Chapter 11
Xiao Chuan skipped dinner and slept until the hour of Yin (3-5 AM). After finishing his morning exercises as usual, seeing that it was getting light, he went to the children's courtyard.
His trip led him to capture Xiao Shan as he fled.
The tiny little ball of flesh, dressed in a pomegranate-red coat and wearing a fluffy mink hat, carefully closed the door and began to rush forward at a faster pace.
Pu Qing told him that Xiao Shan was unusually affectionate towards Yu Nu at first sight, and insisted that Yu Nu hug him, otherwise he would cry uncontrollably.
He found it strange and thought that the servants in the mansion were exaggerating the closeness between the two.
To confirm whether Xiao Shan was really going to find Yu Nu, Xiao Chuan followed her and caught her by the back of her collar when she ran to the door of the side room.
Why are you running into other people's rooms instead of sleeping?
Xiao Chuan had tried his best to soften his tone when speaking to the little girl, but it was clearly not enough for Xiao Shan.
Startled by the grab on his back, Xiao Shan clenched his fists and curled up in front of his chest like a frightened animal, his eyes wide open, still filled with terror even when he saw that it was Xiao Chuan who appeared.
"You're afraid of me now that you've seen me?"
She feared the relatives who had been around her since birth, but none of them seemed to care about Yu Nu, who had only been there for a few days.
Xiao Chuan glanced at the tightly closed door and scoffed. He wondered what strange magic Yu Nu possessed. Could it be a special inheritance from their prestigious family?
Xiao Shan knows Xiao Chuan, but that doesn't mean she likes him or wants to be taken away by him.
He had just taken a step back when Xiao Shan screamed. The girl's shrill voice, accompanied by wailing, caught Xiao Chuan off guard. It was too late to cover her mouth.
"Why are you crying? I'm just taking you back, not punishing or scolding you."
Xiao Chuan's voice carried a hint of helplessness.
Xiao Shan cried a lot when she was first born, but after she was about six months old and lost her grandmother, she probably knew that she would not have any close elders to love her, so she cried much less.
He has hardly heard her cry in the past two years.
Who would have thought that after being well-behaved in front of him for two years, she would cry uncontrollably at a time when she shouldn't be making a sound?
Could it be that she thinks Yu Nu will love and care for her like her grandmother did?
"Is Commander Xiao here to see my wife?"
A tall man stood outside the room. Shuanghua and Shiya were startled. After calming down, they noticed the man's clothes and the young lady Xiao in his arms. Only then did Shuanghua tentatively ask a question.
Since Miss Xiao is here, it's very likely that she followed the same pattern as last time and secretly went to the side room to find her master, only this time Xiao Chuan discovered her halfway through.
But Xiao Chuan just held the person he caught and stood outside the room without leaving. Seeing this, Shuanghua could only ask him if he was looking for Mi Yao.
When Shuanghua asked him a question, Xiao Chuan did not answer directly, but said, "Don't let her cry."
Seeing that Xiao Shan rarely cried, and that threats were useless and he didn't know how to comfort a child, Xiao Chuan simply handed her over to a maid.
Holding the young lady in her arms, Shuanghua quickly bounced her around. Seeing that Xiao Shan was still crying loudly, she winked at Shi Ya, signaling her to ask her mistress how to handle the situation.
Shiya entered the room, and Shuanghua dared not let Xiao Chuan wait at the door: "Governor, why don't you wait in the small hall next door? A servant has already gone to find the young lady's nanny. With a personal nanny to comfort the young lady, she should stop crying soon."
Xiao Chuan didn't move, his narrow eyes fixed on the motionless carved wooden door.
"Bring the person in."
A woman's sleepy, languid voice rang out, and Shuanghua breathed a sigh of relief, looking at Xiao Chuan: "Then this servant carried the young lady inside?"
Xiao Chu glanced at Xiao Shan, who stopped crying as soon as she heard Mi Yao's voice. She really wanted to go in with her to see what Mi Yao was capable of, not even showing her face, but just a lazy instruction that stopped the child from crying.
However, he was still rational. Since Xiao Shan didn't cry, he didn't stay any longer and turned to find Pu Qing, wanting to know what he had missed in the past two days. He and Yu Nu hadn't even had their wedding ceremony yet, and he didn't even realize he had a wife. Xiao Shan, on the other hand, treated Yu Nu like her own mother.
*
Before Shiya could even enter the house to ask, Miyao was already awakened by the little radish's crying.
Lying in bed with her eyes open, she had hoped that Xiao Chuan, as a father, would be of some use and take away the noisy little radish, but the little radish kept crying.
Realizing that Xiao Chuan was trying to shift the blame onto her, his fiancée who hadn't even gone through the wedding ceremony yet, she could only tell Shuanghua to bring the person into the house.
"You little vixen, are you perhaps a reincarnation of a lecherous ghost? You've been so bewitched by me that you don't even recognize your own father anymore, only wanting to sleep with me."
Shuanghua went to prepare hot water to wipe Xiaoshan's face. Miyao looked at Xiaoluobo's red eyes and listless expression, guessing that Xiaoluobo might have cried more than once after she lost sight of him. She couldn't help but point at Xiaoluobo's chubby cheeks and talk nonsense.
Whether Little Radish understood or not, she grabbed Mi Yao's finger with her little hand, her tear-streaked face pouting in grievance.
"You've really gotten too attached to me."
Fearing the original owner's future fate, Mi Yao didn't know what methods to use to make Xiao Luobo stay far away from her.
In order to get rid of her clingy little radish, she was willing to betray the rules of being a pampered wife and use her brain, but after thinking for a long time, she couldn't think of any way to reason with the little radish who couldn't speak and could only cry.
She could only wait for Xiao Shan to get tired of her and stop bothering her.
Mi Yao covered her lips and yawned. She asked Shi Ya to bring her facial balm. She dabbed a little on her finger and let it melt in her palm. Then she pressed her palm against Xiao Shan's face, which had been wiped, to moisturize her skin.
The little radish has nice skin; it looks smooth and doesn't feel chapped.
But since I have to stay by her side, I have to treat her to pinching and rubbing my cheeks as a reward. So, I have to take good care of this chubby little radish face.
She dared not return to Xiao Chuan a daughter whose face had been ruined by touching.
Mi Yao touched the perfumed balm to her fingers. Xiao Shan twitched his nose, smelled the fragrance, and stared wide-eyed at Mi Yao's hand.
When Mi Yao's palm touched her face, her eyes widened even more, but after a moment she closed them in enjoyment.
Seeing that the hat was covering Xiao Luobo's forehead, Mi Yao wanted to take it off, but Xiao Luobo noticed her movement, subconsciously pulled the hat back, opened her eyes and carefully pushed the hat up a little to reveal her forehead.
Mi Yao paused for a moment, then stopped worrying about the mink hat and applied the perfume evenly to Xiao Shan's face, massaging it for a while before stopping.
"The young lady is fast asleep."
Afraid of waking Xiao Shan, Shuanghua lowered her voice.
"Let her sleep here. If Governor Xiao doesn't give any instructions during the day, she can sleep here whenever she wants, but we need to prepare a small bed for her."
Although Xiao Shan is a good sleeper and doesn't kick or roll around unless she's being held or cuddled, she's only three years old, and she's still worried that Xiao Shan might wet the bed.
She didn't want to be woken up by urine.
It was still early, and Mi Yao, whose sleepiness had been dispelled by the disturbance, had no intention of getting up.
After applying the face cream to Xiao Shan, she didn't wash her hands. Instead, she had Shuang Hua apply a thick layer of moisturizing cream to nourish her fingers.
When Mi Yao woke up again, it was already late morning. The cooks in the kitchen had already started preparing lunch, while Xiao Luobo was taken out by Shuanghua to have some breakfast porridge and then lay back down next to Mi Yao to sleep.
When Mi Yao was changing clothes, she saw that Xiao Shan had already changed into a bright red auspicious patterned jacket and glanced at the little hat on her head that remained unchanged no matter what clothes she wore.
I forgot to check what was going on while Little Radish was sleeping.
"Did Commander Xiao give any instructions?"
"This morning, the town magistrate had breakfast with his eldest and second sons. Hearing that the young lady and her mother were still asleep, he only told the kitchen to prepare breakfast so that the young lady could have it when she woke up."
"What were the exact words? Were they referring to the kitchen, or the small kitchen?"
Upon hearing Shuanghua say that Xiao Chuan's exact words were to have the small kitchen prepare, Mi Yao curled her lips. She had thought that Xiao Chuan, who didn't even mind Wu Ao's cooking, was someone without a sense of taste.
It seems he knows her cook is delicious, and he thinks that Little Radish is clinging to her because he's greedy and wants to eat some tasty food here.
However, after arriving at the Xiao residence, she had the small kitchen renovated and never ate any food prepared by the Xiao family's chefs.
Surely it's not like such a large mansion would have a cook whose food is no different from what Aunt Wu makes.
Thinking about it, Mi Yao couldn't help but look at Little Radish with pity.
Meeting her gaze, Little Radish grinned and tried to pounce into her arms.
Mi Yao: "..."
Putting everything else aside, the little girl is quite adept at pushing her luck.
After washing her face, Mi Yao opened the carved rosewood box and began to select the jewelry to wear that day.
Xiao Shan knelt on the bench beside her, staring intently at the dazzling jewelry in the box. When she saw Yu Xiu put a hairpin on Mi Yao's head, she also chose one to put on Mi Yao's head.
“This gold hairpin doesn’t match my sister’s clothes today. Be careful not to hurt her.”
As Yu Xiu spoke, she took the hairpin from Xiao Shan's hand and put it back in the dressing case.
Yu Xiu could tell that her tone towards Xiao Shan was no longer one of disgust as it had been yesterday, but rather a subtle disdain.
Mi Yao wanted to laugh. Compared to Yu Xiu, who said she would take good care of her brother-in-law, she found the current Yu Xiu much more agreeable.
Although one is three years old and the other is thirteen, since Yu Xiu is not yet an adult, it's not too much for her to dislike the little girl and argue with her.
Xiao Shan, however, was in a good mood. She didn't cry when Yu Xiu took her hairpin away. She seemed to understand what Yu Xiu meant by "unworthy." She picked out a gilded flower hairpin from the box with the same pattern as the one on Mi Yao's clothes.
"You have a good eye for selection, this one will do."
Mi Yao tilted her head slightly in Xiao Luobo's direction, taking advantage of Xiao Luobo's long arms.
Knowing that Mi Yao had approved of his choice, Xiao Shan's eyes lit up. He held Mi Yao's shoulders and carefully inserted the hairpin into her hair.
"It's inserted crookedly."
Yu Xiu muttered to herself as she took the hairpin out again and put it back on Mi Yao.
Little Radish didn't care about that. He simply took the ivory comb that Yu Xiu had already put down, lifted a strand of Mi Yao's hair, and showed his little white teeth as he combed her hair.
Seeing that Mi Yao didn't say anything, Yu Xiu snorted in her heart, "Why would you comb your hair after you've already combed it? What an ignorant and stupid girl."
With Mi Yao's indulgence, Xiao Shan stayed by Mi Yao's side all day long. She didn't feel bored when Mi Yao was reading, and she could happily play with a few trinkets for half a day.
As for her brothers who were worried about her visiting her, she glanced up at them and then looked away, as if she were pretending not to know them, afraid that if she smiled at them, they would take her away.
Seeing this, Xiao Liang looked at his elder brother with red eyes and a wronged expression, saying, "Shan'er doesn't want us anymore."
“How could our sister not want us? She just likes Madam and wants to spend more time with her.”
"But she doesn't even look at us, and she doesn't eat lunch with us."
"That's because Madam's lunch is prepared by the kitchen. Since Shan'er is by Madam's side, she naturally eats the lunch prepared by the kitchen with Madam."
Xiao Yi finally managed to appease Xiao Liang. When his father returned home, he had something to say to Mi Yao, so he took his younger sister back to them.
Xiao Liang's eyes reddened again: "Mother doesn't want Shan'er anymore."
Xiao Yi: "..."
Why does his second brother always feel wronged? He thinks his second brother is just throwing a tantrum like a child, making trouble for no reason to get him to coax him.
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