"Yuzhi, what did I tell you? Everyone's very happy to have you here!"
Wen Tinglan tugged lightly at Miao Yuzhi, who was holding a child, then said to the others, "I told you, we're all good friends. We're just sitting down for a meal—no one's going to take offense. Yuzhi was even feeling terribly embarrassed about it~"
As the daughter of Court Consultant Wen Yanyu, born into a family steeped in scholarship for generations, she was the very picture of a refined young lady from a distinguished house. Accomplished in zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting alike, she handled people and affairs with flawless grace. Her smile was radiant now, yet she did not immediately pull Miao Yuzhi into a seat. Instead, she looked toward Jiang Wang, seated in the place of honor.
Because although Yan Fu was paying for today's banquet, Jiang Wang had been the one to organize it.
Naturally, Jiang Wang could not slight Wen Tinglan's goodwill. He smiled gently. "What Marquis Bowang says is what I mean as well. Come, sit with us. I haven't seen little Xuanjing in quite some time—he's asleep?"
Wen Tinglan had said that Miao Yuzhi spent every day caring for her child, and that was indeed the case.
For a distinguished house like the Bao Clan, who knew how many people would be attending to a single child? Yet Miao Yuzhi trusted no one. She took him with her wherever she went, and personally soothed him to sleep every night.
Bao Xuanjing, born on the twenty-ninth day of the ninth month in the fifty-seventh year of Yuanfeng in the Qi calendar, was now over a year old and nearly two.
He had been born premature, but he was very healthy. The conditions at the Earl of Shuofang's residence were excellent, after all.