Cunning General Si Ning

"Dawn ah?" Si Ning blinked as he watched the flowers out the window, dawn already breaking and he had gotten most of his work done.

He spent some time checking the books on the shelves and finally got engrossed in a book about the spring in the temporary imperial residence Xiu TianZhao made them stop at before they continued about their journey to the capital. The story was quite interesting, it was about a very beautiful lady that sells cotton for her mother, she was given the name Jade goddess and a Prince that traveled just to see her after she refused his invitation to the palace, the Prince fell in love with her at first sight.

It was just a tale but Si Ning couldn't help getting fascinated by the story not interested if the story was true or not but he spent his time staring at the pictures in the book until Chen An popped up with stacks of papers and the Si family seal, Si Ning wasn't expecting him but the moment he saw his face, he knew Chen An came to ruin his night but he couldn't send him back because ignoring his work would only pile up and he had no choice than to put the book he was reading back in the shelf to concentrate on his work so he would be able to see how many men would be joining the Imperial family and arrange the necessary documentation.

The stacks of papers contained profiles of the talented selected men that the Commanders had collated that would be transferred to the Imperial family, the Commanders would work with the rest of the list but Si Ning had to check the profiles of the talented men in the army. From the profiles, Chen An marked the ones he doesn't think was a good idea to join the Imperial family because they were highly skilled and from what he explained all the selected talented ones, none of them was willing to join the Imperial family but Si Ning had no choice than to select some that had to join to avoid just giving the Imperial family some unskilled soldiers which the Queen Dowager might see as a foul play.

After Chen An explained the classes and groups, along with the marking one each of the profiles to make Si Ning's work easier. To avoid wasting time, Si Ning first took the marked ones while abandoning the others and all he had to do was to check and according to Chen An, he had to stamp the profiles to be submitted to the Imperial army which means he had to stamp it as an order for them to join and it was so difficult since Chen An said most of them would rather resign than to join the Imperial army. The work was unexpectedly tedious that he didn't have a wink of sleep not even paying attention to the time and now it was dawn.

Si Ning picked up Wei's profile, he wasn't surprised to see Wei's profile among the marked ones. "I rather not lose all these men but I have no choice, how will I make them join to avoid chaos." He sighed and placed Wei's profile among the profiles of the ones that would be retained as his army. He took the last profile for the day. "Jiang ChenMu." He stared at it thinking perhaps Jiang ChenMu had to be part of Jiang Ye's family.

After checking the class to see that Jiang ChenMu's archery level was promising and he was still young, he read the profile to see Jiang ChenMu was once part of the Jiang family army. Reading the profile made Si Ning frown, he had no idea that Jiang's family also had an army which made him more confused. He placed the profile on top of Wei's profile, having it at the back of his mind to ask Jiang Ye all about it.

His work was done so Si Ning fell on his back, he spread his hands knowing it was almost daybreak and Ah Dai would come in soon to prepare him for the court assembly.

Si Ning laid there, sighing every minute, he felt like his head was going to explode any minute, he was glad that he was done for the day and he was sure Chen An would also appear tonight with another set which he had to work on and then be able to round it all up within the two days he gave the Commanders.

Since the Commanders were busy, Si Ning had no idea if they were able to prepare the report he would be taking to the court meeting.

"King Consort, King Consort."

"Young Master, Young Master?"

Si Ning didn't reply, he only laid there and waited for them to come in which they did when they didn't hear any reply and soon Ah Dai and Yang Sheng came in followed by several servants that came in holding either a bowl or box which contained the necessary things to prepare Si Ning for the day. Si Ning didn't bother to stand up and when Ah Dai dropped the basket he was holding and quickly came to his side, looking guilty but Si Ning was too weak to bother saying a word since he was the one that ordered Ah Dai to leave when he came to inform him that he had prepared the bed for him to rest for the night.

"Just help me up." Si Ning uttered.

Ah Dai quickly knelt behind him and gently pulled Si Ning to support him into a sitting position. "Ah Dai and Elder Yang had prepared the bath." He said. "Or will Young Master like them to wipe your body?" He added.

"No, I will bath, pull me up." Si Ning said after a while, he was going to see Xiu Zhicheng at the court meeting and he might even summon him which means he had to look nice. He was also going to present the gifts he brought which means he was going to see Xiu Zhicheng and couldn't risk not smelling fresh and nice.

Ah Dai pulled Si Ning up and started leading him to the bath while Si Ning dragged his feet behind him. If he wasn't in the palace he would have ordered Xiao Pei to carry him, Si Ning had never given Xiao Pei an order like that but he knew Xiao Pei wouldn't mind and he kept opening and closing his mouth trying to ask if Xiao Pei was around but decided to just shut his mouth and soon Ah Dai parted curtains of the bathroom.

Si Ning had no time to admire the bath which was filled with warm water which the two servants were mixing with hot water, flower petals floating on the water, the sweet scent filled the room but having five men waiting on him in the bathroom doesn't look nice to Si Ning at all.

"Young Master." Ah Dai said as a means to inform him the temperature was now okay. He placed the basket filled with all the natural beauty ingredients he prepared on the high platform made to hold the soap.

"You all can leave." Si Ning waved his hands, he waited till none of them was in view before pulling off his robes and his hairpin letting his hair flow loosely to his waist, thinking it was such a shame Xiu Zhicheng didn't see him in the white robes he sent, he didn't hesitate to step into the tub and lowered himself in it.

Taking a bath wasn't refreshing at all because Si Ning couldn't stop thinking about all the work waiting for him that he started to laugh out loud because it was still unbelievable that a reckless person like him could ever become a responsible person to the extent of worrying about his work. It was still surprising him of all the works he had done without running away.