Chapter 1140: Chapter 631: Hidden Households (Double-Length)

Qin Yue cried her heart out, so aggrieved she couldn’t even put it into words. Chen Yi coaxed her again and again afterward, and the more he coaxed, the harder she cried. Chen Yi thought for a moment, then picked her up; she struggled with all her might, pounding and hitting him, but he remained unmoved. Instead, she only managed to pound her own fists red. So once she was tired of hitting and tired of crying, she puffed her cheeks, sobbing silently in anger.

Holding her in his arms, Chen Yi walked and stopped along the way, admiring the scenery on both sides. Neither of them spoke, father and daughter awkward in their silence.

He didn’t know what to say to Qin Yue, and Qin Yue didn’t want to talk to him. Her head drooped low, sulking.

He stopped by a waterside pavilion halfway along. Right beneath his heels was the pond; all kinds of goldfish swam in the water. Sensing people, they gathered over. Dusk was drawing near, and the rippling reflections were so bright they dazzled the eyes. When he reached out a hand, it felt as if the shimmering water could pass right through it. The evening breeze was cool.

"So pretty, so many little fish." Chen Yi, holding Qin Yue, spoke as if to himself. "Good girl Yue’er, aren’t the little fish pretty?"

Qin Yue ignored him, head lowered and silent.

Chen Yi turned his face toward her and asked provocatively, "So you’re not crying now?"

Qin Yue’s little face scrunched up, and she burst into tears again with a loud wail.

Chen Yi kept chuckling, rocking her back and forth, showing her the goldfish churning at the edge of the pond. But how could Qin Yue be in the mood? She just kept on crying.

Tears streamed down nonstop, soaking his shoulder. Chen Yi suddenly felt quite helpless. If only he hadn’t filled the sugar jar with salt to trick Qin Yue, and had instead pretended to suffer a few losses himself, slowly coaxing and fooling her into walking around the Prince Mansion with him, letting her look everywhere, feed the fish, do some drawing, then bring out some little toys like the Nine Linked Rings, the Lu Ban Lock, and the Pushing Date Mill... At least then, father and daughter might not talk about anything deep, but they could properly play together.

Too bad that at the time, it wasn’t just Qin Yue who wanted to trick him out of candy. Chen Yi himself got carried away with mischief and wanted to tease his daughter. One look, one prank, and it all went wrong.

She was still crying, and Chen Yi was at a bit of a loss. He really didn’t have the knack for looking after children. He couldn’t help thinking that if the Little Fox were here, it would be great; she understood how to be considerate better than anyone, and would definitely handle a child well.

"Mom, Mom, Mom!"

Through her tear-filled eyes, Qin Yue seemed to spot someone and cried out straight toward that person several times.

Chen Yi turned around and saw Zhu E walking slowly over from the corridor on that side.

The moment she arrived, Qin Yue struggled in his arms and reached both hands toward her like she’d seen a savior.

Zhu E hurried over and took Qin Yue from Chen Yi’s arms.

Back in the familiar embrace, Qin Yue’s crying subsided a little. Chen Yi watched as Zhu E wiped away her tears and then glanced at him, giving him a slightly apologetic smile.

Zhu E gently cooed a few words of comfort, and once the tears were wiped away, Qin Yue started tattling:

"Mom, he, he put salt in and pretended it was very good candy, he trick, tricked Yue’er."

"Salt dressed up as sugar?"

Qin Yue nodded hard, clearly feeling that Chen Yi was bad beyond all forgiveness, and went on, "He very bad played with Yue’er, played very bad, very not good, not good at all! Yue’er, Yue’er’s tongue is bitter, not happy to play, play, played until the sun went down!"

"Oh? Even the sun couldn’t bear to look at him anymore?" Zhu E interpreted her meaning.

"The sun all, all, has no eyes, doesn’t look at him!"

"Then Daddy is really bad." Zhu E said softly.

"Daddy is really..." Righteous indignation surging, Qin Yue paused, then raised her voice a bit: "Not Daddy, he, he’s really bad!"

At that inexplicable sentence, a flicker of loss slid through Chen Yi’s heart, but he only smiled and let it pass.

With a slightly apologetic look, Zhu E held Qin Yue and coaxed her a few more times, telling her not to say such things. But how could a two-year-old understand any of that? She was still brimming with grievance.

But grievance or not, she’d cried and fussed enough, and by now she was tired. Zhu E rocked her gently, and before long, Qin Yue had actually fallen asleep.

Zhu E looked at Chen Yi again.

"I... I just wanted to tease her a little..."

"Zhu E knows."

Chen Yi wanted to defend himself a bit more, but in the end he only sighed and said, "...Ah, I came too late. I should’ve come earlier; if I’d come when she was one, it would’ve been just right."

"What are you saying? Two years old isn’t late."

"I hope so." Gazing at the sleeping Qin Yue, Chen Yi reached out and pinched her soft, chubby cheek. "She’s a bit plump."

Even though Qin Yue was only two, she was already much taller than the average child, like a three- or four-year-old, and her head was a size bigger too.

"How is this plump? She’s just naturally this big. You don’t even know—she was very heavy when she was born." Zhu E paused. "Seven jin."

Chen Yi raised his brows. It was obvious to the eye that though Qin Yue looked small and cute now, another ten years or so and she’d be very tall. She might even catch up to Qin Qingluo; even if she didn’t quite, she’d only be a little shorter.

He chatted with Zhu E about Qin Yue in fits and starts. From time to time he pinched Qin Yue’s little cheeks. In the cool evening breeze, looking at his daughter’s sleeping face with the little bubble of snot hanging there, he suddenly had a very real feeling of being a father.

The goldfish in the pond, seeing that no food was coming, gradually dispersed with the nightfall.

......

Gaoliang Mountain.

Yin Weiyin sat cross-legged, facing the afterglow of the setting sun, quietly seeking comprehension.

Only, she could never truly quiet her mind.

Yin Weiyin’s gaze lowered slightly.

He hadn’t come back for some time now...

She knew that on this trip, Chen Yi had many trifling matters to deal with and couldn’t spare the time to come here for the moment. But for him to have no word at all for so long, and on top of that the Divination to be so vague and murky, yielding nothing—this really was baffling and strange.

"Strange..."

She murmured under her breath.

Could it be that he’d forgotten about Weiyin in his happiness?

The female crown’s eyes narrowed slightly, then she shook her head. In this world, anything might be possible, but this one thing was absolutely impossible. How deeply he cherished her—she knew it in her heart.

If she were to ascend and leave, abandoning him alone in the mortal world, he would surely lose all appetite for food and drink, and all the beauties in the world would taste like ash to him.