By the time Shen Wang carried Xie Ning back to the residence, the sky had already darkened completely.
Butler Liu came forward to greet the master with his usual smile, but the words of greeting got stuck in his throat, and his mouth fell open.
He thought he must be getting old, his eyes failing him—how could their master possibly be holding a child?
Impossible. Absolutely impossible. Children took a detour whenever they saw his master, and he often scared them into tears with just a look. Besides, Shen Wang had always been irritated by children, especially afraid of them crying. So how could a child possibly exist in his master's arms!
Butler Liu glanced at the sky, then steadied himself and looked at the scene before him, muttering inwardly, the sun hadn't risen from the west today either.
"What are you standing there gaping for?"
Shen Wang tried to hand Xie Ning to the butler, but the moment he made a move, Xie Ning clung tightly to his sleeve and pouted.
Already anticipating what the child would say or do next, Shen Wang's brow twitched. "Fine, fine. I'll have someone buy you roast duck right now, alright? Don't cry."
Xie Ning, who hadn't actually planned on crying anyway, immediately broke into a grin and added a compliment: "The father who buys me roast duck is the best in the whole world!"
Shen Wang laughed inwardly. Truly a child.
Butler Liu, standing off to the side, had already turned to stone on the spot. He really must be getting old—he could have sworn he just heard this child call their master "father."
What's more, their master had never married, and in all these years, there had been no romantic affairs whatsoever. He devoted himself entirely to official duties. Where on earth did a three-year-old child suddenly come from?
His shock was written all over his face, and Shen Wang, seeing his expression, knew exactly what was going through his mind. For a moment, he was at a loss for words.
Butler Liu had been with the family since Shen Wang's father was still alive. After the family's misfortune, only Butler Liu remained by his side. Over the years, their relationship, though nominally master and servant, was more like family.
Shen Wang gave the order: "Have someone go buy a roast duck."
Hearing this, Butler Liu's professional instincts immediately kicked in. He tucked away his gossipy curiosity and nodded in acknowledgment.
…
Half an hour later.
Shen Wang had changed into a fresh set of clothes and sat across from Xie Ning.
By now, Xie Ning was completely absorbed by the roast duck. One hand held a drumstick, the other a wing, his mouth working busily as he gnawed away, his face glistening with grease.
Naturally, he didn't notice that Shen Wang's expression across from him had cracked, and that the man was silently inching backward, afraid his newly changed clothes would suffer the same fate.
Butler Liu stood beside Xie Ning, and in the brief pause when the child's mouth stopped moving, he handed him a cup of water, worried he might choke.
After eating and drinking his fill, Xie Ning patted his little belly with satisfaction and let out a burp.
Shen Wang slowly closed his eyes.
"All done eating?" Butler Liu, knowing the child's temperament and preferences, quickly stepped forward with a handkerchief to wipe Xie Ning's mouth and hands.
Xie Ning obediently let Butler Liu fuss over him, and when he was done, blinked twice and said in a sweet voice, "Thank you, Grandpa Niu."
Butler Liu paused for a moment, then smiled and replied, "You're welcome. It's my duty."
Shen Wang, having calmed himself down, forced a hint of a smile. "You've had your roast duck. Now can you tell me—where is your home, and what are your parents' names?"
Xie Ning tilted his head. His father had taught him these questions many times, saying that if he ever got lost one day, he should tell people this information, and he would be able to find his way home.
So Xie Ning's voice rang out loud and clear, as excited as if he had guessed the right answer on an exam, "Jizhou, Xie Qingci."
"Jizhou?"
Upon hearing this, Shen Wang and Butler Liu exchanged a glance. Jizhou was a thousand li away from the capital—there was no way a child could have come here alone. There must be more to this story.
"Who brought you to the capital?" Shen Wang asked.
The moment the words fell, Xie Ning's eyes flew wide open as he realized what he had forgotten.
"Oh no, wuwuwuwu…" Xie Ning began wiping his tears with his sleeve. This time he was genuinely upset, and through his sobbing, they could barely make out some information, "I fowgot wuwuwu… Uncle Qingyuan wuwuwu… bad guy wuwuwuwu…"
So noisy.
The child was really, really noisy.
Shen Wang's face remained expressionless, but inwardly he was beginning to regret his impulsive decision to bring Xie Ning back to the mansion today. He should have just left him for Xin Yi to deal with.
The always decisive Lord Shen was experiencing helplessness for the first time in his life.
He couldn't help but press a hand to his forehead, feeling the crying was giving him a headache. His tone suddenly sharpened, "Stop crying!"
The moment the words fell, Xie Ning abruptly stopped crying, but being yelled at only made him feel more wronged. He pursed his lips, and big teardrops began silently streaming down his face.
Seeing this scene, Butler Liu sighed repeatedly and tried hard to signal Shen Wang with his eyes, the meaning obvious: "My lord, won't you hurry up and comfort him?"
Shen Wang clearly hadn't expected things to develop this way either. He signaled back, "How do I comfort him?"
Seeing that Xie Ning was crying even harder, Shen Wang had no choice but to steel himself and comfort him, "Don't… don't cry."
"…"
Butler Liu pressed a hand to his forehead. No wonder his master still hadn't married to this day—aside from his looks and social standing, he was truly useless in every other way.
Seeing this, Butler Liu had to take matters into his own hands. He gently gathered Xie Ning into his arms, patting his back to soothe his breathing while speaking softly to comfort him, "Oh my, this old servant's heart is breaking from your crying. He didn't mean to yell at you just now—how about he apologizes to the young master in a bit?"
Apologize?
That word had never once appeared in Shen Wang's life.
Xie Ning poked his head out from Butler Liu's arms. His face had turned red from crying so hard he could barely catch his breath, and he stared unblinkingly at Shen Wang across from him.
If Father was willing to say sorry to him, Xie Ning felt he could reluctantly forgive him just a little bit.
The big one and the little one stared at each other for quite a while.
The atmosphere grew tense and stagnant. Shen Wang's body was stiff, and seeing that Xie Ning seemed about to burst into tears again, he quickly lowered his head, "I'm sorry."
Upon hearing this, Xie Ning smiled, all eight teeth showing, and said magnanimously, "Ningbao forgives Father!"
"…You're welcome?"
Shen Wang, who had never apologized in his life, replied tentatively.
Xie Ning blinked a couple of times, and his mood quickly turned from overcast to sunny, "You're welcome!"
This time, Butler Liu didn't dare let Shen Wang do the questioning. The moment he opened his mouth, it was like his usual interrogation of criminals—his demeanor seemed like he was about to kill someone at any second. No wonder Xie Ning had been scared into tears.
"What's your name, and how old are you this year?" Butler Liu asked.
Xie Ning liked Grandpa Niu, and happily counted on his fingers before saying, "My name is Xie Ning, and I'm three and a half years old."
After saying this, he added in a low voice beside Butler Liu's ear, "Grandpa Niu, you can call me Ningbao. Only people I like are allowed to call me that."
Shen Wang, who had actually heard every word clearly, "… "
Butler Liu barely suppressed the smile at the corner of his mouth and nodded seriously. "Alright, Ningbao. Then who brought you to the capital, and where has he gone now?"
Shen Wang across from them kept his expression unchanged, but inwardly he was thoroughly disgusted—he had never seen Butler Liu act so fawning toward anyone before.
"It was Uncle Qingyuan. After we arrived here, on the way to… uh… we ran into some bad guys, and they took Uncle Qingyuan away." Xie Ning told them everything he knew.
Butler Liu guided him gently. "Where were you going?"
Xie Ning looked at him with an innocent expression and said nothing.
Butler Liu continued, "What did those bad people look like? Do you still remember, Ningbao?"
Xie Ning first shook his head, then nodded. "I can draw them."
Butler Liu was somewhat surprised—Xie Ning looked very young, yet he had such a skill. So he had someone bring over a set of brush and ink.
Then Xie Ning drew a few strokes—several adorable little figures that looked like they came from a picture book, but even more vivid than that.
"…"
Shen Wang and Butler Liu exchanged a glance. Even so, this didn't reveal much of anything.
Well, at least it showed they were people—three of them in total.
So Butler Liu switched to another question. "What did you come to the capital to do?"
This one Xie Ning knew!
He raised his hand to answer. "We came to find Father!"
After saying this, he looked at Shen Wang with sparkling eyes.
Stared at with those eyes, Shen Wang coughed lightly in discomfort and added a bit about the situation when he had encountered Xie Ning. "When I met him, he was alone. He came up and hugged my leg, calling me Father."
Hearing Shen Wang flatly deny it, Xie Ning felt a small pang of disappointment—really, just a tiny bit.
He thought that, just as his mother had said, Father didn't like fools. But Ningbao was still young and would grow smarter in the future, so Father would come to like him too.
From the brief information, Shen Wang and Butler Liu roughly pieced together the situation before them.
It was probably that someone had brought Xie Ning to the capital to seek a relative, but as soon as they entered the city, that person had been seized for some unknown reason. Xie Ning, left alone, had run into Shen Wang by chance and been brought back to the residence.
As for why they had come to the capital to seek a relative, the two of them tacitly refrained from asking.
In situations like this, it was usually because one side's family member had passed away, forcing them to travel a great distance to rely on other relatives.
Xie Ning was young—perhaps he didn't yet understand what it meant to part forever in life and death, didn't know that his mother had truly left him for good.
At that thought, Butler Liu gently stroked his cheek with affection.
The clothes he wore were made of fine material, but just now, when he saw him devouring the roast duck so unselfconsciously, lacking the manners of a young master from a noble house, it was clear he had lacked proper guidance in daily life.
In an instant, Butler Liu had spun an entire drama in his mind—a widow and her orphan struggling to survive in a great clan, but the mother, on her deathbed, could no longer protect her child and could only send him far away to the capital to seek his father.
Abandoning wife and child—this child's biological father was truly a piece of trash!
Even from that brief time together, he had grown quite fond of Xie Ning—what an adorable child. If properly nurtured, he was sure to accomplish great things in the future.
It seemed the most pressing matter now was to first locate the Uncle Qingyuan that Xie Ning had mentioned.
He had escorted Xie Ning all the way to the capital, which meant he must have shared a deep friendship with Xie Ning's mother and would surely know more details. Then they could help Xie Ning find his biological father.
Butler Liu and Shen Wang exchanged another glance, both nodding simultaneously.
Xie Ning rubbed his eyes and yawned.
"Is Ningbao sleepy? Let's rest for tonight," Butler Liu said, stroking his hair. "Tomorrow we'll go rescue Uncle Qingyuan for you, alright?"
Hearing this, Xie Ning obediently nodded.
After a long day of turmoil, Xie Ning was already exhausted—he fell asleep almost the moment he touched the bed.
Butler Liu stood by the bedside, tucking the blanket around him, then straightened up and looked at Shen Wang behind him.
"My lord, will you sleep here tonight, or make do in the study for one night?" Butler Liu felt a bit embarrassed after saying this, clearing his throat lightly before explaining: "I'll have the guest room prepared tomorrow—I didn't want to disturb Ningbao today."
Shen Wang stared at him silently for a moment.
He glanced at Xie Ning occupying his bed, paused briefly, and replied with his usual economy of words, "I'll sleep here."