Chapter 7: Wedding Banquet, the Steward Busy

Chapter 7: The Wedding Banquet, the Steward Busy

Ning Xishi was initially surprised that General Xie Jingxing would actually bother to come greet him at the front gate.

It wasn't until he got closer that he noticed many of the matrons standing around were dressed in palace getup, and only then did he realize that the Emperor had likely forced Xie Jingxing to come out and greet him to put him in his place.

This was basically the same deal as Wang Meng making him wear a skirt.

— Making you watch yourself walk, step by step, toward the ultimate extreme that society refuses to accept.

No going back after that.

A bitter smile tugged at the corner of Ning Xishi's lips before he could stop it. In some ways, he and Xie Jingxing really were kindred spirits in misery.

However, Xie Jingxing was at least a royal relative—with a mere flick of his finger, he could crush him like a bug.

So the very bottom of the food chain was just him—Ning Xishi!!!

Ning Xishi wished he could look up at the sky and let out a long sigh. What did it mean to barge into the imperial family's business? He was a textbook case.

"Bro! When you hit it big, don't forget your boys!" Ning Xishi caught a glimpse of a familiar figure in the crowd, hopping up and down to wave at him.

"When you hit it big, don't forget your boys!" Afraid Ning Xishi hadn't heard, the guy shouted again.

Ning Xishi immediately recognized who it was, his mouth twitching as he instinctively wanted to fire back, "Want me to hand this fortune over to you?"

But although those words were unpleasant, the fact that his buddy had followed the crowd all the way to see him off still made him feel warm inside.

Truly worthy of being the brother who had ditched class with him, drunk with him, and even stuck little turtle decals on the teacher's back! That's how tight their bond was.

"Bro, when you hit it big, don't forget your boys!" Qi Huairui shouted even louder as he saw Ning Xishi riding past where he stood.

Ning Xishi lowered his head and made a funny face at him, then lifted his chin and shot back two casual words: "Got it."

"Then I'll be waiting for you at the Academy!" Qi Huairui shouted once more at Ning Xishi's retreating back.

That shout caught Ning Xishi off guard. He hadn't been to school in almost two months, so he'd basically forgotten the word "school" existed.

Actually, that wasn't entirely true—at least for the first ten days of being cooped up in the small courtyard, he had missed going to school. But later, when Dongshuang returned and the two of them played Gomoku and card games in the room every day, they'd completely forgotten about school.

Seeing Ning Xishi's horse pick up speed, Qi Huairui puffed up like an angry blowfish.

"You can't just leave your bro to suffer alone at the Academy!"

Ning Xishi covered his ears and yelled, "Bye!"

·

Ning Xishi reined in his horse in front of the General's mansion, but didn't rush to get off. Instead, he looked toward the only young man sitting smack in the middle of the crowd.

A smile lingered at the corners of Ning Xishi's lips, his expression still carrying that youthful, boyish charm, as he clasped his fists in salute to Xie Jingxing: "I'm Ning Xishi. Greetings to the Great General."

Then, he nimbly dismounted, walked up to Xie Jingxing, crouched down, and brought his eyes level with the other man's.

Ning Xishi looked at the young man's handsome features and, as expected, spotted a few old, faint scars—battle scars.

Even though Xie Jingxing couldn't walk right now, given Ning Xishi's fighting skills and how close he was, Xie Jingxing could kill him with one hand.

— He'd never let a stranger get this close to him before.

It took every ounce of his restraint not to strike out, barely managing to keep Ning Xishi from getting himself killed right there.

Ning Xishi had no idea he'd almost just died. Right now, he wanted to show he was friendly and didn't hold a grudge against the Great General just because the Emperor had randomly paired them up. So he shoved the red silk rosette he'd been carrying the whole way into Xie Jingxing's arms.

Xie Jingxing: "?"

Then Ning Xishi, as if they were old buddies, stood up, circled around to behind Xie Jingxing, and pushed his wheelchair into the mansion.

Ever since Xie Jingxing's legs gave out, the mansion had removed all its door thresholds to make it easier for him to get around, which also made it easy for Ning Xishi to push him along now.

Seeing that the two main characters had already gone inside, the palace matrons standing at the entrance exchanged glances and called out to Ning Xishi: "Second Young Master Ning, the guests are all still out here."

"Isn't the General's steward out there? He's way better at playing host than I am." Ning Xishi shot back without even looking back.

After all, he was supposed to be this spoiled, good-for-nothing young master. Even if he did something this absurd, after everyone finished gossiping, they'd always end with "That's so like Second Young Master Ning."

See? It was almost like a compliment.

The Second Young Master had done plenty of absurd things before—he had so many skeletons in his closet, one more didn't matter.

The palace matron wasn't so easy to brush off, quickly catching up, only to hear Ning Xishi ask Xie Jingxing: "Great General, where's our bedchamber? How about we skip ahead to the wedding night stuff first?"

Matron: "?"

She looked up at the sky—it was still early in the day, and not a single banquet had been set up yet.

Hearing this, the first to fly into a rage was Xie Jingxing. He blasted out a wave of energy, sending Ning Xishi flying more than ten meters away to land flat on his butt, then shot him a cold, deadly glare: "Scram."

The Second Young Master's face immediately soured too.

Being rejected so mercilessly in public—he, the Second Young Master, had some pride too. He huffed, flicked his sleeves, and stormed off.

Seeing him heading toward the mansion's exit, the steward who had just rushed over broke out in a cold sweat, hurriedly chasing after him and pleading: "Second Young Master Ning, your bedchamber is this way, this way. Please follow me."

It took several repetitions before Ning Xishi slowed his pace, allowing the steward to drag and tug him into a room that had been prepared in advance.

With both protagonists absent, the wedding could only be kept to the bare minimum, ultimately ending with the steward and several of Xie Jingxing's trusted generals drinking themselves under the table—a fittingly farcical end to the whole affair.

As soon as Ning Xishi returned to his room, he had Dongshuang untie all the sash ribbons from his outfit. His stomach, which had a thin layer of muscle, was already marked with indentations from how tightly they had been bound.

He sighed: "Wang Meng really was trying to torture me. Even women getting married don't bind this tightly."

Seeing that the young master had so readily brought up Wang Meng, Dongshuang grew wary, circling to the window to check all around.

Only after confirming there were no prying eyes did he relax.

Ning Xishi wasn't strong in combat, but his internal energy was formidable. Even his master had said that with his current level of cultivation, not even those old fossils from the ancient tombs could spy on him if they came out of seclusion.

He said: "I've sensed it—the General's mansion hasn't planted any spies here."

This General's mansion was indeed too proud, deigning not to continue planting spies around a good-for-nothing second young master. At last, Ning Xishi and Dongshuang could discuss recent matters freely.

For the past two months, cooped up in the small courtyard surrounded by spies everywhere, even exchanging messages with their eyes had to be done with extreme caution, let alone speaking aloud.

It was like being in deep cover.

Now the General's mansion had unexpectedly given them peace and quiet, which rather surprised Ning Xishi.

Having received permission, Dongshuang immediately began listing Xie Jingxing's faults: "It's all because of him that the young master was forced into this marriage by the Emperor and tormented by that Wang Meng. Today, you personally escorted him inside—that was showing him great respect—and he still dared to treat you like that."

Ning Xishi stopped him: "Hold on."

Dongshuang was taken aback: "Young master?"

Ning Xishi said, "Do you think Wang Meng's mistreatment of me was ordered by the emperor?"

Dongshuang blinked: "Wasn't it?"

Ning Xishi sprawled comfortably on the bed Dongshuang had prepared, becoming more talkative as he explained to Dongshuang: "Of course not. The emperor betrothing the Minister of Rites' legitimate second son to the general as a male consort would already draw a barrage of impeachment memorials from the censors. Naturally, he wouldn't then go and order Wang Meng to bully me."

Ning Xishi looked at Dongshuang, changing the subject: "But there are things he wants done but doesn't want to say outright, so he can only feed Wang Meng some half-truths and let him read between the lines. Wang Liniang is Wang Meng's biological sister, and he values her more than his own life. Now someone tells Wang Meng that I forcibly separated Wang Liniang from her husband, drove her husband away, and took Wang Liniang's virtue. Do you think Wang Meng would be angry?"

Dongshuang opened his mouth to protest: "But that was because Wang Liniang's husband was a beast—when he hit rock bottom, he tried to kill Wang Liniang and eat her flesh. Now that he sees her business booming, he's come back to fight over her assets. That's why you ran him off, young master."

"But what's my reputation? A skirt-chasing wastrel of a young master. Wang Liniang's husband, though, was a village scholar in their county—literate and well-read. After going back to his hometown, he badmouthed me everywhere, saying I stole another man's wife." Ning Xishi said, "I originally didn't bother with it—after all, my reputation's never been good, so one more stain doesn't matter. But if someone with an agenda investigates and presents that scholar's one-sided story, Wang Meng would naturally hate my guts."

"So that's the emperor's goal? He wants Wang Meng to humiliate you without issuing a direct order—this, this is using someone else's knife to kill." Dongshuang finally understood, but was still a bit confused: "But what's he getting out of it?"

Ning Xishi narrowed his eyes, found it quite pleasant, and happily shut them all the way, saying: "Of course, he wants to provoke me—this brainless trust-fund brat—into taking all my anger out on General Xie."

This was actually a multi-step scheme.

In the original story, Ning Xishi, feeling mortally humiliated, kept tormenting the injured Xie Jingxing, only to end up being flayed alive by him.

Thinking of that fate, Ning Xishi couldn't help but shiver.

But the current Ning Xishi had set up a persona of being a money-grubbing glory-chaser, playing 'lady of the house' in the general's mansion—now that he'd soared to the top, shouldn't he be serving General Xie like a loyal lapdog?

This threw a wrench in the emperor's plans.

Thinking about this, Ning Xishi's teeth ached.

Had he been too fawning? Huh? Wasn't General Xie supposed to like men? He'd thrown himself at him, even given him a big red flower, and the guy treated him like a pervert!

Ning Xishi felt there was no justice in the world.

His anger today wasn't an act—he was genuinely pissed.

What a total humiliation! If he ever made the first move toward Xie Jingxing again, his name wasn't Ning!

Dongshuang thought of the soldiers in today's wedding procession, radiating killing intent—they were true warriors who had seen blood, likely even killing without blinking!

Such men valued their leader's safety and honor more than their own lives—when the master is humiliated, the servant dies; that was their creed.

If his young master had truly fallen for the emperor's scheme, they might have... Dongshuang also trembled in fear, saying: "Thank goodness you had foresight, young master. We must treat General Xie like a bodhisattva."

"No enshrinement—at least a bodhisattva wouldn't hit me." Ning Xishi turned his head, speaking gloomily.

Dongshuang: "..."

From not far away came the sound of footsteps. Ning Xishi signaled Dongshuang with a gesture, and the latter instantly understood, falling silent and continuing to tidy the 'dowry' in the trunks.

Soon, the footsteps reached the door. Someone knocked, followed by the steward's voice.

"Is Second Young Master Ning resting? Our general said you must have been exhausted from today's wedding preparations and probably haven't eaten much. He had the kitchen prepare this specially—chicken soup wontons, steamed eight-treasure fish, mushroom-braised chicken, and a creamy cabbage soup. Please eat soon and rest well."

Ning Xishi, already famished, sat up at the smell.

The steward, seeing the young man's handsome, boyish face, felt a surge of fondness and quickly instructed the servants to bring the food.

As Ning Xishi ate the general's mansion's fare, he thought for a moment and said to Dongshuang: "The food here is decent. Next time I see General Xie, I'll be nicer to him."

==========Author's Note:==========

Goodnight