Chapter 9: Who Made the Milk Bun Cry

Yao Yao stood under a withered locust tree, counting on her little fingers while looking around. She saw round arched windows and stone-cornered paths all around—just like the layout of Xie Yixing’s courtyard.

She reached out and gestured in the air to a kind-looking older girl. A maid who had been sweeping in the back courtyard spotted the round, chubby little girl and smiled, squinting kindly.

“Are you looking for the Young Master from the main branch?”

“Main branch young master? What’s that? Can you eat it? Sounds sweet,” Yao Yao asked, tilting her head in confusion.

The maid chuckled. “From how you described it, that courtyard’s layout sounds a lot like the one the main branch Young Master lives in. Why don’t you go take a look?”

“How do I get there?”

“Just keep heading south along this path, and at the end, turn right. You’ll be there.”

The Marquis’s nephew (from the main family line) had only recently come to the capital last year. He currently stayed in the Marquis residence to study with a private tutor. Except for the Marquis occasionally testing his studies, he rarely showed up in the inner courtyards.

After all, with a little tyrant like the young heir in the residence, if the heir took a dislike to the main branch Young Master, it would cause the Marquis to lose face among the extended family.

Following the maid’s directions, Yao Yao jogged her short legs along the path. After a long while, she finally reached a secluded courtyard.

From the exterior decorations, it really did look like Persimmon Brother’s courtyard.

But not quite the same.

Persimmon Brother’s place had peach trees outside that were now bare and ugly.

But this courtyard had a blooming red plum tree instead.

Yao Yao was about to shake her head and leave when a tall shadow suddenly blocked her path.

She looked up—and met a stern, rough-looking face.

The boy grabbed her like lifting a bunny off the ground and growled, “Which courtyard are you from, you chubby little girl? What are you doing here?”

Yao Yao hated being called a chubby girl.

She was still growing! What was wrong with eating more?

So Yao Yao clenched her tiny fists and punched the boy square in the chest.

The boy grunted and dropped her to the ground.

When he recovered, he looked down at Yao Yao, who was rubbing her butt as she got up, and sneered with annoyance. “You little fat thing, hitting people now?”

Yao Yao shouted back with full force, “Who told you to call me fat?!”

She didn’t expect to be answered by two bursts of mocking laughter.

“You don’t even have a waist anymore—how are you not fat?”

“A little dumpling like you, I wouldn’t even want as my foot-washing maid!”

Humiliated again, Yao Yao was furious. She tried a rabbit-kick with her foot.

But this time, the boy dodged it easily.

He was taller and stronger, and took advantage of it. He reached out and pinched Yao Yao’s face.

Xie Chengfeng was into martial arts and often trained with weapons. His strength was way beyond that of a typical child.

And being young, he had no sense of restraint. Just one rough squeeze and Yao Yao’s soft, pale cheeks instantly turned red.

Seeing this, he deliberately added more force, trying to make her cry.

Yao Yao winced in pain and tried to push him away with her short arms.

The boy only got more excited. “Come on, beg me while crying, if you can!”

Though Yao Yao was known to be a crybaby, that was reserved for acting cute in front of her parents and siblings.

Against bullies and bad people? She wouldn’t cry or give in!

Yao Yao puffed up her cheeks in defiance, looking just like a little rabbit chewing on food.

Xie Chengfeng snorted. “Didn’t think you were this stubborn.”

When Yao Yao heard the word stubborn bone, her face instantly turned pale.

Stubborn bone? Like… saucy braised bones?

Was he going to cook her into some dish?

She glanced at Xie Chengfeng’s tall, muscular frame, and suddenly panicked. She turned and ran.

But her tiny legs were no match for his long ones.

She barely took two steps before being caught again.

Sensing his next move, Yao Yao kicked him squarely in the knee. While he yelped in pain, she mustered every ounce of strength and darted into the nearest bush.

At that moment, she didn’t care if her new clothes got dirty. All she knew was that if she crawled too slow, she’d get eaten.

Sniffling and crawling on all fours, she didn’t even dare wipe the dust from her eyes and nose.

She was terrified that if she stopped even a moment to rub her eyes, she’d be caught and stewed like a meat dish.

She couldn’t stop.

Hand and foot, she clawed her way through the underbrush.

When she was too tired, she’d flop down for a breath, then keep going.

Her belly rumbled loudly. She was so hungry her head was spinning.

She tried to lift her hand to rub her eyes, but her arms were too sore and heavy to move.

Sniffling in frustration, Yao Yao suddenly felt homesick. She missed her dad, her mom, her gentle older sister, and her mischievous second brother.

This time, she couldn’t hold back the tears anymore.

They poured out like a rainstorm, pattering onto the dirt.

She began sobbing out loud.

Before she could even finish crying a second time, a slender, pale hand, smooth like jade, reached into the bush and picked her up.

Before Yao Yao could react, she was scooped into someone’s arms.

When she looked up and met a pair of deep, ink-black eyes, her tears fell even harder.

She sobbed and wiped her snot and tears all over Xie Yixing’s robe.

Standing behind Xie Yixing, the maid Granny Li nearly fainted from shock.

She’d served in the Marquis’s household for nearly thirty years, personally watching the heir grow from a swaddled baby to a spirited young man, marry, and have a son. She was considered an old-timer in the house.

With her status as the young heir’s old nursemaid, she wielded a lot of power.

Sometimes, she didn’t even show the Marquis’s wife much respect.

She never expected that delicate-looking woman to give birth to such a terrifying child.

Not only was the young heir unpredictable, but he also held grudges.

Anyone he targeted would experience misfortune within ten days—often bloody.

She’d been through it herself.

When Xie Yixing was three, she once locked him in the woodshed because she was in a rush to go gamble.

The next day, when she snuck out to gamble again, the house she was in suddenly collapsed.

She barely escaped with her life.

Later, the more she thought about it, the more something felt wrong. After comparing stories with the other servants, she realized—the problem had started when she angered the young heir.

Ever since then, rumors spread like wildfire: anyone who messed with the heir would suffer.

Everyone avoided him like he was a venomous snake.

If not for the Marquis instructing her to fetch the heir’s recent calligraphy practice sheets from his study, she’d never have dared step foot near him.

And the Marquis—he was supposed to be the boy’s father, yet acted like a distant stranger.

Whenever asked to discipline the heir, he’d dodge the responsibility.

Even when checking on his son’s studies, he did so with extreme caution.

Even the Marquis’s wife once said, “You’re less like a father, more like a frightened grandson.”

Once Granny Li found out the heir had obsessive cleanliness, she always stayed far away from him during her visits.

She was terrified of upsetting him—and what he might do in return.

Everyone in the mansion avoided the heir’s usual paths.

No one could control him.

Even the old matron who claimed to be “resting at the villa” had actually gone there just to stay away from him.

So when Granny Li saw this chubby little girl not only getting close to the heir but also wiping her snot on his sleeve, she was so stunned her jaw dropped.

She even rubbed her eyes.

Was she hallucinating?!

Had the heir just reached out to wipe a dirty little girl’s tears?

The sky must be falling.

Xie Yixing’s face darkened when he saw Yao Yao sobbing uncontrollably.

He had only been away from her for one hour, and she was already in tears?

Who did this?