Chapter 2

"Hahaha!"

The man laughed heartily.

Before long, Xu Zaijing was lifted up by a pair of large hands. Before him was a tall man, still wearing his silk military official's uniform. Having been immersed in this environment for many days, he knew this was the father of his current life.

Xu Minghua looked at the pitch-black eyes of the child in his arms and the dimples on his cheeks that looked just like his wife's when he smiled, and he couldn't help but laugh.

"It's rare that our Jing'er doesn't cry even after being woken up by his sister like this."

After he finished speaking, he didn't notice that the diaper covering his son had shifted, revealing Xu Zaijing's little dragon.

Holding the child, he glanced at his wife, who was warming their little daughter's face with her hands, while their eldest daughter was poking the little daughter's head with her finger.

He asked casually:

"How was it at the Lady Ningyuan Hou Fu today?"

"I was fine, but the Hou Fu..."

Sun Shi told her husband about what she had seen and heard at the Hou Fu.

"No matter what, the Lady Ningyuan Hou Fu has weathered the storm this time; the danger of being stripped of their title and imprisoned is gone. Did none of the Bai family relatives come?"

Before Sun Shi could speak, a warm stream rushed into Xu Minghua's palm.

"Madam, quick, Jing'er has peed."

Seeing the awkward look on their father and husband's face, the three women of the Xu family laughed out loud together.

"Master, Madam, dinner is ready," Xiao Zhu said.

"Good, have Zai and Zhang bring their schoolwork from today over."

"Husband..." Sun Shi said with a troubled expression.

After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea,

Xu Zaijing, having had his diaper changed, nestled in Mama Cui's arms, his big eyes wide open as he watched his two older brothers from this life, who had just had a "bamboo-fried-meat" beating before dinner.

Watching his two brothers being beaten until their eyes filled with tears as they begged for mercy, Xu Zaijing couldn't help but laugh.

Sun Shi, standing to the side, looked at her youngest son's expression and poked his forehead with her finger, saying:

"Looking at you, you don't seem like someone who will be easy to manage either."

Xu Zaijing, in his nurse's arms, laughed out loud.

The two Xu family girls laughed as well.

Xu Zai, the eldest of the Xu family, blew on his palms while looking at his sisters,

"You two are still laughing? Father has already found a female tutor for you."

Xu Zaihang nodded from the side.

The two girls' expressions changed: "Father, is that true?"

"Yes, she will arrive at the manor tomorrow."

Smiles do not disappear; they only transfer to Madam Sun's face.

After dinner.

After washing up, Xu Zaijing had already been placed on the large bed by his nurse.

The couple and their young son lay on the bed,

"Husband, today at the banquet, I only just learned that Aunt Sheng's Hong-ge has had another little son; I heard he was named Changbai."

"Hmm? Who did you hear that from?"

"Madam Wang of the Kang family, a noble clan; she is the biological sister of Hong-ge's wife. They say he's already three months old."

"Oh, it's her. Her maiden family is the Wang household, whose elders are entitled to be worshipped in the Imperial Ancestral Temple! It is a joyous occasion that the Sheng family has a legitimate son."

"Husband, our family didn't receive the news."

Sun Shi waited for her husband to respond, but there was no reply from that side, only the sound of breathing.

"Husband?"

"You know how things are with Aunt's family. She was pampered by her grandfather since she was a child. She entered the palace at seven or eight to serve by Empress Jing'an's side, but when she came of age and returned to the manor, she took a fancy to that top scholar."

"Grandfather was truly excellent to Aunt."

"That's right. The Marquis Yongyi manor had the merit of conquering a nation; the military nobility's rank couldn't be too high, so they could only reward her with mountains of gold and silver. By the time Aunt married, it wouldn't do to overstep, so the dowry list was only half of what it could have been."

"I heard about it when I was young; the top scholar was as handsome as Pan An, and the Hou Fu noble daughter's dowry was endless. I don't know how many people envied her. But after I married in, I didn't envy her anymore."

"Madam..."

"It's not right to speak of elders, but they were too biased. The Hou Fu was extremely wealthy, and nine-tenths of it was given by the old Marquis to Aunt as her dowry. By the time our generation's two aunts married, there wasn't such a large dowry anymore."

"Sigh, Father was adopted, after all."

"A few years ago, Father and Mother-in-law wanted to marry off a concubine-born daughter from the ancestral home in Daizhou; it wasn't that they didn't have the intention of asking for some dowry for their own daughter. Aunt Sheng refused, and Father and Mother-in-law lost face. Mother-in-law was in such a temper that time."

"Sigh."

Xu Minghua sighed and said in a low voice: "I also held resentment toward Aunt in my heart before, but after our children arrived, I understood Grandfather. If we only had Pingmei as a daughter, how much dowry would you give?"

"Ping'er is such a sensible, good girl; naturally, the more, the better."

"Exactly. She was the Hou Fu's one-of-a-kind heavenly daughter, with no biological brothers or sisters; how could her personality be the same as the children from families with many siblings in humble households?"

"Naturally, her personality would be unruly, viewing money as dirt, doing everything according to her own whims. The things in the Hou Fu were originally hers to begin with."

"Indeed," Xu Minghua sighed.

"Husband, having said so much, my father called you over this time; has the matter of your external posting been decided?"

"It has. Father-in-law pulled strings with the Cao family and secured a position as Vice Regional Military Commissioner of the Western Army. After spring begins, I will take the family's children to take up the post."

"That's good. It seems the Cao family still remembers the favor of my grandfather from my maiden family. Having some real power sounds good outside..."

"Thinking about it, although it was adoption, Grandfather still cared for his descendants; otherwise, he wouldn't have let my father go to the Sun family to propose, allowing me to get such a good wife."

"Hmph, back then, Mother-in-law looked at me with displeasure no matter what."

"At that time, when I saw the Sun family's tenth daughter, whom Grandfather spoke of, at the polo match, I knew that for the rest of my life, it had to be you."

Xu Zaijing listened to his parents' "flirtatious banter" and realized that he truly was in the world of *The Story of Minglan*.

However, he had a question in his heart: why was it said that his father marrying his mother was a scheme by that old Marquis Yongyi—that is, Old Madam Sheng's father—for his descendants?

But the two on the bed had already started their sweet nothings.

Listening to the sounds from the two that were becoming increasingly blush-inducing, Xu Zaijing let out a loud howl.

"This little brat, really!"

Soon, Xu Zaijing was carried by his nurse to a side room, where he fell asleep in her arms.

The next morning, Xu Zaijing saw his parents.

Xu Minghua was beaming, and Sun Shi's complexion was rosy.

At the table, Xu Zaijing's two older brothers, Xu Zai and Xu Zaihang, looked at each other, but it was the more lively second brother, Xu Zaihang, who said:

"Mother, you look really beautiful today."

The two older sisters, Xu Anmei and Xu Pingmei, also nodded in agreement.

Sun Shi rolled her eyes at her husband and said with a straight face: "Speak less while eating."

(*▽*)





(End of chapter)