Exile with Storage Space: Family Fortunes in the Barren Lands-Chapter 564 - 0525: Clever Guoguo (2)

The adults were chatting, and Li Jing couldn’t understand, so he focused on eating his own meal.

Guoguo seemed to understand, looking at this person and that person, sometimes staring at Li Yu En in a daze, and other times watching Li Xingsheng chatting with Li Xingmao.

She was so engrossed that she forgot to eat.

"Guoguo, what are you looking at? Hurry up and eat, the food will get cold, and you’ll have a stomachache." Chai Eying pinched her little ear and urged her with a smile. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

"Mm, eating." Guoguo snapped out of it, tilted her head, smiled at her, and continued shoveling food into her mouth.

After eating, Chai Eying and Li Xingmao took the two children back to the South Courtyard House to rest.

Princess Consort Luling took Li Yu En to the sisters’ former boudoir.

"Yu Zhu hasn’t come to stay again, only Yu Wen occasionally comes back to stay. Tonight, you’ll be staying alone. Will you be afraid?" Princess Consort Luling went to make the bed for Li Yu En.

The other two daughters were clever, so she didn’t have to worry about them, only this second daughter made people uneasy in every aspect.

Li Yu En was indeed afraid of sleeping alone, but since she was married, she mustered up the courage and said, "I’m not afraid."

Princess Consort Luling turned around to look at her and laughed, "Don’t pretend. I’ll ask your second brother to bring Er Niu and San Niu to accompany you."

"Alright, Mom." There’s nothing like having a mother, Li Yu En thought sweetly.

After making the bed, Princess Consort Luling sat down with Li Yu En and asked about her and Lou Chengye, "How do you two usually sleep?"

Li Yu En blinked, "In one room, of course."

Princess Consort Luling’s face darkened, "Of course, I know in one room! If you were sleeping separately, the Lou Mansion would be in chaos! I’m asking if you share the same bed."

Li Yu En laughed, "No, I don’t like sharing a bed. I sleep in one bed, Chengye sleeps in another, and Aunt Liu sleeps on the small bed between our two beds."

It seemed choosing Aunt Liu was a good decision, and Princess Consort Luling felt at ease.

But soon, she realized, what does it mean not liking someone else in the bed? This daughter is so clueless!

In a couple of years, the bed shouldn’t be empty. She wanted to remind, but then thought, this is something for a couple of years later, why mention it now? Better to talk about this in two years.

Li Yu En remembered she still needed to distribute gifts and chatted with Princess Consort Luling for a bit before running to the storeroom.

Li Xingsheng was in the storeroom organizing gifts.

Some were edible, and Li Xingsheng instructed Uncle Gui and Nanny Jiang to move them into the kitchen.

For the usable gifts, Li Yu En sorted them out, and Li Xingsheng distributed them according to her instructions.

Every family member got a share, even Uncle Gui received a hat and a pair of leather shoes.

Nanny Jiang’s gifts included a set of fine fabric and a beautifully crafted headband.

The headband was made by someone from Old Lady Lou’s side, initially meant for the Princess Consort Luling, but since Li Yu En never saw her wear one, she decided to give it to the older Nanny Jiang.

This headband was made of mink fur, suitable for wearing in cold weather.

Nanny Jiang, being old and feeling the cold, still wore thick fur coats suitable only for extremely cold weather when everyone else had shed their heavy winter attire.

Nanny Jiang tried wearing the headband on her head, happily saying, "Second young miss still remembers my headaches. Once I tie this headband on, my head doesn’t hurt as much."

Li Xingsheng laughed, "Second sister just left for a month, how could she forget?"

Li Yu En nodded with a smile, "I remember everything."

Nanny Jiang, holding the fabric, said with a smile, "I’ll make something nice for the second young miss tonight."

She happily returned to her room.

Chai Eying and Princess Consort Luling each received two rolls of fabric and some high-quality rouge and face powder.

Li Xingsheng carried the fabric, and Li Yu En held the rouge boxes to distribute them.

Chai Eying accepted the fabric but declined the rouge, "I’m about to give birth, and I’ll be doing postpartum confinement soon. I don’t need rouge. After confinement, I’ll be holding the baby, so I won’t need it either. Keep it for yourself."

Li Yu En frowned, "I don’t usually use rouge. If I keep it, it’ll just sit there."

Chai Eying laughed, "Then save it for Yu Wen, she likes rouge."

Li Yu En chuckled, "Well, then she’ll benefit from it."

The gifts for Prince Luling and Li Xingmao were a set of books and some high-quality pen and ink.

The gifts for the two children were a set of toys.

Li Jing was very interested in the new toys and started playing with them as soon as he got them.

Guoguo played for a while and then left them aside.

They were two rocking wooden horses.

"Let’s go outside to play," Guoguo wasn’t keen on the toys.

But Li Jing was enjoying himself, "No, no, I want to play."

Guoguo said, "Second Aunt is back, but Little Aunt hasn’t returned yet. Let’s go pick up Little Aunt."

Li Jing shook his head, "Grandma doesn’t allow us to go out. If Dad finds out, he’ll spank us."

Guoguo frowned, "Alright then."

They couldn’t go too far to play, but sitting at the mansion’s gate or going to listen in on Prince Luling’s lessons was allowed by the adults at home.

Guoguo didn’t like playing with toys, so she went to play by herself at the mansion’s gate.

Uncle Gui worried she’d run off, reminding her for the umpteenth time, "Guoguo, don’t run too far, just play here."

Uncle Gui found an old toy from the house for her to play with.

Guoguo curled her lips disdainfully and didn’t take it, "I’m going to look at the flowers by the gate." She pointed outside the house and said, "I won’t go far."

Zhen An Prefecture is in the south, with short winter days. Once January arrives, as long as the sun is shining brightly, wildflowers in the fields bloom one after the other.

There’s a kind of little blue flower that’s smaller than Guoguo’s fingernail, and it blooms especially early, sometimes even before January.

These little flowers fall off with a touch, blooming among clusters of green leaves, like blue flowers embroidered on a green carpet, very beautiful.

When Guoguo was bored, she would carry a wooden bowl and pick these little flowers to play with.

Uncle Gui had seen her picking flowers many times and laughed, "Play just by the gate of the house, don’t go too far, and don’t venture into the deep grass. Beware of snakes biting you."

There weren’t any snakes out this early, Uncle Gui was deliberately trying to scare Guoguo.

Guoguo curled her lips disdainfully again, "Uh-huh, won’t go far."

She walked over to the grassy area near the school and began picking flowers.

Uncle Gui shook his head with a smile and went into the house to feed the horses.

After picking flowers for a while, Guoguo walked to the steps in front of the school and sat down. She cupped her cheeks with her hands, her big, shiny black eyes darting between the direction of Qingshui River Village on the left of the village path and Taohua River Village on the right.

After having lunch, Prince Luling was back to teaching at the school. He glanced at Guoguo sitting on the steps, smiled, and continued teaching.

Guoguo had been sitting like this for several days, as long as it wasn’t raining, she’d sit here watching the people passing on the road.

Initially, Prince Luling thought she was bored and wanted to bring her inside the school to listen to the lessons with the other kids, but Guoguo said she just wanted to sit here and watch the passersby for fun.

Prince Luling stopped persuading her, since he could see her from inside the room and wasn’t worried she’d run off and get lost.

The warm afternoon sun made Guoguo yawn.

By the time she yawned the third time, a slow-moving ox cart came from the direction of Qingshui River Village.

Guoguo’s drowsiness vanished without a trace.

She patted the dust off her skirt and ran to stand in the middle of the road.

When the ox cart came closer, Guoguo saw clearly who was on it.

The driver was a middle-aged fat man with One Tuft of Hair on his left cheek, and inside the ox cart hood sat a slightly younger, thin-faced woman.

Anger gradually surged into Guoguo’s eyes.

She ran to the door of the school house and said to Prince Luling, "Grandpa, I’m going home to play."

Prince Luling nodded, "Go on then."

Guoguo turned and ran off.

She didn’t run back to the house but instead ran onto the village path towards Taohua River Village.

Despite being only a year and a half old, running as fast as she could, she still couldn’t outrun the ox cart chasing with a whip.

"Husband, hurry up. That little girl looks so lovely; she must fetch a good price."

"The ox cart can’t go fast. I’ll run over and grab her," the driver said.

"Then hurry," the woman urged One Tuft of Hair, the middle-aged man.

The man jumped off the ox cart and chased after Guoguo with big strides.

But just then, Guoguo suddenly leaped into the bushes on the right.

The man cursed bitterly and jumped into the bushes as well.

Guoguo glanced back at the man chasing her and blew the golden whistle around her neck.

The big leopard napping in the Li Family’s backyard grass suddenly opened its eyes, growled, and rushed towards Guoguo.

On the road, Uncle Gui shouted loudly, "Guoguo? Guoguo, where are you? Where has this child run off to again, she was just here, Guoguo?"

Guoguo hesitated for a moment and put away the golden whistle.

The leopard also stopped its pursuit and returned to Guoguo’s side.

"Let’s go back, we won’t bite anyone today," Guoguo patted the leopard’s head.

The leopard nudged its head against her face, then returned to the Li Family’s back door.

The man with One Tuft of Hair who had chased Guoguo into the bushes saw Uncle Gui arrive and reluctantly walked out, returning to the ox cart, and drove away.

He hadn’t realized that a leopard nearly bit him.

"Annoying, why did that pesky old man show up?"

"Husband, we’ll come back tomorrow!"

"Alright, we’ll come back tomorrow."

Guoguo took a breath and huffed and puffed her way out of the bushes.

Uncle Gui saw her stumbling over, with a piece of dry grass stuck in her hair, feeling amused and exasperated.

He stood with hands on hips, pretending to be angry, "Look at you, sneaking off behind Grandpa Gui’s back again, weren’t you? And running into the deep grass without listening. Grandpa Gui won’t play with you anymore! We’re breaking up, hmph!"