Chapter 100: The Letters
That day when Xing got lost and ended up in the Sima Tribe, a group of young men were casually chatting in a certain famous restaurant owned by the Zhong second young master. Those group of young men included a certain ’Son of Heaven’ who had gained sympathy points with a certain old general and got permission for a day out in the city once a month, a certain Prince who was missing his lover by his side, together with his aspiring page and the brother of the said lover who follows his friend everywhere.
Seiren who had found out about Shengli’s weakness to wine sneaked wine into his tea and made a new cocktail that smelled like tea making Shengli drunk. So the other curious young men made Shengli rest in a corner and while they were moving him, found a thick stack of papers and proceeded to read it violating the privacy of one of the powerful man of their kingdom who was currently weak due to alcohol.
Rijun who had the blind courage that Shengli won’t kill his lover’s sister opened the stack of papers to see it was actually a ’letter’ written by his sister and not some booklet or his accounts.
Rijun read the letter loud for other people to hear amidst the protest of Lin Mubai as he had scanned to see the letter to be more of a report than a letter from a lover.
’Why is my sister this stupid?’, he thought, ’How can she keep her man if she writes what she did from morning to night in the format of a report submitted to a superior? I’m no expert in these things but isn’t this boring and not romantic? Who needs to know how beautiful her niece is? She had written about that baby for a page... An entire page! Who cares she likes her niece better than her nephew?And a pond? What was that about? The trees? Her dinner.. Seriously.. She wrote him what she ate..? Not even a single ’I miss you’ or ’Take care of your health’ like normal letters!’
Rijun felt a bit worried for his sister,’ Oh, sister! You’ve by luck found yourself the perfect man for you who can even cook for you and you are this careless? ’. He felt sorry for Shengli too not knowing he’ll be killed by Shengli for reading her letter to him.
That’s when Seiren who is a self-proclaimed expert in all things women, decrypted her letter that was filled with esoteric facts privy to only the both of them.
"Your sister prefers a girl to a boy baby, that tree she mentioned... They must have done something known only to them on that tree... Dinner... This is what he usually ordered for her! The flowers aren’t fragrant here, the air is dense here, Xu mama’s skills in making milk haven’t improved, I don’t have the mood to practice my sword here... These are all the things she misses about him",he went on explaining each sentence she wrote that cryptically said that she misses him and wants him by her side.
The Emperor was surprised by the knowledge Seiren possessed in these matters, "Zhong Seiren, your women must be blessed to have a husband like you!", he said.
"Correction, your Majesty! My woman! Our father had changed our family rules for us Zhong sons to have only one wife and no concubines or bed servants"
"More people following the Huang family tradition?",the Emperor was surprised but Seiren seemed to be pleased considering his reputation as the frivolous playboy - self-proclaimed.
"I can see your brother accepting this. But will you be fine with one woman?", Rijun asked surprised. Lin Mubai who never understood those nobles became more confused why those rich nobles want to refuse themselves from having more women. More women, more happiness, right?