Chapter 20 - Making Connections
After lunch, Song Xiao sat sleepily at the backseat of the car, and asked Yu Tang where they were going in the afternoon.
Yu Tang raised his eyes and gave a meaningful glance to Dugu An who was sitting in front. Dugu An promptly raised the small book in his hand to let the emperor glance at it.
“Go watch a movie ba.” Yu Tang said without changing his expression.
At the city center’s largest cinema, the summer vacation had just pa.s.sed and a lot of good summer blockbusters weren’t taken off the shelf yet, like racing and mecha movies that boys like. Yu Tang faced the screen filled with war and science fiction movies, and resolutely picked one called ‘I Love You, Why Don’t You Love Me’, a common romance movie.
‘Love Guidebook’ said, either watch a horror movie, so that the lover could be frightened and shrink into his embrace, or watch a boring romance movie, so that the lover would doze off on your shoulder.
Dugu An went to buy soda and popcorn, while waiting for him, Yu Tang and Song Xiao were bored and went into the lounge to play the crane machine.
“Ai, caught it!” Song Xiao nervously stared at the claw, and just when the plush bear was about to be thrown out, it dropped halfway with a ‘pata’.
“Excuse me, are you the pudding gongzi?” A girl playing with the crane machine besides them moved closer, and mysteriously asked him.
“What’s pudding gongzi?” Song Xiao turned his head to look at her, and came into contact with a pair of wide eyes that immediately started shining.
“Heavens, heavens, seeing you up close is more handsome! Oh my G.o.d!” The girl was so excited she started hopping, and the two girls who were with here also came.
“Gongzi, can we take a photo with you?”
“Gongzi, give me a signature ba!”
Song Xiao felt like his head was full of fog. Frankly, after being here for so long, he still couldn’t quite adapt to girls’ degree of enthusiasm, and it really was a little hard to bear.
“Kacha!” One of the girls already couldn’t help raising her phone to take a photo.
“Whoosh—”A dark shadow flashed by, and Dugu An, who was wearing black, short sleeves T-shirt and a black cap, instantly appeared in front of the camera with a popcorn in one hand and a cola in the other, manually pixelating the image.
“Really! Why are you blocking the way.” The girl who was taking a photo felt some regret, and watched as the tall boy next to Song Xiao reached out to protect him by his body. The two of them went to check the tickets with the tall boy’s chest was sticking to his back.
Wait a minute! This scene……
“Ah— ” The three girls looked at each other, and were even more excited.
“Did you see that guy’s appearance just now?”
“I saw, I saw, he’s simply handsome beyond the heavens!”
“Aaaaahhhh!”
Probably because this romance film really was too boring, the entire screening hall only had three couples. The other two couples had found a remote corner to sit in, and who knew what they were up to in the pitch dark. Only Yu Tang and Song Xiao sat in the middle, the prime viewing position, and earnestly watched the movie.
‘I Love You, Why Don’t You Love Me’ was considered a conventional film, and it really had a justified reputation. The storyline was about a successful man, by chance meeting the protagonist of the story when she just began working, and it was love at first sight. However, because of all kinds of misunderstandings, the protagonist didn’t like him. The two of them were in a friendly one-upmanship, where one moment they were on good terms then one moment they split up, one moment they were lovey-dovey then one moment they were heartbreaking…
“Ouyang Tian, I will never like you! You give up ba!” The female protagonist said firmly and resolutely.
“You’ll regret it!” The tall male protagonist pinched her chin, and kissed her without warning, kissed until there was even sounds.
Yu Tang watched and creased his brows, turned his head to discover that this sound was produced by the pair of lovers in the corner at the back.
Dugu An who was sitting behind Yu Tang made a gesture, inquiring if he should deal with the pair who were disturbing the emperor when he was watching a movie. Yu Tang waved his hand, indicating that he pardoned them of their offense. After that, he looked at Song Xiao by his side, and realised Song Xiao wasn’t looking at the screen either, and had lowered his head to eat the popcorn.
“What’s up?” Yu Tang was a little astonished, wasn’t this person watching with relish just now?
“Look at nothing that does not consist of propriety.” Song Xiao conscientiously said, waiting until the movie’s kissing scene pa.s.sed to raise his head, and continue to cheerfully watch on. He honestly didn’t really care about what was playing, he simply felt that showing it on such a large screen was really interesting.
“……” Yu Tang silently lifted the c.o.ke for a sip. He waited while the movie’s boring plot played, waited until he himself was sleepy, and still hadn’t seen Song Xiao yawn a single time. This wasn’t the same as what the book had written!
The cinema wasn’t far from Song Xiao’s home. After the movie ended, it was about time for them to go home. Yu Tang let the chauffeur drive to the entrance of the district first, and personally walked back slowly with Song Xiao.
On the walk back, the two of them didn’t say anything, while the afterglow of the sunset lengthened their shadows.
They had obviously walked back with the pace of a stroll, but they soon reached the entrance of the district. Song Xiao stopped walking. “We’re here, this serva… I’ll go back.”
Yu Tang was a little reluctant to part, but he still reservedly nodded in a dignified manner, indicating that Song Xiao could kneel in greeting.
The chauffeur panted as he brought a big box of books over, and dropped it on the floor with a thump.
The emperor’s deep eyes glinted imperceptibly for a moment, and he grabbed ahold of Song Xiao who was about to call the security guard to help. “You can’t carry it yourself, I’ll send you up ba.”
As a result, Yu Tang and Song Xiao walked hand in hand up front, the chauffeur and security guard carried the box with bitter faces behind them, and Dugu An was at the very back, watching these two work to prevent anything from going wrong.
Sent straight upstairs, Song Xiao thanked the security guard and gave him a fifty yuan tip. He opened the door with his key, and the chauffeur helped push the box into the entrance hall.
The house was extremely quiet, with only Song Zicheng sitting on the sofa. In his hands were two materials, and he was silently smoking. One was the proposal to let Song Xiao help them by giving a speech, the other was the proposal to freeze Qiu Mingyan. Both these plans had advantages and disadvantages. At first, he was against bringing Song Xiao into this, but that proposal would help Xinghai’s reputation, furthermore he thought of Song Zheng’s pitiful appearance when she was crying today and was hesitating.
Hearing the sound of the door opening, Song Zicheng lifted his head, within a moment, he saw the boy next to Song Xiao.
Perhaps because Yu Tang was used to being an emperor in his last life, he innately had a dignified and imposing manner. Because of this, the person that caught people’s eyes first was him.
Song Zicheng’s pupil instantly shrank for a moment. This boy, he’s seen him before! It was three months ago, during the one month birthday feast of Yu family’s second young master!
“Dad, I’m back,” Song Xiao greeted his father, “This is my cla.s.smate, his name is Yu Tang.”
“h.e.l.lo, uncle.” Yu Tang said impa.s.sively.
“Xiaoxiao’s cla.s.smate ah, come in and have a seat. Stay for dinner tonight, Auntie Chen went out to buy seafood, she’s going to cook prawns tonight.” Song Zicheng stood up and enthusiastically greeted Yu Tang and invited him to sit for a while.
Yu Tang had originally wanted to accept, seizing the opportunity to properly have a chat with this vice magistrate, but at this time his phone rang.
It was unknown what the caller had said, but Yu Tang said ‘en’ a couple of times then hung up, looking at Song Xiao. “Mom is urging me to go home for dinner, there’ll be another chance next time ba.”
Song Zicheng smiled as he agreed, getting up to send Yu Tang to the door of the elevator.
“Is your relationship with this student very good?” Song Zicheng asked Song Xiao, who was sitting on the carpet and arranging the new books.
“En, he’s my deskmate.” Song Xiao picked up the ‘Overview of General Knowledge of Law’ and put it on the table, intending to read this tonight, and the rest were put away.
Song Zicheng’s eyes flashed. He never thought his son would become good friends with the Yu family’s young master. The Yu family was different from them, the nouveau riche. They were an aristocratic family a century old and were the genuine bigshots. It was said that they had sprung up during the final years of the Great Zhou dynasty, and later took advantage of the chaos to make a lot of profit over the war. Later the domestic situation was too chaotic, so their entire family migrated to the US, and only returned when the situation had stabilised.
The Yu family had a hand in all industries, and their hidden strength couldn’t be estimated. To have connections with this kind of aristocratic family, it would be hard not to earn money. Sure enough, it was still a son that was the most useful.
Song Zicheng resolutely gave up on the first proposal. To have Song Xiao peacefully study and have a good relationship with the Yu family, was better than anything. He could find another lover, but he only had one son!
After Song Xiao had moved the books upstairs and come down to drink tea, Song Zicheng had already thought everything thoroughly.
“What’s this?” Song Xiao saw the two materials on the table, then picked it up to read.
“You don’t have to care about these, study well, get along well with this cla.s.smate of yours.”
Song Xiao frowned slightly. If he was just a regular fifteen year old youth, he probably wouldn’t know Song Zicheng’s true purpose, but he wasn’t so of course he would be able to understand that his father wanted him to seek connections with Yu Tang. Even though he didn’t know what Yu Tang’s family did, when he came in, he could tell Song Zicheng knew who Yu Tang was.
He didn’t like this tendency of his father. In his past life he was like this too, only thinking of seeking connections and not striving to improve himself. He had mingled until the end and still only became a vice magistrate, and in this life he was the same again.
Song Xiao tapped the materials in his hands, pointing at the clause of ‘deny Song Zheng as an illegitimate daughter’. “When all is said and done, Song Zheng is your daughter. A man of character would handle matters in an upright manner. The child support fees will be given as usual, but, that girl cannot enter the household, or else we’ll be ridiculed by people of the industry.”
Song Zicheng nodded while deep in thought. “I intend on having Song Zheng changing her surname, she cannot be called a Song.”
Song Xiao raised a brow. He didn’t think his father could also be so decisive at such times.
Monday came in the blink of an eye, Song Xiao had spent the whole of Sunday nested at home reading books. In pa.s.sing, he also finished his homework, and who knew what Yu Tang was doing, he hadn’t written a single word on his homework.
“You help me write.” Yu Tang pushed his workbook over with a blank face.
Song Xiao rubbed the veins jumping on his temples. “Your Majesty, the Ministry of Personnel has a.s.sessed this official’s achievements, but there isn’t one where I had helped Your Majesty do homework.”
“Doing my homework is on the marriage contract.” The emperor said, boldly and confidently, as if justice was at his side.
The author has something to say
Little theater
‘What Was Said On The Phone’
Empress Dowager: Son, how’s da date?
Fish Tang: (pleased with himself) Father-in-law wants me to stay for dinner ne!
Empress Dowager: Aiyo, not bad eh, but you can’t stay, hurry up and come back
Fish Tang: Wa.s.sup?
Empress Dowager: This way our family will seem rich, not owing that meal, father-in-law will look highly on you ah!
Fish Tang: Mother empress is wise!
Baobao Notes
Oh yu tang… u gotta realise that the love guidebook is based on modern people, not, y’know, people that came from ancient times…
Also, for the last ‘Your Majesty, the Ministry of Personnel has a.s.sessed this official’s achievements, but there isn’t an achievement where I had helped Your Majesty do homework.’, I’m not quite sure what it means, but I think it’s either A) among his achievements, he doesn’t have ‘help him do homework’ or B) his achievements were appraised, and for his job as a minister there’s no clause that said ‘help him do homework’
In the end, it’s just saying that ‘boi, it ain’t my job to do your homework’
Also! I forgot! BUT!
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