Chapter 2: A little boy with big grey eyes
It was a rainy day in spring when a little boy crawled along a simple yet elegant bridge with a very decorative roof. If he went a little further to the left he was likely to fall into the beautifully designed artificial lake. To his right there was a little island with large, natural seeming white rocks, a carefully pruned tree, flowers and lawn.
The little boy did not seem to care about any of this however. He was busy crawling along the polished wooden bridge towards a stunning little building with only one room and sliding doors all around. Said sliding doors were currently opened as far as possible and several children playing board games under the eyes of tutors were visible.
The tutors were noticeably different from their students. Where their students had a mix of hair colors, theirs was deep black and tied into a bun on top of their head. Their skin was of a different color and their eyes black. Lei Yijun and Lin Chao were from the east, where the heart of the empire was, but none of the children they taught just then were old enough to understand what exactly the empire was. Not to mention the baby still busy crawling towards the place while rain fell all around him.
Fortunately or maybe unfortunately - the baby could have gotten hurt after all - nobody noticed the child until he was on the porch of the building. One of the children, a girl looking outside instead of concentrating on her game finally saw the little boy. He was smiling happily, his big grey almond eyes glued to another girl.
The girl followed his gaze and discovered a seemingly dignified girl, about 4 years old, with flaming red hair and green eyes. Her parents must have put in a great deal of effort to get her posture perfect at her age.
Lin Chao finally noticed the distracted little girl and was about to scold her, his breath already drawn in. Then he saw just what exactly had crawled into his lesson. His brows furrowed but amused enough not to do anything yet he waved towards his colleague and pointed towards the baby. Lei Yijun's lips curled in a suppressed smile as they watched the baby.
The little guy, unconcerned about the surroundings, kept crawling towards the girl with red hair. He had a mop of wavy black hair on his head that bounced adorably every time he moved forward with all his strength, his cheecks red from excitement. Slowly, all eyes turned towards the baby making its way through the room.
When half the attention was on the baby the little girl looked around, as well. Her green eyes widened and then she got to her feet in a rush, the earlier, carefully trained, elegance forgotten as she ran towards the little boy. "Benjamin! What are you doing here?" A quick glance around showed no mother, nanny or maid in the surroundings.
With a frown she bumped her palm on his nose lightly. "You're not allowed to play hide and seek outside. Lady Mother says that it is dangerous when little children are outside all alone!"
The baby, apparently amused by the thump on his nose, giggled and said: "Gaah!"
He held up his stubby little arms, very obviously expecting a hug and oblivious to the fact that he had done something wrong. With a very grown up sigh and flip of her hair the little girl had probably seen someone else do she gave in and hugged the baby while her two tutors chuckled.
After the hug the girl stood up straight, facing her teachers. Her young and high voice seemed insecure when she said something that sounded like she had been forced to repeat it thousands of times. "Please excuse the unfortunate behavior. It was not my intention to interrupt your precious lesson."
Lin Chao, his lips twitching as he fought a smile, answered in a kind tone. "I will pretend it never happened. Now, while it is flattering to have a student so young and yet eager to learn, I think this one is a little too small for this lesson. So run along and inform someone to take him back where he belongs."
The little girl smiled brightly in response. "Yes! I'm sorry about my brother!" Suddenly, she seemed a lot more honest. "I have no idea how he found me this time, but I'll get his nanny right now!"
Under the envious gaze of many other young students she ran outside, leaving the baby that worked so hard to get to her behind. He did not like that at all. His little face scrunched up and a second later he was crying.
The two tutors, inexperienced when babies were involved, lifted him up into their arms trying to calm him down. But no matter which one of them held him he just kept struggling until they set him down.
When he was back on the floor he looked around and soon saw the girl running along the bridge. So of course he started crawling after her with determination. The distressed tutors closed the sliding doors to prevent the boy from getting away, which resulted in more tears and wailing.
Several very stressful minutes later the little redhead showed up holding hands with a woman in servant dress. Finally, the baby calmed down.
The sliding doors were opened again, the children returned to their chess boards and the tutors sighed in relief. The nanny, with the baby in her arms, left the school room to take the little one back to his bedroom.
One might think that this was the end of the story. A fun story people would tell about what a child had done when it was still very young.
In this case it was not the end.
The very next day a certain baby boy with big grey eyes crawled along the bridge towards his big sister once again. It was a sunny day this time and when he entered the tutors exchanged glances. Rather than repeat the great disturbance from before they simply had the children continue with their game, expecting a nanny to show up on her own soon.
To their surprise the little boy did not make a ruckus as long as he was allowed to sit and watch his older sister for a while. And, as expected, a nanny arrived soon enough to take the boy back with repeated apologies and promises not to let the child escape again.
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