8. It's holiday time! It's holiday time!

get out of class dismissed! get out of class dismissed!

Jin Lanyue was tiptoeing as she packed her little schoolbag, a few drops of ink staining her little skirt, like blooming black plum blossoms.

The little princess lay lazily on the rosewood table, gently poking her little tutor's chubby cheek with her finger.

"The Grand Tutor listens to you so well! When I said I wanted to sleep in, he would sternly say, 'What kind of behavior is this?' But when you said it, he actually agreed!" the princess exclaimed.

Xiao Jinlanyue stopped tidying up, tilted her head and thought for a moment: "Maybe it's because..."

Was she the tutor's teacher?

Jin Lanyue wasn't quite sure, but it seemed like she couldn't say those words.

So she thought for a moment, took out half a flattened pastry from her purse, and presented it to the princess like a treasure: "Would you like some?"

The princess looked at the fuzzy pastry and wrinkled her nose in disgust: "No need, you eat it. I'll bring you some pastries from the royal kitchen tomorrow; their pastries are delicious too."

"But...we have a day off tomorrow."

"Then the day after tomorrow!"

The little dumpling nodded blankly, then suddenly seemed to remember something, blinking its big, watery eyes and asking, "Princess, Yue'er doesn't know the name of Ni yet..."

The princess was taken aback for a moment, then proudly puffed out her little chest: "Listen carefully! My surname is Wei, and my given name is Chaoyun!"

Her eyes darted around, and she suddenly lowered her voice: "However... you can call me A-Yun, that's the nickname my mother used to call me."

Little Jin Lanyue's eyes widened in surprise: "Really? Is it really okay?"

"Of course!" the princess waved her hand generously. "From now on, you'll be my best study companion! If anyone bullies you, just mention my name."

He patted his chest and said, "I've got your back!"

"Great! The princess is protecting Yue'er!"

The two little bundles of joy held hands, and Jin Lanyue's eyes crinkled with laughter: "I'm the little moon, and you're the little cloud!"

"From now on, we're best friends!" the princess nodded. "I'll call you Little Moon, and you can call me Princess Cloud!"

"Okay! Princess Cloud!"

-

The next day.

Jin Lanyue, who didn't have to go to school, slept comfortably until the sun was high in the sky before waking up.

After waking up and washing up, the first thing I wanted to do was find my second brother to play together and go "doing good deeds".

A pale yellow figure, like a little butterfly, flitted through the Prince's Garden. Jin Lanyue skipped and hopped towards her second brother Jin Lizhi's courtyard.

Today, she specially tied a pale yellow ribbon, a gift from her second brother, into her hair. Two small silver bells were attached to the end of the ribbon, making a crisp sound with her footsteps.

"Second brother~" A childish voice called out into the courtyard, but the always smiling second brother was nowhere to be seen.

Little Jinlan Yue tiptoed and peered through the window with her chubby little hands. She saw that the Analects of Confucius, which was spread out on the desk, was mostly stained black with ink. Only a turtle drawing in the corner was still quite clear. The brush was placed crookedly next to the inkstone, and the ink in the inkstone had already dried up.

"Huh?" The little dumpling tilted its head in confusion, when it suddenly heard a familiar voice coming from inside.

It was the second brother's wet nurse. She sighed as she cleared the table: "Poor second young master, he was dragged to the courtyard by the master early this morning. I wonder how he is now..."

When it reached Jin Lanyue's ears, it was automatically filtered to mean "...Second Young Master...Master...went to the courtyard..."

Her eyes lit up, and she ran to her father's yard with her short legs.

She knows where her second brother is!

She ran quickly to the corner, and just as she was about to go inside, she heard a sound and suddenly stopped at the corner—

"Smack!"

"Aww—"

The crisp sound and howling frightened the sparrows in the tree away.

Little Jinlanyue covered her mouth and saw through the crack in the stone that her beloved second brother was lying on the stone bench, his pants half pulled down, revealing half of his white buttocks. His father's rattan cane had already made his buttocks red with several welts.

"Your father is letting you skip school! And letting you fight crickets!" With each sentence, the rattan cane fell heavily. "Your teacher said that you've been reciting the Analects for half a month and you're still stuck on 'to learn and practice what one has learned'!"

Jin Lizhi screamed in pain.

Two young servants, also around seven or eight years old, were kneeling beside him, one of whom was even tightly protecting a cricket jar in his arms.

Marquis Beiding was even angrier: "You skipped class to fight crickets! How could I have a son like you?! You're not as diligent and studious as your elder brother, nor as smart and sensible as your younger sister! All you do is eat, drink, and have fun all day long!"

Marquis Beiding grew increasingly angry as he spoke: "I really gave you the wrong name! Someone like you is called 'Li' (礼, meaning propriety)? I should have named you 'Ye' (野, meaning wild) instead! From now on, you should be called 'Jin Yezhi' (金野之, meaning Jin Wildness), not 'Jin Lizhi' (金礼之, meaning Jin Propriety)!"

Little Jin Lanyue was so frightened that she took two steps back: "Waaah... Second brother is so pitiful..."

She then bumped her head into someone's leg.

She looked up with her tearful face, meeting the calm and composed gaze of the ten-year-old young master.

"Yue'er?" Her older brother, Jin Qizhi, bent down and picked her up, gently wiping away the tears and dust from her face. "Why are you crying?"

The little boy sobbed and clung to his older brother's neck: "Daddy hit second brother...he hit him so hard...it was so scary..."

Upon hearing this, the eldest son sighed and gently patted his sister's back: "Li Zhi deserves a beating. The teacher said he skipped class six times in the past two weeks, and yesterday he even deliberately spilled ink on the book he was supposed to memorize."

Little Jinlan buried her face in her older brother's shoulder, smelling the faint scent of ink and books.

The older brother was always like that, always smelling nice, while the second brother was always covered in grass clippings and mud.

But Jin Lanyue found grass clippings and mud quite interesting.

“But…” she couldn’t help but defend her second brother, “Yue’er thinks it’s wrong to hit people! Hitting people is wrong!”

“Yue’er is right, hitting people is wrong,” the older brother said, following her lead, and then explained, “But skipping class to fight crickets is also wrong. When Father talked to him nicely, Lizhi always talked back, so Father had to resort to family discipline…”

The little dumpling seemed to understand but not quite.

Jin Qizhi continued, “Yue’er, think about it, don’t we also make mistakes and be naughty sometimes? But Father has never hit us. That’s because we know we’re wrong and can correct our mistakes. But Li Zhi knows he’s wrong but refuses to repent, so Father has no choice but to correct him like this. Once Li Zhi realizes his mistake, he’ll be fine… See, I won’t hit him anymore.”

Jin Lanyue turned around and found that her father had already put away the rattan cane and had the two pageboys quickly pull up her second brother's pants.

The second brother stopped howling, stood there covering his bottom, and kept glancing at the cricket jar.

It seems... they haven't learned their lesson at all.

"Oh..." The little dumpling still didn't quite understand, but it was a good thing that Daddy wasn't hitting his second brother anymore.

So she clenched her little fist and said, "Second brother is wrong, hitting people is bad!"

“Yes, you could say that.” Jin Qizhi nodded.

"Young Master!" came the servant's call from afar, "The master asks you about today's commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals..."

"I understand." Jin Qizhi frowned slightly, looked down at his three-year-old sister in his arms, whose face still looked like a little kitten despite him wiping it once, and suddenly said, "Yue'er, would you like to accompany your older brother to the study?"

The little dumpling's attention was immediately drawn, its big, wet eyes blinking rapidly: "Is it okay?"

"Sure, this will teach you a few new characters so you won't be fooling around with the second brother all day."

Little Jinlanyue stopped crying and started laughing. Suddenly, as if remembering something, she rummaged in her purse and finally pulled out a piece of osmanthus candy that had already melted a little: "Give it to big brother~"

Jin Qizhi didn't mind and opened her mouth to eat: "Thank you, Yue'er."

In the sunlight, a ten-year-old boy carried his three-year-old daughter through a vermilion corridor. Little Jin Lanyue, perched on her older brother's shoulder, suddenly saw a head peek out from behind the artificial hill—it was her second brother, Jin Lizhi!

Her second brother winked at her, his eyes still red, but he was already smiling as brightly as ever, and he shook the cricket jar in his hand.

It seems that his father has let him go.

Jin Lanyue smiled and was about to greet him happily when she saw her second brother make a "shh" gesture at her.

He heard calls from behind him.

Jin Lanyue understood immediately and obediently nestled back onto her older brother's shoulder.

It seems my second brother has other things to do and can't play with her today.

But it's okay, she still has her older brother.