"Why are you calling her āauntieā? You should be calling her āsisterā, as in Sister Dongyang."
Commandery Princess Dongyang was quite dissatisfied with the title āauntieā; she always felt it made her sound old.
"Are you sure you want to be called āsisterā?"
Yang Chuxia looked at her curiously, and without waiting for a response, she said, "If my son calls you āsisterā, then you would be of the same generation as him, and that means you would have to call me āauntieā. I donāt mind being promoted to an elder."
Commandery Princess Dongyang was conflicted and, finally, waved her hand weakly, "Fine, fine, āauntieā it is."
"Yangyang, little baby, do you want auntie to give you a hug?"
Dongyang smiled and reached out her hands toward Yangyang, but to her surprise, Yangyang placed his hands behind his back.
And with a cheerful shake of the head, he refused.
"Why? Why wonāt you let me hug you?" Commandery Princess Dongyang pouted, then suddenly said, "Oh, I guess you must be thinking I didnāt bring you a gift, right?"
Then she called out, "Su Ma, quickly bring out the gifts I prepared."
However, as soon as she finished speaking, she saw a contemptuous glint in Little Leleās eyes.
She seriously doubted her own vision. Was this really a child?
But when Su Ma brought in the gifts, she knew she hadnāt been seeing things.
She hadnāt prepared anything expensive, just some ordinary toys and other items sheād found amusing during her travels.
Yangyang was quite interested in her things, looking at this and that.
But Lele didnāt so much as glance at any of them.
Unwilling to give up, she picked out something very delicate and presented it to Lele, "Lele, do you think this is pretty? Itās a gift from me to you."
Lele looked up at her for a moment, then bowed his head again.
Without ever taking a glance at the item in her hand.
"He, he, he..." Commandery Princess Dongyangās eyes widened, "Yang Chuxia, your son is really too aloof, isnāt he?"
Yang Chuxia just laughed. Wow, you even know the term āaloofā.
"Lele, thank Auntie."
Little bun Lele still listened well to his mother and looked up at Dongyang, uttering just one word, "Thanks..."
That was it. He continued with his head down, focused on whatever he was doing, ignoring her so completely that Commandery Princess Dongyang couldnāt help but twitch her mouth.
After playing with the two little buns for a while, Commandery Princess Dongyang lost interest. Seeing she seemed tired, Yang Chuxia had someone take her to rest.
Then she arranged for the guards that Commandery Princess Dongyang brought with her.
Perhaps she really was exhausted from the journey, Commandery Princess Dongyang slept straight through to dinner time.
"Wow, so much delicious food!" Commandery Princess Dongyang couldnāt help but exclaim when she saw everything on the dinner table.
Yang Chuxia couldnāt help but mutter internally, youāre a commandery princess after all, do you have to act as if youāve never seen such food?
Before she could say anything, Dongyang said, "Donāt look at me like that, Iām very poor. Our tribe is very poor too."
"Could you be poorer than you already are?" Yang Chuxia couldnāt help her lip twitching. A commandery princess gets a stipend after all, did she think she was clueless?
"How could I not be poor?" Dongyang retorted, "Back where I come from, even though Iām a commandery princess, I canāt eat well or drink well every day. And about that stipend you mentioned? Itās hardly enough; I am definitely the poorest commandery princess in Great Zhou, without a doubt."
Yang Chuxia had never been to Yunnan in this world and didnāt know what kind of place it was, so she had no idea why it was so poor.