169 Chapter 169
◎ "My hair is messy, I want to thank my uncle for combing it for me."◎
Xu Qinghe seems to be very busy these days.
On May 20th, Ping'an was going to have a ten-day holiday, but Xu Qinghe was busy with business and had no time to take care of the child, so he waved his hand and handed Ping'an over to Xie Qi.
Xie Qi didn't know how to get along with children, and he didn't want to get along with the daughter of his sympathetic enemy, so he immediately refused: "I'm also very busy. I have things to deal with in the army."
Xu Qinghe glanced at him coldly: "Since the Marquis is so busy, why not go to Yingzhou to handle military affairs? Why stay in my small Xu residence?"
“…”
He had no choice but to rub it again immediately.
"Okay, okay, I'll take care of the child. As long as you don't chase me away, I'll do anything for you."
Xu Qinghe snorted and reached out to push him away.
The child was full of energy and was already knocking on the door before noon the next day.
Xie Qi was not yet qualified to go to bed, and was still hunched over on the soft couch feeling suffocated.
He was awakened by a knock on the door. He first went into the inner room to take a look at the sleeping girl, and then rubbed his eyes helplessly and went out.
"Shh, your mother is still sleeping. Let Uncle Xie take you out to play, okay?"
Ping'an looked inside the door and saw nothing.
"Is Mom tired?" she asked.
Xie Qi hadn't washed yet and didn't want to hold the child, so he squatted down to look the little girl in the eye.
He looked at the little face which was exactly the same as Xu Qinghe's when she was a child, and suddenly he felt less resentful.
"Your mother has been very busy these days and is very tired, so when we come back from the street later, let's buy her some delicious and fun things, okay?"
Ping An nodded heavily and said in a long tone, "Okay."
At the exact moment of noon, the Golden Crow was already hanging brightly in the sky.
Xu Qinghe has always had delicate skin. When she goes out, she either wears a veil or carries an umbrella. Her biological daughter is naturally the same.
Xie Qi waited in the main hall of the little girl's room. After the servant changed the little girl into a light green silk dress and combed her hair into a pair of cute buns, he picked up the child in one hand and held an umbrella in the other and took her out.
"Uncle Xie, can Ping'an not take the car?"
Xie Qi raised his eyebrows and smiled: "Sure, you walk outside, Uncle Xie can go sit by himself, and we will meet on the street."
The little girl in his arms looked exactly like Xu Qinghe when she was a child. Xie Qi seemed to have returned to his youth and always liked to tease her.
Ping An then hugged his neck tightly and refused to let go, saying with great resentment: "Ping An, don't do it."
Xie Qi laughed: "Okay, okay, I was just kidding. You don't want to take the car, and you don't want to walk. What? You want me to hold you all the way?"
"Yeah." Ping'an nodded: "Mom is weak, Ping'an didn't want to be held for a long time."
"So you're here to torment me?"
Xie Qi raised his eyebrows slightly.
"Yes."
Ping An smiled and snuggled into his arms, thinking, "You're my daddy, so what if you hug me? You've barely hugged me before."
Xie Qi exhaled helplessly.
Forget it, forget it. It’s his fault that he ended up with that girl. He had to rush to become her stepfather.
After all, he was a soldier, so carrying heavy loads and traveling long distances was no problem for him, not to mention that the girl in his arms was a small and cute girl.
It took less than a quarter of an hour to reach the busiest street in the city.
Ping An exclaimed, "Wow, it's the same speed as riding in a horse-drawn carriage. Uncle Xie is amazing!"
Xie Qi was in a good mood after being praised, so he became more generous. He took the little girl to visit the street stalls or shops indoors. After a while, the wet nurse and servant behind him had filled their arms with things.
The little girl was still giving orders in the jewelry shop.
"This one looks good, I'll take it back to Mom. That one looks good too, I'll take it back to Mom too. Wow, this one looks even better, I must take this one back to Mom!"
The little girl, who is less than four years old, is already full of her mother in her heart and eyes.
Xie Qi hugged the little girl and felt very relieved.
With such a cute, well-behaved, caring and intelligent little girl by her side, it is no wonder that the usually cold-faced girl could show such a gentle look in the pavilion outside the city that day.
Xie Qi suddenly felt that this rival's child was more likable.
"Hey, Xu Ping'an, it's really you!"
Several childish voices were heard from the door of the shop. They were a few children about Ping'an's age, who were traveling together with their parents.
Ping'an twisted his body to get off him and trotted into the children's nest.
A few children were gathered together and chattering about something trivial. Xie Qi was too lazy to listen and just leaned aside in a daze.
"Ping'an, who is that man? Why did I seem to see him holding you just now? Where is your mother?"
Ping An puffed out his chest and said with a smile, "This is my Uncle Xie. My mother has been very busy these days, so I asked Uncle Xie to come and play with me."
Xie Qi smiled and nodded to the group of children and their parents behind them.
I heard that someone came to Xu's house these days, and it was a man. I think it was the person in front of me.
Boss Xu had a very good reputation in Lanzhou City, and no one would gossip about her, so everyone responded kindly without making too many assumptions.
However, Xie Qi felt that the word "Uncle Xie" was irritating to the ear.
If he had not made the mistake, he and Xu Qinghe would have had a child. Why did he have to fight so hard to be an "Uncle Xie" in front of other people's children?
"Uncle Xie, you don't seem very happy."
After sending off the group of chattering playmates, Ping An opened his arms again and asked to be hugged.
Xie Qi was amazed at the little girl's meticulousness, and finally accepted his fate and picked her up again.
"I'm not unhappy, Uncle Xie is just tired."
“…”
Ping'an pursed her lips and remained quiet for a while, then tried to twist her body to get off him again.
"Why are you suddenly not letting me hug you anymore?"
Ping An lowered his head, his voice weak and a little disappointed: "Uncle Xie is tired."
Xie Qi was stunned for a moment, and felt his heart warm and sad.
Such a young child has only had his mother by his side since childhood, and he must have never had much experience interacting with male elders.
The little girl lacked fatherly love, so she gave all the care to her only mother, and that was why she clung to him after meeting Uncle Xie.
He reached out and scratched the little girl's nose, which was almost identical to Xu Qinghe's, and said with a smile, "What's so tiring about this? Uncle Xie is a general, and Ping An is not as heavy as the spear in Uncle Xie's hand. Uncle Xie can carry you."
Ping An blinked his big eyes and looked over: "Really?"
For a moment, Xie Qi felt that these eyes seemed familiar, but he didn't know where he had seen them before.
He nodded: "Really."
Ping'an continued to let her father hold her with peace of mind.
After having lunch outside, Xie Qi took the little girl, who had eaten and drunk her fill, back home to rest.
After coaxing the little girl to sleep, he returned to Xu Qinghe's dormitory.
I walked around but didn't see anyone.
"Where's the lady?"
"My dear, my lady went out for a social event this morning and left a message saying she wouldn't be back at noon. But she left something for you in the inner room."
Did you leave something for him?
Xie Qi was surprised. He pushed the door open and saw a sky-blue jade pendant tassel on the dressing table.
He liked to wear a jade pendant on his body since he was young, and it has never changed over the years.
Looking at the craftsmanship of this stalk, it is exactly her mother's unique method. This time it is not made by someone else, but she made it by her own hands.
Didn’t you say you were busy these days? How could you still have the time to pick the ears of corn for him?
Although he thought so, Xie Qi couldn't suppress the upward curve of the corners of his lips.
He quickly threw away the old ear of corn and replaced it with the one she had made herself.
After sitting in the room for a while where her scent still lingered, Xie Qi went out again.
Chen Tai had been waiting for a long time in a villa outside the city.
"How is it?"
Chen Tai said, "General, we've started with the Cuiyu Pavilion. We've captured people from all over the place without making any noise. Our men have disguised themselves and entered with inferior weapons, so they can't be detected at first glance."
"And the warhorse?"
This route for secret transactions with the Nanyi Kingdom has existed for a long time. When he first returned to the army, he spent a lot of effort to block the road. Unexpectedly, after returning from the Nanyi Kingdom, he fell into a coma for another year. When he woke up again, the road had been opened again.
Nan Mingzhao was as cunning and insidious as Nan Si, and he actually took advantage of the moment when Nan Si was lying in ambush in the Nanyi Imperial City to make these little moves.
Chen Tai said in embarrassment: "Although inferior war horses can be used as good ones, they are not as convenient as weapons. Some good horses have flowed into Nanyi, but not many. Please rest assured, General."
Xie Qi lowered his head and played with the jade pendant on his waist.
The sky-blue tassels fluttered in the wind, and paired with his royal blue robe and jade-like face, it was extremely pleasing to the eye.
"That won't work either. We'll all be replaced with inferior horses."
After a moment, Xie Qi said firmly: "We don't have enough war horses to begin with, why should we give them the good ones?"
"Then...if the other side notices something, how should we respond?"
Xie Qi lightly shook the ears of corn in his hand and ordered, "Go and have someone create a fake horse plague. Say it came from Caoqu Township. Most of the good horses will die, leaving only the inferior ones. Let them take them if they want."
When he was still in the Nanyi Kingdom, he used Nanda to create a real horse plague, which damaged most of the Nanyi war horses and has not been able to recover until now. I think it was a last resort, so Nan Mingzhao thought of the method of secretly trading with the Daying people.
After arranging all these, when he returned to the house, the little girl had already woken up and was sitting by the bed waiting for him in a daze.
"What are you waiting for me for?"
Ping An slowly rubbed his eyes and said softly, "My hair is messy. I want to thank my uncle for combing it for me."
Xie Qi refused: "I can't."
Ping An blinked his eyes: "But mother said that you had tied her hair before."
Hiss... This girl, why does she tell everything to others?
Xie Qi had no choice but to carry the little girl to the mirror and comb her hair himself.
Xie Qi was a little unfamiliar with this at first, as he hadn't done it for many years. Fortunately, children's hair styles were not that complicated, so he tied a double flat bun for the little girl and decorated it with a few silk flowers.
The weather was even hotter in the afternoon, so Xie Qi took the little girl to watch a few shadow plays. When the sun went down and it was not so hot, he took her to the street again.
The streets were more lively at this time, with many acrobatic performances and crowds of people everywhere.
There was a platform where people played pot-throwing to win prizes, and there were so many people there, all coming to see the beautiful lanterns.
Ping An was carried on Xie Qi's neck. She held her father's hair bun with her little hands and saw a beautiful lotus lantern on the top of the platform from afar.
"Thank you, uncle. I want that."
There were too many people in front, and Xie Qi didn't want to squeeze in, so he found an excuse to refuse.
But Ping An was very persistent: "But my mother will definitely like this."
“…”
Xie Qi put the little girl down and decided to squeeze in.
There were too many people ahead, and he was afraid that the little girl would be bumped into, so he ordered his servant and wet nurse to protect the little girl at the door of a shop.
Ping'an was short, and the servants were not as tall as her father. Even when she was held by the servants, she still couldn't see anything.
All that could be heard was that after her father passed away, the crowd erupted in exclamations, one after another, almost shaking the sky.
Xie Qi was very good at throwing pots when he was young. He was also a master of shooting arrows on the battlefield, so winning a lantern was no problem for him.
In addition to a large lotus lantern, he also won a small rabbit lantern for the little girl.
However, just as he squeezed out of the crowd with the two lamps, he saw the little girl being held in a man's arms. When she saw him, she immediately smiled and waved at him.
Xie Qi's face darkened, and he had already blamed these ignorant servants in his heart.
How could you just let the little girl be held by another man?!
However, when he got closer, he realized that this man was not someone else, but an old friend whom he had not seen since leaving Kyoto.
He clenched the handle of the lamp in his hand and listened to the little girl introduce him cheerfully: "Uncle Xie, come quickly. This is Uncle Wei Ming, a close friend of mother's."
What close friend? He thought that his ghost should be lingering around.
He handed the lantern to the servant and forcibly snatched the little girl from Wei Ming's arms.
【Author’s words】
Safe my good baby [burst crying][burst crying][burst crying]
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
