Chapter 31

When they returned to the imperial garden with the empress dowager and the other ladies, the emperor and the empress happened to come the other way. The guests didn’t sit down until the most important royal family members had taken their seats.

Before the banquet began, the emperor delivered a simple speech, but Nangong Du didn’t seem to have taken it seriously. As soon as he sat down, he glared at Zixiu, who was sitting next to him, and said in a playful tone, “It seems you’re not as stupid as I thought!”

Having no idea what to say, Zixiu didn’t reply. Moreover, he hadn’t had lunch, so he was not in the mood to talk to anyone because of hunger.

Nangong Du didn’t give that much thought, and in his opinion, Zixiu’s silence belittled and insulted him. Therefore, disregarding that his brother, the emperor, was delivering a speech with a serious look, he roared at Zixiu in a low voice angrily, “I haven’t gotten even with you! How dare you give me the cold shoulder?”

“What?” Zixiu stared at him blankly, but as he didn’t want to irritate this scum again, he managed to pull himself together. “My apologies!”

“Your apologies?” Nangong Du repeated the words with emphasis. “You’ve made such a fool of me in front of so many people. Do you think an apology can make up for it all?” he said with a sneer.

“Your Highness, what do you want?” It seemed that hunger could easily make people irritable. Zixiu frowned impatiently on the verge of losing his temper.

However, Nangong Du wasn’t annoyed and a faint smile even crossed his poker face, as if he really enjoyed in picking a quarrel with Zixiu.

“Darling, it seems like I’ve made you upset!”

Though he seemed to be joking, his voice sounded spine-chilling, which made Zixiu, who was up against him, didn’t dare to go too far.

“Your Highness, don’t get me wrong. As you said it was no use to apologize. To make amends, your humble consort could only ask for your opinion!” In a panic, Zixiu answered carefully.

“Oh? Honey, so you’re neither dissatisfied nor afraid of me?” Actually, this was Nangong Du’s major concern.

“Sure! Hehe!” For fear that this pervert might harass or probe him again, Zixiu only allowed the sickly smile to linger on his face for a few seconds.

Thankfully, at this point, a blast of muffled drumbeats suddenly rang.

The banquet started officially.

With the melodious music echoing, a bunch of dancers walked to the open space surrounded by dining tables and began to dance gracefully like butterflies. These lithe, beautiful girls were so charming that as soon as they began, they attracted the attention of a lot of people, and needless to say, including Nangong Du, the prince known for his dissolute behaviour and love for the gorgeous!

Of all the people present, Zixiu might be the only one who glued his gaze on the dishes as soon as the maidservants brought them in. Whether it were dishes of which he could tell the name, or the ones he had never seen, one glance was enough to make his mouth water. He finally got a chance to come out for a meal and he was certain that at any rate, that psycho didn’t dare prevent him from eating on such an occasion, nor did he dare to act violently against him. Needless to say, Zixiu wouldn’t miss this chance to gorge himself. Therefore, when the others were still immersed in the show, he had picked up his chopsticks and started chowing down!

There was never a shortage of delicacies like abalone, ginseng, shark fin, in Prince Mu’s Mansion, but ever since Zixiu ‘married’ this prince, he had had nothing in addition to a jar of soup, a bowl of plain porridge and a few tiny dishes of snacks. “If what he said was true, that his family has been living in the mountains for generations and lived off of herbs collecting, what he usually eats must be humble food and he must have never ever tasted such delicacies, but now he is eating in a relatively decent way when he is so hungry, so he must be well-brought-up and his origin can’t be that simple!” Nangong Du thought while peeping at Zixiu who was busy with his food. For no reason, Nangong Du suddenly remembered Zixiu’s bright red, tempting lips when he was suffering from poison the other day.

“Have a try!” he couldn’t help but pick food for Zixiu.

“Eh-hem…” Having been taken aback, Zixiu got chocked on his food.

Only then did Nangong Du realize that he was not himself today, but he regained his composure and handed over a glass of water to Zixiu in silence soon after a short moment of pause.

Zixiu took the glass from him, gulped the water down, and finally stopped coughing. Though it was this pervert who had made him choke, Zixiu still showed his appreciation habitually.

“Prince Mu, Princess Liuxu, I’m very glad to see you two love and respect each other so much!” Nangong Ao, who was sitting on the seat of honor suddenly praised at the sight of what this couple was doing. In front of him were the Prime Minister, Lou Yuankui and the delegation member of the Wen Kingdom, Sun Zhao, who were obviously toasting him with wine cups in their hands.

“Pardon our manners, Your Majesty. I should be blamed for startling Princess Liuxu just now!” Nangong Du was telling the truth, but he didn’t seem to feel guilty.

Nangong Ao laughed loudly and then shifted his gaze to Zixiu. “Princess Liuxu is virtuous and broadminded, so I’m sure you won’t be mad at my brother!” he said half in jest.

Zixiu didn’t say a word, but only curved his lips up, secretly felicitating that before leaving the mansion, Xingyi had told him how to respond if the emperor joked with him. “Does the emperor often make fun of that pervert?” he wondered.

“Everything has its vanquisher. The emperor must be more aggressive and terrifying, or he wouldn’t have had power over this mischievous prince!” It didn’t come to Zixiu’s mind until Nangong Ao looked away from him. To be honest, even though the emperor looked at him much more softly than that pervert did, Zixiu was startled and broke out in a cold sweat.

Next, Nangong Ao raised his gold wine cup again and said with a smile, “I’d like to propose a toast to the newly-weds, Prince Mu and Princess Liuxu. I wish you everlasting love and the early birth of a son!”

Hearing that, everyone went stiff and turned to look at him in surprise, which led to sudden freezing of the atmosphere. Zixiu cursed inwardly when he heard the words ‘early birth of a son’, but he wasn’t aware that the others were also taken aback by those words!

Nangong Ao was already in his forties, and although he had so many consorts and concubines, but only three of his children were boys. Unfortunately, his first and second sons had died in infancy and the only one left was mentally-retarded. Therefore, until now, he hadn’t appointed a crown prince yet. According to the rules of the royal family of the Nan Kingdom, if the emperor had no son, he had to appoint his brother’s son as the crown prince when the time came!

What did Nangong Ao mean by wishing the early birth of Prince Mu’s son in front of so many officials and those delegation members from the Wen Kingdom?

Though the speaker had no particular intention in saying this, the listeners caught the implication!

Nangong Ao glanced at people present and suddenly realized that he had stumbled on a sensitive topic, so he immediately put on a smile, trying to ease the tension.

“Everyone, relax! Make yourself at home!”

Having no idea what was happening, Zixiu looked at the officials blankly for a while before it suddenly came to his mind that he might have spilled the beans by accident! He peeped at Nangong Du in a hurry and only saw the latter pick up the wine cup.

“Your Majesty, I’m counting on that! To show my respect, I’m going to empty my cup first!”

With that, he downed the wine in one gulp without hesitation.

“That’s my brother!” With that, Nangong Ao also emptied his cup.

As the tension in the air had been relieved, the dancers went on their performance, and some of the guests shifted their attention back to the singing and dancing while the rest were busy with their food.

In the middle of a treasure hunt in his food, Zixiu suddenly felt someone stepping on his foot. Having learned the lesson, he immediately put down the chopsticks and beamed at the stranger in front of him.

Toasting was the essential part of the banquet, and now Sun Zhao was standing before prince Mu and Princess Liuxue, holding a gold wine cup, with the Prime Minister, Lou Yuankuai, by his side.

“Prince Mu, I’d like to propose a toast as an apology for my unannounced visit the other day!”

“Don’t mention it, General Sun.” Picking up the gold cup full of wine, Nangong Du emptied it.

He looked so charming while drinking, but the blush on his face became more pronounced. Zixiu stared at Nangong Du’s side face tensely. “How is this guy’s drinking capacity? I hope he won’t get drunk!” he prayed with butterflies in his stomach.

“Eat it!” As soon as Sun Zhao and Lou Yuankui left, Nangong Du saw that the meat he had picked for Zixiu was still in the latter’s bowl.

“Got it!” Zixiu answered while picking up that inviting piece of meat in horror. “What the hell does this pervert want? Is the meat poisonous?”

With an ominous sense of foreboding in his mind, Zixiu put the meat into his mouth sadly. As it was so big, he couldn’t swallow it without chewing.

“Do you like it?” Watching Zixiu finish that piece of meat, Nangong Du asked coolly.

“Hm!” Zixiu answered with a nod. The meat was tender without too much grease and tasted so good with mild spiciness permeating every bit of it. What’s more, spicy food was his favorite. “How come this asshole was so nice to me and even picked food for me? Did he do this on purpose because someone was watching us secretly?”

“Have some more then!”

“All right!” Thinking that Nangong Du was acting, Zixiu appeared very cooperative and although that guy put the same food in his bowl every time, he finished them all.

Watching them from the nearby table, the empress dowager nodded with a satisfied smile.

People came over to toast from time to time. Looking at Nangong Du flushed with intoxication, Zixiu felt like a cold chill was running up his spine and he almost lost his appetite.

“Your Highness, are you hungry? Do you feel like some food?” Not daring to stop him from drinking, Zixu had to advise in a tactful way. It seemed he wasn’t that easy to get drunk with food in his stomach.

“I’m not hungry. Darling, help yourself to some more!” Nangong Du picked up his chopsticks and put more of the mildly spicy food into Zixiu’s bowl.