For several days in a row, Shen Wang had been woken up by the sound of barking dogs. A faint air of lifelessness hung around him, and dark circles had formed under his eyes.
Butler Liu approached with a cup of freshly brewed strong tea. "My lord, have some tea."
Shen Wang rubbed his brow, unable to fathom why Xie Ning had such boundless energy.
He woke up earlier than the roosters every day, and once he was up, he never stopped moving—showing not the slightest sign of fatigue. The only time he was quiet was probably when he was asleep.
If it were anyone else, Shen Wang would have thrown them out of the mansion—dog and all—on the very first day.
He sighed inwardly, thinking helplessly that he was the one who had brought the boy home, and he was the one who had agreed to keep the dog. So what else could he do? He could only endure it.
But truly, ever since they had taken in Little White, there had been a lot more laughter around the estate.
Butler Liu felt uneasy seeing the fatigue on his master's face, but the young master was also having a wonderful time. If only there were a compromise.
Countless ideas churned through his mind, and then a flash of inspiration struck. He stepped forward and whispered a suggestion into Shen Wang's ear: "My lord, why not hire a tutor to come to the residence and give the young master his first lessons?"
That would both burn off his boundless energy and teach him to read and write—killing two birds with one stone.
Shen Wang looked up and met Butler Liu's gaze. Both could see the exhaustion in each other's eyes.
Without a moment's hesitation, the two silently agreed to the proposal in mutual understanding.
"Find a tutor who isn't too strict," Shen Wang added after a moment's thought.
If the tutor was too harsh and made the boy cry again, that would be even more trouble.
At a certain teahouse—the primary gathering place for the local folk to chat after their meals.
Wen Qingyuan was highly skilled at dealing with people. After just a few exchanges, he made the other man feel a sense of kinship, loosening his tongue considerably. In no time, he had learned the man's name and where he lived.
"Judging by your accent, you're not from around here, are you?"
The speaker was a man named Wang Yi, who lived at the end of the alley up ahead. He had set up a stall there selling preserved fruits, making his living from that craft for over a decade.
But that wasn't Wen Qingyuan's goal, of course.
"Yes, I'm from Jizhou," Wen Qingyuan said, his expression dimming slightly as he began to spin a tale that was half-truth, half-fiction. "My family suffered a sudden misfortune, so I had no choice but to bring my child to the capital to seek out relatives. I wanted to settle down in the capital, but everything costs money here—I really can't keep up…"
"We common folk are all the same—just trying to scrape together a meal," Wang Yi chimed in, the topic striking a chord with him.
"Back where I'm from, it was a small place. We never saw any nobles. Here in the capital, you have to be careful at every turn, terrified of offending some big shot."
Wang Yi felt a deep resonance with this. Having run his little stall here for over a decade, he had seen all kinds of people and all kinds of things. Hearing this, he felt a bellyful of grievances that were hard to put into words.
"You have no idea—last time, some young master from a prestigious family was galloping his horse down the street when the horse suddenly got spooked. As luck would have it, it crashed right into my stall," Wang Yi complained.
Wen Qingyuan played the role of a listener at this point, occasionally chiming in with a word or two of agreement.
After a good while, he finally circled around to his true purpose for the day. "The other day, I passed by that street up ahead. That mansion looked positively lavish. I wonder who the owner is."
Wang Yi thought for a moment, then drew in a sharp breath. "You're not talking about the Shen Estate, are you?"
"I believe the plaque did have the character 'Shen' on it. Why do you ask?" Wen Qingyuan feigned ignorance.
He simply wanted to inquire about Shen Wang's reputation in the capital.
Wen Qingyuan had tossed and turned over this for several nights. There was nothing about him and Xie Ning worth exploiting, and Shen Wang was still willing to take them in at his residence. For such an important figure, gratitude and deference were the only proper responses.
But still…
He couldn't help but sigh inwardly, filled with inner conflict.
"Then you must remember—don't go near that place again," Wang Yi advised, then lowered his voice, "That's someone even the Marquis's heir wouldn't dare offend lightly."
Wen Qingyuan's expression showed genuine shock, not feigned.
Seeing this, Wang Yi kindly explained, "You've just arrived, so it's normal not to know. But Lord Shen is a favorite of His Majesty, and his ways are… overbearing. You can offend anyone else, but if you provoke him, I'm afraid only the Emperor himself could save you."
Wang Yi's words were tactful, but the meaning was clear enough.
Seeing that Wen Qingyuan still looked unconvinced, he added more, "Those in the capital who oppose him don't last more than a few days. They all…"
Wang Yi dared not finish that sentence, only making a slicing gesture across his neck.
"No way—I actually ran into him the other day, and Lord Shen seemed quite kind-hearted." Wen Qingyuan licked his lips, and as he noticed Wang Yi's increasingly strange look, his voice gradually faded until the rest of his words were swallowed back down.
Hearing this, Wang Yi laughed and waved his hand, as if he'd just heard a joke.
"Brother Wen, don't say such jokes. Putting 'Lord Shen' and 'kind-hearted' together is like seeing a ghost in broad daylight—downright creepy." With that, Wang Yi rubbed his arms, covered in goosebumps.
Wen Qingyuan: "…"
Wen Qingyuan opened his mouth, wanting to say something more.
Wang Yi raised a hand to stop him, curling his lips, "I wouldn't dare keep talking about Lord Shen. In this capital, nothing escapes his eyes and ears. If I go on any longer, I'm afraid my own life won't be safe."
Wen Qingyuan returned to the Shen residence with complicated feelings.
When he reached the gate, he looked up and stared at it for a long while.
Though they hadn't spent much time together these past few days, he felt that Shen Wang was not the kind of person others described—in fact, he seemed the complete opposite.
Could it be that his eyes were clouded?
But he had also witnessed with his own eyes how well Shen Wang treated Xie Ning. Though Lord Shen's expression was cold, he had hardly ever spoken harshly to Xie Ning, and in his actions, he fulfilled every wish.
He had originally gone to inquire just to get a broader understanding, but now he was only more confused—what he heard and what he saw were complete opposites.
Just as he stood there in a daze, he ran into Butler Liu coming out of the gate.
"Why are you standing here? Why not go inside?" Butler Liu walked up and asked.
Wen Qingyuan snapped back to attention and raised the things in his hand, "I just went out to buy some snacks for Ningbao."
Butler Liu looked at him for a long while—so long that Wen Qingyuan felt his innermost thoughts had been seen through.
After a long pause, Butler Liu's face broke into a warm smile, "What a coincidence running into you. This old servant has a matter to discuss regarding young Master Xie Ning."
"What is it?"
"Our master feels that the young master spending his days in the residence playing with cats and teasing dogs isn't quite right. There's still a month's time, so why not hire a tutor to have the young master study some books?" Butler Liu explained with a smile.
Not a single word of this credited himself—all the credit and goodwill were pushed onto Shen Wang.
Wen Qingyuan was stunned for a moment after hearing this, two little figures in his mind wrestling with each other. He opened his mouth, but his thoughts were in a jumble, and he said nothing.
"I was just about to find a suitable tutor, so I'll have to ask you to help vet them in a moment," Butler Liu continued, seemingly not noticing his expression.
Hearing this, Wen Qingyuan finally snapped out of it and nodded in agreement. "Alright, I'll go with you."
Butler Liu's smile deepened, and he began steering the conversation toward Xie Ning. "Has the young master received any early education before?"
Wen Qingyuan didn't know much about this and racked his brain for a long while before answering, "He should have, but Ningbao can never sit still, so the family didn't push it. We don't seek any grand future for him—just hoping he stays safe and happy."
Butler Liu nodded in approval. "That's true."
Once they started talking about Xie Ning, the two of them opened up like floodgates.
"…"
Meanwhile, Xie Ning, playing at home, had no idea that the greatest danger was about to descend upon him.
With no one at home to keep him in check, his heart stirred, still thinking about the marbles he'd lost a few days ago.
But it was only now that he remembered—he'd forgotten to ask the other person's name and address that day!
Xie Ning slapped his own head, feeling a bit frustrated.
How could he have forgotten to ask the most important thing? Now he didn't even know where to start looking.
Xie Ning mulled it over and decided to go check the tree from that day—maybe the person would be nearby.
But when he crept over to the area with Little White, he discovered people patrolling there, as if they'd guessed he might try to climb the tree again.
Xie Ning puffed out his cheeks. The tree-climbing plan was a no-go.
He crouched down and whispered to Little White, who was panting beside him, "Little White, Little White, I want to go over there. Do you know how to get there?"
Little White circled around him, seemingly understanding his words, then suddenly dashed off in a certain direction.
Xie Ning stood up and followed.
Finally, the pair stopped in front of a dog hole, and Little White circled around him as if celebrating victory.
Xie Ning's eyes sparkled, and he unsparingly planted a kiss on Little White. "You're amazing, Little White! You're the smartest little dog in the world!"
Then Xie Ning crawled through and successfully escaped the estate.
Although he could have just walked out through the front gate openly, going out the front door meant a whole line of people following him, watching him carefully—where was the thrill in that compared to crawling through a dog hole?
Hehe.
He walked along the wall for a while, not knowing which direction he wanted to go, just wandering around on instinct.
Xie Ning walked until he was tired, and not caring about the dirt, plopped himself down on the ground, hugging Little White and muttering to himself, "So tired… where on earth can I find that person?"
This was entirely beyond Little White's abilities. He jumped out of Xie Ning's arms and let out a confused "Woof woof."
"It's someone wearing white clothes, who looks kind of silly…"
Xie Ning gestured as he spoke, but mid-sentence, his voice suddenly trailed off. He looked ahead—the very person he was describing had appeared right before his eyes.
He stared in shock at the person walking toward him, then looked down at Little White. "You wouldn't happen to be a magical dog, would you?!"
Xie Ning's imagination ran wild, but Little White remained confused, barking "Woof woof."
Before long, Wei Zhao walked up to him and looked down at Xie Ning sitting on the ground.
Xie Ning looked up at him, reached out a hand, and said, "The marble. Give it back."
Wei Zhao lowered his gaze, took out the marble he had prepared long ago from his pouch, and handed it over.
Xie Ning took it, examined it carefully for a moment, and only after finding the surface had been polished to a gleaming shine did he tuck it back into his own little pouch.
"Thank you for that day," Wei Zhao said in a low voice, then pulled something else from his waist and offered it to him. "I made a new slingshot. Consider it a thank-you gift."
Xie Ning took it without the slightest hesitation, turning it over in his hands and inspecting it from every angle for quite a while.
Wei Zhao thought he didn't like it, and grew a little nervous, scrambling to add, "If you don't like it, I can get you something else instead."
As he spoke, he tried to take the slingshot back from Xie Ning's hands, but Xie Ning dodged away.
"You're such a strange person—does anyone take back a gift they've already given?" Xie Ning blinked, his eyes full of confusion.
But to Wei Zhao's ears, there was not the slightest hint of reproach in those words. His eyes lit up. "You… you like it?"
"I like it, of course." Xie Ning said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Th-then that's good." Wei Zhao let out a relieved breath.
Xie Ning tucked the new slingshot into his pouch as well, then leaned in close until his face was nearly pressed against Wei Zhao's. "Is it just your head that's broken, or are you also a stutterer? Is that why those people were bullying you—because you talk with a stammer?"