Under the grape trellis at the Prince's Mansion, Chuntao brought in some freshly-cooked Croton Cake. Seeing Kengkeng and Wawa with their faces covered in crumbs, she couldn't help but advise, "My little prince and princess, if you eat too much of this, you'll have diarrhea."
He licked the frosting off his fingers, crumbs covering his face. "Mom said this is the 'Messenger's Style,' and if you eat it, you'll run faster than a prairie wolf! I used this to trick Da Huang yesterday, and he had poop all night!"
Chen Weiwan was sitting in the corridor embroidering a baby bellyband. Upon hearing this, she smiled and said, "Don't worry about them, Chuntao. What child isn't naughty? When I was their age, I would have already sneaked around the general's storehouse."
Xiao Yu came out of the study, holding a small tiger-head hat in his hand. He saw the four crooked gold characters "坑遍天下" embroidered on the bellyband embroidered by Shen Weiwan, and sighed helplessly: "Embroider this for the third child again? The last one was taken away by my father and placed in the imperial study. Every time he sees it, he laughs for half a day."
"That's natural," Shen Weiwan raised her eyebrows, the tip of the needle flashing a light in the sunlight, "Our children must have this aura from the womb, so as not to be bullied when they grow up."
As she was speaking, the old butler came hurriedly on crutches, his beard trembling like a reed in the autumn wind: "Madam, someone from the palace has come, saying that His Majesty has a reward!"
Everyone arrived at the main hall, where a eunuch held up a bright yellow imperial edict and read aloud: "By the grace of Heaven and the Mandate of Heaven, the Emperor proclaims: The Seventh Prince's Consort, Shen, has made invaluable contributions by tactfully defeating the Northern Di and enhancing our nation's prestige. As a reward, I bestow upon her a thousand pounds of the 'divine artifact' of croton seeds as a token of my gratitude. This is my decree!"
Shen Weiwan: "......"
Kengkeng and Wawa immediately jumped for joy: "Yeah! We have croton seeds to play with! We can make more 'opening tea'!"
Xiao Yu looked at the newly piled croton in the corner of the yard and shook his head helplessly: "It seems that father is determined to let our family open a croton shop."
Shen Weiwan laughed so hard that tears were about to come out: "This is called the top beam is crooked and the bottom beam is crooked. Your Majesty clearly thinks that we are having fun by deceiving others!"
That night, Aguda was writing furiously under the lamp in the inn. The handwriting on the parchment was crooked and ink splattered everywhere: "... My son, your father nearly lost his life on this diplomatic mission to Dasheng! The Seventh Prince's wife is a treacherous person reincarnated, more difficult to deal with than the most poisonous snake on the grassland! Her two babies are even more like little devils, feeding people laxatives like candy beans... If you dare to come to Dasheng in the future, your father will break your legs!"
In the warm room of the Prince's Mansion, Shen Weiwan was telling the children a bedtime story: "Once upon a time, there was an envoy who didn't listen to the children and insisted on stealing their croton cakes..."
"As a result, their pants fell off!" Kenkeng and Wawa replied in unison, laughing so hard that they rolled into a ball in the quilt, their little bodies like two happy little animals.
Xiao Yu leaned against the doorframe, watching his wife and children laughing and playing under the lamplight, his heart warmed. The intrigues and strife in the throne room, the turbulent court, at that moment, were transformed into the moonlight outside the window, far less real than the mundane, "deceptive" daily life before him.
"Your Highness," Shen Weiwan looked up at him, a cunning light flashing in her eyes, "Tell me, which blind person should I trick next time?"
Xiao Yu walked over, gently put his arm around her waist, and nuzzled the jasmine scent in her hair. "It's up to you, just don't drag me into the toilet."
"That's hard to say," Shen Weiwan smiled like a fox stealing fish, and poked his chest with her fingertips, "Who made you my husband? It's the most fun to trick your own people!"
The moonlight shone softly outside the window. Laughter from the Prince's mansion drifted far away on the night breeze, startling the night herons perched on the eaves. Shen Weiwan leaned against Xiao Yu's chest, listening to his steady heartbeat, knowing that the days of "swindling the world" had only just begun. She would lead this group of little devils and transform the Dasheng Dynasty into their own joyous "trick theater," letting all the ignorant know—don't mess with the Shen family, especially that swindler named Shen Weiwan!
The next morning, Aguda left the capital with his envoys, without even having breakfast. Before leaving, he sent a letter to the prince's residence. The letter contained only eight characters in cursive script: "Swindler, cunning woman, we shall never meet again!"
Shen Weiwan unfolded the letter and looked at the handwriting that almost scratched the back of the paper. She laughed so hard that she couldn't straighten her back. She handed the letter to the two people beside her, pointing at the words and laughing, "Kids, see? This is the deserter who didn't dare to accept the challenge."
Kengkeng and Wawa immediately raised their little fists and shouted in baby voices, "Next time, we'll feed him croton tea!"
Xiao Yu stood in the corridor, watching his wife and children burst into laughter. He shook his head helplessly, but a doting smile played at the corner of his mouth. He knew that under Shen Weiwan's leadership, the Dasheng Dynasty's "era of deception" would only become more and more lively, and he had long since willingly become the happiest supporting actor in this drama.
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