“What?” Ning Xuan jolted violently and nearly jumped three feet into the air. Why had Princess Consort Rong suddenly appeared at a time like this? He was about as related to her as two strangers could possibly be, so why would she suddenly want to see him? Ever since arriving at the Prince’s Residence, more than four months had passed. Not only had he never met anyone from the Princess Consort’s household, he had not even seen a shadow of them. Even on the day Yi Xuan had first led him around the various courtyards after he was transferred to Feng Xuanyi’s side, they had only glanced briefly at the Princess Consort’s residence from outside the gates. The explanation had been that she preferred peace and quiet and disliked being disturbed. So this sudden summons now left him completely baffled. Or perhaps it felt a little like being a mistress caught red-handed by the legal wife.
“Why are you shaking like that?” Qing Zhu, who had been officially transferred from the Library Pavilion two months earlier to serve the Prince but was in reality serving Ning Xuan, watched him tumble out of bed in amusement. Ning Xuan was frantically dragging clothes onto himself, putting them on crookedly and inside out. Qing Zhu could not resist teasing him. “Now you know how to be nervous and scared? Why didn’t you think about the rightful wife when you were off playing lovey-dovey with Master?”
“Get lost!” Ning Xuan shot him a glare. Whether he had simply failed to think things through before or whether Qing Zhu had struck a nerve, he suddenly felt awkward all over. It was not fear, exactly. It was just that a man competing with a woman for her husband and becoming the third party in someone else’s marriage felt fundamentally wrong. Even in modern society, it would be bizarre. Sure, this era openly permitted concubines and multiple spouses, but it still felt strange. He turned toward Qing Zhu, who stood there calmly watching the spectacle, and snapped, “You still have time to make sarcastic comments? If we delay any longer, both of us will be in trouble.” After struggling with a knot in his clothes for several minutes and failing to win, he forced himself to sound calm. “Stop standing there and help me already!”
Qing Zhu sighed and reluctantly shuffled over. “Just look at yourself. What can you even do? You struggle this much just to get dressed. Honestly, I can’t tell whether you’re serving Master or Master is serving you…” Then his tone abruptly changed. Looking up with a mischievous grin, he added, “Or maybe Master simply likes taking clothes off more than putting them on.”
Without hesitation, Ning Xuan rewarded him with a sharp smack to the head. “Can’t you think about something normal first thing in the morning?!”
Even so, Ning Xuan could not really argue. The increasingly complicated layers of clothing were already difficult enough. He had finally gotten used to summer attire when winter garments suddenly appeared with layer after layer added inside and out. It was more than he could handle. The result was that someone had become very enthusiastic about helping him get dressed and undressed while taking every possible opportunity to let his hands wander. At first, Ning Xuan would blush furiously and refuse, even struggling desperately a few times. Eventually he learned that resisting only made things worse and invariably ended with himself suffering the consequences. After enough painful lessons, he learned to remain still, to focus on the tip of his nose, then his lips, then his heart. Even when Feng Xuanyi deliberately brushed and touched him while helping him dress, Ning Xuan could now ignore it with all the emotional responsiveness of a stone statue.
Mo Qi remained as calm and silent as ever. Faced with the two of them fooling around first thing in the morning, he merely stated matter-of-factly, “The maid sent by the Princess Consort has already been waiting outside for a quarter of an hour. If you two continue chatting, should I go tell her that we’ll come after lunch instead?”
Both Ning Xuan and Qing Zhu immediately deflated. If one wished to understand the meaning of the phrase “a needle hidden in cotton,” one need only look at Mo Qi. Most of the time he seemed steady, quiet, and sparing with words. Yet whenever he did speak, his comments struck directly at the heart of the matter and left people speechless.
After hastily finishing his clothes, Ning Xuan pushed open the door. The cold wind immediately swept inside, blowing away the last traces of sleepiness. Qing Zhu, unusually attentive, darted back into the room and returned carrying the fox-fur cloak Feng Xuanyi had gifted Ning Xuan, intending to drape it over his shoulders. Ning Xuan refused to wear it no matter how much Qing Zhu insisted.
After several minutes of arguing, Ning Xuan pointed at the cloak and laughed. “I’m supposed to be an attendant. If I walk around dressed in something this luxurious and eye-catching, I’ll basically be asking for trouble. What, you think I don’t already have enough problems? Are you trying to create more drama for people to watch?”
Qing Zhu froze. He genuinely had not thought that far ahead. All he had been thinking was that the weather was freezing and Ning Xuan should not catch cold. Having his good intentions thrown back in his face left him annoyed.
“Well, I’m not capable of thinking that deeply,” he retorted. “All I know is that if you get sick, we’ll be the ones suffering for it. I only care about making sure my own life stays comfortable. What does your difficult situation have to do with us?”
As he spoke, he shot Mo Qi a look, seeking support.
Heartless bastards! Ning Xuan cursed inwardly. When I was doing well, I pulled you two out of that miserable dead-end assignment and got you positions everyone else was dying to obtain. And now you ungrateful wolves can’t even pretend to appreciate it? You’re actually waiting to watch me make a fool of myself! Truly, good people get bullied and good horses get ridden!
Of course, he could not say any of that aloud. If he did, who knew whether Qing Zhu might decide to silence him on the spot? They were all attendants, after all. By seniority, Ning Xuan should have been their superior since he had started serving Feng Xuanyi first. Yet Mo Qi and Qing Zhu showed him absolutely no respect. Back when he had first arrived in the main courtyard, he had addressed Yi Xuan and the others respectfully as older brothers. Granted, Mo Qi and Qing Zhu were also extremely respectful toward Yi Xuan’s group. But the comparison only made Ning Xuan more depressed.
Why?!
“All right, all right. I’m not that delicate. I’m not some fragile flower.” Ning Xuan waved dismissively. “Back when Mo Qi and I shared a room in the attendants’ quarters, he used to steal my blanket every night and I still never froze to death. A little wind isn’t going to kill me.”
Leaving behind a grinning Qing Zhu and a suddenly stone-faced Mo Qi, Ning Xuan followed the maid who had delivered the message and disappeared so quickly that only his retreating figure remained.
“Please wait here for a moment, Brother Ning Xuan. I’ll go announce your arrival.”
Ning Xuan nodded. In the blink of an eye, the young maid vanished through the doorway. Despite the icy roads and freezing weather, she moved as though walking on level ground.
In truth, Ning Xuan was hardly old enough to deserve being called “Brother.” There were plenty of people younger than him, but there were also many who were older. The title existed solely because he served at the Prince’s side and everyone was expected to flatter him. Ning Xuan was only fifteen years old. Of course, both his age and his build were frequent targets of Feng Xuanyi’s mockery.
“Look at you. You’re supposedly fifteen? Did nobody feed you growing up? You’re barely this tall.”
Every time Feng Xuanyi said something like that, Ning Xuan would become furious. In reality, he was not short at all. By modern standards, he was at least one meter seventy-five. The problem was that he only reached Feng Xuanyi’s chin. Sometimes he genuinely wondered what Feng Xuanyi had been fed as a child. The only comfort he could find was reminding himself that he was still young. At fifteen, he still had room to grow and someday erase this humiliation. Feng Xuanyi, on the other hand, was already old. If anything, he would only shrink from now on. Though heaven only knew why eighteen-year-old Feng Xuanyi supposedly had no more growing left to do.
As the old saying went, different people had different fates. Comparing oneself to others was enough to drive a person mad. The saying truly did not lie.
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