The last time Wenren Luoshui had met her junior martial uncle, he had given her a token so she could enter and leave the Imperial Preceptor's Hall freely.
That day, dark clouds packed the sky, and strong winds gusted now and then. Such lovely weather was perfect for dropping in to bother my junior martial uncle.
So Wenren Luoshui grabbed Yunjian and scampered off to the Imperial Preceptor's Hall.
"Junior martial uncle, I'm here to see you~"
I slapped open the door to the Imperial Preceptor's bedchamber, and Yunjian and I immediately broke into doting, knowing grins.
The Imperial Preceptor was pinning a young man beneath him. The young man looked pained, and sweat had soaked his white nightclothes.
He gritted his teeth, refusing to make the slightest sound.
This...
Th-this, this...
"What brings you two here?"
Junior martial uncle straightened unhurriedly, glanced at us, then gestured for us to shut the door.
"Hehehe, um, junior martial uncle, if you're in the middle of having fun, we'll just head back."
Wenren Luoshui took Yunjian's hand and backed toward the door.
But the moment they took a step back, junior martial uncle froze them with an Immobility Spell.
Ignoring the two of them, junior martial uncle first helped the young man get dressed. Then he produced a wheelchair from who knew where and carried the now-dressed young man into it.
The young man had fair skin and a beautiful face, with long eyelashes like raven feathers.
When he wasn't smiling, he seemed like a flower on an unreachable peak; when he smiled, he was like the boy next door.
"Coming to see me in this weather-did you two do it on purpose?"
Junior martial uncle wheeled him over to the table before releasing the Immobility Spell on the two of them.
Wenren Luoshui and Yunjian realized we couldn't get away, so they could only sit down and face junior martial uncle head-on.
"Junior martial uncle, when are you two getting married?"
The instant Wenren Luoshui asked her question, the young man in the wheelchair burst out laughing.
Wenren Luoshui: ...
Was her question really that funny?
He looked so aloof, so why was he so easily amused?
"Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm your junior martial uncle's classmate."
Wenren Luoshui: "Oh~"
Yunjian: "Oh~"
Then junior martial uncle rewarded Wenren Luoshui and Yunjian with a sharp rap on the head each.
"Talk properly."
[System, got any juicy gossip about my junior martial uncle and this classmate of his?]
[Salty Fish System: Sorry, neither of them falls within my service coverage, so I can't look them up.]
[That's a thing?]
Unable to get the information she wanted from the system, Wenren Luoshui had to give up on digging into their gossip.
"You two are classmates?" I suddenly remembered that detail and pointed at them as I continued.
"So you transmigrated here together?"
They both nodded.
"Why did you get to transmigrate together, while Yunjian and I came separately?"
Junior martial uncle leisurely poured himself a cup of tea and said with perfect composure,
"It was all fate."
"Oh~ And you still claim there's nothing between you? Your fated bond was strong enough to bring you here together."
"Ow! You hit me again!"
Yunjian silently covered her own head. Little Shui's skull was as iron-hard as ever!
"The sun shines overhead"
"The flowers smile at me"
"The bird says, 'Morning, morning'"
"'Why are you carrying that little schoolbag?'"
"'I'm off to blow up the school'"
"'Never late, not a single day'"
After suffering a setback at the Imperial Preceptor's place, Wenren Luoshui sang as she walked along the covered walkway in the prince's residence, watching water drip endlessly from the eaves outside.
"The waters of West Lake"
"My tears"
"Daughter!"
Before Wenren Luoshui could finish her song, the voice of Wenren Qiao, the Prince of Beiping, approached from the distance.
The moment he saw his daughter, he dropped to his knees.
"Daughter, you have to help your daddy! Your mother's first love is back, and she's abandoning your daddy to go meet him!"
He was a middle-aged man, even if he was a middle-aged man who remained beautiful, handsome, and dashing.
But the sight of him clinging to a half-grown child and crying was bizarre no matter how you looked at it, okay?
Wenren Luoshui shoved her old father away.
"Dad, could you stop howling for a moment?"
"Then help me bring your mother back!"
Wenren Luoshui: ...
If he hadn't been her own father, she would have dearly loved to beat him up.
"Sure, Mom's dream man is tall and covered in bulging muscles. Sure, Daddy, you're just a pretty good-for-nothing. But Mom's lived with you for so many years now. Can't you forget about that man?"
"No! I can't forget! Your mother said it herself back then-if that man hadn't kept refusing to come propose, she would never have married your daddy!"
The Prince of Beiping had nearly cried his voice hoarse. His wife!
Boohoohoo~
He was about to lose his wife!
And his daughter still wouldn't help him!
Boohoohoo~
Little cabbage~
Yellowing in the fields~
Boohoohoo.
The Prince of Beiping's inner world was quite lively. Seeing him cry so pitifully, Wenren Luoshui decided...
"Dad, if you keep crying, believe it or not, I'll fetch Uncle Emperor and Uncle Prince Heng so they can come admire the spectacle."
"Y-you, you..."
Wenren Luoshui's finger shook with anger, and her tear-reddened eyes, like a rabbit's, stared at her daughter in disbelief.
"Mom, Dad's crying again."
Wenren Luoshui spotted her mother's graceful figure in the distance and hurriedly waved to her.
"Hmph! Don't try to fool me. Your mother couldn't have come back this soon!"
"Oh~ Is that so?"
"Darling~ You're back~"
The moment the Prince of Beiping heard his beloved wife's voice, he released his daughter and threw himself into his wife's arms.
The Princess Consort didn't stand on ceremony either, effortlessly hoisting my father over her shoulder.
"Daughter, you're looking after Little Treasure tonight."
With that, the Princess Consort carried the prince off in great strides toward their room.
Slung over the Princess Consort's shoulder, the prince's fair little face was flushed red.
He looked for all the world like a bashful little wife.
Sigh, those two played around at the drop of a hat. After all these years, didn't they ever get tired?
Rain continued falling outside the covered walkway. Raindrops landed on the leaves of the flowers and grasses, weighing the delicate plants down before they sprang back into place.
After sitting outside in a daze for a while, she was simply too bored and could only go find the system.
[System! Come out and keep me company for a few coins' worth of chat.]
[Salty Fish System: I'm not that kind of easy system.]
[Heh! If you don't come out and chat with me, I won't go out hunting for gossip, and you won't earn any points~]
[Salty Fish System: If I don't earn points, you won't get any either, Host. Without points, you won't be able to redeem items in the shop~]
Fine!
She hadn't expected to have the tables turned on her.
[Salty Fish System: Host, would you like to know how Wenren Shuang is doing?]
[Let's hear it.]
Now that she had been mentioned, Wenren Luoshui really did want to know what trouble Wenren Shuang could stir up at the Director of the Imperial Academy's home.
After all, this fellow transmigrator's brain genuinely didn't work very well.
[Salty Fish System: Wenren Shuang went to the Director of the Imperial Academy's home and tried to climb into his bed that very day.]
Uh...
Even if people in ancient times married young, the Director of the Imperial Academy was old enough to be her father, wasn't he?
After thinking for ages, Wenren Luoshui could only squeeze out one comment.
[She really was that hungry, then. What happened next? Ye Shi naturally thought she'd done nothing wrong?]
[Salty Fish System: Yes. She and Wenren Shuang were kicked out of the Ye Family home together. They then went to the Yun Family, but unfortunately, the Yun Family's gatekeeper wouldn't let them in either. The two of them have now rented a small courtyard residence elsewhere.]
[I don't understand. Why does Ye Shi dote on Wenren Shuang so much? For her sake, she's offended not only her husband's family but her in-laws too.]
[Salty Fish System: I don't know. Maybe it's a variation on a love-addled brain-a daughter-addled brain.]