Duoduo watched the Prince of Pingyang's spoon move from the table toward her.
Looking as if she were facing her doom, she picked up her bowl, ready to accept the Prince of Pingyang's feeding.
However, halfway there, the Prince of Pingyang's hand suddenly changed direction.
Duoduo watched helplessly as the Prince of Pingyang put the steamed egg custard into his own bowl, scooped it up, and ate it.
Duoduo blinked in a daze.
Suddenly, she understood.
Duoduo put down her bowl and stood up again.
She leaned over the table, picked up her spoon to scoop a large spoonful, and brought it right to the Prince of Pingyang's mouth.
"Daddy, eat!"
The Prince of Pingyang glanced at the spoon that was almost prying his lips apart, then raised his eyes to look at Duoduo.
He saw Duoduo looking at him with a face full of anticipation.
The Prince of Pingyang opened his mouth, and Duoduo stuffed the spoon inside.
Due to her uncoordinated movements, the spoon hit the Prince of Pingyang's teeth with a "clink."
The Prince of Pingyang reached out to take the spoon, but Duoduo held onto it tightly and refused to let go.
"Daddy, you helped me wash my hair yesterday, so today I'm feeding you!"
As she spoke, Duoduo scooped up another spoonful of egg custard and brought it to the Prince of Pingyang's lips.
The Prince of Pingyang kept his mouth shut, so Duoduo pushed the spoon a little further forward.
The egg custard on the spoon immediately smeared onto the Prince of Pingyang's upper lip.
Left with no choice, the Prince of Pingyang opened his mouth, and the spoonful of egg custard was fed to him.
To prevent Duoduo from feeding him again, the Prince of Pingyang quickly picked up some food with his chopsticks and put it into Duoduo's bowl.
"Eat up!"
Duoduo smiled obediently at the Prince of Pingyang.
"Thank you, Daddy!"
Duoduo also picked up the same dish and put it into the Prince of Pingyang's bowl.
The Prince of Pingyang was instantly stunned.
Just now, in his rush to stop Duoduo, he hadn't noticed what dish was at hand.
Only now did he see that it was celery, his least favorite food.
Duoduo put the celery into her mouth and chewed it with a loud crunching sound.
"Daddy, you eat up too!"
"You can't be a picky eater! Being a picky eater is bad for your health!"
The Prince of Pingyang's face darkened.
Duoduo was doing this on purpose!
The Prince of Pingyang stared at the celery in his bowl with deep resentment. He had clearly instructed the kitchen not to serve dishes he didn't eat.
How could there be a dish he disliked today?
The Prince of Pingyang looked at the dishes on the table, trying to come up with a countermeasure.
"Daddy, you're not thinking of secretly throwing it away, are you?"
Duoduo swallowed the celery in her mouth and looked at the Prince of Pingyang warily.
With a dark expression, the Prince of Pingyang put the celery into his mouth.
A strange smell immediately assaulted his senses.
The next second, the Prince of Pingyang wanted to spit it out.
"You can't spit it out. Chew it carefully, it's good for your health!"
Duoduo stared intently at the Prince of Pingyang's mouth.
The Prince of Pingyang chewed twice with the resolve of a martyr. As the strange taste spread in his mouth, his stomach began to churn.
Seeing Duoduo's supervising gaze, the Prince of Pingyang swallowed the celery whole.
"Wow, Daddy is so awesome!"
Duoduo clapped for her father.
The Prince of Pingyang took a sip of porridge, barely managing to suppress the lingering taste.
Looking at the jubilant Duoduo, he picked up his chopsticks.
The Prince of Pingyang put some food into Duoduo's bowl. "Eat."
Duoduo's initially happy expression collapsed the moment she saw the food in her bowl.
In the bowl were carrots, her least favorite food.
"Daddy, I don't like eating this!" Duoduo pleaded softly.
"You can't be a picky eater. Being a picky eater is bad for your health!"
The Prince of Pingyang returned Duoduo's exact words back to her.
Duoduo pouted.
Hmph! Daddy is so petty!
Duoduo stared at the carrots with deep resentment, imagining them to be her favorite piece of meat.
Duoduo quickly picked up the carrots and stuffed them into her mouth.
She chewed haphazardly a couple of times and tried to swallow them down.
"Chewing carefully and swallowing slowly is what's good for your health," the Prince of Pingyang said unhurriedly from the side.
Duoduo's little face immediately scrunched up.
Just as the Prince of Pingyang thought Duoduo would concede defeat, she puffed out her little chest.
"Right, Daddy is just caring about me!"
"I'm going to eat them all, and Daddy, you have to eat all the celery too!"
Duoduo stared at the Prince of Pingyang, chewing the carrots in her mouth vigorously as if demonstrating her resolve.
The Prince of Pingyang was stunned. He hadn't expected Duoduo to turn the tables on him.
He glanced at the plates.
In the dish with celery, the celery was just a garnish. There wasn't much, only about a dozen pieces.
But the plate with the carrots was a different story.
It was a plate of stir-fried carrots. Aside from a few garlic sprouts, it was mostly just carrots.
"Are you sure?"
The Prince of Pingyang looked at Duoduo with a half-smile.
Duoduo nodded with the resolve of a martyr. "I'm sure!"
"Alright! A gentleman's word..."
"...is a promise kept!" Duoduo finished the phrase.
The Prince of Pingyang placed the entire plate of carrots in front of Duoduo.
Then, he placed the plate of celery in front of himself.
The Prince of Pingyang picked up a piece of celery and put it into his mouth.
Suppressing the urge to gag, he chewed the celery rapidly.
Celery is a fibrous vegetable. When chewed, not only did it taste like grass, but the fibers remained in his mouth.
As the Prince of Pingyang ate, he felt as if he had turned into a cow grazing on grass.
He cast a sideways glance at Duoduo.
Duoduo was happily eating the carrots bite by bite.
The Prince of Pingyang was dumbfounded.
Could it be that Duoduo's dislike for carrots was all an act?
Was her goal all along to trick him into eating celery?
After observing for a while, the Prince of Pingyang noticed that as Duoduo ate, she would sometimes look like she wanted to gag.
However, she still worked hard to swallow the carrots in her mouth.
Then, she continued to eat the carrots from the plate.
Before long, the plate in front of her was already half empty.
The Prince of Pingyang looked thoughtful, and he too sped up his pace of eating the celery.
So what if he was eating grass? At least he had company, which made it seem not so unbearable.
After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, both Duoduo and the Prince of Pingyang put down their chopsticks.
The plate of celery in front of the Prince of Pingyang was completely clean.
Toward the end, the Prince of Pingyang had grown numb to it.
He just pretended he was eating grass; thinking about it that way made it slightly less nauseating.
Plus, there hadn't been much celery to begin with, so he eventually finished it off at a leisurely pace.
The plate in front of Duoduo was also empty.
She covered her mouth, suppressing the urge to throw up.
"Daddy, I want to eat mung bean cake!"
Duoduo pointed at the pastries on the table, asking the Prince of Pingyang for help.
The Prince of Pingyang placed the mung bean cake in front of her.
"Knowing you don't like it, you still forced yourself to eat it all. Are you silly?"
"Is it really that hard to admit defeat?"
Duoduo put the mung bean cake to her mouth and took a small bite.
The sweet richness of the mung bean cake melted in her mouth, washing away the taste of the carrots.
Duoduo was so satisfied that her eyes curved into little crescents.
She took small bites until she had eaten the entire piece of mung bean cake, and only then did she look at the Prince of Pingyang.
"Daddy, didn't you say that a person shouldn't have weaknesses?"
"And even more so, you should never let others know what your weaknesses are!"
"Now, I'm not afraid of eating carrots, and you're not afraid of eating celery either!"
