Chapter 640

Chapter One: The Three Little Ones

Prince An’s Manor

At that moment, the Three Little Ones, who were only five years old, were huddled together, whispering earnestly about something.

“Is what this booklet says really true?” The eldest, Pingping, looked at the contents uncertainly, his heart full of doubt.

“Has anything Big Brother given us ever been wrong?” An’an, the second child, had an almost blind faith in Xu Qingshi’s things.

“But this doesn’t seem very reliable to me.” Pingping pointed to the first item in the little booklet: If you don’t have a mother, go and snatch one.

“Second Brother, we do have a mother, don’t we?” The third child, An’an, looked at the words and asked uncertainly.

“But Mother isn’t here. Niannian wants her mother.” Niannian pouted unhappily.

“Don’t worry, Sister. We’ll go find Mother.” An’an hurried to comfort his little sister.

“Brother, Niannian wants Mother. Niannian misses her.” The five-year-old girl felt terribly sad at the thought of her mother being away.

She didn’t understand why her mother hadn’t taken her along.

Her mother had been gone for several days now, and she missed her terribly.

Thinking of this, Niannian pursed her little lips in displeasure.

“Don’t cry, Sister. We’ll go find Mother right now.” Pingping couldn’t bear to see his sister cry and quickly spoke up.

“But Big Brother won’t let us leave the manor to look for Mother.” Niannian was saddened at the thought of Xu Qingshi forbidding them to go out on their own.

“Sister, I have an idea.” An’an’s eyes shifted as a plan formed in his mind.

The other two pairs of little eyes turned toward him.

The three children were all very curious about the world beyond Prince An’s Manor. Whenever they went out, their big brother watched them like a hawk.

If Xu Qingshi thought something was dangerous, he would never let them go near it.

A few days earlier, however, An’an had discovered a small side gate leading out of the manor and had secretly slipped outside to play.

Only then had he realized that the world beyond was not nearly as dangerous as Big Brother claimed.

Now that his sister wanted to find their mother, An’an planned to lead them out through that little gate.

The Three Little Ones quickly agreed that they would go find their mother.

After discussing their plan, they were just about to leave when they heard Xu Qingshi’s voice.

“Niannian, Big Brother is coming.”

Big Brother was coming!

The three children immediately grew nervous.

“Sister, Big Brother is here to find you. We’ll leave first and wait for you at the south gate,” An’an said before grabbing Pingping and running off.

“Brats!” Niannian stamped her feet angrily. She hadn’t expected her second and third brothers to abandon her just like that.

She still had to go find Mother. Big Brother was so annoying—why had he come looking for her at this exact moment?

“Niannian?” Xu Qingshi swept his gaze around the room, only to find that Pingping and An’an were nowhere to be seen. He was rather puzzled.

He had just visited their courtyard, but they hadn’t been there.

“Big Brother, what brings you here?” Niannian blamed the others silently before looking at Xu Qingshi nervously.

Could Big Brother have found out that they were planning to sneak out?

At that thought, Niannian’s eyes darted about. She hurried over and threw her arms around Xu Qingshi, saying softly, “Big Brother, Niannian missed you.”

Hearing his little sister’s soft, sweet voice, Xu Qingshi felt his heart melt.

“Big Brother missed you too. Have you been a good girl at home?” Xu Qingshi picked Niannian up in his arms.

Over the past few years, their father and mother had left the manor to travel throughout the kingdom, inspecting various places and working on important matters to improve the lives of the people of Lanor. Xu Qingshi was responsible for protecting his younger siblings.

Of the three children, he loved his little sister Niannian the most.

“Niannian listened to Grandmother and Grandfather,” Niannian replied obediently, nodding.

“Niannian is such a good girl. Come on, Big Brother will buy you some pastries.” Carrying Niannian, Xu Qingshi headed outside.

Pingping and An’an, who had been hiding nearby, stared in shock when they saw this.

“What do we do? Big Brother carried her away.” Pingping looked anxiously at his younger brother, who was always full of schemes.

“Should we go find Mother ourselves?” An’an asked cautiously as he watched their big brother carry their sister away.

“But Sister wants to go too…” Pingping said uncertainly.

“Sister just misses Mother. If we bring Mother back, won’t that solve everything?” Remembering how a street vendor had called out about candied hawthorns the last time he went outside, along with all the other fun things to see and do, An’an grew eager to leave.

With that thought, An’an grabbed Pingping and led him back to their courtyard.

He took a hundred taels’ worth of banknotes from his little box.

“What are you doing?” Pingping asked, confused.

“Bringing some money.” An’an grinned and didn’t offer any further explanation.

Pingping had never gone out on his own either. Since his younger brother had been outside before, he assumed An’an knew what he was doing.

“Should I bring some too?” Pingping asked cautiously. He had some pocket money of his own.

After all, both Li Tianyou and Li Tingzhou were extremely generous to their grandchildren. Even Xu Qingshi often gave them money.

But there was hardly anywhere to spend it inside the manor.

“Second Brother, you don’t need to. Third Brother will cover all your expenses today.” An’an proudly patted his chest as he promised this.

Meanwhile, Xu Qingshi watched as his sister adorably nibbled on her pastries, his eyes filled with amusement.

He felt fortunate that he had refused to let the Third Prince carry his sister away back then.

The Third Prince still occasionally teased him for having an ugly little sister, and Xu Qingshi was deeply offended by it.

Hmph. He would never tell that fool that his sister wasn’t ugly at all.

Fortunately, Zhu Hanyu had never seen her. Otherwise, who knew whether he might try to steal her away?

He had overheard his imperial uncle and father privately discussing how they wanted Niannian to become the Third Prince’s wife. Had anyone even asked for his opinion?

“My lord, Young Master Jiang and Young Master Xie have arrived.” Moyu first bowed to Niannian and Xu Qingshi, then carefully delivered the message.

“Big Brother, Niannian wants to go see Brother Jiang and Brother Xie too.” Niannian was not unfamiliar with Jiang Yu and Xie Yanzhi.

“Niannian, go back first. Big Brother will come find you after I’m finished.” Xu Qingshi had no intention of letting Jiang Yu and Xie Yanzhi see Niannian.

Who told those two fellows to say that Niannian was ugly?

Besides, so what if Niannian had been unattractive as a baby? What did that have to do with how beautiful she was now?

“All right…” Niannian looked disappointed, but a maid still escorted her back to her courtyard.

“Second Brother? Third Brother?” Only then did Niannian remember that she had made plans with her brothers to go find their mother.

But she searched everywhere and couldn’t find either Pingping or An’an.

In the end, Niannian arrived at the small dog hole where An’an had brought them earlier and stared at the narrow opening.

She carefully crawled through it.

On the other side, she found herself on a busy street filled with people coming and going. It seemed no one had noticed her.

Niannian was completely dumbfounded.

“Second Brother? Third Brother?” she called as she tried to push through the crowd in search of Pingping and An’an.

But the pedestrians on the street paid no attention to the five-year-old child among them.

Back at Prince An’s Manor, a maid turned around—and discovered that the young princess was gone.