The Crown Prince Insists on Joining the Family - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

My father firmly believed that if you wanted to find a husband, you had to start young.

When I was ten, he did something unprecedented and sent me to study at Wansong Academy.

Because all the young masters and young ladies of the capital studied there.

He told me to pick whichever one looked pleasing to the eye, and he would find a way to bring him home as my child groom.

I shook my head and curled my lip, looking utterly uninterested.

My mother coaxed me patiently, “I hear the pastries at Wansong Academy are all supplied by the palace.”

I instantly perked up and pulled out two huge burlap sacks.

“Go, go, go! Let’s move out!”

Wansong Academy, here I come to stock up!

Chapter 4

On my first day at Wansong Academy…

I fell in love.

When I arrived, the teacher was organizing the students into a line to sing together. He called out, “Let the pretty children stand in the middle!”

The students looked at one another, then very tacitly arranged themselves.

I took one look at the person standing right in the center.

Red lips, white teeth, a face as fair as carved jade.

In that instant, I understood.

This was my long-lost child groom.

Beneath the peach blossom tree, the wind swept past, sending petals drifting down in a flurry.

He lifted his eyes, his pale irises reflecting the shower of peach blossoms.

I nearly stared myself stupid.

The teacher turned around, spotted me, and greeted me warmly.

“Oh, another pretty little girl. Perfect, stand to Pei Xianci’s left.”

Pei Xianci. What a lovely name.

In a daze, I took my place.

For the first time, I felt so grateful to my mother for giving me this pretty face that I could have wept.

The teacher led us in song.

“The reeds grow lush and green, white dew turns into frost. The one I call beloved stands somewhere across the water…”

The one I call beloved.

Wasn’t he right beside me?

I stood half-turned, staring at him blankly.

Pei Xianci sang along with the others too.

“I follow upstream to seek him, yet the road is long and hard. I follow downstream to seek him, as if he stands amid the water…”

His voice was clear and soft, so pleasant to hear.

He was nothing like my little lackeys, who spent their days chasing and roughhousing through the streets and alleys, shrieking at the top of their lungs.

I stared a while longer, until he turned his face to me and asked with a frown, “You… why aren’t you singing?”

I froze for a moment, then came back to my senses and whispered, “I don’t know how.”

Pei Xianci reached out and silently handed me his scroll.

I accepted it in a daze.

The scroll was very clean and well kept, as good as new.

Distractedly, I opened my mouth and sang along.

But my gaze kept drifting back to Pei Xianci.

A peach blossom petal landed on the top of my head. He saw it, reached out, and gently brushed it away for me, then gave me a faint smile.

Oh my heavens.

This place was wonderful.

Chapter 5

I summoned my little lackeys at the academy.

Their eyes lit up when they saw me, and they all rubbed their fists in anticipation.

“Boss, are you here to rescue us? Where are we going to play today?”

I shook my head and said solemnly, “We are big kids now. We have to study hard. We can’t keep messing around like we used to.”

My lackeys looked as if they had seen a ghost.

Pretending to be casual, I said, “So, that Pei Xianci… how much do you know about him?”

Someone asked eagerly, “Boss, are we beating him up today?”

Someone else volunteered, “Boss, how did he offend you? I’ll go teach him a lesson for you.”

I frowned and lectured them in an adult’s tone.

“All you know is throwing your weight around and getting into fights every day. Can’t you be a little more refined?”

My lackeys were so shocked they were practically charred on the outside and tender on the inside.

They felt as if the sky itself had collapsed.

The next day, rumors spread through the capital that Wansong Academy was a blessed land with excellent feng shui.

It had purified the soul of the capital’s No. 1 Little Bully.