Prince Rui, don't spoil your adopted daughter too much: she will eventually get married

Chapter 238 Clay Figurine Making

Only her nose and the middle of her lips were visible, and her eyes, clear and bright, were visible beneath the veil.

Zhai Yun continued searching and found the painting that her brother Shi Yi from Fengling City often taught her to draw. In the painting, they were standing on the city wall, with the sunset and yellow sand in the distance.

There's also the painting Zhai Yun made when she participated in the Xuanyuan Kingdom's competition. Although it's not as good as Yi Gege's painting style, it's still quite good. At least she won the competition.

Feng Chenyi finished organizing the official documents and saw Zhai Yun still flipping through the scrolls. He walked over, and this time Zhai Yun was holding a picture of the two of them sitting around a fire eating sweet potatoes when they were children.

Looking at these scrolls filled with memories, Zhai Yun felt as if she were flipping through her childhood memories, and she was filled with emotion: "You still remember all of this so clearly."

This painting could only have been created later from a slow recollection, because they couldn't have painted such a picture back then, nor did they have the means to do so.

Looking at the grape trellis outside, Feng Chenyi suddenly became interested. "I'll paint another one for you."

As he spoke, he found a brush, ink, paper and inkstone, and pulled Zhai Yun to sit on the swing under the grape tree. Zhai Yun looked at the messy room that was still not tidied up and was thinking of giving up.

However, Brother Yi insisted on keeping a memento to commemorate their first day living here.

Over the next two or three days, Zhai Yun and Feng Chenyi received a series of gifts. Some were delivered by intermediaries, some were delivered in person, and some were gifts from Gui when Zhai Yun went to the academy.

Duan Yi'an delivered two thousand taels of silver notes. He knew that Zhai Yun and Feng Chenyi were not short of money, but he still delivered them. The messenger said, "Our master said that this is his heartfelt gift and the most he can give. If you don't mind, please accept it."

Jiang Shu and his son personally delivered six thousand taels of silver, which they had scraped together from various sources.

The most unique one came from Yan Nanheng. It was a gift from the Empress Dowager and contained jewelry and jade artifacts, as well as five thousand taels of silver notes at the bottom.

Feng Chenyi held the jewelry box sent by the Empress Dowager for a long time, unable to speak. Finally, Zhai Yun asked on his behalf, "How is the Empress Dowager's health?"

Yan Nanheng nodded. "It's nothing serious. She just said she can't walk that far anymore. She understands you. She just wants you to be okay."

After Yan Nanheng left, Zhai Yun sat with Feng Chenyi on the swing. Zhai Yun took a deep breath and said, "Brother Yi, smell this air. It smells like flowers and soil."

"Doesn't this taste like the taste of freedom?" Zhai Yun said, taking two more deep breaths.

For the past two days, Brother Yi has been claiming illness and has not attended court, hoping to avoid Emperor An's wrath and the rising calls for retribution in the court.

Feng Chenyi only managed a forced smile and remained silent.

Zhai Yun leaned on Feng Chenyi's shoulder and said, "After the truth about Mother Consort comes out, do you think we can still find an ordinary little courtyard and live an ordinary life like we do now?"

Having moved away from the high walls and large courtyard, Feng Chenyi seemed to have experienced the simple life that people talked about, where he didn't have to worry about world affairs, there was no intrigue or deceit, and all he had was this small world.

"Do you like this kind of life?" Feng Chenyi tilted his head and looked at Zhai Yun on his shoulder.

“Of course,” Zhai Yun blurted out. “You don’t have to worry about anyone or anything. When you’re hungry, you can cook and eat. When you’re tired, you can rest. In your spare time, you can tend to the flowers and plants. How leisurely and carefree that would be.”

Feng Chenyi put his arm around Zhai Yun's shoulder from behind. If one day he could finally unload all the burdens on his shoulders, he hoped that time would stand still at this moment.

Just as Zhai Yun and Feng Chenyi had expected, as soon as Lord Lu returned to the manor, he couldn't wait to announce to the whole world that Consort Tian had divorced Prince Rui.

The date for his promised visit has also been set.

When Zhai Yun went to the academy, the two Bu brothers saw that the Prince Rui's mansion was in trouble and wanted to take advantage of it, but Zhai Yun only needed to give them a look to frighten them.

When school ended, they hired some thugs to ambush Zhai Yun in the alley. Zhai Yun subdued them with almost no effort.

Yi Gege has been staying at home. There is already a disagreement in the court about this matter. Some people advocate that the court should repay the money, while others say that it is still unknown whether the money was used entirely for the army, so it cannot be repaid.

After school, Zhai Yun would help Yi Gege tend to the courtyard. Yi Gege followed her advice and started planting flowers and plants in the courtyard himself. Now he waters the flowers every day after finishing his work.

With Princess Mingyue's wedding imminent, Feng Chenyi's matter was put on hold. Zhai Yun didn't know her own birthday, but she knew Feng Chenyi's.

Seeing that everyone was busy with Princess Mingyue's affairs, Zhai Yun decided to give Feng Chenyi a different kind of birthday celebration in this small courtyard.

As soon as he got up in the morning, Zhai Yun took Feng Chenyi to the street and bought him a lot of his favorite dishes. She also bought him a gift, which Feng Chenyi chose himself from a street stall.

She and Feng Chenyi went into a clay sculpture stall. Under the stall owner's guidance, they each made a clay doll. At first, they were very clumsy and couldn't even make the shape of a human head.

Zhai Yun looked intently at Feng Chenyi, then tapped his steep nose with her muddy hands, complaining with a hint of teasing, "Brother Yi, how did your nose grow like that? It's so hard to pinch!"

Feng Chenyi looked at Zhai Yun's dirty hands and knew that he already had mud marks left by Zhai Yun on his face. He also touched Zhai Yun's eyes with his hand.

Zhai Yun initially wanted to stop him, but Feng Chenyi's actions amused her so much that she burst into laughter. However, Feng Chenyi was always cunning and made a feint, leaving mud marks in both of Zhai Yun's eyes.

Zhai Yun was unconvinced, her voice full of reproach: "Haha...that doesn't count...Brother Yi...you cheated! I'll wipe you too...haha..."

Feng Chenyi didn't care about anything else. He just felt that Zhai Yun's face was lacking in some areas except for her eyes. Zhai Yun tried to stop him, but she couldn't, and he wiped her cheek again.

Zhai Yun decided to take a desperate gamble and go for the tough stuff. She grabbed one of Feng Chenyi's hands and lunged at him, preparing to wipe his face with her other hand as soon as she saw what was happening.

With that lunge, Zhai Yun felt herself pressing Feng Chenyi down.

Feng Chenyi could have withstood Zhai Yun's pounce, but the stool was unexpectedly a foot shorter, causing Feng Chenyi to fall backward.

Zhai Yun also fell backward. In order to prevent the two of them from falling to the ground, Feng Chenyi quickly used one hand to support himself on the ground, and Zhai Yun fell on top of Feng Chenyi.

In Zhai Yun's view, it was more like she had crashed into his solid chest. Just as she was about to get up, her hand touched something hard between his legs. At that moment, Zhai Yun didn't have time to think.

Feng Chenyi's hand, which was supporting him on the ground, went limp, and his entire body crashed heavily to the ground.