My Emperor Father Can Read Minds -
Chapter 43
When the Emperor travels, it must always uphold the dignity of the royal family.
All that talk about not disturbing the common people is just empty words. Even the most upright and incorrupt officials, once they hear the Emperor is coming, will have the route thoroughly cleared. Nothing is allowed to sour the Emperor’s mood.
So right now, pushing around commoners who are selling things by the roadside—no one really cares.
But Wei Yu couldn’t bear to see it.
It wasn’t that he was trying to meddle. It’s just that, after all, he didn’t belong to this era. Deep down, he didn’t have that instinct of disregarding people as people.
Seeing the old man and the young girl looking like they couldn’t even stand, while the guards were still driving them off, Wei Yu frowned, got out of the carriage, and started walking over.
The Eighth Prince called to him, “Hey, where are you going?”
“I’m going to check over there.”
The Eighth Prince didn’t feel at ease and followed after him.
When Wei Yu walked over, he happened to hear the guard speaking.“Hey, hey, hey, get up. His Majesty is out on patrol. Irrelevant people shouldn’t be blocking the way.”
The tone was rude, but the words weren’t wrong.
Wei Yu looked at the old man still on the ground.
The old man was poorly dressed and frail. He leaned awkwardly against the ground, his right hand supported by the little girl. His expression showed panic with a touch of pain.
“Sir, I—I’ll leave right away. Please, just give us a moment…”
As he spoke, the old man hurriedly pushed the little girl beside him, as if trying to urge her to leave.
But the girl bit her lip and stubbornly tried to help him back up.
Probably fearing the officer’s impatience, the old man looked flustered but didn’t dare to say anything. He could only brace against the ground and try to get up.
Wei Yu’s gaze shifted to the old man’s unnaturally bent right leg.
It seemed he had a leg problem, and the earlier fall had made it worse.
Wei Yu spoke directly, telling Xiao Anzi behind him, “His leg is injured. Help him over and give him two taels of silver for a doctor.”
It was something a guard could’ve done, but Wei Yu wanted to offer some compensation to the old man and the girl, so he had Xiao Anzi handle it.
Wei Yu speaking suddenly startled the guards, who hadn’t noticed him before. They quickly dropped to their knees to greet him.
“Greetings to Your Highnesses.”
There weren’t many people who could be called “Your Highness”—the princes, princesses, and high-ranking consorts could be addressed that way.
And to the common folk, anyone addressed as “Your Highness” must be a son of the Emperor.
The old man and the young girl, who hadn’t even gotten up yet, instantly fell to their knees again upon hearing this, trembling as they tried to greet Wei Yu.
Their awkward and improper greeting even made the Eighth Prince feel sorry for the two.
The Eighth Prince said, “Alright, stop kneeling. Xiao Anzi, take them aside and find a doctor to look at his leg.”
Xiao Anzi agreed, helped up the little girl, then the old man, and prepared to lead them away.
Before leaving, the skinny little girl looked back at Wei Yu.
The young man was sternly advising the guards.
“When enforcing the law, don’t be so rough. These are just ordinary people trying to make a living. Speak to them properly—don’t shove them. Especially the old and the young. If one push causes a real problem, it would make it look like His Majesty is cruel and ruthless, and it would damage his reputation.”
The little girl didn’t understand the grand reasoning. She was just a young girl who hadn’t gone to school or learned to read. But she knew the prince who helped her and her grandfather was a good man.
Not only did he help them, he even gave them money for her grandfather to see a doctor! And now he was scolding that mean officer…
She looked at the officer, who was nodding and bowing.
“Yes, yes, yes, Ninth Prince is right. I understand. I’ll be more careful in the future, I won’t push the common people again.”
The girl suddenly smiled.
The officer promised the prince not to push people again. That meant, from now on, there would be fewer people like her and her grandfather being bullied.
As they walked further and further away, the little girl eventually couldn’t see the prince anymore through the crowd.
But she wasn’t sad. She ran ahead to catch up with her grandfather and gathered her courage to ask the man leading them,
“Sir, His Highness is a good man. Er’ya—Er’ya can do math! Can I repay His Highness?”
Her grandfather was startled and quickly reached out to cover her mouth. “Er’ya, don’t talk nonsense! Sir, the child is young and ignorant—she didn’t mean any offense to His Highness.”
Xiao Anzi looked down at the girl with her mouth covered.
She was skinny and wore a patchwork cloth that barely counted as clothing. She looked very small, not unlike himself before he entered the palace.
Her already thin face looked even more so, with her mouth covered. Her wide, dark eyes appeared even bigger.
A bit ugly.
Xiao Anzi thought to himself, and suddenly understood why, back when he first came to serve the Prince, the Prince always told him to eat more. Even though the Prince himself rarely had enough to eat…
It seemed that people who didn’t get enough to eat had no flesh on their faces—indeed they looked both ugly and frightening.
The realization made Xiao Anzi feel a little guilty.
So back then, he’d actually scared His Highness…
Sigh. It was his fault for making the Prince go hungry and scared. From now on, he needed to eat more and try to grow chubby and nice-looking.
Xiao Anzi had a lot on his mind. But facing the uneasy grandfather and granddaughter, he calmly said to Er’ya, “His Highness doesn’t need repayment. His Highness can’t stand to see people too skinny. When he sees you, he won’t be able to resist giving you food to fatten you up.”
Xiao Anzi’s intent was to keep His Highness from going hungry again.
But in the ears of the grandfather and Er’ya, it meant: His Highness is a great person. He actually can’t bear to see the people starve!
The grandfather was deeply moved and couldn’t help but cry, wiping away tears with his sleeves.
“His Highness is a good man…”
Er’ya didn’t cry, but her eyes shone brighter, more determined.
She said to Xiao Anzi, “Sir, His Highness is truly a good man. Er’ya’s heard a friend say before—he said Teacher Li once said, an official who can’t bear to see the people go hungry and wants them to eat their fill is a rare and truly great man!”
Her little eyes sparkled. Her dirty face was full of sincerity and fearlessness. She was earnest and brave, trying to show the only strength she had to this man she trusted.
“Er’ya can’t write, but she can do math! When customers come to buy Grandpa’s pancakes, I can count their money really fast and I’ve never gotten it wrong! Er’ya is very useful!”
Xiao Anzi was put in a tough spot.
This was like someone applying for a job, but the interviewer was just a janitor, with no authority to hire anyone.
He didn’t know how to respond to the little girl.
His Highness only told him to take them away and find a doctor—he hadn’t said anything about taking her in as a servant.
Besides, being able to do math… was that really useful?
He could do math too.
Every day, he counted exactly how many sunflower seeds His Highness had eaten, one by one.
If you find any errors (non-standard content, ads redirect, broken links, etc..), Please let us know so we can fix it as soon as possible.
Report