Chapter 283: Tsundere Little Kid
Although Li Yi was speaking with Wen Xiuyi, he kept a constant eye on this side. Seeing the thoroughly frustrated expression on Guan Shengrui’s face, a meaningful smile formed on Li Yi’s lips.
Especially after Guan Shengrui drove Datou away, Datou simply went off to play with Xie Anyi and Jin Xiuyi on their own, leaving Guan Shengrui sitting there all by himself. Looking at the longing and internal conflict in the boy’s eyes, Li Yi could barely hold back his laughter.
Before long, Wen Yao had Nanny Shi help carry the prepared dishes over. Handing the food to her two aunts, Wen Yao ambled over to sit beside Li Yi.
“I didn’t expect you to arrive so quickly. I thought it would take at least ten days to half a month.”
Li Yi offered a faint smile. “I set out the day after replying to your letter, traveling by water on a boat, so it was a bit faster.”
Noticing Guan Shengrui sitting over there with an awkward, uncomfortable posture, Wen Yao asked, “Who’s that over there?”
“Guan Shengrui, my aunt’s son. When I left the capital this time, he insisted on coming along, so I brought him with me.” Whatever Wen Yao asked, Li Yi answered.
“Your aunt’s?” Wen Yao raised an eyebrow. Wouldn’t that be a Princess?
Wen Yao leaned in a bit closer to him and whispered, “From a Princess’s family?”
As Wen Yao leaned over, Li Yi caught the lingering fragrance of cooked food on her. In a moment of bizarre distraction, he blurted out, “The scent of green Sichuan pepper.”
“Huh?” Wen Yao raised her arm to sniff the sleeve of her clothes, and sure enough, she caught a trace of green Sichuan pepper aroma. She couldn’t help but burst into laughter. “What kind of dog nose do you have to smell even that?”
Only then did Li Yi snap out of it and realize how impolite his behavior had been. His face instantly flushed beet red, overflowing with awkward embarrassment.
Wen Yao, however, didn’t mind at all, saying, “Today I went to my second uncle’s fish pond to catch a few fish and made green Sichuan pepper fish for dinner. Had I known you’d arrive today, I would’ve whipped up a few more dishes.”
Saying this, Wen Yao raised her head to look at him, speaking with sheer delight: “The fish in the pond have grown really big now! I’ll take you fishing tomorrow!”
Li Yi quickly composed his feelings and nodded. “Alright.”
Wen Yao steered the topic back to Guan Shengrui, watching him sitting over there awkwardly as he looked at Datou and the others playing—full of envy yet stubbornly refusing to walk over and join in. The conflicted look on his face was practically killing him.
Wen Yao couldn’t help asking, “Which aunt’s son is he?” In the original novel, the Emperor didn’t have many sisters—was it three or four?
Li Yi replied, “My Third Aunt’s.”
Realization struck Wen Yao. So it was the Third Princess—the princess in the original book who lost her husband early on and remained a widow for the rest of her life. Because the Prince Consort died early, she raised two children on her own. Judging by his age, this should be her younger son. No wonder the name sounded somewhat familiar.
This Third Princess was also one of the very few elders who had shown warmth to the male lead, so her ultimate ending was quite good, and her two sons enjoyed smooth, peaceful lives without any major twists or turns.
In the end, Wen Yao couldn’t bear to see such a young child left all alone, so she called out, “Datou!”
Hearing her call, Datou trotted over with pitter-patter steps.
“Sister, Brother Yi, what’s up?”
Wen Yao subtly pointed toward Guan Shengrui over there and asked, “Why aren’t you calling him over to play together?”
Datou turned his head to glance at Guan Shengrui and answered directly, “I went over earlier! I asked him who he was and if he came with Brother Yi, and he told me it was none of my bloody business, so I left.”
Wen Yao: “…”
Well, in the capital, this boy might not walk completely sideways, but he had certainly been doted on and pampered since childhood. Arriving at a countryside place like theirs, he naturally wasn’t used to it.
Li Yi’s face darkened slightly as he cast a glance in that direction, saying coldly, “No need to pay him any mind.” Just spoiled.
“Oh, okay!” Datou complied obediently, which earned him an affectionate flick on the forehead from Wen Yao.
“Told you not to pay him any mind and you actually listened? Don’t listen to him. Datou, be a good boy—go find the other kids and play together with him,” Wen Yao said. If Guan Shengrui were truly a spoiled, tyrannical young master, that would be one thing, but this was clearly a tsundere little kid who was used to being pampered and couldn’t adapt to the new environment. Once he grew more familiar, he’d be fine.
Datou rubbed his head, looked over in that direction, and ultimately let out a sigh. “Alright then.”
With that, he ran off. This time, Datou didn’t go in alone; instead, he called over his little companions and elder brothers, with the tomboyish Wen Ying mixing in among them.
The group of children swarmed over all at once, surrounding Guan Shengrui.
“W-What are you going to do?” Young Master Guan was instantly startled. He looked around for help, but there wasn’t a single imperial guard or servant in sight, and even his elder cousin in the distance merely looked at them indifferently, showing no intention of helping whatsoever.
Guan Shengrui assumed that his attitude when speaking earlier had angered this young boy, who was now bringing reinforcements to settle the score.
Instinctively, Guan Shengrui assumed he was about to be given a beating.
“I… I just now…” Guan Shengrui attempted to explain, only to hear Datou say, “Brother, come play with us!”
Guan Shengrui: “Eh?” They aren’t here to beat me up?
“Y-You aren’t here to settle the score with me?” Guan Shengrui asked.
Datou was completely bewildered, and the others exchanged confused looks as well. In the end, Wen Fa—the eldest among the children—asked, “Why would we settle a score with you? What did you do?”
“I…” Guan Shengrui cast a glance at Datou, wanting to say he had humiliated him earlier, but when the words reached his lips, he didn’t know how to phrase it.
“What’s your name?” Xie Anyi asked.
Guan Shengrui: “Guan Shengrui.”
“You came with Brother Li Yi—what’s your relation to him?” This question came from Wen Ying.
Guan Shengrui froze for a moment, not expecting this group of commoners to address his elder cousin directly by his name. However, intimidated by their numbers, he still replied, “He is my elder cousin, and my mother is a Princess.”
Guan Shengrui instinctively announced his status, feeling that doing so gave him a bit more confidence. Sure enough, after declaring that his mother was a Princess, Guan Shengrui felt he wasn’t so afraid of their crowd anymore.
The children exchanged glances among themselves.
“A Princess and Uncle Li—who holds a bigger official rank?” Xie Anyi asked a question.
Jin Xiuyi poked him with disdain and said, “Dummy, a Princess is Uncle Li’s younger or elder sister—she’s not an official!”
Xie Anyi pouted his lips. “Oh.” He didn’t understand these things anyway; he only wanted to count money.
Still, since he was Brother Li’s cousin, that made him one of their own.
“Come on, we’ll take you out to play!” Wen Fa reached straight out and yanked Guan Shengrui up by the arm, nearly causing him to stumble and fall.
Barely stabilizing his footing, Guan Shengrui asked, “Where are we going to play?” Although a bit scared, his feeling was mostly one of eager anticipation—it was far better than staying here alone.
“Didn’t Tieniang say the pears on his family’s pear tree are ripe? Come on, I’ll take you guys to climb the tree and knock down pears!” Wen Fa let out a shout and led the group as they sprinted outside. Guan Shengrui looked at them, then looked back at Li Yi, seeing that his cousin hadn’t noticed him, and then looked at the crowd of kids running off out of sight. In the end, gritting his teeth and stomping his feet, he chased after them.
