The spring sunshine was bright and warm, and Liu Qinglan would lie in the courtyard every day in the sun, holding her three little cubs in her paws, and they would sleep soundly together under the flowers.
Because of the little empress's special status, she was raised in the front hall. Xie Xuanzhao carried her to court every day and prepared a wet nurse. Yan Mo and Lu Lu also went to serve her.
At night, Liu Qinglan changed into human form, put the three in a bamboo basket, covered their little heads with towels, and carried the heavy bamboo basket to the front hall.
At this time, Xie Xuanzhao would stop everything he was doing, pick up his eldest daughter, and the family of six would gather together for dinner.
There was a large cradle in the front hall, big enough for the babies to lie together. At this time, the four little ones who had slept enough and eaten enough during the day were very awake. The little queen looked relatively quiet and gentle because she was premature. The other three little beasts were completely different. They moved their claws and wagged their tails. Often, when Liu Qinglan walked over, the little quilt had been dragged away by them and pressed under their bodies.
After dinner, Xie Xuanzhao reached her happiest and most joyful time of the day. She sat beside the cradle, her palace skirt spread out, and carefully lifted the little cub, one of its ears drooping obediently, into her hand. Because of its delicate size, Xie Xuanzhao could comfortably hold it in the palm of her hand. When little Feifei caught the familiar scent of her, she would curl up, nestling in her mother's hand like a ball of snow-white wool. Occasionally, two little ears would suddenly poke out from within the furry mass, twitching nimbly.
Xie Xuanzhao's heart was about to melt when he saw it. He was really afraid of dropping it if he held it in his hands, and afraid of it melting if he held it in his mouth.
After lifting one, he picked up another one from the small quilt, and then stroked the fur of all three.
Liu Qinglan lay on the other side of the cradle, stroking her paws or tiny hands. The little queen had already opened her eyes, her face no longer wrinkled, and gradually a beautiful expression emerged. She lay in her swaddling clothes, hands folded inside, not crying or making a fuss, but with her small, beautiful phoenix eyes open, and occasionally pursing her lips into a small smile, very elegant and reserved.
The kittens grew very fast and were able to stand up and crawl away after about ten days.
The little queen could only lie in the cradle, her hands could not grasp anything, let alone crawl, she could not even turn over.
Liu Qinglan quickly noticed the difference. She sat in front of the cradle with a melancholy look on her face. "When will Ayin grow up?"
As she said this, the three little cubs were nestled in her arms, tugging at her sleeves with their little paws, and curiously poking their heads out to look at the motionless little baby under the blanket.
Xie Xuanzhao stroked his eldest daughter's soft hair and smiled, "It's always been this slow. Ayin couldn't roll over until she was five or six months old, crawled at eight months old, and walked after she was one year old."
Liu Qinglan did some calculations and exclaimed, "One year old! Our little Feifei can already fall in love!"
"..." Xie Xuanzhao silently looked at the three little ones in front of him. He couldn't accept the fact that they were looking for lovers after a year!
Suddenly, something occurred to him. Xie Xuanzhao's phoenix eyes sparkled with a smile as he looked at the little fairy Liu in front of him. "What about you? How was your first birthday?"
Liu Qinglan scratched his ears, trying to recall the past, and quickly discovered the problem. "When I was one year old and had just reached adulthood, before I had time to find a mate, I accidentally swallowed a pill that fell from the sky. Then, by chance, I started practicing. I calculated that by the time I emerged from the cave, hundreds of years had passed, and it seemed like I hadn't changed much."
"That's right. So our child won't grow up so fast. Maybe even slower than Ayin."
Liu Qinglan rarely fell into deep thought and found that it was very likely to be true, because she had seen the second generation of demons before. They inherited the demon power of their parents, so they grew very slowly. They had to wait until they were seven or eight years old to barely transform into human form. And they were not fully transformed yet. They had to retain some characteristics of small animals to a certain extent. They could not control them freely until their magic skills were improved. However, the human form they transformed into was also like a child, and it seemed that they were completely following the steps of human growth. The human form they transformed into looked like the age of their children.
While the little queen was still sleeping soundly in the cradle or chewing her hands and drooling, the three little Feifei had already started crawling and running around in the courtyard of Chenxin Palace.
Liu Qinglan discovered it one afternoon. She had just woken up and found that the three little cubs who used to sleep obediently in her arms were gone.
She quickly stood up and used her keen hearing to look for her naughty child who had run away.
"Xiaobai, Luoluo, Chuer..." Liu Qinglan, the "old mother", called the cubs' nicknames one by one, crawled out of the grass pile into the flowers, and climbed up the sycamore tree, put her front legs on the ground, and looked up to search.
"Meow meow meow~"
"Meow meow~"
The three little ones who were squeezed in the dog hole were unwilling to give way to each other and wanted to be the first to crawl out.
The second one, Xiaobai, said that she was the oldest and should go first. The third one licked her cat paws politely and blocked half of the hole, saying that it didn't matter, but in fact she didn't give up an step.
The fourth child, Chu'er, cleverly squeezed in between the two sisters, moved forward little by little, and finally succeeded in completely blocking the hole.
When Liu Qinglan found them, he saw three furry balls squeezed in a small dog hole, with some of their fur falling out.
The Willow Fairy was very angry. She took them to comb their hair every day, keeping it shiny and smooth. Now they didn't care about their hair. So she jumped in front of her daughters, with a serious cat face, and meowed at them in a very powerful way. The three little ones immediately drooped their ears and dared not move.
Liu Qinglan went over, first picked up Chu'er, bit her neck, and carried her back under the flowers. Then he ran over, ready to carry his own cubs back one by one.
Luoluo suddenly meowed a few times to remind her mother that Chu'er had slipped away from under the flowers again.
Liu Qinglan quickly chased after the staggering little figure. Luoluo on this side glanced at her second sister Xiaobai, and then the two of them quickly crawled out of the dog hole and ran away.
Liu Qinglan came over with Chu'er, who was holding his limbs and moving quietly. When he saw the situation here, he was so angry that his hair was about to explode.
Chu'er rolled over and landed in front of her, whispering, "Mom, please let me go play too. We promise to be back in time for dinner!"
Chu'er's eyes were most like his own. Liu Qinglan looked at her emerald eyes and suddenly felt very soft-hearted. "Then mother sent you to bring the sisters back. You must complete the task well, understand?"
Chu'er blinked his eyes, nodded seriously, then turned around and ran away. His little figure looked so happy as he ran.
In the front hall, Xie Xuanzhao was sitting behind the desk, handling things seriously. Beside the desk was a small cradle. Yanmo and Lulu were responsible for taking care of the little empress.
After a while, a meowing sound was heard outside the hall.
Xie Xuanzhao stopped what he was doing and realized that it was his daughters who came to look for him again. He was suddenly at a loss whether to laugh or cry.
Because these three little beasts are so adorable, if they hang around in front of him all day, Xie Xuanzhao is sure that he won't have to do anything. Moreover, there are many people in the outer hall, and if these three little cuties run out, they may be taken away and kept as pets. So Liu Qinglan takes care of them in Chenxin Palace during the day, and when everyone leaves at night, Liu Qinglan takes them in and they share the joy of reunion.
But ever since these three little Feifeis learned to run and think, they couldn't wait any longer and came to play with their eldest sister every day.
The eldest sister Ayin said: I'm sorry, I'm still a baby and can't play with you.
Luoluo stood gracefully outside the hall, holding half a piece of sweet corn in her mouth, while Xiaobai was responsible for meowing beside her to attract her mother's attention.
Xie Xuanzhao had no choice but to put down his ink brush and waved to them. The two little ones flew over and jumped on his knees skillfully. Luoluo spit out the small half of corn in her mouth into the palm of Xie Xuanzhao's hand, squinted her eyes and meowed obediently, indicating that the corn was for Sister Ayin to eat.
Xie Xuanzhao didn't know whether to laugh or cry, "Your sister can't eat corn yet, now she can only drink milk."
They have an older sister who drinks milk and looks younger than themselves. This is the three little Feifei's deepest impression of their eldest sister, and this also gave rise to the idea of raising the little sister together.
They tacitly chose an afternoon, and when Liu Niang was sleeping soundly, they secretly slipped out through the dog hole and ran all the way to the peach tree in the corner of the imperial kitchen.
The Peach Blossom Fairy was awakened by the chaotic sound of meowing. When she opened her eyes, she saw Willow Kitten's three cubs squatting under the tree, their limbs together, their tails tucked in, and each of them had a serious expression like a little adult.
The Peach Blossom Demon smiled and lay on the branch to watch them discuss important matters.
"Mom said that eating and sleeping are the top priorities. We will take care of these two things for my sister from now on." Xiaobai played the role of the leader and spoke directly to the point.
Chu Er said weakly, "But we don't have milk."
“…” The two sisters fell into a mysterious silence.
Finally, Luoluo shook her tail and said, "You just watch. I'll be responsible for making your sister happy~" After saying that, she blinked her cat eyes, looking very elegant and calm.
So one morning, when Xie Xuanzhao and Liu Qinglan got up, they found that on the bed next to them, three snow-white little beasts were sleeping around the little queen, with their furry tails covering their sister, as if they were afraid that she would catch a cold.
At mealtime, the three little Feifeis were already able to help themselves and eat very quickly. After finishing their meal, they would jump onto the bed and stare at the nurse with their piercing eyes as she fed them. The nurse only knew that the two queen mothers raised three kittens and doted on them like their precious babies, so she had to feed them even when they stared at her.
One of the kittens suddenly swallowed and meowed a few times, saying: I want to drink milk too!
The other two looked at this one in unison. Luoluo raised her little paw and patted her little sister's head, "You're useless."
The author has something to say: Thank you all for providing naming ideas, especially the student who used a pseudonym from a poem. I used yours. Thank you very much~~~
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