“Th-Thank you…” Although Jin Lanyue was terrified, she still remembered her mother’s lesson about always being polite.
Wei Xiuming pinched her chubby little face once, then twice. “Why are you so afraid? I don’t eat children.”
The little toddler clenched her tiny hands together and stammered, “W-Will you smack hands too?”
She thought about it and added, “And do you smack the Grand Tutor’s hands too?”
Wei Xiuming froze for a moment, then burst out laughing. “No, I never smack anyone’s hands.”
As the Emperor, he usually ordered floggings or beheaded people directly. Wei Xiuming silently swallowed those words and said instead, “You little thing, you’re barely a speck, yet you’re already worrying about your Grand Tutor? Were you afraid I would hit him and came all this way just to protect him?”
The sentence was a bit long, and the tiny tot tried her hardest to process it. “No can hit me, and no can hit Grand Tutor. Smacking hands hurts. Grand Tutor and me, no intentional fault, won’t do it again…”
So he absolutely couldn’t beat her and the Grand Tutor the way her daddy beat her second brother!
“No intentional fault, won’t do it again?” Similarly, Wei Xiuming was trying his hardest to decipher her baby talk. “Oh, you mean you didn’t commit an intentional offence and stubbornly refuse to change, right?”
“Yes, yes! You so smart!”
“Yes, I am very smart…” Wei Xiuming could barely hold back his laughter, finding this little toddler incredibly amusing.
Jin Lanyue peeked at him timidly, then summoned her courage to say, “Y-You are a good person, you don’t hit people. People who hit others are bad guys!”
“I am a good person, I am not a bad guy,” Wei Xiuming went along with her smoothly. “Seeing as you traveled a thousand miles just to protect your Grand Tutor, I won’t hit him. In fact, I might even reward him.”
“Really? Thank you.” The little toddler’s tensed, clenched hands finally relaxed.
Wonderful!
He doesn’t hit people!
Wei Xiuming looked at Qu Zijin with a smile. “You certainly have a good student.”
Qu Zijin looked at Jin Lanyue, his heart swelling with warmth.
This little toddler was clearly terrified out of her wits, yet to protect him, she had actually walked such a long distance to reach his side. Heaven knows how helpless she must have felt along the way…
Of course, he had no idea about the fact that this tiny tot had beaten up a young prince on her way here.
Wei Xiuming cradled Jin Lanyue with one arm while facing Qu Zijin to resume their conversation.
This little toddler was soft and chubby, holding her in his arms felt just like holding a plush cotton doll.
Though she was a bit of a coward, she was incredibly well-behaved—completely different from his own rebellious sons and daughters. For a moment, he found himself reluctant to put her down, so he simply kept her in his lap to discuss state affairs.
In any case, a three-year-old child wouldn’t understand a word they were saying.
Wei Xiuming spoke first: “So your idea is—what is taken from the people, use it for the people?”
Qu Zijin glanced at the little toddler who was safely curled up in the Emperor’s arms. Seeing that she wasn’t as scared anymore, he finally breathed a sigh of relief and cupped his hands. “Precisely. That pack of corrupt officials drains the lifeblood of the common folk, and now they even dare to skim off the top of disaster relief funds. Their greed is insatiable. We might as well take this opportunity to make them spit out everything they’ve swallowed and reuse it on the populace.”
“Indeed,” Wei Xiuming also harbored a deep-seated hatred for those corrupt officials. “The Northwest only surrendered at the beginning of this year. If I hadn’t been concerned that a complete overhaul of the local officials would inevitably trigger further unrest, I wouldn’t have slowed down my pace to replace them bit by bit… I never expected a severe drought to hit this summer, or that those people would actually dare to exploit the crisis. They are truly courting death!”
“Those who are blinded by greed will ultimately reap the bitter fruits of their actions.”
Jin Lanyue shrank her neck. Though she couldn’t understand what they were discussing, the aura in the room felt terrifying.
Wei Xiuming looked down, cupping her tiny face with his palm, which perfectly allowed him to pinch her cheek.
With a pinch of his index finger and thumb, the plump flesh on her face squeezed her small mouth into a pout. “Mmph… no… pinchy.”
The originally oppressive atmosphere instantly vanished.
Wei Xiuming let go, forcing down his laughter as he feigned a serious expression and looked back at Qu Zijin. “How exactly do you plan to implement this?”
“Directly dispatch the army to deliver the imperial edict to them, warning them that either they solve this drought, or the army will solve them,” Qu Zijin said.
“Are you not afraid they will fight to the death out of desperation?”
“They wouldn’t dare. To them, solving the drought merely means losing a portion of their profits. But if the grand army truly marches upon their borders, it will mean absolute annihilation.”
Qu Zijin continued his analysis: “Furthermore, the Northwest has only just surrendered and has not yet had the chance to prove its value to the dynasty. Nor is it a strategically perilous terrain. For our dynasty, it can even be considered a liability.”
“We have no compelling reason to keep the Northwest, and they understand this perfectly well,” Wei Xiuming chimed in. “They wouldn’t dare to gamble. When a matter can be settled by sacrificing just a bit of profit, there is no need to stake their lives on it.”
“Exactly,” Qu Zijin followed up with the next stage of the plan. “Previously, the dynasty sent disaster relief grain to appease them with kindness, yet they remained relentlessly demanding. Now, we turn our backs and suppress them with iron fists. Such a stark contrast is bound to create internal conflict among them. Given that their internal factions are already unbalanced, a single disaster relief operation will inevitably shatter their unity… When that time comes, it will be our best opportunity to strike.”
“Refusing the carrot only to eat the stick, ha,” Wei Xiuming leaned back against his dragon throne. “Previously, we were stuck in a dead end, only thinking about how to provide relief and how to eradicate the corrupt officials, while forgetting that we can make the corrupt officials provide the relief themselves.”
He absentmindedly pinched Jin Lanyue again. “This idea of yours is excellent.”
“I have named this strategy the ‘Falling Leaves Return to Their Roots’ method.”
“Falling Leaves Return to Their Roots? It is indeed very fitting. How did you come up with it?”
“To be completely honest, I was enlightened by my teacher,” Qu Zijin said, cupping his hands.
“Oh?” Wei Xiuming’s interest was piqued. “From whom did you receive your tutelage? Which famous master is it?”
“Mmph… Huh?” Jin Lanyue, whose little face was being pinched, opened her eyes wide, unexpectedly locking eyes with Qu Zijin.
Huh?
Uh, excuse me?
This isn’t right, is it, Grand Tutor?
Unable to hear her internal bewilderment, Qu Zijin spoke up, “My teacher is precisely the three-year-old child in Your Majesty’s arms, the daughter of the Marquis of Beiding—Jin Lanyue.”
“What?”
“Mmph, what?”
Wei Xiuming and the little toddler voiced their shock at the same time.
Wei Xiuming looked down at this tiny tot who was huffing slightly from having her face pinched but could do nothing about it. Using both hands, he lifted her right up in the air, looking her over from left to right, falling into deep thought. “Grand Tutor Qu… you call this little potato your teacher?”
A little potato?!
“Not a little potato! Not!” Little Jin Lanyue kicked her legs frantically in the air, but it was completely useless.
She thought sadly to herself that she was definitely not a potato!
Her mother said she was fair and plump. Even if she were a potato, she would be a precious jade potato!
Watching his teacher struggle fruitlessly to escape the Emperor’s clutches, Qu Zijin hesitated before speaking. “The story goes like this, Your Majesty… Before that, would Your Majesty mind putting my teacher down first?”
Hearing this, Wei Xiuming pulled the tiny tot back into his arms, though he still didn’t quite understand. “Go on, then.”
He really had to hear this story out properly.
Subsequently, Qu Zijin explained the whole matter from beginning to end—why he had acknowledged Jin Lanyue as his teacher, and how his teacher had enlightened him to think of this method.
By the time Wei Xiuming finished listening, his eyebrows had raised repeatedly, his expression perfectly capturing a look of “I don’t understand, but I respect it.”
“Ah… I see…” Wei Xiuming said slowly. “Since that’s the case, this merit shall be credited to the both of you.”
He didn’t dwell on it. “Then, Grand Tutor Qu, tell me, what reward do you desire?”
A look of long-awaited fulfillment washed over Qu Zijin’s face. He was about to speak without a second thought, but the words suddenly jammed in his throat.
What did he want?
He wanted to return to the imperial court. He wanted a real position where he could truly work for the people, a place where he could unleash his talents and make a grand impact.
His current position as the princess’s introductory Grand Tutor was by no means what he desired.
Qu Zijin had always believed his resolve was unshakeable. After all, hadn’t this been his dream all along?
But why couldn’t he bring himself to say it now?
He gazed blankly at the toddler who was currently being cradled and teased by the Emperor.
An involuntary thought crossed his mind.
If he stopped being the Grand Tutor, he wouldn’t be able to see this little toddler often, nor would he be able to teach her.
How would the new Grand Tutor treat her?
Would they waste her brilliance? Would they actually smack her hands?
She was still so small…
If he abandoned her and left, would she be terribly heartbroken?