Allure of a Country Maiden
Chapter 806 - 804_1

Chapter 806: Chapter 804_1

"Escaped? My goodness! Aren’t you a bailiff? How could you let the thief escape! He stole my purse; the silver inside was meant for my mother-in-law’s medicine, a full tael of silver! What should I do now? If my husband finds out I’ve lost this silver, he’ll surely kill me!" The woman burst into tears upon hearing Jiang Yuheng’s words.

Jiang Yuheng felt a pang of guilt. Arresting thieves was part of his job, but he had let one escape earlier due to the sudden return of a fragment of his memory. This resulted in the woman losing a tael of silver. Looking at her apparel, her blue coarse cloth dress had been faded from multiple washes and was patched all around. It was evident she didn’t lead an easy life. He took out a tael of silver from his pocket and handed it to her. "Take it to buy medicine."

The woman paused in the act of wiping her tears, "I can’t accept this."

"It’s fine. I remember the thief’s face. I will get the silver back from him once I catch him," Jiang Yuheng reassured her, although he knew that even if he managed to get his hands on the thief again, there would be no guarantee of getting the silver back. Besides, even if he did, he would have to return it to the original owner.

Listening to his words, the woman’s sobbing ceased. She hesitated before reaching out to accept the silver, and then, with deep bows and gratitude, thanked him, "Thank you, sir, thank you."

Jiang Yuheng shook his head, then walked away with large strides. He spent the day patrolling the streets before returning home that night. After dinner, he washed up and went to sleep, where he had many dreams.

He dreamed about the first time he saw the Fifth Princess in the Imperial Garden. After finishing his studies in the south study room, he lingered around the garden until his father and the king finished their talks.

Suddenly, he heard a soft voice directing several maids scurrying around.

"Be quick! Add more straw. My second brother said a chicken’s nest should be both warm and soft," the Fifth Princess was instructing her maids, helping her construct a chicken’s nest.

Jiang Yuheng climbed a tree to get a better view, curious about what was happening.

A finely dressed young girl was seen, directing several maids in arranging a nest made of straw.

"Nanny, it needs to look pretty. Go get some cloth. With an ugly nest like this, the chicks would be afraid to hatch," the Princess’s voice echoed.

The nanny replied to one of the maids on hearing this, "Cai Xia, go and fetch some spare pieces of cloth."

"And get a cotton blanket too!" the Fifth Princess added.

"Fetch some cotton," the nanny corrected.

"Understood," Cai Xia acquiesced, gave a bow, and left to fetch the items.

When Cai Xia returned with some pieces of cloth and cotton, after another round of busy arrangement, the nest was finally ready. The little princess was somewhat satisfied with the nest covered with cotton and pink brocade: such a cozy and comfortable nest should allow the chicks to hatch quickly. The idea of having chicks around to play with made the princess impatient as she exclaimed: "Hurry and place the eggs. I want to hatch chicks!"

Jiang Yuheng, without giving it much thought, simply assumed that the young princess was curiously watching the hen incubating her eggs. He couldn’t predict the scene to follow and unexpected as it was, he fell right off the tree in surprise.

The maids placed ten eggs neatly in the nest. The young princess then sent the maids away: "You may leave now. My second brother said when a chick is being hatched, no noise should be made or else the baby chickens would be scared off."

The maids looked at each other. Without a hen, how could the eggs hatch?

Observing this, the nanny stepped in, "Fifth Princess, without a hen, you won’t be able to hatch a chicken."

"Who says there is no hen? I am acting as the hen. You all may leave now," the princess declared and directly sat on top of the ten eggs that were neatly arranged in the nest.

Before the nanny and maids could react and prevent it, they heard a "pop, pop, pop..." several times, the sound of eggshells breaking. An unknowing person might think that the chicks were hatching.

The three-year-old Fifth Princess felt something wet on her bottom but she knew she hadn’t wet herself. She touched her bottom and felt a slippery substance, unaware of what it was. On bringing it into view, she noticed it was yellow, just like the excreta of her little brother, the Sixth Prince. "Ew! Poop! The chick has pooped on me! I need to clean it up, fast. Wuhu... so dirty! Wuhu..."

The three-year-old princess hadn’t ever seen the inside of an egg before, but she had seen her brother’s diaper change and the poop on the diaper looked like the yellow substance on her hand. Her second brother had told her that chicks hatched from eggs, so it must be the poop that the chick passed inside the egg.

Why did the Fifth Princess want to hatch eggs after all?

Shangguan Xuanhao, carrying his little sister, had visited Prince An’s residence to watch Prince An and the Duke compete in cockfighting.

At that time, the Fifth Princess curiously asked, "Second brother, where do these chickens come from?"

"They are hatched from eggs laid by hens."

Fifth Princess: "How does the hatching happen?"

Shangguan Xuanhao: "The hen sits on the eggs and they hatch into chickens."

Fifth Princess: "That simple? Could I hatch a chicken too then?"

Shangguan Xuanhao: "If you can sit on the eggs like a hen, you should be able to hatch them!"

Thinking that hatching eggs was as straightforward as sitting on them seemed simple enough to the princess. Thus she decided to hatch a chick herself. She would hatch her own chick, even raise them to cockfight!

She even asked her second brother about where hens hatch their eggs and he told her that hens hatch in a nest that is warm and soft. This led to the present scene of the Fifth Princess sobbing heavily after her failed attempt to hatch an egg.

"Wuhu... Father... I want to bathe... I don’t want chicken poop on me... wuhu..."

The nanny quickly pacified her, "Fifth Princess, don’t panic, that is the egg yolk, not poop. Nanny will take you to have a bath immediately!"

Having said that, the nanny carried the Fifth Princess towards the bathhouse.

The maids rushed to prepare hot water.

The sight of the Fifth Princess sitting on the eggs made Jiang Yuheng, who was six years old, laugh out loud before he lost his balance and fell off the tree.

However, since he began to practice martial arts at the age of four and started horse stance at the age of three, he didn’t get injured falling off the tree. He just lay on the soft grass, holding his stomach, and laughed. The maids were too busy to notice Jiang Yuheng not too far away, with the sobbing Fifth Princess. Nevertheless, from that point on, Jiang Yuheng’s impression of the younger princess trying to hatch a chick had been ingrained deeply.

This scene in Jiang Yuheng’s dream faded, replaced by many others. He dreamt of times when he and the Fifth Princess were together, when he was reprimanded by the tutor in the south study room, of him getting up to practice martial arts in the wee hours undeterred by cold or fatigue... Numerous scenes from his sixteen years of life flashed before his eyes.

...

He dreamt of himself at fourteen, achieving fame in his first battle alongside his father, earning him the title of the young general. The king betrothed the Fifth Princess to him, and he spent the entire night awake in excitement.

He also dreamt of when he was sixteen and went to war with his father again. This time, his younger brother, uncle, and cousin joined as well—every male from the Duke of Zhen’s mansion apart from the still-young Jiang Weijia went to the battlefield.