Zhang Defu grinned from ear to ear, quickly ushering Qiu Yutong into the room. “Young Master Xue Rong, the evening meal is ready. Please wait just a moment, His Majesty will be here soon.”
Qiu Yutong lowered his head, staring at the vegetables on the table, lamenting inwardly.
Although Lu Xiao was now the monarch of a country, his culinary preferences were still simple and straightforward. Dinner only consisted of a soup with two meat and two vegetable dishes. There would also be a dessert, this time being the osmanthus cakes he made himself.
Just as Qiu Yutong was entranced by the plate of osmanthus cakes, Lu Xiao walked in draped in an outer robe.
He immediately frowned when he noticed Qiu Yutong. “Zhang Defu, what is he doing here?”
“Your Majesty, this slave allowed Young Master Xue Rong…” Zhang Defu said respectfully.
“Tell him to get out,” Lu Xiao said, directly interrupting him.
Qiu Yutong didn’t let out a single sound, observing carefully, he knew that Lu Xiao…this youngster, loved to do this*.
[T/N: the raws is actually just “love to [do] this this” which I’m going to assume is act in this specific way.]
Lu Xiao paused for a moment, then glanced to the osmanthus cakes on the table once again. He seemed to have remembered something, “Nevermind, forget it.”
“Young Master Xue Rong, His Majesty has agreed,” Zhang Defu said softly.
“Oh,” Qiu Yutong hesitated for a moment, then sat down next to the table.
To be honest, he still wasn’t quite used to it. After all, Lu Xiao used to have to wait on this teacher to sit down first before sitting down himself.
“Young Master Xue Rong! Who allowed you to sit?!” Zhang Defu asked urgently.
Qiu Yutong froze for a moment then immediately reacted. Daning Palace had strict rules. With his current identity, he seemed to be unable to sit down? Should he just stand to the side and announce the dishes? Does that mean… he had to helplessly watch Lu Xiao eat?”
“No harm done,” Lu Xiao indifferently said.
Zhang De Fu was stunned, but his face quickly became joyful, repeatedly stating, “Yes, yes, this slave has overstepped.”
This chubby old eunuch hunched over and retreated to the door, with a rustle. He looked towards Qiu Yutong with a smile one last time before retreating, carefully closing the door behind him.
Qiu Yutong, “…”
What exactly was going through Zhang Defu’s head right now?
He couldn’t help but look up towards Lu Xiao. Who knew that Lu Xiao would also be looking down at him? Their eyes met for a moment.
Awkwardly, Qiu Yutong’s lips twitched, “Your Majesty, please eat.”
Lu Xiao nodded slightly. “Your name is Xue… Xue Rong, isn’t it? No need to feel to be reserved, feel free to eat whatever you like.”
Qiu Yutong hesitated.
Placed on the table were his favorite sweet osmanthus cakes, a plate of crystal pork knuckles, a plate of steamed sea bass, stir-fried asparagus, a plate of boiled Chinese kale, and white jade bone soup.
Although cultivators had a light taste, especially sword cultivators, Qiu Yutong was precisely an anomaly. Even though he was a sword cultivator, his taste was very inelegant. The thing he loved to eat the most in his life was sweets, after that was —— meat.
He felt a little embarrassed and tried to keep his actual preferences to himself. Therefore, apart from his three shixiongs, his typical diet was only known to his little disciple, Lu Xiao.
Seeing him not moving his chopsticks, Lu Xiao raised an eyebrow and asked, “What’s wrong? Is it not to your liking?”
“That’s not…” Qiu Yutong hesitated for a moment and his reason finally overcame his desire for good food. He braced himself, picking up the stir-fried asparagus with his chopsticks, put it into his mouth, and swallowed with great effort.
It tasted horrendous, like grass, with a slightly bitter taste*.
[T/N: bitter in chinese can also mean suffering.]
He wanted to cry yet had no tears and thought, ever since he was young, his brothers wouldn’t even let him eat a mouthful of vegetables. Who knew there’d come a day that he’d willingly eat vegetables?
“Is it to your liking?”
“Yes, it’s pretty good.” Qiu Yutong simply admired his acting skills.
The corner of Lu Xiao’s mouth hooked up in ridicule, “It seems that Lu Yande’s teaching is indeed impressive… everyone knows that cultivators only love to eat light vegetarian meals.”
Qiu Yutong didn’t know what this youngster’s peculiar words meant, and he didn’t care either —— the grassy taste in his mouth made him nauseated, only after using a lot of effort, did he not puke the food out on the spot.
Lu Xiao, this youngster, was simply his nemesis!
That year, he took the eight or nine-year-old little Lu Xiao to go to a restaurant to eat and drink and accidentally ordered a pot of strong wine. He almost spat out the first sip he took. But faced with little Lu Xiao’s gleaming and adoring gaze, he was simply unable to stop halfway. In order to maintain his dignity as a teacher, he was forced to circulate his spiritual force to dissipate the alcohol as he braced himself to drink the entire pot of strong liquor.
After that, he was sick for three whole days, staring at the promoted wine* that was displayed with the food at the restaurant made him nauseated.
[T/N: The raws state the displayed food and wine that is used as promotion for the restaurant.]
And all of this was Lu Xiao’s fault!
Qiu Yutong bitterly thought back to the tragic past, while clenching his teeth and swallowing the asparagus down his throat. His eyes were even becoming a little moist.
Lu Xiao looked down at him, his gaze suddenly distracted, as if he was remembering something from the distant past.
After Qiu Yutong forcefully finished the asparagus, his mouth was still full of that bitter taste and he couldn’t help but stare at the osmanthus cakes.
Eh, if he pretends to curry favour with Lu Xiao and give him a piece of the cake first, following the next course of action and eating a piece of the cake as well should be no problem.
Qiu Yutong licked his lips and picked up a piece of the osmanthus cake, placing it in the small saucer in front of Lu Xiao. He submissively said, “Your Majesty, try this.”
Lu Xiao was slightly startled, almost as if he were suddenly awoken from a good dream.
He closed his eyes and coldly stated, “We never eat such sweet and greasy* things.”
[T/N: This phrase can also mean overly-sentimental. ;-;]
Qiu Yutong inwardly sneered. Who was this youngster deceiving, this was simply lying through one’s teeth! What, did liking sweets damage his image as a wise monarch?
Naturally, Lu Xiao didn’t understand what Qiu Yutong was silently criticising. He was silent for a moment then casually dumped the sweet osmanthus cake from his small plate back to the plate and said, “Take them back.”
“Removing them like that? But I haven’t even…” Qiu Yutong watched as the two palace maids walked in and took away the barely-touched osmanthus cake, crystal hooves, etc..
He turned his head towards Lu Xiao, his gaze full of resentment and complaints.
How could this brat waste food like this! Didn’t he understand the sufferings of commoners? Plus… plus, this teacher still wasn’t full!
Lu Xiao looked down at him and asked coldly, “Why are you looking at me like that? What do you want?”
What was this evil disciple saying?!
Qiu Yutong glared at Lu Xiao, simply wondering if his ears had a problem.
Just as he was about to rebuke him, he suddenly froze. His current identity was not that of a lofty “shizun”, but the tribute offered by Prince Jin, “Young Master Xue Rong”! And according to his identity of “Young Master Xue Rong,” Lu Xiao’s words made absolute sense.
What… What should he do?
Wait. Lu Xiao had said before he felt disgusted when he, with this face, took the initiative to curry favour…
Qiu Yutong stiffened for a moment, braced himself and gave an extremely flattering smile, “Your Majesty, you mean that you want Xue Rong to ser…”
Indeed, Lu Xiao immediately glared at him in extreme anger, “We don’t have such interests. Get out.”
Qiu Yuton released a sigh of relief, immediately bowing and withdrawing.
Zhang Defu stood outside the door and watched him walk outside. “Young Master Xue Rong, why did you just come out? You, you have to serve His Majesty.”
Qiu Yutong self-confidently stated, “It’s none of my business. His Majesty was the one who told me to get out.”
Zhang Defu stomped his foot and seemed like he was about to sigh. “Ai, it’s been so many years. How could His Majesty still, still take things so hard…”
Qiu Yutong didn’t want to waste his time chattering with Zhang Defu. He immediately went back to the room in the west wing, fell onto the bed, looked to the snow-white bed curtains and let out a long breath.
“Ai, Night Rain.”
An exhausting half a day of being servile and he didn’t even get to touch Night Rain.
Why was Lu Xiao this brat watching it so carefully?
Worst case scenario, I’ll have to ride a carriage back to North Snow City… Besides the fact that it would take such a long time to travel back, riding a carriage back would mean getting ridiculed by that broken-mouthed third shixiong for a whole century. Yes, Second Shixiong would just glance at him silently. Only Zhangmen Da-Shixiong* was the best. Not only would he not make fun of him, but would also console him on top of that.
[T/N: Ugh, this is hard. So basically his oldest shixiong is also the sect leader/representative so he calls him zhangmen Da (oldest) shixiong. Should I just do all da-shixiong/er-shixiong etc instead or go full english?]
Plus, where was he going to find a carriage and a horse?
These things would all cost money, but he was simply impoverished.
Qiu Yutong thought about it for a while but still couldn’t come up with any good plans so he could only comfort himself and take it one step at a time for the time being.
Fortunately, Lu Xiao hated his face. He didn’t have any interest in “Xue Rong”, which helped him solve a big problem.
Or else, simply thinking about it would make his scalp go numb.
Prince Jin was also troublesome. Forget about sending people into the palace to spy and search for treasure, but he also deliberately looked for people with looks like this. Did he want to disgust Lu Xiao, or was there something wrong with his brain?
Qiu Yutong thought for a while, before finally dazedly drifting into sleep.
……
The next ten days were peaceful.
Lu Xiao seemed to be constantly busy and never summoned him. So he began thinking about how to get back to North Snow city, as well as figuring out the spiritual acupoints within this body. Unfortunately, there was no progress and he was greatly discouraged.
This afternoon, Qiu Yutong spent his lunch basking in the yard while reading a book. Suddenly, he heard a long sigh.
He turned and looked around, spotting Zhang Defu carrying a food box, sighing as he walked into the yard.
Seeing his miserable appearance, Qiu Yutong couldn’t help but ask, “Zhang-gonggong, what’s wrong?”
Zhang Defu shook his head in dismay, “Nothing.”
Qiu Yutong looked at the food box in his hands, instantly guessing what had happened. “His Majesty refuses to eat?”
Lu Xiao had always been like this since he was a child, once he started sulking, he would refuse to eat.
Zhang Defu said helplessly, “Something happened in the south recently. His Majesty is extremely angry and very busy… This isn’t, it’s almost been a whole day and he still hasn’t eaten anything. This slave wanted to send in a plate of white fungus soup, but was also kicked out.”
Qiu Yutong hesitated for a moment, but couldn’t bear to allow his only disciple to starve, and said, “Give the food box to me, I’ll try persuading him.”
Zhang Defu hesitantly said, “That, that wouldn’t be good… in some previous incidences, this slave overstepped his boundaries and His Majesty even reprimanded me.”
Qiu Yutong held out his hand, “Give it to me.”
Zhang Defu hesitated for a long time before he finally handed the food box to Qiu Yutong, urging repeatedly, “Young Master Xue Rong, His Majesty is not in a good mood today. Please be extremely careful not to offend His Majesty.”
Qiu Yutong took the food box and nodded, “Don’t worry Zhang-gonggong, I’ll be careful.”
Zhang Defu sighed in relief, not saying anything else.
Qiu Yutong picked up the food box and headed to the door of the palace.
Before he even entered the door, he heard a burst of shattering noises come from within, followed by Lu Xiao’s roar, “A bunch of useless trash!! What’s the point of keeping any of you?!”
The two guards stationed at the door faced each other, fearfully silent.
“Bang!” The doors opened and several cabinet ministers dressed in vermilion palace robes walked out. All of them lowered their heads down with a look of shame.
Qiu Yutong felt a little surprised.
One of the middle-aged officials, lean with a tiny beard, was an old acquaintance of his. Previously, he was the number one visitor to Lu Xiao’s Prince Yan’s mansion, and now was the head of the cabinet ministers, Chen Siru.
When Chen Siru saw Qiu Yutong, he involuntarily shouted, “Immortal Master Qiu?!”
He immediately reacted. “No, not right, you’re not…”
Qiu Yutong felt a little awkward and cleared his voice. “Lord Chen, this one is Xue Rong.”
Chen Siru froze for a moment but quickly realized, “Oh, you’re the man that Prince Jin sent to His Majesty…”
He didn’t continue speaking and sized up Qiu Yutong and couldn’t help shaking his head, “Too similar, too similar. His Majesty, this…”
The author has things to say:
Xiaoxiao: He, the prostitute Prince Jin sent, always thinks of ways to steal Our Night Rain, and is still pretending in front of Us. It’s a pity he has a lot of flaws. We want to see what other tricks he has.
Zhang Defu: Your Majesty has been living hard all these years, can’t he be a little more cooperative now that he’s found a lookalike!
Qiuqiu: Failed ascension, the evil disciple hates me, I can’t steal the sword, this is too difficult.
Chen Siru: Your Majesty is muddle-headed. This evildoer will bring disaster onto the country!
Prince Jin: Where’s this prince’s tortoiseshell?
