Chapter 250

Liu Tong found Xu Ran in the kitchen who was discussing with Baozi about how many fish should be cooked at night, applied ointment for him, then stayed in the kitchen together, not knowing what happened outside.

While King Yan, after hearing what Liu Tong said, returned to his and Xiao Qingyun’s room, and saw that Xiao Qingyun was drinking tea and reading a book, without any intention of looking for him. Then he understood that Liu Tong was sending him away with an excuse.

However, since he had come, he didn’t intend to leave immediately. He sat down and spoke to Xiao Qingyun, asking about the situation of the two kids.

Xiao Qingyun said to King Yan in an envious tone, “Your Highness, can you take me out with you next time? I haven’t been out of the mansion for a long time.”

There was a pitiful element in his tone, but King Yan still refused, “Your body is not in a good condition. It’s so cold outside. What if you catch cold? Zheng’er is in good health, different from you.”

Xiao Qingyun was dissatisfied. “What’s so different? I just need to wear a little more. Besides, Tongtong came from the south. Yanzhou is colder than the south, he’s also fine.”

Xiao Qingyun stared at King Yan while King Yan stared back at him with a disapproval expression.

Seeing that it didn’t work, Xiao Qingyun started to act coquettishly. He hugged King Yan’s arm and said, “Just let me go! You see that you’re not at home every day, and kids have to go to Fuzi’s class. I’m alone in the mansion and I don’t even have a person to talk with. Please take me out, just once, once. If I get sick, I won’t go out in winters, okay?! ”

Hearing Xiao Qingyun’s words, King Yan couldn’t help but feel a little bitter. In fact, Xiao Qingyun’s health was not bad. He just could not stand the coldness. So he restricted him from going out every year when it was winter. In the past, he had never said anything like this and never demanded to go out. This time, he should be envious of Liu Tong being able to get out.

Having been married for so many years, with kids being so big, at this moment, King Yan felt that he didn’t care enough for Xiao Qingyun.

He held him in his arms and patted his back. “I promise you to let you go out, but you can’t get sick. Don’t scare me. Do you know?”

Xiao Qingyun came out of his arms and nodded in a hurry. He laughed so happily that his tears came out.

He said, “I don’t really want to go out. It’s just that you were often out in the winter. Sometimes, you would stay in the military camp for a few days. I couldn’t see you even if I want to. Forget it, why should I tell you this? After all, you have promised me to go out, I definitely won’t let myself fall sick. I want to go out with you a few more times.”

Then he wiped his eyes, went to the cabinet to take the ointment to wipe for King Yan, and complained, “Damn it, I have told you to wipe some each time you go outside, but you never listened. When you got back, you didn’t send people to inform me in time. If the wound isn’t handled well, you might have a scar left on your face in the future. As a prince, why don’t you care about your face?”

King Yan smiled and shook his head. “If my face is ruined, you should rest more reassured! If so, no one else will want to be King Yan’s concubines, right?”

Xiao Qingyun clenched his fists and gently punched him. “You think the ones who really want to be King Yan’s concubines will care about what you look like. As long as you are King Yan, those people will not give up. You might as well make your face look better and make more people covet you. Anyway, they won’t get their way.”

King Yan reached out and squeezed Xiao Qingyun’s chin. “Why are you so confident? Trust me so much?”

Xiao Qingyun said, “That’s right, if I didn’t have any confidence, I wouldn’t have married you back then. Besides, it was said by you, not by me.”

Then, he smiled at King Yan smugly.

King Yan was amused by his look and said, “Yes, I said it. There will never be anyone else, you will be my only one. I will spare more time to accompany you in the future. As long as I return to the mansion, I will come looking for you, alright?”

Xiao Qingyun was both happy and shy, not knowing what to say for a moment.

They could only continue their movements of hands. Then, the atmosphere between the two was interrupted by the noise outside.

King Yan heard the sound from outside and said, “What’s wrong? Why do I think that ever since Zheng Er and the rest came, the mansion has been very lively. Even the servants dared to mess around.”

Xiao Qingyun said, “Isn’t that good. It also increased the popularity of the mansion. You’ve been so cold all day, the servants will feel afraid when they see you. They definitely don’t want to tell you anything.”

King Yan, who had been disliked, touched his face unconsciously and started to doubt the truth of Xiao Qingyun’s words.

Then he thought about it carefully. It seemed to be true. Apart from a few people who often served him, everyone else seemed to be quite afraid of him, but he had never done anything too far!

While King Yan was still confused, Xiao Qingyun had already figured out what had happened outside and came back.

King Yan looked up at him, “What’s wrong outside? Who caused the trouble?”

Xiao Qingyun covered his mouth and smiled. “Your two nephews were brisk for a while on a rare occasion. They chased in the yard, and was seen by Yan Lan and Yan Hao, who ran together with them. Later, some servants joined them too. There are a lot of servants in our mansion. This is how things are.”

Hearing Xiao Qingyun’s words, King Yan frowned, “Didn’t you say that Guoguo and Tangtang are very obedient? Why are they so abnormal today?”

Xiao Qingyun said, “After all, they are two kids. How can you not let them mess around? Since nothing has happened, don’t keep a straight face to the kids when you go out. Otherwise, I will definitely fix you, and Tongtong will do too.”

King Yan’s scalp tingled when he heard this. How could the brothers be so fierce now?

He stood up and said, “I’ll go out and take a look.”

Xiao Qingyun looked at him without saying a word but his meaning was obvious.

King Yan nodded helplessly, “Don’t worry, I won’t scold the kids. You have said that they are still kids. Besides, aren’t our two little bear kids among the pack too?”

Xiao Qingyun was reassured and let him go.

King Yan went out and went directly to Tangtang and Guoguo to inquire about the situation. In fact, Tangtang and Guoguo were also in a daze. Should they know that they would cause so many things by a casual running like this, they would never have run.

So when King Yan came to ask them, the two honest kids told his what had happened,  which amused King Yan a lot, totally giving up the idea of giving them a lesson.

The only place that was not disturbed was the kitchen. Baozi negotiated with Xu Ran for a long time and finally set the number of fish at five. Xu Ran looked at the five big fish selected and said to himself that these were almost enough for the people of the whole mansion to eat.

But this was also a good thing. They could also let the servants of the mansion taste the fish together. Therefore, when he opened his own store, they could help publicize it.

Xu Ran’s mind was full of calculations, so he rolled up his sleeves and started to fiddle with the ingredients.

As for the fish, it would be cleaned and dressed after lunch.

In order to wait for Lu Qi and the others to come back for dinner, they waited for a long time, but no one appeared. As the children were too hungry, King Yan ordered them to eat first. As for the others, he asked the kitchen to put aside the dishes for them to eat when they came back.

After lunch, King Yan had his own matters to deal with, so he took Yan Chuan out.

Xu Ran was idle and didn’t want to go out anymore. Thinking of the pain he suffered in the morning, Xu Ran felt that it was necessary to devise some equipments.

He knew that after he promised King Yan, countless days of going out would be expecting him in the future.

Xu Ran called Liu Tong and Shao Yu together and said to them, “Tongtong, Shao Yu, since you are idle in the afternoon. I want you to help me make something.”

Liu Tong quickly asked him, “Ran, what do you want to make?”

Xu Ran said, “Tongtong, I want you to help me make three things, the first is called gloves, which are worn on hands. The second is a scarf, which is wrapped around the neck and could shield the wind and cover the face, very convenient. The third is a backpack. I guess that we will often go out in the future. The climate in Yanzhou is cold, so it is inconvenient to hold things in hands. Thus, we need a backpack.”

Liu Tong frowned. “But Ran, I don’t know how to make these things. Ran, can we make them?”

Xu Ran said, “I know how, but we have to find some cotton and fluffy fabric. The cotton can be used to make gloves, the fluffy one can be used to make scarves. As for the backpack, we can use some cloth with dark colors to make it.”

Hearing Xu Ran say that he knows how, Liu Tong is relieved and says, “Ran, since you know how to do, I will ask Qingyun to give me some fabric, as well as thread and needles, of which we have none.”

For some time, Xu Ran was trying to figure out who Qing Yun was. Then he got it — he was the husband of King Yan!

But how should he address the husband of King Yan?

Xu Ran felt that this was a serious question and needed to be discussed cautiously. After all, he called King Yan ‘Your Highness’, but he had never seen the brother of the prince.

When he came back to his senses, he found that he was only one left in the room. Liu Tong and Shao Yu had both left. They should have gone to find King Yan to get the fabric.

It was not appropriate for Xu Ran to follow them, so he could only wander around the room alone. He thought that it was time to write a letter to Zhuo Yun and the others to report their safety. He was also wondering how the plague in the south was now.

Xu Ran started to search for brush, ink, and paper in the room, but he couldn’t find anything. The moment he opened the door, he saw that Gu Yu was guarding outside, so he said to Gu Yu, “Gu Yu, can you get a set of brush, ink and paper for me? I want to write something.”

It was rare for Xu Ran to instruct him to do things, so Gu Yu naturally agreed in a hurry, “Master Xu, wait a moment. I’ll get the things for you right away.”

Xu Ran nodded. “Fine, I’ll wait for you.”

Gu Yu quickly turned around and left.