Drop of Cinnabar in the Heart (3)
Little Baozi shook his head like a rattle, “No! I want to see the great general. In the future, I want to become a great general too and beat up bad guys until they’re too scared to cross the border again!”
“Son, if you go out and ask, who wouldn’t know that your lord father, me, is the best of the best? What’s the point of running afar when there’s a master here? When you reach the age of five and it’s time to start your schooling, I will teach you the art of war. A good deal of what I know was inspired in me while on the battlegrounds!” Zhu Junyang hoped that he would be the hero that his son worshiped. As for that fellow Zhao Han...hmph, get lost!
“Really ah?” Little Baozi didn’t quite believe his father’s words, so he turned his head to look at his lady mother to confirm these statements.
Yu Xiaocao pulled her son into her arms and had him sit on her legs as she smiled, “Our Little Baozi is so brave and strong. You even know that it’s important to ‘not allow the enemy to cross the border’! Clearly, you’ve inherited your lord father’s superior genes. In the future, I’m sure you’ll become a great hero and a fantastic great general!”
Her words had pleased both the father and son pair. The two of them revealed satisfied smiles. Zhu Junyang thought, ‘As expected, in my wife's heart, I am the hero of all heroes and the best great general there is!’
Little Baozi: ‘Lady Mother is right! In the future, I will become a great general and a hero to boot!’
“Then...are we still going to the Medicinal Cuisine House tomorrow to see the great general ride his stallion ah?” Little Baozi blinked his large obsidian eyes. The expression on his face was so adorable that it made it hard for adults to resist his plea.
Yu Xiaocao had no immunity to cuteness, so she nodded her head and said, “We’ll go ah! Since we’ll be there, we can also enjoy some medicinal cuisine there.”
“I also want to eat the Chinese yam cake, red bean paste shaved ice, and cream puffs from the Yu’s Pastry Shop!” Little Baozi counted off the treats he wanted to eat on his fingers one by one——what was he to do? There were too many things he wanted to eat and he couldn’t count them all!
“You little gluttonous kitten! How many stomachs do you have ah?” Yu Xiaocao lightly flicked her son’s small nose and grinned, “If you want to eat, in the future, I will have someone make these for you every day. However, you can only eat one type a day and you can’t let these treats substitute for actual meals ah!”
Little Baozi obediently nodded his head, “Then...can I eat two types tomorrow ah?”
Yu Xiaocao thought for a bit and then nodded in agreement, “That’s okay. However, you can only have one piece from each type!” As she thought, she decided to send a servant over to the Yu’s Pastry Shop early to have them make some special treats suitable for kids.
The current Yu’s Pastry Shop had been given to Xiaolian by her as a dowry. Thus, a loyal and trustworthy servant from Xiaolian’s household was currently in charge of it. Consequently, the name had changed from Jinan’s Pastry Shop to the Yu’s Pastry Shop again. Business was still as booming as ever. In fact, every day, there were loads of people waiting patiently in line to buy their famous desserts and there was never enough to satisfy the demand.
Her son was still young, so Yu Xiaocao was afraid that if he ate too many sweet foods it’d ruin his appetite and he wouldn’t want to eat proper meals. Thus, she had restricted the amount of desserts he could eat every day. However, which young child didn’t like to eat sweets? Every day, Little Baozi thought constantly about the desserts he could have after he finished his meals!
When he found out that he’d be able to go out to play tomorrow——No, he was going out to admire the aura of the great general, and that he’d be able to eat a few pieces of his desired desserts, Little Baozi became ecstatic with joy. He began to wriggle happily in his lady mother’s embrace.
The little fatty had quite a bit of strength, so Yu Xiaocao almost couldn't hold onto him. Zhu Junyang was afraid that his son wouldn’t know his own strength and end up harming the baby that was still in his wife’s womb. He hurriedly took the little fellow from his wife and placed him on the ground. He patted his son’s butt and said, “Go find the little white tiger to play with!”
The little white tiger had already grown into an adult tiger. Although it had been very weak and small when Yu Xiaocao first got it, it had grown into a fierce and imposing tiger after being ‘baptized’ by the little divine stone’s essence for a few years.
The size of its head was almost two times larger than a normal adult tiger’s and when it stood up on all fours, it was the height of an adult man. Its head resembled a giant serving platter and it had a pair of luminous eyes. At night, they resembled two ghostly fires and, at first, a few servants had fainted out of fright when encountering it.
However, the little white tiger had grown up at Imperial Prince Xu’s Estate, so it didn’t have a hint of wildness around it. In fact, it was about as gentle as a normal house cat——of course, that side of it was only revealed around its few masters and little master, the people that it had recognized as its own. As for other people, it was the lofty and arrogant lord tiger around them!
Little Baozi had pretty much grown up alongside the little white tiger. Before he could crawl, he had already started to reach out a hand to pull on the white tiger’s fur or stroke the tiger’s whiskers. Sometimes, he would even naughtily reach out a hand and grab onto the white tiger’s fangs. This scared the servants out of their wits and they had no idea how to best react.
Although the little white tiger hadn’t reached adulthood yet at the time, it was still a big and massive creature at this point. It usually engaged in rough play with Little White and Little Black. However, when it was around Little Baozi, it became a statue instead——it never moved as if a single step from it would harm the weak and tender little thing in front of it.
When Little Baozi learned how to crawl, he was often found right behind the white tiger. He would often roughhouse along. The little fellow was truly the son of Imperial Prince Xu. His little legs were strong and fast. In the blink of an eye, he’d crawl away from the eyes of the servants. Consequently, the whole yard full of maidservants and senior servants often spent a lot of time trying to find their little master again.
As his mother, on the other hand, Yu Xiaocao never panicked when this happened. She would always say to the servants, “You can find Little Baozi wherever Big White is around. No need to panic. Big White wouldn’t allow Little Baozi to get into dangerous situations.
That’s right, this little white tiger had been given the lame name, ‘Big White’, by its master. However, the wolf named Little White wasn’t happy with this——why did such a tiny tiger get to be called ‘Big White’, while it, a large and handsome adult wolf, had to be named ‘Little White’? Due to its anger over the names, Little White had bullied the little white tiger quite a lot in its youth.
After the little white tiger grew for about eight months, it was finally at a place where it was large enough to contend with the white wolf. Furthermore, its combat abilities had also improved during this time. Only then was the tiger able to change its fate from being bullied.
As expected, when the crowd of servants found the white tiger by the lake in the back garden, they also saw their little master there, crawling towards the lake with great interest. They were still quite a distance away and couldn’t prevent the young master from going in, so they were so frightened by this that they almost fainted to the ground.
Big White, on the other hand, wasn’t flustered by this at all. Just as the young master was about to enter the lake, he gently took a mouthful of the boy’s clothes in the back and steadily walked away from the lake with the boy in hand. Then, he placed the little boy gently on the soft grass. Little Baozi didn’t cry or wail. After being set down, he continued to crawl towards the lake again.
As they got older, Big White ended up becoming the little master’s personal steed. The back of the tiger was very broad, so Little Baozi always sat very steadily there. Furthermore, the white tiger’s fur was soft and silky. In the winter, Little Baozi loved to nap and rest in Big White’s den with an arm around a giant foreleg——it was more comfortable than his featherdown mattress!
Thus, Big White had become the close companion of Little Baozi as he slowly grew up. When the boy heard his lord father suggest he find the white tiger to play, he didn’t continue to cling onto his mother anymore and instead pranced away on his little legs to go to his courtyard to find his friend.
Zhu Junyang sat next to his wife and stroked her belly, which was already starting to show a bump. He muttered in a worried tone, “Cao’er, do you think our daughter is growing a bit too far? I remember that when Little Baozi was only three months old in your belly we couldn't even tell you were pregnant!”
“Don’t you remember the circumstances of my pregnancy with Little Baozi? Little Baozi developed at a slower pace and was as small as a tiny kitten when he was first born. This child must be a big fat...daughter!” Yu Xiaocao patted at her belly. She had originally wanted to call this child a big fat fellow but when she saw her lord husband obviously thirsting for a daughter, she had to change her form of address on the fly.