As the eldest prince of Yuze Kingdom, Mu Yuan had never been humiliated like this in public, and he was about to turn against Zhao Jingyu on the spot.
His follower Shan Hu dissuaded him in time and reminded him in a low voice: "Prince, we have a mission to accomplish. A little impatience will ruin a great plan."
Mu Yuan covered his nose with one hand and took several deep breaths before he managed to suppress the anger in his heart. He placed his other hand on his chest and said to Zhao Jingyu, "Don't blame me, Your Highness. We are from the grassland..."
"You people on the grassland are rude, right?" Zhao Jingyu frowned deeply, extremely disgusted by this sentence, "When you are a guest, you should be aware of being a guest. If you want to be rude, go back to the grassland. Our Great Zhou is a great country and a country of etiquette. We will not tolerate rough men who are disrespectful to women."
Mu Yuan's bronze face turned slightly red after being rebuked by him. He said "I'm sorry" and sat back in his seat without saying anything else.
The envoys from other vassal states were shocked by Zhao Jingyu's anger and tried to be as quiet as possible without making any sound to avoid transferring the anger to themselves.
Song Wanji saw that it was almost done, so he smiled and tried to smooth things over: "The prince has never been restrained since he was a child, and was spoiled by Dingyuan Marquis. He has a bad temper, so please bear with me."
Dingyuan Hou: “…”
What are you talking about? When the child defeated King Nanzhao, why didn’t you say that I was a good parent? Now you blame me for spoiling the child. If he didn’t have you, his biological father, backing him up, would he dare to be so arrogant
The envoys did not dare to deny it and said one after another that the prince had a natural royal majesty and a dignified bearing that shocked everyone.
Mu Yuan felt like vomiting after hearing this and cursed them in his heart as a bunch of sycophants.
After the banquet, Mu Yuan returned to the inn, feeling more and more aggrieved, and blamed Shan Hu for stopping him.
"Doesn't he have the blood of the grassland in his veins? Why does he act so superior and look down on others?"
"Oh, my lord, you can't say such things carelessly. Be careful that there are ears on the other side of the wall. If someone hears it, I'm afraid he will be furious again." Shan Hu said in a low voice.
"What are you afraid of? I didn't say anything wrong." Mu Yuan said in a rough voice.
"It's true that she was wrong, but the Seventh Princess was expelled from the Mu family by the old king and became an exile. She never received any help from the royal family until her death. Do you think he will change his attitude towards us because of that little blood relationship? What good will it do to our plan if we anger him?" Shan Hu said.
Mu Yuan shut his mouth angrily and punched the table, which made a big hole in it with a "crack".
"That girl with the Phoenix destiny, go ask me tomorrow where I can find her. I'm very curious about her."
Shan Hu: “…Yes!”
After returning home, Su Jincheng told Xie Nanjia about how Zhao Jingyu humiliated Mu Yuan in public.
When Xie Nanjia learned that he had broken Mu Yuan's nose in order to protect herself, she blamed him for his bad temper, but at the same time she felt very pleased and happy. She pretended to tell Su Jincheng to tell Zhao Jingyu that the ceremony was about to take place and he should not cause trouble like a young boy.
Su Jincheng looked at the smile that she couldn't hide and sneered, "Is this what you really think?"
Xie Nanjia chuckled: "No, I think he smashed it well."
Su Jincheng: “…”
He said, how could this girl suddenly become kind.
Of course, this doesn't mean that she has a bad heart. It depends on who she is bad to. She is still very kind to ordinary people.
For example, right now, in order to celebrate the enthronement of the crown prince, as the crown prince's in-laws, their Zhenguo Mansion was originally going to invite dragon and lion dance teams and opera troupes to celebrate in the city for ten days. Later, my sister said that dragon and lion dances and opera troupes are only lively for a while, and with the money, it would be better to set up a few porridge stalls to help those homeless and impoverished people. This would benefit the general public, earn a good reputation for their own family, and also accumulate blessings for the crown prince.
After hearing her suggestion, the family discussed and decided to organize both activities: have a lively party and provide porridge. The old lady also specially ordered the Su brothers to go to the porridge stall and be responsible for providing porridge. This way they could gain a good reputation in front of the people and the emperor, paving the way for their future career and marriage.
When Xie Nanjia had nothing to do, she would go around a few porridge stalls every day to show her face. Although this was a bit superficial, who in the world was without selfishness? People who did good deeds without leaving their names would not even know who their benefactors were when they were grateful. Since she followed Zhao Jingyu, she naturally had to consider everything in the long term and accumulate some good reputation for herself in advance so that she could win the support of others in that position in the future.
Ever since Yun Shu gave up the engagement, she became inexplicably close to Xie Nanjia. She said that it was boring for her to live in the Marquis' Mansion, and that Zhao Jingyu didn't have time to buy her a house. So she followed Xie Nanjia around all day long, like a follower that couldn't be shaken off. Sometimes she even forced herself to stay in Xie Nanjia's Tianxiangju.
Xie Nanjia felt somewhat sorry for her regarding the engagement, so she just let her do whatever she wanted. Sometimes when she was interested, she would help cook porridge, serve porridge, and lend a hand.
Although this girl wasn't very smart, she had a really straightforward personality. As time went by, everyone liked her and gradually put aside their initial prejudices against her.
The only one who treated her badly was Cheng Zhiye.
It was unknown if this kid had a grudge because he lost the first argument with Yunshu, but he would find different ways to quarrel with Yunshu every day. When Yunshu followed Xie Nanjia to distribute porridge, he would also go to distribute porridge, and he and Yunshu would each use a spoon to distribute the porridge to people. He could not stand whether Yunshu's porridge was too thick or too thin, or her movements were too fast or too slow, and he would always complain about it. When Yunshu got angry, he couldn't win the argument, so he was as angry as a toad with a bulging belly.
Yun Shu found him inexplicable and complained to Xie Nanjia in private.
Xie Nanjia said that usually when a man is looking for trouble with a girl, he just wants to attract her attention, and Mr. Cheng might have taken a fancy to you.
Yun Shu was startled and waved her hands quickly, saying, "Impossible, impossible, he won't be attracted to me. Even if he is attracted to me, I won't be attracted to him. I have already sworn that I will never marry into a wealthy family."
Xie Nanjia: “…”
Could it be that this girl suffers from a phobia of wealthy families
As early summer approached, the weather gradually became hotter. Sheng Qingyun was afraid that Xie Nanjia would get a tan from running outside all the time, so he didn't allow her to go out too often. If she did, she had to go out in the early morning or evening and take a carriage.
That evening, Xie Nanjia and Yunshu took a carriage to the porridge stall on East Street to check on the porridge distribution situation. As a result, Yunshu got into an argument with a man while helping to distribute the porridge.
Although the man was dressed in rags, he was tall and strong, in his twenties, and looked very strong and powerful.
He was holding a chipped coarse porcelain bowl, waiting to get porridge between a few skinny beggars. However, his eyes were not fixed on the porridge bucket like others, but on Xie Nanjia who was standing behind the shed and talking to a few brothers. He didn't even notice that it was his turn in line.
Yun Shu raised the spoon and was about to put food into his bowl, but when she saw his size and spirit, she put the spoon back.
"You are young and strong, why don't you go to work to support yourself, but you have to fight for food with the old, weak and sick. Go, go, go, I won't give you anything!"
The man was staring at Xie Nanjia in a trance, and was startled by Yun Shu. He looked away and glared at Yun Shu fiercely: "You little girl, how can you be so unreasonable when you give out porridge?"
"There's no reason. I just don't want people like you to get something for nothing." Yun Shu waved the spoon to drive him away, "Go away."
"I won't leave. Your family didn't specify that young and strong people can't take her away. Why don't you give her to me? Call your master over." The man shouted in a hoarse voice, deliberately trying to attract Xie Nanjia's attention.
Yun Shu suddenly became smart for some reason, and realized that he was not interested in the wine. He threw the spoon into the bucket, put his hands on his hips and said, "Master, how can you see that I am a servant? It's okay to be lazy and greedy, but your eyesight is not good. Let's go quickly, don't delay the people behind us from eating."
The people in the queue behind him also urged him: "Hurry up, even though the Zhenguo Mansion is doing charity, but look, there is no one as strong as you who comes to get porridge, can't a big guy do something to make a living?"
"That's right, I can do something. If I were as big as you, I could earn a lot of money carrying sacks."
Everyone was talking at once, trying to get the man to leave quickly, but they ended up angering him. He turned around and waved his hands, knocking several people's bowls to the ground and smashing them to pieces.
Everyone tends to bully the weak and fear the strong. The people who were talking at once were frightened and shut up and retreated one after another.
“Hmph, a bunch of spineless cowards!” The man snorted contemptuously, then turned to look at Yun Shu, whose eyes were wide open. “Are you scared now? Hurry up and make me some porridge!”
Yun Shu seemed to be really frightened, and obediently scooped a full spoonful of porridge and placed it in front of him.
The man's mouth curled downward in a sarcastic arc and stretched out the bowl to receive it.
Unexpectedly, Yun Shu raised his hand and poured a large spoonful of hot porridge on him.
The man was shocked and subconsciously tried to hide, but Yun Shu was too fast and splashed the entire spoonful of porridge on his face.
Fortunately, the porridge had been cooked for a while and the temperature was not too hot. Even so, it was still so hot that he screamed.
"Good! Good! Good! Good splashing!" The crowd behind applauded and cheered.
The man wiped the porridge off his face angrily, snatched Yunshu's spoon and was about to hit her on the head.
"Ah..." the people exclaimed, "Girl, run!"
Yun Shu had no time to run and closed his eyes in fear.
At this moment, there was a sound of a hidden weapon breaking through the air, and it flew towards the man's face with a "whoosh".
The man had to give up attacking Yun Shu in a hurry and slapped the hidden weapon away with a spoon.
Everything became quiet, and Xie Nanjia came over holding a slingshot.
"Who is being so rude here?" she asked sternly with a sullen face.
"It's not me who is being presumptuous, it's your girl who refused to give me porridge no matter what." The man threw the spoon back into the bucket, clapped his hands, and showed his two rows of white teeth to Xie Nanjia, "Do all the beauties in your Great Zhou like to slap people in the face?"
Xie Nanjia looked at him, her eyelashes fluttering twice, and after a moment of hesitation, she said with a half-smile, "So, do all the royal family members of Yuze like to eat free food?"
The man was startled and asked in surprise: "Do you know who I am?"
Xie Nanjia looked him up and down and said calmly, "He is eight feet tall, has a strong physique, is rude and gluttonous, and is not from our country. I think he must be the eldest prince of Yuze, Mu Yuan."
Mu Yuan: “…”
It is said that beautiful women are brainless, but it turns out there are exceptions.
(End of this chapter)