“The master is asking someone to come serve the dishes!” Yi Shu, who was standing closest, lowered his head and turned slightly to the side, mouthing the words toward Ning Xuan.
Tilting his head and frowning as he stared for quite a while, Ning Xuan finally understood. He lowered his head, turned his face back, and pursed his lips, arranging his facial muscles into what he believed was the most devout and obedient expression. Only then did he step forward, pick up the chopsticks, and immediately run into trouble again. With a whole table full of dishes before him, how was he supposed to know who liked what or who had any dietary restrictions? Besides, it wasn’t as if they didn’t have hands—why did everything require someone else to serve them? Even eating and picking up food had become a “strenuous activity” that needed assistance. Was this really necessary? As expected of a pampered noble young master!
Ning Xuan pursed his lips and, without thinking too much, simply began piling food onto the bowl regardless of anything else.
Yet Ning Xuan’s lively expressions were all caught in Feng Xuanyi’s eyes. The gloomy mood he had felt earlier—after seeing Ning Xuan and Yi Xuan laughing and holding hands in the courtyard—vanished instantly, replaced instead with a hint of amusement. He set down his chopsticks, rested his head on one hand, and stared at Ning Xuan without blinking.
Sensing Feng Xuanyi’s gaze from the corner of his eye—like he was about to devour him—Ning Xuan thought the half-bowl of food he had already piled up was not enough, so he hurriedly added more of whatever he saw.
Lowering his gaze to the bowl in front of him, which had now practically turned into a small mountain, Feng Xuanyi raised an eyebrow and said leisurely, “I don’t like dishes that are too sweet.”
Trying his best to suppress the twitching of his facial muscles, Ning Xuan couldn’t quite process what was happening.
Feng Xuanyi, however, kindly explained at just the right moment, “All of these are rewarded to you.”
With that, he wrapped an arm around Liu Yin and left calmly, leaving behind a group of servants standing in a circle, staring at each other in confusion.
Ning Xuan looked at Feng Xuanyi’s chopsticks—which hadn’t been used at all since he started serving—and then at his own chopsticks, still suspended midair. So he was just bored and using me for entertainment after being full?!
In the distance, Liu Yin—who had only taken a few steps away from Tingfeng Pavilion before being left behind alone—watched Feng Xuanyi’s figure fade into the distance until only a faint silhouette remained. A bitter smile slowly curved his lips. From the very first day he met him, he had already known—this man could give him everything the world desired, but never the one thing he wanted most.
With the mindset of “free food is not to be wasted,” Ning Xuan cheerfully accepted the table full of exquisite dishes that had barely been touched. At the same time, he began calling over the other attendants who were still standing around in a daze. Taking advantage of this rare, poetic and scenic setting, they sat at the fine white jade table and chairs, enjoying the head chef’s best cooking—an entire table of rare delicacies.
“Is this really okay?” Yi Heng, the most steady and rule-abiding among the seven, looked at the table of food, then at Ning Xuan—who had already started acting like the host without hesitation—and finally glanced in the direction where their master had long since disappeared. He hesitated and muttered uncertainly.
Ning Xuan rolled his eyes in response, while Yi Xuan—already stuffing his mouth full of meat without any restraint—snorted, clearly having forgotten past lessons. “It’s already been rewarded—how could it be taken back? Besides, the master won’t care about just one meal. What are you worried about? If you don’t eat, even better—I’ll eat more so it doesn’t go to waste.”
After agonizing over it for a while without reaching any conclusion, Yi Heng finally gave in to the temptation of the food and joined the others in devouring the feast.
“Was the food to your liking?” That night, although it was said that attendants were to serve the Prince, the room that had initially been filled with busy servants performing their duties suddenly emptied out in the blink of an eye. They all gathered outside like silent guards, leaving only Ning Xuan inside, separated by a screen. Despite there being many well-trained attendants who understood Feng Xuanyi’s preferences perfectly, he chose to keep only Ning Xuan—a servant who had been in the residence for barely over two months, had only served at his side for about a day, and couldn’t even distinguish directions. And the reason? Simply because watching him eat made the food more appetizing.
Damn it! What am I, braised pork or Dongpo pork knuckle?!
Though Ning Xuan was annoyed, he could only let out a couple of vague grunts in protest. After all, in this feudal society, servants had no right to speak.
“Tastes good,” Ning Xuan answered honestly. In fact, it was more than just good—it was exceptional. Many of the dishes were things he couldn’t even name, and even those he could recognize would, thousands of years later, become rare delicacies that one could only admire from afar, let alone consume in such refined ways.
“Then why do you look so troubled, as if I’ve wronged you?” Feng Xuanyi smiled in a way that was unfathomable, sending a chill down one’s spine.
Ning Xuan looked at Feng Xuanyi with a face full of vigilance, sizing him up, completely unable to figure him out. This man’s moods shifted like wind and rain—one moment dark, the next bright—utterly unpredictable. At times he stood high above, noble and untouchable, radiating an authority that warned others to keep their distance, making people feel that not only could they not properly respond to him, but they didn’t even dare breathe while serving at his side. Yet at other times, he acted like a shameless rogue, making one want to grab him and beat him senseless. If it were anyone else, Ning Xuan would have already taught him a lesson with fists and kicks, beating him back to his senses. But this just had to be a prince—someone he couldn’t hit, couldn’t scold, and had to constantly guard against, never knowing when this man’s erratic thoughts would strike again.
“Stop standing there like an idiot. Back then, when it came to hitting and scolding me, you didn’t hold back at all. Everything you could do and couldn’t do—you made sure I experienced it all. So why are you pretending to be obedient now?” Feng Xuanyi lifted his chin, smiling innocently. He raised a hand, gestured for Ning Xuan to come over, and patted the spot beside him, signaling for him to sit.
But Ning Xuan remained motionless, still watching him warily, as if trying to read a trace of truth from his expression.
Feng Xuanyi didn’t mind in the slightest. He casually picked up dishes, tasting this and sampling that, praising one dish, nodding at another, and occasionally placing food into the bowl beside him.
“If you keep standing there like that, staring at me so hungrily without moving, I’ll have no choice but to take it as a kind of hint.” He lifted his head to meet Ning Xuan’s gaze, grinning mischievously, his brows dancing suggestively.
Ning Xuan jolted, inwardly cursing Feng Xuanyi’s ancestors for eight generations, calling him shameless without restraint. In public, he could still put on the dignified act of a proper noble, but in private—why did it feel like his mind was filled with nothing but indecent thoughts?!
Without warning, everything from that morning surged back into Ning Xuan’s mind, replaying vividly before his eyes. It had only been a kiss—and not even their first—but it carried an indescribable power, stirring the heart. Compared to his initial shock and wariness, he had gradually become accustomed to it, even going along with it, letting himself be kissed until his face flushed and his mind spun, leaving him without even the ground to push the man away or argue back properly.
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