Class was dismissed, class was dismissed!
Jin Lanyue stood on her tiptoes, packing her little schoolbag. A few drops of ink had stained her small petticoat shirt, looking like blooming black plum blossoms.
The little Princess lay lazily across the red sandalwood desk, using her finger to gently poke her little study companion’s chubby cheek.
“The Grand Tutor listens to you so well. When I said I wanted to sleep in, he put on a stern face and said ‘Insolence!’ But the moment you spoke, he actually agreed!” the Princess lamented.
Little Jin Lanyue paused her packing, tilting her tiny head in thought. “Maybe it’s because…”
Because she was the Grand Tutor’s teacher?
Jin Lanyue wasn’t entirely sure, but it seemed like she wasn’t supposed to say that out loud.
So after a brief thought, she pulled out half a squished pastry from her pouch, offering it up to the Princess like a prized treasure. “Do you want some?”
Looking at the lint-covered pastry, the Princess wrinkled her tiny nose in distaste. “No thank you, you eat it. Tomorrow I’ll bring you pastries from the Imperial Kitchen; their pastries are delicious too.”
“But… tomorrow is our day off.”
“Then the day after tomorrow!”
The little dumpling nodded blankly. Suddenly remembering something, she blinked her watery, large eyes and asked, “Princess, Yue’er still doesn’t know your name…”
The Princess was taken aback for a moment, then proudly puffed out her small chest. “Listen closely! My surname is Wei, and my given name is Chaoyun!”
Her eyes darted around, and she suddenly lowered her voice. “But… you can call me A’Yun. That’s the pet name my Imperial Mother calls me.”
Little Jin Lanyue’s eyes widened in pleasant surprise. “Re-really? I can?”
“Of course!” The Princess waved her hand generously. “From now on, you are my best study companion! If anyone bullies you, just use my name.”
She even patted her chest as she spoke. “I’ve got your back!”
“Hooray! The Princess has Yue’er’s back!”
The two little dumplings held their tiny hands together. Jin Lanyue’s eyes curved into crescent moons with her smile. “I’m the Little Moon, and you’re the Little Cloud!”
“We are good sisters from now on!” The Princess nodded. “In the future, I’ll call you Little Moon, and you can just call me Princess Cloud!”
“Okay! Princess Cloud!”
The next day.
Having no school to attend, Jin Lanyue comfortably slept until the sun was high in the sky before waking up.
After washing up and grooming herself, her very first instinct was to find her second older brother to play together and “render justice” as heroes.
Her tender yellow silhouette darted through the Prince’s estate garden like a little butterfly as Jin Lanyue skipped and hopped toward the courtyard of her second brother, Jin Lizhi.
Today, she had intentionally tied a goose-yellow silk ribbon—a gift from her second brother—into her hair buns. Two tiny silver bells hung from the ends of the ribbon, letting out crisp, jingling sounds with her every step.
“Second Brother~” Her milky call floated into the courtyard, but the always-smiling second brother was nowhere to be seen.
Little Jin Lanyue stood on her tiptoes, resting her chubby little hands on the window lattice to peek inside. She saw that the copy of The Analects laid out on the study desk was mostly blackened by ink, with only a drawing of a turtle in the corner remaining quite clear. The writing brush was precariously perched beside the inkstone, and the ink inside the inkstone had already dried up.
“Huh?” The little dumpling tilted her head in confusion. Suddenly, she heard a familiar voice from within.
It was her second brother’s wet nurse, sighing as she cleared the table. “Our poor Second Young Master was dragged off to the courtyard by the Master first thing this morning. Who knows how he’s doing now…”
When it fell into Jin Lanyue’s ears, her brain automatically filtered it down to: “…Second Young Master… Master… went to the courtyard…”
Her eyes lit up, and she ran toward her father’s courtyard with her short legs going patter-patter-patter.
She knew where her second brother was!
She reached it very quickly, but just as she was about to run inside, she heard a sound that made her screech to a halt right at the corner—
Smack!
“Ow—!”
The crisp sound and the howl of pain scared the sparrows on the trees away.
Little Jin Lanyue covered her mouth. Peering through a gap in the rockwork, she saw her beloved second brother splayed across a stone bench. His pants were half-pulled down, exposing half of his bare white bottom, and the cane in her father’s hand had already left several bright red welts across his buttocks.
“Your father tells you not to skip school! Tells you not to fight crickets!” Marquis Beiding’s cane came down heavily with every phrase he spoke. “The tutor said you’ve been memorizing The Analects for half a month, and you’re still stuck on ‘Is it not pleasant to learn with a constant perseverance and application’!”
Jin Lizhi squealed and shrieked from the pain.
Kneeling beside him were two little page boys of about seven or eight years old. One of them was actually clutching a cricket jar fiercely to his chest.
Seeing this, Marquis Beiding grew even angrier. “You even skipped class to fight crickets! How did I end up with a son like you?! Upwards, you aren’t as diligent and studious as your eldest brother; downwards, you aren’t as clever and sensible as your little sister! All you know how to do every day is eat, drink, and play!”
The more Marquis Beiding spoke, the angrier he became. “I truly gave you the wrong name! With the way you act, how can you still have ‘Li‘ [Ritual/Propriety] in your name? Back then, I should have named you ‘Ye‘ [Wild]! From now on, your name is ‘Jin Yezhi’, don’t call yourself ‘Jin Lizhi’ anymore!”
Little Jin Lanyue was so frightened she took two steps back. “Wah… Second Brother is so pitiful…”
Immediately after, she bumped headfirst into someone’s leg.
She turned her tear-rimmed little face upward, meeting the gaze of her ten-year-old eldest brother, Jin Qizhi, which was as calm as still water.
“Yue’er?” Eldest Brother Jin Qizhi bent down to pick her up, gently wiping away the tears and dust from her face. “Why are you crying?”
The little dumpling wrapped her arms around her eldest brother’s neck, sobbing, “Daddy is hitting Second Brother… hitting him so hard… so scary…”
Hearing this, the Eldest Young Master let out a sigh, gently patting his sister’s back. “Lizhi deserves to be beaten. The tutor said he skipped class six times over these past two weeks, and yesterday he intentionally spilled ink all over the book he was supposed to memorize.”
Little Jin Lanyue buried her face in her eldest brother’s shoulder, catching the faint scent of book ink.
Eldest Brother was always like this, always carrying a pleasant scent on him, whereas Second Brother was always covered in grass clippings and mud.
But Jin Lanyue felt that grass clippings and mud were very fun too.
“But…” She couldn’t help but defend her second brother. “Yue’er thinks you shouldn’t hit people! Hitting people is wrong!”
“Yue’er is right, hitting people is wrong,” Eldest Brother agreed with her, then explained further, “But skipping class to fight crickets is also wrong. When Daddy tried to reason with him calmly, Lizhi always talked back. That is why Daddy had to resort to family discipline… “
The little dumpling understood only halfway.
Jin Qizhi continued, “Think about it, Yue’er, don’t we also make mistakes and have times when we’re naughty and mischievous? But Daddy has never beaten us. That’s because we recognize our mistakes and correct them. But Lizhi knows he’s wrong yet stubbornly refuses to repent, so Daddy has no choice but to correct him this way. Once Lizhi realizes his mistake, it will be fine… Look, he’s stopped hitting him.”
Jin Lanyue looked back, and sure enough, she found that her father had already put away the cane, telling the two page boys to quickly pull up her second brother’s pants.
Second Brother wasn’t howling anymore either. Clutching his bottom as he stood there, his eyes would still glance toward the cricket jar from time to time.
It seemed… he hadn’t learned his lesson at all.
“Oh…” Although the little dumpling still didn’t quite understand, it was a good thing that Daddy wasn’t hitting Second Brother anymore.
Thus, she balled her tiny hands into fists and said, “Second Brother is wrong-wrong, but hitting people is also bad-bad!”
“Yes, you could put it that way.” Jin Qizhi nodded.
“Eldest Young Master!” A servant’s call came from a distance. “The tutor is asking about your commentary on The Spring and Autumn Annals for today…”
“Understood.” Jin Qizhi frowned slightly. Looking down at the three-year-old sister in his arms—who still looked like a little striped cat even though he had already wiped her face once—he suddenly said, “Would Yue’er like to accompany Eldest Brother to the study?”
The little dumpling’s attention was instantly captured, her moist, large eyes blinking away. “Can I?”
“Of course you can. It’s a good opportunity to teach you a few new characters, so you don’t spend all day messing around with the second oldest.”
Little Jin Lanyue turned her tears into a smile. Suddenly remembering something, her tiny hand fumbled around inside her pouch, finally fishing out a piece of sweet osmanthus sugar that had already partially melted. “For Eldest Brother to eat~”
Jin Qizhi didn’t mind it at all, opening his mouth to eat it. “Thank you, Yue’er.”
Under the sunlight, the ten-year-old youth carried the three-year-old little dumpling through the vermilion corridors. As little Jin Lanyue lay against her eldest brother’s shoulder, she suddenly saw a head poke out from behind the rockery—it was her second brother, Jin Lizhi!
Her second brother winked at her. Although his eyes were still red, his smile was already as brilliant as usual, and he even shook the cricket jar in his hand.
It looked like Daddy had already let him go.
Jin Lanyue smiled and was happily about to greet him, but she saw her second brother make a “shh” motion toward her.
From behind him, a calling voice echoed.
Understanding the cue, Jin Lanyue obediently laid back down against her eldest brother’s shoulder.
It seemed her second brother had other things to do and couldn’t play with her today.
But that was fine, she still had her eldest brother.