When Sang Luo arrived at the Sea God Palace, she heard from Uncle Su that Aze was still asleep in the Spirit Lake. For him, sleeping was the fastest way to recover and heal his body. However, she didn't know how long this sleep would last. Thinking of Lou Xian Yue's habit of sleeping for decades or even centuries, she touched her belly and sighed, wondering if he would be present when this child was born.
Sang Luo went to the Chengen Hall to find Xiao Lan An and ran into Grand Tutor Zai Xin, who was carrying a thick stack of files.
"Elder Zai, are these all for Xiao An?"
"Your Majesty, the Queen, is back! His Majesty will surely be overjoyed to know. These are the official documents I have selected to bring to His Majesty for instruction and review," Zai Xin said, sighing with a headache. "His Majesty is the most intelligent and clever child I have ever seen, but he has no patience. I have to teach and coax him at the same time. He says he's hungry or sleepy after studying for a short while, and he throws tantrums. I don't know what to do."
Sang Luo chuckled softly, "Royal beast cubs are precocious, but Xiao An is only a two-year-old child. He's at an age where he loves to play. Making him look at these dry and boring things every day, no child would be interested."
"What Your Majesty, the Queen, says is true, but His Majesty has not yet awakened, so I can only follow the previous decree."
"Elder Zai has worked hard these past few days. Give me the files. I'll teach Xiao An for a few days, which will also be a vacation for him. Elder Zai is getting old and can go back to rest for a while."
"Then I thank Your Majesty, the Queen, for your understanding," Zai Xin said, handing her the files before bowing and retreating.
Sang Luo put the files into her space and walked into Chenghuan Hall.
"Xiao An—"
Xiao Lan An had just finished eating and looked towards the door upon hearing her voice, opening his arms. "Mother!"
Sang Luo bent down to hug him, kissing his fair and tender face. "How have you been lately? Did you miss Mother?"
"Xiao An is so tired, he barely has time to miss Mother," Lan An pouted.
Sang Luo was amused by his aggrieved expression. "Mother heard that Elder Zai Xin has arranged a lot of things for you recently. He said that Xiao An is making rapid progress, so Mother will give you a reward."
She took out a set of building block houses from her space. She had bought it the last time she returned to the Western Continent, along with many fun toys for the children to play with and develop their intelligence.
It was Lan An's first time seeing it, and he was extremely fond of it.
Sang Luo opened the package and looked at the instructions. This set of building blocks was a mysterious haunted house called "Crazy Laboratory." The packaging box stated that the assembly difficulty was three and a half stars, with thousands of building blocks. The haunted house needed to create a spooky and terrifying lighting effect, and there were many wires and small light bulbs.
Sang Luo originally wanted to build it together with Xiao Lan An to cultivate their mother-son relationship, but as she built, she became confused. Holding the instructions, she pondered for a long time, "This red wire should be threaded under the table…"
"The blue wire is under the table, and the red number 3 wire should be threaded into the shelf. Mother is wrong!"
"Oh, right, it's pressed here. Xiao An is so diligent!"
Xiao Lan An was praised and wagged his tail happily, putting in even more effort and focus.
He quickly assembled a small hospital bed and fixed it to the floor. Then he assembled the window. "Mother, there's a piece missing from the window frame, so it can't be inserted into the wall."
"Let Mother look for it. Sigh, I just saw it," Sang Luo searched around in the pile of building blocks beside her legs, but couldn't find it. "Could it have fallen into the pool?"
"I'll go look for it," Lan An swam around the bottom of the pool a few times, searching through his collection of gold, stones, coral, and various treasures. He quickly clutched a small building block and climbed ashore. "Mother, I found it."
Sang Luo took the building block from his hand and secured the window.
Afraid that the building blocks would be scattered again, she took out a few storage boxes from her space and sorted the large pile of building blocks on the ground according to shape and size, making it easier to pick them out.
The mother and son worked hard until dusk, finally putting together the small haunted house. Sang Luo had been sitting on the ground for half a day, and her back and legs were sore. It was even more tiring than fighting magical beasts all day!
Playing with children is also a physical activity.
Xiao An was full of accomplishment, hugging the haunted house that was almost as big as him, extremely happy. He wanted to put the haunted house under the pool and pile it together with his treasures, but found that the building blocks floated on the water and couldn't be pressed down. He had just pressed it down with his tail, but the building blocks quickly floated up again.
"The density of the building blocks is less than water, so they won't sink. How about Mother puts a shelf next to the pool for you, and we put the haunted house on the shelf?" Sang Luo took out a five-story shelf from her space and placed it against the wall. "Mother also has many fun building block toys in her space. In the future, we will put each building block we build on the shelf, and see how many building blocks Mother and Xiao An have built after a year."
"Mother is so good!" Lan An looked at her with bright eyes, with hope for the future.
Sang Luo spent the next few days playing with her son everywhere.
The mother and son went out during the day and built building blocks after returning to the palace.
Xiao An was intelligent, attentive, and meticulous in his work. After playing for only a few days, he was able to challenge the assembly of five-star difficulty building blocks on his own.
"Mother has other toys in her space, go and find them and take whatever you want to play with."
Sang Luo took him into the space.
It was Lan An's first time in the space, and he was deeply moved. Mother's space was so big!
There was everything to eat, use, play with, and cultivate.
But Mother didn't like to manage it, and this area and that area were messy. Lan An couldn't stand it and tidied up the space.
Sang Luo saw that he hadn't come out for a long time and asked, "Did you find a toy you want to play with?"
"Mother, what is this?" He came out holding a puzzle.
"I almost forgot, I do have several sets of puzzles in my space. I originally wanted you to practice with some simple puzzles first, but now it seems unnecessary."
"This puzzle… is Mother, Xiao An, and Father! The pink petals behind them are so beautiful! Mother has so many petals in her hair! So beautiful!"
Sang Luo took the puzzle and looked at it, her eyes showing memories, and she smiled gently. "Xiao An, do you remember? This is the photo Dad took when we went to the secret realm last time. Mother thought this photo was so beautiful, so she made it into a puzzle."
"Yes! Xiao An wants to piece together this puzzle!"
"Okay, let's piece it together together."
Xiao An was skilled and quick, and he was already proficient in puzzles with three or four hundred pieces.
Sang Luo couldn't even get a hand in, and was slightly embarrassed.
In less than half an hour, he had pieced together the pattern and looked at Sang Luo expectantly. "Mother, I want to see it as soon as I open my eyes every day."
"Let Mother think, how about hanging it on the opposite wall? That way you can see it at a glance every day when you wake up and swim out of the pool."
Xiao An nodded, reached out and grabbed it, and the puzzle was about to break. "How to hang it on the wall?"
Sang Luo took out a frame from the space that was about the same size as the puzzle, helped him seal the puzzle with film, and put it in the frame, hanging it on the wall. From a distance, it looked like a family portrait.
Xiao An looked left and right, still missing something, and looked at Sang Luo's big belly. "Mother, is Sister about to be born!"
