Originally, he had forgotten, but just now he heard Tiancheng say the Emperor was visiting the mansion, and he couldn’t stop himself from feeling curious; did First Master Tang say he resembled the Emperor?

Presumably, it must be true; otherwise, why would he keep mumbling to himself like he’s seen a ghost.

Unexpectedly, he thought of his grandfather’s expression when he saw him, filled with the same confusion and suspicion as First Master Tang...

Lost in thought, Min was already outside the study room door. He knew of a small path that could lead directly to the window behind the study, allowing him to eavesdrop without alerting anyone. He slipped through the door and could already hear voices inside.

His father was speaking, along with another unfamiliar, deep voice.

He tiptoed to the bottom of the window. It was half open; he dared not stick his head out but was too curious to resist, so he leaned against the bottom of the window and listened to the conversation inside.

Inside, Fourth Master Xiao paused, his gaze drifting over to the right-side window, frowned slightly, and nonchalantly took a sip of tea, then looked at the Emperor and said, "Strengthening militia patrols on both shores is beneficial in requiring identity documents at the port to pass through, though it’s a temporary solution."

The Emperor nodded and replied, "Fujian has been calm these past few years, which is not unrelated to this method; yet, once trade opens up, increased traffic at the port will make checks inevitably inconvenient, as you said, a simpler and effective solution is needed." He paused and waved his hand: "Let’s not talk about it, I came here to relax, not to discuss court matters."

Fourth Master Xiao replied, "The Emperor’s concern for the nation and its people is a blessing for the people of Great Zhou!"

"So you’ve learned to flatter the way those civil servants do." He laughed, pointing at Fourth Master Xiao: "I won’t fall for it!"

Fourth Master Xiao also laughed along.

Yet the Emperor switched topics, smiling and asked, "Your son must be three years old now, when do you plan his enlightenment?" Fourth Master Xiao replied, "My wife and I discussed, we’ll start his education after next spring!"

The Emperor nodded slightly and praised, "That’s good, childhood is the most carefree time, hard to find such wonderful years in life, let him enjoy a few more years of fun, reminiscing in old age will be quite interesting!" Then he looked at Fourth Master Xiao and continued: "...Remember when we were young, once in the backyard of the Marquis Mansion while catching water creatures, somehow a crab caught Old Qian’s finger, he gulped down several mouthfuls of muddy water in fright..." His gaze distant and seemingly happy.

Fourth Master Xiao remembered too, laughed and nodded: "There’s still a scar on his pinky finger today."

"Really." The Emperor got even more excited: "Someday, I’ll take a close look" then shook his head: "After that, we never caught water creatures in the river."

Actually, they did, that year when the Emperor escaped from the encirclement of the Third Prince, he and Fourth Master Xiao took two personal guards through the Tongzhou Canal to the opposite shore. If Fourth Master Xiao hadn’t dragged him along, he might have frozen to death in the icy river water.

This past event, neither he nor Fourth Master Xiao would mention, and those two personal guards had already passed away, only the two of them knew about it.

His thoughts reached this point, the Emperor’s face showed regret and he lowered his head to drink tea to conceal the expression, then returned to the topic: "Still the last time we met, why not bring the boy here for me to see!"

Fourth Master Xiao raised his eyebrow, feeling somewhat hesitant, but still nodded on the surface and said: "Yes!" Then stood up and spoke a few words to Tiancheng at the door, Tiancheng’s eyes were startled and solemnly nodded, instead of going to the inner courtyard, he directly turned to the back of the study.

The Emperor also stood up, casually browsing in Fourth Master Xiao’s room, when he reached the window, faint footsteps sounded outside, followed by a voice shouting: "Who is it!"

Though no one was seen around, the area surrounding the Emperor was filled with guards hidden in the shadows.

"What’s going on." It was Shi Shengjie’s voice, then he briskly walked outside the window, Chief Chang hurried into the room: "Emperor, are you alright." Uneasily glanced at Fourth Master Xiao.

Fourth Master Xiao slightly frowned and reacted little.

The Emperor asked: "What’s the matter? There’s no need to fuss over nothing in Old Fourth’s mansion." Chief Chang then replied: "It’s... it’s the servants making a fuss." Then he stood by the window and called outside: "Take them away!"

"Yes!" Shi Shengjie clasped his fists, preparing to leave with Min from outside.

The Emperor raised his eyebrows at Fourth Master Xiao, with a hint of teasing: "It seems, you need to put your mansion in proper order."