164. Girls are so shameless.
Wei Liangchun watched them walk away and sighed, "Oh well, never mind them. Let's go play the shadow puppet show instead."
Wei Liangchun was mild-mannered but had a strong sense of responsibility.
He already had many younger brothers and sisters in his own palace, and he was used to being the older brother and taking care of them.
At this moment, he was the oldest here, and he felt it was his duty to take care of all his younger brothers and sisters.
He took out a few more shadow puppets and distributed them one by one. The little dumpling received a rabbit shadow puppet: "Princess Fukang, this is for you. We'll play together later."
Just as the little dumpling was about to say thank you, he saw Prince Xiang, Wei Zhenhua, standing outside the circle with his arms crossed, sneering: "Childish. What's so interesting about shadow puppetry? You'd be better off playing a game of Go with me."
Wei Zhenhua, who is eight years old this year, also appeared at last night's banquet, but he was unable to speak with the emperor.
He glanced at the young prince with a mocking look: "I just don't know if the young prince will actually do it."
The young prince, of course, would not back down: "I have read the chess records, but I haven't played many games in practice."
The main problem was that the Grand Tutor didn't teach it, because chess wasn't one of the Six Arts of a Gentleman.
Moreover, children who have just begun learning chess are not yet at the age where they should be learning.
"So you just don't know how," Wei Zhenhua scoffed.
He was about to speak again when Wei Liangchun quickly tugged at his sleeve: "Don't say that. The little prince is still young. He'll have plenty of opportunities to learn later. Let's play shadow puppetry first. It'll be more fun with more people."
Wei Zhenhua, however, didn't give him any face: "What are you pretending to be, a good person?"
Wei Liangchun's expression was somewhat awkward and unpleasant.
"You little brat, you're so arrogant, aren't you?" The little princess rolled up her sleeves and said fiercely, "Come on, let's play a round!"
The little dumpling and the little prince both looked at the little princess in surprise.
The little dumpling exclaimed with sparkling eyes, "Little Cloud, you can actually play chess! That's amazing!"
The young prince was somewhat shocked: "When did you learn to play chess? I didn't even know?"
"I don't know how to play chess," the little princess said nonchalantly.
"Huh?"
"ah?"
The little dumpling and the little prince were both shocked.
The little princess grinned wickedly: "Although I can't play chess, I can cheat and flip the table! Just watch how I teach this brat a lesson!"
After saying that, she stormed off.
The little dumpling looked admiringly at the little princess's retreating figure: "Little Cloud is so great!"
"Ah... um... it's quite touching." The young prince's feelings were mixed.
Even though she doesn't know how to play chess, she still stood up for him...
Then go and torment others.
Seeing that the two troublemakers had been lured away, Wei Liangchun breathed a sigh of relief: "Alright, let's go play the shadow puppet show."
Now, at least no one interrupted.
He successfully led the little prince and the little dumpling into the room where they were playing shadow puppetry.
The white cloth for the shadow puppet show had been hung up, and the palace servants lit the palace lanterns on both sides, the warm yellow light illuminating the white cloth.
Wei Liangchun placed the Sun Wukong puppet on a bamboo pole.
A prince enthusiastically produced a gong, laughing, "For the sake of the young prince and Princess Fukang, I'll play the gong to accompany you. Wei Liangchun, if you don't perform well, I'll have to scold you!"
"Don't worry, I'll definitely act well!" Wei Liangchun assured him.
The shadow puppet show begins.
Sun Wukong did a somersault on the white cloth, his posture was surprisingly agile, and his movements were very smooth.
The voice acting was done by Wei Liangchun himself, and several princes were also there, making a lively scene by banging gongs and drums.
...although some of the vocal performances were clearly subpar.
However, the children still had a lot of fun.
The little prince was so engrossed in watching that his little hand unconsciously followed Sun Wukong's movements and waved.
"Fight the monster! Fight the monster quickly!" The little dumpling also got nervous.
Wei Liangchun peeked out from behind the white cloth and winked at the little dumpling: "Jade Rabbit, it's your turn."
The little dumpling jumped up from its seat, ran over, and held up the rabbit shadow puppet next to the white cloth: "Let the little rabbit help Sun Wukong fight the monsters!"
"Come quick!" Wei Liangchun laughed and handed the bamboo pole to the little dumpling. "Have the little rabbit go around behind the monster, and we'll attack from both sides!"
The two worked together to make the shadow puppets move, but the little dumpling was obviously very clumsy, and the little rabbit was slow and dull.
The princes' eyes all fell on her.
The little dumpling got nervous, and when it got nervous, it handled the puppet even worse, almost dropping it from its hands.
Thus, a vicious cycle ensued, with more attention falling on her, making her even more nervous...
At this moment, the little prince clapped his hands and lied through his teeth: "Little Moon, you performed so well! Keep it up!"
Upon hearing this, one of the princes shouted at the top of his lungs, "Go, little rabbit! Go, Sun Wukong! Defeat the monster and eat the mooncake!"
He had a loud voice, and his shout attracted everyone's attention.
Another prince couldn't help but laugh: "Your lyrics are terrible! Eating mooncakes? Monsters don't eat mooncakes!"
"My mother said that we should eat mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival, and monsters must love them too!" the prince retorted, sticking out his neck.
"The Mid-Autumn Festival is over! You idiot!"
The noisy chatter only made things more lively, and the little dumpling gradually caught up with the rhythm.
The shadow puppet show ended successfully.
Wei Liangchun originally wanted to suggest taking them to ride Western Region ponies again, but the little prince and the little dumpling both felt that riding horses was too dangerous, so they both refused.
The group then returned to the banquet venue.
As soon as I arrived at my seat, I heard cheers coming from the corner.
The little boy went over to take a look and saw his second brother standing there holding a slingshot, surrounded by several princes, who were obviously having a slingshot contest.
"I hit it again!" the second brother shouted excitedly, holding the slingshot high. "Who wants to race me?"
The little dumpling turned its head to look at the table again.
Apart from the second brother's side, all the other princes have returned.
Dou Shichen, whom we hadn't seen before, was sitting at the table, playing with a gold-handled fan in his hand, while Wei Zhenhua, who had just been bullied by the little princess, sat next to him.
Seeing them approach, Dou Shichen glared at the little dumpling, clearly still holding a grudge from the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The little dumpling couldn't help but wonder, could it be that Shiny Bean Prince isn't coming to play with them because he's still holding a grudge and doesn't want to see her?
...In fact, this is the truth.
Wei Zhenhua glared at the little princess, and after playing a few games of chess, they had formed a grudge.
In a more secluded corner, Bai Qingzhong huddled alone in a chair, his snacks untouched, his fingers unconsciously picking at the tablecloth, not daring to glance at the noise around him.
It seems she's being targeted and ostracized again.
"Little Moon, let's go see Jin Erbi's slingshot!" The little princess pulled the little dumpling and walked towards her second brother.
As she passed by Wei Zhenhua, Wei Zhenhua suddenly looked up, her tone somewhat disdainful: "What are you girls doing getting involved? Slingshots are for boys, do you even understand what they're doing?"
The little princess paused, immediately turned around and glared at them: "What? You don't understand? If you're not convinced, let's have another contest!"
Wei Zhenhua got angry when the topic of competition came up: "I'm not going to compete with you in this. All you do is cheat!"
"So what?" the little princess asked confidently.
Wei Zhenhua was even more furious.
As the heir apparent, he was pampered and spoiled at home; how could he have ever suffered such humiliation?
At this moment, her anger flared up, and she became even more unrestrained in her speech: "Girls like you are shameless! You girls should stay in your rooms embroidering and reading 'Women's Instructions' and 'Women's Precepts,' instead of running around here with boys, what kind of behavior is this? Aren't you afraid of being laughed at if word gets out? Be careful you don't ruin your reputation and end up not being able to get married when you grow up!"
These words instantly silenced the banquet.
Everyone turned their attention to this.
The little boy squeezed the little princess's hand tightly and whispered in protest, "No one said girls can't play with boys! When we were watching the shadow puppet show, everyone was playing together..."
"Who do you think you are, to dare speak to me?!" Wei Zhenhua's tone became even more aggressive. "You're just getting in the way here!"
The young prince immediately stood in front of the little girl, frowning: "What nonsense are you talking about?! You can't just say bad things about them because they are girls!"
"Oh, so the little prince knows how to protect girls?" Wei Zhenhua sneered.
The moment the young prince spoke, the nature of the matter changed.
It escalated from a simple children's squabble to something more serious.
Those princes who already harbored ill will towards the young prince seized this opportunity to speak out, hoping to suppress the young prince by suppressing the little princess and the little dumpling.
Several princes immediately joined in the commotion—
"Exactly! What do girls know? Don't cause trouble here!"
"Go back now, we boys have things to talk about, we don't have time to play with you girls!"
"Girls are only causing trouble here, let's get out of here!"
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