XH 144

"It\'s the 19th Emperor that returned from his travel," Duan XiYing answered. "He brought along his friend, Doctor Bai."

The news of them traveling to the Guilin Kingdom had Duan XiYing quickly wrote a fast letter to the Third Prince using Da An as a messenger, leaving Da Bei to watch over Xiao Hua. Tian Zi had to return to the Third Prince\'s manor for a moment to keep in touch with Steward Lau Zheng about the household matters.

Who would have thought it was right at that moment the Emperor would suddenly visit the Empress and claimed that she was cheating on him with Xiao Hua!

Those servants that had followed the Emperor and Empress since their early years of marriage knew that the Emperor would get a scolding from the Empress, but the arrival of the 19th Emperor and Doctor Bai had the servants lost one of their high-grade entertainments.

The number of times the hot-headed couple argued with each other could not be counted.

Fortunately, they were sensible enough to keep their fights in private and showed a united front outside their personal chamber.

After years of marriage, their arguments had lessened considerably, much to the servants\' relief. It might be entertaining to watch their fights, but the process of them making up was embarrassing for the servants to witness.

"Wait, could Doctor Bai come here because of the letter?" Xiao Hua asked with concern.

She had fully expected Doctor Bai would reply a letter with a big \'No\' written on it, but strangely he told Duan XiYing to return and said he would reply to the Third Prince himself.

Could he be here to examine Xiao Hua?

"Should we run away now?" Xiao Hua asked fearfully. The Emperor does not like her and almost tempted to order his guards to throw her into the prison or just kill her to save the mess. And now Doctor Bai was here and possibly to scrutinize all her imperfections so that he would have excuses to decline to adopt Xiao Hua as his foster daughter.

Duan XiYing shook her head. "Nothing will happen to Xiao Hua. XiYing and Da Bei will handle them all~"

You mean using violence to handle them, right? (눈_눈)

It was the smell of delicious food that signaled Tian Zi\'s arrival with their afternoon meal.

"You\'ve returned, Sister Tian Zi!" Xiao Hua cheered. The more strong peoples were around her, the safer she felt.

"Fortunately there\'s nothing big happening and Steward Lau can handle them, so I returned earlier." She placed the tall stacked meal boxes onto the table, removing the lids, and joked. "The Empress would not be joining, so Elder Sister Hua is stuck eating with us."

"I actually prefer eating with you all," Xiao Hua confessed, feeling a little embarrassed. "Don\'t tell this to the Empress or she will punish me."

"Her Highness would not punish you. The most Elder Sister Hua would get is just a scolding." Tian Zi giggled.

Everyone knows Xiao Hua had managed to get along well with the Empress after four months of seeing each other every day, which was requested by the Empress herself. The Empress wanted to know more about Xiao Hua, willing to try to accept her son\'s choice, even if she doubted his choice. They could not be considered as friends, but the Empress no longer treated her in a hostile manner.

As for Xiao Hua, she does not mind spending time with the Empress, who was actually not as bad as Le XiaoTing\'s boss\' mother. That madam was far from rational. Arrogant and have the mind-set that she deserves nothing but the best, including her son. Her demands for him to be the best in wealth and smarts had him avoid her as much as possible. Le XiaoTing truly sympathized with her boss.

Da Bei took a seat and reached out to grab a meal box. Xiao Hua was happy when the little boy no longer felt shy to eat around them, and even comfortable enough to show his face to her.

He shared an identical face with Da An, both of them having the same cute pointy teeth. The main reason why they covered their lower face with a mask was due to their teeth. No human has such sharp teeth, and the twins were actually snow wolf beast, just like An Jing.

Xiao Hua was honestly shocked when she was told that An Jing was a snow wolf beast cultivator and was already more than a thousand years old. But publicly, An Jing was known to in her mid-twenties and a human cultivator. The twins were able to have human form since birth was thanks to their human father.

An Jing had to keep her identity a secret since marriage between human and beast was strongly discouraged since their child would have deformities.

Fortunately, Da An and Da Bei were born without much trouble to their health, just that their body temperature was as low as ice, and that was why they always carry around a heating pouch to keep themselves warm. If their temperature continues to drop further, it would be dangerous for their body, hence the main reason why they willingly undergo tough training, just to continue warming up their body.

"Now that I think about it, it\'s been a while since I last saw Long Lian and the Eighth Prince," Xiao Hua noted. "I wonder if they are busy."

Duan XiYing giggled mischievously. "They are busy being pursued."

"Pursued? You mean courting?" When Duan XiYing nodded, Xiao Hua eagerly asked, "Who?"

"Wait, let\'s make this even more fun!" Tian Zi interrupted before Duan XiYing could answer. She might be a sensible maid, but like others, she loves a good gossip too. "We have an odd number of snacks today, so the one that guesses correctly will get the extra one. There are three extras and one of them will be given to Elder Sister XiYing. One correct guess will get one lotus bun."

"Eh~" Xiao Hua whined. "Do I even know who are they?"

"Xiao Hua do~" Duan XiYing answered lightly.

"Then it\'s all good. Da Bei, do you want to join?" Tian Zi asked the silently eating Da Bei sitting beside her.

Da Bei shook his head to refuse despite his eyes expressed interest in their game. However, he was just interested in watching them play instead of joining the fun.

"Elder Sister Hua, why don\'t you start first?" Tian Zi said.

“Erm, Eunuch Heng is courting the Eighth Prince?" Xiao Hua guessed half-seriously.

"Nope~"

Tian Zi stared at Xiao Hua with a pitying gaze. "Elder Sister Hua, Eunuch Heng is a man... er, male. It would naturally be a female that would pursue the Eighth Prince."

"Incorrect~" Duan XiYing giggled. "The one that pursues the Eighth Prince is a male."

"W-What?" Tian Zi, who was taught that couples consist of a pair of male and female, was shocked by what Duan XiYing said. To her, a couple that consists of two men was wrong. "That is not right."

Xiao Hua let out an awkward cough. "Sister Tian Zi, it\'s just wooing, not marriage." Yet. "Maybe that man just admired the Eighth Prince?"

"That might be so." Tian Zi still looked unconvinced with a trace of disgust in her eyes but she let it go as she was just a servant and it would be improper to gossip about the royalty.

"Sister Tian Zi, it\'s your turn to make a guess," Xiao Hua said quickly in case Tian Zi decided to speak more about her opinion on a gay relationship. Le XiaoTing did hear before of a cut-sleeve Emperor, but it was unrelated to this world.

"Could it be Duke Heng? He is the only one that adores the Eighth Prince and also a male."

"Nope~"

"XiYing, these two are the only ones that I know that might woo Eighth Prince. Give us some hint please?" Xiao Hua pleaded with her cute wide eyes and pouted at Duan XiYing, attempting to look pitiful.

Seeing a cute face, Duan XiYing relented with a laugh. "Alright. The hint is both of them are not Guilin citizens."

"I know I know!" Xiao Hua said excitedly, waving her hand that was still holding chopsticks. "The King of Munzhu is wooing Long Lian!"

"Yes~ Xiao Hua got it right."

"Yeah!"

"If that\'s the case... the one admires the Eighth Prince is the last prince of the previous King of Munzhu?" Tian Zi guessed.

"Tian Zi got it right~"

"Huh? The last prince?"

"Elder Sister Hua does not know? The current King of Munzhu had killed all the previous royal family, but no one knows why he would spare the youngest prince." Tian Zi explained.

"...He wants to nurture the prince until he grows up to be a good King and then let the prince kill him to revenge for his family?" Xiao Hua guessed without much thought. That was one of the commonly used plots in the dramas Le XiaoTing had watched!

With a mysterious smile, Duan XiYing said, "That might be what he wishes to do."

Xiao Hua frowned. "If that\'s the case, he is not allowed to woo Long Lian. If he succeeded and married her, once that prince killed him, he will leave his wife and children behind. Long Lian should not marry such an irresponsible guy! And that prince is not allowed to woo Eighth Prince too! If he grows up and successfully killed the King of Munzhu, he will be hated by everyone that viewed the King as a hero and the hate will be shared by the Eighth Prince too. How selfish of them!"

Duan XiYing giggles madly at Xiao Hua\'s speech while the only sound coming from Da Bei was the sound of chewing.

"That makes sense." Tian Zi slowly nodded, feeling that her view had broadened.

But even so, she thinks that the Eighth Prince would not be friends with the prince that would murder his possible brother-in-law, so the chance of the Eighth Prince being hated would be slim to none.