Looking at his adoptive son’s serious face, Marquis Jing’an’s newly mustered courage instantly dissipated. He coughed lightly: “Ahem, this father has urgent need of the privy. Let me go to the washroom first.”

Shao Mingyuan was stunned.

What difficult matter could make a father resort to a toilet escape? Could Marquis Jing’an’s residence be short of silver?

Before long, Marquis Jing’an dawdled back.

“Father, is there something troubling you? If you encounter difficulties, just tell your son. Whatever your son can handle, I’ll help you with.”

Marquis Jing’an nodded with a complex expression: “You’ll indeed have to rely on yourself for this.”

He still couldn’t bring himself to speak. He’d just give his son the manual directly.

Marquis Jing’an pulled a small booklet from his sleeve and stuffed it into Shao Mingyuan’s embrace: “If there’s anything you don’t understand, ask again. This father will head back first.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the old marquis turned and left. Because he moved too hastily, he nearly bumped into the door frame.

“Father, be careful.” Shao Mingyuan had no time to look at the booklet and hurriedly steadied Marquis Jing’an, once again escorting him out the door and into his carriage. Only after the carriage disappeared around the street corner did he turn back.

What had father given him?

Shao Mingyuan calmly pulled the small booklet from his embrace and saw it was wrapped in a brown paper cover. The cover looked hastily wrapped by someone who had never done fine work – it didn’t even have a title.

Shao Mingyuan grew even more curious. He reached out to flip it open, and his face immediately turned as red as a cooked shrimp.

The content was overwhelming – this single glance truly caught this older, unmarried man off guard.

“General, are you alright?” A nearby personal guard asked with concern, his eyes involuntarily glancing toward the small booklet in Shao Mingyuan’s hand.

Shao Mingyuan quickly closed the booklet and placed it in his embrace, coughing lightly: “It’s nothing.”

His chest felt like it held a furnace. Shao Mingyuan strode away with his long legs.

Two personal guards exchanged glances. One suddenly winked: “Guess what the General was holding?”

“Didn’t see it. Before I could get a good look, the General put it away.”

“Hehe, I know!”

At these words, several personal guards who had been listening with pricked ears also gathered around: “Tell us what it was! The General’s expression changed just now.”

“No way. You were even farther from the General than I was just now. I couldn’t see it, so how could you?”

“Don’t need to see it. Before my elder brother got married, I secretly saw one, also a small booklet this size, wrapped in a cover. So I knew what it was just by looking from afar.”

“Stop being mysterious and tell us already.”

“It’s— General!”

Everyone looked puzzled: “What do you mean by ‘General’?”

“Gen, General…”

Shao Mingyuan looked sternly at the gossiping personal guards: “Why did you stop talking?”

The guards were greatly shocked and quickly scattered to both sides, highlighting the unlucky fellow.

The unfortunate guard looked pitifully at the General.

“Go run one hundred laps around the training ground!”

“General!” You’re about to get married – how can you be so cold and heartless!

“Hmm?”

“This subordinate will go immediately!” The unlucky guard fled like smoke.

Shao Mingyuan glanced at the other guards, then turned and walked away with a stern face.

The guards who had escaped disaster quietly sighed in relief.

The General, walking ahead, paused, and without turning back, said flatly: “You go too. Run fifty laps!”

A bunch of idle troublemakers with nothing better to do – did they need to worry about such matters?

Shao Mingyuan returned to his living quarters, removed his shoes, sat on the heated kang, and took out the booklet to study it seriously.

In Yahe Courtyard of the Li residence, Lady He was similarly worried sick about her daughter’s pre-wedding education.

Her birth mother had died early, and her father, being a man, hadn’t thought of such things. She had married in confusion. At that time, the master was grieving his first wife’s death and rarely entered her chambers. It wasn’t until much later, after the master got drunk one night, that she finally understood what happened between husband and wife.

She naturally didn’t want her daughter to suffer what she had suffered. No matter what, she couldn’t let her daughter remain confused.

“Go invite Third Miss over.” Lady He instructed a maidservant to fetch Qiao Zhao, then thought for a moment and stood up. “Never mind, I’ll go myself.”

Hearing A’Zhu’s report, Qiao Zhao went out to greet her: “It’s cold – why did Mother come over?”

Lady He grasped Qiao Zhao’s hand and pulled her daughter inside: “Knowing it’s cold outside, why did you come out?”

Mother and daughter entered the inner room together, and A’Zhu served Lady He fragrant tea.

Lady He took the teacup and set it aside, smiling: “Zhaozhao, you’ll leave home tomorrow. Mother came to have an intimate talk with you.”

Qiao Zhao nodded to A’Zhu, who quietly withdrew.

Lady He looked intently at her daughter and sighed: “After tomorrow, my Zhaozhao will be an adult.”

Qiao Zhao lowered her lashes and smiled.

She roughly knew what mother meant by having an intimate talk.

Sure enough, Lady He soon pulled out a beautifully packaged small booklet from her embrace and placed it on the table.

Qiao Zhao quickly glanced at the booklet, her face warming slightly.

Still the familiar scenario, still the familiar booklet. Indeed, no matter how things changed, a mother’s pre-wedding education for her daughter would never change.

She was also experienced now. Perhaps she should just wait for mother to say a few words, then indicate she understood, saving mother the embarrassment.

Even now, Qiao Zhao remembered the scene when her birth mother Kou Shi had educated her the night before her wedding.

She and her mother had spent little time together. Though they were connected by blood, their relationship was quite distant, so one could imagine how awkward that scene had been.

“Zhaozhao, take a look.” Lady He calmly opened the booklet and pointed to the finely drawn illustrations, smiling: “I specially bought the most expensive one. Look how realistically it’s drawn.”

Qiao Zhao: “…” She was wrong. Though it was still the familiar scenario and booklet, mother had changed!

“This one won’t work, Zhaozhao. You absolutely cannot do this when the time comes – it’s not conducive to conception… Wait, you’re still young, getting pregnant too early isn’t good either…” Lady He quickly flipped through once, using a red brush to mark key points for her daughter. “Before you want children, you can consider what’s shown in these pages. When you want to conceive, you can use this…”

“Mother, why don’t you let me study it slowly instead?”

Lady He decisively refused: “How can that work? You’re still young – how could you understand by yourself? It’s most convenient for Mother to explain it carefully to you.”

Qiao Zhao helplessly rubbed her brow: “Mother, I understand it.”

If she didn’t understand tomorrow night, she could study it with Shao Mingyuan. Discussing this topic with my mother was truly rather awkward.

Lady He looked serious: “Zhaozhao, Mother knows you’re embarrassed. Mother understands, Mother knows, but you should still listen carefully.”

Qiao Zhao: “…”

A quarter hour later, Lady He finally stood up with satisfaction: “Alright, Mother will head back now. Keep these illustrations safe, and if there’s anything else you don’t understand, come ask Mother.”

Qiao Zhao breathed a great sigh of relief and hurriedly saw Lady He off.

The next day, Marquis Guanjun was taking a wife. All the people of the capital came out to watch the excitement. The bridal sedan was carried with music and fanfare to the main gate of the Li family’s West Residence.

Drum music sounded as the wedding procession joyfully entered the Li residence.

Looking at his properly dressed daughter, Li Guangwen suddenly felt somewhat uncomfortable.