Chapter 223 – The Foolish Prince Consort’s Farming Struggles – No Noise Allowed (06)
The night dew had soaked the little squirrel’s fur. It trickled down its head and hung from its eyelashes.
Bai Tang didn’t have time to wipe it off—he just blinked the droplets away.
Finally returning to the Gao residence, the little squirrel retraced its path and slipped into the room through the window crack.
He transformed back into human form, picked up the clothes from the floor, and started putting them on—when the door was suddenly flung open. Uncle Gao entered with a teary-eyed Gao Luo in tow.
“Wife~”
The moment Gao Luo saw that Bai Tang had returned, he joyfully broke free from Uncle Gao and ran to Bai Tang, wrapping his arms around him in a hug.
“W-Wife, I already apologized to Uncle Gao. I know I was wrong. Please don’t be mad at me…” Gao Luo choked up.
Bai Tang hadn’t expected that just a short outing would lead to all this drama. He quickly tried to soothe the clingy “human band-aid” stuck to him. “I just couldn’t sleep and went for a walk. I wasn’t going to leave.”
Gao Luo immediately brightened.
Gao Luo was easy to appease—but Uncle Gao was not.
In Uncle Gao’s eyes, running out in the middle of the night wearing only underclothes was no different than being naked. And if he had truly been walking in the courtyard, the Seventh Prince couldn’t have missed him when he came looking—after all, the residence wasn’t that big. Clearly, the boy was lying.
Whether this young man was really someone the Lin family had taken in was hard to say. Everything was based on what that Lin family girl had claimed. Uncle Gao knew their household was the wealthiest around—if someone with ill intent wanted to steal their property, and thought the Seventh Prince was the easiest target, it wouldn’t be surprising if they’d schemed to get close to him.
“Uncle Gao, my wife’s back!” Gao Luo happily shared the news.
But Uncle Gao’s sharp gaze cut through Bai Tang’s excuse. “Then how come neither the young master nor I saw you in the courtyard?”
Bai Tang wasn’t skilled at lying to begin with. Faced with Uncle Gao’s imposing presence, he almost cracked on the spot. The system voices buzzed in his head, offering advice.
“I-I went to the outhouse,” the boy said in a soft voice.
Though Gao Luo didn’t understand why Uncle Gao was so suspicious of his wife, he could sense the tense atmosphere. He stepped in front of Bai Tang and shielded him.
“Uncle Gao, I’m going to bed.”
Uncle Gao: …For some reason, he felt a little heartbroken.
In the end, Uncle Gao backed down first. Nothing was more important than the Seventh Prince. He decided to send the prince away tomorrow before interrogating Bai Tang again.
“Don’t even think about pulling any tricks. I’ll be watching you,” Uncle Gao warned. He had decided not to sleep tonight and would stand guard outside the room, just to see if anyone came to secretly meet with the young man.
After closing the door, Uncle Gao left. Now only Gao Luo and Bai Tang were left in the room.
Gao Luo noticed that Bai Tang wasn’t smiling anymore, and his face looked tired. He thought Uncle Gao’s words had hurt him and worried that Bai Tang might now be angry at him too.
Carefully, he lowered his hands and stood in front of Bai Tang like a child who’d done something wrong, nervously wringing his hands and not daring to speak.
Bai Tang was tired. He yawned and climbed onto the bed, getting ready to sleep.
Gao Luo remained silent, still standing there. Bai Tang looked at him in confusion. “Aren’t you sleepy, Ah Luo?”
Sleepy? Of course he was. He glanced at Bai Tang uneasily, too afraid to move.
“Come to bed~” the boy said, his soft voice like a piece of cotton candy.
Gao Luo lay down but kept a wide distance between them.
It must be because he hugged his wife to sleep last time that Bai Tang felt uncomfortable and couldn’t fall asleep—so he’d gone out to the courtyard in the middle of the night. He couldn’t let his wife be unhappy. He had to let him sleep well so he wouldn’t run away again.
Gao Luo lay on the very edge of the bed. Just one small move and he’d fall off. He turned on his side and stared at Bai Tang without blinking.
His wife was so beautiful~
Gao Luo watched as the boy yawned from sleepiness, tears welling at the corners of his eyes and wetting his curled eyelashes. Then he reached up and wiped them away—absolutely adorable.
“Ah Luo, aren’t you cold?”
Bai Tang noticed that Gao Luo had given all the blankets to him and was now shivering in the cold night air. He reached out and shared the blanket, covering Gao Luo with it.
Afraid that Bai Tang wouldn’t have enough space and might leave again, Gao Luo instinctively scooted back as Bai Tang leaned toward him. Then—
Thud.
With a loud sound, Gao Luo—a grown man—rolled right off the bed.
Sitting dazed on the floor, his expression was blank for a moment before turning to panic. He grabbed Bai Tang’s hand, pleading, “Please don’t go, okay? I’ll behave—I’ll listen to everything you say…”
Then, as if a thought suddenly struck him, he sprang back like he’d touched a spring.
“What’s wrong?” Bai Tang asked.
Gao Luo lowered his head and didn’t answer.
“The floor’s cold. Get up,” Bai Tang said again.
But Gao Luo still didn’t move.
“Didn’t you say you’d listen to everything I say? I’m telling you to get up, and you’re not listening. If you keep this up, I’m really going to get mad,” Bai Tang said, puffing out his cheeks.
The moment Gao Luo heard that Bai Tang might get angry, he immediately stood up from the floor. Barefoot, he stood at the edge of the bed, a look of grievance still on his face.
“Lie down and go to sleep.”
Bai Tang had to say it several times before Gao Luo reluctantly obeyed. Bai Tang was getting annoyed too—back in previous worlds, the male lead would always spoil him. But now that he’d turned silly, he didn’t seem to care at all.
Gao Luo lay beside Bai Tang, his heart full of sorrow.
He’d clearly been so obedient—hadn’t even done anything that would upset his wife—and yet Bai Tang was still angry?!
Though they were lying on the same bed, a large gap remained between them. It was no different from sleeping alone.
Bai Tang felt aggrieved too. He thought the male lead had changed. In the past, even if he had no memories in a new world, he would still dote on him. But in this world, all he got was a cold shoulder.
A tear silently slid from the corner of his eye. “Hic… hic…”
It had been a long time since Bai Tang cried, and once he started, he always got the hiccups.
When Gao Luo heard the boy’s hiccuping sobs, his heart twisted in pain. It felt like someone was cutting into it with a dull blade—slow, agonizing, unbearable.
“Don’t… don’t cry…”
Awkwardly, Gao Luo wiped Bai Tang’s tears. “Please don’t cry…” You’re crying so hard I feel like crying too.
“It’s your fault… you’re always making trouble… you don’t listen… hic…” Bai Tang was the type who couldn’t be comforted by the male lead—if anything, comforting only made it worse, because he cared too much…
“Wuuu wuuu…”
“There, there… don’t cry…”
Gao Luo gently rubbed the boy’s back. His tear-dampened chest tingled with a dull ache that spread all the way to his heart.
“I’m sorry…”
For a moment, Gao Luo’s eyes turned unusually clear. But a few seconds later, they returned to their innocent look—though the worry and heartache he felt for the boy were written plainly across his face.
Gradually, the crying faded, until finally it stopped.
The boy had been tired all day, then busy for half the night. After crying too, he finally curled up in a familiar embrace and fell asleep.
Gao Luo looked down. His wife had truly fallen asleep this time. He thought about the reason Bai Tang had gone out in the middle of the night and wanted to let go—but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
Faint tear tracks still lingered on the boy’s face. His eyes were tightly shut, and he slept quietly, resting against Gao Luo’s chest.
After hesitating for a long time, Gao Luo still didn’t let go of Bai Tang.
He just liked his wife. From the very first moment he laid eyes on Bai Tang, he had felt—this must be the one Uncle Gao talked about, the wife meant for him.
Uncle Gao had said: wives are to be cherished. The more they cry, the less you should let them go. Now that his wife was asleep and couldn’t speak, he should just follow what Uncle Gao had said before.
So, after giving himself a long mental pep talk, Gao Luo hugged Bai Tang close and slowly fell asleep too. Just before drifting off completely, one last thought floated through his mind: Tomorrow, I must wake up earlier than my wife. If I let go of him before he wakes up, he won’t be mad. Definitely.
The next day, driven by his determination to “wake up earlier than his wife,” Gao Luo stirred at the break of dawn. The sky was just beginning to lighten.
Wide awake and brimming with energy, he stared at the person in his arms. Hehehe, my wife is so beautiful.
As the saying goes, if someone stares at you long enough, you’ll feel it—even in your sleep.
Bai Tang felt as though a scorching gaze was fixed on him.
He slowly blinked open his eyes, groggy and half-awake. The moment Gao Luo saw that Bai Tang was waking up, he panicked and immediately shut his own eyes.
Wife didn’t see me. Wife didn’t see me. Wife didn’t see me…
Qiu’er: “Pfft. This dummy.”
Xiao A: “I actually think the male lead is pretty smart.”
The two systems discussed calmly in the white room, analyzing the situation.
Rubbing his eyes, Bai Tang’s voice was still husky with sleep. “Ah Luo, you’re already awake? Sleep a bit more…”
He mumbled a few words, then slipped his arms under Gao Luo’s armpits and hugged him, nestling into the most comfortable position against the man’s chest. Within moments, he was fast asleep again.
Gao Luo waited a long while, but the boy didn’t get angry. He felt Bai Tang shift slightly, and his whole body tensed—then slowly relaxed again, hoping his wife could sleep more comfortably.
He opened his eyes and pressed hard against his own rock-solid abs. Go down, go down… you’re poking my wife.
Gao Luo tried hard to flatten his abs, but—how could that possibly work?
Qiu’er took a sip of sticky rice porridge and said, “Honestly, the male lead being dumb is kind of fun.”
Xiao A replied, “I smell the scent of a scheme brewing…”
“What are you doing, h ’Luo?” Bai Tang asked in a low voice without opening his eyes.
Gao Luo had been moving too much. His “pillow” was practically squirming—no matter how tired Bai Tang was, that much movement was bound to wake him.
“I… I’m too hard. It won’t go down,” Gao Luo mumbled gloomily, having failed in his attempt to soften the muscles on his stomach. The frustration practically radiated off him.
“It’s not hard. It’s comfortable. Go to sleep.”
Bai Tang gave the firm “pillow” a light pat, then pulled Gao Luo’s fidgeting hand back and drifted off again. He was simply too tired—he’d only gotten about three hours of sleep the night before.
Well, if my wife says sleep, then sleep it is.
Receiving his wife’s “praise,” Gao Luo was delighted. He happily closed his eyes.
Then he opened them again—to sneak a peek at the boy snuggled in his arms, grinning like a fool. When Bai Tang’s expression shifted slightly, as if he might wake up, Gao Luo shut his eyes instantly and held his breath.
This happened several times. In the end, he couldn’t fall asleep again.
“Cock-a-doodle-doooo—!”
The sun had risen, and the rooster in the courtyard was crowing loudly.
Gao Luo quickly covered Bai Tang’s ears so the noise wouldn’t wake him.
But after several rounds of crowing, Gao Luo finally couldn’t take it anymore.
He gently moved Bai Tang’s head off his chest, tiptoed barefoot to the window, opened it, and shouted across to the rooster, “Shoo, shoo! Go away! You’re disturbing my wife’s sleep!”
Author’s Note:
Gao Luo: “You’re disturbing my wife’s sleep. Go away!”
The roosters penned in the chicken coop: “Where exactly are we supposed to go? Why don’t you open the gate first?!”