Chapter 38: Gifting Flowers

"Little Shen Girl, do you have enmity with Historian Adviser Jing?"

Shen Miao quietly watched the youth in front.

His facial features were beautiful but his heroic spirits were rather pressing. Even though he had a rich playboy appearance, he had a kind of serious air that was transcendent to his age. It was not shown in his appearance but followed him as if there was a kind of sense of safety that one would feel even if the Heavens fell. Even if she was in Qin country or in the Inner Palace, she had never seen such a thorough person. With just one sentence, he could discern the middle of everything.

For such a brilliant and talented person to die prematurely, it was truly that the Heavens were jealous of heroic geniuses.

Pity flashed in her eyes, but when she spoke again, her voice was flat and plain, "Yes."

"You have taken the roundabout route for this chess game." Xie Jing Xing examined her closely, "To go about such a meandering way just to send Gao Yan into the official circles. could it be that you want to throw Ming Qi's official circles into disorder?"

Even Shen Miao, who had lived for two lifetimes, could not help but feel slightly surprised. She could say that Xie Jing Xing's performance was overly smart and was able to immediately conclude things with one hint, now this person was truly scary.

Ordinary people would take a step and look at the next step. Smart people would take a step and see the next ten steps. With those seemingly ordinary words, Xie Jing Xing took a step and saw thousands of miles away. To be this unabashed and get straight to the point, it made her somewhat unsure of how to respond.

After a moment she replied, "What has it got to do with Little Marquis?"

"This Marquis is not concerned with Ming Qi's official circles, but the Marquis of Lin An must not be touched." There was some warning in his tone, "If you have any intentions for the residence of the Marquis of Lin An, then don't blame this Marquis for being rude."

Shen Miao took a look at him. Xie Jing Xing had always loathed the Marquis of Lin An's Residence extremely, and loved to go against his father. But now it seems that it was not complete hatred. In fact, he seemed to have the Marquis of Lin An in his heart. Otherwise, he would not have protected the reputation of the entire Marquis of Lin An's Residence in the last lifetime, ending up with tens of thousands of arrows piercing his heart.

And it was also understandable for Xie Jing Xing to be suspicious of her acting upon the Xie family. The Shen and Xie families had never been able to see eye to eye and with her current actions that no one seemed to understand, it would seem to others that it was possible that the Shen family would make the Xie family stumble.

"Marquis Xie can be rest assured." she plainly spoke with a tone as if she was speaking of the weather today, "the Xie and Shen families are like well water not intruding with the river water, thus naturally would not cause any trouble. What Marquis Xie worries about would not happen. A person's life is only a short few decades, the reversal of the wheel of fortune could also happen. The Xie family views the Shen family as enemies, but who would know if there would be a day in the future where they would be in the same boat under the wind and rain to deal with the same enemy."

"Is this you expressing your goodwill to me?" Xie Jing Xing raised his eyebrows.

"Yes." Shen Miao calmly said.

Xie Jing Xing sized the young female in front of him. From when he was born up until now, he had seen countless women. When he was young, those women wanted to get closer to his father and afterwards, those women wanted to get closer to him. Among them, there were those who had flowery words, those who were devastatingly beautiful, those who could brandish swords and spears and even those who were scheming and resourceful.

Xie Jing Xing had seen thousands of types of smart people but not one of them made him feel surprised like this person in front of him.

Perhaps it was the intuition born at the tip of the sword on the battlefield, Xie Jing Xing could smell the bloodthirst from this young female. As if there was a pool of stagnant water with a fierce beast lurking at the bottom. At the moment, the surface looked calm and peaceful, it did not move and was waiting for a chance to break through the sun. And when that day came, there would be a reign of terror.

Although this looked rather ridiculous, how much of a storm could an unmarried female stir? But Xie Jing Xing was one that never underestimated his own intuition.

Under the lotus purple cloak that was being blown by the wind, the young female's face was somewhat frozen, but the lush plum blossom forest seemingly made her stand out like one from the Palace. Noble. Lonely. Decisive. Bottomless like an abyss.

"The Shen family unexpectedly has such a smart person." His remarks had a somewhat ridiculing tone, but there was some firmness as he spoke, "This being the case, then you should do as you wish. I would treat today as watching a good show. You better not disappoint this Marquis." He stood up and turned around to leave.

"Marquis Xie." Shen Miao called to stop him.

"What other matters are there?" He stood still and asked without looking back.

"The two Shu younger brothers of the Xie family would also go up on stage in the academy examinations." Shen Miao said lightly, "Would Marquis Xie indulge that much?"

The two Shu younger brothers of the Xie family were born from a Yiniang, Madam Fang, and both, Xie Chang Wu and Xie Chang Chao were currently in Grade Two. In fact, Xie Jing Xing was also Guang Wen Tang's Grade Three student, but because he did as his own wishes, Guang Wen Tang was unable to restrain him and thus let him be. Otherwise, Xie Jing Xing would be taking the academy examinations with his Grade Two Shu younger brothers. 

In the previous life, Xie Jing Xing of course did not participate in the academy examinations and his two Shu younger brothers were able to grab the limelight. In all fairness, Xie Chang Wu and Xie Chang Chao were considered very capable and among the best in the martial category. Therefore, they caught the Emperor's eyes and later were deliberately promoted by Fu Xiu Yi to handle matters for him.

Shen Miao had always felt that the Marquis of Lin An and his son were smart people and wondered how they had ended up like that in the past lifetime. Although the Imperial family gave out aid, the ones who received the shade were those three, mother and sons. In fact, with careful considerations, there was no lack of doubts. For instance the collapse of the Shen family in the previous lifetime, there was a helping hand from the Second and Third Household. So it would seem that there was also a problem within the Xie family.

"You are hoping that this Marquis would go up and compete with them?" Xie Jing Xin looked back as he said with some surprise, "Just like you fighting with your older sister?"

"How would Marquis Xie's situation be the same as mine?" Shen Miao ignored his words of ridicule and said, "The deepest knife is precisely in the hands of the closest people. I naturally understand that Marquis Xie is a noble person and would not worry unduly over minor matters with the Shu sons. But a thousand mile dike was destroyed by an ants' nest. A seemingly unremarkable plaything it may look like, but it's a venomous snake in the darkness." Her every word and sentence was spoken very clearly. It was very clearly a warning tone but her eyes were as clear as a young child, "One must cut them off in the bud and ensure that they would never be able to sprout."

"Compared to letting them have unlimited support from nobles, for these snake-like brothers, to compete with them and let them make a fool of themselves in front of everyone, wouldn't one be more delighted than pretending in the residence?"

Xie Jing Xing's heart moved.

His mother was the blue-blooded noble Princess Yu Qing and he did not want to be bothered with the Shu sons, as these people would say that his bearing was not up there and mention that his birth mother was angered to death by jealousy when she was pregnant. He did not care about his own reputation but would forever take into account Princess Yu Qing's.

In the Marquis of Lin An's residence, he would treat the mother and sons, those three people, coldly. Even though the Marquis of Lin An was biased towards him, outsiders gossiped unnecessarily. All that those three needed to do was to show a respectful and loving appearance which made him nauseous. He just wanted to be like an outsider watching the three of them acting, thus Shen Miao's words made his heart move.

If one were to extinguish their hope, wouldn't it be more fun? To shed all pretence of cordiality and let them be frustrated by being unable to show the face of being respectful?

Shen Miao's voice seemed to be somewhat bewitching as she said, "It has been a long time. Don't tolerate it."

Don't tolerate it…

He lowered his head and looked at the person in close proximity. That young female had a light scent of delicate fragrance just like herself, looking pure in appearance but in actuality, cold and indifferent. He obviously knew the purpose of the suggestion but one was unable to refuse it.

His lips hooked up to a smile and with a sweep of his sleeves, the begonia flower fell onto his palm. In the next second, where the begonia flower was before, there was now a small jade begonia in its place.He smiled a smile that was not a smile as he picked up the flower and spoke with an ambiguous tone, "You are interesting. This flower is bestowed upon you. The suggestion is not bad. Many thanks."