“Now, immediately! At once! Dig out this pile of boxes completely intact for me. Dust off the dirt and put them back exactly as they were!”
He gritted his teeth, enunciating each word clearly, “Tomorrow, I will personally go to the Duke’s residence to break off the engagement.”
“No way.”
Luo Luo instantly transformed into a little wild wolf protecting her food, her small body pouncing onto the nearest box, clinging tightly with all four limbs.
“These are Luo Luo’s, all saved by Luo Luo for Mother! No one is allowed to touch them.”( っ-′c)
Xiao Lin had reached his limit.” Once again, he lifted the flailing little creature by the scruff of her neck and mercilessly tossed her back to her usual spot.
“Xiao Luoning, you will stand here facing the wall and reflect on your actions.”
He turned the small body to face the white wall, his voice cold as ice.
“Before the sun sets behind the western hills, you are not to move half a step. If you move even once, you’ll be grounded for a month!”
After delivering this harsh ultimatum, Xiao Lin rubbed his throbbing temples and wearily returned to his study.
His mind restless, he dipped his brush in ink and scrawled a few wild cursive characters on the snow-white paper, but ultimately couldn’t settle his worries.
He quietly paced to the window, peering outside through the carved lattice.
Under the eaves, the little ancestor’s figure in the slanting sunlight appeared particularly “small, helpless, and pitiful.”
Liu Bo was so heartbroken he beat his chest and stamped his feet: “The young mistress is just a tiny toddler, made to stand in the corner right after returning home. Could the Prince’s heart… be carved from stone?”
Yun Ying also chimed in, shaking his head: “Exactly! The young mistress must be terribly wronged, hiding in the corner secretly wiping her tears, alas!”
Hiding in the corner secretly wiping her tears?
Xiao Lin’s heart tightened, his feet involuntarily drawing closer.
The next moment, he saw the true scene at the corner of the wall.
The small child was nowhere near sobbing in sadness.
Her pink, chubby cheeks were puffed up like a little squirrel that had stolen honey, one chubby hand clutching a pear syrup lollipop gnawed down to a small stub.
In her other little paw, she held a small twig picked up from who-knows-where, happily sketching and doodling on the ground.
When Xiao Lin took a few steps closer and carefully examined the “masterpiece”:
On the ground was a crookedly drawn stick figure with bristling hair and a ferocious face.
Beside the little figure, an equally twisted, outrageously large line of text read arrogantly:
Stupid Daddy is a big meanie^ω^!
Xiao Lin: “…”
His head buzzed, blood rushing upward.
Losing fifty years of his life? That was an understatement!
Raising such a “filial” daughter, his life was over!
“Xiao! Luo! Ning!”
A low call pierced the quiet courtyard eaves.
Luo Luo, who had been squatting on the bluestone slab secretly sketching Daddy’s embarrassing state, startled, her small neck shrinking back abruptly as she hurriedly used her foot to smudge away the crooked “cat whiskers” on the ground.
Turning around, her little mouth was already sweet as honey:
“Daddy, why are you here? Does your heart ache for Luo Luo, and you don’t want to punish Luo Luo anymore? Luo Luo knew it, Daddy is the best daddy in heaven and earth!”
(′)
Before the words finished, the little one had transformed into a fragrant breeze, softly pouncing toward the dark robes, her face rubbing against the gold-thread embroidered hem, whining and cooing affectionately.
Xiao Lin kept a cold face, mercilessly grabbing the little one by the back of her collar, lifting her up, and steadily placing her back in the original cold corner.
“Today, you will properly face the wall and reflect here. Without my order, do not move an inch!”
Luo Luo immediately drooped her small head, her crow-wing-like long eyelashes fluttering as she squeezed out a few glistening tears, as if suffering the greatest injustice.
(ˇ﹏ˇ )
But this pitiful act couldn’t fool the Regent who had braved the eighteen levels of hell.
“Reflect quietly.”
Tossing these four words, Xiao Lin flicked his sleeves and turned away, his black-gold boots stepping over the blue bricks, leaving gradually fading cold footsteps.
Once that tall, pine-straight figure disappeared behind the moon gate.
Luo Luo abruptly lifted her small face, sticking out her pink tongue at the retreating back, making a big grimace ().
Face the wall and reflect?
A fantasy!
Is Luo Luo the kind of poor little thing who obediently accepts punishment?
Today, there’s an extremely important major task to accomplish.
East Street was bustling with noise.
Luo Luo stood on tiptoe, laboriously smoothing out a still-damp, gold-flecked sheet of paper on a stone pier.
On the paper crawled several large, crooked characters: “Notice: Recruiting Daddy!”
Clearing her throat, she raised a small bamboo megaphone, shouting with all her might:
“Recruiting Daddy! Recruiting Daddy! Luo Luo wants to recruit a new daddy! Don’t miss out if you’re passing by!”
This novel matter instantly drew crowds like waves.
Peddlers, laborers, young masters, and misses all stopped to look, marveling at this exquisitely carved, three-heads-tall doll.
“Little toddler, you’re recruiting a dad?”
A carrying-pole vendor grinned.
“Where are your parents? How can they let a little one like you out causing trouble by yourself?” An old lady carrying a basket looked on with pity.
A kind-hearted aunt even stepped forward: “Are you lost? Let Auntie take you home?”
Luo Luo immediately puckered her petal-like little mouth, her large eyes misting over, on the verge of tears.
“Wahh… Luo Luo’s daddy… he has ascended to immortality… Luo Luo is so pitiful, became a little cabbage without a daddy…”
(﹏)
Not far away, Yun Ying, hidden in the crowd, stumbled and nearly fell.
Xuan Ying clenched his fists tightly, his jaw aching from gritting.
Liu Bo leaned against the wall, repeatedly gasping for breath.
If the Prince heard these words… he might vomit blood on the spot.
“Oh dear, how pitiful, such a doughy little toddler, actually…”
The onlookers sighed sympathetically.
“My heart aches just looking at her. Child, would you like to come home with me?” A woman already opened her arms.
A burly man with a thick beard slapped his chest boldly: “Little kid, how about me? Strong enough to be your dad?”
Luo Luo lifted her small chin, trying hard to stiffen her still baby-chubby face, her eyes critical.
“The daddy Luo Luo wants must be ‘gentle as jade, peerlessly handsome.’ Uncle, you…”
Her small head shook decisively like a rattle-drum, “Too rough! No, no!”
The burly man was taken aback: “Hey! You little toddler, picking and choosing for a dad, and you want him handsome and gentle too?”
“Of course.”
Luo Luo answered resolutely.
Just then, a scholarly man in a blue Confucian robe, holding a folding fan, stepped forward, bending down with a smile.
“Little child, how do I look? Can I meet your standards?”
Luo Luo looked him up and down, her large eyes curving into crescents.
“Uncle looks quite refined and handsome. May Luo Luo ask how large your residence is? Do you have shops, farmland? Jade artifacts, antiques?”
She counted on her chubby fingers seriously, “To be Luo Luo’s daddy, just being gentle and handsome isn’t enough. You need a solid family fortune.”
The scholar’s smile froze on his face, mumbling, “This… I have been studying diligently, at home only my sixty-year-old mother depends on me, a thatched cottage with three beams…”
“That won’t do!”
Luo Luo sighed and waved her hand like a little adult.
“What if Luo Luo goes hungry? Luo Luo is a little tiger who eats two bowls of rice and three pieces of meat every meal.”
()
The surroundings immediately erupted in roaring laughter.
“Hahaha! What a story! What a story! First time hearing about recruiting a dad with so many requirements.”