Watching a jet-black fingerprint smudge across his pristine face from her own hand, Jin Lanyue froze in a daze.
Then, drowning in guilt, she tried to sheepishly withdraw her tiny hand.
Qu Zijin, however, caught it gently.
He wasn’t angry at all. Instead, he flashed a smile, looking as if a heavy burden had suddenly been lifted from his chest. Leading her a few steps over to the riverbank, he dipped his handkerchief into the water, carefully wiping her dirty little hands clean before wiping his own face.
Jin Lanyue’s other hand was still clutching the two leaves. When they returned beneath the tree, she strained to stand on her tiptoes, holding the leaves up high. “Leaf-leaves, for ou…”
Qu Zijin bowed his waist to accept them. “Thank you, Teacher.”
Taking advantage of the moment, Jin Lanyue patted his hand like a little adult. “Don’t be sad. Leaf-leaves, fallen leaves return to their roots!”
“Yes, Teacher has learned a new idiom. However, ‘fallen leaves return to their roots’ isn’t quite used this way. It is generally applied to…”
“Leaf-leaves go back to the tree-tree!” Jin Lanyue had her own interpretation. “Go back to where they came from!”
Qu Zijin blanked. “Go back to… where they came from?”
Jin Lanyue thought he didn’t understand.
She let out a sigh in her heart, just like an adult would.
My goodness, why is the Grand Tutor so silly? He actually didn’t understand.
But it didn’t matter. She was the Grand Tutor’s teacher, so she would teach him.
Thus, gesticulating wildly with her arms and legs, she motioned, “Leaf-leaves come from the tree-tree, go back to the tree-tree! Fallen leaves return to their roots!”
“Fallen leaves return to their roots…” Qu Zijin fell into deep thought. “To go back to where you came from?”
“Exactly!” Since Qu Zijin happened to be half-squatted to watch her gesticulate, Jin Lanyue hopped up and patted his head. “Grand Tutor is smart!”
Pitter-patter, two slaps.
It didn’t hurt.
Yet it felt as though something had instantly clicked inside Qu Zijin’s mind.
“I understand!” He bolted upright, a look of sudden enlightenment washing over his face.
Startled by his sudden movement, Jin Lanyue landed right on her bottom with a plop, sitting on the ground in a daze.
She turned her tiny head up to look at the Grand Tutor, who now wore an expression that suggested he had just cracked a monumental puzzle.
She couldn’t understand it at all…
Scratching her little head, Jin Lanyue patted her bottom and scrambled up from the ground on her own.
“I understand! I know how to solve it now!” Qu Zijin paced back and forth in excitement. “Go back to where it came from… Taken from the people, used for the people!”
“Um… I really don’t under-stand…” Jin Lanyue wanted to tug at Qu Zijin’s hem, but looking at her newly dirtied little hand, she drew it right back.
Yet in the next second, Qu Zijin scooped her up in his arms and spun her around a few times, a radiant smile on his face unlike anything seen before.
“Thank you, Teacher! Thank you for your guidance!” Qu Zijin’s eyes were clear and his expression was vibrant, making him look several years younger—not that he was old to begin with, but in Jin Lanyue’s eyes, he had transformed from “that slightly fierce uncle” into “a slightly older brother.”
…It was a good thing Qu Zijin had no idea what the little girl was thinking, otherwise his emotions would surely be quite complicated.
“Huh?” Jin Lanyue was a bit dazed.
Though spinning around was very fun, she was still a little confused.
“I know how to resolve the matter of the northwest drought and the corrupt officials now! It is truly killing two birds with one stone!” Qu Zijin explained. “Taken from the people, used for the people. We shall make them take everything they obtained through corruption and use it entirely for disaster relief!”
“Ah… still don’t under-stand…”
In an exceptionally splendid mood, Qu Zijin sat down while cradling her, explaining the details to her minutely.
From how the northwest drought originated to the sheer brilliance of the solution…
He cited classics and authorities, speaking with perfect logic and eloquence.
When he finally looked down, he discovered that Jin Lanyue was already fast asleep.
Sumped against his chest, the chubby meat on one of her cheeks was squished flat, and one tiny hand rested beside her face. Her breathing was even, and her little face was flushed pink with sleep.
As if she had been hypnotized, she was sleeping very soundly and sweetly.
Qu Zijin froze, only just realizing that he had actually been cradling a three-year-old milk-baby in his arms for quite some time, and had even “coaxed” her to sleep.
He automatically held his breath, wanting to stand up with her as gently as possible, but his limbs went rigid all at once.
These hands, which could wield a brush to write characters as sharp as iron and silver, and compose essays where every word was a gem, currently had absolutely no idea how they should even be positioned.
Fumbling frantically, he managed to stand up with Jin Lanyue with great difficulty. Just as he was about to walk toward the carriage, he noticed the blanket hadn’t been packed up.
Wanting to pack the blanket, he realized he didn’t have a spare hand.
The top-scoring scholar who could churn out brilliant verses on the spot now stood on the riverbank cradling a baby in utter bewilderment, feeling as though he had encountered the riddle of the century.
A few passersby walked past. Before he could even call for help, their murmuring drifted into his ears along with the night breeze—
“What is that young fellow doing standing by the river with such a rigid expression while holding a baby? He isn’t thinking of jumping into the river, is he?”
“How could that be? He’s probably here to play. Didn’t you see a blanket spread out down there?”
“He doesn’t look like he knows how to hold a baby at all. Is that really his kid? Could he have stolen it?”
“Hey, hey, hey, maybe he just became a father not long ago! He doesn’t know how to carry a baby yet. Everyone goes through that phase.”
“That’s true. I didn’t know how to hold a baby at first either, looking just like him, hahaha. Now it’s different—I just tuck them under my armpit and carry them off…”
The passersby cast friendly, encouraging glances at him and gradually walked away.
Qu Zijin’s state of mind shifted from wanting to protest initially—I am not trying to jump into the river with a baby, I didn’t steal her, this is my teacher—to gradually calming down and accepting reality.
“It’s fine, this won’t defeat me,” he pumped himself up silently. Holding Jin Lanyue with posture as upright and rigid as his moral character, he returned to the carriage.
Thank goodness he had brought a coachman along.
Qu Zijin carried the fast-asleep Jin Lanyue to the carriage. The moment the coachman looked up, he saw a rare flash of panic on the Grand Tutor’s usually stern, handsome face.
His body was completely stiff, his arms holding her as if she were a fragile, precious treasure, and he even softened his breathing unconsciously.
Granted, she truly was a precious treasure.
She was just a rather mischievous one.
“My Lord, holding the Young Miss like that will make her uncomfortable,” the coachman, a middle-aged man with several children of his own, said as he suppressed a smile to offer guidance. “You need to let the Young Miss cradle her head against your arm, like this…”
The coachman hadn’t expected that a coarse, illiterate fellow like himself would actually have the opportunity to instruct the top-scoring scholar and Grand Tutor.
Qu Zijin listened obediently and carefully adjusted his posture, only to see the little dumpling squirm uneasily in his arms, her small dress wrinkling into a ball.
He instantly froze, not daring to move an inch, fine beads of sweat breaking out on his forehead.
“Like this…” Unable to watch any longer, the coachman stepped forward to demonstrate with a guiding gesture. “Support her back with your left hand, hold her legs with your right hand. Yes, just like that.”
Qu Zijin adjusted according to the instructions, his movements as awkward as a puppeteer who had just started learning the trade.
Jin Lanyue seemed to sense the comfort, nuzzling her little face against his chest while emitting a cat-like purring sound.
Only then did he let out a sigh of relief, but the coachman spoke up again: “My Lord, there is still a blanket under the tree shadow that hasn’t been fetched…”
“Go fetch it,” Qu Zijin instructed in a lowered voice, terrified of waking the tiny person in his arms.
After the coachman quickly departed, Qu Zijin looked down at the soundly sleeping Jin Lanyue.
Her long eyelashes cast two shadow crescents like tiny fans upon her pink, tender cheeks.
Her tiny hand was unconsciously clutching his lapel. Who knew when she had dirtied it again, leaving behind finger marks on his clothes.
Yet, to his surprise, he didn’t find it distasteful in the least, and even felt that the finger marks had become quite adorable.
“My Lord, I have returned.” The coachman hurried back, and seeing Jin Lanyue’s peaceful sleep, he couldn’t help but lament, “The Young Miss sleeps so well. Unlike that mischievous boy of mine, who kicks people even while asleep…”
Qu Zijin nodded slightly, carrying Jin Lanyue as he carefully boarded the carriage.
Inside the carriage compartment, he maintained a rigid sitting posture, terrified that a bump might jolt her awake.
The little dumpling slept sweetly, her warm breath filtering through the thin fabric of his clothing. Holding her soft little form, Qu Zijin suddenly felt a tinge of regret.
—This actually wasn’t his child.
He actually had to return her…
The carriage slowly drove into the Marquis estate.
Marquis Beiding and Jiang Xiyue had been waiting for a long time, and immediately stepped out to welcome their precious daughter home.
The couple blanked when they saw Qu Zijin stepping down from the carriage while cradling Jin Lanyue.
“This…” Just as Marquis Beiding was about to speak, his wife tugged at his sleeve.
The usually unsmiling Qu Zijin was currently holding their little daughter in an extremely awkward posture, looking exactly as if he were cradling a powder keg that could detonate at any moment.