The Prime Minister’s Darling-Chapter 1560 - 757 The First Watch of the Night

Gu Jiao stayed behind at noon to accompany Duke An for lunch.

Duke An had a good appetite. In addition to the usual light porridge, he also ate a few bites of the dishes Gu Jiao picked for him.

Gu Jiao picking dishes for him was a test of his chewing function, which he found rather laborious. Had it not been for Gu Jiao’s assistance, he would have been too lazy to eat them.

"You should also eat like this for every meal," Gu Jiao said.

He can’t just drink porridge; he needs to exercise his oral muscles.

"My elder brother, he would not—" Before Jing Second Master could finish, he saw the duke’s fingertip scrawl a ’good’ on the armrest.

Jing Second Master: "..."

After the meal, Duke An had someone take Gu Jiao to visit the small courtyard’s weapon repository.

The repository had all kinds of weapons, some of which belonged to his wife, Xuanyuan Zu, and the rest to Xuanyuan Li, who presented them to Jing Yinyin.

Every time Duke An received weapons from his father-in-law, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Yinyin was a girl; why send her all these knives and spears?

"You don’t understand, this child takes after me. She will definitely be a great general in the future!"

"But Yinyin is only one year old. Even if you want to train her, shouldn’t you wait until she’s a bit older? Azi didn’t start practicing martial arts until she was four."

Xuanyuan Zu, the wife of Duke An, is Xuanyuan Li’s own petal daughter.

Every time, Xuanyuan Li would be holding a clueless little Yinyin in his arms, as if afraid she would be snatched away, huffing, "How can Azi compare to Yinyin? Yinyin takes after her grandfather the most! Yinyin must learn martial arts!"

Xuanyuan Li would come to steal the child every now and then.

Only when Duke An woke up and Yinyin was not in the bed did he know she must have been snuck away by Xuanyuan Li in the middle of the night. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm

"Big brother, big brother!"

Jing Second Master waved his finger in front of Duke An’s eyes.

Duke An came back to his senses and sheepishly glanced at Gu Jiao, who happened to be looking at him with a puzzled face.

A flicker of apology crossed his eyes, and with a fingertip dipped in water, he wrote on the armrest, "I was just thinking of something from the past."

Jing Second Master said, "Xiao Liulang wants to ask if he can just pick any weapon here or what?"

Duke An wrote back with incredible boldness, "They are all yours."

Jing Second Master felt aggrieved.

He had been coveting his sister-in-law’s bow for many years, but his elder brother never offered it to him.

Gu Jiao took the weapons to the courtyard one by one to test them out.

Duke An sat unblinkingly in the wheelchair under the corridor, watching her like a parent watching a child play with toys, his eyes brimming with mirth.

Jing Second Master leaned over and whispered, looking at Gu Jiao in the courtyard drawing her bow, "Big brother, her participation in the selection trials is dangerous. Don’t you want to advise her? It’s not easy to find someone you take a liking to. If something goes wrong, you’ll have no one to keep you company in the future."

Jing Second Master wasn’t foolish; he could tell his elder brother looked at Xiao Liulang as one would look at their own child. His elder brother genuinely wanted to be a father to someone.

Experiencing the pain of losing a child once was enough.

From the moment the National Master came to seek him out, Duke An had already understood what he was going to face and what he would have to endure in the future.

He liked this child very much and naturally hoped she could always stay by his side.

But he couldn’t just cut off her wings for his own peace of mind.

If she wanted to fly, he would support her, lifting her above his head to let her soar towards a farther and wider sky.

He would be scared and worried, but he would never stop her.

Gu Jiao stayed in the courtyard until evening before going home. She chose a bow, which happened to be the one Jing Second Master had coveted for many years.

On the way to escort her back to the National Master Hall, Jing Second Master looked at her the whole way like a mistreated young wife.

...

Now Gu Jiao could enter the National Master Hall simply by showing her face, and she led King Hei Feng towards the Qilin Palace.

Halfway there, Ya He seemed to be specifically looking for her. Seeing Gu Jiao, his face brightened: "Young Master Xiao!"

He strode briskly towards Gu Jiao.

But as he approached, he suddenly remembered the indescribable scene he’d witnessed in the Qilin Palace, and a touch of embarrassment surfaced. With a forced smile, he said, "Young Master Xiao... you’re back, huh..."

Gu Jiao was strikingly open about it, making Ya He seem like the one who was caught doing something wrong.

"Do you need me for something?" Gu Jiao asked.

Ya He gulped and began to talk about official matters: "Ah, it’s my master. He says your horse is in the recovery phase and you should be extra careful with its feed. He prepared some special fodder and was wondering if you’d like to take a look."

Gu Jiao didn’t have much experience in horse breeding, so it was only right to ask for more advice from the National Master.

Ya He led Gu Jiao toward the Bamboo Forest.

Now Ya He really couldn’t look Gu Jiao in the eye, his thoughts unconsciously drifting to her and Xiao Hen in the room. How could Changsun, a man as ethereal and jade-like as a deity, be fond of men?