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
"Call the Doctor!" Shao Lang yelled to be heard above the buzzingly of the Officials as he quickly bent and wrapped his hands around Si Ning, lifted his head to check his face before placing his index finger under Si Ning’s nostrils to check if he was still breathing.Si Ning was quite glad that he was sweating and the sweat had washed out his makeup that covered the dark circles under his eyes and he gave himself a mental award for nailing the sick look. He breaths slowly through his nose for Shao Lang to detect he was still breathing to avoid causing a bigger commotion.It would be nothing but a shame for a great General like Si Ning to be fainting in the courtroom but Si Ning knew no one could blame him or think he was just faking it since fighting for months and devising plans along with commanding a large number of troops wasn’t easy and losing a great number of his army to protect Xiu Nation was enough for him to faint in the courtroom since he didn&r
Si Ning never thought he had ever been in a worst situation that he ran out of ideas of what to do. He broke out in cold sweat when he saw the Emperor dressed majestically in golden and white robes looking so regal accompanied by Lin Fan dressed in a blue robe holding a sword and Si Ning knew Lin Fan had to be the Emperor’s personal Imperial guard. The palace maidens and eunuchs were holding different sizes of boxes. Song Feng proceeds to kneel on the floor to pay his respects to the Emperor and Si Ning quickly followed suit."Long live Your Majesty." Song Feng said firmly."Long live Your Majesty." Si Ning imitated him since he had no idea if a General was supposed to greet the Emperor by kneeling.The palace maidens and eunuchs all proceed to put down the boxes they carried and opened them. Even though Si Ning was in a kneeling position, he could still see some of the things inside the boxes by stretching his neck, he saw the boxes contained clothes, sil
"That is not so hard." Xiu Zhicheng said softly, his phoenix eyes regarding Si Ning gently. "Tell me what you want and I will grant it or do you want me to give you one hundred thousand troops from the Imperial army?" He asked. This was the time for Si Ning to gain a hundred thousand troops yet he knew deep down he doesn’t want that. He had no idea how to manage his troops and he doesn’t want to spend the time he was supposed to be enjoying his life reading books about the art of war, the history of the Si army, and his role as a General. That would be so stressful. Si Ning knew it was a rare chance to tell Xiu Zhicheng he wanted to leave his post yet he couldn’t form the words that would make his name go down in history as the man that relinquished his post. That would definitely make him a coward and laughing stock among the Officials. He was neither injured nor mentally unstable and he had no excuse to avoid serving his Nation. Si Ning knew he should be a great wa
After going through several books and drinking tea all evening as soon as Si Ning got home ignoring Song Feng's instruction for him to rest but Si Ning knew he wouldn’t die of being deprived of sleep.The only solution that Si Ning found to avoid marrying Xiu Zhicheng was to get married before Xiu Zhicheng announced their wedding ceremony but the problem was he wasn’t so sure Xiu Zhicheng would allow him to do whatever he wanted unless he marries in secret, first marry then announce about his wedding ceremony. It shouldn’t be hard to pull off after making sure Xiao Pei doesn’t find out since he finally understood the brother Xiu TianZhao always talked about was no one other than Xiu Zhicheng and if Xiao Pei knows then Xiu TianZhao would likely know and then Xiu Zhicheng might know through Xiu TianZhao then next he must also not let his Commanders know. To plan a secret marriage was almost like planning to usurp the throne which means only the tight-lip
"Elder brother, who is Liu Ting?" Si Nan asked bluntly like she might never get a chance to ask about Liu Ting if Si Ning started asking her questions.It was quite difficult for Si Ning to explain who Liu Ting was because for Si Nan not to know her means Liu Ting had a different name in this world. The only way to ask Si Nan about her was to describe her and Si Ning raised his head placing his hand on his neck to think.After taking a while thinking deeply, Si Ning never expected it to turn out to be difficult for him to describe Liu Ting and he had to close his eyes trying to think of one thing that stood out.Si Ning clicked his tongue in annoyance when he couldn’t come up with a distinguished feature about Liu Ting. "Ting in the palace." He said finally purposely not including her last name as he lowered his head to look at Si Nan who had been waiting patiently for his answer only for her to frown clearly confused.Si Ning wanted to know how Liu
Si Ning quickly jumped up almost tumbling and kicking away the chamberstick. He yanked the wardrobe doors wide open, his hands all over the wall pulling the clothes that hinders him from inspecting the walls and dumping them on the floor. After searching for some time and found nothing, Si Ning had to clear out the wardrobe and started checking from the angles, tracing the edges with his fingers till he found a thin wooden plank that covered a cavity in the wall.The wooden plank was so thin blending in with the wall smoothly that Si Ning wondered how his sister was able to find it. He even struggled before he was able to remove the plank and there was a box that sat on the hardwood in the wall and Si Ning quickly bought it out. It was a beautiful silver box that had his name inscribed on it with beautiful calligraphy. It was quite heavy and Si Ning hoped it contained more than the letters.Si Ning had to tiptoe to avoid stepping on his clothes. He placed the box on 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