When the team reached noon, they were exhausted and hungry, so the emperor ordered a half-hour break to rest, eat and feed the horses.
Cheng Zhiye had been riding a horse for the whole morning and was already exhausted. While his father was talking to the emperor, he quietly sneaked over to find Zhao Jingyu and got into the carriage without saying a word.
Wei Jun and Huangfu hurriedly stopped him, saying that the second young master was resting inside and ordered that no outsiders were allowed to disturb him.
Cheng Zhiye glared at him: "Am I an outsider? I am your master's best friend."
Wei Jun had an iron-faced expression on his face: "Without the Second Young Master, no one can enter."
Cheng Zhiye had always known that he was a blockhead who didn't give face to anyone except Zhao Jingyu, so he didn't bother with him. He jumped into the car and shouted, "Yu, Yu, it's me, Yu, let me in."
Zhao Jingyu was eating snacks and sipping tea in the carriage, feeling contented. He was so nauseated by his repeated calls of "Yu ah Yu" that he almost vomited out everything he had eaten.
This shameless guy is not easy to get rid of. If he is not let in, he will stay outside and disgust people. Zhao Jingyu had no choice but to order Wei Jun to let him in.
Cheng Zhiye's plan succeeded and he got on the carriage triumphantly.
When he got in, he saw that Zhao Jingyu was not the only one in the car. There was also a handsome young man with a fair face, rosy cheeks, red lips and white teeth. He immediately widened his eyes and exclaimed: "Oh my God, no wonder you didn't let me in. Tell me, have you done anything bad..."
"Shut up!" Zhao Jingyu frowned deeply. "You are such a dirty person, you don't deserve to be my friend. If you don't have anything to do, get out of here!"
Cheng Zhiye laughed and said, "I did have one, but I forgot about it when I saw your servant. Tell me, where did you find such a pretty servant? How come I didn't hear anything about it?"
Xie Nanjia recognized him as the youngest son of Minister Cheng of the Ministry of War. Seeing that he was dressed very ostentatiously with bright red begonias pinned on his temples, she thought that these two were really a pair of dandies together. No wonder they were known as the two tyrants of the capital.
She was not used to being treated like a rarity, so she told Zhao Jingyu that she was tired of sitting in the car and wanted to get off for a walk.
After traveling for a long time, she felt a little urgent and wanted to find a place to relieve herself.
Zhao Jingyu was very understanding and understood what she meant immediately. He sat up and said, "I'll go with you."
There were a lot of grown men outside, and he was worried about Xie Nanjia going out alone.
Xie Nanjia refused him: "I don't dare to trouble you, Second Master. Just let Brother Wei accompany me."
He is a very frivolous person. In comparison, Xie Nanjia prefers to believe Wei Jun.
Zhao Jingyu was very unhappy, but she couldn't lose her temper in front of Cheng Zhiye, so she had to agree to her.
When Wei Jun received the order, his face turned red with embarrassment. It would be easier to ask him to charge into battle than to ask him to accompany a girl.
Especially since this assignment would easily offend the Second Young Master, he knew without thinking that the Second Young Master must be hating him to the core.
When they are out, men don't care much about etiquette and will do it anywhere as long as it doesn't disturb the emperor. In order to prevent Xie Nanjia from seeing things he shouldn't see, he can only try to take her to a remote valley.
Xie Nanjia didn't have so many awkward feelings. She had been to the military camp with her father in the past and was no longer surprised by these things.
The two of them came to a valley far away from the crowd. Wei Jun pointed to the depths of the woods with a red face and said, "Go ahead. I'll wait for you here. If anything happens, just call me loudly."
Xie Nanjia agreed and went deep into the woods on his own.
In the carriage, as soon as Xie Nanjia left, Cheng Zhiye became serious and said to Zhao Jingyu: "Did you see that this year, the King of Nanzhao brought all his three sons with him."
The Prince of Nanzhao is the emperor's half-brother. When the late emperor was alive, he went to Nanzhao to be a fief. He can only return to the capital during the autumn hunting and the New Year every year. In previous years, he only brought his eldest son with him, but this year he brought his second and third sons with him. I don't know whether it was the emperor's order or his own intention.
Zhao Jingyu lifted the curtain and looked outside, but saw nothing. He lowered the curtain and said, "Who cares? Take whoever you want. It's none of my business."
Cheng Zhiye said, "I see that the Crown Prince seems to be very close to the eldest prince, and seems to be trying to win him over."
Zhao Jingyu still had the same attitude of not caring about it, and said lazily: "You can pull whoever you want, it has nothing to do with me."
Cheng Zhiye sighed helplessly: "How can it have nothing to do with you? That master has always been holding a grudge against you. Be careful that he will join forces with others to harm you."
"Humph!" Zhao Jingyu snorted coldly, "He's still a little naive if he wants to kill me."
"He is the master of the East Palace after all, you can't underestimate him." Cheng Zhiye said.
Zhao Jingyu smiled arrogantly: "I'm not looking down on him, I didn't look down on him at all."
Cheng Zhiye had no way to deal with his arrogance, and sighed: "No matter what, you still have to act cautiously and don't take it lightly."
Zhao Jingyu was impatient to listen to his lecture, so he stood up and said, "I have to pee urgently, I need to go out for a while."
Cheng Zhiye hurriedly said, "I'll go with you."
Zhao Jingyu lifted the door curtain and jumped out of the car. Huangfu and six other guards immediately surrounded him.
He was already very ostentatious in his red robe, and with the large crowd of people following him, he attracted everyone's attention. Except for a few young masters who were on good terms with him, everyone else secretly sneered in disdain.
Zhao Jingyu just liked the feeling that others disliked him but couldn't do anything about him, so he waved to his buddies and called them to go to the bathroom together.
A group of people walked away in a large group, completely ignoring the cold stares and criticisms behind them.
After relieving himself, Zhao Jingyu suggested, "I heard that the youngest son of the King of Yunnan is very handsome and extraordinary. Would you like to go and see him?"
Several people were bored and responded one after another.
Cheng Zhiye tried to dissuade him, saying, "Several princes and royal highnesses are dining with the emperor and the crown prince. It's not appropriate for us to go now."
"What's inappropriate?" Zhao Jingyu said, "Just follow me, I'll take care of anything."
Seeing that he didn't listen to advice, Cheng Zhiye became so anxious that he jumped up and down.
Normally he can act as arrogantly as he wants in the capital, but now he is traveling with the emperor and there is a prince who is eyeing him covetously, but he still doesn't know how to restrain himself. It's really a headache.
Not only Cheng Zhiye was anxious, Huangfu was equally anxious. When supervising the procession, the Marquis reminded them again and again, telling the Second Young Master not to get close to the Emperor and the Crown Prince, and also told them to keep a good eye on the Second Young Master. But who could control his stubborn temper
If Wei Jun was still here, perhaps he could have been persuaded, but Wei Jun was sent away by the second young master. What should he do
Just when he was getting anxious, Wei Jun came back with Xie Nanjia.
Xie Nanjia saw a group of people surrounding Zhao Jingyu and yelling. She was startled and thought that Zhao Jingyu had had an argument with someone. Without thinking too much, she ran over and asked, "What's going on?"
The crisp voice immediately attracted the attention of the young masters. Several of them looked over to her. Seeing that it was a handsome young servant, they all widened their eyes and exclaimed, "Whose young servant is this? He is so handsome."
"Mine!" Zhao Jingyu stepped forward and stopped Xie Nanjia behind him, not allowing those people to look at her.
Naturally, those people would not give up and they all asked Zhao Jingyu where he got the servant from.
While Zhao Jingyu was dealing with his friends, Huangfu told Wei Jun and Xie Nanjia the whole story and asked them to quickly persuade the second young master not to hang around in front of the emperor.
The Second Young Master started to act up after only being out for a short while. Wei Jun was also very troubled. He pushed Xie Nanjia worriedly and whispered, "Your mission this time is to discipline the Second Young Master. Try it first!"
Xie Nanjia didn't want to care about Zhao Jingyu at all, but she was entrusted by both Marquis Dingyuan and the old lady, and she was afraid that Zhao Jingyu's willful behavior would implicate her, so she had to bite the bullet and pull Zhao Jingyu's sleeve from behind: "Second Young Master, stop making trouble and get back to the car!"
It was just an ordinary sentence, but those young masters started to cry out in strange voices.
Xie Nanjia didn't understand what was going on. She blinked and looked at Zhao Jingyu in confusion: "Did I say something wrong?"
Those people laughed obscenely.
"Get the hell out of here!" Zhao Jingyu suddenly became furious, and his handsome face, which was bright and sunny just now, suddenly became so gloomy that water could be squeezed out of it.
A few people didn't expect that he would be angry, and they all fell silent. Cheng Zhiye took the opportunity to pull them away.
"Get in the car!" Zhao Jingyu ordered Xie Nanjia angrily.
Xie Nanjia was confused and did not dare to offend him for the time being, so she got into the car obediently.
Zhao Jingyu came up afterwards, lowered the car curtain, sat opposite her with a gloomy face, and did not say a word, just glared at her.
"What happened?" Xie Nanjia asked puzzledly.
Zhao Jingyu snorted coldly: "What's wrong? Don't you understand?"
"What do you understand?" Xie Nanjia spread his hands, "Didn't I just say one sentence?"
"Who allowed you to talk?" Zhao Jingyu said unhappily, "There were so many men, why did you run over to talk? You really like to be in the spotlight, don't you?"
"..." Xie Nanjia was stunned for a moment, and then became annoyed, "Who likes to be in the spotlight? I've been living well in the mansion, but you insisted on having me come. Do you think I want to control you? I'm afraid that when you are beheaded by the emperor, I will be implicated. I finally survived..."
Realizing that she had almost let the cat out of the bag, she stopped talking abruptly and didn't say any more.
Zhao Jingyu caught her slip of the tongue and asked, "What do you mean you finally survived? Have you died once?"
"… I just said it casually." Xie Nanjia softened her tone and said aggrievedly, "It was you who went to ask the old lady to ask me to follow you and remind you and supervise you at all times, so that you wouldn't lose control of yourself. Now, I just said one sentence and you're so angry. In this case, why not ask someone to send me back before we get to Xishan? Anyway, I can't control you, so I don't want to make you angry here."
She was so aggrieved and angry, her lips pouted and her eyebrows drooped, and Zhao Jingyu's heart softened and he could no longer get angry. He sighed and said, "I'm not angry with you. I just don't like others looking at you with dirty eyes."
Xie Nanjia said: "There are so many noble and upright gentlemen in the world, why do you spend all day making friends with those mean-spirited villains?"
Zhao Jingyu laughed: "So you're blaming me. Do I have to apologize to you?"
"I don't deserve it." Xie Nanjia said seriously, "Just don't date those idle young men anymore. It won't help your future and will only bring you bad luck."
As he spoke, he forgot his current age and identity, and his tone became serious and earnest.
Zhao Jingyu looked at her with interest and joked, "How did you suddenly become Aunt Hua? You love to preach so much. How will your husband stand it in the future?"
Xie Nanjia's face suddenly turned red with shame, and she realized belatedly that she had lost control in front of Zhao Jingyu again, so she lowered her head and stopped talking.
Zhao Jingyu frowned and looked at her. Even though he was well aware of her actions, it was hard for him to believe that she had killed two people with her own hands in such a short time since she entered the mansion.
This girl who is sometimes naive, sometimes cunning, sometimes gentle, sometimes irritable, sometimes talkative and sometimes murderous, is like an unsolvable puzzle that makes him fall deeper and deeper without realizing it.
What’s even more infuriating is that she has stirred other people’s hearts without even realizing it. She is focused on moving towards a goal that only she knows and no one else can understand. Apart from that, she doesn’t care about anything else.
How abominable!
…
After dark, the large group of people finally arrived at the Xishan camp. Under the command of General Wu'an Xie Zhanting, everyone moved into their respective tents in an orderly manner. After settling down, they started to have dinner.
For safety reasons, the tents of the royal family were located in the center of the camp. In order to show his importance to Zhao Jingyu, the emperor specially let Zhao Jingyu live there as well.
Zhao Jingyu brought so many things that it took the eight guards half a day to move them all.
He himself did nothing, but just stood with his hands in his sleeves, directing Xie Nanjia to sort his things into categories.
While he was busy, a middle-aged eunuch with a whisk and a kind face came in and summoned Zhao Jingyu to see the emperor.
Xie Nanjia recognized this man. He was the emperor's favorite, the eunuch chief Si Fangzheng.
The emperor summoned him and Xie Nanjia did not dare to neglect him. He put down his work and helped Zhao Jingyu tidy up his hair and clothes, and then Wei Jun and Huangfu accompanied him.
When they arrived at the place, Wei Jun and Huangfu were stopped outside, and Zhao Jingyu followed Si Fangzheng into the tent alone.
The current emperor, Song Wanji, was dressed in a plain home robe, sitting leisurely in front of a table and eating, with two young eunuchs serving him at his side.
Zhao Jingyu stepped forward, lifted his skirt and knelt to salute. Song Wanji exempted him from the salute and asked him to sit down opposite him. He asked in a light tone: "I heard that you brought a very handsome servant with you on this trip. Is that true?"
(End of this chapter)