Chapter 412 A Family of Three (First Update)

The rain was torrential.

Suzaku Avenue was shrouded in rain and mist.

Princess Xinyang sat by the window, quietly watching the heavy rain in the courtyard.

She was wearing a nightgown, as if she had just crawled out of bed.

Yu Jin came out of the flower room, closed her umbrella, dusted off the rain, and handed it to the maid beside her. Then she turned and went back into the house, saying to Princess Xinyang, "That peony has survived, but we can't let it continue like this. If it happens a few more times, even a celestial being couldn't save it."

Princess Xinyang remained silent, simply enjoying the rain.

“The rain has blown in.” Yu Jin walked over, removed the sticks supporting the window, and lowered the window. “After this rain, it should get cooler. It just so happens that the Moon Festival is coming soon.”

With no more heavy rain to see, Princess Xinyang lowered her gaze but remained silent.

Yu Jin looked at her intently: "Princess, is something on your mind?"

"I just had a dream," Princess Xinyang said. "I dreamt about that child."

Yu Jin's eyes flickered, and she tentatively asked, "Young Marquis?"

"Yes." Princess Xinyang readily admitted, pinching her left sleeve with her right hand, "He shouted that he wanted to kill me."

Yu Jin's expression changed slightly: "Princess!"

Princess Xinyang smiled faintly.

Yu Jin hesitated for a moment, then sighed, "It's getting late, Princess, you should rest early."

...

Xiao Liulang woke up in the middle of the night. He lay on the soft bed, feeling dizzy for a while before he remembered that he seemed to have fallen asleep on the table. But how did he end up in bed? And it didn't even seem to be his own bed.

"woke up?"

Gu Jiao's voice came from beside my ear.

The rain outside lessened; the torrential downpour turned into a light drizzle, and the surroundings suddenly felt cool with the arrival of autumn.

A dim oil lamp remained on the candlestick.

Xiao Liulang turned to look at Gu Jiao lying beside him. Her expression and voice were not confused at all, indicating that she had not slept at all.

The lingering palpitations from the dream gradually subsided under her gentle gaze.

"What's wrong with me?" He opened his mouth and realized that his hoarse voice didn't sound like his own at all, and his throat was also sore.

Gu Jiao said, "You got caught in the rain today and fell ill. You had a high fever before your family came back, and it was Jingkong who took care of you."

Xiao Liulang was slightly taken aback: "He... took care of me?"

Is that little monk capable of taking care of people?

Gu Jiao smiled and tapped the fever patch on his forehead: "He put this on for you."

When Xiao Jingkong had a high fever from smallpox, Gu Jiao applied this to him. She also had a box at home. She didn't expect him to remember it and even took it out to apply it to Xiao Liulang in the same way.

Xiao Liulang touched the cold and soft object on his forehead and belatedly felt a chill.

It goes without saying that it was something from her little medicine box; he'd seen the three of them stick together.

Xiao Liulang was already quite accepting of the strange items in the medicine box, but he was rather surprised that Xiao Jingkong could take care of himself.

"The little guy knows how to take care of people?" he murmured.

Gu Jiao smiled and said, "Not only that, he also fed you water, but you don't remember it. It was raining heavily at the time, and no one was home, so he put on his raincoat and went to the clinic to invite Doctor Song to our house."

"He...went that far?"

Xiao Liulang was even more surprised.

The little guy is always causing trouble at home, constantly contradicting him, making everyone panic, and easily leading people to misunderstand him as a naughty and ignorant child.

But in reality, he is much stronger and more sensible than children his age.

Gu Jiao looked at him: "So surprised?"

Xiao Liulang said truthfully, "I just didn't expect him to care about me so much."

Gu Jiao said, "He's more worried about you than me. He said you don't know how to take care of yourself. You don't even bring an umbrella when it rains. You're not even as good as him, a little kid."

Xiao Liulang explained, "I didn't expect it to rain when I went out."

He left too early; it was still dark, and he couldn't tell the time of day at all. When Xiao Jingkong left, a rosy dawn had already risen on the horizon. He had recently learned at the Imperial Academy that "Red sky at morning, sailors take warning; red sky at night, sailors' delight."

He brought his own umbrella and raincoat.

What an easy child to take care of.

Gu Jiao smiled slightly and said, "Jingkong also said, 'I know my brother-in-law left early, but couldn't he have bought an umbrella on the way? He had to come back soaked in the rain, how stupid!'"

Xiao Liulang's lips twitched. Well, he had imitated that disdainful tone perfectly.

Gu Jiao continued, "He also asked me if I hadn't given you any pocket money, which is why you couldn't even afford an umbrella."

Xiao Liulang: "..."

How did a four-year-old monk come up with so many things in his mind?

Gu Jiao threw back the covers and got out of bed. She handed him a pill and poured him a glass of hot water: "Now that you're awake, drink your medicine."

Xiao Liulang sat up, took the medicine, drank it, and finished the water.

Then he finally realized something was wrong: "How did I end up in your bed?"

Gu Jiao blinked and said very seriously, "I didn't carry you here!"

Xiao Liulang: "..."

"Go to sleep!" After putting down the teacup, Gu Jiao decisively lay down in bed and pretended to be dead!

Xiao Liulang also lay down, but did not sleep; instead, he stared at her intently.

Even with her eyes closed, Gu Jiao could feel his undeniable gaze. She opened her eyes and said, "Yes, I forgot to turn off the lights."

As she spoke, she went to extinguish the oil lamp before lying down again.

The room suddenly plunged into darkness and an eerie silence.

Xiao Liulang could hear her uneven breathing. Even in the darkness, he continued to gaze at her intently and said, "If one day you find that I am not what you see, will you be disappointed?"

"Why should I be disappointed?" Gu Jiao turned her head to him. "Besides, isn't it what I saw? Is your face fake?"

She reached out and pinched his cheek.

“…No,” he said.

Gu Jiao's fingertips moved down and touched his small pectoral muscles: "Is this fake?"

Xiao Liulang took a deep breath: "...No, not exactly."

"What about this one?"

She poked his abs with her little hand again.

Wherever her fingertips touched, it was soft and tingling, making one feel as if they were on fire.

Xiao Liulang quickly grabbed her restless little hand, worried that if he didn't stop her, her hand might poke something she shouldn't.

"It's true," he said in a hoarse voice. "Don't touch it."

Gu Jiao: "Oh."

Xiao Liulang: ...Why does that tone sound so regretful?

Xiao Liulang didn't let go of her hand, but he didn't use too much force. If she wanted, she could pull her hand away.

Gu Jiao didn't do that. She turned to face him sideways, as if that would make her see him in the pitch-black night.

Their breaths mingled endlessly in the night.

Suddenly, she hooked her finger around his and asked, "Since you are real from head to toe, then I won't be disappointed."

But what if the identity is fake?

What if I'm not the person you think I am at all?

Xiao Liulang steadied himself and mustered a great deal of courage to speak: "Have you ever considered that perhaps I am not the real..."

Ultimately, it's something I find hard to talk about.

Actually, Gu Jiao didn't mind; it didn't matter whether he was the real Xiao Liulang or not.

However, since he had brought it up in the open, she was willing to be honest with him this time.

Gu Jiao then looked at him and asked, "Not really what?"

Xiao Liulang tightened his grip on her hand: "Not the real one..."

Achoo!

A sudden sneeze came from behind him, and Xiao Liulang's body trembled. He turned around abruptly and looked to his other side.

It was too dark for him to see, but when he reached out and touched it, he indeed felt a little glutinous rice ball yawning.

"What...what is he doing here?"

Xiao Liulang was terrified and broke out in a cold sweat!

Luckily, I didn't do anything to Gu Jiao, otherwise—

Gu Jiao said "Oh," and then said, "He was worried about you, so he came along. He probably needed to pee, so he drank a bowl of pear soup before going to bed."

As Gu Jiao spoke, she reached for a tinderbox on the bedside table and lit the oil lamp.

Sure enough, the drowsy little Jingkong had already covered his bottom. He was dreaming that he was looking for a toilet everywhere, and he finally found one!

“I’ll do it,” Xiao Liulang said.

He had barely lifted Xiao Jingkong up, and before he could even pull his pants off, Xiao Jingkong peed...

Definitely a dark history!

Xiao Liulang was covered in urine, his face darkening: "..."

The next morning, Xiao Liulang was fine except for a sore throat and hoarseness.

Xiao Jingkong woke up comfortably in Jiaojiao's bed, feeling refreshed.

He stretched and went out of the east room, and saw Xiao Liulang sitting in the main room organizing books. The books had been wet by the rain that had blown in last night, but the sky had cleared up this morning, and he planned to take the books out to air them.

He also saw Xiao Jingkong coming out of the east room and raised an eyebrow, saying, "You wet your pants last night."

Little Jingkong glared at him: "You're talking nonsense! How could I wet the bed! I stopped wetting my pants when I was one year old!"

That's the absolute truth; he's the only baby in the temple who doesn't wet his pants!

Xiao Liulang chuckled and said, "If you don't believe me, go and see for yourself. Your wet pants haven't been washed yet."

Xiao Jingkong ran to the backyard and saw that the pants he wore before going to bed were really wet!

At this moment, he was wearing another pair of pants.

Little Jingkong swayed, her little hands covering her chest in disbelief: "This...this..."

Xiao Liulang walked over, a smirk playing on his lips: "How about it? I didn't lie to you, did I?"

Little Jingkong waved his little fists, jumping up and down in a panic: "I-I-I didn't wet my pants! It must be you! You wet your pants! You peed on me and you're blaming me! Look! Your pants are here too! They're wet!"

Xiao Liulang: "That's because you peed on me!"

Xiao Jingkong firmly refused to believe that he had wet his pants. "You bad brother-in-law, you're such a big man, and you still wet your pants? And after you've peed, you're blaming me. Shame on you!"

"snort!"

Little Jingkong snorted and walked away!

Future Divine General of the Six Kingdoms: This divine general has no such dark history ╭(╯^╰)╮

(End of this chapter)