Chapter 493 - Lantern Festival Pt. 2 (2/2)

“This prince will buy whichever lantern that you like!” Zhu Junyang had noticed that the little lass was staring at the children who were pulling along their wheeled lanterns. Didn’t that mean she wanted one?

Yu Xiaocao rolled her eyes at him and said, “I’m not a little child, so how could I shamelessly hold a lantern around? Don’t come up with these silly ideas!”

“Why are these silly ideas? You’re only thirteen and haven’t reached your age of majority, so it’s perfectly fine for you to hold onto a lantern. Do you like the ones with wheels on them? I will buy you one...how about this monkey? Or this dog with its tongue out?” Zhu Junyang enthusiastically helped her to pick lanterns out.

Yu Xiaocao wasn’t very interested but that didn’t mean that Fang Haolin, who was currently being ignored, wasn’t. He pulled on Zhu Junyang’s ears forcefully from side to side and hollered, “Tiny! I want the Tiny lamp!”

From the moment Fang Haolin saw the Yu Family’s pet roe deer, he cried and wailed that he wanted to bring the creature back home. Yu Xiaocao couldn’t bear to let the kid cry during the New Years so she lent Tiny to him for a few days (Author’s note: Hopefully the little roe deer wasn’t too scarred by this). Yu Xiaocao looked over at where the little fellow’s plump hand was pointing and saw a lantern shaped like a deer made out of thin, reinforced paper.

His future younger brother-in-law had spoken. Although Zhu Junyang wasn’t very pleased that the kid was pulling on his ears, he still took out some money to buy the deer-shaped lantern. The little boy held the lantern that was lit up with a candle in his hands and returned to his inquisitive and sweet manner. His dark round eyes stared at the lantern in delight. Because he was young, Fang Zizhen and his wife rarely took him out of the residence. This was the first time he had seen so many people around and so many lights in such a lively setting. The little fellow was incredibly delighted by all of this.

Zhu Junyang persevered until Yu Xiaocao finally picked out a glass lantern that turned to reveal different images of the eight immortals crossing the sea. When the lantern was lit, the contraption turned around and around, showing different types of scenes. There was Han Xiangzi blowing his flute, then there was He Xiangu holding a lotus, and then there was Zhang Guolao riding his donkey...even Fang Haolin, who was on Zhu Junyang’s shoulders, was fascinated by the changing images. He held onto the prince’s head and leaned over to stare at the lantern.

Yu Xiaocao was afraid he might fall down and reached up to let him hold onto the glass lantern. Unfortunately, the little fellow’s hands were too weak to hold onto it so he could only pout unhappily and watch as his older sister held onto the lamp.

However, he was soon distracted by the sugar painting stalls. His older sister had once told him the story of the monkey king, Sun Wukong, wreaking havoc in heaven. Thus, he ended up choosing a sugar painting made in the shape of a monkey. After playing around with it a bit, he finally couldn't resist the sweet smell of the sugar and bit off the monkey’s head. He chewed noisily on the treat in utter delight.

“You be careful up there. If you get this prince’s hair dirty, your little butt will feel the pain!” Zhu Junyang was somewhat of a clean freak and was slightly disgusted by the little fellow’s saliva. He hurriedly brought the boy down from his shoulders and held him in one arm while the other took the offered handkerchief from Xiaocao. He patiently wiped the saliva that had congealed on Little Linlin’s chin.

The cold and arrogant Royal Prince Yang actually had such a patient side to him. Although his expression looked impatient, his hands were quite gentle. He was like a strict father who treated his kids seriously but still loved them as much as their mother.

In the future, he was probably going to be a good father right? Yu Xiaocao watched their interactions and the dimples on her cheeks became slightly visible.

“Eat...you eat some candy.” After spending an entire evening with him, the little fellow Fang Haolin no longer seemed scared of Zhu Junyang. He presented the sugar painting that didn’t have a head anymore towards the other person’s mouth.

Zhu Junyang dodged the boy’s clumsy attempts and didn’t even bother to hide the disdain in his voice, “Who wants to eat a sugar painting that has your saliva all over it? It’s alright, you can eat it yourself. This prince doesn’t need your good thoughts!”

When Fang Haolin saw that the other person was not grateful for his generous offer of something he really liked, he puffed up his cheeks and took the sugar painting back. With another ‘crunch’, he bit off half of the monkey’s body and noisily chewed on the treat. His saliva continued to drip out of his mouth. Zhu Junyang had a helpless look on his face as he helped to wipe the little boy clean. When had he ever served someone else since he was born? As expected, children were truly annoying!

“Do you want to eat some?” Yu Xiaocao had bought a stick of candied hawthorn fruits and had bitten off half of one fruit. It was so sour that she scrunched up her entire face.

“Eat!” In actuality, Zhu Junyang didn't like to eat sour foods one bit. However when he saw half of the red fruit with bite marks on it, he stretched out his neck and gobbled up the remaining half. He chewed on it with relish.

“You ate something that has Older Sister’s saliva on it!!” Fang Haolin had an outraged expression on his face. ‘You eat Older Sister’s food but you don’t eat Linlin’s. You’re truly humiliating this baby!!’