Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“How could this peach… Ghost!”
The Sixteenth Prince’s mind was filled with fear as he looked at Li Mu, He quickly jumped up to get out of the way again.
Once he was out of the Shouning palace, he turned back but couldn’t see Li Mu.
He patted his chest and began to ponder.
The half peach haunted his thoughts.
“Was he really a ghost?”
He summoned his courage and walked into the Shouning Palace again.
When he reached the front yard, he stopped again.
“It must be a human, because a ghost can’t eat peaches.”
After giving himself a pep talk, he grabbed the bell in his hand and carefully walked into the backyard.
He heard the sound of someone eating a peach.
The scent of peaches in the courtyard was even stronger.
Li Mu had his eyes closed and as he took a big bite of the peach.
He pretended that he didn’t see the Sixteenth Prince come in.
In the backyard, the Sixteenth Prince stared at Li Mu.
For quite a long time, he didn’t move at all.
He made a sound of swallowing.
He couldn’t help it when seeing Li Mu enjoy the peach so much.
It was a man!
The Sixteenth Prince was confident with his own finding, and he looked quite relieved.
“If you want to eat the peaches, go and get one by yourself!”
“Thank you, Grandpa!”
The Sixteenth Prince bypassed Li Mu, walked to the other peach tree, jumped up to grab a peach hanging down on the branch, and stuffed it into his mouth.
What the hell?
At this moment, he totally forgot the purpose of coming here.
He just knew that the peach was delicious.
He ate two peaches.
Even if the man on the recliner was a ghost, the Sixteenth Prince was not afraid of him anymore.
“If my memory is correct, your eldest brother is forty now, your second brother is more than thirty!”
Li Mu recalled.
“They have already passed away!”
“Hmm? Didn’t they lead the troops to the front?”
Li Mu was stunned.
“Yes, but my eldest brother died on the battlefield, and the second brother died of illness on the front.”
The Sixteenth Prince picked another peach and rubbed it clean with a piece of rune paper.
This old man knew about his eldest and second brothers.
But he didn’t know that they had died.
Surely, he was not a ghost!
If he was a ghost, how come he hadn’t met the ghosts of his eldest and second brothers?
Li Mu looked at the Sixteenth Prince.
He looked somewhat like little Liu An.
It seemed that Liu An had taken quite a lot consorts over the years.
Ever since that day.
Every day, there was a little kid showing up in the Shouning Palace and picking peaches.
“Mouse, mouse, say it out loud five times.”
Li Mu lay on the bench and said to the Sixteenth Prince.
“Mouse, mouse, mouse, mouse, mouse!”
The Sixteenth Prince said the word five times.
“What is the cat afraid of?”
“Mouse!”
The Sixteenth Prince answered without thinking.
He immediately realized his mistake.
“No, try again!”
“There are five buns in the basin for five children. They each get one bun. But there is still one left in the basin. Why?”
“I…”
Li Mu asked a dozen of questions in a row.
The Sixteenth Prince left with various questions in mind.
The Shouning Palace was quiet again.
“Nice. It’s just good not to have any children making a fuss.”
After so many years of living a quiet life, Li Mu had long been used to lying there alone.
Suddenly a child came, which was quite interesting at first.
For two days, the Sixteenth Prince didn’t appear in the Shouning Palace again.
“It seems that the questions are a little difficult for him. The little kid must have been stumped. But it’s good to have two days of peace. When I am tired of the peace, the little thing might also come back with answers.”
The peaches soon turned red.
Sour and sweet, they looked quite adorable.
In the imperial palace, many people were racking their brain these two days.
The Crown Prince even consulted with the Grand Tutor.
“Sir, do you know a place where customers are happy to buy things at higher prices?”
“What kind of question is that?”
The Grand Tutor was stunned for a moment.
He thought the Crown Prince might be confused by something big, but he didn’t expect it to be such a question.
Wasn’t this a test for a three-year-old child?
But when he thought about it carefully, he found it difficult to answer this question.
Looking at the Crown Prince, who was waiting with hope, the Grand Tutor was lost in thought.
In the Imperial Study Room.
Liu An stretched his back.
There were still two memorials for him to review.
He stretched his body for a little while, and then opened a memorial and picked up his writing brush.
He turned his head and noticed a small head poking out of the doorway.
“Xiaojiu, it’s so late now. Why are you still awake? What’s the matter?”
“Father, I have a question.”
A girl at the age of eight or nine slowly walked in through the doorway.
“Go ahead!”
Liu An didn’t bother to care.
“There are pheasants and rabbits in the same cage. They have thirty-five heads and ninety-four feet. How many pheasants and rabbits are there exactly?”
“Hmm? Who came up with this question?”
Liu An suddenly looked up at Xiaojiu.
He slowly put the brush on the holder and asked.
“It was Xiaoshiliu. He came up with so many questions that many people can’t solve.”
“Ask Xiaoshiliu to come here!”
“Father, you haven’t answered my question yet!”
“It’s a simple question, I’ll tell you when you bring Xiaoshuliu to see me!”
The Ninth Princess left.
Liu An frowned and stood inside Imperial Study Room.
Was he back?
Liu An suddenly disappeared.
There was no one inside the Shouning Palace.
After walking around, Liu An returned with disappointment to the Imperial Study Room.
At that moment, in the Well of Prenatal Qi, Li Mu completed his daily check-in. He took a deep breath, and inhaled all the Prenatal Qi in the well.
“The reward for check-in is getting worse and worse.”
He had only obtained forty years of power for this check-in.
The good thing was that the Well of Prenatal Qi could accumulate a lot of Prenatal Qi every day.
Still, he took in way too much of it every day.
Only a small amount of Prenatal Qi was left to overflow from the well.
Back to the Shouning Palace.
Li Mu felt an unusual fluctuation in the air.
His nose twitched a little.
“Liu An was here?”
Inside the Imperial Study Room, Xiaoshiliu knelt in front of Liu An with his head bowed.
He had managed to answer every question Liu An asked.
In the presence of Liu An, he had to be honest.
He not only told Liu An about all the questions from Li Mu, but also his stupid experience of learning spells to catch ghosts.
Liu An listened with anger and amusement.
Catching ghosts?
What a ridiculous kid!
If he did catch Li Mu as a ghost, it would be fun.
Liu An didn’t expect that after hiding for so long, Li Mu was regarded as a ghost by a little kid.
But as long as he was still around, everything was fine.
He waved his hand, indicating that Xiaoshiliu could leave.
The Sixteenth Prince hurriedly got up from the ground, raised his sleeve to wipe the sweat on his forehead, and ran towards the door.
But he was way too nervous.
On the way out, his tripped on the threshold.
And then he fell with a flop on the ground.
Tda!
After a while, the sound of wooden clogs indicated that Xiaoshiliu had quickly disappeared into the darkness.
“Pass my order to promote Concubine Li to Consort Li.”
Liu An watched the small figure with a smile.
“Yes!”
A few days later.
After finding all the answers, the Sixteenth Prince went back to the Shouning Palace with some excitement.
“Where are you going? Who told you to go out?”
Before he went out, he heard a familiar and serious voice coming behind him.
His neck shrank.
“I’m going to play with the Grandpa!”
“Think about how old you are now. Don’t just think about having fun. Look at your Twelfth Brother and Eighth Brother. They study hard every day. How about you? You only think about playing. Are you trying to disappoint your mother?”
This woman was his mother, Consort Li. She had just been promoted the day before.
Normally, without merits or contributions, she couldn’t get such a promotion for no reason.
Unless the Emperor had something in mind for the next generation.
This promotion gave her hope.
If her son could please the Emperor, will she become a noble consort?
In the future, will the child ascend to the throne?
Once she had the thought, it could no longer be contained.
“I just want to play with the Grandpa!”
Xiaoshiliu bowed his head.
“Go back and learn with the Grand Tutor.”
Consort Li scolded her son.
Two green-robed eunuchs behind her came forward immediately and took the Sixteenth Prince back.
“I’ll go to the Shouning Palace. Let me have a look at this old thing who dares to spoil my son!”