(two)
"Raise your head and let me see you."
Hearing what the person on the steps said, Wen Su forced himself to raise his face and saw the person on the steps clearly.
During the Zhou Dynasty, the distinction between ruler and subject was not as pronounced as it was in later periods, and the rules were not particularly strict. There was no restriction that subjects should not look directly at the ruler, since Zhou culture originated from the practice of looking directly at the ruler.
The King of Zhou on the steps was dressed in court robes and had a long beard. Judging from his features, he must have been a handsome man in his youth. Considering Zhou Gushan and Zhou Qinghe, one could tell that their father must have been quite good-looking as well.
Before speaking, King Zhou laughed loudly a few times and praised, "What a fine young man from the Wen family!"
Wen Su lowered his head again and said humbly, "Your Majesty flatters me."
Hearing this, King Zhou laughed several more times, making no attempt to hide his appreciation for Wen Su. This was to be expected, as the Wen family had guarded the frontier for many years, and their scouts had reported back several times without finding any fault in them. They were a loyal military family.
Finally, the court session ended. Wen Su wiped the sweat from his forehead. The sun was scorching. No wonder everyone was so dark-skinned. They must have all been sunburned. He quickly hid under a palace wall and loosened his clothes.
Goodness, how could people in ancient times afford to wear such thick clothes?
It is winter now, but it rarely snows in the country. It is usually very hot. However, before going out, Wenniang was worried that her good son would catch a cold when he went to court, so she gave him many layers of clothes.
Having barely calmed the fever in his body, Wen Su took a deep breath and turned his attention to the real purpose of his court appearance that day.
He walked calmly towards the inner palace, and the maids would bow to him when they saw him. Some of his colleagues, however, asked him a question when they saw him walking towards the inner palace.
“My mother has been summoned to the Queen’s presence; I’m going to fetch her.”
No one expected that this greenhorn would dare to falsely convey the emperor's will, so they all nodded and did not stop him.
Once he arrived at the inner palace, no one asked him where he came from. King Zhou had not taken any concubines, and the vast inner palace only had three masters: the Queen, the Crown Prince, and the Second Prince. Wen Su circled around to the vicinity of the Second Prince's palace, which he had scouted beforehand, intending to have a chance encounter with Zhou Ziqiu and see how things went.
He had high hopes, but reality was far from that. He waited until noon but Zhou Qinghe did not leave the palace. He could not stay in the palace indefinitely. If he encountered the King, Queen, or Crown Prince, he would be in deep trouble no matter which one of them he encountered. So he had no choice but to sneak out of the palace by scaling walls and rooftops.
But when he reached the palace gate, he saw a hooded man lingering suspiciously at the gate, seemingly wanting to leave but without a palace pass and unable to get past the guards.
Wen Su didn't want to get involved, but the man's figure looked familiar, so he went up and patted the man on the back. The man shuddered and turned around.
Both of them were taken aback.
“You…” Wen Su exclaimed in surprise.
"You..." The man's handsome face showed a puzzled expression, but Wen Su clearly saw that when he turned around, his expression was unnatural for a moment, as if he was shocked. However, the moment was too short, and Wen Su did not know if it was just his imagination.
"Who are you?" the man asked.
Wen Su raised an eyebrow in surprise, seemingly not expecting that this person had never seen him before. He knelt on one knee and bowed to the man: "Your subject, Wen Su, the eldest son of General Shenwei, pays his respects to the Second Prince. May the Second Prince be well."
This person was Zhou Qinghe.
At this moment, Wen Su was hanging his head and did not see the struggle that reappeared on Zhou Qinghe's face. He only heard Zhou Qinghe's inexplicable question: "Why are you here too?"
...also?
Wen Su was surprised, but Zhou Qinghe did not tell him to rise. He still needed to maintain this posture, so he lowered his head and replied, "This morning I went to the palace for court, but I got lost."
Zhou Qinghe's question vanished in an instant. He seemed to notice that Wen Su was still kneeling on the ground, and only then did he realize that he had not asked him to get up. So he quickly asked Wen Su to stand up.
Wen Su stood up and asked with a smile, "I wonder what Your Highness is doing here?"
Zhou Qinghe grunted and asked in return, "Do I need you to tell me what to do?"
Wen Su raised his eyebrows, not expecting the young Zhou Ziqiu to be so arrogant: "Your subject dares not."
The tone was very ordinary, but to Zhou Qinghe it sounded disrespectful. He glared at Wen Su. He knew this young general of the Wen family. He was the same age as Xingzhou, but he seemed to be more unruly than Xingzhou.
He doesn't like people like that.
Zhou Qinghe's emotions were written all over his face. He turned to leave, but was stopped by Wen Su just as he was about to go.
Wen Su didn't understand why Zhou Qinghe disliked him, but when he saw Zhou Qinghe turn and leave without hesitation, his gaze felt like it had been stabbed, and his heart ached suddenly. He sighed silently.
Perhaps he messed up the first meeting again.
"Didn't you want to leave the palace? I'll help you."
Zhou Qinghe turned around in surprise, seemingly not expecting Wen Su to say such words of conscience.
Wen Su scratched his head in frustration, a strand of long hair falling from his cheek. He didn't notice it, only concerned with being angry at himself for ruining Chu Jian again: "Come with me, I can help you."
But Zhou Qinghe shook his head, somewhat wary of Wen Su: "No need."
Back in his room, Wen Su no longer needed to hide his emotions. He angrily threw himself onto the bed, slamming his fist heavily on the hard surface, as if venting his frustration. He even tore open the hair that Wen Niang had tied up for him that morning.
what to do?
What if I messed up?
The thought of Zhou Ziqiu disappearing before his eyes made Wen Su's heart ache.
But what did Zhou Qinghe mean by shouting that at him all of a sudden?
"Wen Su, go back."
"Wen Su...go back..."
The voice in his mind overlapped with his soft murmurs. Wen Su felt as if he had thought of something, but his thoughts were too chaotic at the moment, and that idea quickly disappeared.
Forget it, let's not worry about it for now and talk about it at the palace banquet.
At the same time, a roar rang out inside the palace, but because the servants had been dismissed in advance, no one heard it.
"Who are you? Who exactly are you?!"
But precisely because no one heard him, no one in the house answered his question.
Ever since Wen Niang entered Wen Su's room and saw him with disheveled hair, Wen Su has been living a miserable life for the past few days.
He was not the carefree Wen Su in the illusion. That Wen Su had never experienced drastic changes, never experienced the loss of his family, and was also rebellious against Wen Niang's discipline. Seventeen or eighteen-year-old boys always think they have grown up and no longer need their parents' discipline—but he was not.
But he wasn't.
So recently, Wen Niang felt that her usually arrogant and domineering son had become much more obedient. She was not surprised, just thinking that her son had suddenly grown up, so she ordered Wen Su around without any psychological pressure.
She was delighted that Wen Su had finally stopped lingering at the martial arts arena and restaurants, and now she could finally take him out to choose fabric for making clothes.
Wen Su felt a headache coming on just looking at the piles of brightly colored silks. When Wen Niang held up a bolt of bright red fabric against him again, he said helplessly, "Mother... could you please not choose this color?"
Wen Niang raised her eyebrows, mimicking Wen Su's usual gesture, and scolded, "What? You don't like it? Are you planning to wear all black to the palace banquet too? To make people think there's been a funeral in the Wen family?"
Indeed, it's fine to wear black robes on ordinary days, but one cannot wear them when entering the palace to see the king, as it would be considered inappropriate.
"Alright, alright," Wen Su said helplessly.
As soon as Wen Su finished speaking, his own mother added insult to injury: "And do you think letting you try it out means I'll buy it for you? I'm buying it for Xing Zhou, not for you? Dream on."
Wen Su seemed to know who bought Xie Xingzhou's incredibly tacky red outfit.
On the day of the palace banquet.
Wen Su was dragged out of bed by Wen Niang early in the morning and forced to change into the clothes that Wen Niang had ordered the embroiderer to make. He was then put on a horse.
When they arrived at the palace gate, Wen Su's eyes were assaulted.
Because the palace banquet was a joyous occasion, black, white, and somber colors were inappropriate. The ministers, each accompanied by their wives and children, were all dressed in brightly colored outfits. Combined with their tanned skin from daily court sessions, this seemed rather...unpleasant to Wen Su, a modern man.
Compared to the other two, Xie Xingzhou's red outfit in the distance looked much better.
"Hey, Wenlang, it's rare to see you wearing different clothes today."
Xie Xingzhou dismounted and rushed to his friend's side, curiously examining his friend's purple robes. To this thoroughly ancient man, Wen Su's clothes, embroidered with large peony flowers in gold thread, were undeniably beautiful. The murderous aura that Wen Su unconsciously exuded was also suppressed, transforming him from a young general who had risked his life on the battlefield into a noble young master.
Even the red dress that Wen Su thought was ugly on Xie Xingzhou looked extremely beautiful. The fabric was personally selected by Wen Niang, and the embroidery was done by a first-class embroiderer. The floral pattern on the red dress complemented each other perfectly.
No wonder Wen Niang was gesturing to Wen Su at the time; the two were equally handsome and even had similar heights, looking exactly like brothers.
Wen Su remained silent, his face grim.
"Why are you making such a long face?" Xie Xingzhou laughed, whispering in his ear, "Look, how many girls are looking at you. See? Even the eldest daughter of the Prime Minister, who is known as the most beautiful woman in the capital, is looking at you."
Wen Su followed Xie Xingzhou's gaze and saw a brightly dressed young woman. She was indeed beautiful and had a very good demeanor, exuding a composed and elegant aura. The young woman was also looking shyly in their direction.
—But he's not even one ten-thousandth as good-looking as Zhou Ziqiu.
"...That's it?"
Wen Su asked in confusion, seemingly finding it hard to imagine that Xie Xingzhou could still say that others were good-looking when he saw such handsome faces as Zhou Ziqiu or Zhou Qinghe every day. If he could see Zhou Ziqiu every day, he would be laughing in his dreams.
Xie Xingzhou had no idea what Wen Su was thinking, so he immediately retorted incredulously, "What do you mean 'that's all'? She's already quite good-looking! If you don't think she's pretty, find me someone even prettier."
Wen Su paused for a moment. He had an answer in his heart, but he didn't know whether to tell Xie Xingzhou. However, he still believed in his past life: "...The Second Prince?"
As expected, Xie Xingzhou fell silent upon hearing this, and after a moment, his cheeks flushed slightly as he turned his gaze away: "Th-th, they're not in the same class, there's no way to compare them."
Wen Su looked at Xie Xingzhou approvingly; he was indeed worthy of being his predecessor.
Hearing their conversation, Wen Niang immediately pinched Wen Su's arm and said, "You dare to speak ill of the royal family behind their backs? Aren't you afraid of being impeached?"
Xie Xingzhou smiled mischievously and pulled Wen Su towards the palace.
The court officials gathered in the banquet hall and were seated according to their official rank. Wen Su sat in the first row with Wen Niang, next to the second wife of the Wen family, Mei Niang, as well as Xie Xingzhou and the Xie family.
Only after all the ministers had arrived did the royal family members appear.
As soon as the royal family appeared, everyone knelt on the ground to pay their respects, listening to the master of ceremonies announce the royal family's names.
When Wen Su heard the name of the Second Prince, he quietly looked up at the stage. It was a joyous occasion, and everyone was happy, including Wen Su. But when he saw Zhou Qinghe, he froze and felt a chill run down his spine. The cranes flying on Zhou Qinghe's sleeves were exactly the same as the ones he had seen before.
18:58:50
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