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"Female benefactor? Are you a monk?" Princess Xinyang looked at him strangely.
Little Jing Kong shook his small head, "Well... I used to be, but I've come down the mountain now! So, I'm not a little monk anymore!"
Princess Xinyang said, "Then you can't call me 'benefactor'."
The little monk replied, "Oh."
Seeing a familiar expression, Princess Xinyang pondered for a moment and looked at the little guy, "You're Gu Jiao's... younger brother?"
Having investigated her, she naturally knew the members of her family.
"Yes! I'm called Jing Kong!" Little Jing Kong nodded, "You're the mother of my bad brother-in-law, right? I've seen your portrait."
He asked JiaoJiao who the fairy in the portrait was. JiaoJiao said that it was the mother of the boy in the portrait.
The boy in the portrait looked so much like his bad brother-in-law, it was obvious he was his bad brother-in-law’s younger brother!
Since she was the mother of his younger brother, naturally she was also the mother of his bad brother-in-law.
That was how smart he was!
Princess Xinyang's attention was drawn to the term "bad brother-in-law" and neglected asking him where he saw the portrait.
"Bad brother-in-law?" She iterated.
"Yes!" Little Jing Kong put away his marbles, sat down on a small stool by the bed, and said with emphasis, "You must have had a hard time raising such a troublesome son, right?"
"Trouble...some?" Princess Xinyang was puzzled for a moment, and then after a while, she realized that the 'bad brother-in-law' he mentioned was probably Xiao Heng.
Xiao Heng was mischievous as a child, but he became very well-behaved as he grew up.
There was no better well-behaved child in the world than him.
Little Jing Kong nodded repeatedly, "Yeah, that's right. Bad brother-in-law is just too troublesome. We have to worry about his health and his grades."
Children's logic was often limited to certain perspectives, and some phenomena that seemed baffling to adults were often overlooked or accepted by children. For example, why did Xiao Liulang, who seemed to have a wealthy mother, endure such hardships in the countryside for so long?
Seeing Princess Xinyang silent, Little Jing Kong thought she didn't understand, so he explained, "You see, bad brother-in-law got injured in a big fire while saving Big Brother Feng Lin. Sigh, his leg never really healed properly. He's a bit lame now. He goes to school limping, and many people look down on him. He's always being bullied, but luckily he has JiaoJiao."
Princess Xinyang became even more silent.
While Little Jing Kong seemed to disdain his bad brother-in-law, whenever he talked about him, he would turn into a trumpet spirit and blabber on about him, unable to stop, "When we were in the countryside before, we had to go to the county town to attend school. There were no horse carriages, only ox carts in the village. The road was slippery in the dead of winter, and the ox carts couldn't make it. Bad brother-in-law had to limp to the town for school."
"Couldn't he hire a horse carriage?" Princess Xinyang asked.
Little Jing Kong sighed like a little adult, "Alas, our family was poor back then. Being poor isn't actually scary. Do you know what's really scary? It's that bad brother-in-law's grades were so bad. He always placed last, and he almost failed to get into the top spot! "
Princess Xinyang's emotions were already quite complex, but the last sentence somehow made her emotions even more disjointed.
The bottom in class was able to become the top scholar in the imperial exams? Were all his classmates such exceptional scholars like Zhuang Xianzhi?
Little Jing Kong blabbered on about many things that happened in the countryside, mostly criticizing his bad brother-in-law.
For the first time, Princess Xinyang learned about Xiao Liulang's recent years from someone else's mouth.
She couldn't imagine that the once esteemed prodigy had fallen to the point of having to ride an ox cart, enduring sun and rain, going back and forth in the winter and summer, and transitioning from adoration by thousands to facing ridicule.
He seemed to have fallen from the clouds into a swamp all at once.
"Jing Kong, come over here for a moment!"
Little Jing Kong was called away by Little Jiang Li.
There was no one else in the room, Yu Jin wasn't there, and Long Yi was probably in the shadows.
Long Yi didn’t often appear in public, otherwise even someone like Wen Linlang wouldn't be unaware of Long Yi's existence.
He tended to show up in certain fixed places more often, but outside, he was hardly detectable.
Princess Xinyang lifted the quilt, put on embroidered shoes, and got out of bed.
The evening breeze blew gently, carrying a hint of early autumn chill. The wind chimes beneath the window sill tinkled in response.
Amidst the hustle and bustle of the world, the small courtyard of this medical hall exuded a unique tranquility as if it were a haven from the mundane world.
She tightened her grip on the lapel of her clothes, pushed open the half-closed door, and stepped out slowly.
Gu Jiao's courtyard wasn't large; it was just a one-room courtyard. This was a space Second Owner had set up specially for her. Even Second Owner himself did not have this kind of treatment and only had a small private room upstairs.
Princess Xinyang walked to the corridor and caught a whiff of the smell of sweet potatoes and corn.
Only now did she realize that she hadn't eaten all day, and her stomach was growling with hunger.
She subconsciously headed towards the small kitchen where the smell was coming from.
She didn't really need to go there herself, but for some reason, it felt like something was drawing her in that direction.
Arriving at the entrance, she heard the crisp sound of snapping dry branches before seeing the person inside.
Being an imperial princess, she had never dealt with such household chores, so she had no idea what this sound was all about.
As she got closer, she could see the person's actions more clearly.
It was a young man dressed in simple white clothes. He was sitting on a small stool behind the stove, facing away from the entrance. His right leg stretched out onto the ground, while his left leg was bent and covered by a large piece of burlap.
Behind him was a stack of jumbled and weathered branches. With his left hand, he grabbed two of the branches, forcefully bent them against his left leg, and snapped them.
The snapped branches were placed to his left.
Judging by the height of the pile on the left, he had snapped quite a few branches.
A lively fire burned in the stove in front of him. As he snapped branches, he would occasionally toss a couple into the fire.
Due to an injury on his right wrist, when he was breaking the withered branches, he held the left side with his left hand while using his right forearm on the right side to exert pressure. This action was strenuous and prone to slipping. If it slipped, he would have to press again.
He repeated this process again and again.
His clothing was thin, and the entire collar at the back of his neck was soaked with sweat.
One particular branch was proving difficult to snap. He had tried multiple times but failed to break it. In the process, he accidentally touched the wound on his wrist, and he sucked in a cold breath.
Princess Xinyang unconsciously took a step forward.
But then her rationality kicked in, and she stopped herself.
Xiao Liulang finally managed to snap that stubborn branch. He didn't bother to wipe the sweat off his forehead and instead reached down with his left hand to pick up the tongs from the ground. He used the tongs to flip the sweet potatoes that were being roasted on the stove.
With these tasks completed, the corn and steamed vegetables in the pot should be ready too.
He stood up, limping and hobbling around the stove. He skillfully lifted the lid of the pot, and a wave of white steam rushed out at him. He then used a cloth to carefully lift the steamer out.
Afterward, he washed his hands with the nearby water, turned to the cupboard, and took out two sets of bowls and chopsticks. One set was reserved for Little Jing Kong, and the other set...
As he was halfway through taking them, he suddenly realized something and his gaze subtly shifted.
His eyelashes trembled, and he wanted to turn around but didn't dare.
With a clatter, the bowls and chopsticks in his hand fell to the ground.
They rolled a bit away from him.
Due to his difficulty in moving, he dragged his weak right leg a couple of steps forward to pick them up. But before he could, a fair and delicate hand reached out. Someone else picked up the fallen utensils first.
Raz P.'s Thoughts
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