When Xiao Yi saw the objects in his palm, he froze.
They turned out to be two tiny pinecones.
Xiao Yi couldn't help but think of the joke Li Jin had just told. He looked at Duoduo with profound meaning.
"Did you perhaps take a fall just now?"
Duoduo looked at Xiao Yi in astonishment. "Father, how did you guess?"
Xiao Yi looked at Duoduo with a complicated expression. "Did you fall out of a tree because you wanted these two pinecones?"
The expression on Duoduo's face grew even more surprised.
"Yes! The teacher said that little squirrels really love to eat these pinecones."
"I just wanted to take a look. Then, I picked one, and ended up seeing another."
"Because I was too greedy, I ended up falling down!"
"Fortunately, the teacher caught me, otherwise..."
Duoduo stuck out her tongue in sheer embarrassment.
"No making faces," Xiao Yi said with a stern face. "Don't climb trees next time!"
Duoduo defended herself, "I was just curious. There won't be a next time."
"Father, look, this pinecone is so prickly. Little squirrels are so cute, how can they eat it?"
Xiao Yi frowned as he looked at the pinecone in his hand. This thing is edible?
Duoduo broke into a smile. "Father, you don't know either, do you?"
"I asked the teacher, and he said there are pine nuts inside the pinecone."
"Little squirrels eat the meat inside the pine nuts! They don't eat the pinecone itself!"
Seeing that her father didn't know, Duoduo happily began to educate him.
"He certainly knows a lot," Xiao Yi scoffed.
"The teacher doesn't know as much as you do, Father," Duoduo said with absolute certainty, causing the corners of Xiao Yi's lips to curl up.
"Alright, Li Jin is bringing the food over. After we eat, we will set off."
Xiao Yi saw Li Jin carrying the dishes and walking toward them.
"Oh! Time to eat!"
Duoduo clapped her hands happily.
Once the food was laid out, Duoduo placed the boiled eggs in front of Xiao Yi.
"Father, eat the eggs!"
Xiao Yi raised an eyebrow and took one.
"You guys share the rest."
Li Jin smiled and shook his head. "Never mind, we will eat the meat. The eggs are a gift to you from the Princess."
Xiao Yi cracked open a wild egg and ate it in silence.
The wild eggs were very small; even if it were Duoduo eating them, she could practically finish one in two bites.
However, Xiao Yi took tiny bites, eating it in a dozen or so nibbles before finishing it.
After he finished it, he didn't eat any more eggs, but instead started eating the other dishes.
As Duoduo ate, she would steal a glance at Xiao Yi one moment, and look at Li Jin the next.
Li Jin smiled and shook his head at her.
Duoduo lowered her eyes and focused on eating.
"Father, can we go hunting again later?" Yingniang asked while gnawing on some chicken.
Li Jin glanced at Xiao Yi and shook his head.
"No, have you forgotten what our purpose is?"
"If you want to hunt, wait until we reach the capital, and then Father will take you out of the city to hunt."
"Duoduo, we can go together again then!" Yingniang excitedly invited Duoduo.
"Okay," Duoduo nodded.
"Princess, Yingniang, this afternoon you will share a carriage with me. We will begin our lessons."
Upon hearing this, Yingniang instantly felt that the chicken in her mouth had lost its flavor.
"Father, how about we start tomorrow instead?" she suggested in a low voice.
"No, because the previous classes were given to Master Zhang, the lessons on my end have already fallen far behind."
"We should strive to finish learning early, lest the latter part of the journey becomes too exhausting to study."
Li Jin understood all too well that right now, at the beginning of the journey, everything was still fresh.
Studying now was the best time.
Duoduo nodded. "Teacher, I will do it. Sister doesn't have to."
Duoduo knew how discouraging it was for Yingniang to accompany her to class every day.
Hearing Duoduo speak up for her, Yingniang suddenly didn't feel that studying was so difficult anymore.
"Duoduo, since you are going to study, I will accompany you!"
"I am your study companion, how could I slack off!" Yingniang patted her chest.
Li Jin smiled; this was exactly the effect he wanted.
A moment later, Xiao Yi put down his chopsticks, and the others also stopped eating.
Li Jin looked at the unfinished food on the table. "Take these leftovers and distribute them among the guards."
Li Jin stood up and was just about to pick up the food from the table.
He saw Xiao Yi reach out, take all the remaining wild eggs from the table, and put them into his sleeve.
Li Jin was just about to make a teasing remark when he saw Xu Jinxin winking at him.
He turned his head and saw that, because of Xiao Yi's actions, Duoduo was smiling so widely that her eyes curved into crescents and her little baby teeth were showing.
Thus, everyone tacitly chose to pretend they hadn't seen a thing.
Once everything was packed up, the carriages moved forward again.
Duoduo and Yingniang sat in the first carriage.
Li Jin was not in a hurry to start the lesson; instead, he told Duoduo and Yingniang about the local customs and unique features of various places.
Not only Duoduo and Yingniang, but even Xiao Yi, who was holding a chess piece to the side, pricked up his ears to listen.
"Teacher, are there really people who live on the water? Are their houses on the water too?"
Duoduo felt that Li Jin's stories had opened a completely different door for her.
"That's definitely impossible. Mud melts in the water!" Yingniang retorted.
"Then without houses, where do they live? What do they eat?" Duoduo's head was full of question marks.
"I know this!" Yingniang answered happily.
"They live on boats and eat fish from the sea!" Yingniang had seen it when she traveled with her parents.
"Eat fish? Just eat fish? Don't they eat anything else?" Duoduo continued to ask.
Yingniang didn't know, so she looked at Li Jin.
"Their meals are similar to ours, it's just that they eat fish more often."
"That's because they live on boats, making it convenient to eat fish," Li Jin explained.
Duoduo understood.
"Teacher, is this what you meant by 'those living on a mountain live off the mountain, and those living near water live off the water'? Right?"
Li Jin nodded in appreciation.
"Correct. People by the water eat fish, and people in the mountains, of course, hunt for game to eat, just like we did earlier."
"Then what do people who live neither near a mountain nor near water eat?" Duoduo's mind worked quickly.
"Then they need to plant crops themselves and be self-sufficient."
"However, ordinary commoners do not own land, so they can only rent land from families who do."
"And the government, that is the imperial court, in order to feed the soldiers and even more people, must collect taxes."
Li Jin went from the simple to the profound, lecturing bit by bit, and finally, he touched upon poetry regarding exorbitant taxes and levies.
This time, surprisingly, Yingniang did not get sleepy.
By the time Li Jin finished the lesson's content, the two little ones still wanted more.
"Teacher, please continue," Duoduo was deeply engrossed.
When she played, she played wildly, but once she started learning, she couldn't stop.
Li Jin looked at Xiao Yi on the side, who seemed to be playing chess but hadn't placed a piece for a long time, and his eyes flickered.
"How about we play a game? Your Highness can join us too?"
The moment Duoduo heard they were going to play a game, she became so happy that she immediately grabbed Xiao Yi's arm.
"I'm on a team with Father!"
