During the spring festival period, every official could have ten days off. Gu Tingye also got the chance to rest for a few days. Except for the days when he had to pay a New Year visit to his relatives, he spent the rest of his holiday chatting with his wife at home. Even when they didn’t talk about anything, he could still stare at Minglan’s flat belly for a long while. Still, the piles of papers on his desk took up a lot of his time. The study was cold and bleak, unlike the warm and lovely bedroom. Then Gu Tingye moved all his papers to his bedroom. With the warm stove in the room and Minglan’s happy laughter, Gu Tingye even forgot about how tiresome his work was and didn’t want to leave the room.

Gongsun Baishi couldn’t help but sigh with emotion that the affection between men and women was able to make heroes irresolute. He even wished he could roll up his sleeves and compose verses right away. However, the weather was so cold right now and the dripping water had frozen now. Well, he then gave up the idea of exposing his arms in case he would get freezing limbs.

Gu Tingye was focusing on the official papers by the desk while Minglan was lying on the side to read a book with her body wrapped in a soft and thick quilt. As he raised his head, he saw her frowning slightly and giving an imperceptible sigh. Then he stood up and sat beside her while asking in a low voice, “It doesn’t feel like Spring Festival, right?” Gu Tingye assumed that her families must have gathered together to celebrate the Spring Festivals in former years.

Minglan nodded, “Normally at this time of the year, my sisters and I would play cards with my grandma.” Gu Tingye couldn’t imagine the way Old Madam Sheng, that dignified and solemn lady, playing cards and found that would be quite interesting. So he asked casually, “How’s your skill?” Minglan answered fluently, “I am second to none in my family except for Mama Fang.” If Molan didn’t play dirty and Rulan didn’t cheat.

Gu Tingye couldn’t help laughing, “You are good at playing cards?” Minglan shook her head, “I am great, but that’s not the game I’m best at.”

“Then which game is? Backgammon? Throwing dice?” “Pai gow.” Minglan was quite proud of herself. If she and Rulan played Pai gow, she was confident that she would let the latter lose everything. Gu Tingye stared at her for a moment with a strange look. Minglan got nervous under his daze and said softly, “My grandma often told me to practice needle work more. I don’t always gamble.” As a matter of fact, Minglan really was interested in the gaming industry. Gu Tingye stood up and walked back to his desk. After he opened a drawer at the bottom of his bookcase, he took out something and poured the tea which was left in the bowl into the tray. Then, he came back to Minglan and sat down. Before Minglan could figure out what had happened, she saw him holding the bowl in his left hand and raised his right hand slightly. With a clear sound of porcelain clinking, there were three large dices rotating in the bowl. As they stopped, a triple of sixes was exposed. That was a full house!

“How’s that?” Gu Tingye withdrew his hand gracefully and flattened his sleeves gently.

Minglan, mouth opened widely, was utterly shocked. Then her eyes flickered towards him with admiration inside. No wonder why this man used to be called the No.1 macaroni in the capital. She really wanted to cry out, ‘Second Uncle, I’ll be your buddy from now on.’ “How, how did you manage to do that?” Minglan asked timidly. In the meantime, she took over the dices with excitement and weighed them with her hand, feeling her heart beating fast. Gu Tingye approached to her slowly and picked up the dices, saying gently, “My dear, do you really want to learn this?” Minglan nodded vigorously. It never hurt to learn another skill. However, Gu Tingye suddenly put on a long face and said with a stern voice, “No.” Then he left straightaway, “What if you teach our child.”

Minglan helplessly watched him putting the dices back in the drawer and then argued, “Then why did you store it in the place near you?” She wondered whether he still practiced from time to time. Gu Tingye glimpsed at Minglan and then put a dice on the desk with the one-point side up, saying, “Watch this, I have wanted to present this to you.”

That dice was a bit larger than the normal ones and made of white jade with gold, on which the points were painted with cinnabar. It looked very delicate and pretty unlike the tool for gambling but actually like an adornment. The most special thing of this dice was that the one dice point was inlaid with a mung bean sized ruby. Minglan looked at the dazzling ruby in a daze. Then, something occurred to her mind and she felt her heart filling with sweetness and warmness. After a while, she said softly with her head lowered, “… I am too.” She felt quite bashful saying that with her ears burning, but she still finished her words, “Every time you leave, I would think of that.”

The man broke off by the desk with the brush in his hand. Then he turned around to look at Minglan. As he saw her hair half flowing down beside her face and her eyes curving like the crescent, it made him very warm inside. He couldn’t help smiling tenderly, but he didn’t notice the ink he had splashed on the paper had already formed a light black heart shaped flower on the paper.

After the Lantern Festival, the emperor made a few big moves, which caused notable debate in the imperial court. The memorials to the throne were piled up and the argument of the officials kept echoing in the court. Gu Tingye was a busy, busy man lately and couldn’t even one meal with Minglan for several days. Sir Gongsun was not able to sleep for a few nights and lost a lot of weight and hair. Minglan truly pitied this old man who was about to be bald, so she asked someone to stew all the nutritious food that she couldn’t finish and sent it to the outer study. Ruomei who was fond of literature asked to go on this errand as expected. “Are the food to nourish the baby and the one to nourish the brain the same thing?” Danju asked in a very soft voice. She was a discreet girl after all.

“It could nourish a baby, not to mention an old gentleman.” Minglan was very excited to hear that Xiaotao could use the word gentleman.

People from the Princess family came over to discuss about the wedding date with Old Madam Qin. The bridegroom and the bride were both not young, so the date should be as early as possible. Then, the two families decided to hold the wedding at the beginning of March. After a few days, January passed. Old Madam Qin wanted to hand over all the accounts of the family to Minglan. With a gentle smile on her face, she said, “You are pregnant now, so I shouldn’t have this fall on you. However, the imperial doctor said that you were in a great condition when he visited you these times. Now that your sister-in-law is about to get married, I’m afraid that I will have too much to do…” That kind smile looked so dazzling and nearly convulsed Minglan’s eyes. Minglan calculated the time and found that she had already been pregnant for three months. She also stopped having nauseous. Now, with the swell of her belly, she ate and slept well and also enjoyed a good health with a radiant face. All the doctors who visited her said that she was in a good condition and that her pulse was very strong. Such being the case, Minglan then agreed with Old Madam Qin with a smile. After that, she told Danju to take over the Dui cards and the keys and let Xiaotao picked up the box inside of which were the accounts for the past three years.

Then, Minglan spoke a few flattering words like, ‘You have been through a lot for the past decades. Thanks to you that this family could be in perfect order. Now you can finally find some peace and spend more time with families.’ After that long speech, she gave a question at last, “… well, is everyone’s indenture here?” She pointed to a black wooden box. Old Madam Qin had got quite sleepy hearing her praises, but that question had pulled her out of drowsiness. Her guard was up at once but the smile was still on her face, “I don’t meddle with that issue for the past few years.” Then she turned to Shao shi, “Maybe you can answer the question”