The next day, He Yuan woke up quite early. After getting cleaned, he went over to pay his respects to the matriarch. He was supposed to have breakfast in Cao Long's courtyard with Cao Long, Cao Luomei and Cao Feng.
And after that, he had to go over to the isolation courtyard. Wan Ruo had sent a servant to him with the message that she wanted to see her child.
Once he was let into the great hall where the matriarch received people, he realized that everybody else, except Wan Ruo, was present.
There were also two new faces. The matriarch's distant cousin from her mother's side and the said cousin's grown up daughter. Just like before, the matriarch was already getting ready to push another noble lady unto her only son.
The matriarch would most likely use Wan Ruo's misdemeanor as an excuse but no one was stupid. Wan Ruo was confined the day before and these two arrived today.
This only means that the matriarch was already planning on marrying this distant relative to Cao Long whether or not Wan Ruo did anything wrong.
He Yuan curtsied as he'd seen Cao Yuemei do in her memories. "Cao Yuemei is here to pay her respects to grandmother. May your days be long and blessed with good health."
He was sure his stance was not perfect but there was nothing he could do. He'd never been a noble lady before.
The matriarch's wrinkled face creased even more at He Yuan's entrance. This granddaughter of hers has been reckless lately, coupled with the stunt that the child's mother had pulled the day before, the matriarch looked down upon her unfavourably.
"Your form is weak. Have you learnt nothing at all from the proprietress? You're lucky you are before me today. What if you were in public? Is this how you would disgrace the Cao household with your horrible presence?"
He Yuan remained bowed. "It's Cao Yuemei's fault for being reckless. I would make sure to pay more attention when being taught."
Everyone was taken aback even Cao Luomei narrowed her eyes at He Yuan. Lately, whenever Cao Yuemei was scolded, she would directly start crying and complaining about how they were not so harsh on Cao Luomei so her obedient reaction today really surprised them.
The matriarch humphed. Since Cao Yuemei was well behaved, she wouldn't keep on making things difficult for the child. The old lady was about to take a sip from her cup of tea when a servant rushed in and bowed.
"Forgive this servant for the intrusion but the first prince is here."
The grown ups exchanged looks and they all got on their knees and called out their greetings the moment the first prince walked in.
Yu Ming's eyes roamed across the room and stopped on Cao Luomei's genuflecting figure for a millisecond before he commanded them all to rise.
As soon as they did, the matriarch gave up her seat in the highest position to the imperial descendant.
As a court official, Cao Long spoke up, "To what do the Cao household owe this pleasure, your majesty?"
The prince shrugged. "This prince's subordinate saved a little girl yesterday who turned out to be the first daughter imperial father's beloved left prime minister. This prince was passing by today and thought to pay a visit."
Cao Luomei, who had her head lowered, suddenly lifted her head when she heard the prince's words and her eyes widened. The young lord she troubled yesterday was the first prince?!
"Mei Mei. Go make some tea for his highness and thank him, " Cao Long said gently to his beloved daughter.
Cao Luomei stiffened for a bit and then gingerly stepped forward to make tea for the prince. Her entire demeanor seemed to be saying. 'Look here, I'm making you tea so you better not take revenge against me for defying you yesterday!'
He Yuan looked from Cao Luomei, who had everyone in a trance as she gracefully made tea using the charming courtesan techniques, to Yu Ming who was watching Cao Luomei closely with an amused look in his eyes and then he looked down with a bitter smile.
He finally understood what 888 meant yesterday. Cao Luomei was the special one in this realm and her golden fingers were her harem of possessive men.
Even if he tried his best to avoid her, it did not necessarily mean that Cao Luomei would avoid him in return and if he finally manage to break free from the Cao household with Cao Yuemei's little brother, of what use would it be?
Cao Luomei had a capable prince, a talented general and a genius doctor. Between those three, where could he possibly move to that they wouldn't be able to find?
"888, what happens when a leaser dies with the tasker's soul in them?"
[Naturally, the tasker's soul becomes destroyed whilst the leaser gets drawn back to their bodies. To others, it would seem like the leaser narrowly escaped death but in reality, someone had indeed died and that would be the tasker.]
He Yuan sighed. Just like he expected. If he continued in his pity of Cao Luomei, the worst that could happen to Cao Yuemei was she losing her chance for counterattack but as for him, he had to face soul destruction.
That couldn't happen because he was carrying the fate of two people on his shoulders. His and 888's. If anything should happen to him, 888 was going down too so he couldn't afford to be careless.
Since Cao Luomei's biggest tools were her harem members, he had to keep them apart from each other at all costs. She had already met the prince and he couldn't help it but he must make sure she had no connection to the others!
He Yuan finally looked up to see Cao Luomei hand over the cup of tea to Yu Ming, who was staring at her intently. In ancient times, people matured earlier so a male of Yu Ming's age, sixteen, was eligible to get married.
For Yu Ming to stare at Cao Luomei, who was five years old, with such a look in his eyes... He Yuan shuddered and looked away. "Pedophile," He whispered under his breath.
"What?"
Everywhere was suddenly silent so He Yuan looked up to find all eyes on him. He was confused.
"What did you say?" Yu Ming repeated.
He Yuan's eyes widened. How could he forget Yu Ming knew martial arts? He quickly cleared his throat. "This lowly one was merely listing the medicinal effects of the pindo palm fruit."
Yu Ming narrowed his eyes. "You know medicine?"
"No, but It's a fascinating knowledge this lowly one is interested in," He Yuan said calmly.
"What are you interested in medicine for? You should focus more on learning the five womanly virtues." Cao Long scolded with a frown.
He Yuan resisted the urge to roll his eyes. There was nothing wrong with Cao Yuemei being interested in medicine but Cao Long's bias just wouldn't let him see Cao Yuemei as anything good.
"Don't be too hard on the child, prime minister," Yu Ming said as he locked eyes with He Yuan. "Your Cao family daughters are quite interesting."
He Yuan felt the need to gouge Yu Ming's lecherous eyes out. To stop himself from doing anything impulsive, he looked away only to lock eyes with Cao Luomei, who was glaring at him with eyes full of suspicion.
He groaned inwardly. The girl only realized Yu Ming's identity today and she was already being so possessive. Did she forget that she was in the body of her five year old self?
He Yuan ended up bowing his head to think through his plans instead. It was better to ignore them altogether until he had things figured out.
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶