Chapter 31: Cleaning the Courtyard

The next day, the little dumpling was woken up by the palace maids. Just after having a simple porridge for breakfast, the serious Emperor Daddy was sitting infront of her. He wiped his hands gracefully and rinsed her mouth.

Mr. Xiao Yuzi said, “Your Majesty, Lord Lin has requested an audience.”

Lin Yi said with a struggling expression: “Eunuch Dou really knows that he was in the wrong. He knelt in front of the gates all night and fainted several times. What do you think…?”

Lin Yi said that those people were kneeling in front of the gate of the palace. After all, they were old employees who had worked together for many years. When he said this, he was still a little impatient. The four people who had been transferred to serve the princess were really pitiful and there was no place for them to go outside the palace.

Hearing the familiar names of Mr. Dou, Nanny Wan and Qiao’er, the little dumpling quickly put down her small bowl and swallowed the things in her mouth, “Uncle Lin Yi, what’s the matter with them?”

As soon as Lin saw the Emperor’s expressionless face, he explained to the little dumpling, “They want to return into the palace to serve you and they are pleading with His Majesty”

The little dumpling didn’t quite understand, “What is serving?”

The corners of Lin Yi mouth twitched, ” To serve….to serve means to accompany you. They want to play with the little princess, that’s what it means.”

Young dumpling listened with bright eyes, clapped her hands and said, “I would like them to play with me!”

The little dumpling thought that her father would not let her keep her face, would be strict with her and refuse her wish, so she got off the stool and ran to him and started to pull the sleeve of the man and shake it. “Father, please let them come back. I like Mr. Dou, Nanny Wan, sister Qiao’er, Lin, Duke Lin and Uncle nameless!”

The little dumpling counted the names of those people with her fingers, but she remembered only a few of them!

Lin Yi looked at her in surprise and saw that the little princess was threatening the emperor seriously with her face. “If you don’t let me have them, then Dad would have to play with me! Play for a whole day! “

Lin Yi: “…”

The emperor, who had not yet spoken, finally opened his mouth and said the golden words, “Bring them in and arrange them to serve in the side hall.” Wei Jue looked at the bright eyes of the dumpling and continued. “To follow her.”

The little dumpling was not stupid. She understood that her father agreed to let Mr. Dou to play with her in the palace. She cheered happily and jumped up and down playfully. “Daddy is the best!”

The little dumpling changed the way she addressed her father again and again. Mr. Xiao Yuzi stressed to her several times before breakfast that she would be her father’s little princess. She had to call her father, His Majesty, which was the proper way to address according to the traditions.

The little dumpling felt that this way of address was very strange. When she was happy, she would call him father. The sweet and soft little dumpling worshiped her father to the heavens. She used all the words that she knew to boast that her father was really a good father. He is the most powerful person in the world. And she never forgets to add: “Yinyin likes her father the most!”

Lord Lin looked up to the heavens and he could see why the emperor unexpectedly brought the girl into the palace. The reason was that the little princess could flatter someone so skillfully, she could flatter the emperor so well at such a young age!

The little dumpling finally got new playmates, even if they were a little older, many years older, adults could also be happy. She praised her father with overflowing happiness, suddenly reached out to hold his face, and kissed him on the chin.

Lord Lin was stunned and instinctively looked at the emperor’s face.

The man was petrified and carried down the ball that he didn’t know when had jumped on his lap. There was no expression on his face. It didn’t make much difference from the indifferent emperor in the past, but his face seemed worse?

Wei Jue looked at Lin Yi and said, “Since you already know what to do, why don’t you get down to work?”

Lin Yi retreated in fear. His head was full of the cold and ruthless emperor who was obsessed with glossy hair and cleanliness but let the little princess to plaster kisses all over his face???

LongQian palace was not only the residence of the emperor, but also the best palace. Nowadays, the emperor didn’t like going to the harem, and there was no extraordinary scenery in the harem anyway. It was better to count ants in the LongQian palace.

The Emperor didn’t like colorful or overly lively scenery. Therefore, the architectural style was simple and generous. There were steps made up of white marble at the entrance of the hall and the little fat claws of the little dumpling were holding her chin to watch people come while getting bored.

Nameless person with his hunched body was sweeping the floor, the emperor agreed that they could continue to serve the little princess, but they were not allowed to come near to her.

The little princess was closely followed by the first-class palace maids, who were carefully trained and selected by the palace. The four of them should have been expelled from the palace after being punished for not protecting the princess. Now, the emperor, for the first time, has been lenient and asked them to do some menial work.

These Four people were used to holding their heads high and stepping on low ranked workers in the palace. They were not numb or calm in the situation.

Now nanny Wan went to Xiufang to ask for some cloth to make dolls for the princess. Qiao’er went to get food. Even Eunuch Lin took on work.

Only the nameless worker with the broom was going back and forth in the courtyard of the palace.

Even if it was a side hall, how could the emperor’s bedroom be small? The Father and Emperor was being followed by a group of uncles to close the door and were murmuring in low voices. The little dumpling was bored and squatted in the yard for a long time.

Uncle nameless had been sweeping back and forth for a long time, but still he hadn’t finished….

The little dumpling thought for a while, stood up and volunteered, “Uncle nameless, I’ll help you!”

The little dumpling rolled up her long sleeves. The small palace dress had an elegant design. The sleeves were trumpet shaped sleeves. The soft brocade hung down beside the wrist, which was a bit in the way.

The little dumpling missed the wide white dress she had worn before. She had picked it up from other people’s clothes. It was very easy to wear after washing. Especially in summer, it was cool and convenient to move around in.

After the excitement in the beginning, the little dumpling didn’t think it was practical.

After the sleeves were rolled up, she still remembered to ask the palace maids to help her tie them down with a ribbon. Although the maid didn’t understand her meaning, she still did what the little princess wanted. After everything was ready, she picked up another broom on the edge.

The broom for sweeping the yard was very big. The handle of the broom is about half the height of an adult. It was two times taller than the little dumpling.

The Little dumpling clumsily grasped the big broom with both hands, and dragged the broom to sweep the leaves behind the nameless palace worker.

The palace maid, Xiao Hua, understood what was going on but was too shocked to stop her. If the emperor saw this and asked the three-year-old princess to work instead, would he not send all the servants of the palace to go back and not to work? It was still a light punishment according to the ways of the emperor, there must be no wastage of manpower in the palace afterall….

Holding the broom tightly, the little dumpling looked up at sister Xiao Hua and said, “The yard is soo big. Uncle nameless hasn’t finished sweeping it after such a long time…” she then looked at the sky and said, “It’s going to be dark soon. For these kinds of things,Yin Yin can still help out. Yin Yin will work!”

Xiaohua: “…”

The young eunuch with the broom beside him was still sweeping the ground with concentration, but his steps were slightly and invisibly slow, and his movements were also slightly slow. There was almost no dust between the movements.

The little dumpling chased up to him and started to sweep along the eunuch nameless’ side. She was small, holding a big broom that was more than twice her height. She was clumsy and sweeping laboriously. She swept the ground almost like mopping the floor. However, the little dumpling was very serious and pondered for a long time. She thought that she can’t sweep the floor in the same way as Uncle nameless, so she should just spare the effort and start sweeping by the handle of the broom. The efficiency was not high, but it won’t mess up uncle nameless’ work.

Her little face was red with exhaustion, and after sweeping out a clean land, she shouted to Uncle nameless like a show off, pointing to the swept land, “It’s clean!”

The little dumpling didn’t know that because the Emperor didn’t like flowers and grass, he had a variety of trees. There were many trees in the side room’s yard, especially. It was a patient job to sweep the leaves. After a while, the wind would blow. Maybe more leaves are dropped on the ground again, and they have to be swept again. It was an unending cycle.

The young dumpling was very happy and worked very hard because she had swept a clean land. With a big broom she herself did it.

Today, the wind is a little stronger. The wind blew up clothes and broken hair flying. It fell on the face and neck of the dumpling. It was itchy.

Nameless was sweeping with his head down, subconsciously he looked at the little princess not far away. Her cheeks were red. She was fed well in the palace, which made her cheeks fatter. She breathed loudly. Her face was all serious. ‘No one could work better than me.’she said to herself.

He paused and swept the fallen leaves out of the field while the little dumpling was facing the other way. Just after finishing, the dumpling turned around and said, “Uncle nameless, why are you so slow? I’ve swept all of them already!”

The little dumpling was not a good child in the traditional sense. She would tease people when she wished to. She would look at the clean ground behind her. She would look at the leafy ground belonging to her nameless uncle. She sighed like a little adult, “Nameless uncle, you are so stupid!”

“When it’s needed, you still have to rely on YinYin!”

Nameless was silent, following the little princess like a mute and swept the ground behind her. The action was very light. Occasionally there would be a gust of wind, and the ground swept behind the girl was covered with leaves again. He pulled the leaves to his side.

If the little dumpling occasionally looked back and saw that her side was clean, and uncle nameless’s side was not, she couldn’t help making fun of Uncle nameless’s stupidity.

She shook her head with a big broom in her hand and solemnly consoled him, “Uncle nameless, I’ll tell my father to let you off. You’re too stupid to sweep the floor!”

The palace maid Xiao Hua watched this scene for the whole afternoon, but when she heard this, she couldn’t help turning her head to cover her mouth and laugh. Her shoulders trembled with laughter. The little princess was so cute and adorable!

Wei Jue dismissed the court for the day, the ministers who had finished the discussion left.

He took a sip of tea and asked, “What is Chaoyang doing?”

Mr. Xiao Yuzi was so overwhelmed by the kind-hearted and even overprotective actions of the emperor. His master learned a lesson from neglecting what happened to the little princess, so he always let people pay attention to her movements. Now he heard his majesty ask and said with a smile, “The little princess has swept the ground all afternoon…”

Before he had finished speaking, he saw that the emperor was looking at him with frightening eyes. Mr. Xiao Yuzi thought of the countless people dragged out of the imperial study in the Jinluan hall. He trembled and knelt on the ground, and said with a bitter face: “I haven’t finished speaking, the little princess…”

He narrated the sweeping scene of the afternoon very vividly. He knew exactly what the little princess said and what she did. At last, he flattered: “Every sentence of the little princess is inseparable from His Majesty. It could be seen that she deeply loves her father, His Majesty!”

“Uncle nameless, I’ll talk to my father, and give you something else to do…”

“Uncle nameless, you are too stupid. Father is smarter than you!” She shook her head and said, “forget it, it’s great that uncle nameless can eat!”

The little dumpling was afraid of attacking people’s self-confidence, so she comforted them very much. However, she did not know where she had picked up this habit. It was an irony, a metaphor for the meaning that people can’t eat if they don’t work.

After that, she nodded her little head to affirm herself seriously.

If it wasn’t for the little dumpling’s sincerity, one might think that the little princess hates people.

Xiao Hua couldn’t help but sneak a few steps behind and smile. The three-year-old princess was just so lovely. How could she dislike people?!

Xiao Hua wiped the corner of her eyes and smiled. As soon as she turned her back, she saw a bright yellow dress. She did not dare to lift her head and knelt down on the spot. Mr. Xiao Yuzi shook the dust and made a gesture to stay silent.

The movements were very quiet. The girl who was far away should not have heard it, but it was as if she had eyes at the back of her head. She turned around and rushed over. A pair of short legs were running fast, and her hands were outstretched like a small artillery gun. She rushed on to hold the man’s legs.

“Daddy!”