Has the Eldest Young Master Still Not Been Weaned?
The Bai family held a welcoming banquet for them, and Chu Yuan and the others settled down in Sang Cheng.
This residence was enormous. It had once belonged to a prince of a different surname, and it had everything, from pavilions to terraces. Moreover, the climate in the Western Frontier was warmer. With only the third month just arriving, many flowers and plants in the estate were already competing in beauty and bloom, so lovely that it took one’s breath away.
On the second day after arriving in Sang Cheng, Nie Chouwen took his fishing rod and fish basket and went out. He had arranged to meet some newly acquainted fishing companions by the river.
Those fishing companions merely took him for an old man fond of angling. Not one of them knew that the man before them was the once all-powerful Prime Minister Nie, who had shaken the court.
The climate here was pleasant and the water so clear that one could see straight through it. The fish raised in it were plump and tender. Nie Chouwen became completely addicted to fishing, and for a full month, the household ate nothing but the fish he caught.
After a month, Nie Xuxing could bear it no longer.
He quietly hid his father’s fishing rod. Everyone else silently approved of what he had done and even helped him cover it up.
There was no helping it. No matter how delicious fish might be, if one ate it without cease, there would still come a day when one grew tired of it.
By now, the sight of fish alone was enough to rob them of their appetite.
Nie Xuxing had the nerve to hide the rod, but not the courage to endure his father’s wrath. In a flash of inspiration, he picked up the little bundle and carried him over.
Just as Nie Chouwen was about to flare up over his missing rod, he saw the child’s adorable smile and instantly beamed as he took the baby into his arms.
“Little Fish, darling, let Great-Grandfather hold you.”
“Ah-ya~”
These past days, he had gone out fishing so often that he had hardly spent any time properly accompanying the little bundle.
Little Fish was the milk name they had given the child, and it had won unanimous approval from the whole family.
Except for Lu Ronghuai.
Quietly pinching a cold sweat for Nie Xuxing, Jiang Ni seized the chance to say, “Father, in another twelve days Little Fish will be a hundred days old. Let us give him a lively, bustling hundred-day banquet.”
Back in Xiang Cheng, because Lu Ronghuai had had to hurry back to the Northern Frontier early, they had only held a very plain full-month banquet for the baby at home. This time, no matter what, the hundred-day banquet had to be grand.
Nie Chouwen readily agreed.
In the days that followed, the whole family busied themselves preparing for the hundred-day banquet. Nie Siran had originally planned to stay in Sang Cheng for only a week before leaving to find Su Ruhe in Yan Cheng, but Lu Ronghuai dragged him off to Lu Cheng on the border, where together with Bai Qingyu and the others he began managing border defense affairs.
Nie Siran slammed the bamboo slips onto the table with force and looked down at Lu Ronghuai with a cold smile on his lips. “I have sorted them all out. May I leave now?”
Lu Ronghuai said, “Back to Sang Cheng? Of course you can.”
Nie Xuxing said, “Do not play the fool. After the hundred-day banquet, I am leaving Sang Cheng.”
Lu Ronghuai was bent over writing invitation cards. He planned to hold Lu Duoyu’s hundred-day banquet on the city tower, and the Bai family, the Prefect of Sang Cheng, countless soldiers guarding the city, and wealthy merchants within the city all had to be invited.
Thick stacks of invitations had already piled up on the desk in two high heaps. Prince Li, who had been assigned this tedious task, simply set down his brush after hearing those words and leaned back lazily in his chair.
“Going to trouble Su Ruhe again?” His languid tone carried a faint note of teasing as he lifted his eyelids and looked Nie Siran up and down with ill intent. “Settle down a little. Give Prefect Su some room to breathe. Even debt collectors do not hound a man as closely as you do.”
Nie Siran did not look at that face that so begged to be struck. He elegantly straightened the sleeve he had crumpled, his gaze sweeping across the desk.
“I am returning to Sang Cheng today. Are you coming back or not?”
Lu Ronghuai stretched lazily. “Do grown men need to go home hand in hand together? Has the eldest young master still not been weaned?”
Nie Siran said, “Will you die if you do not needle someone for one day?”
Lu Ronghuai gave a light snort and motioned at the invitations on the desk. “Help me finish writing these. If you move quickly enough, you can still make it back in time for supper.”
“Even children newly entered into the schoolroom know they must finish their own work themselves. Your Highness cannot compare upward, and cannot compare downward either. Does Your Highness not find that shameful?”
Lu Ronghuai smiled amiably. “How can this count as my matter alone? Lu Duoyu is your nephew too. You, his maternal uncle, helping write a few invitations, will only make him more filial to you once he grows up.”
Nie Siran’s mouth twitched. He found a certain prince’s shameless conduct deeply contemptible. “Do not use Little Fish as an excuse. It is fortunate Ah-Yuan is here. Otherwise, sooner or later Little Fish would be led astray by you.”
Complaints were complaints, but Nie Siran still remained behind and helped him finish all the invitations on the table.
It took half an hour to ride swiftly from Lu Cheng back to Sang Cheng. Returning with them were Bai Qingyu and Bai Yi as well.
Lu Cheng was the place along the Western Frontier where troops were stationed and the city guarded. Before they arrived, for the sake of convenience in managing affairs, Bai Yi and the others had directly lived in the General’s Residence in Lu Cheng, which was also the place they had lived for more than ten years before.
However, ever since the little bundle had arrived, they had been making frequent trips back to Sang Cheng.
Later, Lu Rongshen simply moved over altogether and spent his days happily amusing the baby. Even Bai Qingyu had to stand behind the child in the order of affection. The little bundle had plainly become the cherished darling in everyone’s heart.
At the dinner table, everyone took their seats.
Chu Yuan was holding the child when Lu Ronghuai took the little brat into his own arms. The wet nurse had only just fed him, and now the little fellow was full of spirit, opening his mouth and babbling who knew what. Two little white milk teeth had already emerged inside his mouth.
On the way back, Lu Ronghuai had bought a little wooden ball woven with colored thread, with a tiny bell inside that rang ding-ling-dang-lang when shaken.
The little brat’s gaze was immediately drawn to it.
He stuffed the little wooden ball into the child’s hands, letting Chu Yuan eat first while he himself would eat later.
Aside from when he was hungry and wanted the wet nurse, the little brat refused to let her hold him. Previously, when they were eating, they had handed him over to the wet nurse to be carried away. The moment she stepped out the door, however, he had opened his mouth and wailed loudly.
The little brat was not one who loved to cry. He was simply too attached to Chu Yuan.
So long as he left Chu Yuan’s side, he would kick up all manner of fuss.
In order to let Chu Yuan eat properly, Lu Ronghuai would always sit beside him holding the child, making sure the brat could still see Chu Yuan while not interfering with Chu Yuan’s meal.
“Yee~” Knowing his dada was right there beside him, the little brat began to play earnestly with the wooden ball.
As Chu Yuan ate, he watched father and son with smiling eyes. Hearing the others discussing the Northern Frontier, he pricked up his ears and listened to a few lines as well.
Nie Xuxing said, “Your Highness resolved the trouble in the Northern Frontier, and the good news reached Ye Jing last month. Court and commoners alike rejoiced. Now that the Wanchao Hui is upon us, the rulers of the six kingdoms must be losing sleep all night over this.”
Now that the royal court of the northern tribes had submitted to the Kingdom of Lu, from here onward Lu would need only devote itself wholly to dealing with the six kingdoms in the south. Because of this, this year’s Wanchao Hui was especially subdued. The six kingdoms had no mind for contests of arms or letters and wished for nothing more than to depart for their own lands at once.
After they spoke a few more sentences, the topic grew somewhat heavy. Jiang Ni then asked a lighter question. “At this year’s Wanchao Hui, did the Kingdom of Lu have any outstanding young man take first place?”
Nie Chouwen had told him that last year the one who took first place had been his family’s Ah-Yuan, who astonished everyone at the Wanchao Hui and was praised by the people of Ye Jing for a whole year.
Lu Ronghuai held the most timely intelligence in his hands, and everyone knew this. All of them turned to look at him.
Lu Ronghuai idly flicked the wooden ball in the little brat’s hand and said carelessly, “Barely passable. None of them compare to one ten-thousandth of Ah-Yuan. They are all a pack of useless things.”
Chu Yuan: “...”
Just as he was about to glare at Lu Ronghuai and tell him to restrain himself a little, he saw Lu Rongshen nodding furiously like a pecking chicken.
“Yes, yes. Third Sister-in-Law is truly amazing.”
Jiang Ni said, “Indeed. None of them could possibly compare to our Ah-Yuan.”
Bai Yi said, “The Prince Consort is gifted beyond measure, and Little Fish is clever and adorable as well.”
Nie Xuxing asked, “Did Young Lord Ning fail to take the top spot?”
When he had gone before to visit a friend at Cangyun Academy, he had heard this young lord praised by others.
Lu Ronghuai and Nie Siran spoke in unison. “Would he be worthy?”
Chu Yuan: “...”
Humility was a virtue. Yet no one present seemed to possess it.
“Following local custom, he accepted their praise with composure.
“Today at the Lu Cheng border, I came across the retinue of the ruler of Yu,” Bai Yi said as he filled himself another bowl of rice, speaking steadily.
Chu Yuan asked, “Who is the ruler of Yu now?”
Bai Yi replied, “Your Highness has met him before. It is Yu Kui, the one who attended last year’s Wanchao Hui. He defeated the Crown Prince of Yu and is now the new ruler of Yu.”
Nie Chouwen finished his soup and took up a handkerchief to wipe his mouth. “The Wanchao Hui has only just concluded this year. Since Yu is on its return journey now, did anything happen along the way?”
Bai Yi said, “Nothing happened, but that ruler of Yu looked foul of countenance. I heard that this year at the Wanchao Hui, Yu took first place in archery and asked His Majesty for horse stock. His Majesty refused in a single breath.”
Nie Chouwen said, “The horse stock of the Kingdom of Lu is excellent. Compared to the horses of their southern lands, ours are fiercer and more battle-worthy. They have coveted them for a long time.”
Bai Yi nodded. “I also saw Third Princess in their carriage and heard them address her as ‘Lady Shuang.’”
Lu Rongshen was chewing on sweet-and-sour spare ribs, his mouth full of glossy sweet sauce. He licked the corner of his mouth and asked, “Why do they call her Lady?”
Chu Yuan resolved his confusion for him.
Chu Yuan said, “Among the royal households of the six kingdoms, aside from the Empress, all the other consorts of the ruler are addressed as Lady.”
Lu Rongshen’s eyes widened. “So she is now the consort of the ruler of Yu?”
Chu Yuan nodded.
“Er...” Lu Rongshen smacked his lips twice and began sorting through the relations. “So first she married the old ruler, and after the old ruler died, she became the concubine of his son?”
“Mm.” It was Bai Qingyu who answered him.
Bai Qingyu took hold of his wrist and carefully wiped clean the sweet-and-sour sauce on both his hand and face.
Lu Rongshen’s eyes grew round as he stared. In the royal household of Lu, there was no such custom. He placed himself into the picture for a moment. If his imperial father died, and then his third brother ascended the throne, and his third brother made all their father’s former consorts into his own concubines...
Lu Rongshen’s gaze landed on Lu Ronghuai’s face, and he was so scorched by the image he had conjured that he felt burnt inside and out.
Lu Ronghuai cast him a look. “What is it?”
Lu Rongshen hurriedly waved his hands and quickly picked up his bowl. “No, no, nothing. I am eating.”
“Ya~” Lu Duoyu happily lifted the little wooden ball and swung it toward his old father’s face.
Lu Ronghuai: “...”
The little brat’s strength was light as a feather. Prince Li lowered his head and looked at him for two moments, then lifted him high in the air.
After father and son played for a while, Lu Ronghuai sat back down. One by one, everyone finished eating and moved to the side hall to drink tea and chat.
Suddenly, a pair of chopsticks stretched out before him.
Held between them was a piece of tender fish.
Lu Ronghuai said helplessly, “Why is it fish again?”
Had the fishing rods not already been hidden away?
Chu Yuan’s brows and eyes were soft and warm. “This was sent over by one of Grandfather’s fishing companions. This piece is the best. Your Highness, open your mouth. Ah~”
That last “ah” sounded exactly like the voice he used when coaxing the child.
Hearing that familiar and gentle call, the little brat in Lu Ronghuai’s arms lifted his tiny head. Waving the wooden ball, he opened his little mouth too.
Lu Duoyu: “Ah!”
✧ A Word from the Author ✧
Lu Dog: Even if I starve to death, I will not eat another bite of fish!
Lu Duoyu: If you do not eat it, I will. Daddy, feed me.
Lu Dog: ...Try stealing it and see what happens.
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