CH 108.1

When Jin Wang brought Xiaobao back, Yaoniang could see that her son was a little unhappy.

“What’s wrong? Was he being naughty?”

“He’s probably sleepy.” Jin Wang said a reason that he thought was likely.

But from what Yaoniang could tell, he wasn’t sleepy. She also knew that Jin Wang wouldn’t mistreat Xiaobao so the only thing she could think of to explain his listless look was boredom.

“I told you not to go with your father yet you refused to listen. Your father is a person who has big matters to take care of and those things must be very boring for a child like you. You only bored yourself by going.” She stroked her son’s little head and laughed.

Jin Wang, who has big matters to take care of, and Xiaobao, who bored himself, reluctantly accepted Yaoniang’s statement.

Xiaobao still wanted to try one more time. “Great-great grandfather…”

Yaoniang glanced at him in surprise.

Jin Wang added. “He said great-grandfather several times today. Did you teach him that?”

It was indeed Yaoniang, but she only taught him how to say it once. She even wondered if Xiaobao could remember but when they went to Duke Ningguo Manor that day, Xiaobao performed very well. Both Duke Ningguo and Duchess Ningguo were so pleased that they were smiling the entire day.

“Great-grandfather…”

“Do you want to see your great-grandfather? Or do you want to go to Duke Ningguo Manor?” It was still a mother who understood her son best.

Xiaobao, full of gratitude, nodded and then said, “Yes! Go, go!”

“You want to go find your great-grandfather?”

“Go, great-grandfather…”

Yaoniang was a little surprised and couldn’t help but glance at Jin Wang. Then she said to Xiaobao, “You can’t go now, it’s almost dark.”

“Go tomorrow!”

This kid was quite a something!

Yaoniang anxiously said to Jin Wang, “Now what?”

She had no habit of deceiving children, and her son was also very smart. Yaoniang didn’t want to lie to him. But going to Duke Ningguo Manor was not something she could call the shots.

Jin Wang pondered, “It’s still more than half a month away from Father Emperor’s birthday. There’s also nothing going on during this period, so it’s not impossible to go. But you’re pregnant now…”

“Go, go to great grandfather…” Xiaobao continued to say.

“Tomorrow, this prince will ask Fucheng to take him.”

Yaoniang nodded. Seeing that she wanted to whisper something, Jin Wang bent down.

Yaoniang whispered, “Perhaps he’ll forget about it tomorrow.”

Was that possible?

Jin Wang looked at Xiaobao, whose eyes were glittering, and then looked at the bright fair face by his ear, feeling very doubtful.

Xiaobao had a very good memory. The next day after waking up, he clamoured to go to his great-grandfather’s house. So Fucheng changed his job. Instead of following Jin Wang, he had to accompany Xiaobao to Duke Ningguo Manor.

This was the first time for Xiaobao to go out on his own. Yaoniang felt uneasy inside. She prepared two sets of clothes, as well as several pastries that Xiaobao liked to eat. Then she explained to Fucheng what Xiaobao would do when he wished to go to the washroom.

Fucheng nodded while Xiaobao’s ears turned all red. To cover up his embarrassment, he crawled away towards his little wooden horse, as if he also wanted to take the little wooden horse with him.

Everything was packed up and they were finally ready to leave. Since Jin Wang was going to enter the palace today, he brought Xiaobao with him into the carriage. After entering the palace, he no longer rode a horse and only used carriages.

Midway through the trip, Fucheng took Xiaobao to change into another carriage then continued to Duke Ningguo Manor.

Yaoniang felt extremely bored now that Xiaobao was not there. Taking advantage of the good weather, she had Hong Chou and the others clean the courtyard thoroughly. Everything that needed to be dried was carried outside.

As they busied themselves away, it was soon noon. After eating lunch, Yaoniang went to take a nap. When she woke up, it was still early and she felt bored with nothing to do again. Yaoniang had never felt like this before. Normally, she’d tease her son or chat with the maids, and time always flew by extremely fast. Yet today she felt as if a day was as long as a year.

The sun finally set, but Xiaobao still wasn’t back yet. Yaoniang felt a bit anxious, so she asked people to check whether Jin Wang had come back. Jin Wang was also not back yet. It was only afterwards that she learned someone had tripped up Jin Wang, but she didn’t know what exactly had happened. She only knew that the several princes went to a restaurant to drink together.

It wasn’t until it got dark that Xiaobao came back. After asking Fucheng, he knew that Xiaobao had a very happy time at Duke Ningguo Manor. It was more accurate to say that Xiaobao was extremely fond of Huju Hall, where Duke Ningguo lived, and had frolicked around the entire yard. He had also made Duke Ningguo so happy that he even ate an extra bowl of rice during dinner.

It was unknown what the old and the young had discussed, but in short, Xiaobao would go again tomorrow.

After listening to everything, Yaoniang felt a bit disheartened. Was she being abandoned by her son? She had the feeling where a fledgling was about to leave the nest and separate from the mother bird.

Xiaobao seemed to be able to sense the unease in Yaoniang’s heart. He acted silly and showed off his cuteness before he finally took Yaoniang’s mind off of it for the time being.

Actually, it was only after thinking about it for a long time that he thought of doing this. With so many people looking after his mother, nothing could happen, at least for now. But Duke Ningguo Manor was different. That place was dark under the lamp¹.

Xiaobao had a feeling that Shen Tai was about to do something bad.