"Daddy, we want one too, we want a lantern, the lanterns are pretty, Mommy’s lantern is pretty, prettier than all the others." All four children seemed especially eager to have lanterns.
Xiao Changyi had not yet answered whether he would give the four little ones lanterns, when An Jing, utterly smug, lifted her chin and declared, "Of course! Your dad was able to get such a one only because he guessed all the riddle lanterns correctly!"
Under the glow of the lanterns, in Xiao Changyi’s eyes, An Jing, who was showing a smug expression at this moment, was incomparably beautiful.
Unintentionally, his cool eyes softened.
Standing beside An Jing, Tobanya wore a faint smile on her face. It was hard to tell if it was envy, but deep inside, she was indeed very envious. Whether it was when they first met or now, Prince Yi had always cherished Princess Yi deep in his bones.
Meng Zhuqing stood on the other side of Tobanya, and nearly all his attention was devoted to ensuring their surroundings were safe, only occasionally glancing at Tobanya.
After all, he looked at Tobanya less often than she looked at him.
"Daddy, we want lanterns, we want..." Seeing that Xiao Changyi still had not given them lanterns, and An Jing was flaunting her very pretty lantern, the four little ones became even more anxious and more insistent with Xiao Changyi, hoping Xiao Changyi would give them lanterns.
Since this outing was meant for fun, and the lanterns were not very expensive, Xiao Changyi bought four small lanterns shaped like tigers, letting each of the little ones hold one.
The children were holding them and were happy to have the lanterns, but Su Yixing, the little one, was somewhat puzzled: "Daddy, you didn’t pay for Mom’s, why did you pay for these?"
Xiao Changyi said, "The previous one was given to Dad because he guessed the riddle correctly, and this one Dad bought."
Su Yixing immediately said, "Can’t Daddy guess more riddles?"
An Jing laughed, "Star, are you being stingy?"
Su Yixing’s face was all puzzled, "What’s stingy?"
An Jing simply explained, "Reluctant to spend money."
Su Yixing, ever so innocent, said, "When you can get it for free, why spend the money?"
"Seems like it..." An Jing suddenly didn’t know what else to say.
But Xiao Changyi said, "Dad doesn’t want to guess any more riddles."
"Why don’t you want to guess anymore?" At that moment, Su Yixing was a very curious baby.
Xiao Changyi coolly said, "Don’t want to just means don’t want to, there aren’t so many whys."
Su Yixing then no longer asked, joyfully holding his little lantern and playing and frolicking with his siblings.
But An Jing moved closer to Xiao Changyi and softly asked with a smile, "Truly no reason?"
Xiao Changyi said, "There is."
Xiao Changyi didn’t answer but looked at her and countered, "Don’t you know?"
"I know," An Jing said with a laugh, radiating happiness, "but I just wanted to hear you say it."
Then Xiao Changyi said, "You." He only wanted to guess the lantern riddle for her.
"Mmm-hmm~" An Jing was like she was soaking in a jar of honey, her smile extraordinarily sweet.
The corners of Xiao Changyi’s mouth lifted almost imperceptibly.
"Let’s go, let’s have a look over there, many people are releasing Lotus Lanterns, it’s really beautiful."
Not far away, many people were releasing Lotus Lanterns into the river. As soon as An Jing saw them, she wanted to go over and have a look.
"Hmm." Xiao Changyi had no objections.
Following that, An Jing and Xiao Changyi, hand-in-hand with the four children, went to the riverbank to watch people release Lotus Lanterns.
Meng Zhuqing was following behind An Jing and Xiao Changyi. While walking, he realized Tobanya was missing, immediately panicked, and turned back to search for her.