Only three people helped celebrate Murong Xiude’s birthday. However, he felt that it was his happiest day in eight years.
He lost his mother when he was very young, so he no longer remembered his mother’s appearance anymore.
But he remembered that she had taken good care of him.
He had spent his childhood growing up in constant panic and fear for his mother. When his mother, the only person in the world who could protect him was gone, he was forced to live a life of fear and survival.
This year, he had Shen Xiangwan and Xiaoqi with him.
The food was actually very easy to cook.
They only had some fish balls and a bowl of dragon beard noodles cooked in chicken broth. Shen Xiangwan had prepared all these for him. As he thought about it, he held the bowl to his mouth and ate the noodles happily.
At Shen Xiangwan’s age, she was considered skillful to be able to make such thin noodles.
No matter how delicious the noodles are, they will eventually be finished.
When Murong Xiude drank the last drop of soup and put down the bowl, he raised his head to meet Xiaoqi's smiling face and Shen Xiangwan's gaze.
"I—" he was embarrassed. He silently scolded himself for being so useless. He did not behave like a master at all. Just when he was about to apologize, Shen Xiangwan comforted him softly.
"Although you do not behave like a real master, today is a special day, so we won't blame you. Later, you may make a request, and I will do my best to satisfy you as long as you do not cross the line."
Shen Xiang waved her hand gracefully, trying to act like an adult.
Xiaoqi giggled when he heard this.
Before their family was broken up, they had an unspoken rule.
When their brothers and sisters celebrated their birthdays, their parents would make sullen faces and tell them with a stifled smile that they would satisfy one request from them, as long as it was not too excessive.
Now, Shen Xiangwan was doing the same thing to Murong Xiude. It turned out that home still existed. Xiaoqi felt so happy because he really liked this custom.
"Sister, I want you to give me a bath." Xiaoqi realized what he had called her and quickly corrected himself, "Sister Wan Er, I haven't enjoyed the feeling of being bathed in a long time, so I want to try."
He looked at Shen Xiangwan carefully as he spoke. He had been used to addressing her as his sister, and until today, he still couldn’t change the habit.
Fortunately, there were no outsiders here. He glanced at Murong Xiude and thought that he was a stupid kid, so maybe he didn't realize that.
"A bath? You have a lot of requests." Shen Xiangwan shook her head, deliberately ignoring Xiaoqi's slip of the tongue, and looked at Murong Xiude. "What about you, what do you want?"
Murong Xiude couldn't contain the excitement in his heart. He didn’t know that he could make a request too.
He glanced at Xiaoqi with a serious face. "Since Xiaoqi said that it feels comfortable to be bathed, how about, Sister Wanwan treat Xiaoqi and me as younger brothers today and bathe us... I haven't been bathed by someone for many years."
Murong Xiude ended his sentence weakly. Initially, Shen Xiangwan wanted to refuse to bathe him, but she could not bring herself to.
"Ah, you guys..." Shepointed at the two boys and finally shook her head. "Well, I’ll do as you wish, but only for today."
She looked at the two boys helplessly. To tell the truth, Xiaojiu was only two years younger than her.
However, due to the hardship he had to face during his childhood, his thinking was the same as Xiaoqi. In Shen Xiangwan's eyes, he was just like Xiaoqi.
"Oh, we can finally enjoy the feeling of being bathed by Sister Wanwan." Xiaoqi was very excited.
He really liked it when Shen Xiangwan rubbed him while he played in the water. These things, of course, had to be kept secret from his Young Master, but he is looking forward to it. He could finally feel the warmth of being together with family with Shen Xiangwan.
Shen Xiangwan understood Xiaoqi’s nostalgia very well, and she didn't think too much about Murong Xiude's request either.
In her opinion, these two boys were just like her brothers.
After taking a short walk in the courtyard, Shen Xiangwan started to boil some water to prepare the bath for the two boys.
Although there were no more servants or maids in this courtyard, ever since Xiaoqi came here, he had been diligent in bringing back materials that belonged to Murong Xiude every month.
They still had the essential supplies such as charcoal and firewood. They still kept track of their expenses.
The reason why Murong Xiude was not well taken care of earlier was that his evil slaves were greedy.
Now, Xiaoqi was serving him,and the Meat Blessing Group also took care of him in secret. Even though there were some compromises, at least he could manage to survive.
Besides, they had plenty of supplies in Jiaochi Garden now.
The huge Jiaochi Garden was the main courtyard for the Duke’s former wife.
Even though no one had taken care of the courtyard for nearly ten years, it was still maintained untouched.
Shen Xiangwan thought that she should clean up some rooms and let Xiaoqi move into the rooms with Murong Xiude.
Even if someone came and saw that the rooms were clean, she could find an excuse for it.
After thinking about it, Shen Xiangwan decided to come here someday to clean up the rooms one by one. She couldn’t let the mice run around the house, after all.
The best thing to do was to find Xiaojiu a Lady and let her take him in.
Somehow, Shen Xiangwan thought of Lady Mei.
It would be possible to let Lady Mei take care of Xiaojiu.
Lady Mei also missed her own son, Young Master Ming, very much.
It was a pity that Young Master Ming was now being raised by Lady Tong in the main courtyard.
The Ladies and wives of the main courtyard were also living very miserably.
Firstly, the Duchess caused a scandal and died soon after.
Then, Lady Ru, who was the second most favored Lady, was involved in another ugly incident. Unfortunate events kept happening in the main courtyard, one after another. It seemed like the fate of the people in the main courtyard was very bad. Of course, Shen Xiangwan already guessed how Lady Ru had died. Earlier, Lady Bing and her son had come to the manor and stayed for a few days. The seemingly elegant young man that she brought with him, in fact, had the most venomous heart. Wherever he went, bad things would happen. No one knew what Lady Ru did to offend the boy and ended up like that.
As for the Duke’s third wife, she was said to have received a good education. She had bore the Duke two sons and one daughter, and she was also the Elder’s niece from her maternal family. She had brought honour to the main courtyard.