"Husband, he said he is your sworn brother..." An Jing didn’t say anything to Su Chengyu, just looked at Xiao Changyi.
Xiao Changyi’s face showed disgust, "It was his father who took advantage of my unconsciousness and forcibly recognized me as his sworn son."
Sworn son, that is, an adopted son.
An Jing: "..." Is it really okay for you to show such disdain for the current Emperor, especially when his own son—the Crown Prince—is standing right in front of you?
Indeed, the person who had come was the Crown Prince of Xiyun Kingdom, Su Chengyu.
Su Chengyu seemed accustomed to Xiao Changyi’s attitude and was not angry in the slightest. He even said with a gentle smile, "Brother Yi, don’t be childish. Although you were unconscious that day, I’ve already reported it to our ancestors, and you already share my father’s family name. You are my elder brother."
Xiao Changyi gave Su Chengyu a cold look, did not say anything, turned around, and pulled An Jing into the kitchen.
Su Chengyu was not annoyed at all. He followed Xiao Changyi and An Jing into the kitchen with a gentle smile, his steps neither hurried nor slow, exuding extreme composure and elegance.
Thinking that Wang Youbao himself was unwilling to enter the kitchen, An Jing assumed the Crown Prince would not enter either. She intended to ask Xiao Changyi to invite the guest to sit in the main room, but seeing Su Chengyu naturally follow them into the kitchen, she swallowed back the words that were almost on the tip of her tongue.
Meng Zhuqing and the others were standing guard at the kitchen door.
"Brother Yi, why bother coming back, sigh," Su Chengyu sighed as he looked around the kitchen. Life here was really too difficult.
Xiao Changyi remained silent, sitting in front of the stove and continuing to roast sweet potatoes for his wife.
It was An Jing who smiled and said, "To each their own."
Su Chengyu sighed again but did not dwell on the matter. Instead, he stood by the stove, watching Xiao Changyi roast the sweet potatoes.
An Jing offered him a small stool.
Su Chengyu first paused, then he took off his cloak, and immediately someone came in from outside to take the cloak away. After that, he sat down on the small stool.
Realizing that speaking with Xiao Changyi was like speaking to a wall, Su Chengyu did not address the wall any longer. Instead, he spoke to An Jing, "Sister-in-law, Brother Yi is roasting sweet potatoes, isn’t he?"
"Yes," An Jing nodded, "Farmer families usually rely on these to get through the cold winters." If not for sweet potatoes and potatoes, more people would starve in winter.
Su Chengyu lamented, "The hardships of the people... I hope that Xiyun Kingdom will have good weather for crops every year, and no more people will starve to death."
An Jing felt a touch of surprise in her heart; she had not expected the Crown Prince, still so young, to already be aware of the suffering of the common people.
Su Chengyu stared at the flames in the stove, lost in thought. After a long while, he finally said with a smile, "My father and I have tasted the fermented bean curd you made. It was very delicious, and the ricefield eel also had a good flavor. I really did not expect Brother Yi to not only be unrivaled in battle but also to have such a knack for pondering over food."
Finally, Xiao Changyi spoke up, "It wasn’t me who figured it out, it was my wife."
Hearing Xiao Changyi talk to him at such length, Su Chengyu was pleasantly surprised.
An Jing found Su Chengyu’s reaction amusing but said, "It’s also thanks to my husband allowing me to mess around with it."
Su Chengyu: "Then the grain rice...?"
An Jing laughed, "Naturally, my husband and I worked on it together. I wouldn’t have been able to do it by myself. At that time, I didn’t think too much about it, just wanted to make milling rice a bit quicker, to make our own work a little easier."
Su Chengyu, however, did not laugh. His face, as gentle as jade, grew somber, "Sister-in-law, you answer so readily. You must have already learned my identity, right?" He was not a fool, to still not realize it up until now.