Chapter 68 - Quarrel
Listening to Gao Ao on the phone, Song Xiao couldn’t help frowning. This roommate was deliberately monitoring his movements. It seemed like he wanted to conceal it, but he was too impatient to pretend, which perplexed Song Xiao. Who was it who wanted him monitored, yet revealed such an obvious flaw?
Yu Tang changed his clothes and pa.s.sed Song Xiao a paper that had just been printed. The paper was filled with code, with a few IP addresses mixed in.
“What’s this?” After looking at it for a long while, Song Xiao couldn’t see the mystery in it.
“I found someone to investigate your roommate’s laptop, and discovered that he’s sending correspondence to a specific email address every day.” Yu Tang sat by his side and pointed at the IP address mixed into it. “This is the same email address; furthermore, it’s registered in China.”
Song Xiao blinked. “Perhaps it’s a friend back home.”
“Do you contact friends through email?” Yu Tang nipped his nose.
“Wu… I don’t have any friends to contact…” Song Xiao wrinkled his nose. There were always layers of meaning in the emperor’s words. This fellow was saying this to remind Song Xiao that people didn’t usually contact friends through email, as well as to probe Song Xiao and see if he was in contact with other people. If Song Xiao said, “That’s right, I use QQ to chat with so-and-so”, he would definitely be punished.
Yu Tang was taken aback, then soon laughed and pressed him to the bed. “You, this is called revealing what you intend to hide.”
Song Xiao glared at him and tried to push him aside to continue looking at that paper.
However, Yu Tang straddled him mercilessly. “Speak, who do you usually talk with? Why does zhen feel that even your roommate is more familiar than zhen about your whereabouts?”
“I didn’t even ask you about what’s going on with that Camellia!” Song Xiao’s hands were pressed down and he couldn’t struggle free, so he turned the tables.
“Didn’t you hear me call her aunt?” Yu Tang carelessly said, “She’s the cousin of that ninth uncle, her family excavates oil.”
“Young master, your milk.” The servant auntie pushed open the door and entered, placing the milk on the table. Raising her head to see the two of them in a vulgar position, she was instantly stunned.
Yu Tang’s face turned cold as he let go of Song Xiao and jumped off the bed. “I’ve said before that you cannot enter my room whenever you want.”
“Oh, I apologise.” The servant finally came back to her senses and hurriedly lowered her head and apologised.
Dugu An entered and dragged the servant out. He returned after Song Xiao had finished the milk, and he went down on one knee before Yu Tang. “This subordinate has failed in his duty. Requesting punishment from the emperor.”
“Where did you go just now?” Yu Tang asked coldly as he took a napkin and wiped Song Xiao’s lips.
“There was some movement in the garden; I went to investigate.” Dugu An didn’t hide anything. He had heard a noise in the garden earlier and had gone to take a look. He returned after seeing that it was just a stray cat, only to discover that the servant had entered Yu Tang’s room without permission.
“She doesn’t need to come tomorrow.” Yu Tang waved his hand to indicate that Dugu An could rise. In the past, besides an imperial bodyguard every three steps, a palace eunuch and palace maid also stood outside the door on night duty in the imperial palace, along with at least two hidden secret guards.
Now, there was just Dugu An, so it was natural for him to have more work than he could handle. Yu Tang wasn’t a tyrant who ruled with an iron fist; he mused that he really ought to find two more bodyguards. At the very least, when he was apart from Song Xiao, he could ensure that both of them were protected.
Now that he was deeply embroiled in the family’s power struggle, he couldn’t and was unable to extricate himself. Yu Tang also wasn’t a coward who would shrink back once he encountered adversity; making the first move was more his style.
The next day, Yu Tang went back to the dorm with Song Xiao to pack up all the latter’s things and bundle both the person and his belongings up to take back to his villa.
Seeing that Song Xiao was moving out, Gao Ao was absolutely baffled. “You’re not staying here?”
“En, I’m renting with a friend and won’t be living here anymore.” Song Xiao spoke in half-truths.
Gao Ao curled his lip and privately thought that this rich child really did waste money.
Usually, students in their first semester would stay on campus since a semester of dorm accommodation was included in the school fees that were paid beforehand. American university dorms were extremely expensive, and the fee couldn’t be refunded, so everyone would choose to stay on campus during this semester, and rent outside with their cla.s.smates in the following semester. It was much cheaper to rent a place together than to stay at the dormitory.
This was what a regular student would do. Someone like Song Xiao, who paid the dorm fees while also sharing rent with someone, was obviously rich and willful.
“Don’t stay with him anymore; I already have someone monitoring his computer.” Yu Tang pulled at Song Xiao to leave. Song Xiao glanced at Gao Ao, who was standing by the window and looking at them. When their eyes met, that person turned away in disdain.
Song Xiao nodded. He had treated this strange roommate with the mindset of ‘relying on a close neighbour’, and had tried to make friends with him. However, this person was simply so aloof that he was harder to get along with than those old Hanlin academics at Hanlin Academy. On top of that, he was also monitoring Song Xiao, so Song Xiao wouldn’t be so stupid as to approach him.
Satisfied, Yu Tang started living with his empress once again. He felt that he slept better, and that breakfast was delicious as well.
Yu Tang dismissed the two maids and had Butler Cao recommend a few new servants. The new recruits were a cook who made Chinese dishes, two aunties to clean the place, and a young lady called Susan.
Susan was a butler school graduate, but she didn’t study at Cao Gonggong’s top-level school; it was just a regular vocational college which had a butlering major.
She was someone from the Yu family corporation and was originally working as a receptionist at one of their companies in Luo City. She was very happy now that she was working in her own profession, and she quickly tidied up the house until it was spick and span.
Susan was very curious about Song Xiao’s ident.i.ty at first. As an open-minded American, she could easily see that there was something strange between these two boys. Who knew what Yu Tang did later, but Susan then no longer showed the slightest bit of curiosity, and was also tight-lipped.
“Do you want to know?” Yu Tang barged into the bathroom and stood next to Song Xiao.
“The emperor has always managed his imperial subordinates well. This servant feels inferior,” Song Xiao carelessly said as he took a shower. If Yu Tang couldn’t even win over the people by his side, he wouldn’t have been able to become the emperor.
For his family’s empress to have so much faith in him made Yu Tang, who had been showing off, feel a little disappointed, yet also pleased. Snorting, he took the towel that Song Xiao was holding and helped scrub his back.
The two of them were busy every day. Song Xiao was studying two degrees, so his schedule was very packed. Yu Tang also had to start his internship at the family corporation; every week, he had to spend two days at the N City company. He would also usually deal with company matters in school.
In the blink of an eye, it was Halloween, and the Angels Club was preparing to perform in N City’s financial street plaza to pull in more money.
The Angel Club’s members were split into a good number of small groups. Some would perform, some would do magic tricks, and some would sell their art.
“What will you be doing?” Yu Tang asked Song Xiao when they left early that morning.
“Playing the xiao.” Song Xiao took out the jade flute which Yu Tang had gifted to him from its case.
Hearing that his family’s empress wanted to play the xiao in public, Yu Tang’s face instantly sank. “Out of the question!”
The two of them argued for a long time, and Yu Tang ultimately got angry.
“How can zhen’s empress play the xiao for other people?!” As he spoke, he smashed the jade xiao.
Song Xiao stared blankly at the broken jade xiao. This was the very first gift Yu Tang had solemnly presented to him after Song Xiao came to the modern era. He had always cherished it very much, not even forgetting to bring it with him when he came to America. And now, Yu Tang had broken it with his own hands. His emperor was great in everything except this one aspect: He was always too overbearing, and never once asked for the other person’s opinion when making a decision.
“This servant understands,” Song Xiao quietly replied and silently left. He took out his phone and called his club president to request that he borrow the school’s guqin.
Yu Tang looked at the two broken parts of the jade xiao in his hands, then looked at Song Xiao’s back, and pursed his lips.
Because of the unique way the Angels Club ran, the society still had sufficient funds. This time, the clothes prepared for Song Xiao was a white Han robe with wide sleeves. Even though it couldn’t be considered very exquisite, it really was just like in the past, with the wide, cloud-like sleeves and silver girdle.
“Oh my gosh, Xiao, you’re simply like someone who walked out of an ancient Chinese painting,” Emily exclaimed in admiration as she walked around Song Xiao.
Song Xiao smiled as he put on a wig. Suddenly, he saw a familiar figure. “Gao Ao?”
“Oh, you’re friends?” Emily looked in the direction of Song Xiao’s gaze. “That person is a maths genius. He joined us last week. He frequently asks me about you, but you two don’t have the same schedule, so you’ve never met here.”
Song Xiao narrowed his eyes.
There was a mult.i.tude of people in the financial street plaza. There were all sorts of sales promo events for Halloween everywhere, and the club’s bunch of strange-looking people immediately drew a lot of attention.
Song Xiao sat cross-legged on the edge of the fountain with a seven-stringed guqin on his knees. He tested the sound; it wasn’t a very good qin, but he could still play it with much effort.
“Zheng!” The sound resonated throughout the entire plaza from the stereo speaker, attracting the gazes of many people. It was immediately followed by a traditional yet graceful melody which flowed out from that pair of slender and fair hands.
“Oh, what music is this? It sounds so good.”
“It’s probably Chinese music, I’ve heard it before.”
Pa.s.sersby made comments one after another, and slowly started to gather.
It happened to be noon, and the white-collar workers who were still working overtime on the financial street and were out for lunch saw the liveliness in pa.s.sing.
“The Chinese Cultural Society has had this qin on display for so many years. They did have someone who could play it last year, but they were nowhere near as good as Song Xiao.” Wearing a princess dress, the muscular president lifted his skirt and walked over to pose for pictures as he stood on the side and spoke with Gao Ao, who was doing odd jobs.
“En.” Gao Ao didn’t understand it, as he had only studied the sciences and compet.i.tion questions since young, but he could also tell that Song Xiao’s playing skills weren’t ordinary.
“He’s simply magnificent!” Emily stared dumbly at the youth in white next to the fountain.
The sound of the qin dropped and rose in turns. When they closed their eyes to listen, it seemed as if they were hearing the trickle of running water and the birds chirping on a remote mountain. After a long stretch of low and gentle sounds, the tune abruptly built to a crescendo along with a sudden surge of water from the fountain behind Song Xiao, which looked spectacular. The crowd couldn’t help cheering.
When the song ended, everyone threw money nonstop into the case in front of Song Xiao. Someone walked over and threw in a large banknote.
Song Xiao raised his head and looked at the person who had thrown in the money. Dressed in a suit and looking unusually handsome, it was none other than His Majesty the emperor, who was still working overtime during the festival.
Little Theater
Xiaoxiao: Why’re you here, I’m still mad
Fish Tang: It’s not like I came to reconcile
Xiaoxiao: Then why’d you come?
Fish Tang: Hmph, I just came to see if you’re still mad
Xiaoxiao: …
Cao Gonggong: Your Majesty, can you grow up a bit?
Baobao Notes
Kinda upset me when Yu Tang broke that xiao of his hhh. I know ppl will be saying that’s wrong and stuff, so just remember this is fiction and, well, very exaggerated stuff. Don’t do this irl.