Mercenary Princess - Chapter 151
She glanced timidly at Rongyue and nodded almost imperceptibly.
He sighed heavily, his heart aching even more.
From these seemingly minor details, she could vaguely deduce that 'she' had somehow made Dongfang Yao mentally impaired and erased his memories. Then, she took the mentally impaired Dongfang Yao to another place, arriving at this small mountain valley. She threatened Dongfang Yao, warning him to stay deep in the mountains and never approach her, or she would gouge out his eyes. The simple-minded Dongfang Yao believed her threats (perhaps she had even tried to harm him before), and whenever he saw her, he feared her like the plague, avoiding her at all costs…
What could possibly make 'she' hate him so much?
Fortunately, Dongfang Yao recovered relatively quickly. In addition, he was simple-minded and would forget the evil he had done to him before if others were kind to him. A month later, he no longer had the fear he had before towards Rongyue. Instead, he became dependent on Rongyue because of her careful care over the past month. He would stick to Rongyue's backside all the time and became Gouwa's number one enemy.
Every week when it's time to study, Rongyue would bring out a small round table, and she, Gouwa, and now Dongfang Yao, would sit around the table and start 'studying'.
"Look, Mom has three peanuts here. Now, Mom is hungry and wants to eat one of them... Why did you bring me this whole plate of peanuts?"
"Aren't you hungry, sister? There are plenty of peanuts here, enough for you to eat your fill!" Holding a plate of peanuts, Dongfang Yao looked at Rongyue with bright eyes.
"Xiao Yao, listen to the lesson quietly and don't cause trouble." Although she's been calling her that for a month, Cheng He still feels awkward. But if she doesn't call her Xiao Yao, what should she call her? Should she call her Yao'er? Hehe, she'd probably be really annoyed.
With a pout of grievance, she obediently sat to the side, holding peanuts. When Rongyue wasn't looking, she glared at Gouwa, whose eyes were crinkled with laughter and who seemed to be gloating.
"If Mom eats one of the three peanuts, how many are left?"
"Two." Without hesitation, Gouwa answered loudly.
"My little Gouwa is so clever!" She gave Gouwa a rewarding kiss, then picked up a piece of osmanthus cake and fed it to Gouwa.
"Sister, I know it's two too!" Dongfang Yao protested indignantly. How annoying! Why did he feel so uncomfortable seeing his sister kiss that little one? That little one was so annoying!
Hmm? Rongyue pondered. Could it be that Dongfang Yao isn't stupid, but his intelligence has regressed to that of a child, and he can still be malleable as he grows older?
Holding three osmanthus cakes in her left hand and three in her right, Rongyue looked at Dongfang Yao and asked, "How many osmanthus cakes are there if we add three osmanthus cakes together?"
Take the osmanthus cakes from Rongyue's hands and place them on the table. Align them corner to corner and side to side, arranging them neatly into a square rectangle.
Proudly raising her beautiful eyes, Dongfang Yao pointed to the rectangle and said confidently, "Sister, it's a piece, isn't it?" After saying that, she looked intently at Rongyue, expecting a reward.
I stared at the rectangular molten moon for a few seconds, wondering to myself, could this be considered divergent thinking?
"Silly!" A soft, childlike voice came from the other side of the round table. Gouwa wriggled its chubby body towards Dongfang Yao and poked Dongfang Yao's head with its plump finger: "Silly!"
He smiled and patted Gouwa's head: "So, for Gouwa, how many yuan is that?"
With pride shining in her bright almond-shaped eyes, she picked up the osmanthus cakes on the table and forcefully stuffed two pieces into Dongfang Yao's mouth. Then, she took a small bite at each of the four corners of the remaining four osmanthus cakes that formed a square, and a circle that didn't look like a circle was formed.
"Look, it's only one piece now! Mom, is Gouwa right?"
Her face twitched; she finally understood that all her teaching these past few days had been for nothing!
Two months have passed in the blink of an eye.
Autumn has passed and winter has arrived, the north wind is blowing, and the weather is gradually turning cold.
After making a fur coat for Gouwa and a cloak for her, the tiger skin from last time was almost gone. Now, with winter fast approaching, Dongfang Yao had no warm clothes at all. The villagers were unsophisticated and didn't know what constituted good quality warm clothing. Fearing that they might spend money to buy something but not find anything satisfactory, she thought that she would go with Zhang Daniu to deliver wine tomorrow, hoping to show Dongfang Yao some decent warm clothes.
"Mom, Gouwa's going too! Gouwa's going too!"
"Sister, Xiaoyao wants to go too! Xiaoyao wants to go too!"
Before she got into the carriage, the two children, one big and one small, each grabbed one of her arms, looking at her with pleading, longing eyes.
Rongyue rolled her eyes, turned around, and glared at everyone: "Go back now! Otherwise, I won't bring you any good food when I come back!"
"No, no!" the two said in unison, whining.
"Aunt Liu—" she shouted into the house. A moment later, Aunt Liu hurriedly came out of the house. Receiving Rongyue's eye signal, she grabbed one child with each hand and pulled the other away from Rongyue.
He jumped into the carriage and shouted to Zhang Daniu, who was driving, "Brother Zhang, drive the carriage quickly!"
"Giddy up!" The whip cracked, and the horse galloped off, leaving behind two angry people yelling, shouting, and clutching their legs...
The bleak winter seemed to have no effect on the crowds shopping. The streets were still bustling with people.
"Whoa—" Zhang Daniu stopped the carriage, jumped off, and went around to the back of the carriage to help Rongyue.
"I'm not that delicate." After jumping down on her own, Rongyue felt uncomfortable from the sudden light. She shielded her eyes with her hand, then looked around. When she saw the words "Pear Blossom Falling," she was momentarily stunned.
"Oh, Brother Zhang, you've finally arrived!" Just then, a middle-aged man who looked like the shopkeeper walked out from the pear blossoms and walked towards them with a smile.
"Manager Wang." Zhang Daniu greeted him politely with a cupped-hand salute.
"Brother Zhang, how much wine did you bring this time? You know, your wine is truly excellent! The guests have been praising it endlessly and have been urging me to buy more from you!"
"I brought ten jars today, I wonder if that's enough? If not, I'll bring more tomorrow..."
"You've really worked hard, brother. But if you could, I hope tomorrow... hehe, you know, this customer is really pushing me, there's nothing I can do..."
"It's alright, it's alright."
"Brother, you're such a straightforward guy! Even our boss raves about your wine!" He turned and shouted to the waiter who came out to carry the wine, "What are you dawdling for? Come and help carry it!"
...
"Huh? Manager Wang, did you give me the wrong thing? This..." Holding the thousand-tael silver note in his hand, Zhang Daniu was flustered and at a loss.
The shopkeeper, beaming, said, "There's no mistake! This was specifically instructed by our boss, how could there be a mistake! Our boss said that this wine is indeed worth the price, but he doesn't want to see the same wine in other restaurants. Do you understand what I'm saying, Brother Zhang?"
Rongyue understood. So that's what they wanted – a monopoly!
Zhang Daniu glanced at Rongyue.