Chapter 715: Carefree Life (1/2)
“Second Older Sister, Second Older Sister!” Little Shitou’s clear, bright, and gentle voice can be heard from the courtyard. In a brief moment, the hanging screen to the door was pushed open, and a handsome young boy walked in, “Did the little nephew bother you today?”
Following the twelfth month, the fetus in Xiaocao’s stomach started to move for the first time. At that time, Xiaocao was leaning against the kang bed in her maternal family’s house as she watched her mother knit small pieces of clothing for the child in her womb. Xiaocao acknowledged that she has no talent for needlework and, up until now, the embroidered pouches she made still had crooked threading. Madam Liu complained that she was lazy and didn’t try to learn earnestly; however, she immediately started to sew hats, shoes, and socks for her unborn grandson.
Yu Xiaocao was pleasantly surprised when she felt the fetus move, and immediately shared the good news with her mother. Her brother was there at that time, and he happily and earnestly ‘taught’ his nephew to be more obedient, be more considerate of his mother, and not to cause too much of a fuss. After that, whenever he saw Xiaocao, his first question to her was to ask whether his little nephew had caused her any trouble.
Although her little brother always addresses her child as ‘little nephew’, and her mother also addressed her child as ‘little grandson’, Yu Xiaocao believed that the child in her stomach should be a girl. Why would she believe that? It was because the child in her belly had always been well-behaved. After the first time, she felt the fetus move, the fetus stayed in her belly without moving again. This caused Xiaocao to believe that what she felt before was merely an illusion.
Speaking of this, Zhu Junyang remained upset for a long time because he missed his child’s first movements. As the commanding drillmaster of the army, his unhappiness caused the soldiers under his wing to suffer. The soldiers practiced every day like dogs, causing their complaints about their commanding drillmaster to rocket towards the sky! But behind his back, the soldiers secretly discussed whether their leader had offended his wife and was punished to sleep in a separate room…
Xiaolian, who was doing needlework at the side, deliberately put on an unhappy expression and said, “Younger Brother, aren’t you acting too biased? You have more than one little nephew, besides the one in your second sister’s belly!”
“Eldest Sister, isn’t the little nephew in your belly still small? Once he starts moving around, I will also greet him every day.” Xiaolian took over half a year to recuperate her body and had smoothly become pregnant with a baby. However, the baby in her belly was two months younger than the baby in Xiaocao’s belly. The baby wasn’t even three months old yet, so it didn’t look obvious that she was pregnant.
“Did our top scholar finish his work? Come and taste the egg tarts and puddings that Yangliu had specially made for you,” Yu Xiaocao jokingly teased. She pointed her finger at snacks and pastries on the table of the kang bed. She picked up a walnut and used a small hammer to crack it open. Then, she ate the pulp inside the walnut shell. It was often said that eating walnuts during pregnancy would make the children intelligent. Although she didn’t know whether there was any scientific research backing the claim, she still persisted in eating a few walnuts every day.
Little Shitou complained, “Second Older Sister, I am no longer a child, so stop using snacks to cajole me like I’m still a little kid.” While he said that, his hand faithfully stretched toward a piece of egg tart. The egg tart was flaky and sweet, which was his favorite type of pastry.
Speaking of which, when Xiaocao was commanded to leave the capital, the date of her little brother’s metropolitan exams hadn;t been released yet. She also missed his palace examinations. It was only later that she received a letter from her family stating her little brother placed first on the metropolitan exams. He also did well on his palace exam. When the results of the examination were released, people both envied and admired the sixteen year old who had gotten the best score on the exam.
Little Shitou had his wish fulfilled, becoming the ‘top scorer of three governmental examinations’, and couldn’t wait to write a letter to his second sister, who was in Jinling. Xiaocao also sent some specialty products from Jinling as a gift for her younger brother.
After that, he also took the examination for a temporary position at the Hanlin Academy, officially starting his career. His workload every day was not heavy. He just needed to help the emperor draft some edicts and explain some religious text and so on. After hearing Imperial Prince Xu’s explanation, Xiaocao understood that the temporary position was offered to the member of the emperor’s inner ministerial circle and was a cabinet consisting of talented scholars.
Prime Minister Yuan, who was above ten thousand people and only below one person, was someone who had started out as a temporary position at the Hanlin Academy. Many people from the imperial court said that in the future, Yu Hang would be walking the same path as Prime Minister Yuan. If there were no mishaps, then his future was boundless. Families with daughters around Little Shitou’s age all revealed that they want to marry into the Yu Family.
Even though Little Shitou was only sixteen years old this year, there were many young men around his age in the countryside that had already started to look for a wife. Madam Liu discovered that her peaceful days were gone forever. Madams whom she recognized and didn't recognize, all brought their daughters to visit their residence as guests, praising their daughters incessantly. Although Madam Liu was not familiar with dealing with these scheming madams, she was not stupid.
Before Xiaocao got married, Xiaocao told her parents not to worry about her little brother’s marriage. Little Shitou’s master was well-known in the north and south, and his senior brother was the current prime minister of the empire. Furthermore, he also had her and Imperial Prince Xu backing him up. His future achievements were not going to be small. They couldn’t just casually pick his future wife, otherwise, she might hinder his achievements in the future.
Madam Liu had a weak temperament, but she never made an important decision on impulse. When her youngest daughter was still at home, she would always ask her daughter for her opinion whenever she encountered these matters. After her youngest daughter got married, she would ask her god family or her younger son for their opinion whenever she didn’t know how to make a decision.
Therefore, she withstood all the pressure from the matrons in regards to her youngest son’s marriage and responded to them according to Lady Fang’s words.
“Fan’er’s marriage will be arranged by his master…”