Xie Nanjia was the only guest in the whole venue and was the focus of attention all the time. Therefore, when she was pulled away by Mu Yuan, everyone saw it. When she returned to her seat, the second prince Mu Ke was the first to come over and greet her.
"It seems that Miss Xiu'er and my brother have been getting along very well along the way." Mu Ke said with a little bit of alcohol, "You have such a close relationship, which makes me regret not taking the initiative to ask to go to Da Zhou. If I had gone there..."
"If you had gone there, you might not have succeeded." Xie Nanjia interrupted his fantasy sharply, "My relationship with your brother is not as good as you think, and I can't get along with everyone. I'm drunk, please do as you please, Second Prince!"
Among King Yuze's five sons, the second prince is the most handsome, but for some reason, Xie Nanjia has the least favorable impression of him.
Perhaps it's because of his hooked nose that makes him look a little sinister, or perhaps it's because he is as narcissistic as a male peacock, wanting to spread his tail when he sees a woman, giving people a frivolous feeling.
In comparison, although Mu Yuan was a bit rude, at least he was not so annoying.
Mu Ke felt a little embarrassed after being rebuked by Xie Nanjia, but Xie Nanjia was a distinguished guest and a woman, so he couldn't get angry on the spot, so he left in a huff with his wine glass.
"It's fun, it's fun, it's so fun. This is the first time I see Second Brother fall in front of a woman!" Princess Mu Xi, who was closest to Xie Nanjia, clapped her hands and shouted.
Mu Xi is Mu Yuan's biological sister and the youngest daughter of King Yuze. She is very much loved by King Yuze, so her words and actions are very fearless.
When she shouted this, the other princesses all giggled.
At first, the others hadn't noticed what was happening, but when they heard her shout, they all looked towards Mu Ke.
Mu Ke suddenly became angry and humiliated, smashed his wine glass and left the table angrily.
King Yuze was very unhappy and blamed Mu Ke's mother for not educating her son well.
Mu Ke's mother was the queen's former maid. She relied on her beauty to climb into King Yu Ze's bed. After she became pregnant, she was taken as a concubine by King Yu Ze. In addition, Mu Ke was outstanding in appearance and ability, and always competed with Mu Yuan for the limelight. Therefore, the queen particularly hated them both.
Seeing that the mother and son were blamed by the Khan because of Xie Nanjia, Queen Yuze softened her attitude towards Xie Nanjia a lot. She even invited her to sit next to her and clinked glasses of wine with her.
"The Khan said you are a very extraordinary woman, and that whoever gets you will get the world." Queen Yuze said, "I can see that my son likes you very much, but the noble bloodline of our royal family cannot be tarnished. So, if you want to be with my son, I have no objection, but you have to promise that you cannot give birth to Mu Yuan's child."
"..." Xie Nanjia was speechless, she couldn't understand where her sense of superiority came from. How confident a person must be to say such a thing? Did she think that the grassland she was on was the center of the world, and that all the foreign tribes she had never come into contact with and all the places she had never been to had to respect her grassland and bow down to them
Doesn't she understand what a dependent country is
Xie Nanjia really didn't know whether she should feel pitiful for her narrow-mindedness or ridiculous for her blind self-confidence.
"My queen, you worry too much." Xie Nanjia took a sip of wine and said with a smile, "I won't marry your son, don't worry!"
"Why?" Queen Yuze was very surprised and seemed to not believe that there would be a woman who would look down on her son.
Xie Nanjia suddenly felt that she and Mu Ke were more like a real mother and son.
"Because I am the daughter of the Phoenix, your grassland is too small to accommodate my wings." Xie Nanjia replied with a smile.
“…”Princess Yuze stared at her in a daze, not understanding what she was saying at all.
However, the woman sitting on her right, who wanted to eat Xie Nanjia like a roasted lamb leg, looked thoughtful after hearing their conversation.
Halfway through the banquet, people who were drunk began to dance. Men, women and children held hands and formed a circle, singing and dancing around the bonfire in the center of the venue.
Xie Nanjia had never seen such a rough dance form and watched with great interest.
Mu Yuan walked up to her and pulled her up: "What's the point of just watching? Let's dance together."
"I don't know how..." Xie Nanjia said, but he pulled her into the team without any explanation.
He knew how to choose a place. He deliberately separated the little princess and a man, and let the little princess hold Xie Nanjia's left hand, while he held Xie Nanjia's right hand. The man who was separated was confused and tried to hold his hand, but he glared at him fiercely and turned around and ran away in fear.
"Brother Prince, you scared away the little princess's lover." Behind the man was the second princess. As soon as the man ran away, the second princess came up and held Mu Yuan's hand.
"What sweetheart? He doesn't deserve it!" Mu Yuan said in a rough voice, "He has not tamed a wild horse yet. Father will not let my little sister marry him."
The second princess curled her lips and looked at Xie Nanjia.
"What about you? Will father let you marry this woman?"
Mu Yuan's face darkened immediately: "Just dance well, women will turn into black crows if they talk too much!"
“…” The second princess’s lips were pouted so tightly that they could tie a donkey around them.
Xie Nanjia couldn't help laughing out loud. For the first time, she felt that the people on the grassland were quite interesting.
"What are you laughing at?" The little princess couldn't hear what her brother and sister were saying through Xie Nanjia, so she asked Xie Nanjia curiously.
"Nothing." Xie Nanjia shook her head and leaned over to ask her, "Why do you all speak Chinese?"
"It was our father who asked us to speak Chinese," the little princess said. "Our father said that we would move to the Central Plains in the future, so he asked us to speak Chinese a few years ago and even hired a Chinese teacher for us. The one who was scared away by our brother just now is our teacher."
"Oh." Xie Nanjia nodded calmly, but was very shocked in his heart. It turned out that King Yuze had been planning to annex the Great Zhou for not just one or two days, but had started preparing several years ago.
So, did he and Song Jingxing decide to join forces only recently, or had they been colluding for a long time
Logically speaking, Song Jingxing's life experience was only revealed to the world this year. Before that, as a prince, he should not have secretly colluded with foreign races. It is very likely that after learning that he was going to be exiled, he contacted King Yu Ze through his followers, offered generous conditions, and asked King Yu Ze to help him. King Yu Ze happened to have plans to march into the Central Plains, so the two hit it off.
That being said, they had not been working together for a long time, and Song Jingxing might be meeting King Yu Ze for the first time, just like her.
So, if she could offer better conditions than Song Jingxing, would King Yu Ze give up cooperation with Song Jingxing
"What are you thinking about?" Mu Yuan squeezed her hand hard, interrupting her thoughts.
Xie Nanjia came back to his senses, smiled, and didn't answer.
Mu Yuan didn't delve into it further, but pointed out that her dance steps were too perfunctory, like she was walking, and asked her to learn from him.
Xie Nanjia studied hard for a while and soon could dance like a pro.
Mu Yuan said: "You are very insightful. Now you can try singing and dancing at the same time. This will be more interesting."
They were singing a grassland song, which Xie Nanjia could not understand, so Mu Yuan changed the lyrics into Chinese and sang it to her. The general idea was that a young man met a beautiful girl while grazing, and asked the girl if she would be his bride. The girl said that when the grassland was full of May flowers, she would marry the young man and be his bride.
"What kind of flower is the Mayflower?" asked Xie Nanjia.
Mu Yuan thought for a moment and said, "It seems to be called peony in Chinese. Because it blooms in May, it is called May flower. May is the most beautiful season on the grassland. Many people choose to hold their wedding at that time. If you next year..."
He stopped talking and swallowed back the words he had not finished.
Xie Nanjia was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "I have already learned it. Listen to me singing it correctly."
As she spoke, she opened her voice and sang along with everyone else's rhythm. She was not familiar with it the first time and sang haltingly. Mu Yuan said her singing sounded like the cry of a black crow.
Xie Nanjia laughed out loud.
Mu Yuan looked at her obsessively. Her smile looked like a blooming peony under the reflection of the bonfire.
Outside the revelry crowd, where the bonfire could not reach, there were several masked men in black hiding. They squatted side by side in the shadows, blending into the night, with only a few pairs of eyes flashing brightly.
Among them, a pair of peach blossom eyes are particularly bright, so bright that they can spit fire.
"I was here feeding mosquitoes, but she was there holding a man's hand, singing and dancing, and smiling so happily. How could she be like this?"
"Second Young Master, please calm down. Miss Xiu'er must be trying to confuse the other party." Huangfu advised in a low voice.
"That won't work either. She can only smile at me!" Zhao Jingyu said angrily.
"Why can I only smile at you? Aren't we all worthy? We are just feeding mosquitoes here too!" Zhou Yuncheng protested in a low voice.
"Shut up!" Zhao Jingyu shouted, "I can't stand this. I'm going to take her back now."
As he said this, he stood up and rushed over.
"No, you must not be impulsive. Look at the archers around us. Once exposed, we will be shot like a hornet's nest." Cheng Zhiye hurriedly held his shoulders to prevent him from getting up.
Zhao Jingyu was anxious and slapped his hand away: "Get out of the way, don't think I don't know that you are thinking about Yunshu. It's not like I won't save her. Can't I save them one by one?"
"You won't be able to save anyone if you continue like this." Cheng Zhiye said.
"Then what do you say I should do? Are you going to let me sit here and feed mosquitoes while I watch my woman singing and dancing with other men?" Zhao Jingyu said angrily, and got up and left.
"But second young master, the nightgown is very ugly. Don't you want to look beautiful when you meet Miss Xiu'er?" Wei Jun suddenly said.
Zhao Jingyu was stunned, and suddenly stopped. After staying for a while, he slowly squatted back to his original position.
"You're right, this dress is ugly, and the hood is ugly too."
“…” Several people were speechless.
Who would have thought that at the critical moment, it was the love of beauty that made the second young master stop his impulse.
"Why didn't you stop me just now?" Zhao Jingyu bumped into Cheng Zhiye and asked in a low voice.
"Why should I stop you?" Cheng Zhiye asked back.
Zhao Jingyu: "... Didn't you say that if you go out like this you'll be beaten to a pulp?"
"You can't stand that... singing and dancing?" Cheng Zhiye said, "At worst, we can die with you!"
Zhao Jingyu was silent for a moment, then said quietly, "It's not that I can't stand it, but her smile is so sincere, I'm afraid she will abandon me."
Cheng Zhiye: “…”
"When did you become so self-deprecating? Do you not trust Xiu'er, or do you not have confidence in yourself?"
Zhao Jingyu fell silent again and thought about this problem seriously.
In fact, ever since he came back from Nanzhao, he has always had a sense of crisis. Xiu'er is beautiful, smart, and capable. She can handle both housework and housework, be a good strategist, and fight in battle. She is so perfect that he always worries that he is not worthy of her.
Because he felt that he was born into a good family, otherwise there was nothing he could compare to Xiu'er.
"Love makes people humble. I understand how you feel." Zhou Yuncheng quietly moved over at some point and whispered to him.
"That's true. I feel the same way." Cheng Zhiye said.
Wei Jun: “…”
Huangfu: “…”
Faced with a powerful enemy, the three young men actually expressed their sorrow for love right at the enemy's doorstep. It was a very strange feeling.
At this moment, the singing and dancing on the opposite side suddenly stopped, and the revelers automatically stood in two rows. Under the light of the bright bonfire, a tall and thin man wearing a loose black cloak slowly walked into the center of the crowd.
King Yu Ze personally stepped forward to greet him, greeted him with a laugh, and then led him towards Xie Nanjia.
The hood covered the man's face. Although Zhao Jingyu couldn't see clearly, he still recognized him by his figure and steps.
It’s indeed him!
He finally showed up!
"Give me a crossbow!" Zhao Jingyu stretched his hand back and whispered.
In the deeper darkness behind, a figure flashed by and handed over a cloud-piercing crossbow.
Zhao Jingyu held a crossbow and aimed at the man.
Just as he was about to fire, the man suddenly took a step forward, violently pulled Xie Nanjia in front of him, said something, bent down, and moved closer to Xie Nanjia's face.
Zhao Jingyu quickly loosened his fingers and gave up firing, and a layer of sweat instantly broke out on his back.
He saw Xie Nanjia trying to break free from the man's hand, but couldn't. In the end, the man put his arm around her waist and took her to the dining table, where she sat next to him.
The two exchanged a few words, and the man raised his glass and invited Xie Nanjia to drink with him. Xie Nanjia raised his hand and splashed the wine on his face.
The man was enraged and raised his hand to slap Xie Nanjia.
Zhao Jingyu threw down his crossbow and was about to rush forward, but was held down by Cheng Zhiye and Zhou Yuncheng.
However, the slap did not fall. At the critical moment, Mu Yuan grabbed the man's wrist from behind.
A few people were watching anxiously when a nearby guard noticed the commotion. He called out to his companions loudly and ran towards them with torches in hand.
(End of this chapter)