"The person that just left was my personal guard Yi Chen." Ge Mengshu said as she withdrew her hands from Si Ning’s hold to carefully push her teacup to the side to create space for the board game she carried and placed carefully on the table to prevent the stones from shifting from its positions.
"From Xilie?" Si Ning asked, the name does not sound familiar and he also does not think the guard would be part of the Si Household and his mother spoke in the past tense which means he was not her guard anymore.
Si Ning also pushed his teacup aside like he was creating more space for the board game when his true intention was not to mistakenly drink the bitter tea.
"My father took him in when I was just a child and he had been my guard as early as I can remember." Ge Mengshu explained as she placed her hands on the edge of the game board.
"Is he coming back?" Si Ning asked pushing the teacup further away. He could still taste the bitterness left by the t
"The first time I met your father was in Mu country, that was long before Mu country became a vassal state of Xiu." Ge Mengshu pursed as she placed her hands on the table. "I was only fifteen and tagged along with my father. My father, Ge Sumeng as the Prime Minister of Xilie went to see one of Xilie’s informants and for me not to be idle, he gave me some silver to go and check the market with Green Wild Tiger...""A tiger!" Si Ning's eyes widen at his mother’s last word. "You have a tiger?" His mouth fell in astonishment, he never thought his mother would be so wild to keep a tiger and it didn’t even occur to him how odd it was to be a green tiger."It is a moniker for Yi Chen, I heard he was a wild child that kept going to hunt in the forest, I think that was how the name came to be." Ge Mengshu explained slowly before she took a sip of her tea."Oh." Si Ning’s eyes started glimmering, he wished he also had a flashy sobriquet to make hi
"The message on the board says my First Uncle has his eyes on taking over the Ge family army."First uncle?"You mean, Ge... Ge Liang?" Si Ning had to ask after he recalled that Qiu Bai mentioned a half-brother of Ge Sumeng who took over the Ge family when his mother left to spy on Xiu nation."Hmm." Ge Mengshu nodded."Do Mother have another Uncle?" Si Ning asked as he folded his hands.For Ge Mengshu to refer to Ge Liang as her First Uncle means there had to be other Uncles. Si Ning was particularly interested in his mother's side of the family, he needed to know the members of the family and how they were related to his mother. He had to know if he ever wants to protect his mother and because he especially doesn’t want Si Nan to get caught up in any family drama."I have two Uncles and Second Uncle died defending the borders of Xilie." Ge Mengshu explained.For Si Ning to process all they talked about in order not to miss a p
Darkness. That was all Si Ning could see the moment he opened his eyes, it was too dark that he was a bit confused and the odd part was he could tell he was standing."Where am I?" Si Ning blinked and squinted yet he couldn’t see a thing. "Where is this?" He asked foolishly despite having a feeling he would never get a reply.This made Si Ning blinked rapidly with the fear that he may be the one who couldn’t see anything and after blinking and seeing it was still dark first made him swallowed the lump in his throat, he raised his hands and was about to rub his eyes when it instantly became bright and it was so bright and hot that he could feel the heat from the sun and it was getting abnormally hot, the brightness was blinding that he had to raise his hands to shade his eyes from the brightness then he realized there was nothing in the space that his hands supposed to be.What?Looking down to where his arms should be to see nothing threw Si N
Si Ning continued staring at Song Feng, blinking slowly, trying to think of a way to raise his head or move away, he knew he doesn’t have to think of things like that before taking action yet he just stared at Song Feng because he was too weak to move and this made him frown when he saw that Song Feng gaze didn’t shift from him for once and Si Ning would have thought Song Feng had frozen in place if not of his head that was drawing nearer to his face.Seeing that Song Feng’s head was getting dangerously close, his eyes narrowed and dilated, he was now staring at Si Ning’s lips that he even slowly traced his index finger on Si Ning’s bottom lip. This made Si Ning frown deepened into a scowl hoping Song Feng might get the hint from his expression and move back but Song Feng attention was on his lips and Si Ning knew if he doesn’t move Song Feng might accidentally kiss him and this made Si Ning muster up his strength to turn his head away just
The first thing that caught Si Ning’s eyes in the courtyard was the flashy golden and orange beautiful palanquin with three palace bearers standing on each side and series of trained palace maidens guards holding different silver boxes and two male guards carrying a large wooden box by holding each handle of the box. Chen An, Su Heng, and Ji Ran stood at their front, with more than a dozen of guards standing at the back. The Prime Minister, Song Ouyang dressed in a red brocade robe with black embroidered lining the tips stood at the center while Song Feng was facing him and seemed to be saying something to him.Si Ning was so weak and he felt so light that he was more worried about the breeze hitting him hard and make him misstep that he wasn’t able to express how shock he was by the grand visit. The visit was suspicious that he stopped and squinted his eyes trying to see inside the palanquin when the breeze blew and made the curtain swayed but he could see there
Si Ning first sat heavily on a sitting mat, it should be noon soon which means he was supposed to be preparing to go to the palace. Instead, he propped up his elbow to support his head as he taps his finger on his cheek.None of this should have happened, he had never thought of Xiu Zhicheng declaring their union unexpectedly. He never saw it coming which means he had no countermeasure against it and it seemed he would be joining the harem in a month.Si Ning was glad the effect of the sleeping medicine as worn off which means the concoction Song Feng gave him worked faster than he expected and he could now think and act without acting slow."Young Master?""Come in." Si Ning said turning his head to the entrance to see the door opened and Ah Dai came in carrying a box, most of the weight of the box resting on his right hand.Ah Dai placed the box on the floor and opened it, bringing out a lighter shade of a yellow brocade robe and he held it up in t
Si Ning stood in front of the mirror, watching Xiao Pei who was gently inserting different types of thin golden hair clips in his hair, to complete the hair adornment, Xiao Pei carefully inserted the dragon-shaped hairpin through the hole in the head diadem that secured Si Ning’s half ponytail and he made sure to leave some strand flowing loose at the side of Si Ning’s face before taking two golden bangles and secured it on Si Ning’s wrists, on top of his sleeves.It was quite surprising for Si Ning to see the poker face Xiao Pei dressing him up like royalty but Si Ning had no complaints even though he felt like he was wearing too much gold but he knew Xiao Pei must know what he was doing since he worked for Xiu TianZhao and he must have a reason for adding all the golden accessories.Since Si Ning had to go to the palace and he had wasted time eating to his fill, soaking for long in the tub because he was enjoying the flowering scents from the flower
Riding a horse would have been better than a palanquin, that was what Si Ning thought but surprisingly sitting in the palanquin was so comfortable that not for once did he feel nausea with the cramped space because there was enough ventilation.Si Ning would have loved to take a look outside since he hadn’t had time to do so but hearing people in the capital saying that it had to be the King Consort in the palanquin and to make them curious Si Ning didn’t even look out once and only concentrated on thinking about how he should behave in front of Xiu Zhicheng that he wasn’t aware of when they got to the palace."General, we have arrived at the Jasmine palace." Chen An announced as he lifted the curtain a little bit.Si Ning doesn’t understand why he had to be escorted with a lot of guards like a Noblewoman packing to her husband’s house or why Chen An, Su Heng, and Ji Ran had to be among them, even though he doesn’t understand
The meeting wasn't tense and was going smoothly that Si Ning was glad about the pleasant atmosphere but the problem was he felt eyes on him, even though Xiu Zhicheng was sitting quite a far distance from him with a bored expression while replying and giving orders to the Minister reading their report yet Si Ning could tell Xiu Zhicheng was watching him.Si Ning does not understand why he was being stared at so much, even Shao Lang kept glancing at him with the corner of his eyes. Si Ning knew he looked beautiful but he had always been a beauty so he doesn't understand the stares directed at him and some of the Ministers too kept glancing at him then he concluded that it had to be because Xiu Zhicheng just announced that he would be the Empress in a month time because he doesn't feel any hostility coming from them so he doesn't think he was being stared at because he was yet to give the reply about whether he would sign over half of his army to the Imperial famil
Si Ning's mouth fell slightly because a part of him was telling him that Xiu Yuan was at the front of the courtroom to see him. "Yuan-er?" He never expected that the name he called to sound like a question but he was a bit surprised to see Xiu Yuan so he quickly moved closer to the foot of the stairs, his attention on Xiu Yuan not realising when Xiao Pei, Jiang Ye and the rest of the guards saluted and started to leave.Xiu Yuan jumped up happily and started to wave his hands before clapping then returned to waving his hands to show how happy he was as he laughed then he started to climb down the stairs in a hurry."Your Highness!" A palace maiden shouted in alarm as she hurried off after Xiu Yuan but didn't try to stop him, she only walked behind with her skirt gathered in her hands to avoid tripping, making it looked like she couldn't catch up to stop Xiu Yuan.Si Ning could not believe that Xiu Yuan with his big robes was running towards him, he h
Si Ning raised his hands to allow Ah Dai to tie his belt. He had woken up since dawn but didn't make any move to get out of bed only for him to finally stood up when Ah Dai came in to wake him up for him to get ready to attend the court assembly, even though he doesn't have enough time to soak for long in the bathtub yet he made sure to wash up and even completed his face routine then he allowed Ah Dai to dress him nicely even though his uniform was the same with the rest of the Officials and Generals yet he wanted to stand out and look nice because he would be seeing Xiu Zhicheng, he was still annoyed that Xiu Zhicheng left him to have dinner with his Concubines yet he still wants to dress nicely because he would see him and he hated that part of him that wants him to dress nice only for that purpose.Ah Dai led Si Ning to take his seat and he started brushing his hair out before he started to style it into a half ponytail after adding oil to the edges then he took a gol
No matter how hard Si Ning tried to go to sleep, he was unable to sleep even after trying to empty his mind and made sure he had nothing to think about but still the picture of Xiu Zhicheng laughing with his Concubines while they fed him, drinking wine kept coming to his mind that it was so irritating.Why am I disturbed by this?The most confusing part was that he couldn't figure out why he was disturbed by this or why he had been thinking of Xiu Zhicheng so much to the extent that he wasn't even angry for thinking about him and that was what was irritating him the most. Si Ning wasn't stupid to know that he was attracted to Xiu Zhicheng so he was going to label it as infatuation which means the only thing he needed was time for it to go then he would completely stop thinking about Xiu Zhicheng and finally go back to his daily life of not thinking about sharing affections with someone or making love to them.This thought made Si Ning smiled, giggling with a wic
'Let's meet.' Si Ning turned over the letter to see there was nothing written on the other side of the paper. Even though he knew that was there to it yet he wondered if the real meaning of the two words might be in code because it could be Qiu Bai's way to avoid any attention to be directed at them since he might be aware of their last meeting being exposed to Xiu Zhicheng. Si Ning decided to look deep into each letter after touching the paper and discovered it was just an ordinary paper yet he still tried to look carefully maybe there might be hidden words in the letters as he drew the letter closer to the candle and bent his head for a closer look but after reading it and considering each letter trying to form what code it might mean to form a meaningful sentence and cracking his brain thinking only to end up with nothing. What sort of letter was this containing only two words, no location not even a time to meet. Without hesitation, Si Ning
Si Ning was a bit confused when Ah Dai didn’t make any announcement of Xiu Zhicheng arriving ,he only walked in and closed the door behind him then bowed before heading to light up the lanterns in the room without glancing at Si Ning.This was Ah Dai’s routine every evening when the sunset, he would come into the room to light the lanterns and candles then after he would ask what Si Ning wanted to eat so he could start preparing it so that Si Ning would be able to eat and go to bed early. Since it was a normal occurrence Si Ning didn’t say a word and only watched him while he tried not to wear a disappointed look.When Ah was done, he moved closer to Si Ning and reached inside his sleeve bringing out what seemed like a letter, and stretched out his hand to hand it over to him."Hmm Is that from the Emperor?" Si Ning asked blandly even though he was itching to grab it to quickly read what was written in it, instead he folded his hands and raised
Si Ning stood in front of the mirror checking his face and hair, he nodded as he slightly touched his hairpin, satisfied with how perfect his face and hair was but that wasn’t the reason he was standing in front of the mirror, the problem was with his attire and his indecisive mind so he started turning over and over, checking his robes from his neck down to his feet then suddenly he felt ridiculous as he removed his outer robe and almost run-up to the wardrobe immediately yanking the door opened and quickly threw the outer robe in like he couldn’t wait to get rid of it before closing the door with a satisfied expression and nodded, his hand akimbo before walking back to the table to take his seat.After some time of staring into space, it dawned on him what he just did then he looked down at his robes and he felt like what he was wearing was not presentable enough and Xiu Zhicheng mustn’t see him like that so he stood up to stand in front of the mirror to c
Si Ning withdrew his hand from Xiu Zhicheng’s hold due to the shock and weight of Xiu Zhicheng’s statement. He was trying to have power equal to the Emperor and Xiu Zhicheng announcing to make him the Empress was just the answer to it all but if Xiu Zhicheng takes half of his army to join the Imperial family army, even after marrying the Emperor and becoming part of the Imperial family doesn’t mean he was really part of the Xiu family and he would have no control over the Imperial army which means he would become crippled. It was just as Xiu TianZhao said, the Imperial family were afraid of him having more power than them and the Ministers were also afraid of him having more power than them in the court.Seeing Si Ning’s reaction made Xiu Zhicheng took the hand he withdrew and held it to his chest, rubbing it slowly to gain Si Ning’s attention before using his thumb to gently rubbed Si Ning’s eyebrows in a way to make Si Ning stop frowning.
Si Ning could feel his face heating up because of Xiu Zhicheng that had been staring at him and wasn’t even trying to hide it, this made Si Ning unable to look at him and to avoid meeting Xiu Zhicheng’s eyes, he stared at the kettle instead like it was an interesting piece of item that he was almost counting the flower patterns imprinted on it.For Xiao Pei to bring tea instead of Ah Dai was something Si Ning expected because Ah Dai does act timid and was self-conscious about his arm even though Si Ning never cared about that because Ah Dai had been doing his job perfectly after promising not to strain his prosthetic arm and not bringing tea must have been his way of preventing being an eyesore to Xiu Zhicheng but looking at Xiu Zhicheng, Si Ning doesn’t think the Emperor would mind about something like that, after all Ah Dai losing an arm doesn’t make him less human. Si Ning also planed to take Ah Dai along with him when he moves to the palace because