in the small kitchen. The porridge was soft and aromatic, while the fish was delicious and tender. So, it was the best supplementary food for children.
After Little Linlin ate the various supplementary foods that Yu Xiaocao made these two days, he didn’t even drink milk anymore, which saved him from the painful experience of weaning.
After he finished the bowl of fish porridge, Little Linlin burped and continued to stare at other people’s fish porridge. Lady Fang was afraid that he would overeat, so she didn’t dare to feed him anymore and told the wet nurse to take him back to his room.
“Don’t forget to feed Little Linlin the medicine!” Yu Xiaocao couldn’t help but remind her.
When Little Linlin heard the word ‘medicine’, his face instantly wrinkled up and he looked as if he was about to cry. The wet nurse quickly coaxed, “We’re not eating it. Our Young Master won’t eat that bitter medicine, but we’re eating the sweet sugar water instead. You just ate it last night. Did Young Master forget?”
When the sugar water was mentioned, Little Linlin’s tears immediately stopped like it was tap water. ‘After drinking the yummy sugar water, my throat feels very comfortable and I won’t cough anymore!’
While the wet nurse prepared the loquat leaf cough syrup, Little Linlin stared fixedly at her as if he was supervising her to ensure that she didn’t change the sugar water into the bitter medicine. When she tried to feed him the first spoon, he still had his lips pursed together. He lightly touched it with his lips, and then licked his lips. After he confirmed that it was indeed sweet, he drank it in big mouthfuls.
Yu Xiaocao watched from the side and said with a smile, “Godmother, Younger Brother is really smart. He already knows that he needs to guard against others deceiving him at such a young age!”
Lady Fang showed a gratified smile on her face, but then sighed and said, “It’s just that he has a weak constitution, and thus easily falls ill.”
“Children have weak immunity. I know a prescription for enhancing one’s immunity. In the next two days, I will make it into a honey paste. Mix it with some water and drink it at least three times daily.” What honey paste? In actuality, it was just an excuse to cover Yu Xiaocao’s usage of the mystic-stone water. Adding honey would give it a sweet taste, which children favored.
Zhu Junyang was bored to death as he sat on the side. Seeing that she had finished breakfast and feeding medicine, she should have time to pay attention to him now, right? He cleared his throat and said, “Xiaocao, Lady Mother knows that you have come to the capital, so she wants to invite you to come visit to our estate.”
“It’s our negligence. When we were at Tanggu Town, Her Highness took great care of us, so it’s only right and proper that we visit her.” Lady Fang asked Royal Prince Yang to wait for a moment. She picked a set of clothing for Yu Xiaocao to change into, and then had Hupo comb her hair into a cute and lovely hairstyle. After that, she personally prepared a gift that was neither too conspicuous nor disrespectful, and took her goddaughter to Prince Jing’s Estate.
Royal Prince Yang, who rode on a tall steed, followed behind the General’s Estate’s horse carriage all the way to the Prince Jing’s Estate. Some of the noble young masters in the capital recognized Royal Prince Yang. Upon seeing that it wasn’t Princess Consort Jing’s carriage, they were very curious about who would have such a great honor to be personally escorted by someone favored by the emperor.
They entered the Prince Jing’s Estate through the side entrance. Meixiang had been waiting by the festooned gate. When she saw the mother and daughter pair, Meixiang smiled politely and said, “Lady Fang, it has been a long time since you have come to chat with Her Highness. Our mistress really misses you ah!”
With a smile, Lady Fang politely replied, “My child is still young, so it’s hard to leave him alone! I’ll personally apologize to Her Highness when I see her later!”
Yu Xiaocao followed behind her godmother with a smile and quietly listened to the two of them exchanging polite greetings. However, her eyes weren’t idle. It was a rare chance to come to the Prince Jing’s Estate, so she would treat it as a tour. The courtyard was surrounded by green walls and lush weeping willows. With flower filled corridors on all sides and decorative stone mountains along the pathways in the courtyard, the entire courtyard appeared elegant and magnificent…
