Perhaps it was because he had seen the lover he had been thinking about and had a safe place to stay, Xu Nuo thought he would not feel sleepy again after sleeping for a whole day, but not long after He Ye left, he fell into a deep dream again.
It was like a thick fog in the dream, everything was white and unclear. Xu Nuo could only feel a pair of soft hands patting him gently, hazy songs in his ears, and occasionally a child's voice whispering his brother.
Xu Nuo tried to clear the fog in front of him and tried hard to see the scene clearly, but before he succeeded, he woke up from the dream.
The sound of birds can be heard outside the window. Although most of the sunlight is blocked by the window paper, it still brings warmth to the room.
The sudden switch between dream and reality gave people a sense of unreality. Xu Nuo was stunned on the bed for a while, and subconsciously hummed a few incoherent tunes, which was the nursery rhyme he had just heard in the dream.
"Young Master?" Ah Fu knocked on the door and poked out half of his chubby face. "You're awake."
Xu Nuo sat up from the bed and nodded, "Just call me Xiao Nuo... I'm not some young master."
Ah Fu nodded perfunctorily. He didn't have the courage to call him by his name directly. If He Ye knew about it, he would probably get angry.
"The wontons are freshly cooked in the kitchen." Ah Fu deftly placed a small table on the bed and put a bowl of steaming wontons on it. "Try it, this is my mother's specialty."
Ah Fu's father is the steward of the general's mansion, and his mother helps in the kitchen. He has been with He Ye since he was a child and is considered to be He Ye's most trusted servant.
"It smells so good," Xu Nuo squinted his eyes happily, "There are no such big wontons in the South. Brother Afu, your mother is really amazing."
Ah Fu was delighted to be praised, but also showed some doubt, "Young Master, is he from the Southern Kingdom?"
Xu Nuo blew a large wonton to cool it down and put it into his mouth, savoring the taste of the meat and green onions, then nodded to Ah Fu.
"That's weird," Ah Fu scratched his head. "I thought we were the only ones singing the song you just hummed."
"Is that the little tune I just hummed?"
"Yes," Ah Fu nodded. "My mother always sang this to me when I was little. There's no child in the capital who hasn't heard it."
Xu Nuo felt a strange and nervous feeling in his heart. The original novel only said that the cannon fodder Xiao Nuozi was an orphan who was taken away by an old eunuch in the capital of the Southern Kingdom and thrown into the secret guard camp. How could he have heard Dajing's nursery rhymes?
"Is this nursery rhyme only sung in Dajing? It's not sung anywhere else?"
"I'm not sure about that," Ah Fu chuckled. "We have a large territory in Dajing. I know that people in the south don't sing this song. The dialect they speak there is different from ours."
Xu Nuo knew this. Nanguo was still south of Dajing, and the Mandarin spoken by the people of Nanguo was quite different from that of Dajing. Logically, he should have never heard of this nursery rhyme. He racked his brains but could not figure it out, so he had to give up.
Seeing that he had eaten the wontons, Ah Fu tactfully left, lest his moody master come back and get angry again.
Xu Nuo finished his wontons slowly and even drank most of the soup in the bowl. He felt warm all over and the illness that had been lingering in his body for many days was mostly gone.
He was feeling well, and he didn't want to continue lying on the couch. Luckily, He Ye had sent a few sets of clothes to be placed by the bed last night. Xu Nuo picked out a set, put it on, washed up carefully, and pushed the door open to leave.
Xu Nuo didn't expect He Ye to be standing outside the door. The man had probably just returned from court and hadn't changed his clothes yet. This was the first time Xu Nuo saw him wearing proper court clothes.
The crimson-purple court robe with wide sleeves and long gown was unlike his usual neat round-necked robe with wrist guards. Instead, it made him look gentle and refined, like a handsome young man.
"You...why are you here?" Xu Nuo was distracted and didn't dare to look at him again. He quickly lowered his head.
The pair of small ears that were not hidden well were pink and as cute as their owner. He Ye felt like teasing him and lowered his head to look at him. The distance between their heads was less than a fist. As long as one of them raised his head, their lips would touch.
"I also live in this courtyard. I will naturally come back after court."
Nonsense! Xu Nuo muttered angrily. He Ye's main house was in the east, and he couldn't walk to his door when he returned home. But he couldn't say it. What if He Ye said he was just wandering around his own house? That would be understandable, but it would make him seem self-indulgent.
He Ye saw that his little face was getting redder and redder, and he felt satisfied. But he didn't want to tease him too much, so he stood up and kept some distance.
"Why did you leave the house? Are you feeling better?"
"Yes," Xu Nuo nodded, "Thank you, General."
"Call me He Ye," the man's eyes unconsciously showed some smiles. He reached out and took off the cloak on his back and covered him with it. "It's cold outside, you have to be careful."
"Um... He Ye," Xu Nuo called him sweetly with an intimate expression, "I want to help you with something. You can't just lie in the house all the time. I can do a lot of work!"
"Did you always work?"
"Yeah," Xu Nuo didn't think there was anything wrong, "How can you eat if you don't work?"
He Ye frowned, and a cold winter day emerged in his mind. A thinly dressed boy was squatting beside a well washing clothes. His soft little hands were dyed red by the cold water, but in order to earn a little money, he had to bury his hands in the cold water.
"You won't need to do those things here in the future." He Ye was silent for a long time, his voice dry. He wished he could have found him ten years earlier and kept him by his side.
"This isn't good," Xu Nuo scratched his head, "You gave me a place to live and food to eat, so I should do something for you."
"Then follow me, um...can you serve tea and water?"
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