The night pearl fell down
The gongzi from yesterday in Linshui Tower?
Nannan thought about it for a while, taking a long time to realize who that was: “Oh, that funny big brother!”
“Funny?” Ye Xiudu was puzzled by his choice of words. Although Ye Lanping didn’t have any outstanding points to his face, he still could be considered good-looking. He should not look… funny, right?
However, the adjectives chosen by this little guy have always had their own quirks and his aesthetic sense seemed to be even more unique. So it was probably not that weird for him to say that Ye Lanping was funny-looking.
“Why did he give me something?” Nannan blinked twice as he went ahead to take a bite of his boiled egg. While trying to speak with his mouth full, his next words came out a bit weird: “Could it be because my figure is so dashing, unrestrained and sophisticated to the point that all humans love but heaven and earth cannot tolerate it?”
“Cough.” Ye Xiudu smiled helplessly and wiped his mouth, so as not to retort to the messy use of idioms. Then he turned around and took back the box and asked him: “Would you like to see what’s inside?”
“Uhum.” Nannan nodded, his was belly bulging from all the eating, and immediately proceeded to reach out to open the box.
The box was kinda small so it would probably unable to hold larger things inside, this idea made Nannan a bit disappointed with it in his heart.
But still, he was in high spirits for receiving a gift.
The box was fine and delicate and its contents didn’t seem to be that heavy. When Ye Xiudu grabbed it, he seemed to guess something about what was inside.
That seemed correct. That kid, Ye Lanping, should be unable to give out any kind of ingenious gifts.
Sure enough, as soon as he opened the box, a bright light suddenly illuminated the entire secret room. Nannan carefully took the bead-like object from inside of the box and with his mouth open wide, he asked: “A night pearl?”
Ye Xiudu smiled: “Do you like it?” Gifts given to five-year-old kids, even if they aren’t special, good or bad, should also be a bit rare. ‘To give a night pearl to Nannan’, he thought, ‘it probably suits Nannan’s status nicely’.
“I Like it.” Nannan nodded his head fiercely. “I want to sell this night pearl and, after exchanging it for money, I should be able to buy loads of things to eat and drink!”
“…” Ye Xiudu understood. According to Nannan, eating should be the most essential thing.
He would probably like anything that could be exchanged for food, no matter what it was.
“Uncle Ye, was that person from yesterday in Linshui Tower very rich?” Nannan put the night bead inside of his small purse and moved it into his robes carefully.
Ye Xiudu raised his eyebrows, his eldest brother’s residence should naturally not be short of money: “What about that?”
“I think like this: since someone gave me a gift, then I naturally must send a return gift back, right? That’s being polite, showing that I’m very educated and that my mother’s teachings were very successful and that I’m not a petty person and that I show sincerity when making friends and that…”
“Then, what are you going to gift in return?” Ye Xiudu interrupted his endless chatter, holding him up with an inquisitive look. Was it really important to return the gift when Ye Lanping’s family was wealthy?
“I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it yet. When I’m done, I’ll let you know.” Anyway, it couldn’t be too expensive since he was very poor and couldn’t afford the expensive ones.
Fortunately, he had a clever mind and, even if it wasn’t an expensive thing, he should be able to send a unique return gift back. When the time comes, that person will definitely send him more gifts in return and they shouldn’t be worse than the night pearl. As long as this back and forth goes on, he should be able to save a lot of money!
Nannan thought about it all very excitedly, thinking that this was a wonderful plan for making money. From now on, he would no longer have to ask his mother for money to buy delicacies!
Oh, right! This matter should be kept a secret from my mother, otherwise, all of the money would go into her pockets. Mother is a person that is not thoughtful in the least, always taking money away from him.
“Uncle Ye, this matter of the gifts should be a secret between us, you can’t tell my mother.” Nannan seemed to have forgotten that now that he had a rich dad by his side, one who still wished to spoil and indulge him and give him all the money he asked for, even if it meant going bankrupt.
Ye Xiudu raised a brow, pausing for a bit to think and then started discussing with him: “Nannan, from now on in this residence, you can call me father, you know?”
Father? Nannan looked up to him in horror, before lowering his head again and speaking hesitantly: “If I call you Father, then Mother will be upset.”
This point was something Nannan had very clear in his heart.
Ye Xiudu went quiet for a moment and then proceeded to hug him tighter. After a moment of silence, he opened his mouth to say: “I’ll go and talk with your mother. She’ll agree to it.”
“Really?” It seemed, looked like, probably, it was almost like… his Mother was afraid of Uncle Ye’s intervention. And in addition to that, after uncle Ye bit her yesterday, she still didn’t poison him to death.
“Uhum.”
“Father.” Nannan readily followed his words, while hugging on his neck extremely happy.
Ye Xiudu stiffened for a second, with an indescribable feeling rising his chest, making his heartbeat accelerate and heart pound fiercer, to the point that he got dizzy for a moment.
This kind of feeling was painful and sore, like when he was pierced by a blade. But differently from that time, it was much more complicated and hard to control.
Ye Xiudu squeezed the child in his arms and remained motionless for a while longer.
He was thinking that it was great that Yu Qingluo gave birth to Nannan, really. It was really great.
Nannan didn’t understand why his feelings got so agitated so suddenly, but he was very satisfied by calling him ‘father’.
In his little understanding, his father was an unfamiliar person and someone he had never thought about. However, he was very happy to know that uncle Ye was his father. Uncle Ye would be good to him, love him, spoil him and help him and that was enough.
“Father, where’s my Mother?” Nannan felt the strength Ye Xiudu was holding him diminish a little, so he asked him a question.
Ye Xiudu took a deep breath to adjust his emotions and then put the little guy on the bed to the side, answering in a low tone: “She went out with your Aunt Jin and will be back at night. Let’s go out, let me take you out to choose a courtyard you like for you to live in.”
A courtyard he likes?
“But I have always lived together with my mother. I’ll live wherever she lives.”
Ye Xiudu was stunned for a second. Then, squatting down to level his eyes with Nannan’s he tried to earnestly persuade him: “Nannan, you are already a grown-up boy, aren’t you?”
Seeing him nodding his head, he kept on going: “From now on, a grown-up boy should learn to live by himself, isn’t that right? And, if you live by yourself you should be able to do a lot of secret things. For example, you can hide all the good things you have when you live alone in a courtyard, and your mother will never know.”
(TL: in the original, it was written ‘ To do a lot of **’, Idk, why it was hidden since there’s no way that’s an 18+ tag, after all, this is a 5-year old kid. So I just went on with the ‘hidden stuff, secret stuff’ concept. After all, we all had the times when we liked to hide stuff from our parents when small)
Nannan’s eyes shone brightly at that. This idea wasn’t too bad: “Ok, then I’ll be a grown-up boy from now on.”
Ye Xiudu was satisfied by his words but went silent as he felt somewhat ashamed of his actions. He didn’t want Nannan and Yu Qingluo to live together from the bottom of his heart, since this would make things all the more inconvenient for him.
“Let’s go. Head out and pick a courtyard.”
Nannan nodded his head and took a couple of steps forward before suddenly turning around to say: “Hey! I want to take my silver to my courtyard.”
After saying that, he crawled onto the bed again and started dragging the heavy silver bags to the edge of the mattress.
However, after dragging it for a bit, the opening of the small purse he had put the night pearl inside had loosened up and as it fell it rolled up down the bed.
As Nannan didn’t notice that, turned around together with Ye Xiudu holding his bags of silver and left the room.
(TL: that’s a bit convenient though. Before the pearl shows up and all room is set alight. Now the pearl shows up, no one notices!)
Translated by C, The Apostle of Coffee
Edited by NoveLeo, Life is a Drama
Obviously Too Busy to Translate 
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