CH 181

Xia Ming arrived soon after, and he did look just as Empress Xia said. His eyebrows resembled Sheng Cen’s, but a closer look at their eyes showed that they were completely different.

Sheng Cen’s eyes were always sharp and revealed a cutting edge, whereas Xia Ming’s eyes were gentle and seemed pure and simple, allowing one to tell the difference between them at a glance.

Empress Xia brought Xia Ming to Tang Qi Yuan and introduced him with a smile, saying, “This is my nephew, Xia Ming, and this is Xiao Qi, who is just like my biological son, especially well-behaved and lovely.

Xia Ming gave a charitable smile to Tang Qi Yuan and reached out to greet him, “Hello.”

“Hello.” Tang Qi Yuan smiled, shook his hand back, and let go of it for a moment, Xia Ming was very nice, but he didn’t have the slightest desire to get to know him better.

Empress Xia smiled even more happily, she let Xia Ming and Tang Qi Yuan sit down on the sofa and said: “I’ll go and get busy first, you young people can talk together and get to know each other, I’m sure you’ll get on well.”

Xia Ming didn’t know that Empress Xia wanted to pull the strings and thought that Empress Xia just wanted them to make friends, so he nodded and agreed, “Ok, Auntie.”

Empress Xia smiled and gave Tang Qi Yuan an encouraging look before turning around to receive the other guests, but her eyes couldn’t help but keep an eye on them frequently.

Xia Ming handed the coffee on the table to Tang Qi Yuan and smiled a little formally, “I’ve often heard Auntie mention you.”

“Thank you……” Tang Qi Yuan took the coffee and took a sip, “I’ve also heard Auntie mention you.”

The two had a few words, Tang Qi Yuan didn’t get up to leave due to Empress Xia’s kindness, he just looked down and pretended to keep drinking coffee.

Sheng Cen stood on the stairs on the first floor, frowning at them for a while, and suddenly shouted: “Xia Ming, come up here.”

Xia Ming froze for a moment and looked up to see Sheng Cen looking at him with an icy expression.

The Emperor had something to talk to him about, so naturally he couldn’t refuse. He quickly nodded his head, turned his head and smiled apologetically at Tang Qi Yuan, and got up and went upstairs.

When he left, Tang Qi Yuan put down his coffee and couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief, he really didn’t know what to say to Xia Ming, he wasn’t quite used to talking to strangers like this.

He walked out and stood under the big tree in the courtyard, people were gradually arriving and there was laughter all around. Since today was a family banquet, naturally all those who came were Sheng Cen’s relatives, and they were naturally happy that Sheng Cen was now in power, but Xia Cheng Lang and his fifth brother had something to do today, so they were not there.

Sheng Cen and Xia Ming were upstairs, not knowing what they were doing, and didn’t come down for a long time, until it was time to eat did they finally came down.

Sheng Xi looked at Xia Ming who was the first to come down and couldn’t help but ask: “What are you guys doing? Why did you stay upstairs for so long?”

Xia Ming smiled awkwardly and scratched his hair innocently, he also wanted to know why he had stayed upstairs for so long.

Just now, after he had gone upstairs, Sheng Cen had been sitting in his chair staring at him with a sullen face and an intimidating look in his eyes, and it was only when he was cold and sweaty and couldn’t help but reach out and wipe the sweat from his forehead that Sheng Cen suddenly spoke up and looked at him and asked: “You look like me?”

“……Don’t look like, not at all.” Although Xia Ming felt that this question was somewhat inexplicable, he hastily denied it, even if he was given a hundred guts, he would not dare to say that he looked like the emperor of the empire.

Only when Sheng Cen heard his words did his ugly face finally ease up a bit. Sheng Cen gave him an expressionless look, found a newspaper from somewhere, threw it to him casually and instructed: “Look.”

……Then he was upstairs reading the newspaper until now.

He had thought there was something special about that newspaper, so he carefully read it from beginning to end, not letting go of every word, but it turned out that it was just an ordinary newspaper.

And Sheng Cen didn’t look at him the whole time, just kept his head down and did his own thing, but didn’t say anything about letting him leave either, until it was time to eat and only then did Sheng Cen finally let him go downstairs.

Before Xia Ming could say anything, Sheng Cen walked down and Xia Ming immediately withdrew his voice, not daring to say much, his instincts told him it was better to mess with Sheng Cen less today.

Empress Xia stood by the table, glanced at Sheng Cen, beckoned to Xia Ming and said: “Xia Ming, come here, sit next to Xiao Qi.”

Sheng Cen sank his eyebrows and glanced at Tang Qi Yuan, “Xiao Qi sits next to me.”

There were quite a few people who came to the Orchid Palace family banquet today, and they were all more or less related to him, so they were all sitting in order according to their blood relations, and Tang Qi Yuan had even run to the corner automatically, he could not help but wrinkle his eyebrows in displeasure.

Empress Xia looked at him, her smile unchanged, and her voice even gentler, pretending to be casual as she said: “Cen Cen, Xiao Qi is not your Empress, how can he sit next to you? This is against the rules.”

Sheng Cen’s brow knitted tightly, “Then you can’t sit there either.”

It was too far away from him, he couldn’t even talk to Tang Qi Yuan if he wanted to.

“Xiao Qi likes peace and quiet, it’s fine to sit there.” Empress Xia said unconcernedly.

In the end, who they were good to was not for others to see, there was no difference in how near or far, or how high or low Tang Qi Yuan sat, only those who were eager to get involved with them or wanted to profit from it would want to sit closer to them. Tang Qi Yuan had long been one of their own to them, even if he sat at the horizon, they would always protect him, this did not need to be proven to others.

After she finished speaking, she ignored Sheng Cen and instead pushed Xia Ming, making him sit down beside Tang Qi Yuan.

Xia Ming was unsure and looked up at Tang Qi Yuan with a somewhat confused smile.

Tang Qi Yuan pursed the corners of his lips and also politely returned the smile.

Sheng Cen looked at Tang Qi Yuan’s low brows and gentle eyes, and his face darkened a few more degrees, but he did not retort to Empress Xia again.

He sat down at the main table with a sullen face, a cold, low air pressure surrounding him, his usual aura was already oppressive, and when his face was cold like this, it gave people a sense of urgency.

He was silent and seldom spoke even during the meal. When the others saw him like this, they didn’t dare to make a move, so scared that they put back all the compliments they had thought of since early on and just ate in silence.

The banquet was exceptionally quiet for a while, except for Empress Xia who was smiling all the time and received the guests with a smile together with Sheng Xi, occasionally speaking a few words or taking the initiative to raise a glass of wine and clink glasses with everyone.

Tang Qi Yuan sat in the corner, eating honestly with his head down, occasionally looking up at everyone. He noticed that the atmosphere between Sheng Xi and Yan Fei seemed a bit strange today, as Sheng Xi seemed to be avoiding Yan Fei all the time, not only not daring to look at him in the eyes, but once Yan Fei accidentally touched the back of his hand and he almost lost his chopsticks.

Yan Fei’s gaze looked lost and implied a strong sense of unwillingness.

Tang Qi Yuan secretly guessed that Yan Fei might have already confessed his feelings, or that Sheng Xi had inadvertently learned of his feelings, which was why Sheng Xi was at a loss as to what to do, secretly dodging Yan Fei like this.

Although Xia Ming had hidden in a corner with Tang Qi Yuan and could eat in peace, he did not feel as relieved as Tang Qi Yuan, instead he felt a chill down his back making it hard to swallow his food.

He always felt that Sheng Cen’s eyes were cold every time he looked at him, especially when he was talking to Tang Qi Yuan, Sheng Cen’s eyes were always extraordinarily cold, stabbing at him as coldly as if they were mixed with snow and ice.

After eating, everyone couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief at the same time. Xia Ming fidgeted in the Orchid Palace for a while, and when everyone finally dispersed, he hurriedly got up to say goodbye.

Empress Xia looked at him and smiled and said: “Xiao Ming, you happen to be on the way, help Auntie send Xiao Qi home, you two live close to each other and you can chat on the way, young people need to communicate more.”

“Okay, Auntie.” Xia Ming smiled and nodded, turned his head to look at Tang Qi Yuan and asked his opinion in a warm voice, “Are you leaving now?”

Tang Qi Yuan froze for a moment, then stood up, “Ok.”

He looked up at Sheng Cen, who was standing not far away, his back to him, talking to someone.

He lowered his head, he hadn’t had the chance to say a proper word to Sheng Cen today.

He pursed his lips and said to Empress Xia: “Auntie, I’ll go back first then, you can tell Sheng Cen for me later that I’m leaving, and……please help me congratulate him on finally achieving his heart’s desire.”

Empress Xia nodded gently, “Don’t worry, I will tell him.”

“Thank you Auntie.” Tang Qi Yuan smiled and walked out together with Xia Ming after bidding farewell to Empress Xia.

Empress Xia looked at their backs as they left together, both happy and a little lost.

She sighed and looked back at her son, who was still oblivious, and could not help but scold in a low voice ‘disappointing’.

Tang Qi Yuan followed Xia Ming to the car park. As Empress Xia said, Xia Ming was really a gentleman, and along the way, he kept finding topics to talk with Tang Qi Yuan, topics that were neither overly intimate nor embarrassing to Tang Qi Yuan.

The only thing is that Tang Qi Yuan was not very interested in the conversation, and he only whispered and echoed, without the desire to speak up.

When Tang Qi Yuan opened the car door to get into the car, Sheng Cen suddenly caught up with him.

He walked in a hurry, with a slight sweat on his forehead. He didn’t even give Xia Ming a glance as he tugged Tang Qi Yuan’s wrist and walked back, saying in a low voice: “I still have something to talk to you about, you can leave later.”

Sheng Cen’s strength was so strong that Tang Qi Yuan’s wrist suddenly turned red, he couldn’t help but frown and pushed Sheng Cen’s hand, “Let go of me first, I’ll walk by myself.”

Sheng Cen turned a deaf ear to his words, still holding his wrist tightly, but with less force.

With his wrist no longer hurting, Tang Qi Yuan went along with him and did not struggle any more.

As Xia Ming watched them walk away, he unconsciously reached out and rubbed the back of his neck in fear, and hurriedly got into his car and sped away.

He suspected that if he continued to stay in Orchid Palace like this, he would be assassinated by someone sent by Sheng Cen. The way Sheng Cen looked at him today was so terrifying that he wanted to shiver just thinking about it.

The guests had all left and Empress Xia was sitting on the sofa resting, when she saw Sheng Cen tugging on Tang Qi Yuan’s wrist and returning. She froze for a moment, put down the glass of water she was holding and went forward to free Tang Qi Yuan’s wrist from Sheng Cen’s grasp.

“You are an Alpha, Xiao Qi is an Omega, from now on you have to be careful with your words and actions, don’t move your hands and feet when you have nothing to do, it doesn’t matter if you are misunderstood by others, what if Xiao Qi is misunderstood by others?”

She rubbed Tang Qi Yuan’s wrist with heartache and said softly, “Alpha are all rough, they don’t know how to care for people at all.”

“It’s alright, it doesn’t hurt.” Tang Qi Yuan pursed his lips and smiled, Empress Xia was particularly smouldering every time she reprimanded Sheng Cen, not at all like the dignified and generous Empress Xia, but rather like an ordinary mother in the city, even when Sheng Cen became the Emperor, nothing had changed, Sheng Cen might be high and mighty outside, but in Orchid Palace, he was just Empress Xia’s son.

Empress Xia smiled and patted Tang Qi Yuan’s head, looked up and asked Sheng Cen without good grace, “Why did you drag Xiao Qi back here? If you hadn’t been holding them up, Xiao Qi and Xia Ming would have both exchanged mobile phone numbers by now.”

Tang Qi Yuan’s cheeks reddened and he anxiously tried to explain that he didn’t have that intention with Xia Ming.

Sheng Cen looked at his reddening cheeks and his face involuntarily turned a few shades uglier as he said with taut lips, “I’ve just investigated, Xia Ming already has a girlfriend, Mum, you don’t need to waste your time.”

Empress Xia looked at him in dismay, “When I asked him earlier, he didn’t have a girlfriend yet, how could he have one so soon? When did that happen?”

“Just starting dating last week.”

Empress Xia frowned slightly and looked at Tang Qi Yuan with chagrin: “This time it’s because Auntie didn’t ask clearly, but it’s okay, wait for Auntie to find you another one better than him.”

“No.” Sheng Cen spoke with a cold face.

“Why not? Why does His Majesty the Emperor still want to control people’s marriages?” Empress Xia gave Sheng Cen a look.

“No……” Sheng Cen frowned and said after a moment of silence, “Mum, you can introduce Xiao Qi to someone, but only with my approval, and after I have screened them, you can introduce them to Xiao Qi when I think they are suitable. Don’t just bring those messy people in front of Xiao Qi without asking them clearly.”

Empress Xia frowned, “You want to check for Xiao Qi, has Xiao Qi agreed?”

Tang Qi Yuan glanced at Sheng Cen, who lowered his eyes to look at him, his eyebrows sharp and his gaze deep.

He nodded hastily under the pressure of Sheng Cen’s dangerous eyes and said in a spineless manner: “I agree.”

Empress Xia was helpless, after thinking about it, she also felt that she had done a bit badly this time, and it would be good if she had Sheng Cen’s help to investigate clearly, so she reluctantly nodded her head and agreed, “Alright then.”

melon: Last 5 chapters to go!