Chapter 339 Baby (Fourth Update)

The Crown Princess clenched her handkerchief tightly.

Xiao Liulang paid the bill and left with Gu Jiao.

Despite her calm demeanor and apparent lack of intoxication, Xiao Liulang could tell she was truly drunk.

He... pretended to be quite serious.

Xiao Liulang took her soft, calloused hand and stepped out of the restaurant.

The Crown Princess felt a pang of unease as she watched the two of them together, oblivious to the stares of those around them.

Although reason tells her that this is not Aheng, but just a lowly illegitimate child, she still can't help but wonder if Aheng would have grown into such a charming man if he were still alive.

It's not that Xiao Heng wasn't handsome in the past, but back then he was still quite young and had the handsomeness of a child. While he could still amaze people, he didn't inspire any romantic feelings.

Unlike the Xiao Liulang of today, who possesses a unique charm that lies between a boy and a man, his appearance, his aura, and even his aloofness and coldness that keeps people at arm's length, all of these fascinate women.

He seemed to be a bit taller than the Crown Prince; before Xiao Heng died, he was barely up to the Crown Prince's chin.

"Linlang?" the Crown Prince called her.

The Crown Princess's eyelashes trembled slightly: "My handkerchief is dirty. I'll go to the carriage to change into a new one."

She then got up and walked out.

She didn't get into the carriage, but instead followed in the direction Xiao Liulang and Gu Jiao had left.

The two turned into a small alley, and Gu Jiao stopped walking and squatted down to draw circles.

Xiao Liulang looked at her amusedly: "Why aren't you leaving?"

Gu Sansui: "I can't walk anymore."

Xiao Liulang: "Then what should we do?"

Gu San Sui: "I need a kiss before I can leave."

Xiao Liulang squatted down, looking at her with deep eyes: "Are you sure?"

Gu San Sui nodded.

Xiao Liulang kissed her on the forehead.

Gu San Sui stood up, but still didn't leave.

One kiss isn't enough.

When the Crown Princess followed them to the alley entrance, she saw the two of them in an ambiguous situation inside the alley.

In the dark alley, two figures were entwined. Xiao Liulang pinned her against the wall, wrapped one arm around her back, embraced her slender waist, pulled her into his arms, and held the back of her head with his other hand, lowering his head to cover her.

Even through the thick darkness of the night, the Crown Princess could still feel the man's possessiveness and tenderness.

He clearly possessed a strong, domineering aura, yet he restrained it with utmost care.

How could he... how could he...

"Linlang, Linlang, Linlang!"

The Crown Prince shook the Crown Princess's shoulder.

The Crown Princess suddenly came to her senses. She was already back by the Crown Prince's side, but her mind was filled with the image of Xiao Liulang bowing his head to kiss Gu Jiao.

From a distance, she couldn't see clearly, but the ambiguous atmosphere filled her entire chest like a raging fire...

She composed herself and smiled awkwardly, "Your Highness."

The prince looked at her in confusion and said, "The food is getting cold, why aren't you eating? I called you for a long time but you didn't hear me. What were you thinking about so intently?"

"I..." The Crown Princess was speechless for a moment, her mind was a little confused.

The Crown Prince frowned: "Is it that Xiao Liulang? You seemed to have lost your soul when you saw him. You remembered Aheng, didn't you? You really haven't forgotten Aheng!"

The Crown Princess lowered her eyes and said, "Your Highness, please calm down. I wasn't thinking about him just now, but about the girl beside him."

"That ugly woman with a birthmark on her face?" The crown prince was still skeptical.

In order to clear herself of suspicion that she was thinking about Aheng, the Crown Princess had no choice but to bite the bullet and steer the conversation toward Gu Jiao: "Does Your Highness know who that woman is?"

"Who is it?" the crown prince asked casually.

The Crown Princess said, "When she was with Xiao Xiuzhuan, wasn't the Crown Prince curious about who she was?"

The Crown Prince said nonchalantly, "It's just his wife, his concubine, or some other woman. I've seen it all before, nothing strange about it. What I'm curious about is, why would Xiao Liulang, a newly appointed top scholar, choose such an unattractive woman?"

“She is the daughter of the Marquis of Ding’an,” the Crown Princess said.

The Crown Prince was taken aback: "Miss Gu? I've seen Miss Gu before, she doesn't look like this!"

The Crown Princess said gently, "The second young lady of the Gu family that Your Highness saw was a country girl who was switched at birth. This one is the proper legitimate daughter of the Marquis's family."

"Oh." The crown prince suddenly realized, "I remember now, I have indeed heard of such a thing."

It's not that the Crown Prince didn't take it to heart; rather, there are many people in the capital, and many wealthy and powerful families. There are far more dramatic stories than this. He just listens to them as after-dinner conversation and doesn't really bother to remember them.

The Crown Prince frowned: "Then she..."

The Crown Princess said, "She is Xiao Liulang's wife. The two met in the countryside and got married. It was only after the marriage that they found out that she was the daughter who was switched at birth."

The Crown Prince snorted: "It seems that Xiao Liulang is quite lucky. A poor country boy, he casually married a village girl and ended up marrying the daughter of a marquis. Although she is a bit ugly, her status is not bad."

The Crown Princess paused for a moment, then said, "But I heard that this Miss Gu has not returned to the Gu family."

"Why don't you go back?" the crown prince asked, puzzled.

"I don't know," the Crown Princess shook her head.

The Crown Prince thought for a moment and said, "Perhaps she is too low-class, and the Marquis of Ding'an's mansion cannot afford to lose face like this."

The Crown Princess shook her head slightly: "Does the Crown Prince know about bellows..."

Halfway through his sentence, a hearty laugh rang out from the courtyard gate: "Second Brother!"

"Fourth Prince!" The Crown Prince's eyes lit up, and he quickly waved to him, "Why are you here too? Please sit down!"

"I just heard they opened a new shop. I happened to be passing by and didn't expect to see Second Brother here." The Fourth Prince came to the table of the two of them, cupped his hands and bowed to the Crown Princess as well, "Second Sister-in-law."

The Crown Princess smiled and nodded.

The two brothers had their own things to say, and the previous topic was not continued.

The Crown Princess silently drank the osmanthus wine in her cup.

Meanwhile, Xiao Liulang brought someone home.

This osmanthus wine was far too strong, far surpassing the wine Xiao Liulang brought back from the provincial capital and Gu Chengfeng's pear blossom wine. Gu Jiao was already drunk as soon as she got home.

She collapsed face down onto the soft bed and fell fast asleep!

Gu Jiao slept too soundly, and when she woke up, the men in the family had already gone to work or to school.

Yu Ya'er brought in a bowl of hangover soup: "Miss, you're awake? Before he left, the young master told me that you should drink a bowl of hangover soup as soon as you woke up."

Gu Jiao was fine, but since it was her husband's wish, she obediently drank it.

She went to see Yao, and Yao was fine, except... the baby's movements were quite strange.

"If it doesn't move at all, I'm afraid it might be..." Yao didn't say anything that sounded unlucky.

Gu Jiao took out her stethoscope and listened to the baby's heartbeat: "It's normal, don't worry."

After holding it in for a while, Yao said with a wronged tone, "He (she) is so lazy."

Except when Lord Gu comes here, when the little guy moves around a lot and kicks everywhere with his little feet, he doesn't move at all the other times.

If it weren't for her daughter's ability to hear the baby's heartbeat, Mrs. Yao would probably have really thought something was wrong with the baby in her belly.

"Isn't this how it is with the first pregnancy?" Gu Jiao asked.

"You and Yan'er are so adorable and playful in my belly." Yao Shi couldn't sleep all night because of it. She felt extremely uncomfortable during that pregnancy, but this one is much more comfortable. However, she is still feeling uneasy.

Gu Jiao nodded: "Hmm, then, maybe she really is a lazy baby."

Yao's belly swelled up.

It was like a silent protest.

Gu Jiao went to the clinic, and to her surprise, she saw Huang Zhong.

Huang Zhong has been following Lord Gu to build his residence outside the capital for some time now, and hasn't been back for quite a while.

"Young Miss," Huang Zhong bowed respectfully.

"Is something the matter?" Gu Jiao asked.

"Ah, it's like this, the Marquis asked me to bring some silver notes to Miss." Huang Zhong said, taking out a brocade box from his pocket. "This is one thousand taels, please accept it, Miss."

"Oh." Gu Jiao accepted it.

Huang Zhong was completely bewildered.

No, Miss, isn't your reaction a bit off?

Why don't you ask the Marquis why he suddenly sent you silver notes?

The truth is that the old Marquis somehow found out that the Marquis had cut off the young master's monthly allowance. He was furious and gave the Marquis a good beating. Afterward, he forced the Marquis to open his private treasury and take out a sum of money to send to the young lady.

Forget it, the young lady is unconventional in her ways. She even beats her own father whenever she wants. How can you expect her to play by the rules of ordinary people?

Huang Zhong gave up on treatment, but he had to make sure he explained everything. He continued, "This thousand taels is for the young lady, to thank her for taking care of the young master. In addition, there is a monthly allowance of ten taels of silver for the young master. From now on, the manor will send the young master two ten-tael sums of silver every month."

Gu Jiao nodded and said, "I understand. I will pass it on to Ayan."

In the evening, Gu Jiao returned home.

Gu Yan, who was shoveling chicken droppings, received the ten taels of monthly allowance from Lord Gu. He put his hands on his hips and laughed three times!

"Little monk!"

He found Xiao Jingkong in the vegetable garden in the front yard, and smugly shoveled a shovel and a small dustpan into Xiao Jingkong's little hands: "Alright, from now on, you can shovel chicken droppings yourself!"

Xiao Jingkong frowned and looked at him: "Are you slacking off again?"

Gu Yan raised an eyebrow and smiled, bent down, and held out two silver ingots to him, saying smugly, "See this? What's this?"

Xiao Jingkong glanced at him sideways: "Are you stupid? Why are you asking me this!"

"Hiss—" Gu Yan gasped in anger. He knelt down on one knee and looked at the little guy, saying, "What I mean is, I have money now, I can pay back the money I owe you, and I won't have to do odd jobs to pay off my debts anymore!"

"Really?" Xiao Jingkong drawled, looking at him with a hint of doubt.

Gu Yan chuckled and said, "Of course! This is real silver. If you don't believe me, go ask Jiao Jiao!"

A typical four-year-old child wouldn't recognize the specific dimensions of silver, but the little landlord had been collecting rent for over half a year, at thirty taels a month, so he was quite familiar with silver.

“This is ten taels,” said Xiao Jingkong.

“Yes, it’s ten taels!” Gu Yan nodded.

Xiao Jingkong said "Oh," and then asked, "Do you know how much you owe me?"

This question stumped Gu Yan.

Yes, how many taels did he owe the little guy again?

Xiao Jingkong put down his small shovel and winnowing basket, took out a small ledger from his bosom, and said to Gu Yan seriously as he flipped through it: "You borrowed a total of fifty taels from me, at an interest rate of three percent. That is to say, the monthly interest is one and a half taels. You have been in debt for nine months, and the total interest is thirteen and a half taels."

Gu Yan was dumbfounded: "But...but I've worked for so long, how do you calculate this!"

Xiao Jingkong shook his head helplessly and broke it down for him, calculating in his mind without using an abacus: "You have four main sources of income - feeding the chickens once a day, five copper coins; walking the chickens once a day, five copper coins; cleaning up the chicken droppings once a day, five copper coins; praising me in various ways once a day, ten copper coins."

Gu Yan was completely bewildered: "Why are you praising me for having so much money?" He hadn't thought anything of it before, but listening more closely today, he felt like he was being ripped off!

Xiao Jingkong said in a serious tone, "Isn't it because I have too many advantages that you can make money more easily? I'm doing this for your own good!"

Gu Yan looked at him with an expression that seemed to say, "Do I look like someone who's easy to fool?"

Xiao Jingkong: You are indeed very easy to fool when it comes to academic matters!

Xiao Jingkong cleared his throat, turned to a page, looked at the data in the ledger, and continued, "But you haven't praised me for eight months! You only praised me for one month, which was three hundred copper coins; you cleaned the chicken droppings one hundred times, which was five hundred copper coins; you walked the chicks twenty times, which was one hundred copper coins; you fed the chicks thirty-five times, which was one hundred and seventy-five copper coins. That's a total of one tael of silver and seventy-five copper coins. Add to the ten taels of silver you have on hand, and that's eleven taels and seventy-five copper coins."

As he said this, he closed the small ledger and sighed like a little adult, "Your entire fortune isn't even enough to pay the interest to me."

Gu Yan stared in disbelief: "This...this..."

Xiao Jingkong turned another page: "I haven't even calculated how you ruined my chicks, deducting 100 copper coins. And for saying I'm not cute, deducting 500 copper coins!"

Gu Yan exploded: "Why did you deduct so much?!"

Xiao Jingkong said, "Xiao Ba stole chicken feed three times. I'll deduct two hundred copper coins from your account."

Gu Yan glanced at the silly little dog.

Hachi lay on the ground and covered his eyes with his paws.

I can't see it, ......

Gu Yan was so angry she was sobbing. "You actually stole the chicken feed! Do you even remember you're a dog?!"

Gu Yan gritted her teeth: "I...I...how would I know if you just wrote it down randomly?"

Xiao Jingkong said frankly and confidently, "I always have Jiaojiao sign the accounts I keep. Jiaojiao is the guarantor. If you have any questions, you can ask Jiaojiao directly."

Gu Baobao felt wronged.

Gu Baobao didn't say anything.

Xiao Jingkong put the small ledger back into his pocket, bent down to pick up the small shovel and dustpan from the ground, put them in Gu Yan's hands, and patted Gu Yan on the shoulder...

He originally wanted to pat Gu Yan's shoulder, but Gu Yan was too small to reach, so he patted Gu Yan's thigh instead: "Alright, now you can go shovel chicken poop, good luck, Brother Yan!"

Gu Baobao: Waaah~

(End of this chapter)