Chapter 386: Chapter 386 : The One-Month Celebration

After sixteen hours of painful labor, Song Wanrong successfully gave birth to a little girl.

Once the confinement period* was over, Juhua Palace opened its doors to welcome friends and visitors to the baby’s one-month celebration.

Seeing a chance to evaluate their flight skills, Zhang Fengxi put his sons to the test.

Zhang Mingrui and Xie Junjie quickly discovered that they flew a lot better when they did not have their father drilling stares at their back the entire time.

"Junjie, straight back," Zhang Fengxi tapped at his younger son’s back as he hovered next to Lei Zhen with Xiao Huang.

"Yes, Daddy," Xie Junjie straightened his posture at once.

"Mingrui, stop speeding up. You are not competing in a race," he then said as he tugged at Zhang Mingrui’s collar from behind.

"Yes, Daddy," Zhang Mingrui gasped as he pulled at Xiao Xiao’s reins to make him slow down.

Nevertheless, the flight went without a hitch and they arrived at Juhua Palace within an hour. Once the boys climbed off their mounts, Lei Zhen and Xiao Xiao were handed over to servants to attend their own party with other spiritual mounts.

Zhang Fengxi held his boys’ tiny hands, one boy at each side. They bounced happily as they headed toward the brightly decorated Juhua Palace.

Wu Shenxia was cradling her baby girl in her arms when Zhang Fengxi found her.

"Shenxia, congratulations," the alpha tiger said as he gave her a hug. "Now let me take a look at her."

"Thank you, Fengxi. Look, I am a father now. She is pretty, isn’t she? I think I have never seen anyone prettier than her."

"She is," Zhang Fengxi agreed.

"Daddy Daddy we also want to take a look," Mingrui protested with a pout.

Laughing, Wu Shenxia lowered herself to the boys’ eye level and put Wu Jiayi into her baby basket.

"Hello, Mingrui and Junjie. Say hello to Jiayi."

"Ooooh, a baby!"

"Is it a boy or a girl**?" Xie Junjie piped up.

"Jiayi from ’swimming in a pond brimming with a thousand luck’?" Zhang Fengxi asked.

"Correct." Wu Shenxia grinned. "I reckon that this beautiful one can use some luck to go with the beautiful face."

"Hahaha, have you two made some grand plans for her future?"

Wu Shenxia raised an eyebrow at Zhang Fengxi.

"Haven’t you heard? Your mother is looking to match her to either Mingrui or Junjie already."

Both alphas broke into booming waves of laughter.

"We don’t even know what they will differentiate into yet!"

"Silly them."

The smile dissipated from Zhang Fengxi’s face when he discovered that his sons already disappeared from his side.

Baby Jiayi was lying in her baby basket, accompanied by her wet nurse.

"Uh, where did my boys run off to?" Zhang Fengxi asked the wet nurse, who shook her head and said, "I am sorry, Your Highness, I have not seen them."

Wu Shenxia looked around in bewilderment. "I swear, they were just here. Weren’t they playing with Jiayi?"

Zhang Fengxi’s face darkened.

"I will go and find them."

"Fengxi, no need to be worried. No one will kidnap them from within the safe walls of my palace. Not under my watch."

Zhang Fengxi cut his friend a grin.

"I know. Maybe they are off to find some food. Jiayi is so adorable, my twins pale in comparison."

Wu Shenxia smiled and waved her hand at Zhang Fengxi as he left in a hurry to find his runaway twins.

After asking around for some time, Zhang Fengxi found the boys at Juhua Palace’s recently renovated garden.

They were surrounded by a lot of eager noble ladies, who each brought their offspring to introduce to the two little princes.

Lady Chun from Qingyuan Palace had her hands clamped around Xie Junjie’s arms as she spoke to him intently, "Little Prince Junjie, have you met my daughter? She is the most beautiful little girl across the nine layers of heaven at the moment. Don’t you think so?"

Lady Chun’s daughter was two years older than Xie Junjie. She stood timidly next to her mother as the latter hissed at her to move closer to Xie Junjie.

Ever the polite child, Xie Junjie readily agreed. "Yes, she is very beautiful."

On the other side, Zhang Mingrui was faced with a similar proposition.

Lady Wang from Xiyu Palace introduced her son as "the most beautiful heavenly creature that the realm had seen over the past 100 years".

As opposed to his sensible and delicate twin brother, this little tiger was very bold and uncouth. Zhang Mingrui frowned and innocently told the little boy without reservation, "My mother is a thousand times more beautiful than you."

Zhang Mingrui’s words caused the ladies’ faces to turn black from a mixture of shame and disappointment.

And then a high-pitched voice was heard and Lady Song fluttered over like the social butterfly she was.

"Aiyah, children are sometimes too honest," she laughed through her luxurious peacock fan.

"Ladies, no need to promote your children to Mingrui and Junjie directly. Let them get to know each other and play together, hohoho~!!!"

"Mother, what are you doing?" Zhang Fengxi asked in bewilderment.

"Why are you matchmaking Mingrui and Junjie to other children? They are only five years old!"

"Aiyah, Fengxi, what do you know?" Lady Song snapped at her son.

"Our Mingrui and Junjie are like two most exquisite pearls that hailed from the pond beneath the Tree of Life. Naturally, we need to find the highest bidders as soon as possible!"

"..."

Zhang Fengxi’s jaw dropped to the floor as he stared at his mother. Was his mother planning on selling the twins in the future, or what?

Before he said anything in retaliation, their attention was drawn by the late arrival of a guest.

"The Monkey King from the Monkey Mountain has arrived!"

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Author’s note :

*Chinese culture believes that following the birth of a child, both the mother and baby are in a weakened state, and vulnerable to diseases. Therefore, both mother and child are required to rest at home for one full month. During this so-called confinement period, the mother will eat special restorative foods such as nutritious broths to build up her health, cooked by others -- usually the mother or the mother-in-law. These will include specific foods that increase the yang energy, such as pigs’ feet, eggs, vinegar, and ginger to restore the balance of qi in the mother’s body.

**She and he are pronounced the same way in Chinese, thus Junjie did not know whether Jiayi was a boy or a girl from the adults’ conversation.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay