And so, drawing a new topographic map went into Jiang Yingcheng's little to-do notebook. The moment she left the tent, she began looking around.
The instant her eyes met Yuan Liangping's, both their expressions changed, though to different degrees.
Jiang Yingcheng waved her arms in wild delight, bouncing up and down every now and then. "Brother Yuan, Chengcheng missed you so much, Brother Yuan!"
Yuan Liangping: "..."
Brother Yuan when she needed something, a sucker when she didn't-Yuan Liangping quietly shattered once again under the sympathetic gazes cast his way.
It was bad enough that the Little Princess had been writing notes far more frequently lately, but she also made him write piles of commonly used characters to keep in reserve. Every time he finished, he felt as though every last drop of his vitality had been drained!
Yuan Liangping forced a smile uglier than a crying face. "You flatter me, you flatter me..."
Her actual older brothers were all standing right behind her!
As everyone set off back to the capital, Yuan Liangping was assigned to the emperor's Imperial Carriage to give the four princes and princess a makeshift "lesson."
The crown prince was older and had no need to practice reading or writing, but to give the little girl's "material bank" more characters she could cut out and use, he held his nose and sat down anyway.
With a wooden expression, Yuan Liangping listened as the little girl told him which passages interested her, then put brush to paper to demonstrate how they were written.
That alone would have been tolerable. What was even more outrageous was that military officials' conversations kept drifting in from around the Imperial Carriage.
"Say, have you heard about that world-famous Mechanism Master? Word has it that the people of Beiming have