ATPnovel Chapter 3 A Little Abode? A Little Princess?
Chapter 3 A Little Abode? A Little Princess?
At 3:30 a.m., Lin Fan was awakened from his sleep by a feeling of pressure on his chest. He subconsciously reached out and touched it.
"Hmm... what is this...? It smells... like milk."
"Don't... scratch my... rock... rock again..." Suddenly, a clear and slightly childish voice entered Lin Fan's ears.
"What's that sound? Who's talking?" Lin Fan groggily tried to open his eyes. Under the light of the living room lamp, he subconsciously raised his right hand to shield his eyes, and the soft thing pressing against his chest slid down to his armpit.
After his eyes adjusted to the light, Lin Fan turned his head to the side and glanced at the baby: "Wow, what an adorable little baby!" Then he turned back to go back to sleep.
"A baby? A baby?... Holy crap!"
Lin Fan snapped out of his daze, instantly wide awake, staring intently at the ceiling: "Am I still dreaming? Was that just a hallucination?"
He slowly turned his head and saw a little baby with a finger in his mouth, his two cute little tufts of hair on his head already disheveled, and a few drops of drool hanging from the corner of his mouth, staring at him curiously with a pair of big, shiny black eyes.
"Holy crap!!! That wasn't a hallucination!!!" Lin Fan exclaimed inwardly.
Who understands? In the middle of the night, such an adorable little baby suddenly appears next to you, and it just so happens that today is the first time you've been home in two years, and this is what happens.
Lin Fan was terrified, his mind racing. The only strategy he could follow was to remain still.
"This...this couldn't be something my parents left behind...? What a tragedy!" Lin Fan thought to himself, but his eyes were fixed on the baby in front of him.
"Little Nangju, is it muddy water?" Lin Fan was racking his brains when the little baby suddenly spoke up.
"You...you can actually talk?" Hearing this childish voice, Lin Fan was almost speechless with astonishment.
"Hehe, yes! I didn't say that." Perhaps the little baby felt a bit too crowded, so he struggled to sit up, looked around, and then looked at Lin Fan.
"Little one, are you a water spirit? Are you not human? Why am I here?" The little baby tilted his head and asked Lin Fan curiously.
Lin Fan was completely baffled. Looking at the cute little baby in front of him, he felt that this adorable creature should not pose any threat to him, so he gradually became bolder.
"So many questions! Shouldn't I be asking you these? Why are you in my house?"
"Is it Poji Island?" the little baby blinked his big eyes.
"Hooray, it's so yummy, I'm scratching my armpits again, I'm awake." The little baby scratched his armpits in a very serious manner, but found that it wasn't very itchy, so he turned his head and looked at Lin Fan with an innocent expression.
Lin Fan chuckled at the little boy's antics, then asked seriously, "What's your name? Where do you live? What are your parents' names?"
The little baby seemed stumped by Lin Fan's long string of questions, and bit his little finger as he pondered for a moment.
"My name is Little System, but I live in a big place!"
Lin Fan frowned, thinking, "Small system, big system? What are all these?" He thought for a while but didn't get any useful information.
"And what about your parents? Do you know their names?" Lin Fan asked patiently, head down.
"Um, are Daddy and Mommy Sen Yaoya?" The little baby looked curious. She just thought the little guy in front of her was strange, and her little brain couldn't quite figure it out.
"This...?" Lin Fan was at a loss for words. This little baby knew absolutely nothing. However, he was indeed very cute and adorable, and his clothes were quite strange. But he didn't think too much about it. After all, in modern society, all sorts of strange outfits are possible!
Lin Fan thought for a moment and decided to change his approach: "Mom and Dad are your parents, your father and mother, do you understand? Or, to put it another way, who are the people in your family?"
Sure enough, the little baby immediately understood and started counting on his fingers.
"Woyouhufang, Aliang, Fangyeye, Daguo, Erguo, Erjie, Sanjie..." She mumbled for a while, counting all ten fingers. When she realized it wasn't enough, she immediately started counting on her toes.
"This..." Lin Fan's mind started racing again: "Household? A Liang? Big Brother? Second Sister?" The latter ones were easy to understand, as they sounded like the eldest brother and second sister, but Lin Fan couldn't figure out what the former ones meant for a moment!
At this moment, Lin Fan suddenly noticed a jade pendant on the baby's lap. The more he looked at it, the more familiar it seemed. He turned his head to look at the coffee table and was shocked. The jade pendant on the baby's lap was the same as the one his father had bought. He grabbed it and wanted to examine it closely.
The little boy, seeing his jade pendant taken away, immediately protested: "This is mine! My brother gave it to me!"
Seeing this, Lin Fan quickly handed it back, repeatedly reassuring, "Okay, okay, it's yours. I won't take it from you. You said it was given to you by A Liang, but do you even know what A Liang's name is?"
The little toddler snatched the jade pendant and clutched it tightly to his chest, saying in a childish voice, "I, A Liang, am called Chang Xun Wu Gou!"
"Changxun Wugou?" Lin Fan murmured to himself several times upon hearing this.
"Is it Empress Zhangsun?" Lin Fan asked, staring intently at the baby.
"Yes! Do you recognize me, Ah Liang?" The little baby immediately became interested when he heard Lin Fan pronounce the name.
"And your father, oh, I mean, the mansion, what's his name?" Lin Fan unconsciously held his breath.
"The apartment owner's name is Li Ximi Ya!"
"Li Ximi...Li Ximi...Li Shimin? Good heavens! What a joke!" Lin Fan muttered to himself, cold sweat gradually appearing on his forehead.
After a while, Lin Fan turned around, stared at the baby in front of him, and said softly, "You mean Li Ximi is Li Shimin?"
"Hehe, yeah, little one, do you also recognize this as our house?" The little baby grinned, revealing two adorable little tiger teeth.
The moment the words "Xi Ya" popped out of the little baby's mouth, Lin Fan's mind seemed to have been struck by lightning, and he completely lost the ability to think.
"Little Nangju? Little Nangju? What's wrong with you?" After an unknown amount of time, a pair of small hands were waving vigorously in front of Lin Fan's eyes.
Lin Fan finally came to his senses. Looking at the little baby in front of him, he couldn't believe that this was Li Shimin's daughter. He picked up his phone, wanting to confirm one last time. He opened a webpage and entered the keywords: Tang Dynasty, Zhenguan era, details of Li Shimin's children.
Although Xiao Sizi was curious about what Xiao Nangju was holding, she simply sat quietly to the side and watched without making a fuss, showing none of the spoiled and willful behavior of a little princess.
After looking at the information on his phone, Lin Fan shifted his position and sat down next to the toddler: "Little one, I'll ask you a few questions. If you answer yes, just nod, okay?"
The little baby nodded obediently upon hearing this.
"What a good baby! Do you live in the palace? Do you have an older brother named Li Chengqian? And another one named Li Tai? And an older sister named Li Lizhi?" The little baby nodded*4.
"So, is your name Xiao Sizi, or Princess Jinyang, Li Mingda?"
As the little baby nodded again, Lin Fan was now completely convinced that the adorable creature before him was indeed the daughter of the famous Emperor Taizong of Tang (Li Shimin).
Because she not only appeared out of thin air in his house, but the fish-shaped jade pendant in her hand was exactly the same as the one his father had bought, and combined with all the questions he had asked before.
When all other possibilities are eliminated, what remains, no matter how unbelievable, must be the truth. Lin Fan recalled a line from a detective novel he had once read.
The two most important questions facing Lin Fan now are: first, how should he help Xiao Sizi next, and second, whether Xiao Sizi can return to the Tang Dynasty, and if she can't...!