The words "attending a wedding banquet" echoed in his ears like a demonic whisper, making Xiao Che's handsome face even more contorted with embarrassment. He, the retired emperor, was being summoned home by his son with the utmost urgency to handle his life's most important matter. If word got out, would he ever regain his dignity?
However, seeing Lin Wanwan laughing so hard she was doubled over, his gloom vanished. Oh well, children and grandchildren have their own lives; even in retirement, he still has to worry.
"Set sail! Return to the capital immediately!" Xiao Che put away the ridiculous "chicken feather letter," gave the order to the boatman, and his tone regained some of the unquestionable imperial authority.
The originally leisurely and pleasant southern tour was abruptly brought to a dramatic end.
The return journey was no longer the leisurely one of the outwards; the official boats traveled day and night, heading north. In just ten days, the majestic and magnificent outline of the capital city came into view.
To avoid causing too much of a commotion, Xiao Che and Lin Wanwan did not use the main gate. Instead, they ordered their boat to be moored at a secluded royal dock, changed into an ordinary carriage, and quietly returned to the palace.
They had barely stepped into the Kunning Palace, where they had once lived, when His Majesty the Emperor, Xiao Tuan, rushed over in a great hurry after receiving the news.
"Father! Mother! You've finally returned!"
Before the person arrived, their voice preceded them. The voice was filled with a sense of relief and a long-suppressed sense of grievance.
Lin Wanwan turned around and saw a figure dressed in bright yellow casual clothes rushing into the hall.
The young man before them was no longer the "little dumpling" they remembered, wobbling behind them and softly begging for snacks. He had grown into a handsome seventeen-year-old, tall and straight, a head taller than Lin Wanwan. His face inherited Xiao Che's handsome features and Lin Wanwan's refined elegance, his eyes and brows bearing a striking resemblance to Xiao Che's. However, having spent years immersed in the "healing" atmosphere of various delicacies, he had lost some of Xiao Che's innate coldness and sharpness, gaining instead a gentle and refined temperament.
At this moment, however, the emperor, who was as gentle and refined as jade, had a face that clearly showed his inner turmoil.
"Your subject greets Your Majesty and Your Majesty." Xiao Tuan first performed a proper salute, but after finishing, he immediately couldn't hold back anymore, his handsome face scrunching up like a bun. "Your Majesty and Your Majesty, if you don't come back soon, your subject will be drowned in the spittle of those old ministers!"
Seeing her son pouring out his grievances, Lin Wanwan felt both heartache and amusement. She pulled Xiao Tuan to sit down, poured him a cup of tea, and asked softly, "What's wrong? Tell me slowly, how have the court officials made things difficult for you?"
"What else can they do to make things difficult for me?" Xiao Tuan took the teacup and drank it all in one gulp, like a calf quenching its thirst. "Ever since I turned seventeen, it's as if they've conspired together to send me memorials every day urging me to get married! The Minister of Revenue says the national treasury is full and can afford the grand ceremony; the Minister of Rites says the auspicious day has been set and it shouldn't be delayed any longer; even those old generals in the Ministry of War who are always shouting for war have started citing various sources, saying things like 'establishing a family and career' and 'only with a continuous line of imperial offspring can we awe the four directions'! They're using every trick in the book!"
He spoke with righteous indignation, clearly indicating that he had been tormented greatly.
Xiao Che sipped his tea leisurely to the side and casually interjected, "What they said does make some sense."
“Father!” Xiao Tuan immediately turned to him for help. “How can you say that too? Have you forgotten the original intention of Mother when she established the ‘Royal Female Scholar’ system to fight against old customs? Now they are forcing me to select candidates, and the list is full of noble ladies. Isn’t this making Mother’s hard work go to waste?”
He cleverly brought up Lin Wanwan, the big shot in the drama.
As expected, Xiao Che coughed lightly upon hearing this and then fell silent.
Lin Wan-wan looked at her son, who was already capable of handling things independently and outwitting court officials, yet still relied on and complained like a child in front of them. She was filled with mixed emotions.
Pride, relief, and a touch of indescribable...reluctance.
It seems like only yesterday he was that little bundle of joy, babbling in her arms, clapping and giggling whenever he saw the GIF of "Wife, you're the best" float above Xiao Che's head. In the blink of an eye, he's grown so tall, reached the age where he should get married, start a family, and become the pillar of his own empress.
My son has grown up.
At this moment, she felt the deepest understanding of this poem.
"Alright," Lin Wan-wan took her son's hand and gently patted the back of his hand, which was now even larger and thicker than hers. "Father and Mother are back now, aren't they? Your affairs are our affairs. Tell Mother the truth, do you already have someone in mind?"
Mentioning this, Xiao Tuan's complaining face instantly turned red. He lowered his head somewhat embarrassedly, and his voice became much softer: "...Mm."
"Is it that lady official from the 'Royal Academy of Sciences'?" Lin Wanwan asked with a smile. In fact, although she and Xiao Che were in Jiangnan, they never stopped receiving news from the capital, especially about their son.
Xiao Tuan's face turned even redder, almost as if it were about to bleed, and he nodded slightly.
Lin Wan's smile deepened. She knew that girl; she had heard the palace maids mention her. She was one of the most outstanding young scholars in the Academy of Sciences, born a commoner, who had risen to her current position through her talent and hard work. More importantly, she had heard that the girl was kind-hearted, upright, and an excellent young woman.
Her son's taste is just like hers.
“Now that you have someone in your heart, things will be easier.” Lin Wan-wan had a plan in mind, but right now, she had something more important to say to her son.
This is a mother's "pre-marital education" for her son who is about to get married.
She dismissed the palace servants, leaving only the three of them in the hall. Holding Xiao Tuan's hand, her expression became incredibly serious, and she said, word by word:
"Tuanzi, listen to your mother. I won't talk to you about those imperial strategies and principles of governing the country. Your father has already taught you those, and you've done a good job. Today, I only want to tell you one thing."
Seeing his mother's serious expression, Xiao Tuan immediately put away his previous relaxed demeanor and listened attentively.
"From now on, the empress you choose will be your 'empire'." Lin Wan-wan looked into her son's eyes and said with absolute clarity, "You and she can protect the empire in the court together. But the empire that belongs only to you is her. You must treat me the way your father treated me... no," she said, then suddenly changed the subject, glancing disdainfully at Xiao Che, who was sitting upright beside her, eavesdropping, "you must do better than your father, that straight man."
"Pfft—" Xiao Tuan couldn't help but almost burst out laughing, but he managed to hold it back, his shoulders shaking.
"Hello!"
The retired emperor, who was criticized as a "straight man" in front of his son, finally couldn't help but protest.
His "artificial voice pack," filled with intense dissatisfaction, rang out from the side: "What have I done wrong? I shielded her from arrows, quelled palace coups for her, dismissed the harem for her, and even offered her the empire as a dowry! I was also her accountant for over a decade! What have I done wrong?!"
He launched into a series of rhetorical questions, speaking with an air of self-righteousness, as if he had suffered a great injustice.
Lin Wan-wan didn't even bother to turn her head, but simply said to her son leisurely, "Look, this is your father. He thinks that he's done so many 'great things,' and that's all. But he doesn't realize that sometimes, a kind word or a timely hug is more important than those 'great things.' So, Tuanzi, you must remember to talk to your Empress more often in the future, don't keep everything bottled up and make her guess. Guessing back and forth can easily hurt feelings."
These words were both an instruction to his son and a warning to the "old straight man" next to him.
Xiao Che was speechless for a long time, his handsome face turning slightly red. In the end, he could only squeeze out a few words through gritted teeth: "I... that's just my nature!"
"That's why I asked your son to change," Lin Wan-wan replied calmly, completely ending this "friendly" exchange between the couple.
She looked at Xiao Tuan again, her eyes gentle and full of expectation: "Do you understand what Mother means?"
Looking at his mother, who had planned everything for him and was always his strongest support, and then at his father beside him, who was protesting but whose eyes were clearly smiling, Xiao Tuan felt a surge of warmth in his heart.
He nodded heavily, his cheeks flushed, and solemnly promised, "Your subject understands! Your subject... will definitely do better than Father!"
"That's more like it." Lin Wan-wan smiled with satisfaction.
Looking at her son's handsome face, now showing signs of maturity and no longer youthful, she was momentarily transported back to that afternoon many years ago, to the soft couch in Kunning Palace, where a small, chubby little dumpling nestled in her arms, sweetly whining, "Mother, cake... I want to eat mung bean cake..."
Time is a wondrous thing.
She reached out and gently stroked her son's soft hair, just like when he was a child, silently wishing him well:
My son has grown up. May you obtain all that you love in this life, and may all that you obtain be what you desire.
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