Chapter 544: Stalemate

Xu Lingyi sat on the kang, squeezed his son's hand, and asked him with a smile: "...You went to row a boat! You are really brave!"

Jiange'er pursed his lips and smiled.

Xu Lingyi looked around.

Eleventh Lady never liked having a lot of servants around her, and she was in the inner room. When it was time to rest at night, only Xifang, who was on duty, helped her make the bed.

Xu Lingyi touched his son's head and whispered, "Jin'er, call me Daddy again!" His expression was serious and his eyes were filled with expectation that could not be concealed.

Jiang'er tilted his head and looked at Xu Lingyi, as if he didn't quite understand what Xu Lingyi was saying.

Xu Lingyi looked around again.

Shiyi Niang was telling Xifang something in a low voice.

Xu Lingyi calmed down a little, turned around and looked at his son, wanting to coax him to call her. But just after he called "Jin Ge'er", he saw his son sticking his butt out and crawling to the corner where he usually hid things, and then he took out a wave drum from inside and handed it to Xu Lingyi. Xu Lingyi was a little amused holding the wave drum. When Jin Ge'er was young and unhappy, Shiyi Niang would take out the wave drum to coax him to play. When he was older, he would take out his own wave drum and let others play with it when he saw someone frowning.

"You little bastard!" He held his son in his arms lovingly.

Eleventh Lady came over and said, "It's getting late, Lord Hou, you should go to bed too!"

Xu Lingyi was reluctant to let his son go, so he said with a smile, "Let Jian Ge'er sleep with us today!"

Seeing that Xu Lingyi was in high spirits, Eleventh Lady asked Xifang to talk to Mother Gu, let down the curtains, and help Jian'er take off his clothes.

As soon as he took off his shirt, his body felt lighter, his hands and feet were free, and Jiang Ge'er immediately became excited. He immediately crawled to the corner of the bed and grabbed the book that Xu Lingyi had placed beside his pillow.

Although there was a floor heating in the room, Shiyi Niang was still afraid that he would catch a cold. She snatched the book from his hand and quickly stuffed him into the quilt.

After lying down for only two breaths, Jian'er immediately turned over and sat up.

"Why is this child like a monkey?"

Eleventh Lady smiled and stuffed him back into the quilt.

When Jian Ge'er was still a child, he slept with Xu Lingyi. Xu Lingyi found it very interesting, so he smiled and got on the bed, lying next to Jian Ge'er and patting him gently.

But Jiange'er jumped up and rushed into Shiyi Niang who had just got into bed.

Eleventh Lady's body swayed and she almost fell off the bed.

"Who does this child look like?" She smiled and hugged Jian Ge'er, quickly pulling the quilt over him and wrapping him up. "He's always so hairy and rough."

"Definitely not like me*..." The quilt was pulled over, and half of Xu Lingyi's body was exposed. He moved over and stuck close to Shiyi Niang and her son. "Since I was a child, people have said that I am mature beyond my years!"

"Really?" Eleventh Lady raised her slender and beautiful eyebrows and glanced at him. "I heard that someone captured all the bird nests in Queen Wu's harem..."

"I am just a son of a noble family, how could I have the guts to do that?" Xu Lingyi said without blushing or panting, "It was Prince Shun who did it. I was just taking the blame. How can you believe such words*..."

"Oh..." Eleventh Lady's eyebrows were full of smiles, "It turns out that the Marquis and Prince Shun also captured bird nests in Queen Wu's palace. I thought you only did this kind of thing with Zhou Shizheng?"

Xu Lingyi was speechless for a moment.

Could it be that he was foolish? There was a happy smile in the corners of Shiyi Niang's eyes and eyebrows.

Xu Lingyi looked at it, the corners of his mouth gradually curled up into a happy arc.

Seeing that no one paid any attention to him, Jian'er began to groan and twist his body in Shiyi Niang's arms.

Eleventh Lady smiled and kissed Jiang'er's little face, then took off her clothes and got into bed with her son.

Jiang'er has his father on his left and his mother on his right. He looks at Xu Lingyi and then at Shiyi Niang, and seems very happy.

Shiyi Niang let Jian Ge'er rest his head on her arm and said softly, "Jian Ge'er, what story are we going to tell today?" Out of habit, she didn't wait for Jian Ge'er to open his mouth and continued, "Yesterday we told the story of a woman who caused disasters to mend the sky.

Today we will talk about Jingwei reclamation!" Then he tapped his little nose and asked him with a smile: "Okay?"

Jiang'er nodded repeatedly and lay obediently in his mother's arms.

"Once upon a time, there was a little girl, her name was Jingwei... *..." Shiyi Niang's expression was gentle and her voice was light and pleasant. Under the light of the Yingbao lantern, she slowly told the story. Xu Lingyi's body and mind gradually relaxed, and his eyelids drooped down involuntarily.

He was startled and opened his eyes quickly. He found that the boy who had been sleeping quietly between them and listening to stories was twisting his body from time to time as if something was poking him.

"What's wrong?" Eleventh Lady also noticed it. She stopped talking and asked her son softly, "Are you feeling uncomfortable somewhere?..."

As Jian'er listened, he twisted his body even more violently.

The bed was made by Eleventh Lady herself, so there couldn’t be anything on it!

Xu Lingyi touched his son's forehead and asked, "What's wrong?" Before he spoke, he felt his hands were wet and sweaty. "He usually sleeps alone." He immediately came to a conclusion, "Now he is sandwiched between us, there is a floor heating in the room, and the bed is warmed with hot water, no wonder he feels hot..." As he said that, he touched the back of Jiang'er, which was also sweaty. He hurriedly ordered Shiyi Niang, "Go and ask Xifang to roll out a hot towel, and ask Gu Mama to bring in some clean clothes."

Eleventh Lady went away immediately.

Xifang, Yumei, Gu Mama, and Ah Jin all rushed in. Some were twisting towels, some were wiping Jiange'er's back, some were changing clothes, and it took almost a cup of tea for the room to return to silence.

They changed positions, with Xu Lingyi sitting outside the bed and Jiange'er inside. Jiange'er immediately rolled into his mother's arms, and kept making noises at Shiyi Niang, as if urging her to continue telling the story.

Eleventh Lady seemed to be thinking about something.

She did not continue telling the story, but patted her son gently, "Go to sleep, son!"

The little boy twisted and turned in his mother's arms.

Eleventh Lady asked him repeatedly: "What's wrong?"

Xu Lingyi's lips twitched slightly, and he was about to say something, but soon he showed an expression of sudden realization, pursed his lips again, and looked at Shiyi Niang and her son cautiously.

When Jiang'er saw that his request was not met, he burst into tears.

Eleventh Lady patted his back gently and coaxed him: "What's wrong? What's wrong, brother?"

Jian'er cried for a long time, but Shiyi Niang only asked this one question.

Seeing his son's face full of tears, Xu Lingyi turned his face away with some pity.

Mother Gu's trembling voice came from outside: "Marquis, Madam, the Sixth Young Master may not be used to it..."

"It's okay, go to sleep!" Before she could finish her words, Eleventh Lady said loudly, "We will coax Sixth Young Master and leave."

Mother Gu thought that it was Master Hou who took care of Jian'er when he was a child...she replied in a low voice "*..." and returned to the warm pavilion.

In the silent night, Jian Ge'er cried so hard that it was frightening. Feng Yi Niang's eyes flashed with hesitation, but soon turned calm. She repeatedly asked Jian Ge'er what was wrong.

The mother and son were in a stalemate for almost an incense stick of time. Xu Lingyi could no longer bear it and whispered, "How about we talk about it next time... some children should wait until they are four or five years old to speak, and once they speak they will speak fluently... But he knew in his heart that this was not right, and his voice revealed hesitation.

"It's not that he can't speak, it's that he doesn't need to speak at all." Shiyi Niang gritted her teeth and shook her head, "If we don't take this opportunity to let him speak, I'm afraid he will miss the age to learn to speak, and he will grow up. What's more, if we give in when he cries like this, he will cry even harder when he encounters something that makes him unhappy in the future. The Marquis doesn't know yet, but after you and Zhe'er left today, Yu'er took Qin'er to play in the Hua Garden. He was so young, but he cried for almost an hour. What will happen if he grows up?"

Xu Lingyi stopped talking.

Eleventh Lady continued to gently ask Jiange'er: "Why are you crying? Tell me. If you don't tell me, how can I know why you are crying?"

While crying, Jian Ge'er looked at Xu Lingyi.

His eyes, washed by tears, were like black agate.

Xu Lingyi couldn't bear to watch it, so he simply turned over and faced downward, out of sight and out of mind.

Only then did Jian Ge'er give in and cried a few times, sobbing and saying, "Tell me a story, tell me a story."

Shiyi Niang let out a long breath and felt more tired than running a ten-kilometer marathon.

She kissed her son's cheek, wiped his face with a handkerchief, and whispered, "Okay, let's tell a story. Where were we? I need to think about it!"

In order to teach her son how to speak, she had developed the habit of speaking as much as possible in front of the child.

Who knew that just as Shiyi Niang finished speaking, she heard Jian Ge'er pouting and saying, "Jingwei is a little bird!"

Eleventh Lady looked at her son in astonishment: "Brother!" She had just mentioned the scene where Jingwei turned into a bird. "Do you remember what I just said?"

Jiange'er looked at Shiyi Niang timidly, looking very aggrieved.

Xu Lingyi laughed and hugged Jian Ge'er: "You are so smart! You know everything!"

Jiange'er was looking forward to the story of Shiyi Niang. He was very dissatisfied with Xu Lingyi's behavior. He cried out in surprise and threw himself into Shiyi Niang's arms.

Xu Lingyi smiled and wanted to put Jiang'er into Shiyi Niang's arms, but Shiyi Niang had already reminded him: "Let him talk, let him talk." Xu Lingyi retracted his hand and asked Jiang'er: "What are you going to do?"

Jian'er looked towards Shiyi Niang.

Eleventh Lady asked him with a smile: "What do you want to do, brother?"

"I want my mother!" he said, and rushed towards Eleventh Lady again.

This time, Eleventh Lady hugged her son with joy.

"I finally got to call you mom, but this is what happened!" She said to Xu Lingyi with a smile, feeling a little excited.

Xu Lingyi ruffled his son's thick black hair and said disapprovingly, "At least he finally spoke!" Then he smiled at Shiyi Niang.

Eleventh Lady happened to look at him.

The two people's eyes met in the air.

One smiles sweetly, the other has a relaxed brow.

Thinking of their persistence just now, Xu Lingyi and Shiyi Niang both felt the joy of having completed a difficult problem together.

The two of them laughed at the same time, as if something had fallen into their hearts... a faint sweetness "...

The next morning, he went to pay his respects to the old lady. The old lady gave Jin'er some fresh wheat bread and asked Xu Lingyi with a little displeasure, "What happened tomorrow? Jin'er cried so loudly?"

I didn't expect the lady to know it so quickly.

As Shiyi Niang was thinking, she heard Jian'er, who was eating a cake, mumble, "Tell a story, mother, tell a story!"

"Oh my!" The lady didn't even bother to ask Shiyi Niang, she happily hugged Jian'er, "Our Jian'er can speak now!"