CH 25.1

Meng Qianshan did not dare to disobey, so he signaled Sun Yuan and pushed the wheelchair forward with trepidation.

He tearfully shouted in his heart: Madam Xu, run away.

However, the two concubines obviously did not receive the signal he sent with his divine sense. When they heard the sound of the wheelchair, they looked up. Both of them remained calm and composed, waiting for them to approach.

Huo Wujiu in the wheelchair swept the two with a cold glance.

He had a little impression of the red-clad man. He took after a lady, and his hands tended to wander. The first time they met, he reached out to touch his face.

The other one…

Huo Wujiu’s eyes sharpened a bit coldly.

Was he the one who mediated the last time they met? He twisted the claws of the man in red, and it was this man who methodically stepped forward to persuade and send someone to fetch the mansion doctor.

…So King Jing likes someone like him?

Huo Wujiu coolly withdrew his gaze, and there were shades of disdain in his eyes that begged to disagree.

In their barracks, the most annoying thing was this kind of scholar who would waste time chirping and smoothing things over. Just listening to people like him could make his head spin. However, considering King Jing’s questionable character and his poor taste, it was normal for him to take a fancy to a man like him.

Huo Wujiu fired a cold shot deep inside without realizing that he had included himself, whom King Jing had “secretly admired for many years”, in the scope of his attack.

He took a single glance and then withdrew his gaze. He looked upon them frostily, and hadn’t had the slightest intention of greeting them.

It was Gu Changyun who smilingly spoke first.

“The last time I saw this Madam Huo was some days ago, right?” With fox eyes as soft as silk, he looked Huo Wujiu up and down for a good while. “The feng shui of our King Jing Mansion is just nourishing. Look at you, Madam Huo. You look much better.”

Xu Du faintly glanced at him.

He knew that before the fall of Gu Changyun’s family, there were several concubines in his father’s house. Gu Changyun had been influenced since childhood and knew the way of fighting in the harem. When he came to King Jing’s residence, he especially loved to perform this tart play in front of outsiders.

He usually didn’t take up much of a fight, so he thought Huo Wujiu wouldn’t take him up on it either.

As expected, Huo Wujiu didn’t say a word, but Meng Qianshan at the back bowed smilingly and said, “Of course! After Madam Huo came to the mansion, everything was fine. Thank you for your concern, Madam Gu!”

While speaking, Meng Qianshan secretly elbowed Sun Yuan and smilingly continued, “I didn’t know that the Madams were playing chess here. I’m slow-witted and disturbed your good mood…Sun Yuan, why aren’t you bidding goodbye to the Madams?”

Sun Yuan heard his cue, and obediently bowed to the two right away.

However, before he could say the words of farewell, Gu Changyun interrupted him with a smile.

“What’s the hurry?” He said, “Coming and going like that. Meng Qianshan, am I a man-eating tiger?”

Xu Du glanced at him.

He had advised Gu Changyun many times not to fool around, but he also knew that Gu Changyun had experienced great ups and downs in his early years, and had developed this temperament of playing with the world and teasing everyone he met without fear of death. It was something that couldn’t be easily changed.

Seeing that Meng Qianshan smiled after he was asked, Xu Du opened his mouth and said, “If you have no important matter to attend to, there is no hurry to leave. Does Madam Huo know how to play chess? If you do, why don’t you come and see how to break this game?”

Huo Wujiu glanced at him. He hated playing chess the most.

His father was a stinky chess player, but his military advisor was a national Go player. Since Yangguan was remote, his father did not want to let go of any resources to educate him, so he forced him to learn chess from that smiling tiger master.

Huo Wujiu was so impatient with the uninteresting black and white pieces that he always messed up, and was so angry that his father confiscated his favorite Dayuan1 horse as blackmail to force him to learn.

Just because he knew how to play didn’t mean he liked it.

Huo Wujiu’s cold eyes swept over Xu Du in front of him.

A talkative mud stick, the boring black and white chessboard, and the provocative annoying one gathered together.

When Sun Yuan, who was behind him, heard Xu Du’s words, he looked left and right, not knowing who’s order to follow. Then he saw Huo Wujiu raising his hand, signaling Sun Yuan to wait in place.

Sun Yuan hurriedly did as he was told. He watched as Huo Wujiu rolled the wooden wheel of the wheelchair and approached the chessboard by himself.

Xu Du looked at him.

Huo Wujiu sat beside the chessboard with his eyes faintly drooping. He swept a glance around the game, and without half a second thought, he stretched out his hand, picked up a black piece and landed it on the board.

Xu Du froze.

However, Huo Wujiu didn’t give him a chance to speak to him. After landing that piece, he withdrew his hand and pressed it on the wooden wheel. After he gave a push, the wheelchair turned around and drifted straight away.

“Go,” he said.

Sun Yuan immediately pushed him on, while Meng Qianshan hurriedly saluted the two and followed.

Gu Changyun watched them all the way until they went far away, then he said to Xu Du with a surprised look on his face, “Look at that, he’s worthy of being a general. Even if he was locked up in the back courtyard, he’s still this wild and rude. He cares for nobody.”

But Xu Du remained silent and didn’t say a word.

Footnote:

1 Dayuan horse- known as heavenly horses

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