It was still daylight but Si Ning doesn’t mind drinking a bottle or two because he felt the urgent need to have a drink in his system. Having a bottle or two shouldn’t cause a problem so he nodded before turning to the direction of the main palace’s gate knowing Xiao Pei and Jiang Ye were probably waiting for him. He decided to disregard informing them since he knew they would wait until he shows up and for the main time he would be having drinks with Xiu TianZhao.
Xiu TianZhao leads Si Ning to his residence. It was almost identical to the Jasmine palace but there was no flower planted only trees and before Si Ning could carefully look around, Xiu TianZhao already leads him to a pavilion.
The pavilion wasn’t as big as the one in Jasmine palace but it was spacious enough and they took their seats.
Si Ning frowned to see the table was empty and before he could say a word, dozens of palace maidservants appeared and he wasn’t even aware wDrinking at daytime wasn’t sometime Si Ning had ever done and he could feel his head banging that he had to wake up to throw up a few times after Ah Dai tucked him into bed.Even though he was drunk, he made sure to tell whoever was carrying him to take him home. He doesn’t want to wake up in the palace just like he did when he faked fainting at the court.Si Ning slept like a baby after emptying his stomach, he slept till almost dawn when he heard some movement in his room which made him quickly flung his eyes open and sat up, his head was still ringing that he had to place his hand on his forehead and closed his eyes knowing he would have a terrible hangover but first he had to see what was in his room that was oddly making him a little bit alert and he was about to rise only for him to see a shiny metal pressed to his neck.The metal shone from the little light coming from outside through his window and when Si Ning looked down he knew what it was
"Young Master...." Ah Dai called as he opened the door running to Si Ning and he went rigid seeing the wound on Si Ning’s neck. "Young Master you are wounded." He said, his brows furrowed looking extremely worried.Before Si Ning could say a word, Ah Dai already rushed and opened his wardrobe bringing out a box, and placed it on the table beside the bed. Si Ning watched as he opened it and started bringing out the things he needed to treat his wound."I will give General Shen Yu to the palace guards." Jiang Ye announced as he tried to lift Shen Yu and Xiao Pie quickly stood up to support him."The palace guards?" Si Ning raised a brow."Yes General, they arrived after I and the guards caught all General Shen Yu’s subordinates." Jiang Ye replied bringing out a rope to tie Shen Yu up while Xiao Pei gagged his mouth."Tsk." Si Ning clicked his tongue, he was annoyed he would have to hand over Shen Yu to the palace guards without giving him
"His Majesty has arrived!"Si Ning bowed deeply with the rest of the Officials to pay their respects to the Emperor. He had already gotten used to the morning assembly and he doesn’t have to notice when Shao Lang raises his head before he raises his own. All he had to do was wait and after some time that he felt like Xiu Zhicheng had already taken his seat, he would raise his head at the same time with the rest of the Officials.The air was a bit stiff and it was almost uncomfortable to breathe that Si Ning had to direct his gaze at Xiu Zhicheng to see that he was dressed majestically in his large golden dragon robes with golden embroidery with his mortarboard hat that he almost hurt to look at how he was giving off the aura of the most important person in the room, looking graceful giving the throne and the background a classic look, it was such a look that it was almost one of the things Si Ning was lowkey always looking forward to. How Xiu Zhicheng would dress
To see the Officials tensed had the opposite effect on Si Ning, he was relaxed and glad that Ah Dai tied a large bandage around his neck. Now Shen Yu was done for and this almost made him laugh out loud instead he folded his hands waiting for Xiu Zhicheng’s judgment.Xiu Zhicheng cleared his throat as he placed his hand on the throne’s arm looking regal. "The subordinates of General Shen Yu, for attacking the household of My King Consort, General Si Ning, they will all be flogged fifty strokes of the rod before they are hanged and this will be carried out immediately after the court assembly." Xiu Zhicheng’s voice rang out, leaving no room for a plead as he looked directly into Qiu Bai’s eyes silently issuing a challenge for Qiu Bai to make a move to overturn his judgement.My King Consort?Si Ning almost rolled his eyes with how Xiu Zhicheng made a claim on him when they were not married yet. He couldn’t help but noticed how Xiu Zh
Shen Yu raised a hand and pointed his index finger at Si Ning but he had lost a large amount of blood so his hand waver between Si Ning and Shao Lang as he squinted his eyes to see clearly.Oh Dear, must he make it obvious...Si Ning shifted a bit to make sure Shen Yu was pointing directly at Shao Lang. A dying man pointing at him and creating a topic for the Officials to gossip about was something Si Ning want to avoid at all cost, he was already the most talked about when Xiu Zhicheng declared him as his Consort to be and Shen Yu pointing to him to create another topic wasn’t something Si Ning wants."General Si... Ning..." Shen Yu called out, his voice breaking but firm. "You... hur... hur... you... win... finally... see.. ing that...hur.." Shen Yu coughed as he struggled to talk while blood flows out continuously from his mouth.The sword must have hit a bad spot.Si Ning knew it won’t be long for Shen Yu to drop dead and since Shen
To be present at the court and watched how Qiu Bai stood there watching Shen Yu die was a sight Si Ning would not be forgetting soon because that made Si Ning realized that Shen Yu who served Xilie for years as the General ends up dying like he was discarded because he was no more needed and Qiu Bai didn’t even make any move to suggest that he would personally bury Shen Yu and perform his rites, he only requested for Shen Yu’s sword for him to take home to his family while he leaves the burying of Shen Yu to Xiu indirectly telling them he would not be attending the burial.Since Shen Yu was not a citizen of Xiu and also someone that committed the crime of attacking a General’s residence then he was going to be buried at the top of the hill just at the outskirt of Zhonghua, a place a drifter or a commoner could be buried upon. This made Si Ning concludes that he had to be the Empress no matter what because he doesn’t want to die miserably like Shen Yu.
When Ah Dai was done and gave the mirror to his Master, Si Ning found himself smiling at his reflection as he turned his head left and right. Ah Dai never ceased to amaze him with how well he could style his hair, knowing the particular style to fit for a particular occasion.The door opened and Si Ning placed the mirror on the table ready to lash out at Jiang Ye who came in without announcing first but seeing how Jiang Ye kept shifting his eyes all around and how he dressed in mild expensive robes looking like a Young Master made Si Ning sighed but he was going to lash out anyway because of Jiang Ye was his guard and he mustn’t let it slide because Jiang Ye’s Young Master appearance."You this...." Si Ning stopped in mid-sentence when he noticed a woman wearing a veil to cover her face standing at the back of Jiang Ye, he didn’t notice her at first because he was focused on Jiang Ye that came in suddenly."Leave us!" A sweet commanding voi
Immediately Si Ning was done creating space for the teapot on the table, Ah Dai made his presence known by making his entry announcement and walked in setting the teapot on the table when he was about to start brewing the tea Si Ning waved for him to leave and he proceeded to brew the tea himself by adding the tea leaves in the teapot and waited a bit for the leaves to ferment before pouring it into two teacups and added a rose flower petal on the tea.When Si Ning was done making sure the flower petal was floating and satisfied with the way the tea looked fancy, he placed a cup in front of Ran Chunhua but instead of her taking a sip like he expected, she stared at the tea and frowned when it occurred to Si Ning that since Ah Dai wasn’t present to taste the tea and Ran Chunhua was different from Qiu Bai or Shao Lang who drank tea without anyone tasting it first.Si Ning quickly took his cup and took a sip because Ran Chunhua didn’t come with her court
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