Realms In The Firmament

Those guys in the hall were all well educated people. They were talkative. They could speak for several hours without a stop. Yet they had lost their voices when it came to speaking against Ye Xiao.

The situation was really hard to handle. It had turned into an awkward and embarrassing situation.

After being quiet for a while, the old man Guan Zheng-Wen stood up and smiled. He spoke with a deep voice, “I was sitting there to have a word with the Crown Prince. Now that I am finished, I should naturally move aside… Lord Ye, this seat is saved for you. We were all seated early and there was no other empty seat. I am too old to stand for a long time, so I sat on your seat. You wouldn’t mind, would you? Hahahaha…”

An older ginger was spicier [1]. He had quickly managed to turn the situation around.

Ye Xiao laughed and didn’t go on dragging the issue. He just sat on the seat provided without any hesitation.

He now sat less than three meters from the Crown Prince.

He was surely not making trouble without any purpose. He was simply setting himself up to execute the backup plan smoothly, [If you pricks dare to mess with me, I will kill you both instantly without hesitation!]

In the present situation, he wouldn’t care much about who he was dealing with.

That seat was the perfect location for him to take action, so it was naturally something he had to seize! He was sure that to attack from this location, even if all the supreme cultivators were to act, they would have no chance to save the Crown Prince!

The other guys didn’t know that inside the foppish young lord’s mind was a shocking and regicidal idea.

As the situation had been set up as such, these guys could only curse him in their minds and silently take their seats again.

After three rounds of drinks and five courses of meals, the crown prince coughed to draw attention.

Everyone stopped their chopsticks. They knew that the main topic of the night was about to be addressed. They were all quiet as they prepared to listen to the Crown Prince, hoping to see a good show.

However, the Lord Ye was still devouring his food like a beast. He grabbed the food on the table and ate as he wished. His cheeks were plumped. His chopsticks were moving like they were flying on the table. Where ever they arrived, the food would be reduced a lot. It was truly like the locusts destroying the fields.

He was now like a hungry ghost who had been starving for thousands of years and suddenly had a chance to eat, so he ate like a beast.

After the crown prince coughed, it turned silent in the hall, except the strident sound of Ye Xiao chewing…

The guys were all staring at him with undisguised anger in their eyes.

Ye Xiao noticed it and acted like he was enlightened. He stopped chewing and spoke inarticulately, “You… Er. Are you finished? Oh I see… Then I am not going to restrain myself then…”

After saying that, he just stood up to get the dish of meat furthest from him and spoke with satisfaction, “This dish is truly tasty, yet it is too far to reach. I was afraid that I wouldn’t have a chance to eat it. Thanks for abdicating…”

The sound of chewing became more strident and annoying…

[Is it correct to use the word ‘abdicating’ like that?]

The guys felt that they were receiving an ‘ear-opening’ lesson!

The Crown Prince was embarrassed. He finally spoke, “Lord Ye, I need to speak.”

Ye Xiao was stunned, but he still put a piece of meat into his mouth. Then he put down his chopsticks slowly and sat with a serious look. He said, “Since the crown prince wants to speak, guys you should stop eating. You all lack discipline and are disgracing our crown prince, especially in front of a guest, me…”

While speaking, he stretched his neck and swallowed.

The guys wished they could take the plates and throw them at Ye Xiao’s face fiercely!

[Who the hell is eating?!

You are the only one who kept on eating, are you not?

Now you actually talked like that to misrepresent the truth!

The food in the General’s House should be fine, right? How come they are letting you become such a starving beast?]

The Crown Prince frowned slightly and was lost in thought. He naturally showed an angry look.

The guys were all silent. They felt stressed as if a huge storm was crushing them. What they were fearing was the spirit of a man in a higher position. They couldn’t help praising him in their minds, [He indeed is a Crown Prince. Full of the vigor of a ruler.]

Ye Xiao was bored and rolled his eyes. He looked at the fried chicken in front of him. There was a chicken wing and a leg. [I love these kinds of food… The other wing and leg are in my stomach. Well you couldn’t fly with only one wing, so I guess I need to eat them both…

Well one foot doesn’t allow you to walk, so I should eat the other foot too…]

As for the ‘vigor of a king’, it meant nothing but fart to Ye Xiao!

He had met so many powerful people in his previous life. Some of them could make everything freeze just by frowning and make mountains fall by humphing.

Their so called ‘vigor of a king’, compared to those people… was less than a fart!

Ye Xiao hadn’t seen those people in a respectful way, so how could he possibly show respect to such an insignificant this-so-called ‘vigor of a king’?

The Crown Prince’s face was dark and he said, “You all know that things didn’t go well in the Crown Prince’s Palace. It has been unquiet recently… Many things that shouldn’t have happened, happened recently…”

When speaking of that, he sighed and stopped talking.

Meng Zi-Xiao, who sat next to him went along with him and said, “That’s true. The position of the Crown Prince was stable at the beginning. However, after all these recent troubles… our powerful support has been disturbed. And it has resulted in many troubles for us. I have no idea what the guilty person is planning…”

When he started to speak, Guan Zheng-Wen was about to say something, but he stopped and just stared at Meng Zi-Xiao, caught off-guard.

It should’ve been Guan Zheng-Wen’s turn to speak and lead the guys to force Ye Xiao into an embarrassing situation by slowly trapping him step by step. But why did Meng Zi-Xiao skip his turn and talk in advance?

As he had started to talk, Guan Zheng-Wen would naturally stop. So he sat down with doubts.

The Crown Prince was also surprised and he frowned.

Another guy sneered, “The guy who has caused all of these events must be overjoyed.”

Meng Zi-Xiao spoke blandly, “All these things, since they have all happened, they are nothing but facts. There is always a reason for a phenomenon. There is always a cause and effect. There must be a source of all these… Lord Ye, what’s your thought?”

The guys were all talking at the beginning, so they didn’t focus on Ye Xiao’s face.

After Meng Zi-Xiao spoke his words, the sharp eyes of these guys moved to his face.

Ye Xiao was unaware of their stares. He just nodded and said, “That’s right. The force of the Crown Prince’s Palace has been damaged lately. There must be a plot against us! Your highness, do you know who is messing with you? As long as you give me his name, I won’t care about who he is, I will only go grab him and beat him up to death, so as to comfort you! You have treated me with utmost cordiality tonight. Accept my service as a return gift from me!”

The guys were all stunned. They had lost their words.

Some of them had been rather emotional and angry at the beginning, but they now held their emotions.

[What?

After we talked a lot, you are actually telling us you don’t know who that is?

What kind of shitty brain does this guy have?!]

The Crown Prince frowned, but didn’t speak.

“Lord Ye, a wise man doesn’t need to play foolish.” Meng Zi-Xiao looked at Ye Xiao blandly, “That is not interesting. An upright man should never do any dirty deeds. With what you have done, you are disgracing the great General Ye.”

“Disgrace?!” A flash of coldness appeared in Ye Xiao’s half-closed eyes, “What do you mean?”

“General Ye has been a great hero for his whole life. People know that. However, you have to be aware that… a general is just a general after all. A general doesn’t have the power to make a final decision in the Kingdom of Chen.”

What he meant was that the king was the most powerful person!

Meng Zi-Xiao’s eyes were sharp and his mouth contained a sinister sneer.

What he had said was really offending, but reasonable.

He obviously had put everything on the table to make Ye Xiao unable to escape the topic!

The other guys couldn’t help frowning.

[We should talk about the Crown Prince, not the power of the king. You spoke those words to offend Ye Xiao and General Ye at the same time. It was rather reckless. Meng Zi-Xiao has been a calm and smart man in the past. How come he is acting like that today?]

Meng Zi-Xiao was pushing Ye Xiao at the moment because there was bitterness hidden in his heart..

Meng Zi-Xiao had passed five of the six tests in the past. In the last test, his argument was so evil that the king didn’t like it. So he didn’t win the first place and failed to be a legend, ‘The Champion of Six’.

Although he was talented, he had a narrow mind and a cold heart. He didn’t accept failure peacefully. After the final test, he spoke offencive words against the king. He indicated that the king was poorly-educated and as blind as a bat to let a stupid person succeed. It should have been a private talk among him and his friends, but it was reported to the king. The king was naturally furious.

The king would not like to see him, so he made an announcement to expel Meng Zi-Xiao and forbade him from taking the tests again.

Meng Zi-Xiao had no opportunity to work in the court, so he planned to join the army. He wanted to succeed in the military area and then enter the court.

At that time, the northern army was famous in its achievements. So it was his first choice.

When he went to Ye Nan-Tian to ask for a position, Ye Nan-Tian coldly rejected him, “You are just a dirty man with a mouth full of schemes who cannot achieve success in either the court or the army. You actually want to join my northern iron army. If I take you in, I would be allowing a pest among my brothers…”

And then he never spoke to Meng Zi-Xiao again and expelled him.

These two events had always been two of the biggest disgraces in Meng Zi-Xiao’s heart! Long after that, he was finally introduced to the Crown Prince to be his aide.

He should have been a talented man with an unprecedentedly bright future, yet now, he had became an aide. The difference between these two situations were huge.

He surely didn’t dare to speak anything bad about the king, so he decided to relieve his anger on Ye Nan-Tian.

…

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[1] An older ginger was spicier (姜还是老的辣), means an older man is always more adept.

This is the second regular chapter of the week. Enjoy :)

Edited by: Alpha, Arch (I’m back!)