Cunning General Si Ning

Si Ning felt rested well when he woke up but he decided not to attend the court assembly because he wasn't in the mood to listen to anything that involves the country, it was his duty yet he had to feign being sick even though he felt fine but he had to act like he was under the weather just to make the servants in the jasmine palace believe he wasn't feeling too well so the news would go round and no one would think he didn't attend the court meeting on purpose.

The next day was Si Ning's wedding so at least he felt he deserves a day off that was why after wasting time on the bed then walk like he could barely take a step to the restroom, taking a long bath with the pretense he needed it to soothe his nerves then allowed Ah Dai to dress him in a white robe, letting his hair flow lose and because he doesn't want to hear anything relating to the work, he decided to draw in his study just after eating a light breakfast. 

The drawing materials were laid out by Ah Dai whose face brightened to see his Master finally gaining his strength after eating. Si Ning wasn't good at drawing but he tried to draw scenery with mountains, trees, and grass but each time he was unsuccessful but he needed to do something in order not to get bored. Si Ning could always tell Ah Dai to read a classic romance book to him or find someone to entertain him with some light music but he doesn't want to be idle and for some reason, he hoped the sharp tongue Crown Prince would drop by his palace so they could start some insensible argument, at least that would be a good source of entertainment but for the first time he was dreading Xiu Yuan coming with more assignments especially coming with the result of the assignment he helped the boy with. 

It was still easy to draw scenery than a human but Si Ning found himself drawing a man standing on the field just like in his nightmare and for some reason he wanted to paint one of the sides brown while the other side green. Ah Dai that was sitting opposite him kept staring at the drawing with a deeply confused look like he was trying to understand what was being drawn.

To be honest, if it wasn't Si Ning that was drawing then he would also be struggling to know what was being drawn if he was just a speculator. The human doesn't look like a human at all, he wanted it to be a prospective drawing but he fears what he drew was not even human with how bad he was at drawing. 

"Young Master, this is good.." Ah Dai commented with a smile. 

Si Ning could see how sincere Ah Dai was but no matter what he does, it would always be perfect to Ah Dai so he took his pen brush to draw another human which was him while the other one he drew was the other him in the dream. 

"King Consort." Yang Sheng opened the door and stepped in. "Commander Chen An, Commander Su Heng, and Commander Ji Ran are here with a eunuch."

Eunuch?

Si Ning narrowed his eyes but he couldn't complain because he didn't tell any of his servants or Xiao Pei he wasn't interested in receiving any visitor so it wasn't their fault. "Did they bring a report?" He couldn't help sounding disappointed while wondering why a eunuch was with them. They never returned nor did Xiu Junjie dropped by the previous day he helped Xiu Yuan with his lessons. 

"That I am not sure but they brought five different sizes of boxes." Yang Sheng replied. 

Boxes? 

Si Ning had no idea what the boxes could contain and after turning to see Ah Dai, he noticed Ah Dai had no idea too but he hoped it didn't contain some sort of weapons that needed to be kept in his palace or some military armors.

It was useless thinking about it so Si Ning dropped his pen brush with a sigh while Ah Dai moved closer immediately to start wiping his Master hands clean with a wet cloth then took another dry cloth to wipe the hands clean. Si Ning stood up feeling proud of himself because a single ink stain wasn't on his cloth nor a speck of single dirt, his attire was still perfectly white. 

Si Ning head out of his study and just like Yang Sheng said there were five sophisticated boxes next to Chen An. "Eh?" He couldn't believe how gigantic two of the boxes were or how they were moved for him not to hear a single ruckus in the study. 

"General." Chen An, Su Heng, and Ji Ran saluted. 

None of them seemed to be sweating nor look strained which means they weren't the ones that carried the boxes. The Eunuch at the side looked so weak so Si Ning guessed there were others outside but he had no idea if it was his men or those working in the palace. 

"King Consort." The eunuch saluted. "His Majesty requests the King Consort's presence for dinner and all this are from his Majesty." 

Dinner?

Just like it was planned the moment the eunuch completed his statement, four palace maidens walked in and bowed before opening the boxes. One of the big boxes contained series of attires, the other big one contained series of shoes in different colours and designs, one contained different colours and sizes of sashes, one contained different accessories, and the last box contained different natural ingredients. Si Ning couldn't help but smirk thinking it was Xiu Zhicheng's way of showing a little care for him after abandoning him since he came to the palace. He couldn't believe Xiu Zhicheng wanted to have dinner with him, he was a bit excited only for the excitement to be damped when he thought of going to have dinner and meeting Xiu Zhicheng Concubines present, it was a possibility he doesn't want to rule out and it made him instantly not looking forward to the dinner. 

Si Ning touched one of the attire, silky to the touch, so blue like the morning sky, quality material and when he lifted it he noticed the dragon emblem imprinted on it in form of a light pattern all over it, he dropped it and took a forest green robe and just by the chest was an imprint of dragon emblem in a lighter shade of green so after bringing out two more he realized the cloths all have the dragon emblem in them, some large and almost blending with robe, not visible at first glance while some the dragon emblem was bold and with the massive clothes means he would be changing his wardrobe.

"Most of the materials were imported while the top-notch material was made in Xiu and the Head Imperial tailor spent a lot of time making each of the cloth carefully to be worthy of the King Consort and the Head Imperial tailor is adjusting your wedding cloth to fit King Consort taste." The eunuch explained.

"Hmm." Si Ning nodded knowing those that sew the cloths must have spent months on them which made him wonder when they were given instructions to sew his Imperial wears from the large quantity they probably started sewing before Xiu Zhicheng made him his Consort.

What a sly man.