Chapter 226 - Raise Your Precious Foo (2/2)

‘So it was her! She’s the little girl who had discovered me at my lowest point and had gotten her father to save me.’ His memories of his rescue were quite vague now. The only thing he remembered with crystal clarity, even after almost two years had passed, were that pair of eyes that seemed to be able to see into the depths of a person’s soul.

The smile that she had used hundreds of times to get out of trouble didn’t seem to be working today! Yu Xiaocao looked at the expressionless handsome face in front of her and rubbed her nose out of embarrassment. However, right now she was only a little girl who was pretending to be innocent. Although the royal prince’s temperament was cold, he didn’t seem like a vicious person. He wouldn’t lower himself to the level of a child...right?

“Ah...this commoner greets the young royal prince. May the young royal prince have an auspicious life!” Yu Xiaocao hurriedly scrambled up from the ground and haphazardly bowed.

Steward Liu Fusheng had also recognized this little girl’s identity and he couldn’t help but feel a shiver run through his heart for the child. Earlier, on the ship, he had accidentally said ‘young royal prince’ and had been given the lightest punishment of being flogged twenty times as a ‘reward’. This little girl had not only dirtied the shoe of the royal prince, who was a germaphobe, but also called him ‘young royal prince’! If his master accidentally executed this little girl in a fit of pique, wouldn’t the masses accuse him of ‘biting the hand that fed him’?

Just as Steward Liu Fusheng was contemplating whether he should plead leniency for the little girl, his master finally replied, “Wipe that disgusting smile off your face! How hypocritical!! Tell me, why are the seeds that I, this prince, brought back now yours?”

Although his master’s voice was just as chilly as usual, Steward Liu had a feeling, ‘It looks like my master isn’t that angry! Looks like people truly can change!’

“Ah…” Was her smile really disgusting? Didn’t everyone tell her that her smiles were sweet and beautiful and were able to make a person feel happy ah? The young royal prince truly stood out from the masses as his tastes were different from common people. However, now wasn’t the time to discuss whether her smile was disgusting-looking or sweet, she needed to get out of this mess as fast as possible!

“Then...this lowly commoner didn’t know that the things on the ground were yours, young royal prince. I thought that things that fell on the ground didn’t have an owner. Since there’s no owner, then it becomes finders keepers!” Yu Xiaocao explained using a child’s reasoning.

“Finders keepers? Hm? Who taught you this reasoning? Was it General Fang eh?” Zhu Junyang had received quite a bit of information during the short period of time he had been on land. However, he himself wasn’t quite sure why he remembered this particular piece of information. It must be because it was related to General Fang, it must be!

The size of Yu Xiaocao’s eyes when compared to the size of her pointed face were a bit large, especially when they were opened wide. It truly made her resemble a little flying squirrel as most of the space on her face seemed to be taken up by those two eyes. She pouted pitifully, “Why do you have to blame my godfather for my mistakes? I noticed that the seeds fell down on the ground. If I didn’t pick them up, then they would be buried by the sand. It would be such a shame!”

Zhu Junwang watched her silently. Although the expression on his face was mild, it still made her scalp feel numb. She had trouble keeping a smile on her face.

The young royal prince seemed to have sensed her discomfort. He stooped over and dug up the kernels of corn from underneath his feet and mercifully broke the silence, “You...if you’re able to tell me the name of these seeds, then I, this prince, will pardon you from the crime of being rude.”

“Really?” Glee rushed through Xiaocao’s heart and a brilliant smile blossomed on her face. She almost blurted out the word ‘corn’. However, at the last second, she managed to reign in her composure. This crop had just been brought back from the distant seas. If she was able to say its name, then it would truly be astonishing.

She pretended to ponder for a bit before she cautiously replied, “Young Royal Prince, these seeds resemble pebbles of jade, I think they should be called ‘corn’ [1], what do you think?”

Corn? It was the same term that the emperor had used for this crop. From the little girl’s earlier expression, Zhu Junyang was certain that this wasn’t a name that was fabricated out of thin air. Instead...she already knew what this plant was!!

However, how could a rural farmer’s daughter recognize a plant that grew in the far-away west hemisphere? Zhu Junyang regarded this slightly-built girl in front of him with an inscrutable expression as the doubts in his heart piled up. Apparently, this little girl had a secret that no one else knew about!

“Corn?” Zhu Junyang roughly sounded out this word, as if he was hearing it for the first time. He slowly nodded his head and continued, “This name is not bad. When I submit my report to the emperor, I will also use this name…”

Yu Xiaocao panicked and hurriedly raised her voice to stop him, “Don’t do it!!”

She was already quite certain that the current emperor was also a transmigrator like her. In her past life, she had read plenty of novels. In some of those, the people who had transmigrated into high positions would trap other transmigrators in order to not blow their own secret. It was hard to say if something like would also happen to her!

[1] In chinese, the word corn is made up of two characters that literally mean 'jade rice'. For the life of me I could not think of an equivalent English term to use instead...corn is just corn lol.