In the blink of an eye, Xueya had been emperor for two years and had now come of age. The Mingcheng Empire was experiencing peace and prosperity, with favorable weather and a flourishing nation, but there was one troubling matter. Ever since Yin Qingxuan installed Yuan Si, the Crown Prince of the Li Dynasty, as the new emperor of Ningfeng, he had frequently sent invitations to Mingcheng, asking Xueya to meet him in Mazhou over the past two years.
In his letters, Yin Qingxuan claimed that a meeting between the two emperors would benefit the diplomatic relations between their nations.
Diplomatic relations?
More like nonsense.
He Xulan had long been contemplating how to launch an invasion and crush Ningfeng. However, since the Li Dynasty had just been established and its foundation was still shaky, it wasn’t the right time to reclaim Ningfeng. To stabilize public sentiment, Mingcheng had not raised taxes to fill the treasury or conscripted more soldiers over the past two years.
Now, two years had passed, and He Xulan felt the time was ripe to close the net, but an unexpected change occurred.
The change came on a summer morning.
As usual, He Xulan woke up before dawn, preparing for his morning court session. He habitually moved the leg draped over him, but today, something felt off.
The leg in his hand was particularly small, like…
He Xulan lifted the gauze curtain with his other hand to get a clearer view in the candlelight. The leg in his hand belonged to a child, and the person sleeping beside him was also a child.
The child, about three or four years old, was sprawled out, sleeping soundly on a pile of clothes, with one leg in He Xulan’s hand, completely unaware. His small lips were slightly pursed, and he slept sweetly.
If this child didn’t look exactly like Xueya, He Xulan would have thought someone had played a trick and swapped him out in the middle of the night.
But how had Xueya turned into this?
Due to Xueya’s condition, He Xulan didn’t attend morning court that day. He waited until daylight, but when the child on the bed didn’t return to his original form, he summoned the head of the imperial medical bureau. Before that, He Xulan wrapped the little naked child in Xueya’s own clothes.
When the head physician realized that the soundly sleeping child on the bed was their emperor, he was so shocked his jaw nearly dropped. “This… this is His Majesty?”
“Yes. Look at him. How did this happen?” He Xulan’s brows were furrowed with concern.
The physician immediately took Xueya’s pulse, but not only was it normal, it was exceptionally healthy.
“So, you’re saying you have no idea what caused this?” He Xulan’s frown deepened.
The physician awkwardly nodded. “Your servant truly does not know what this condition is. I’ve never heard of such a phenomenon.”
He Xulan was silent for a moment before saying, “Don’t speak of this to anyone. You may leave.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
After the physician left, He Xulan sent someone to summon Master Ruzhen from Qianfo Temple. Since Master Ruzhen lived far away and would take some time to arrive, He Xulan thought of Daoist Priest Qingchi, who was currently holding a lecture in the capital.
He Xulan had met Daoist Qingchi before, and he was quite skilled in his teachings and spiritual practices. When the priest arrived at the palace and heard He Xulan’s account of Xueya’s condition, he gently shook his dust whisk. “If I may trouble Your Highness to open His Majesty’s mouth, so I can take a look at his tongue.”
He Xulan did as instructed, and before the Daoist could speak, he noticed a faint blue hue on Xueya’s tongue.
“Just as I thought,” the priest said. “Yesterday, I noticed that a pill was missing from the alchemy furnace. The young boy in charge said that only His Majesty had entered the pill room. It seems His Majesty ate one out of curiosity. Consuming this particular pill can temporarily cause a person to revert to their childhood form. There’s no need for alarm; in a few days, or at most a couple of weeks, His Majesty will return to normal.”
Upon hearing that Xueya had turned into a child due to a stolen pill, He Xulan felt a wave of relief, though his temples throbbed with frustration. If Xueya weren’t in the form of a child, He Xulan would have certainly given him a good spanking.
He apologized profusely and escorted Daoist Qingchi out. Upon returning, he instructed Huang Gonggong to send a generous donation of incense money to Qingchi’s temple and ordered several sets of clothing for a three- to four-year-old child.
Since the matter of Xueya turning into a child couldn’t be made public, Huang Gonggong immediately reduced the number of servants attending Ningfu Palace. After tending to these arrangements, He Xulan returned to the bedroom, where Xueya was still fast asleep. He sat at the bedside for a long time, worried the boy might never wake up, so he reached out to gently touch Xueya’s face.
“Guan Guan, wake up, Guan Guan. It’s time to get up. Breakfast is ready, and I made your favorite crab dumplings.”
The child’s long lashes fluttered, but he merely turned over and continued sleeping.
He Xulan knew he couldn’t let Xueya sleep any longer, as too much sleep would be bad for his stomach. He picked up the little boy from the bed, dressing him while speaking to him softly.
Although cradled in He Xulan’s arms, the child continued to sleep, as limp as a rag doll, completely indifferent to being moved.
“Guan Guan,” He Xulan called in a slightly louder voice, but the child in his arms remained unresponsive. After a moment’s thought, He Xulan carried him to a side hall and had the meal brought up.
A table full of food was laid out, and the aroma slowly drifted into the child’s nose. Xueya’s little nose twitched, and finally, his sleepy eyes opened in a daze. His face, already small, looked even tinier now, round and plump with baby fat. The once charming fox-like eyes were now adorably innocent, with no hint of their former allure.
He Xulan took the soft toothbrush handed to him by Huang Gonggong and prepared to brush Xueya’s teeth, but as soon as the brush touched his teeth, the boy started to struggle.
“Guan Guan, you need to wash up before you can eat. Be good,” He Xulan coaxed, trying again, but the little one in his arms suddenly burst into tears.
***
Not only had Xueya become a child, but he had also lost his memory. When he woke up, he cried for his mother. He Xulan couldn’t take him to see his mother’s memorial tablet, so he did his best to comfort him.
After a long while, He Xulan finally managed to stop the crying, but then Xueya asked a question that left him at a loss for words.
“Why is my mother busy? Why are you the one taking care of me? Who are you?”
Saying that someone with such a small face is his lover made He Xulan feel like a pervert. He raised his hand to rub his brow before saying, “My… mother is acquainted with your mother. You can call me brother.”
“Oh~”
Temporarily appeasing him, He Xulan fed Xueya the rest of breakfast. He had seen how difficult it can be to care for children, as just feeding them could be a headache. But Xueya was an exception. Before the spoon even reached him, his little mouth was already wide open. He wasn’t picky, and whatever he ate, he was delighted, his little feet swinging back and forth.
It was only when He Xulan thought Xueya shouldn’t eat anymore that he finally put down the spoon. Just after finishing the meal, Xueya’s little face suddenly flushed red.
“Are you choking?” He Xulan’s heart skipped a beat as he prepared to turn Xueya over to help him vomit, but before he could, Xueya whined in a tearful voice.
“I need to pee.”
He Xulan: “…”
After resolving the biological issue, He Xulan couldn’t bring himself to entrust Xueya to someone else in his current state. So, he took him along to the study.
There were two chairs at the desk, one of which was for Xueya. He placed Xueya in the chair and asked Huang Gonggong to bring in some toys. Once Xueya was distracted by the toys, He Xulan began attending to his duties for the day. But it wasn’t long before he sensed movement beside him.
When He Xulan turned his head, he found Xueya kicking his short legs, trying to climb onto the desk.
“Be careful not to fall.” He Xulan’s voice startled Xueya, causing him to fall backward. He Xulan quickly reached out, one hand supporting Xueya’s bottom and the other steadying his back, catching him in time.
He Xulan was still recovering from the scare, but Xueya found it amusing and actually started laughing.
“Are you trying to climb onto the desk?” He Xulan asked.
Xueya nodded, “Mm-hmm~”
Seeing that the other side of the desk was spacious enough, He Xulan lifted Xueya onto it. But he also warned him, “Don’t go near the edges. You could fall, and it would hurt a lot.”
Xueya seemed to hear him, though maybe he didn’t. He crawled around on the desk for a while before sitting down and playing with the brushes. As He Xulan worked on his documents, he kept an eye on Xueya to make sure he didn’t fall off the desk. Time passed, and as noon approached, Xueya changed from sitting to lying down.
Then, he fell asleep.
Unlike how he slept in bed, on the desk, Xueya’s body curled up into a ball, his chubby little hands clasped together, and his lips parted slightly, like cherry blossoms in April. Soon, he started drooling.
He Xulan, who had never taken care of a child before, was momentarily stunned to see Xueya sleeping on the desk. It wasn’t until the drool dripped onto the ebony desk that he snapped out of it. Gently wiping away Xueya’s drool with a handkerchief, he carefully picked him up and carried him back to the bedroom to sleep.
There was still a little time before noon, so letting Xueya nap for a bit was fine. But Xueya ended up sleeping for an hour. When he still hadn’t woken up, He Xulan had no choice but to resort to his old trick: tempting him with food.
The trick worked. As soon as the food was set on the table, the child who had just been sleeping soundly in his arms instantly woke up. His eyes were barely open, but his little tongue was already licking his lips.
Huang Gonggong couldn’t help but laugh, “It seems like he’s always been a little glutton since he was young. His personality hasn’t changed a bit.”
Hearing this, He Xulan chuckled as well. He teased the little one with empty chopsticks. As soon as the chopsticks touched his lips, Xueya eagerly grabbed them with his mouth, only to spit them out when he realized there was no food.
In just one day, He Xulan had already figured out what little Xueya liked: eating, sleeping, and crawling everywhere. He Xulan would work on his documents for a while, then have to lift Xueya down from the couch or a window. Xueya wouldn’t stay in his arms for long. Before long, he’d fuss to be let down again, and after a while, He Xulan would find him in some strange place and bring him back.
With all this activity, He Xulan assumed Xueya would fall asleep quickly at night. But after his bath, Xueya was full of energy, running around the bath with his little short legs, giggling.
He Xulan noticed that the more attention he paid to Xueya, the more excited the child became. So he decided to pretend not to notice. As expected, Xueya stopped running when he realized He Xulan wasn’t chasing him. He stared blankly at He Xulan, as if confused about why he wasn’t being pursued.
After a while, Xueya took the initiative to come over to He Xulan. At first, he shuffled with small steps, then took bigger strides, and finally, he stood beside He Xulan, tugging on his sleeve. As soon as he pulled, He Xulan picked him up.
“Time to sleep.” With one hand holding Xueya, He Xulan grabbed a robe from behind the screen and wrapped the little one in it.
Realizing he’d been tricked, Xueya started squirming in He Xulan’s arms, trying to get down. He twisted around for a while but couldn’t break free, and soon he was carried back to the bed in the bedroom. So, he tried a different tactic.
Lying on the bed, Xueya grabbed his own chubby feet and asked in a sweet, milky voice, “Brother, why do I have to sleep?”
“Because not sleeping is bad for your body.” He Xulan blew out the extra candles.
“Why is not sleeping bad for my body?” Xueya asked again.
He Xulan instantly realized what Xueya was trying to do. He blew out the last candle, got into bed, and launched into a lengthy explanation, “If you don’t sleep, your energy will be depleted, your body won’t get rest, and your organs will become overworked. As described in the medical text Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases…”
He rambled on, and Xueya, wide-eyed, was stunned. After blinking a few times, he let go of his feet and tried a new approach. “Brother, I want to hear a story.”
“What story do you want to hear?” He Xulan asked, lowering the bed canopy.
“Any story will do.”
He deliberated for a moment and then began telling a story from his childhood, one his mother had once told him. He thought that Xueya would fall asleep while listening, but to his surprise, the more Xueya listened, the more awake he became. In the end, he was even leaning on him, eagerly asking, “What happened next? And then?”
It was already late, and at this time, the older Xueya would have long fallen asleep. But this little Xueya was full of energy. He figured it was because he had let Xueya sleep too much during the day, making it difficult for him to fall asleep now.
“If you sleep well now, I’ll tell you what happens next tomorrow,” he coaxed. Before he had even finished speaking, the little one closed his eyes.
“I’m asleep!” Xueya opened his eyes again. “It’s the next day. I’ve woken up!”
He Xulan: “…”
In the end, it took two stories before Xueya finally fell asleep. The next morning, he had to attend the court meeting. Having missed it the previous day, he couldn’t afford to miss it again, but he also couldn’t leave Xueya unattended. So, he took the still-sleeping Xueya to the court with him.
Claiming to have caught a cold, he had a screen placed in front of the imperial throne, preventing the ministers from seeing the child in his arms.
Xueya laid on his lap, undisturbed by the court proceedings, sleeping soundly as if he were a cat—staying awake at night and asleep during the day. Well, no, even a cat was more alert than he was; it was more like a little piglet.
Everything was going smoothly until, near the end of the meeting, Xueya shifted in his lap and let out a soft murmur.
The murmur came just as the court fell silent.
In the suddenly quiet hall, the sound of a child stirred a wave of confusion among the officials.
He Xulan immediately cleared his throat loudly. The eunuch standing nearby quickly admonished his new apprentice, saying, “If your throat is unwell, leave at once. Disrupting the court meeting could cost you dearly.”
Though this explanation might have convinced some, it did nothing to fool Yi Yefeng. He had unusually keen hearing and immediately headed to Ningfu Palace after the meeting. Knowing it was impossible to hide the truth from Yi Yefeng, he simply said, “Let him in.”
When Yi Yefeng entered, he was immediately greeted by the sight of Xueya sitting on his lap, waiting to be fed. Startled, Yi Yefeng forgot to bow for a moment, staring at the child before suddenly scowling. “Who is the child’s mother? When did this happen? Does he know?”
He Xulan: “?”
He frowned, confused. “What nonsense are you talking about? Where did you get this idea?”
Yi Yefeng, still frowning, replied, “If you’ve chosen to be with him, you shouldn’t have sought out another woman, even for the sake of an heir. It’s not fair to him or the child’s mother—it’s cruel.”
Xueya saw the spoon getting close to his mouth, so he opened his mouth even wider and made an “ah” sound. But He Xulan’s hand, holding the spoon, suddenly paused. Seeing this, Xueya leaned forward, trying to bite the spoon, but before he could reach it, the spoon was put down.
“I haven’t touched anyone else; he is Guan Guan,” He Xulan said halfway through, his hand being tugged twice.
“Brother, I want meat,” Xueya said, licking his lips with eager eyes, all his attention focused on the braised pork.
“Alright, in a moment,” he comforted the child before continuing to explain to Yi Yefeng how Xueya had come to be in this state. Xueya waited for his food but, seeing no meat coming, tugged at his sleeve again. When there was still no response, he burst into tears.
It took a long time to calm him down after that.
Just after finishing their meal, an urgent report came in: a landslide had occurred in a village near the outskirts of the city after heavy rains the night before, and it was unclear how many people had been buried. He needed to summon the ministers immediately to discuss the matter, which meant he couldn’t bring Xueya with him. Normally, he could leave him in the care of the eunuch, but today was the eunuch’s scheduled visit to the Imperial Clinic for his back treatment.
Glancing around the hall, his eyes finally landed on Yi Yefeng.
Xueya, realizing Yi Yefeng would be taking care of him, started squirming in his arms. “I don’t want to! I don’t want him!”
“If you behave, I’ll bring you some sticky rice dumplings later,” he said, soothing Xueya and handing him over.
Yi Yefeng stood there stiffly, unsure what to do with the small child who only came up to his knee.
Though Xueya had initially protested, the moment he was handed over, he went right up to Yi Yefeng. The man was so tall that Xueya had to crane his neck to look up at him. Losing his balance, he toppled over, but before he hit the ground, Yi Yefeng caught him by the collar and lifted him up.
Xueya blinked in surprise. As soon as he was set down, he ran back to grab Yi Yefeng’s leg, his small voice bubbling with excitement: “Do it again! Do it again!”
And so, this flying game was repeated many times, with Xueya clinging to Yi Yefeng’s leg over and over.
That little game brought them much closer. When Xueya finally tired of flying, he sat down by Yi Yefeng’s feet, sticking out his tongue. Oddly enough, despite being the one lifted, he seemed more exhausted than the one doing the lifting. Yi Yefeng felt the soft weight of the child resting against his leg, unsure whether to pick him up and set him on the couch. But then Xueya spoke up.
“What’s your relationship with my daddy?”
Daddy?
Yi Yefeng asked, confused. “Who’s your daddy?”
“The one who fed me earlier,” Xueya replied, lifting his head. “He told me to call him brother, but I know he’s my daddy. We look alike. Besides, brother isn’t that old!”
Even Yi Yefeng couldn’t help laughing at that.
It was the first time he had ever heard anyone make fun of that man’s appearance. Though already past thirty, his youthful looks were still enough to charm anyone who laid eyes on him. Sometimes, they’d go drinking outside the palace together, and Yi Yefeng would notice that the women selling wine would refer to him as “young master” while calling Yi Yefeng “uncle.” Though he never showed it, Yi Yefeng couldn’t help but feel competitive. Hearing Xueya call him old was a rare moment of satisfaction.
But then Xueya said something that instantly stopped Yi Yefeng’s laughter.
“Why are you laughing, Uncle Black?”
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