The boy was very small and scrawny. A thin filthy cloth covered his body which was the literal description of skin and bones, with sunken pale cheek and languid bloodshot right eye, he stood still while eyeing the grilled fish on the mat.
"Is something the matter your highness!?" Baili Haoyue and the soldiers quickly approached in alert.
Startled by the imposing noise of the soldier, the boy recoiled then immediately squatted and covered his head with his bruised arms. The scene was simply pitiful.
Baili Haoyue also saw how frightened the boy was, and uttered in puzzlement, "A.. Beggar?"
Yamato scrutinized, "... No."
Baili Haoyue, "then? Thieve?"
Yamato suddenly approached and quickly picked up the boy. The surrounding soldiers was panicking and kept saying not to touch such a filthy thing, however Yamato insisted. Even after being picked up, the boy still maintained his trembling meaningless defensive pose.
Yamato sighed, "You all go away! You are all frightening him!" he shouted helplessly.
Having no right to decline the order, the soldiers quickly dispersed and thus continued their previous activity.
Being placed gently on the mat, the boy slowly slid down his skinny filthy arms. After waiting for some time and realized that he was not getting hit, he blinked and opened his remaining eye. Upon looking clearly at his surrounding, he became flustered and frightened the moment he realized that the people around him were nobles.
Sensing that the boy was about to run, Yamato stroked his head gently and offered him one skewered grilled fish in front of his mouth. Qing Lian frowned at the act and quietly pouted, however Yamato got no time to pacify or coax her.
Being thrusted suddenly by a wonderful mouth-watering smell in front of his mouth, the starving boy couldn't help but to chomp right away. He munched vigorously as though he hadn't eaten for days, and by looking at his body, that might exactly be the case.
Some maids were shocked when they brought the royalties their lunch. Some of them revealed a repulsed face towards the filthy boy, however couldn't do anything since Yamato said it's fine. After feeding the boy with almost everything of his own portion, Yamato ordered Xiao Meng to bring him one of his robes and knitting kit. He also ordered his two maids to bath the boy while he resized the robe.
Feeling much safer after being treated nicely, the boy didn't struggle when he was being taken away by Xiao Ming and Xiao Meng.
"Ugh.. Meng Jie, what to do, he's so filthy..." Xiao Ming was very disgusted by the muddy boy and his outrageous smell.
"Can we pass this task to someone else ugh... Wait.. Oh!"
"Are you thinking what i'm thinking?"
"Yes!"
The both of them smirked meaningfully and thus they approached an idle An Xiao. An Xiao was startled by the unknown boy, however she wasn't repulsed and instead felt pity.
"Hey, filthy vixen.. I saw you were dying to help at something right?" Xiao Meng asked in a cocky and condescending manner.
An Xiao felt bitter by being addressed with curse words, however she was helpless and just had to ignore it by pretending as though she didn't mind. Although suspicious, she still had to reply, "Yes.. Is there anything.. I could help with?" she was afraid in case they give a task intended to bully her.
"Give this boy a bath," Xiao Meng smirked and shoved the boy unto An Xiao then left quickly before she got to protest.
Contrary to their expectation, actually An Xiao didn't mind to do it at all. Before she acquainted Qing Rui, An Xiao was a simple medicine peddler with a lot of poor filthy commoner in her surrounding. She often got to play and bathe with her neighbor's children until she was given a luxurious house in a good location by Qing Rui.
The pitiful boy in front of her seemed clueless, thus An Xiao smiled and took his skinny hands gently, "Shall we go?"
With a tiny raspy voice, he asked in discomfort, ".. W-where to?"
"To bathe!"
An Xiao cheerfully led the boy away to the riverside after taking out her bathing set and a box of medicines. From the moment An Xiao saw the boy, she already felt pitiful. And after bathing him, she felt even more sympathetic. The boy wasn't just skin and bones, he was also covered with scabbed wounds, bruises, and numerous small scars. He even has new injuries which had just started to scab a little. And the one which attracted most attention is obviously his missing eye, which probably just being left like that after his eye was gouged out.
Feeling pitiful, An Xiao bathed and dried him gently. Aspiring to be a skillful physician, she cleaned and applied essential medicine for each of his wounds all over his body then bandaged some of them, including his missing eye.
"An Xiao?" Yamato suddenly appeared from the side. He was startled to found that the one bathing the boy weren't his maids.
"Oh! H-Her highness!" flustered, An Xiao immediately kowtowed.
Looking at the bandage she hadn't finished to wrap, Yamato sighed, "Rise, continue what you were doing."
"U-understood!"
An Xiao continued wrapping bandage while basking in cold sweat. She was very nervous and perplexed as to why Ren Xiu was watching beside them while making herself comfortable by sitting on a boulder.
After she was done, she felt satisfied and proud with her neat work. When she was about to dress the boy back with his filthy clothes, Yamato threw something light and fluttering unto her, making her catch it in a fluster.
"Dress him with it," Yamato stated concisely.
An Xiao stared at the black lump of garment in her hand. She spread it out and found an exquisite small robe that seemed to fit the boy. An Xiao had no idea how Ren Xiu acquired it, however she sticked to the order and dressed the boy with that black robe.
The boy didn't change drastically, however he was now undoubtedly cleaner and fresher.
Yamato nodded in satisfaction, "Thank you for your hard work," then he took the boy away, ignoring the speechless An Xiao.
Getting back to Qing Youya and Qing Lian, Yamato ordered the boy to sit there as well.
Sitting beside Qing Lian himself, Yamato revealed a begging face with puppy eyes, "Your highness.. i'm so sorry.. Will you forgive me? Even though i said it was for you, i ended up giving two to someone else." Yamato didn't like crossing his own words.
Qing Lian widened her eyes because she didn't expect Ren Xiu to apologize seriously. When her brother Qing Rui broke a promise to her, he would only say a simple 'sorry' as though to brush it off, without caring whether Qing Lian forgave him or not. Hence the puppy eyes Ren Xiu made to beg for her forgiveness struck her heartstring. Actually she intended to sulk and ignore Ren Xiu for some time, but her heart can't bear to do it anymore.
Qing Lian heaved a sigh and lifted the corner of her lips, feeling helpless, "It's alright, the boy was starving, i could understand." Qing Lian was afterall soft at heart.
Feeling relieved, Yamato hugged the princess gently and stroked her head, "Thank you your highness, you're so kind and understanding."
Suddenly, Qing Youya's cold voice cut in, "So, who are you?"
The question was directed at the dazed boy. It took some second for him to realize that he was the one being questioned, then he replied with a raspy voice, "Yun'er."
Qing Youya, "Is that what your parents called you?"
The boy nodded innocently.
"Then where are they?"
Upon processing this question, Yun's face turned pale, then red from rage, then pale again. His small sunken face expressed so many emotions that it was hard to even see it. From his expressions, everyone present could tell that he had gone through a lot, yet no one could imagine what a child that small could possibly experience to make those faces.
"Is it something you can't tell us?" Yamato approached Yun and stroked his small back gently.
Yun stared at the ground, he wanted to answer to people that treated him nicely. Refusing to look at anyone, he answered with a voice barely audible, "They're dead."
Actually they had already expected the answer, and just confirming the truth. Yamato continued to stroke his back in an attempt to comfort the boy. Meanwhile Qing Lian felt sympathetic and gave him the osmanthus cake she had saved.
Anyone would know that the deaths of his parents wouldn't be simple after seeing his previously changing expression, but Qing Youya actually realized more than that. The boy's hollow eye socket was smeared with thick yin energy, which only means something bad.
"Did they do anything to you before their deaths?" Qing Youya asked indifferently with his trademark mild fake smile.
"Brother!" Qing Lian shushed, feeling angry of his insensitive question.
"They do.." unexpectedly, Yun answered while knitting his brows and gritting his teeth, "They.. Gouged out my eyes.. Locked me.. Hit me.. Yell at me.. Starve me.. Then hit me again..." he bit his lower lip bitterly.
Yamato hugged the boy while Qing Lian began to be teary eyed. However Qing Youya wasn't satisfied at the answer. Because such ordinary abuse won't make a child's eye full of Yin energy.
"Then how did they die?"
"Brother!!!" Qing Lian glared.
Yun's face paled considerably, he began to tremble and his breath hitched, his eye were overflowing with fear as though remembering his most frightening nightmare.
Yamato quickly stuffed the boy in his embrace and stroked his back incessantly, trying his best to calm him down. Qing Lian also tried to stroke Yun's head. While Qing Youya remained calm with his own questions and conclusions inside his head.
The party eventually tidy up their stuff and cleared the riverside out of their traces and continued the journey. Yamato couldn't bear to leave Yun in that place alone, hence he brought the boy with him. Qing Lian didn't complain as she was also feeling sympathetic, while Qing Youya didn't mind as long as the boy won't disturb him.
In the carriage, Yun sat on Wang Li's lap. Although beside him Qing Lian was also sitting on Ren Xiu's lap, Yun still felt restless to sit on some unfamiliar woman's lap.
Wang Li stared a the stiff boy, ".. You're so small, just like my husband's thing and guts."
"Pffft! Hahhhahahahaha!" Yamato burst out laughing. He couldn't believe that the silent Wang Li just blurted out her jokes quota out of the blue with her unchanging flat expression, and a dirty joke to boot.
In his previous life, never even once Qing Youya heard Wang Li joked. He was surprised, and he didn't expect that a joke with flat tone and face would turn out funny, precisely the attempt itself was funny instead. However he was trying his best to suppress his chuckling, because it wasn't appropriate for a child his age to laugh right now.
Qing Lian and Yun were puzzled.
Qing Lian, "W-what's funny Xiu Jie?"
Yamato ceased his laughing, "You will laugh when you remember this after you're old enough."