Outside, the maidservants on night watch heard the tremendous crash and, fearing something was amiss, hurried to the door.
"Lord Marquis, Madam, is everything all right?"
"It's nothing. You may all withdraw and need not wait upon us," Huo Yanxing replied in a muffled, slightly hoarse voice.
Lu Qingyuan got up and relit the candles.
"Tomorrow, I'll have Mother Yu bring a carpenter from the estate to fix the bed." Feeling that he could no longer stay in this room, Huo Yanxing intended to sleep in the study.
Holding the candlestick, Lu Qingyuan walked over and examined the broken parts of the bed closely. "Wait. There is something wrong with this bed."
Huo Yanxing looked over where Lu Qingyuan was pointing.
"Look, the break in this piece of wood under the bed is completely flat. Wood broken by normal external force should have a rough and jagged edge."
"Someone must have sawed this piece of wood in advance. As long as the movement on the bed was vigorous enough, the wood would snap."
Huo Yanxing's face darkened. As if realizing something, he pushed open the chamber door, took a long stride, and marched out in giant steps.
Lu Qingyuan quickly followed behind him.
Directly behind Huo Yanxing's Songtao Courtyard was Plum Blossom Cottage, the living quarters for the four children.
Before even stepping inside, they heard the laughter of children from afar, accompanied by the clicking sound of tiles being shuffled.
The pageboy on night watch outside the courtyard saw Huo Yanxing approaching in a rage from a distance. Terrified out of his wits, he bolted toward the courtyard to sound the alarm, stammering:
"N-No, it's bad, my Lo—ah!"
Suddenly, the pageboy clutched his throat, his voice cutting off abruptly.
His mute acupoint had been sealed.
The small stone that struck his acupoint landed crisply on the ground.
The whole process was so fast that Lu Qingyuan didn't even have time to see how Huo Yanxing had made his move.
Huo Yanxing walked over and unsealed the pageboy's mute acupoint. "Tomorrow, go take ten strokes of the paddle yourself. Now get lost—don't disturb the Old Lady in the middle of the night."
The pageboy left with a bitter expression, forced to let the young masters and misses inside pray for their own good fortune.
Huo Yanxing walked straight into the inner courtyard.
"Ha, I won again! Pay up, pay up!"
"Elder Sister Yao is so amazing!"
"It's too late, why don't we break it up? Be careful of the adults finding out."
"What is there to fear? Uncle is getting married today, how could he possibly come here? Again, again!"
The sound of children playing and the clatter of tile pieces drifted from inside the room.
The more Huo Yanxing listened, the angrier he grew. These little rascals were completely lawless!
He hiked up his robe, lifted his leg, and kicked the door open.
Thud—
The four children, who had been playing to their heart's content, scrambled in panic to clear the table. In their flustered haste, tiles and copper coins clattered onto the floor.
The tallest boy among the four reacted the fastest, respectfully standing up to bow. "Father."
Lu Qingyuan had entered right behind Huo Yanxing. The boy looked up for a moment and added, "Mother."
Before marrying into the Marquis's Estate, she had people inquire about the four children of the household.
The eldest was the adopted son Ling Tao, and also the only child with no blood relation to the Huo family. He was the son of Huo Yanxing's deputy, Ling He. Having just turned thirteen this year, he was the most steady and observant of propriety.
"Uncle~~~"
A milky cry of "uncle" accompanied a pear-yellow, dumpling-like toddler as she charged toward Huo Yanxing with pitter-pattering steps.
This was Huo Yanxing's youngest niece, the child of his second older brother, Huo Lingxi, who was only five years old.
"Huo Lingxi! You little traitor! You get back here!"
Further back, a girl wearing a pomegranate-red pleated skirt stood with hands on her hips, glaring angrily at that spineless little dumpling. Sitting beside her was a boy of about the same age, the two of them bearing a striking resemblance.
These were the twins of the Huo family's eldest brother, Huo Yunyao and Huo Yunyang, both ten years old.
Yet these twins were two extremes in temperament. Huo Yunyao bounced around like a mischievous monkey, never quiet for a single day, while Huo Yunyang had fallen from a horse a few years prior, leaving him disabled in both legs, quiet and even somewhat melancholic.
Hearing her sister, Huo Lingxi turned around, pulled a face, and then spun back to throw her arms around Huo Yanxing's leg, beginning to coax him: "Uncle, uncle~ My good uncle~ I'm so sleepy, I want to sleep now~"
Huo Yanxing let the little girl shake him, remaining completely motionless:
"Not sleeping in the middle of the night, gathering to play tiles and even gambling? I see you aren't sleepy at all. You might as well not sleep—each of you is fined to copy the *Standards for Students* one hundred times."
A chorus of wails erupted instantly.
"Ah? Do I have to as well?" Huo Lingxi pointed at herself, blinking her eyes. She couldn't even recognize a handful of characters.
"Didn't you just praise your Sister Yao for being amazing? Have her copy it for you." Huo Yanxing crossed his arms and looked at Huo Yunyao behind them.
"Why should I?!" Huo Yunyao panicked.
"Because you're bold enough to saw through a bed!" Huo Yanxing said sternly. "Is this how I usually teach you?"
There were only so many people in the Marquis's Estate; the only one who could sneak into Songtao Courtyard to pull such a prank was a child.
Ling Tao was steady, Yunyang was quiet, and Lingxi lacked the strength. Only Yunyao, who loved wielding blades and spears just like her parents, had a fiery temper.
Caught in the act, Huo Yunyao refused to admit fault, sticking her neck out in stubborn defiance.
Lu Qingyuan quickly smoothed things over. "All right, all right, the children were just playing around. Don't torment them in the middle of the night."
Huo Yunyao showed no appreciation. "This is a matter between us uncle and niece! What business does an outsider like you have poking your nose in?!"
Taking a few quick strides forward, Huo Yanxing grabbed the back of Huo Yunyao's collar and lectured her face-to-face: "She is my newly wedded wife, your third aunt!"
"Hmph! Both the Lu family and the Lin family are imperial relatives with towering power; the daughters of their households must all be overbearing and arrogant. I refuse to acknowledge such a woman as my aunt!"
Huo Yunyao shoved Huo Yanxing's hand away and bolted out.
While feeling baffled, Lu Qingyuan analyzed Huo Yunyao's words word by word in her heart.
Strange, why would she say "the daughters of the Lu and Lin families are all overbearing and arrogant"?
The Lu family only had two daughters, herself and Lu Rongyue, whereas the Lin family certainly had quite a few...
As Lu Qingyuan was thinking, Huo Yanxing had already issued the order: all four children were to be grounded for three days and punished with copying books. With that, the matter was settled.
On the way back to Songtao Courtyard, Lu Qingyuan was already drowsy and quietly suppressed a yawn.
This night had completely exhausted her.
"The children are unruly. I will discipline them more strictly in the future."
Huo Yanxing's voice sounded by her ear. "They lost both parents at a young age, and my grandmother and I inevitably spoiled them, never expecting them to become increasingly outrageous."
Seeing the frown on his brow, Lu Qingyuan thought to herself: Five years ago, he was only in his early twenties; raising four children truly couldn't have been easy.
Never mind, isn't it just raising children?
Even if they were re-incarnated mischievous monkeys, they still wouldn't escape the palm of her Lu Qingyuan.
By the time they returned from Plum Blossom Cottage to Songtao Courtyard, it was nearly the third watch.
Since the bed in the main chamber had collapsed, they had no choice but to sleep in the side room. Lu Qingyuan took the bed, while Huo Yanxing made do for the night on the couch in the side room.
Tossed about all day long, Lu Qingyuan was exhausted. She collapsed onto the bed in a daze and fell fast asleep, completely unaware of when Huo Yanxing got up to attend the morning court session.
The maidservants called out to her several times, but she didn't hear a thing, until Mother Yu finally stormed into the room and shook her awake:
"Oh my, Madam, why are you still not up?! It's time to go serve tea to the Old Lady!"