Si Ning only stopped eating after his stomach started to feel uncomfortable and he had eaten almost a quarter of the different dishes and finished the jar of wine. He never thought there would be a day he would enjoy such a wonderful and satisfying meal, the dishes could be compared to five-star hotel dishes. Si Ning took a mental note to ask Xiu TianZhao about the cook. If he was able to make this cook teach Ah Dai and Xiao Pei then he would be able to enjoy eating delicious food for the rest of his life. Si Ning had to sit for a while before standing up to check his surroundings. Looking back at the dishes on the table, he was a little disappointed he had no container to keep the rest.
With the lamps hanging on the walkway Si Ning walked slowly till he came upon a small bridge, he was quite feeling like a rich Young Master and the imperial residence reminded him of the luxurious leisure place he was only able to visit once. The constructions were gorgeous and he followed a
The swaying of the carriage made Si Ning uncomfortable and he could feel his back hurting from how long he had been sitting but he was tired of switching between riding his horse or riding in a carriage it was more like when he couldn’t take the swaying anymore he would jump on his horse and when he wanted to relax then he would go back to riding in the carriage.Because of Si Ning’s reckless washing up in the cold spring at the temporary imperial residence, he came down with a cold, and not to hinder their travel plans, he had to ride in the carriage sleeping on the mattress missing his chance to ask Xiu TianZhao questions of his stay at the imperial residence because when he woke up feeling so cold, his head hurting, he still managed to take a step out and discovered the imperial residence was spacious and large enough for his troops but for a reason, Xiu TianZhao only took him there. Si Ning suspected the imperial residence may be closed off to the troops yet t
"Chen An come with me, Ji Ran take the prisoners, Su Heng and Xiao Pei do the rest of the necessary arrangement and Xiao Pei I expect you to be free when I am done .... Ah Dai.. hmmm Xiao Pei wait for me with Ah Dai." Si Ning gave out his instructions since they have reached the gate."Yes General." They all said but it was only Ah Dai that wore a dejected look."Ah Dai assist Su Heng but do not push yourself remember you are still in recovery." Si Ning told him leaving no room for discussion.At least with Xiao Pei’s hard look, it was difficult to detect his feelings from his expression but Si Ning deduced that Xiao Pei wasn’t fragile like Ah Dai."Yes, General Si Ning." Ah Dai smiled brightly since he was so happy that Si Ning cares about his health and considered him as a friend.The gate opened and the first person Si Ning saw sitting on the horse like a classic painting was nobody other than Shao Lang. For Shao Lang to appear so su
Si Ning pulled the reins of his horse to avoid riding side by side with Chen An, instead, he made sure to look like he was riding beside Chen An yet it was Chen An that was subconsciously leading the way. It would have been awkward for Si Ning to lead the way since he had no idea of his family residence location. He pretended to ride normally alongside Chen An but each time Chen An tried to match the pace of his horse to match with him, Si Ning would also do the same to avoid falling in line with Chen An. He wasn’t able to trick Xiao Pei or Ah Dai to lead the way since they both waited till he started riding ahead with Chen An before following. "Are you not going home?" Si Ning had been wondering why Chen An was still with them since he was sure they do not live together. "My apologies General since Ji Ran and Su Heng is not here but I will try my best to escort you home safely." Chen An replied firmly. To be honest, Si Ning doesn’t understand Chen An
"Young master.." Yanyu, the older maidservant and the handmaiden of Ge Mengshu called out.It was quite hard for Si Ning to act like he knew the way to his father’s quarters since Yanyu decided to walk behind him instead of walking ahead of him."Lead the way." Si Ning knew it would be useless to try and trick her to walk in front of him since Yanyu only stopped after calling his attention and folded her hands, her head bowed like she was expecting his order forcing Si Ning to have no choice but to tell her to lead the way.Si Ning’s heart started to beat faster and he could almost hear it rhyming with each step he took. He doesn’t know what to feel about seeing his father again and he started to rack his brain on what to say to him and being overfed wasn’t helping since he felt quite heavy and uncomfortable with each step.His father Si Yunsheng was a very quiet man that hardly spoke, he used to smile gently at his family and Si Nin
When Si Ning saw the piles of books Xiao Pei brought for him made him spent half an hour in the bathtub as a means to escape his reality for a bit. He shamelessly gave the list of the beauty materials he would need to Xiao Pei before sending him away for the night. Si Ning spent hours mentally learning all the etiquette he needed to survive, most were not different from how it was in the modern-day world or how he was taught as an Actor and he was sure he would have no difficulties in surviving in this world as long as he doesn’t entangle himself with the Imperial Family but as a General, he was bound to encounter them. Si Ning concluded that if he acts submissive to the Emperor, politely to those that have a higher rank than him and escaping the women in the harem then surviving would be nothing but easy as pie since he was a handsome rich Young Master, a General of the country and what more could he wish for to live well except deep down Si Ning doesn’t want to be
Waking up at six and dressing up before seven was something Si Ning was getting used to but not being able to sleep till dawn made him so weak and his body felt heavy yet he stared at the notes he made. "Young Master, I brought hot water to fill the bathtub," Yanlin said outside his door as she proceeds to knock softly. "Come in." Si Ning wondered why Yanlin had to be the one to bring him hot water at dawn. He didn’t turn to look at her since he was more focused on underlining the key points in the notes he made. "Young Master, do you want me to help you bathe?"Si Ning turned to see Yanlin only dressed in a white light inner robe coming closer to him till he could perceive her floral perfume. It had been long since Si Ning had any sexual activities but he always takes care of himself whenever he was horny but seeing this sight of Yanlin didn’t sexually arouse him. He felt nothing since he was more worried about how he would survive the court and s
"If you do not ask for forgiveness from me I will cut off your head, now beg for mercy!" Xiu Junjie demanded folding his arms and tapping his foot on the floor."I am sorry General Si Ning, it seems Xiu Yuan has been bothering you." Liu Ting apologized as she stopped almost ten feet from Si Ning and extended her hands to Xiu Yuan but the child only wrapped his hands around Si Ning’s neck tighter, refusing to let go.Seeing her closely and seeing how beautiful she was made Si Ning unable to avert his gaze forgetting it might be a crime to stare at the Emperor’s woman. Thinking about the Emperor left a bitter taste on his mouth and he could tell he would never like the old Emperor but looking at how she completely ignored Xiu Junjie like he wasn’t there confused Si Ning making him wonder if the birth mother of Xiu Junjie wasn’t Liu Ting."Greeting General Si Ning." The first maidservant that looked to be in her fifty’s caught up with
This wasn’t the first time Si Ning’s judging instinct would collapse but this time he had never felt so stupid as soon as he met the Emperor’s eyes and he quickly averted his gaze because of the shock only for beaded sweat to form on his forehead and he could feel a cold shiver runs down his spine.First, the Emperor wasn’t old at all as he thought, second he couldn’t ignore the possibility of all his detective deductions about the Imperial family being all wrong. Since he assumed Xiu TianZhao had to be the Emperor’s son and as the Second Prince means the First Prince which should be the Crown Prince should be older, since Xiu TianZhao looked older than Si Ning then the First Prince should be closer to his thirties or in his thirties which means the Emperor should be in his fifties or sixties. All the time he spent to assume without even trying to investigate had all gone to waste and now he was starting to regret not asking Ah Dai about th
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