Chapter 11: Zhao Yan's Impulse (Seeking Recommendations and Favorites)

  Zhao Yan was passionately kissing a woman, although he couldn't see her face clearly in the dim light, but from the half-exposed curves under her thin clothes, it was clear that she was a stunning beauty. When they were both out of breath from kissing, Zhao Yan reluctantly pulled away from her red lips and gazed at her steadily, only to find that she looked like a mix between Chongqing's famous beauty, Cang Jie Jie, and the internet celebrity, Bo Xilai's sister-in-law, with a fiery figure that could ignite any man's desire.

  Just as Zhao Yan wanted to proceed with further in-depth discussion, she was stopped by this creature's smile. Then, all of a sudden, the creature gazed at Zhao Yan with its enchanting eyes and revealed a charming smile, slightly opening its red lips to say: "Woof! Woof! Woof!"

  "Ah~" Zhao Yan let out a terrified cry and jumped up from the bed, her forehead covered in cold sweat. She didn't expect to dream about monsters even when she was having a romantic dream. Why did this beautiful woman start barking like a dog?

  "Woof woof~" Before Zhao Yan could even catch his breath, a childish dog barking sound suddenly came from beside his pillow. It was only then that he discovered the little black dog that Xiao Douya had taken away last night had actually run onto his bed.

  "What the...?! Was it you I just kissed?!" Zhao Yan suddenly grabbed the little black dog, shaking it as he interrogated, because he felt a wet sensation on his face. Looking at the little black dog's pink tongue sticking out from time to time, Zhao Yan seemed to understand something and immediately felt nauseous, wanting to vomit and craving sour food.

  "Woof~" The little black dog probably thought Zhao Yan was playing with it, and let out a comfortable snore. Its two small black eyes narrowed, and at the same time, it stretched out its small pink tongue to lick the air, looking so spirited that it seemed to have recovered almost completely.

  "Hehe, Xiao Rou likes the Duke and came to wake you up herself this morning." Just then, Xiaodou entered with a basin of water for washing her face, smiling. Today, she was wearing a pink underskirt and had her hair styled in two adorable buns on either side of her head, making her look even more lovely and charming. If she were to appear online in the future, she might just earn herself the title of "National Little Sister".

  "Little Meatball? Is this the name you gave it?" Zhao Yan asked in surprise.

  "Yes, Duke, look at Little Meatball, he's all chubby and soft to the touch. What else could he be?" Xiaodouya put down the basin and took Little Meatball from Zhao Yan's hands, exclaiming with delight, seemingly very satisfied with the name she had given the little black dog.

  "But...” Zhao Yan had wanted to say that the little black dog was a Tibetan Mastiff, and it should have a more powerful name, such as its father's name, Bao Hu Er, which sounds fierce. But the little black dog is now called Xiao Rou Ding, which sounds like a dish, and is far inferior to Bao Hu Er. However, seeing Xiao Dou Ya's happy expression, Zhao Yan didn't say anything in the end. After all, a name is just a code, and Xiao Rou Ding himself didn't object, so he didn't need to worry about such trivial matters.

  Zhou Yan washed up under the care of Xiaodouya, and then went to the dining hall with a sullen face. Now he felt nauseous at the sight of green vegetables and tofu, let alone eating them. But if he didn't eat, he would be hungry after a while, and with Cao Ying supervising him, not eating was not an option.

  "Huh, there's an egg today!" Zhao Yan didn't expect that when he arrived at the cafeteria, he saw that there was an extra egg on the table for breakfast. This made him extremely delighted. Although in his previous life he wasn't particularly fond of eating eggs, after a month of eating only vegetables and tofu, having an egg to eat was a very happy thing.

  "The doctor has told us that after a month, we can improve our diet a bit. From then on, add an egg to each breakfast!" Cao Ying said voluntarily before Zhao Yan could ask any questions.

  "Haha, that's great, but boiled eggs aren't very tasty, can we have fried eggs instead?" Zhao Yan said with a smile as he sat down. People are always greedy, earlier he was already happy to have eggs to eat, but now he wanted fried eggs.

  For Zhao Yan's inch-by-inch demands, Cao Ying didn't take it to heart and continued eating her breakfast elegantly. This made Zhao Yan feel a bit bored, so he sat down to eat his own breakfast. Zhao Yan had a habit of saving the best for last when eating, and this time was no exception. He closed his eyes, stuffed the green vegetables and tofu into his stomach, finished the rice porridge, and only then began to savor the most delicious egg. When he took the first bite, a very satisfied expression appeared on his face. Zhao Yan could swear that this was probably the best-tasting egg he had ever eaten in his two lifetimes.

  Cao Ying looked at Zhao Yan, who was sitting opposite her with a satisfied expression on his face. Her eyes also showed a puzzled expression. A prince like him would actually show such an expression because of an egg? This made Cao Ying wonder how to evaluate Zhao Yan. Adding to the situation she got from Xiao Douya yesterday, Zhao Yan, who seemed useless in her eyes, surprisingly knew medicine and even gave Xiao Douya a mysterious soap that he somehow knew how to make. This suddenly made Cao Ying feel that the person in front of her was full of mysteries. What kind of person had she married?

  Zhao Yan was too busy enjoying his first egg in the Northern Song Dynasty to notice Cao Ying observing him. By the time he finished eating, Cao Ying had already come out of her contemplation and went back to work with Mu Xue and other maidservants. There were still many valuables in the Wang Mansion that hadn't been counted yet, so she wanted to take advantage of the rainy day to get them all accounted for.

  Zhao Yan also felt a bit bored, after dinner he stood in the corridor to watch the rain for a while. It's strange to say that since he crossed over, Kaifeng City has been raining for a month. Originally it was all light drizzle, but today it suddenly turned into heavy rain. Looking at the accumulated rainwater in the courtyard, Zhao Yan couldn't help but feel worried. You know, next to Kaifeng is the Yellow River, and the Yellow River is a famous overground river, with its surface higher than Kaifeng City by a large margin. If it rains too much and causes the Yellow River to burst its banks, the entire city of Kaifeng will be flooded. It's said that under the city of Kaifeng in later generations, there are six layers of ancient cities, one of which is the Northern Song Dynasty Kaifeng City where he currently resides.

  But now worrying about these is useless, can only hope that the heavens will give some face, absolutely cannot let the Yellow River burst its banks, after all floods do not recognize any kings.

  Zhao Yan returned to her room to rest, lying on the bed listening to the sound of rain outside. The more she listened, the more annoyed she became, and finally got up from the bed. Coincidentally, at this time Xiaodou came in to clean the room. In fact, there was nothing to clean, as Zhao Yan did not have a habit of throwing things around, and it was also raining outside, so there was no dust in the room. Therefore, Xiaodou simply wiped the floor with a rag a few times before preparing to leave.

  "Little Douya, do you have anything to do next?" Zhao Yan hurriedly stopped Little Douya and said. He really felt bored and wanted to find someone to talk to, and Little Douya was obviously the most suitable candidate.

  Upon hearing Zhao Yan's words, Xiao Douya tilted her head and thought for a moment before saying: "It seems like there isn't any, does the Duke have any orders?"

  "It's great that nothing is wrong, come sit down and chat with me. Being stuck in the room every day is really suffocating!" Zhao Yan said with great delight.

  "Okay, but I want to bring Xiao Rou over and the three of us can chat together." Xiaodouya said excitedly. Since yesterday, she had already dispelled her guard against Zhao Yan. As for Cao Ying's previous reminders to her, Xiaodouya had forgotten them long ago.

  "Alright...alright!" Zhao Yan looked at Xiaodouya bouncing away to hug Xiaoroutin with a somewhat depressed expression. Although he thought he and Xiaoroutin had no common language, he couldn't ruin a young girl's innocence.

  "Woof woof~" Xiaorou Ding, unlike Zhao Yan, was not narrow-minded. After being hugged by Xiaodou Ya, he immediately became excited and ran to Zhao Yan, wagging his tail and barking loudly. It seemed that he had a lot to say to Zhao Yan, but unfortunately, Zhao Yan didn't understand this foreign language.

  "County King, can you really make soap?" Xiaodouya asked anxiously as soon as she sat down.

  "Of course!" Zhao Yan puffed out his chest and said, "What's wrong, have you used up the soap I gave you?"

  "No... nothing!" Xiaodouya hastily waved her hand, but then felt a bit embarrassed and said, "But it's almost gone, yesterday Xue'er found out that I had soap, this dead girl is a big mouth, now the whole Wangfu knows that the slave was rewarded with soap by the king, so they all came to borrow from the slave, especially the wet nurse in charge of the kitchen, greasy every day, she washes once and it's like I washed ten times, now there's not much soap left."

  "Hahaha~" Zhao Yan burst out laughing upon hearing this, and after a while, she finally stopped laughing and said, "Little Douya, I'm not saying you're wrong, but soap is so expensive, couldn't you just not lend it?"

  "That's not possible, Xiao Douya has been without parents since childhood, and after entering the Cao residence, she often receives care from everyone, especially Nai Nang who treats me like her own daughter. She knows I have a big appetite, so she takes the initiative to do chores in the kitchen, every night leaving me some delicious food. Now that I've grown up, whatever good things I get, I must not forget to show filial piety to Nai Nang!" Xiao Douya said very seriously.

  Zhao Yan heard this and also gave a thumbs up to Xiao Douya, although Xiao Douya was greedy, timid, and sometimes careless, but she was a good girl who valued honor over wealth, which was enough to make people admire her.

  Although Xiaodouya is usually timid, she appears to be very lively in front of familiar people and talks a lot. Although what she says are all trivial matters, Zhao Yan listens with great interest and can even learn more about the customs and human feelings of Northern Song from these small things, which will also benefit his future interactions with others.

  Time slipped away unnoticed, the heavy rain outside turned into a gentle patter, and Xiao Douya, dressed in a pink skirt, sat by the window, holding adorable Xiao Rou in her arms. Her big eyes sparkled as she let out happy laughter from time to time. This made Zhao Yan suddenly feel that everything was so beautiful, and he even had an urge, not that kind of male urge, but rather the desire to pick up a brush and paint this beautiful scene before him. This was also his first time having such an urge since learning to paint.

  "Little bean sprout, sit here and don't move, I'll draw a portrait of you, okay?" Zhao Yan said very seriously.