The caught little Xiao Yu’er quickly retracted her little head, but accidentally bumped it against the screen, letting out a dong sound.
Mu Qinzhen’s brows furrowed slightly. He set down the brush in his hand and strode over to scoop the little one up.
His large hand with well-defined knuckles gently rubbed the spot where the little one had bumped herself, his eyes filled with worry: “Does it hurt, baby? Daddy will rub it for you.”
The little Xiao Yu’er, called “baby,” froze, her small hands pressing against her chest to calm her little heart that was about to leap out.
Daddy called her baby!
Even though Mama also called her baby, it felt completely different from this.
Seeing the little one clutching her chest, Mu Qinzhen thought she was feeling unwell somewhere, his worry deepening: “What’s wrong? Is Xiao Yu’er feeling uncomfortable somewhere?”
Xiao Yu’er shook her little head, shyly burying it into his chest, her little ears peeking out bright red.
Suddenly being so close to his daughter left Mu Qinzhen pleasantly surprised, a surge of joy rising from his heart and showing on his face.
Beside them, little Xiao Chuan’er saw her sister being picked up, lifted her calm little face to glance over, then immediately lowered her head to look at the book in her hands, a hint of envy flickering in her gaze.
Mu Qinzhen smiled, carrying Xiao Yu’er back to the desk, and said to the proud little one: “Baby, can Daddy hold you too?”
Little Xiao Chuan’er’s straight little back stiffened, her expression a bit dazed, and after a moment, she gave an almost imperceptible nod.
Mu Qinzhen’s eyes and brows were full of smiles. He stretched out his long arm to scoop up the little one, holding one child in each arm, his heart too stirred for words.
And little Xiao Chuan’er, who always liked to put on a stern little-adult face, was now actually smiling with joy.
She got called baby too!
Perhaps it was blood being thicker than water—Mu Qinzhen quickly broke through to the two little ones’ inner circle. Holding one child in each arm, he took a beginner’s reader from the bookshelf and began telling stories to the two kids.
The two children leaned against Daddy’s chest, one on each side, listening very attentively. Even little Xiao Yu’er, who usually got sleepy just looking at a book, was now listening with great relish.
With the soft little ones in his arms, Mu Qinzhen felt an unprecedented sense of fulfillment. From the moment he entered the room, the smile on his face never faded as he told the children story after story.
While Mu Qinzhen was bonding with the children, Qiao Yan was in the kitchen cursing under her breath as she cooked. She raised a cleaver polished to a gleaming shine, and with a swift, precise chop, cut several pork ribs into pieces—as if they weren’t ribs at all, but the man who had her teeth grinding with irritation.
The kitchen was close to the children’s little study, so she could hear what that man was saying to the kids, and she could hear her two little ones’ cheerful laughter.
But she was still deeply annoyed—as if the treasures she had cherished for years no longer belonged to her, not only being shared with someone else, but possibly even taken away!
Smack!
Another chop!
Rib bone fragments flew, and the cleaver sank into the cutting board. Qiao Yan’s exquisite, stunning face was brimming with fury, and her usually sparkling almond eyes now blazed with raging anger.
In the Sea of Consciousness, Little Milk System trembled. Every time her Host chopped a piece of rib, she shuddered, terrified that the next moment her Host would raise that cleaver and chop up the man in the study.
The little system’s heart pounded, secretly opening a search engine:
[How can one calm down a furious woman?]
[Answer: No solution. My advice to netizens is to run away quickly—saving your life is the priority!]
Little Milk System whimpered, patted her little belly, and cheered herself on.
Go! System is the best! All those little snacks weren’t eaten for nothing!
Having carefully polished her words, Little Milk System blinked her big, watery eyes and spoke:
[Host, please don’t be angry. Getting angry hurts your liver. System knows Host is so mad right now she wants to kill someone, but if you kill him, the two little ones won’t have a daddy anymore.]
Without giving Qiao Yan a chance to speak, the little system continued:
[Although System knows Host is very capable and can be both mother and father, research shows that children from single-parent families crave love and attention more than children from normal families, and their psychological resilience isn’t as good as ordinary kids either. So, having a daddy for the little ones is actually a good thing.]
After listening, Qiao Yan fell into silence. Yes—no matter how capable she was, she couldn’t replace the position a father held in her children’s hearts.
She thought quietly for a long time. Though she still minded that Mu Qinzhen had suddenly appeared and taken a share of her children, she came to terms with it. She would respect the two little ones’ choices. If that man genuinely loved the children, and the children liked him too, she wouldn’t stop them from spending time together.
Seeing that she had finally calmed her Host down, Little Milk System let out a long sigh, wiped the nonexistent sweat from her forehead, and tossed aside the Child-Rearing Manual in her hands.
Phew! Being System is really tough!
With her mood settled, Qiao Yan cooked with quick, nimble hands. She rinsed the chopped ribs in clean water, then marinated them with scallions, ginger, minced garlic, salt, and other seasonings. Finally, she mixed in rice flour ground from rice that had been stir-fried until golden brown, with a slightly grainy texture.
She was preparing steamed pork ribs with rice flour. In addition to the ribs, she also added some sweet potatoes to steam together. The soft, sticky, and sweet potatoes absorbed the seasonings and the aroma of the ribs, tasting even better than the meat itself.
While the ribs were steaming on the stove, she took down the cured meat and smoked chicken hanging from the beam above the kitchen and washed them. The cured meat was sliced into pieces, while the smoked chicken was chopped into chunks.
As she was slicing the ingredients, Gao Zhuoyuan led six attendants to the kitchen entrance.
He respectfully bowed to Qiao Yan: “Princess, is there anything you would have us do?”
The prince had gone inside to find the young lady, leaving the rest of them as servants standing around in the courtyard staring at each other. With nothing to do, they felt uneasy, and not daring to disturb the prince, they could only come to find the princess instead.
They also took the opportunity to get familiar with the princess—after all, she was the birth mother of the two young ladies of the Su Prince’s residence, and her status would never be low from now on.
Qiao Yan’s eyes shifted thoughtfully, and she didn’t stand on ceremony with them. She instructed, “Take a basket and go pull some vegetables from the vegetable patch. Pick whatever you want to eat, but remember—don’t ruin my plot.”
Eight grown men had come, so their appetites would certainly not be small. If she made too little, they definitely wouldn’t have enough to eat. She might as well cook a big pot of stew as well—it was convenient and delicious.
Gao Zhuoyuan bowed in acknowledgment, withdrew from the kitchen, found a basket in the courtyard, and led the group of attendants to the vegetable patch.
Once they arrived at the field, the men all marveled at Qiao Yan’s exceptional vegetable-growing skills.
Before they had become guards at the prince’s residence, their families had also farmed the land. Some of them could even be considered experienced farmers, but when they thought about the vegetables they used to grow and compared them to what the princess grew, theirs were simply nothing at all!
Every single plant the princess had grown was tender, fresh, and lush green—just looking at them made one want to eat them!
They pulled up quite a few baby bok choy, lettuce, chives, and the like. A tall, thin man noticed a row of chili pepper plants beside the vegetable patch laden with fruit and asked curiously, “What’s that?”
The group shook their heads—they had never seen anything like it before.
Curious, the tall, thin man walked toward the chili patch. Gao Zhuoyuan called out, “Kang Hua, you get back here! If you ruin the princess’s plot, we’re not helping you!”
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