Chapter 93: The Focal Point
The social circles of the grand families of the Chu royal city were not considered big, but neither were they small.
The scions of the grand families had their own social circles, too.
For example, as a member of a grand family of lower status, Yang Zixi was closest to the third young mistress of the Zheng family Zheng Qiuhe and others of similar backgrounds, who were all members of grand families with lower status.
Ren Jiapei’s social status, however, consisted of members of intermediate-level grand families and was considered one level higher than Yang Zixi’s original social circle.
“Sister Jiapei, is your friend Sister Zixi? Reputation cannot compare to reality; she is truly a great beauty.”
A young man about twenty years old in a green robe gave the young lady beside Ren Jiapei a look, then quickly and self-consciously looked away. That young lady was beautiful, but she was not for him. That beautiful young lady was the one whom First Young Master s.h.i.+ Yu of the tyc.o.o.n s.h.i.+ family had his eye on. This was no secret in the Chu Royal city.
“Mhm.”
Ren Jiapei nodded and introduced the young lady to the young man. “Sister Zixi, this is the second young master of the Hu family, Hu Qing.”
The young lady glanced at Hu Qing and nodded casually by way of greeting. Her detached demeanor forestalled any attempt at further conversation and created an unbridgeable gulf between them.
“This is?”
Just then, Hu Qing’s gaze fell on the youth in white beside the two ladies, and a curious look flashed across his eyes.
“This is my Big Brother Zhou, not someone from our social circle.”
When Ren Jiapei uttered the three words “Big Brother Zhou,” the respect in her tone was evident.
“Surnamed Zhou?”
At the same time, Hu Qing noticed that when the young lady beside Ren Jiapei looked at the youth surnamed Zhou, the coldness in her eyes disappeared and was replaced by gentle warmth, just as if she was looking at her sweetheart.
“Brother, may I have a private word with you?” Hu Qing asked Zhou Donghuang with a smile and a gleam in his eye.
“Huh?”
Zhou Donghuang gave a start, then nodded casually and stepped aside. Hu Qing followed him.
“Brother.”
Hu Qing did not beat about the bush as he walked over to Zhou Donghuang and said, “From what I know… in the Chu royal city, and even within the country of Yunyang, there is no grand family and above with the surname Zhou. I warn you, keep your distance from Yang Zixi… that is the lady whom First Young Master s.h.i.+ Yu of the tyc.o.o.n s.h.i.+ family has his eye on, and if he knows Yang Zixi has developed feelings from you, he will not let you off.
“The Hu family and Ren family have good relations, and I consider Jiapei as my own sister, and since you are her friend, I have to warn you,” Hu Qing said.
“You wanted to speak to me privately just for this?”
Zhou Donghuang was taken aback at first, then smiled casually. “Thanks for the reminder… However, I don’t care whether that s.h.i.+ Yu will let me off or not.”
s.h.i.+ Yu? The first young master of the tyc.o.o.n s.h.i.+ family? If he remembered correctly, he had already killed s.h.i.+ Yu’s father s.h.i.+ Hao three months ago.
At that time, the level-eight adept of the s.h.i.+ family had been present and had witnessed him kill s.h.i.+ Hao. However, Zhou Donghuang could not help laughing bitterly to himself… Now, even someone who had seen him and Yang Zixi for the first time could tell that Yang Zixi had feelings for him?
“Brother, I’ve said all that I needed to say… what you do next is your own business.”
Hu Qing shook his head at the ignorance of the youth before him.
In his opinion, he had reminded the youth for Ren Jiapei’s sake and had done all he could.
If the youth wanted to court death, there was nothing he could do about it.
If it wasn’t for the Ren family backing Sister Jiapei when she rashly took in Yang Zixi three months ago, she would be in deep trouble now… even so, the Ren family has already lost the opportunity to cooperate with the s.h.i.+ family.
If this youth with no background insists on flirting with Yang Zixi, he is simply trying to get himself killed!
…
As the day progressed, the back courtyard of the Wei family mansion, which was the venue for the gathering of the scions of the grand families, became rowdier.
When Zhou Donghuang and his group arrived, the scions of only a few grand families had arrived.
After several hours, the scions of more than ten grand families had already arrived. Among them were several daughters of the lesser grand families that had turned Yang Zixi away after she had been expelled from the Yang family.
However, not all the daughters of the grand families who had been close to Yang Zixi were like Zheng Qiuhe.
One or two of them took the initiative to approach Yang Zixi and apologize to her and express their sorrow. Of course, there were even more who were like Zheng Qiuhe and totally ignored Yang Zixi, as though they had never had any relations.h.i.+p with her before.
In the past, this would have upset Yang Zixi. However, over the past three months, she felt more peaceful than she had ever felt, because she had put this incident behind her and was no longer affected by it.
Whether the daughters of the prominent families who had been close to her apologized to her or ignored her did not matter, it was no longer important to her now. Now, all she cared about was the youth in white who was standing at a table laden with fruits and helping himself to the fruits.
“Sister Jiapei, do whatever you need, I’ll go and find Big Brother Donghuang.”
After exchanging greetings with Ren Jiapei, the young lady began walking towards the youth standing nearby. And that youth who had previously been as good as invisible to everyone else around him became the focus of everyone’s attention as the young lady walked over to him, a smile blooming on her face and replacing her cool expression.
“Who is that?”
“Earlier, other than Ren Jiapei, Yang Zixi was giving the cold shoulder to everyone else… now she actually smiles to this youth?”
“Who is this youth in white?”
“Is there such an outstanding person among the grand families of the Chu royal city?”
…
The crowd of scions of the grand families focused their attention on Zhou Donghuang, all curious about Zhou Donghuang’s ident.i.ty. However, after exchanging notes among themselves, they realized that no one knew this youth in white.
The youth in white seemed to have appeared out of thin air.
This Zhou Donghuang is in for trouble.
Seeing Yang Zixi approaching Zhou Donghuang and turning them into the center of attention, the second young master of the Hu family Hu Qing shook his head and sighed gently. In his view, it was better for this Zhou Donghuang not to attract anyone’s attention. In his opinion, it would be a disaster if Zhou Donghuang attracted attention.
“Brother Hu Qing, do you know him?”
The person speaking to Hu Qing was a young man about eighteen or nineteen years old, and he was asking out of curiosity as he saw Hu Qing looking and sighing at the youth in white.
“I can’t say I know him… but he is Jiapei’s friend, and we did have a chat.”
Hu Qing shook his head.
“Where is he from? Looking at Yang Zixi, she obviously adores him…”
The youth shook his head and continued, “If that first young master of the s.h.i.+ family saw this, he would probably explode with rage.”
“His surname is Zhou, where could he possibly be from?”
Hu Qing continued shaking his head.
“Surnamed Zhou?”
The youth frowned slightly and racked his brain. In the country of Yunyang, there seemed to be no family surnamed Zhou from the imperial court down to the royal families of the various kingdoms—even down to the various tyc.o.o.n families and grand families.
“With no background, how he is so close to Yang Zixi?”
When the youth looked at Zhou Donghuang once more, he shook his head gently with a look of pity in his eyes.
With no background, was it not courting death to be so close to Yang Zixi, who was considered to be exclusively for the first young master of the s.h.i.+ family, s.h.i.+ Yu?
“Zixi, this apple is not bad, would you like one?”
He asked the young lady walking towards him. Zhou Donghuang took a bite of the apple as though no one was around and chewed on it as he smiled.
“Sure.”
The young lady had a radiant smile as though she had been instantly transformed from a cold and supreme G.o.ddess into a girl-next-door, stunning the crowd of scions of the grand families.
“Here.”
Zhou Donghuang took an apple from the fruit platter on the table and pa.s.sed it to the young lady, who reached out to take it began to take small, delicate bites of it.
The scene was picture-perfect. A young lady in a gown of pure white, a youth in a robe whiter than snow, standing face to face and chewing on the apple that each of them was holding. The looks that were directed at them from all around seemed to be completely ignored by them. At that moment, there seemed to be only the two of them under the sky.
“Brother Wei, who is that youth?”
In the corner where the scions of the elite grand families were gathered, a delicate-looking kid in a silver mandarin gown asked the youth beside him curiously.
The youth was handsome with sharp eyebrows and piercing eyes, and he was dressed in white like a scholar with a fan in his hand. He gave off an air of elegance. He was the host of the day, the first young master of the elite grand Wei family, Wei Hongtao.
“I don’t know.”
At the youth in silver’s question, Hong Wei stopped tapping the fan against his hand and shook his head.
“You don’t know? Then how did he get in?”
The youth in silver was shocked.
“I’ll ask around.”
Soon, Wei Hongtao had summoned the Wei family juniors who were in charge of organizing the gathering before him and learned that the youth in white had entered together with the first young mistress of the Ren family Ren Jiapei.
“He entered with Ren Jiapei? Surnamed Zhou?”
The youth in silver raised an eyebrow. “It seems he is not the son of any prominent family… at least not from a grand family or above.”
As he said this, his gaze lit up. “Zhang Yongshan of the Zhang family has already gone over to that youth… he usually likes to hang out with s.h.i.+ Yu, following him around. Today, it seems like he wants to stand up for s.h.i.+ Yu.”
Under the gaze of the scions of the grand families, a young man about twenty years old and of average build approached Zhou Donghuang.
“Little fellow, if you don’t want to die, you had better stay away from the sister-in-law of my family.”
The youth stood before Zhou Donghuang and stared coldly at him, threatening him in a chilly voice.
“Sister-in-law?”
Zhou Donghuang was taken aback.
“She is the sister-in-law of my family.”
The youth looked at Zhou Donghuang and reached out to point at the young lady before him.
“Zhang Yongshan, don’t talk nonsense.”
The smile on the young lady’s face vanished, replaced by a frosty expression, and she stared icily at the youth.