Haven't We Long Been Engaged? (3)
T/N: Chapter sponsored by Gigi! Thank you for sponsoring!
"I don't have any ideas right now. After all, there's still two more years until I reach marriageable age. Two years although isn't long, it's not short either. Anything can happen, no?" Du Xiao Li said, "That's right big brother, do you know who Ding Wang is?"
Du Xiu Heng shook his head. In the days he's been here, aside from going to the gathering last time, he had not gone out and has been in his courtyard studying the whole time.
"It's big brother Yi." Du Xiao Li said.
"What?!" Du Xiu Heng turned his head in surprise, "Han Ming Yi is Ding Wang?"
(T/N: Why does no one ever connect the dots? The princes names all follow a pattern and ordinary people usually aren't allowed to have the same name as the members of the imperial family---)
Du Xiao Li nodded, then sighed. In the beginning, she'd only guessed that his identity wasn't low, but never thought that he was a prince. "Big brother Liu Feng is the older brother of Ji Liu Xia from that day at the gathering. He's the current great general's son, and is also a young general now."
"Never thought that they would appear in that little mountain village of ours." Du Xiu Heng said with a sigh.
"Hehe, speaking of which, that mountain village is sure impressive, a prince and now Wangye once lived there, a general, and also two of the prime minister's children also all lived there." Du Xiao Li laughed all of a sudden.
With a grave expression, Du Xiu Heng asked, "Then do you plan on marrying Ding Wang?"
Before he was worried, because they'd never met Ding Wang before. Suddenly getting a marriage decree, he temporarily couldn't accept it. Now, knowing that Ding Wang was Han Ming Yi, he didn't know whether or not Du Xiao Li would agree.
"Eunuch Shan said it was Ding Wang that asked for the decree. Right now, I rather want to know why he did this. As for whether or not I'll marry, didn't I just say, it's still a long way until I reach marriageable age. We just arrived in the capital. A lot of things still haven't been taken care of. Once everything's calmed down, I'll think about it again." Du Xiao Li said with a shrug.
In this era where there was imperial power, she just knew she couldn't do as she pleased!
"En, regardless of what decision you make, I will always support you!" Du Xiu Heng said, "In this world, there's nothing more important than you."
Du Xiao Li could hear the meaning in his words. If she didn't want to marry, even if it's defying the imperial order, he will still stick with her until the end!
"En, I will. Even if I don't want to marry, I will still think of a perfect way to break the engagement. Life is precious, how can you just abandon your life because of these things." Du Xiao Li smiled.
"Miss, young master, lunch is already been prepared." Xia Yuan appeared behind them.
"Let's go, the heaven is high, the earth is vast, but eating is still the biggest. After eating, let's go look around the vineyard." Du Xiao Li rubbed her stomach. She was busy all morning today that she didn't even have the chance to eat breakfast. Now that she was in her own territory.....
(T/N: So the author forgot to finish the sentence above...orz I want to cry every time I run into one of the author's typos or grammar fuk ups; it's like a guessing game of trying to piece together what they really meant.)
Coming to the dinning hall, Du Xiao Li saw the table full of local delicacies and said with a smile, "This much, don't tell me you cleaned out all your storages? That would really make us feel ashamed."
"Miss is joking, the things in the estate all belong to miss, so bringing it out for miss to eat is only proper. Besides, there's plenty of these wild animals in the mountains. We would stroll around the mountain from time to time when we're free. We hunted a bunch back." Xie Hen said.
"Is that the swallow mountain mountain range?" Du Xiao Li thought of that continuous like a screen mountain range in the back.
"Yes miss." Xie Hen said, "There's an abundant of wild animals in that mountain, all four seasons nonstop, just in the winter, it's a little less."
"Really, then let's go for a stroll there sometime." Du Xiao Li said as her eyes lit up.
"Miss can go at any time. However, you can only stay in this region. Further north is the imperial family's hunting grounds. You can't just casually enter there." Xie Hen said.
"Haha, then I'll take you all there next time. Alright, for now, let's just eat first." Du Xiao Li looked to the table full of dishes, and instantly felt her appetite growing.
After eating lunch, Du Xiao Li and Du Xiu Heng took a short nap. When passed the hottest period of the day, they finally went to stroll in the gardens. Several fields of grapes surrounded the house, encircling it in the center. In the back, near swallow mountain, was the persimmon orchard, and next to it was apples, pears, and so on.
"Such a large fruit orchard!" Du Xiao Li stood in the vineyard. The vineyard here was bigger than the one in Du village!
"Because this estate had started planning only in the beginning of last year, so we could only buy these lands, and used it all to plant grapes. As for the other fruit orchards, we saw that they'd just happened to be connected to the vineyard, thus we also bought them. If miss sees anything you're not satisfied with, we will change to plant something else."
"No, it's very good, I like it a lot." Du Xiao Li said in satisfaction. Afterwards, she looked to the flat plain before the mountain in the back and said to Du Xiu Heng, "Big brother, look there, isn't it like our old home's terrain?"
Du Xiu Heng nodded and said, "Indeed very similar, not bad."
"Steward Xie, managing such a big estate, you've all worked hard." Du Xiao Li said.
"These are all what we should be doing." Xie Hen said with a smile. However, he could also tell, this master of his that has only visited twice is a good person.
"Awooo---"
Silver and Gold ran down from the mountains and eagerly came to Du Xiao Li's side, circling around her legs. Looks like they were in a good mood.
"Younger sister, it's not early anymore, how about we head back?" Du Xiu Heng asked when he saw that the sun was already leaning towards the west.
"En, once I finish treating Qiao Zhu's grandpa, we'll head back." Du Xiao Li almost forgot an important things she came to do today.
Thus the party rushed back to the courtyard. Once Du Xiao Li finished treating the old beggar, they finally got on the horse carriage and hurriedly headed back. But just as the horse carriage reached the city gates, they were stopped by someone.
"Young master Du, long time no see!" But before Du Xiu Heng and them could speak, a voice sounded, making Du Xiao Li instantly pull open the window curtains.
"Leng Er, you're back?" Du Xiao Li looked to Leng Er and waved to him with a smile.
"Little girl." Leng Er looked to Du Xiao Li. He was also in a good mood, letting his horse walk next to the horse carriage. He looked to Du Xiao Li in the carriage and said, "You all finally came, I've been waiting for so long."
"I was just talking with big brother Liu Feng about you this morning. He said you went on a mission and haven't returned. Didn't expect that you would return today." Seeing an old friend, Du Xiao Li's mood was quite good.
"En, I just returned this afternoon. I heard master say to send someone here to wait for you all, so I thus bravely volunteered to come." Leng Er said.
"Not bad, very generous. However, I don't want to meet your master right now, you won't make it difficult for me right?" Thinking of Han Ming Yi, she felt unbearable stuffy inside, and simply didn't want to see him.
"Eh, girl, having not met in this many years, you sure know how to trouble me even more." Leng Er looked to Du Xiao Li with a troubled expression.
"Haha, I know that big brother Yi won't do anything to you if you go back. The sky is almost dark, I'll be going back now. Later, I'll come find you to play." Du Xiao Li then said to Du Xiu Heng in front, "Big brother, let's quickly go back home. Else, once it's dark, father will worry again."
When she finished saying this, she put down the curtains, and after the horse carriage began moving, she even reached her hand out to wave at Leng Er.