One Lifetime Is Never Enough

1.92 Let Me Whisper

Life had been pretty good for Bai YuLan. Ever since the New Year - not counting the one day that Princess Zhang XiuYa had visited her briefly - YuLan hardly had anything to complain.

For example, she had gotten used to travel to and from Hun'ang, without having to have HeShan and SunChen's accompaniment to protect her.

This was because, all the Dragon troops in Hun'ang practically treated her like their own superior, much to her bewilderment. Every single one of them gave her proper military salute whenever they saw her, the like of which was given by a subordinate to a lord. 

She was bemused but slightly embarrassed about the whole arrangement - it was no doubt the doing of Ji SongLi, Zhen BuFeng, and Zhang JunLi. Hun'ang townfolks began to see her differently, some even scurried away upon seeing her just walking on the street. Fortunately, her usual merchants and vendors who she bought her goods from still treated her the same way, whenever they were not teasing her about her new batch of soldiers.

"You may as well be the town lord" - they said.

The other perk of this, was that she was no longer pestered by the actual town lord, or to be precise, the town lord's son.

There were only a couple of times that she saw Qian FanSheng on the streets. The young man, upon noticing her as well, initially had a conflicted look on his face. His body swayed back and fro, seemingly deciding if he wanted to come closer to speak to her. Then he clenched his fists and started to walk towards her. Suddenly, a patrolling soldier - with a dragon engraved jade tassel on his belt - walked around the corner to her side and offered her his salutation. She merely turned her head for a brief moment to acknowledge the soldier's greeting, before turning to look where Qian FanSheng was.

All she could see was his retreating back, running in haste.

She just shrugged and carried on her merry way, purchasing whatever she needed from the various merchants in town.

The whole arrangement, was good.

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A few months passed, and JingXiang had grown chubby and quite sturdy for a baby. He had started conversing - in his baby language - to everyone in the house. He was every bit as chatty as his mother. 

JingXiang seemed to like the company of females more than males. At four months, his arms were already strong enough for him to support his weight up as he lifted his head, when he lied on his stomach, albeit very briefly. 

Every time he did that, YuLan and Xiao Hui would laugh and sing him praises. Little JingXiang seemed to like the ringing laugh and vocal tone of a female. The first moment he ever lifted his head, and as the two women laughed, smiled, and clapped their hands, he was stunned for a bit.

Then he laughed along with them, and kept propping himself up to earn himself more of the ringing laughing voices that he loved to hear.

When summer started, YuLan had resumed Yong house' business, much to her regular customers' delight. The addition of the little man brought more female patrons, all to whom JingXiang was more than happy to display his strength.

They laughed and praised him, and that made JingXiang gurgle happy noise as well in return. He became the mascot of Yong house; and the female patrons loved him immensely, bringing him myriad of gifts and baby food.

However, his father and SunChen did not receive the same privilege from the little lord. Nor did the other male customers.

He did initially display various tricks that would normally earn him singing praises from the women, to the men. When they praised him, laughing sincerely, JingXiang was also stunned, but only for a bit. Then he plopped his head onto the plush bed or cushions, just lying on his stomach, and refused to budge anymore.