Chapter 19

“You hot-headed dumbass! Do you need to say it out loud?!”

“You hate that your lifespan is too long? Talking about the Lord’s grief.”

None of the Lord’s subordinates dared to bring up the issue of children. Everyone knew that concubine Lin was unable to give birth to children. She already had six miscarriages in four years while the Lord’s wife was driven to the countryside.

Speaking of, their Lord was really quite pitiful. Given an arranged marriage by the Emperor and married a wife who could not be seen outside. The one in his heart couldn’t give birth to a child. When the Emperor knew, he gave two more beauties to the Lord in hopes that he would be able to start his lineage early. The other courtiers also followed up, sending their daughters to their Lord’s harem. But every one of them was not peaceful. They constantly changed the way they fought for favour which annoyed their Lord. Hence why they volunteered to bring troops out to investigate this case.

Zhuang Kang, this hothead, didn’t continue when he was reminded. Yuan Ji and Meng Huai thought that he had learnt his lesson but instead of continuing with that topic, he picked up another. Zhuang Kang suddenly thought of something, clapped his hands and said, “Right! The madam’s villa should be nearby!”

“Shhh!” Yuan Ji and Meng Huai both jumped. They looked to their Lord in horror but he seemed to be listening to the girl’s words so didn’t hear them. The two of them released a breath and immediately raged at Zhuang Kang. One hit him on the head while the other kicked him with their feet, cursing his inability to fulfil their expectations——

“Shut your mouth if you don’t want to die!”

Fu Yanlin had keen senses, not only did he hear them, he had heard everything. He looked down at Dou Dou, they were right. If that child had been born, it would be about the same age as Dou Dou. His eyes darkened but he then became annoyed as he thought of the women in the harem.

At this time, Dou Dou raised her little face and smiled at him. This carefree smile was innocent and artless. Like a magic spell, it eliminated the jittery feeling in his heart. He subconsciously lifted up the corners of his mouth and his eyes overflowed with soft light.

Fu Yanlin was also surprised that he was so fond of Dou Dou the moment he saw her and had the idea to bring her around everywhere. Anyway, the investigation was not in a hurry. Before they found her family, he would just continue to bring her with him!

They arrived at a town market. Unlike the stores in the city with storefronts, there were only shacks set up. At this time of year, merchants and vendors came from all directions to sell livestock, household utensils, or speciality products from various regions.

Of course, as long as there was livestock, there would be horses.

People were coming and going. The hawkers and livestock were both very loud so the market was very boisterous and Dou Dou couldn’t turn her eyes away. Her eyes looked all around while the sun made her little face rosy and tender. She was still young after all and was curious. When she saw so many interesting things she would inevitably be excited. She couldn’t help turning her body, trying to see everything more clearly.

She kept moving on the back of the horse. One moment she would stand up, the next moment bend over. Sometimes she even wanted to climb higher to see more clearly. This made Zhuang Kang and the other two’s heart’s jump and they couldn’t stop sweating.

They thought that their Lord would become annoyed at a child who moved around like this, but he was unexpectedly very patient.

When Dou Dou stood up, the Lord’s hands would naturally be placed on her waist, holding her steady. When she craned her neck to look around, the Lord would wrap his arm around her so she would fall to one side but not fall off.

She even stepped on their Lord’s legs, trying to climb onto his shoulder and look back. Their Lord let her crawl around and even held up his hand to lift her up.

Their Lord’s face didn’t change expression from beginning to end, he was calm and collected as always and full of patience. It was like they were born to get along like this. People who didn’t know would really think that they were father and daughter!

The three of them were dumbfounded. If they didn’t know their Lord’s personality, they almost suspected that this baby girl was his illegitimate child.

“Hey, stop! You——” The rest of the words were forcibly stopped and in a blink of an eye, the person was dragged into the crowd.

Fu Yanlin turned back to look and didn’t see anyone calling him. He swept his eyes around the area and just saw a bunch of people busy doing business, purchasing, and haggling.

Fu Yanlin thought that the call was probably not for him and so continued to hug Dou Dou and ride away.

Mu Huanqing released a sigh of relief. Fortunately, her reactions were quick enough to stop Hao Wu and cover his mouth so that Fu Yanlin did not notice.

Hao Wu was Hao Qi’s brother, the fifth sibling.

“Relay my order, tell them that the child has been found. The man riding with Dou Dou is a member of the court. Do not inadvertently alert the enemy and tell them to meet together at once. Without my say so, they are not allowed to act rashly. Understood?”

Hao Wu’s mouth was still blocked by the eldest young lady. Unable to speak, he quickly nodded.

Mu Huanqing saw him nod and let go. “Go!”

“This small one obeys!” Hao Wu didn’t understand what was going on but knew that the eldest young lady was someone with their own opinions. He didn’t dare to delay and quickly went to inform the others.

The crowd was large and Fu Yanlin didn’t want Dou Dou to squeeze in the middle. When Dou Dou looked at something a few more times, he asked, “Want it?”

Dou Dou nodded and he gave Zhuang Kang and the others an order. “Go buy it.”

Just like that, they were less than halfway through the market and Dou Dou had already eaten a lotus leaf cake, two glutinous rice balls, a bowl of red bean soup, and a stick of candied haw.

Dou Dou happily ate the candied haw. Usually, her mummy would not give her so much to eat, saying that it was bad for her teeth, but daddy always agreed. She liked her daddy. Her daddy was the best!

Dou Dou pointed at the sky while licking her candied haw. “Butterfly.”

Fu Yanlin looked in the direction she was pointing and saw a big and beautiful butterfly. He lowered his head and asked little Dou Doud.

“Like it?”

Dou Dou naturally nodded. She liked demon uncle because demon uncle always took her to fly around every day.

Fu Yanlin turned around to order, “Go and catch that butterfly. Alive.”

The butterfly paused for a moment and when Zhuang Kang used qinggong to go over. Then the butterfly cursed.

“F-ck!”

He Guan evaded at lightning speed and escaped without a trace. You little unscrupulous thing, he thought, this Lord has helped you poop and pee, has given you food and water, not only are you not grateful but you wanted your dad to catch me to play. This lord is not a toy.

Catching a butterfly was the easiest thing in the world. No matter how fast a butterfly was, it wouldn’t be faster than a person with martial arts. The people under the Lord General were all skilled in martial arts. But no matter how Zhuang Kang grabbed, he couldn’t catch that butterfly. This caused the Lord General’s face to become colder and colder and his staring eyes became more and more severe.

Yuan Ji and Meng Huai shook their heads and sighed. What was he doing? He couldn’t even handle one butterfly?

Zhuang Kang was sweating profusely and finally became so anxious he spoke to the two of them. “If you can catch it then try!”

“Fine, I’ll go!” Yuan Ji leapt from the back of the horse and joined in catching the butterfly. Of course, he ended up just like Zhuang Kang. The butterfly seemed to be right in front of their eyes but when they tried to catch it, it was incredibly far away. Extremely unusual.

Now Yuan Ji couldn’t laugh, he blushed with shame along with Zhuang Kang. Meng Huai also saw that something was wrong and stopped smiling. When Zhuang Kang and Yuan Ji looked at him, he solemnly said, “I need to be responsible after the Lord’s luggage lest it is stolen.”

Do you still have the fact to say it? You’re not embarrassed to use such a lame excuse?!

No matter how they stare at him, Meng Huai refused to help them. If he didn’t help, he wouldn’t embarrass himself. He wouldn’t lose anything just by being stared at but if he couldn’t even catch a butterfly, he would be ashamed if that made it out.

Meng Huai suddenly spotted a hawker standing on the side. He had an idea and jumped off the horse. He ran towards the dough maker’s stall and bought one in the shape of a butterfly. He then gave it to the little girl.

“The butterfly is here. Take it.”

Dou Dou saw the dough butterfly and happily took it.

“Like it?” Meng Huai asked with a grin.

“Like it.” Dou Dou stickily replied, laughing with happiness.

Fu Yanlin saw that Dou Dou was happy and his face looked better, the corners of his mouth even raised. Meng Huai smiled at Yuan Ji and Zhuang Kang, very pleased with himself. The other two couldn’t help but roll their eyes.

Dou Dou was happy here and already forgot about her mummy, sticking to her daddy.

“Oh my, Dou Dou. Aunty finally found you!” A woman stepped forward and hurriedly said to Fu Yanlin, “This master, this is my family’s daughter, asking this master to please return her to me!”

Fu Yanlin stopped his horse and looked at the woman who suddenly stepped forward. She looked about thirty years old, was wearing a coarse hemp skirt that common people wore and her hair was wrapped in a cotton cloth. She looked like a normal person.

“This is your family’s daughter?”

“Yes, young master. My family’s Dou Dou ran off. The rest of the family are hurriedly searching for her. Asking this young master to please return the child to me.”

Fu Yanlin lowered his head to ask Dou Dou, “Is she really your aunt?”

Dou Dou recognised this woman and was about to nod, however He Guan spoke next to her ear.

“Quickly say you don’t recognise her. If you follow this aunty back home, your daddy will leave. You will never be able to see him again.”

When Dou Dou heard this, she quickly shook her head. She didn’t want her daddy to leave. She wanted daddy’s hugs. As she thought of that, she burrowed deeper in her daddy’s arms and looked like she was scared of this unknown aunt.

Naz's note: Dou Dou and He Guan crack me up XD

Let me know if you spot any errors! I finished this up late at night and I don't trust my tired brain to have not made any mistakes... Thanks for all your reactions and comments~