Jin Lanyue’s movements stiffened, and aggrieved tears instantly started welling in her eyes. “Yue’er didn’t…”
Why did he have to speak about her like that…
The little prince seemed to really dislike her…
But she hadn’t done anything wrong at all…
The little prince adjusted his crooked hair crown, continuing to lash out recklessly, “And you, Qu-whatever? Qu Zijin, right? Who are you pulling that long face for? I call you Grand Tutor out of respect for you, don’t push your luck when you’re being given face!”
Huh?
Jin Lanyue sniffled and stole a glance at the Grand Tutor, whose face had turned completely green with rage.
The little prince then looked at the little princess, his nostrils flaring toward the sky. “And you! You’re a dummy who barely knows a few characters! I was just holding back against you before, otherwise did you really think you could beat me in a fight? I could knock you down with one hand!”
Jin Lanyue froze, her aggrieved tears slowly receding.
She had realized it.
It wasn’t that the little prince particularly disliked her; he simply attacked every single person equally.
The little princess’s tiny face flushed bright red with fury. “Say that again!”
She lunged forward like a little tiger. “You have such a foul mouth! I’ll fight you to the death!”
“Rebellion! Absolute rebellion!” Qu Zijin clutched his chest, only feeling his vision turn dark.
The two tangled together in a wild brawl once more, the battle incredibly fierce.
Jin Lanyue stamped her feet in anxiety, hurriedly stepping in to break up the fight. “Stop fighting… you mustn’t fight anymore…”
Before her voice could even fade, she was fiercely shoved away by the little prince. “Get lost, brat!”
This shove was no minor thing. The little toddler staggered back a few steps and landed flat on her bottom on the ground.
She sat stunned for a moment, her large eyes rapidly filling with tears.
Seeing this, the princess grew even more beside herself with rage. “You dare to push my person!”
She grabbed the little prince’s collar with a violent yank.
Just as Qu Zijin was about to step forward to stop them, he saw Jin Lanyue—who had been perfectly well-behaved and sensible just moments ago—suddenly wipe away her tears and stand right up with a swoosh.
She rolled up her sleeves, revealing two white, tender arms like lotus roots, and rushed into the fray with sheer baby fury. “No exploiting me and the princess!”
…Now things were fully out of hand as the three little ancestors tangled into a messy lump.
The princess yanked the prince’s hair, the prince tore at the princess’s hair bun, while Jin Lanyue clung onto the prince’s back like a little tree sloth, chewing on his clothes with all her might.
“Stop it! All of you stop it!” Qu Zijin’s voice warped completely out of pitch.
He felt the world spinning around him, waves of darkness crashing over his eyes.
Having read books for more than a decade, he had accepted the little prince with a heart full of joy. How could he have ever anticipated that one day, he would witness such a chaotic brawl right before the Wenhua Hall? And it involved the two most noble children of the current dynasty and a highly renowned County Chief!
“I… I…” Qu Zijin supported himself against a pillar, his other hand trembling as he pointed at them. “I… cannot teach you!”
The moment those words left his mouth, his vision went entirely black, and he actually fell backward.
With a heavy, muffled thud, the young Grand Tutor collapsed straight onto the cobblestones, the jade crown binding his hair rolling far away.
“Huh?”
“Ah?!”
“Wahhh!!!”
The three tiny tots were instantly struck as if by a freezing spell. The little princess was still pinching the little prince’s ear, the little prince was clutching the princess’s pearl flower in his hand, and little Jin Lanyue was hanging onto the little prince’s back with his collar in her mouth, pulling outward with all her might.
“Is… is Grand Tutor deaded?” Jin Lanyue spoke first, her sweet, milky voice trembling.
“N-No way, right?!” The other two tiny tots shuddered in unison.
“Grand Tutor!” Only now did the three children lose their wits in panic, releasing their grips on one another in a flurry of hands to assist the fallen Qu Zijin.
Scuffling and brawling all the way to the Grand Tutor’s side, the little princess suddenly let go, jumping up to give the little prince a kick. “It’s all your fault! You vexed the Grand Tutor to death!”
“You were clearly the one who started it!” The little prince hopped up and down in anxiety, clenching his fists to strike back.
Seeing that the two little ancestors were about to bicker again, Jin Lanyue suddenly slid down from the little prince’s back and ran over to Qu Zijin’s side.
She lay across Qu Zijin’s chest, her tiny ear pressed tightly against it.
“Little Moon, what are you doing?” The little princess froze for a moment, forgetting the argument as she curiously leaned close.
“The physician auntie said, when someone faints, you have to listen to see if their heart-heart is still thumping…” The tiny tot’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Thump! Thump! It’s beating so fast!”
When the female physician had been tending to Jiang Xiyue at the Marquis’s manor, she had casually taught the child a few things.
The little prince also leaned close, their three fluffy heads almost bumping together. “Then what do we do now?”
“We need to pinch his philtrum!” The little princess extended her tiny hand.
“No! We need water!” The little prince turned around, intending to fetch some tea.
“W-Wait a tiny moment…” Jin Lanyue tried hard to think, but she couldn’t come up with any solution.
Her System Auntie didn’t emerge to prompt her either.
—This was likely because Qu Zijin wasn’t actually sick; he had simply been fainted from sheer vexation.
In the midst of her deliberation, the little princess had already summoned all her strength, using both hands together to pinch his philtrum so hard that her face turned red.
The little prince had just returned carrying the tea when, through a moment of carelessness, his left foot tripped over his right. With a loud clatter, he crashed straight to the ground. The tea cup flew in a perfect parabola, and the entire splash of tea broth rained down squarely across Qu Zijin’s face.
“Cough! Cough, cough!”
Qu Zijin snapped his eyes open, locking eyes directly with a round face mere inches away.
Seeing him awake, Jin Lanyue danced with joy. “Awake, awake! We are so amazing!”
“I was the amazing one!” The little prince scrambled to his feet. “It was my tea that woke the Grand Tutor!”
“It was clearly my credit!” the princess argued. “Look, the Grand Tutor’s philtrum has been pinched completely swollen by me!”
Having fainted and been forcefully booted back awake, Qu Zijin’s philtrum throbbed with intense pain, and his mind was too dazed to fully process the situation.
He instinctively supported himself against the ground to rise, when he suddenly felt a heavy dampness across his face. Reaching up to wipe it away, he scraped off a handful of wet tea leaves…
He remembered…
He remembered everything!
“You all…” His voice was trembling to the absolute core.
He profoundly understood why His Majesty had shown that kind of expression, and why the prince’s previous tutor had thrown away a splendid future just to retire to his hometown…
He understood; he understood entirely too well!
Qu Zijin’s chest heaved violently.
Presently, although he was only in his early twenties, he also felt the supreme urge to retire to his hometown.
This life was truly unbearable!
He could see straight to the end of his future, and it was so miserable that it made his vision turn black!
Qu Zijin scrambled up from the ground.
He was going to find the Emperor right this instant; he was quitting!
He would pack up his belongings and leave right now. Working for one more day—no, even one more hour—was absolutely out of the question!
The moment he stepped out of the imperial palace, he would run straight to the Marquis of Beiding’s manor to ask if the Marquis had any intention of hiring him as a private tutor.
—Yes, although he didn’t want the little princess and little prince anymore, Jin Lanyue was still very adorable, and he still wanted her.
He swayed unsteadily for quite some time before finally steadying his posture. “Tomorrow, I shall report to the Emperor. This position of Grand Tutor, I truly…”
The word “Emperor” instantly triggered a keyword for the little princess and little prince. The two young children’s expressions shifted, and they immediately unified their thoughts.
They absolutely could not let the Grand Tutor go and lodge a complaint!
“Don’t!” The little princess made a flying leap, wrapping herself around Qu Zijin’s left leg.
The little prince immediately clamped onto his right leg. “Grand Tutor, we were wrong!”
Though their mouths said as much, bratty children were brats after all; even as they spoke, they were stealthily pinching each other’s tiny hands.
Weighed down by the two little toddlers, Qu Zijin stumbled back a couple of steps, several small, muddy handprints instantly marking his long robe.
He took a deep breath. “Let go.”
“Not letting go!” The little princess held on even tighter, taking the opportunity to kick the prince.
“Not letting go even if I die!” The little prince returned the favor with a sharp elbow strike through gritted teeth.
Watching the two five-year-old children brawling across his own legs, Qu Zijin let out a laugh born of sheer exasperation. “Is this your attitude when admitting a mistake?”
“I’ll recite the Three Character Classic! Grand Tutor, I am working very hard, I know how to recite it now!” The little princess had a sudden flash of inspiration. “Men at their birth are naturally good, their natures are much the same, their habits become widely different…”
She became stuck halfway through the recitation, so she covertly yanked on the prince’s braid.
Wincing from the pain, the little prince blurted out instinctively, “If there is no education, the nature will deteriorate!”
Only after finishing the recitation did he realize what had happened, turning in a rage to tear at the princess’s hair.
“Ugh… Yue’er knows how too!” Jin Lanyue searched around for a long time but couldn’t find a spot that she could both reach and cling onto.
Thus, she had no choice but to pick up the jade crown Qu Zijin had dropped, cradling it in her arms as she looked up at Qu Zijin with eager, pleading eyes.
Qu Zijin finally reached the absolute limit of his patience. Squatting down, he pried the two little toddlers off his legs.
He then accepted the jade crown from Jin Lanyue’s hands and placed it upon his head.
However, his hair bun was already in absolute disarray, making it impossible to secure the jade crown properly for the time being; he could only manage to balance it precariously atop his head.
At this moment, his dark hair was completely scattered and his jade crown sat askew. He had never experienced such a wretched, humiliated moment in his entire life, yet he still had to forcefully maintain his authority. “Regarding today’s matter—”