Cunning General Si Ning

"...brother is not here."

"Uh?" Si Ning blinked and turned to Xiu TianZhao as he tried to mask that he hadn't been listening to him by pretending he only didn't get the last part while trying to maintain an innocent look to avoid feeling guilty because he had only exchanged greetings with Xiu TianZhao and had been in thought since he rode his horse into the place and was still in thought after dismounting as they started walking.

"Brother is not here." Xiu TianZhao repeated. "You have been looking everywhere like you are expecting him to pop out from nowhere but he is currently with mother."

Si Ning's mouth twitched unable to deny it, he had subconsciously been looking around like he was looking for someone which Xiu TianZhao interpreted to him looking for Xiu Zhicheng and he was right because Si Ning didn't want to see Xiu Zhicheng without an explanation from Xiu TianZhao first which was the reason he was acting wary and start looking out for himself, he had no plan Incase they run into Xiu Zhicheng but if he ends up being caught by surprise by the Emperor appearing then the worst instant solution he could come up with was to break into a run and he was sure that Xiu Zhicheng as the Emperor couldn't just start running after him.

Si Ning couldn't help but take note of Xiu TianZhao's statement of Xiu Zhicheng being with Queen Dowager. The Emperor and the Queen Dowager meeting means they probably had things to talk about and Si Ning was a hundred percent sure that he was the main topic they would likely discuss and it made him to suddenly feel uncomfortable that he almost shivered, at that moment he couldn't help but think that he would probably have felt a bit better if Xiu Zhicheng was with one of his Concubines than his mother.

Si Ning turned to Xiu TianZhao since they were taking their time taking one step before the other like they were just two idle people on a walk made him have the opportunity to study Xiu TianZhao's face after he successfully ignored the thought of it being weird to suddenly start staring at the Minister of works.

After a quick study of Xiu TianZhao's face, Si Ning couldn't help but see the resemblance between Xiu TianZhao and the Queen Dowager, they had the same eyes and someone could say Xiu TianZhao was the manly younger version of the Queen Dowager but their personality was different and when Si Ning could feel relaxed in the presence of Xiu TianZhao, it was the opposite when he met the Queen Dowager.

"Have you finally discovered my charm?"

Si Ning eyes widened when he realized he had been staring too much and he could see that Xiu TianZhao's statement was intended to make it sound like he was making a joke but his cheeks that were a lighter shade of pink showed that he was blushing and to hide this Xiu TianZhao coughed and cleared his throat. Si Ning finally looked away after reminding himself not everybody could tolerate people staring at them without feeling uncomfortable and from what he learned from those historical dramas then it was probably a crime to stare at a Prince for long but Si Ning wasn't sure if it was also the same in this era but as Xiu TianZhao's best friend he didn't think he was ever going to find out.

"General we are here." Xiao Pei announced.

"Oh." Si Ning said, he was unable to conceal his surprise because he had been in thought that he didn't bother to know where they were going and didn't notice when they even got to the jasmine palace.

Most residential buildings in the palace were mostly built the same but Si Ning was able to recognize the Jasmine palace even though he didn't notice when they pass the gate with the nameplate of the palace but he was able to recognize it because of the jasmine flowers planted around and the sweet smell that kept drifting around. Since he was here means it was probably his new home because the last time he was invited to have lunch with Xiu Zhicheng, he noticed it was inhabited which means it wasn't Xiu TianZhao's residence which only had trees and if he hadn't blurted out his demand to be the Empress then maybe Xiu Zhicheng was planning to give him a tour. Si Ning was quite pleased to be presented with a villa and he couldn't conceal the corner of his mouth that was raised up in a small smile even though he was trying to look indifferent.

All that remains to make this perfect are maids in cute uniforms.

The guards around were few and they all ran up to them and knelt on one knee while they bowed their head.

"We welcome the King Consort." They chorused.

Like a dozen of men also came to join the guards. Si Ning noticed those men that joined, some were also guards while the rest attire was different from the guards whose attire was the palace guards uniform while the others attire was what Si Ning could see as the male servants uniform. One of them was old and seemed to be the head of the servant because his attire was different and he also stepped forward.

"This servant is Yang Sheng." The older man said as he bowed. "We are in charge of seeing to the King Consort needs."

Seeing that the man introduced himself only means Si Ning probably didn't need to know the rest of the servants, he already had Ah Dai so it was Ah Dai and Yang Sheng's duty time to know them. Since the guards didn't introduce themselves means it was irrelevant for them to introduce themselves unless Si Ning asks and if he wants to call them all he had to do was to refer to them as 'anyone there, you there.' and it was also Xiao Pei's duty to know all the guards since Si Ning couldn't bother himself knowing their names but he noticed there were no female around which made him frown.

"We can have your welcome party, just me and you." Xiu TianZhao told him as he started to approach the building.

Si Ning quickly wore an indifferent look and quickly followed and when he stepped in, he didn't look around since he was also a noble and doesn't need to start glancing around, he was also tired so he quickly falls to walk beside Xiu TianZhao while Yang Sheng leads the way. Yang Sheng leads the way to a room with a big window. The room as a table, there were two empty shelves while a small shelf contained books arranged neatly, some writing materials on the shelf and they didn't have to tell Si Ning that it was the meeting room, but the problem was he had no idea where to sit, either to sit at where the owner of the house supposed to sit or just sit where a visitor should. It was his new residence yet he was still unfamiliar with the settings and didn't think it was proper to sit where the owner should, he took small steps wondering what to do when Xiu TianZhoa took his sit where the guest should giving Si Ning no option than to sit across him where the owner of the house should.

Si Ning also took his seat, he could do a house tour later but right now all he needed was the details of the lie Xiu TianZhao told Xiu Zhicheng.