Chapter 41 - Politeness
"I"m Xiang Jinghong!"It was just these five short words, and Yue Jing, who had originally been grabbing onto Xiang Yun"s sleeves with all his might and looking like a scoundrel who had gone on a rampage, suddenly felt as if he had been electrocuted. His entire body shook, and even his hands unconsciously loosened as he stood on the spot, completely dumbfounded, allowing Xiang Jinghong to take Xiang Yunyang and leave.
After a long while, Yue Jing"s body finally moved slightly. He lowered his head somewhat numbly, and just happened to see the maid Lin Wan"er, who was about to follow him. Yue Jing stiffly said this.
"That, sister-in-law, the person who called himself Brother Wei, what did he say his name was?"
Lin Wan"er looked at the man who had been talking about Feng Yue and the crown prince with a wild and unruly face, but now, he seemed to have lost his soul and was in no mood to argue with him. She only said to the latter, "That"s the second son of the crown prince"s estate, Crown Prince Jing Hong.
Lin Wan"er got up and left. Yue Jing was the only one on the round table. After hearing Lin Wan"er"s words, the latter"s eyes widened like a bronze bell. His mouth opened so wide that his chin almost fell to the ground.
"A son of the same generation!" They are the sons of King Shoulder! "Suddenly, Yue Jing grabbed the wine cup in front of him, wanting to drink a mouthful to calm himself down. However, his hand didn"t know why, but it was shaking non-stop.
Yue Jingqiang used his other hand to hold on to his arm and raised his head to drink. However, all of them fell on his face. The next moment, Yue Jing actually fell to the ground.
"Oh my G.o.d, what did I just say to the two princes!" Yue Jing only felt that he was almost sobered up from the alcohol. He couldn"t care less about eating and drinking. He got up, staggered and ran out. At this moment, he wished that his parents could have two extra legs.
Yue Jing had already left, while Xiang Yun was being dragged into the Spring Pavilion by his second brother. As they walked, Xiang Jinghong asked, "Third brother, when you go in later on, you need to give a gift to my royal father. Have you prepared a present?"
"A gift? "What gift?"
"Of course it"s Father"s gift. You wouldn"t be unprepared, brat, right?" Xiang Jinghong looked towards Xiang Yun, somewhat bewildered. As the latter saw it, Xiang Yun had already prepared a Crimson Fire Cloud Crystal for him. No matter what, he would at least prepare a congratulatory gift for Father."Oh, so it"s a congratulatory gift. Ready, ready." Xiang Yun agreed over and over.
Hearing this, Xiang Jinghong finally relaxed, bringing Xiang Yun up to the second floor of the Spring Pavilion. Once they had gone upstairs, everyone"s gazes immediately shot over, all of them landing on Xiang Yun. Seeing the latter blushing and intoxicated, everyone revealed looks of astonishment.
He raised his head to look at the crowd, and the first thing he did was to face those glaring eyes. The latter was no other than the one that had almost killed him on the spot today - Princess Feather Phoenix of the State of Feng Yun, his elder cousin Xiang Fei!
At this moment, Xiang Fei"s eyes were as cold as knives as she stared fixedly at Xiang Yun. If looks could kill, Xiang Yun would have already died a hundred times over.The latter hurriedly shifted her gaze to the others. The county governor of the northwest, Left Premier w.a.n.g Wen Jing, Grand Marshal Wan Bing, and Crown Prince Xiang Qian were all people Xiang Yun had seen before. There wasn"t much of a surprise to them.
After making eye contact with these people one by one, Xiang Yun"s gaze finally landed on the seat at the head of the table. It was the refined man with snow-white clothes and an indifferent expression.At this moment, the latter was holding a gla.s.s of sparkling and translucent fine wine and carefully tasting it. As for Xiang Yun, he had only taken a single glance before retracting his gaze.
When the county governor saw that Xiang Yun had arrived, he greeted him enthusiastically. At the same time, he continued to pat his horses and say, "Oh, this must be the crown prince. It"s only been a year since we"ve seen him and he"s still so talented. His bearing is extraordinary."
Hearing this, Xiang Yun snickered in his heart, "What? You have an extraordinary bearing, you guys still don"t know how to arrange me behind my back."
When Xiang Yun came upstairs, he discovered that there were no more seats available. The latter did not hold back as he swaggered around the second floor looking for a place to sit. In the end, he sat down at Spring Pavilion.
"Hmph! Hurry up and pay respects to the crown prince, the princess, and all masters here!" The moment Xiang Yun"s b.u.t.tocks landed, w.a.n.g Xiang Ling, who had been silent all this time, finally opened his mouth and spoke, his voice a little low.
He only felt that although this voice was not loud, it was filled with an indescribable pressure, causing him to be unable to control himself and naturally stand up. The latter looked at the white figure, who did not even raise his eyes, and spoke with an expressionless face.
"Greetings, royal father, the crown prince, the princess, and all lords!" Xiang Yun bowed to everyone one at a time, then sat back down on the window sill. He did not look at everyone as he looked at the bright moon outside, his free and unrestrained manner as if he was giving out rewards to all who were eating him."Xiang Yun, haven"t you seen that many distinguished guests are here? Hurry up and come over." Xiang Jinglei couldn"t help but reprimand his third brother for his slovenly att.i.tude as he sat on the windowsill.
Hearing this, Xiang Yun only turned his head to glance at Xiang Lei, saying, "There"s no seat for me again. Why would I come over? Why don"t you bring me a chair?"
"You …" Xiang Jinglei"s large eyes stared at Xiang Yun, wanting to yell and curse at him, but he could only swallow his words back into his stomach in consideration of the distinguished guests present. The latter glared fiercely at Xiang Yun, seemingly saying, "You brat, just you wait."Third brother, listen to your big brother. Come here and talk. I"ll have the servants bring you a chair right now." At this moment, Xiang Jinghong hurriedly opened his mouth to smooth things over.
Hearing this, Xiang Yun waved his hands, "There"s no need, there"s no need, I just came up to walk around, to give everyone a greeting. I"ll wait here, if there"s anything you need, just call me, if you find me an eyesore, I"ll leave immediately. I still have friends waiting outside the apricot garden for me to drink."
Xiang Yun didn"t know that Yue Jing had long since snuck back home and closed the door, hiding in bed while trembling in fear.
Hearing Xiang Yun"s words, everyone at the banquet was stunned. They had not expected the latter to speak so straightforwardly, not even caring about the honor of the people present.
Moreover, what was strange was that the exalted Crown Prince had actually been arranged to sit outside of the Apricot Altar Garden. This was rather strange. Everyone immediately had a guess in their hearts as they inadvertently looked towards Xiang Ling who was seated on the main seat.
Although the latter"s expression was still the same, but his expression was clearly ugly.
Seeing this scene, Xiang Yun, who was sitting cross-legged on the window, could not help but sneer in his heart. Xiang Yun, of course, was not really drunk. The latter"s tolerance for alcohol had always been extraordinary, and now that he had become a martial artist, it was naturally even harder for him to fall drunk.Xiang Yun"s current actions had merely been to drink two taels of wine and put on half a catty worth of clothes, purposely causing some ruckus, making this aloof and mighty father of his lose face.
"Cough cough …" Seeing this scene, Marshal Wan felt rather awkward. He said to Xiang Yun who was by the window, "Young crown prince, your brothers have all offered birthday presents to your father. What good things have you prepared for your father?"
"Of course I"m ready!" Xiang Yun replied with a complacent look.
"Oh, what good things have you prepared? Can you show it to us? "
Xiang Yun really did flip off the window upon hearing this. He casually fished in his chest, and in the next moment, a messy copper coin appeared in his hand.
"This is the congratulatory gift I sent to my Royal Father!"
"Hmm?" When the crowd saw the copper coin in Xiang Yun"s hands, they were all momentarily stunned. Shortly afterwards, the Left Premier, w.a.n.g Wenjing, took the initiative to stand up and walk in front of Xiang Yun.
The senior scholar lowered his head to look at the bronze coin in Xiang Yun"s hands. The latter had the bearing of an expert in antiques as he said, "These bronze coins are definitely not just some antique devices used for collection, or some other type of cloud utensil."The latter could not help but pick up a copper coin and carefully examine it.
As he looked at them, w.a.n.g Wenjing nodded his head in an exquisite manner and said, "Hmm, the handwriting is clear, the bronze is relatively new, and the design is orderly and well-preserved. Not bad, not bad. Let me take a look at the dynasty of copper coins."
w.a.n.g Wenjing turned over the copper coin and subconsciously said, "Feng Yuntong Treasure!"
"Ugh …"
All of a sudden, the people who had been listening to w.a.n.g Wenjing"s a.n.a.lysis were all dumbfounded. Even w.a.n.g Wenjing himself was stunned.
"Isn"t this the money circulating in the Windy Nation?" w.a.n.g Wenjing looked at Xiang Yun with a shocked expression."Yeah, this is just an ordinary copper coin." Xiang Yun replied in a matter-of-fact manner.
"But this …" w.a.n.g Wenjing looked at Xiang Yun, and Xiang Yun also looked at w.a.n.g Wenjing. Their gazes met, and they looked at each other, the atmosphere between them awkward!
Even in his dreams, w.a.n.g Wenjing would never have thought that the gift Xiang Yun gave to his lordship was actually an ordinary copper coin. How could this even be called a birthday present?"Crown Prince, you must be joking with us. Don"t hide where the real birthday is." w.a.n.g Wenjing smiled awkwardly.
"This is really a birthday present I brought with me. Oh, and also the boxes of cotton that I brought from Qin Feng City. They are all the specialties of our Qin Feng City!" Xiang Yun replied with incomparable seriousness.He silently walked back to his seat, no longer daring to converse with this little crown prince. Not only him, but everyone else present had a stunned expression on their faces. No one had expected that Xiang Yun would bring such a large sum of copper coins as a birthday present.
Marshal w.a.n.g could not help but ask, "Young Crown Prince, isn"t your birthday present a bit too special? Isn"t it a little light?"
Everyone thought to themselves, Marshal w.a.n.g, aren"t you giving this kid too much face. How is this giving him too lightly? It can"t be any lighter. A few copper coins and a few boxes of cotton are to deal with beggars.Even Xiang Tian, who was currently looking up at the pitiful copper coins in Xiang Yun"s hands, twitched inwardly with an indifferent expression.
Xiang Yun could clearly see the reaction of the crowd. Smiling inwardly, he showed a lamenting expression as he spoke in a pitiful manner.
"Aiya, everyone, I"m at the northwest border of Qin Feng City. It"s been freezing all year round with my back against the Silvermoon Forest, and my goods are extremely scarce. The citizens of the city can"t even eat their fill and get warm."
"Although I"m a son, I don"t have any supplies. I can only think of a way to run some businesses and earn enough money to feed the entire household and prevent them from starving to death."
For the sake of preparing a congratulatory gift for the old man, I have prepared from the start of the year until the end of the year. I have spent a great deal of time and effort in saving up on food, and only then did I manage to save up dozens of copper coins and a few carts of cotton. ""However, on the way here, we exhausted all our resources and were forced to use some copper coins. Only then did we finally arrive at Silver City. Right now, we only have a dozen copper coins and a few boxes of cotton."
When Xiang Yun said these words, his expression was sorrowful and helpless. He spoke in an extremely pitiful manner, thinking that those who didn"t know the inside story believed that he was really living a life of austerity and suffering in the Northwest Qin Feng City.
Old Marshal Wan was one of them. He thought to himself, "So this young n.o.ble is so pitiful. His highness was rather mean. He actually didn"t even give him some money when he sent his son to the edge of the prison."
He said pitifully, "I also know that to all of you lords, this gift is not worth mentioning, and to my royal father, it is even more of a disdain. However, this is already a gift that I have painstakingly prepared, I really do not have any valuables, and the so called "thousand miles worth of copper coins, a gift of great courtesy and grace", I hope that royal father will be able to accept this son"s kind intentions.As Xiang Yun spoke, he had already walked in front of Xiang Tian, holding a few scattered copper coins with both hands as he brought them in front of Xiang Tian.