Being told by a six or seven-year-old girl that she wanted to protect him, Li Nuo always felt a bit odd.
However, thinking about how she had stood up just now, Li Nuo was still slightly moved.
The thoughts of children are often the purest, and this adorable little girl truly treated him as a friend.
He smiled, showing he didn't mind, and said, "Let's continue kicking the shuttlecock."
"Okay!"
Song Mu'er nodded her head, tossed the shuttlecock over, and Li Nuo kicked it back with a spinning mid-air kick. Song Mu'er lightly jumped up, her little skirt twirling as well. Li Nuo didn't quite catch her movements, but the shuttlecock flew back to him.
Soon, Li Nuo discovered that the little girl was also a skilled shuttlecock kicker.
Not only did she kick quickly and accurately, but her movements were also extremely graceful. She learned quickly too. The moves Li Nuo unconsciously displayed, she soon replicated, kicking even better and more beautifully.
If Li Nuo guessed correctly, she must have had some training in Martial Path, as many of her movements were impossible for an ordinary person to perform.
Tonight, Song Mu'er was genuinely happy.
At home, apart from a few young maids, no one wanted to play with her, and those maids' skills were too poor, unable to return the shuttlecocks she kicked to them, unlike this big brother. The two of them kicked for a long time without letting the shuttlecock touch the ground even once.
"No more kicking, no more kicking..."
After a little while, Li Nuo stopped the shuttlecock with his foot, bent over, and panted, saying, "I can't kick anymore..."
The frailty of his body was beyond his expectations, and he still had a wound on his shoulder. Just kicking for a little while made the wound on his shoulder start to ache faintly. In contrast, the little girl, except for her messy hair, didn't even have a bead of sweat on her forehead, which made Li Nuo rather embarrassed.
"Alright..."
Although Song Mu'er still wanted to play a bit longer, seeing Li Nuo so tired, she obediently nodded, picked up the shuttlecock, and put it back in her little bag.
Her hair ribbon had come loose while they were kicking, and she couldn't tie it herself, so she looked to Li Nuo with a plea for help. Li Nuo took the hairband from her hand, about to tie her hair into a bun, when he touched her hair, countless hair-bun styles suddenly flashed through his mind.
Of course, these weren't Li Nuo's own memories. He looked again at the portrait of Zhang Xiaoyun on the Law Code.
He initially thought the Law Code would only allow him to master one skill of a criminal, such as the female assassin's calligraphy or the thief's stealing technique, but it seemed not as he had guessed. Kicking shuttlecock, tying hair, the skills of Assistant Minister Zheng's concubine—he had mastered two already.
The skills deemed noteworthy by the Law Code were extraordinary.
The calligraphy of the female assassin was praised by the Chang'an County Magistrate as "rarely matched."
And the goat-bearded man's Stealing Technique, even Housekeeper Wu and his wife from the fourth realm of the Martial Path were completely unaware, certainly a notch above other thieves.
As for the man named Cui Ze, due to being too mediocre, he didn't even qualify to have his portrait illuminated by the Law Code.
But Assistant Minister Zheng's concubine had two skills recognized by the Law Code, indicating that whether it was kicking shuttlecock or tying hair, she had reached the peak of her craft.
However, no matter what the skill, it would expire by this time tomorrow. Not wanting to waste the craftsmanship, Li Nuo said to Song Mu'er, "How about I tie a new bun for you? One prettier than the one before..."
What girl doesn't want to become more beautiful, even if she's only six years old?
Song Mu'er didn't doubt Li Nuo for a second, didn't even hesitate, and nodded repeatedly, "Yes, please..."
Li Nuo put the hairband aside and moved his hands swiftly in her hair. He didn't even need to look or think. It all seemed like muscle memory repeated thousands of times, and soon, a beautiful Fairy Bun appeared on Song Mu'er's head.
It must be said, a hairstyle greatly influences a person's appearance and aura.
Before, Song Mu'er looked just like a slightly pretty young lady of a noble family, but with a change in hairstyle, she suddenly exuded an air of nobility and etherealness. Her hair rings trembled slightly with her gentle movements. If she added some more hair ornaments, she would truly look like a little fairy.
Song Mu'er left Li Nuo and rushed back to her room impatiently to see her new bun. At that moment, Li Nuo also saw Song Jiaren and a beautiful woman walking towards them.
The woman was beautiful and looked in her early thirties, but from the crow's feet by her eyes, one could deduce that her real age was probably a bit older.
Song Jiaren brought the beautiful woman over to Li Nuo and said, "This is auntie, whom you have met."
Li Nuo bowed to the beautiful woman, and said, "Nice to meet you, auntie."
Old Mrs. Song had four sons and one daughter, the only daughter being Song Zhen, her third child.
The beautiful lady stared at Li Nuo, her eyes conveying astonishment and even more so, delight. She glanced at Song Jiaren and uncertainly asked, "Is he really not silly anymore?"
Song Jiaren nodded, judging from his behavior over the past couple of days, he indeed wasn't silly anymore.
Not only was he not silly, but one might even say he was smart.
Unable to contain herself, the beautiful lady stretched out her hand and pinched Li Nuo here, touched him there, all the while saying, "I knew it, how could the son of Li Xuanjing possibly be a fool..."
She tugged at Li Nuo's face, sighing, "Not to mention, he actually bears some resemblance to the charm your father had in his youth."
Li Nuo felt like a toy, being handled by others, and he couldn't even say anything since she was his elder. He could only awkwardly stand there.
What made it even worse was that the women in Daxia dressed openly, she wore a chest-high dress and wore a necklace around her neck. Below the necklace, half of her snow-white chest was visible, and standing so close to Li Nuo, he didn't even know where to look. While he tried to focus his sight, a strange thought crossed his mind, 'Folks say a niece follows her aunt, but my own wife doesn't resemble her at all...'
"I don't care, I don't care, I want it too!"
A girl's crying and wailing voice came from afar, drawing everyone's attention and providing Li Nuo with a much-needed escape. As the beautiful lady and his wife also turned their heads in that direction, Li Nuo exhaled in relief, stepped back to maintain a distance from the beautiful lady, and also turned to look.
Sitting on the ground crying was a little girl.
The little girl, about six or seven years old, looked adorable, crying and kicking her legs around.
Li Nuo glanced at the little girl's face and was slightly startled—it was Song Mu'er, the girl he had just played shuttlecock with. Oddly enough, the elaborate Fairy Bun he had just done for her had reverted back to her original twin buns...
His gaze moved once more, and he saw another girl standing beside the crying girl, hands on her hips, looking proud and noble in her Fairy Bun...
Why were there two Mu'ers?
Li Nuo was bewildered.
Now, the beautiful lady was already walking toward the crying girl, complaining as she went, "Who made Mu'er's hair so pretty, not realizing that Ning'er would surely throw a tantrum seeing it? Last time Mu'er was ill, even the medicine had to be divided equally into two bowls, what do we do now?"
Li Nuo understood, there weren't two Mu'ers— they were twins.
Being familiar with twins, Li Nuo knew it all too well.
His university supervisor had twins, and as a disciple, long-term worker, and nanny, Li Nuo sometimes had to take on the responsibility of taking the children to school.
With two children at home, attention must be paid to absolute equality. Especially in a twin household, that meant whatever one child had, the other must also have. Not just the same clothes or hair ornaments, but everything they eat or play with must also be identical. Even if one sister coughed and took a spoonful of cough syrup, the other had to take one too just to ensure fairness...
Any slight difference could turn the house upside down.
That experience alone made Li Nuo's head ache at the thought.
Had he known Mu'er had a twin sister, he would have never agreed to do her hair...
At that moment, Song Zhen approached the crying girl and said to a woman beside her, "Who did Mu'er's hair? Quick, make the same one for Ning'er. The Old Lady's birthday banquet is about to start, and we can't delay further..."
The woman looked at the maids around her and demanded, "Who did this?"
The Song Residence maids all shook their heads. They knew better than anyone the dynamics between the two young misses—they would never do such a thing.
Song Zhen waved her hand, saying, "Never mind who did it for now, just find someone who can create this hairstyle quickly for Ning'er or we're running out of time."
If she hadn't been a lady since childhood, she would have done it herself.
The maids exchanged looks, and finally, an elder maid spoke up, "Young Mistress, the Fairy Bun on Miss Mu'er is not a common one. The person who styled her hair made many intricate modifications to the traditional Fairy Bun, transforming it into something more stately and elegant with a graceful and noble aura. None of us know how to do that style..."
"To untie the bell, the person who tied it must be consulted," Song Zhen massaged her temples, crouched down, and with a smile said to the proud girl sporting the pretty bun, "Mu'er, tell Auntie, who did your hair so pretty?"
Song Mu'er hummed at the crying girl and turned her head away.
Ever since she was little, Ning'er had been trying to take everything from her, and she was not about to share Brother Nuo with her.
Brother Nuo could only do her hair, and Ning'er shouldn't even think about it!
At that moment, a guest among the crowd pointed in a direction and said, "I saw just now, it was that young master who styled Miss Mu'er's hair..."
The women immediately turned to look in the direction he pointed.
At the end of their gaze, a handsome young man was attempting to hide his body in the shadows...