Translated by: Tinker
Glossary:
- Zhao Zhi – Official name of Little Zhao
- Zhao Shi – Official name of Er Bao
In a twinkling of an eye, Zhao Zhi was nearly 14 years old.
He and his younger brother were the only two children in the family. Over the years, his father would try to persuade his mother to have another daughter, but his mother wouldn’t agree.
Over the years, Zhao Zhi remembered that his father rarely acted against his mother’s will.
His parents looked like they were in love, but as the eldest son, Zhao Zhi could see clearly that his mother did not seem to have much affection for his father.
Every day, his father would go straight to his mother’s house. They looked very close to each other, but he always felt that his father wasn’t in his mother’s eyes.
However, he didn’t tell anyone about this matter, even his younger beloved brother.
He was eight years older than his younger brother, and Er Bao was only six years old this year.
Zhao Zhi went to the academy and bought some cakes that he liked to eat before returning to his house. After looking around, he did not see Er Bao and only saw her mother sitting in her yard playing with her bonsai plant.
Zhao Zhi looked at his mother’s back for a while, walked over slowly, and called softly, “Mother. “
Song Luan put down her scissors. “Oh, you came back from school.”
Zhao Zhi nodded, “Yes.” Then he pointed to the withered bonsai on the ground and asked, “Are these flowers dead again?”
Song Luan was a little depressed. “Yes, I take care of them every day. Why are they still dead? I can’t save them..”
Zhao Zhi snickered a smile. His mother didn’t know how many pots of flowers she had raised and her technique of raising flowers in these years had never changed.
He said, “Otherwise, leave these things to the maidservants.”
Although Song Luan said that she would never raise flowers again, she acted more honestly than anyone else. She shook her head and refused, “I don’t want that. Mother thinks it can still be raised well.”
“Good.” He put down his cake and asked, “Where’s brother?”
Song Luan pointed to the poplar tree in the yard, “Your brother is in the tree.”
Zhao Zhi was amused and helplessly said. “Why did he go to the tree again?”
Song Luan also wanted to laugh when she mentioned Er Bao. “Didn’t that tree bear a lot of fruit last year? Your brother climbed and said he will stay in the tree until next year. He said he will eat those fruits and grow as tall as you.”
Zhao Zhi couldn’t help laughing. “I’ll go and take my brother down.”
Song Luan shook her head, “it’s no use. I can’t call him down.”
But Zhao Zhi said I’ll go and have a try.”
At the age of 14, Zhao Zhi was already a boy with an excellent appearance and lean figure. His facial features are more like his father’s, and his silent and cold nature is also like Zhao Nanyu.
Zhao Zhi walked slowly to the tree and looked up at his brother, who was holding the branch. “Er Bao, come down.”
The little boy hugged the branch, curled his mouth, and said, “I can’t come down. I want results! With fruit, I can be as tall as my brother. “
After listening to his childish words, Zhao Zhi was still very helpless. “If you hang on that branch even for ten years, it will not bear fruit.”
“How do you know?” Er Bao asked.
Zhao Zhi said, “I just know.”
After thinking about it, Er Bao asked, “Did you also hang in the tree when you were a child?”
“…” Zhao Zhi raised his eyebrows and said, “I didn’t.”
“You haven’t tried it. How do you know you can’t? Brother, you are so stupid. Don’t teach me badly.”
“….”
Zhao Zhi thought that his younger brother would be as lovely as he was when he was a child. The only thing that worried him was that he was too naughty.
Zhao Zhi raised his hand and waved the cake to the boy hanging high in the tree. “If you don’t come down, you can’t eat it.”
Er Bao licked his lips as if moved by the cake Zhao Zhi brought. When he was about to speak, a cold voice came from afar.
The man was dressed in a dark imperial suit and his face was cold. He probably had just returned from the palace. He looked at the boy in the tree with a sneer and said, “Don’t come down until the year has passed. I’d like to see what kind of fruit you will produce.”
Zhao Zhi called respectfully: “Father.”
“Well, have you finished your homework?”
“Finished.”
When Song Luan heard that he was cruel to their son again, she went over and pinched Zhao Nanyu’s waist. “Don’t be so cruel to him every time. He won’t like you.”
“I don’t need him to like me.”
A little brat who only knew how to give him trouble.
Er Baotian was not afraid of anything except for his father.
He sucked his nose and wouldn’t dare to come down. “Father is going to kill me, wuwuwu.”
Zhao Nanyu sneered, “I really want to beat you once you come down.”
Song Luan sighed, “What’s the matter?”
In recent years, this father and son often fought. They didn’t treat each other as family, but more like enemies in a previous life.
Zhao Nanyu’s voice softened a lot when he spoke to his wife. He said to her, “He pissed off all the students in the academy.”
Song Luan was stunned for a moment, and then immediately laughed sweetly, “Er Bao is talented.”
Zhao Nanyu: “….”
Zhao Zhi: “….”
Er Bao was finally pulled down from the tree. He took a careful look at his father and hid behind his brother as he said, “I will never dare to do it again.”
Zhao Zhi silently blocked him and said, “Father, since younger brother knows that he is wrong, don’t punish him.”
Song Luan nodded, “If a person knows their wrongs, they can correct it. “
Zhao Nanyu glanced at Er Bao and said, “Do you know what you did was wrong?”
“Mm-hmm.” Er Bao looked like garlic, his eyes were insincere.
Zhao Nanyu snorted coldly and said, “Go to the study and copy the scriptures ten times. If you can’t finish, you can’t have a bowl of rice.”
“Oh.”
Er Bao grieved while he entered the study. Zhao Zhi was with his younger brother in the room, and then remembered that he left his book in the yard.
As soon as he went out, he saw his father take his mother’s hand and whisper in her ear. He didn’t know what he whispered that made her blush and speechless.
Zhao Zhi consciously avoided his sight and did not dare to see more.
Sometimes he would think, was it his illusion? He felt that his mother didn’t love his father.
If she didn’t love him, how could she stay with him for so many years?
In terms of love, Zhao Zhi felt that her mother was indifferent towards his father.
Only he and Er Bao were the only ones she cared about. His mother seldom cared about his father’s affairs and did not concern herself much about what he had done and where he had gone.
Although Zhao Zhi had not married yet, he also understood the relationship between men and women, so he shouldn’t be like his father and mother.
Song Luan turned her back to Zhao Nanyu with anger and slapped his hand away. “Our son must have seen it.”
Zhao Nanyu wanted to hold her hand but was mercilessly thrown away. He coaxed her by lying, “No, he couldn’t have seen it.”
Song Luan stamped her feet, “Can you not do it in broad daylight next time!”
Zhao Nanyu said, “Okay.”
He didn’t know how many good words he had said.
But it didn’t work at all.
Song Luan was still very angry. She knew little Zhao in her heart. He was already 14 years old and almost reaching adulthood. How bad would it be for the child to see this kind of scene!?
“Didn’t you always want to see fireworks? There will be fireworks on the tower tonight.”
Song Luan had already made up her mind not to talk to him anymore today. Hearing this, she couldn’t help but move her mouth: “What day is today? Why did they set off fireworks?”
Zhao Nanyu was silent before he said, “Maybe because the emperor is in a good mood, so he decided to release some fireworks.”
Song Luan said, “Well, I will go by myself. I don’t want to go with you.”
Zhao Nanyu grabbed her little palm, chuckled, and said, “This is not good.”
Song Luan chuckled dryly. “I’m going with my son. I don’t want you anymore.”
“Luan Bao has a cruel heart.”
Song Luan pinched him fiercely but didn’t have any strength. Zhao Nanyu didn’t feel any pain at all. She blushed with shame, “Speak well.”
“Don’t you like what I call you?”
“No.”
Zhao Nanyu poked her in the forehead and chuckled, “You’re lying.”
You like it.
He also liked it. Every time he spoke her name like this, there would always be the smell of sweet and honey.
Luan Bao, Luan Bao, she was his Luan Bao.
***
When Zhao Zhi went to his father to ask about his homework, he ran into the scene where his parents were very close together. In the past years, he had met them in these kinds of positions many times by accident, and he had been able to deal with it indifferently, without his face getting red.
His mother sat on his father’s lap, with a brush in her hand, and asked the man behind her, “Is this how you paint?”
His father looked at the woman in his arms with lingering eyes, Yes.”
Zhao Zhi heard his mother complain in a low voice as if getting angry coquettishly.
“My hands are tired and I don’t want to draw anymore, and painting is really hard to learn.”
“Then don’t learn.”
Every word in the room reached Zhao Zhi’s ears. He walked forward two steps, raised his hand, and knocked on the door, “Father.”
“Come in.”
Song Luan stood up and looked at his son, who was already taller than her. She laughed and said, “I’m going to pour you a glass of water. “
After consulting about his homework, Zhao Zhi turned around and found that her mother had fallen asleep while lying on the table. The warm sunlight fell on her face appropriately. She looked serene and beautiful.
Zhao Nanyu lowered his voice and whispered to his son, “Go out. Be careful and don’t disturb your mother.”
“Yes.”
While closing the door, Zhao Zhi saw his father gently holding his mother from the chair and into his arms, caressing her cheek with his fingers, and dropping a kiss between her eyebrows.
Zhao Zhi knew that no one could match his father’s love for his mother.
