“Ling Xueying!” An enraged roar echoed from the front courtyard. Xueying, who was enjoying tea and bonding with her mother-in-law in the hall, suddenly choked. Yun Moxin, concerned for her daughter-in-law, quickly moved to pat her back.
As Ning Fei stormed into the hall like a raging fire, four accusing gazes turned towards him simultaneously. Ning Fei halted his steps and laughed nervously, “Mother, you’re here…”
“Of course, I’m here!” Yun Moxin’s eyebrows shot up. “Your father was just saying the other day that you’ve become more sensible since getting married. It seems you’ve only been putting on a show.” While scolding her son, she didn’t forget to comfort her daughter-in-law, “Don’t worry, Xueying. Today, I’ll make sure justice is served for you.”
Ning Fei almost howled to the heavens. His mother, who seemed to favor her daughter-in-law over her son, was already taking sides without even asking for the reason. If this continued, he feared Xueying could point at a water buffalo and call it a mountain goat, and his mother would nod in agreement and applaud enthusiastically.
Determined, Ning Fei turned and shouted towards the outside, “Come in now!”
Under everyone’s watchful eyes, a pretty young lady with delicate features shuffled in from the outer room, dragging her skirts. Yun Moxin’s eyes lit up, and she almost ran forward, “Whose young miss is this? She’s so beautiful!”
“Mother…” Ning Fei covered his face in defeat. “Please look more carefully at who this is…”
After staring intently for a while, Yun Moxin hesitantly raised her head and asked, “Is this Rui’er?”
“That’s right,” Ning Fei said, his face dark as he glanced at the innocent-looking Xueying. Today was his son’s second day at the academy. If he hadn’t had the sudden urge to send his son there himself, the next generation of the Ning family might have been ruined at her hands. “Xueying dressed him up like this…”
“Oh my!” Yun Moxin interrupted Ning Fei’s accusation with a delighted expression. “I never knew little Rui could look so good when dressed up!”
“Mother…” Ning Fei’s teeth gritted audibly. “Xiao Rui is a boy. How can we let him wear a dress!”
“He’s just a child. What’s the harm?” Yun Moxin crouched down and hugged her grandson, lovingly looking him up and down. “You used to dress like this when you were little too…”
“Really?” Xueying exclaimed in surprise, covering her mouth. “Ning Fei wore dresses when he was little?”
“Of course,” Yun Moxin puffed up her chest proudly. “He took after me, and when he was dressed up as a child, he was so beautiful that the young masters from other families would flock to our house…”
Xueying held back her laughter as she glanced at the now petrified Ning Fei, and continued, “It’s hard to imagine what he looked like back then.”
“Indeed,” Yun Moxin suddenly looked a bit dejected. “It’s all because his father indulged him in learning martial arts. In just a couple of years, his muscles became so coarse. Sometimes I regret it. If I had known he’d turn out like this, it would have been better to have a daughter — look at her smile, even with martial arts training, she wouldn’t have turned into such a brute.”
Ning Fei finally snapped out of his daze, his face burning with embarrassment. Still, he made a last attempt, “Even if I wore women’s clothes back then, it was unavoidable. But now, with me opposing it…” His voice suddenly caught in his throat as the two women in front of him glared at him menacingly. Ning Fei immediately deflated and quickly passed the question to his son, “Xiao Rui, you tell us, do you want to dress like this to go to the academy?”
Ning Xurui looked at the adults in front of him, clearly divided into two camps, and answered slowly, “No.”
Hearing his son’s answer, Ning Fei couldn’t help but look relieved. Yun Moxin, unwilling to give up, pressed on, “Why not? Doesn’t it look good?”
Ning Xurui thought for a moment, then shook his head. “It looks good.”
“Well, there you have it,” Yun Moxin looked at Ning Fei triumphantly. “If it looks good…”
“But,” Xurui continued, “Xiao Rui wants to be a man like Father when he grows up, so Xiao Rui wants to wear clothes like Father’s.”
“Good son!” Ning Fei laughed heartily. Xueying was stunned for a moment, then glared at Ning Fei angrily. “Did you teach Rui’er to say this?”
“No,” Ning Fei answered quickly. “I just told him to learn more from me…”
“Learn from him? What’s so good about that!” Xueying immediately turned her attack on Ning Fei. “Yesterday, I heard you telling him about how you led a team to divert the pursuers, ultimately ensuring the Emperor’s safe escape. Isn’t that right?” Seeing Xiao Rui nod, Xueying scoffed disdainfully. “He’s just boasting. If it weren’t for your Aunt Yixi and Uncle Feng, he’d still be eating leftovers in prison. Everyone else had already returned to the capital with the Emperor, and he was still running towards Lu City…”
“You ungrateful woman…” Ning Fei fumed, jumping up and down. “I had already received the news halfway there. If it weren’t for you being left behind in Lu City, I would have turned back and caught up with His Highness and the others long ago. Hmph, I don’t know who it was back then who put her son’s safety at risk just so she could go out and play…”
As the two of them argued more and more heatedly, Ning Xurui stood there dumbfounded. Suddenly, a pair of hands reached out from beside him, pulling him towards the hall door. “Rui’er, come on, it’s almost time. Let them argue. Grandmother will take you to the academy.”
“But I still need to change my clothes,” Ning Xurui looked down and tugged at his dress.
“Rui’er, you want to be as capable as your father when you grow up, right?” Yun Moxin’s eyes curved into a smile. “You just heard that Grandmother used to dress your father in dresses when he was little too. This is a secret of our family that can’t be shared with outsiders — the men of the Ning family who wear dresses as children will grow up to be…”
In the hall, the couple was still immersed in the joy of their verbal sparring, completely unaware that grandmother and grandson were whispering to each other as they walked further and further away.