Su Rong chuckled.
She pinched Zhou Gu’s face in return, "Uncle Xie has taught me a lot."
She hugged Zhou Gu and rubbed against him, transferring her sweat to him. Then, she tugged him, "Come on. Let’s take the breakfast together with my father."
Zhou Gu was upset. He dragged her back into his arms and then rubbed his sweaty face against hers. After receiving the same amusing retaliation, he released her and pulled her toward outside.
Su Rong: "..." 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮
So they wound each other up, right?
Laughing and joking around with each other, they arrived at the Diligent Governance Hall. Outside the hall, it was very quiet with imperial guards positioned on both sides of the gate. When Su Rong arrived, the guards all bowed to them, "Princess, Lord Thursday!"
Su Rong stopped and asked, "Where is my father? Isn’t he supposed to be off duty this morning?"
"Your Majesty hasn’t yet got up," replied an eunuch who hurriedly came out from inside.
Su Rong glanced up towards the sky, "The sun has risen, and my father is still lazing around in bed?"
The eunuch quickly responded, "At the normal time of the morning court, your majesty woke up for a while and then went back to bed." Looking at Su Rong, he whispered, "As it’s the first morning after you two returned to the royal capital, you came to pay respect to His Majesty. Should the two of you wait for a moment in the side hall? I will go and wake him up."
Su Rong nodded, "Okay."
The eunuch personally led them to the side hall and hurried off to wake the Nanchu King.
The Nanchu King had already heard movement outside. Suddenly sitting up and throwing off his blanket, he immediately asked his servant, "Li He, have my daughter and son-in-law arrived?"
Li He, the servant, hastily bowed, "Your Majesty, it’s the princess and Lord Thursday. I was just about to wake you."
The Nanchu King quickly ordered, "Help me dress up."
Standing to attention, Li He immediately called for assist, and personally helped dress the Nanchu King.
The Nanchu King tidied up in the shortest time he had ever managed, and hurriedly departed for the side hall.
Once inside, he saw Su Rong and Zhou Gu: one was lazily leaning against the back of her chair, the other, was indolently propping up his leg. Zhou Gu immediately got up and saluted him, "Good morning, father-in-law!"
With some effort, Su Rong sat upright, "Good morning, Dad!"
The cheerful look on the Nanchu King’s face was unmistakable. Even though his daughter was still slouching and didn’t bother to stand up to greet him, hearing her call him dad brought a smile to his face, "Good morning". Waving a hand at Zhou Gu, he said, "Sit down, why are you standing? There’s no need to be so formal."
Zhou Gu sat down obediently.
Looking at the two of them, the Nanchu King asked, "Why have you two come so early to see me?"
"To have breakfast with you, of course!" answered Su Rong as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Huh?" The Nanchu King was stunned.
Su Rong looked at him, "Don’t you like that we came to join you for breakfast on the first morning after our return to the royal capital?"
"No, not at all.", The Nanchu King was delighted, "It’s my negligence." He promptly ordered Li He, "Hurry up and get the breakfast."
As soon as the command was given, Li He turned to execute it.
Zhou Gu explained, "After practicing martial arts with Xiaoqi this morning, she suggested we should join you for breakfast, so we came together. If we knew that you hadn’t got up, we wouldn’t have come."
"It’s fine, it’s fine," the Nanchu King assured them. "You’re always welcome to come and see me whenever, I don’t feel disturbed at all." After saying this, he asked Su Rong, "Are you coming tomorrow?"
"No," Su Rong asserted. "This was just a whim."
The Nanchu King replied with an "oh". He had thought his daughter and son-in-law would join him for breakfast every day.
Seeing the disappointed look on her father’s face, Su Rong asked him, "What did you usually do in the past? Who would accompany you for the three meals a day?"
The Nanchu King answered, "Every day, after the morning court, I’d meet some courtiers, review memorials in the afternoon, and have drinks in the evening before sleep. An eunuch would remind me of the meal times. No one would join me, I would eat alone. Occasionally, Ye Xiang would join me for a meal. However, he would rarely have time as he liked to spend time with his wife at home."
Su Rong raised her eyebrow, "You drink every day?"
"I can’t sleep if I don’t drink."
Nodding, Su Rong commandingly said, "From now on, you are not allowed to drink every day."
The Nanchu King was startled again, "What?"
Su Rong looked at him, "I will ask Doctor Zhang to check your pulse later. Drinking too much is harmful to health. I don’t want my father to leave this world prematurely."
Staring at Su Rong, the Nanchu King protested, "That won’t happen..."
"Anyway, you must listen to me," Su Rong interrupted him. "Now that I’m staying with you in the royal palace, Zhou Gu and I will join you for lunch and dinner, except breakfast, as long as we’re in the palace and there aren’t exceptional circumstances. You can have a sip, but you’re not allowed to drink excessively like you did yesterday, ruining your health. Don’t you dare set a bad example for Zhou Gu."
The Nanchu King was speechless.
Looking at Zhou Gu, he couldn’t believe this was happening. His son-in-law was a good drinker, but he certainly didn’t learn it from him.
When the Nanchu King sought approval from Zhou Gu, Zhou Gu blinked at him, indicating that appealing to him was useless. His loyalty was with Su Rng and he must obey her.
Instantly, the Nanchu King nodded at Su Rong, "Fine."
Thinking of his daughter and son-in-law accomanying him for two meals a day made him willing to give up drinking.
"As for your insomnia, let Doctor Zhang prescribe some medicine for you. His medical skills are superb, and I’m sure they’re better than those of the doctors in the Imperial Medical Bureau," Su Rong added.
The Nanchu King nodded. As a father, his daughter was his everything. "Fine, I’ll do as you say."
How great it was to have a daughter! He would never call her a sieve-like little cotton-padded jacket again.
The Imperial Kitchen delivered the breakfast promptly, filling the table.
Su Rong commented, "What a waste."
"Not at all, Princess. The leftovers will be distributed among the servants," Li He intervened in a low voice.
Su Rong looked at Li He, "What’s your name?"
"My name is Li He. I have been serving His Majesty for several decades, since the time he was the crown prince."
The Nanchu King added, "I was able to escape the royal palace because of Li He’s help. When I was in hiding, he managed to keep up with the ruse for a whole day and night. Later on, he faked his death to escape. He was found by the men of Liu’an Prince Chu Qian. Despite his feigned death, Chu Qian did not spare him and threw him into a lake to feed the fish. Luckily, Li He had predicted this and had someone ready to discreetly rescue him, which saved his life."
Su Rong nodded, "Your contributions have been significant, Eunuch Li."
Li He shook his head vigorously, "I don’t deserve it, not at all."
With a smile on his face, he personally served the dishes to the King, the Princess, and her future husband.
The Nanchu King waved, "Li He, take your men and go. In the future, when I dine with my daughter and son-in-law, you don’t need to serve us."
Upon hearing this, Li He was taken aback, almost losing his composure. Was he going to lose his job because the Princess had just returned?
Li He let out a sigh of relief. So that was it. It was no wonder that he had noticed that the King had changed a lot since he returned to the royal palace after a few months outside.
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