Living leisurely in Tang Dynasty

Chapter 76

Princess Yan thought for a moment and realized that she had no other options but to look for young uncle with her child in her arms. As they were about to reach, Little round ball wanted to be let down: “Yaoyao said be manly.”

A man shouldn’t be carried and can walk by himself. Little round ball struggled to get out of his mom’s arms, pouted his lips and ran while carrying a ball.  He then saw Yaoyao writing and drawing with the other children from a distance. Seeing this, his unhappiness came surging back and he threw away his ball to hug Yaoyao’s arms.

“Yaoyao!” he yelled with tears welling up in his eyes.

This was a rare sight and it made Yuanying worried. He put down his pen and hugged the child: “What’s wrong? Who bullied you? Tell Yaoyao, Yaoyao will help you to bully them back!”

Little round ball thought for a while while  tears fell down: “I can’t.”

“Why not?”

Little round ball said softly: “Papa, you can’t bully him.”

Although Papa is bad, but you can’t bully him. Papa usually plays ball with him. He told Yuanying all that had happened with his own logic that had no rules, “Papa, no playing ball, fierce to mama.”

Li Yuanying had rich experience in dealing with children and so he understood immediately. This child was holding a ball and wanted to play with Li Tai but Li Tai was in a bad mood and even scolded his wife.

If Little round ball hadn’t come looking for him, he would never have imagined that Li Tai, who acted dignified in public would treat his wife and son like this.

Thinking deeper, he found out the source of his unhappiness. Li Tai probably knows that the Emperor gave Xiangcheng Palace to him for remodeling. Everything is connected together.

Since Little round ball said that he couldn’t bully Papa back, Yuanying didn’t intend to make any troubles. He just got up and asked Gao Yang who couldn’t sit still to play with the child.

Seeing that he had friends, Little round ball was immediately happy and excitedly picked up his ball.

Princess Yan sat down to speak with  Chengyang and the other girls while looking at her son’s happy smiling face.

After a moment of sulking, Li Tai realised  it was not good to get angry and so he went out to look for his family. When he asked, he was told that Princess Yan went out.

Li Tai frowned.

He really don’t like Li Yuanying.

Initially when Li Yuanying joined them at Taiji Palace, mother treated him as her own. After mother passed, the girls cling onto Yuanying allowing him opportunities to show his presence in front of father. In the beginning, father was indifferent to this kid but for some reason in the last few years, father has started to pay him more attention.This is the advantage of living in Taiji Palace!

As he thought about this, Li Tai’s liver hurts a little. Originally, father intended for him to live in Wude Hall so that he is close by making it convenient to meet daily. But due to Wei Zheng’s advice, father forgo the plan. Wei Zheng usually looks impartial but at a critical moment, he spoils everything!

Remembering that his own child is suddenly so close to Li Yuanying, he felt that young uncle was born to bring him misfortune. He paused for a moment and then move towards Prince Teng’s residence.

Li Tai hadn’t even approached the courtyard yet but he could already hear the happy and wanton laughter of children playing. The most immature one obviously belonged to his son.

He paused to signal to those accompanying him to keep quiet and walked towards the edge to take a peek. He saw his child blindfolded, happily chasing Li Yuanying and several aunts on his short legs. Only SiZi and Princess Yan sat under the pavilion and watched.

Luoyang is known for its flowers. The garden is full of flowers and trees that are tall and lush; casting a thick shade to shield the children from the scorching sun. Li Yuanying teased the toddler for awhile before finally allowing him to “captured” him and praised the boy for his strength with a serious face.

“Amazing!” (Little round ball)

Li Tai watched from a distance and then turned around to leave.

On his way back, Li Tai thought about many things. He remembers playing happily with his own son but he couldn’t remember if he had played like this with his younger siblings.

Being born into the royal family, can he really be as unrestrained and carefree as Li Yuanying? Someone who only thinks about eating and playing? It’s impossible.

He needs to plan for his own future and his son’s future. What future can a mere Prince have? Even if he doesn’t fight for anything, his older brother will still treat him like a thorn in his flesh just because of his father preferential love for him. How dare he not fight for something?

Moreover, he doesn’t want to stay idle. Since father loves him so much, he would naturally give him whatever he wanted. As long as he waited patiently, he will definitely get his opportunity. Why shouldn’t he fight for what he deserves then? Opportunities are reserved for those who are prepared!

When mother and child returned, little round ball was already so tired that he fell asleep. The princess put down the child to meet with Li Tai who was reading for a talk.

“Prince Teng is very kind to Xin’er.  He really likes children.” Since he patiently played with the children, they naturally liked him.

The couple have been married for several years and have  always been peaceful. Although he heard her mention Li Yuanying, Li Tai is already calm and has lost the restlessness that he had earlier. He put down his scroll to apologize: “I was wrong today, things have piled up recently and I wasn’t feeling my best.”

Yan took the initiative to reach out and hold onto Li Tai’s hand: “I know, I saw my husband just now.”

Li Tai was grasped by the gentle palm, and had many things he wanted to say. However, some words cannot be spoken even to those closest to you for there is really no turning back.

Li Tai grasp the princess’s hand back gently.

“If you are worried about your father, I will ask someone to invite him over tomorrow, or I can accompany you to meet him.”

The couple chatted for a while and the unhappiness earlier dissipated without a trace. When Little round ball woke up that night, Li Tai coaxed him and personally taught him how to read an essay. The child’s earlier grievances were all forgotten and he hugged father and shouted papa, papa over and over again.

Li Yuanying had fun in the day but sat alone under the candle light writing letters to his mother and a few others.  Right now, he has many helpers inside and outside the palace, so he doesn’t need to rely only on his elder nephew to send letters. This way he is able to be more casual in his letters, writing much more.

The boy picked out happy things to update mother and then wrote a letter to Sister Shu. He recently wrote a piece of calligraphy as practice and would like her to review it. He is confident about his work and felt that he has greatly improved. He wrote this letter in anticipation of praises.

After writing the important letters first, he sorted out the affairs of Xiangcheng Palace and wrote to his eldest nephew. He then handed the letters to Dai Ting for immediate delivery to Chang’an. With Dai Ting around Li Yuanying is confident that he will carry out all tasks brilliantly.

The next few days was spent in a furry of busy-ness. From time to time, he and Yan Lide rode to Xiangcheng Palace for further site recce work for improvements. The outer court will be used as a domestication area for various birds and animals. He then requested His Majesty to enclose a large piece of land of Xiangcheng Palace for agricultural works. This is after all a project that benefited the country and its people !

After listening to Li Yuanying’s idea, Yan Lide is now very interested in this renovation project. This incident at Xiangcheng Palace gave him perspective of his own shortcomings as a master craftsman. Recognizing these shortcomings means finding a way to improve. Yan Lide quickly devoted himself to the transformation of Xiangcheng Palace. He worked hard with Li Yuanying to understand this piece of land better and to anticipate future problems that may arise.

Although Yuanying had very little system points left, he was able to successfully upload a 3D layout of  Xiangcheng Palace into the system. With that, he obtained a corresponding analysis report on the location and was able to have smooth conversation with Yan Lide and even managed to forge a friendly relationship with him through the common knowledge on architectural issues.

Initially Yan Liben thought that his brother might become depressed due to his dismissal at work and would find time to visit him to try and relieve his brother’s depression. But instead, Yan Lide is becoming impatient with his good gesture. When Liben stays back a little longer, Yan Lide would impatiently ask: “Do you have nothing else to do? Why are you here everyday? I need to meet my little friend Yuanying.”

Wow. Prince Teng is now ‘little friend”.

Liben felt a little salty about his gesture not being appreciated and so he walked away angrily!

As usual, Yuanying looking for Lide for a chat and ran into Liben. He greeted the man courteously: “Little Yan, don’t you have to be on duty? Why do I often see you at home?”

Yan Liben: “…”

Yan Liben didn’t want to speak with  him.

The young prince ran towards Lide  enthusiastically and muttered after sitting down: “Big Yan, I think your brother doesn’t like me. Is it because of our good relationship that is making him jealous? You should be more caring towards him. Don’t hurt the feelings between brothers because of me!”

“He is just idle, don’t pay him attention.”

Li Yuanying nodded.

The two then went on to talk about  Xiangcheng Palace in detail.

After returning home, Yuanying looked for Li Er .

“I have such a good relationship with Big Yan thatm Little Yan is jealous. Little Yan is not open-minded enough. You have good relationship with so many people too, and It’s not like I’ll ever be jealous, right?”

There’s no credibility in his younger brother’s words and so Li Er jokingly asked Yan Liben the next day if he was indeed jealous of Li Yuanying and Yan Lide getting along well.

Yan Liben wished that he could confront Li Yuanying face-to-face: Who is jealous? Who would be jealous of a brat like you over such a thing? I just didn’t give you a reaction once and you complain to His Majesty?!

Yan Liben went to work feeling like he was wronged. At this same instant, Dai Ting also delivered letters to its intended recipients in Chang’an. The reactions of Lady Liu and Li Chengqian were quite normal, but something went wrong on Wei Shu’s side.

Notes from the author:

Little Prince: Oh, everyone is jealous of me, what should I do?!