Chapter 63: One Bite
Thanks for the comments: Holdmydonuts, koozato and kirindas!
“Greetings to Young Master Ren!" The soldiers around them immediately cupped their hands in greeting.
"Third Ren?!" Sheng Yao Shan's eyes sparkled, he also wanted to greet him properly, however on his left hand were grilled bread, on the right a stick of barbecued meat, not to mention his mouth, which shone with oil.
It took him some difficulty to swallow, only to see Ren Yue ignoring him, heading straight for Liu Xian.
"Ren Yue pays respect to your highness, the 9th prince!" Elegant white clothes floating, countenance like jade, Ren Yue saluted.
"Hello Big Brother Ren Yue! You want some bread?" Liu Xian nodded in acknowledgement, and held out a half eaten grilled bread burger.
"Er, it would be best if your highness, the 9th prince eat it, ba!" Ren Yue hesitated for a bit before smiling and straightening his body.
"Third Ren, is Sir Song Tao in? Per the emperor's orders, I have brought the 9th prince over!" Sheng Yao Shan said, turning to make his way into the house.
"Hold, master had informed Ren Yue to pass on a message, as long as Sir Song Tao still lives, his highness the 9th prince is not to set foot into this house." Said Ren Yue.
"Oh, why is that?" Sheng Yao Shan asked.
Liu Xian was still preoccupied with the burger in his hand, though he overheard the conversation between them, he ignored them.
Right now his entire focus was on the burger in his hands.
"Teacher says that 'Punctuality Makes a Man', and since his royal highness was late by a day, his royal highness must repent via quiet reflection outside!" Ren Yua said, waving his hand.
"Aiya! Third Ren, it's still cold outside, yet you wish for the 9th prince to-" Sheng Yao Shan had not finished speaking, but Ren Yue already re-entered the building.
As the door closed with a thump, Sir Song Tao's loud voice boomed from inside.
"Tch, man must live by proper rules and customs, and not be influenced by status and identity!"
"Sir Song Tao! This is impossible, ah! What if 9th prince fell sick from the cold, how would you explain it to the emperor. If something happens to the prince, you can't repair it even with a thousand lives!" Sheng Yao Shan begged from outside.
"This old man will take responsibility!" After that, no other words were heard.
"Your highness, would you like to put on more clothes?" Since Sir Song Tao refused to open the door, Sheng Yao Shan took off his own black fox coat and proceeded to wrap up Liu Xian in it.
"General Sheng!" One of the nearby soldiers took off their own coat and put it over Sheng Yao Shan's shoulders!
"Thank you, Elder Brother Yao Shan, Xian'er is not cold. This elder sister just gave us another grilled bread, this time with even more stuffing in it. Xian'er will spend this time trying all kinds of grilled bread from elder sister's stall!" Liu Xian did not really mind being exiled outside as he approached Wen Rou's stall.
"Your royal highness, it's really inappropriate for you to eat while undergoing punishment!" Sheng Yao Shan glanced quickly at the closed wooden doors, according to Sir Song Tao's attitude, how could he consider eating nice things while standing about in the cold to be punishment, ah? Liu Xian's punishment could not be consider a punishment even if he stood 3 to 5 shichen (6 to 10 hours) like this.
On such a cold weather, if the 9th prince really fell sick, the one who delivered the 9th prince here, Sheng Yao Shan would be the one who suffer the most, ah!
"Elder Brother Ya Shan, please be at ease, Sir Song Tao only order Xian'er to stand outside for 1 shichen and reflect. He did not order Xian'er not to do anything else! Therefore, Xian'er will continued eating grilled scones and warm my body, with a full belly my mind will become clearer and will be much better at reflections." Liu Xian said seriously, then, he moved even closer to Wen Rou's grill stand.
Wen Rou's charcoals have burned down to a gentle blaze, the light from it reflected brightly from Liu Xian's chubby cheeks, making him look like a ripe red fruit. It really tempted people to pinch his cheeks.
"That's true, I see that your highness is a man of great intelligence and will certainly lead the country towards a great future!" Wen Rou cast a glance at Yao Shan, her eyes turned into crescent moons as she handed Liu Xian another meat skewer.
"Miss Wen, please don't give any the 9th prince any more. The purpose of this outing is to properly supervise his highness' diet. As Miss Wen could see…" Sheng Yao Shan trailed off, his gaze falling upon the round and fat dumpling that was Liu Xian.
For a 6 years old child, this kind of weight was still acceptably cute. However, if it weren't controlled, he would just keep getting fatter and fatter.
Wen Rou listened, and nodded slightly.
"9th prince, please eat this ba, this is vegetarian meat. This is actually made especially for Ren Yue!" Wen Rou said, reaching into a white bag, pulling out several skewers of mock meat skewers made up of soy gluten. After a quick grill, she handed it over to Liu Xian.
"Vegetarian meat? Especially for Elder Brother Ren Yue?" Liu Xian's eyes flashed naughtily.
"Ren Yue?" Sheng Yao Shan looked at Wen Rou.
Naturally they were curious, that elegant and graceful 'Unparallel Gentleman' Third Young Master Ren, addressed respectfully by all as Young Master Ren, how could his name be so easily issued from Miss Wen's mouth!?
Immediately, Wen Rou realized her blunder, in her heart, she had always addressed him as Ren Yue, to think that she would forget herself and just mention his name for real!
She was racking her brain for a way to explain away this blunder when [zhi ga…] the door to the house opened.
This time, the person that came out was not Ren Yue but Shui Mo.
"Shui Mo greets his highness the 9th prince, greetings to General Sheng!" Xu Mo approached them.
"Shui Mo, has the master given in, may the 9th prince enter?" Sheng Yao Shan's heart was joyful.
"The master says, the 9th prince have clearly violated the rules. If he still doesn't repent, he'll have to be punished for another hour!" Xu Mo said quickly, his eyes drifting over towards the stall where Liu Xian w
as happily eating.
"Shui Mo, since it's so cold would you please beg Sir Song Tao for leniency and allow the 9th prince to enter the house first. He could still continued to reflect while inside the house, ah!" Sheng Yao Shan urged, what's with this additional shichen punishment?!
"This… you want me to persuade?" Shui Mo hesitated for a moment before running back to the house.
Inside the house, a simple charcoal fire blazed, Sir Song Tao sat casually within his rattan chair, idly flipping through a book.
Next to him was Ren Yue, single mindedly writing an essay.
Seeing Shui Mo running in, Sir Song Tao did not bother to rise. He lazily asked, "Well?"
"As master predicted, the 9th prince is busily eating outside. " Shui Mo's own voice was so low that he himself almost couldn't hear it.
"What? Still eating?" Sir Song Tao raised an eyebrow. Then, he lowered his book, a crafty look appeared in his eye.
"Ren Yue, you go," Sir Song Tao lightly waved his hand at the still busily writing Ren Yue over and whispered something into his ear.
A ripple of emotion was seen on Ren Yue's face, but only for a moment. With a perfectly calm face, he slowly made his way to the door.
The door opened once more.
A white flower appeared at the doorway.
"Third Ren! Have the master sent you to invite the 9th prince in?" Sheng Yao Shan joyfully said, he was all prepared to bring Liu Xian into the house.
"A moment please," Ren Yue coughed into his fist.
"What is it?" Sheng Yao Shan questioned, surely they're not going to just leave them outside still?
"Master says, the 9th prince was late, moreover instead of properly reflect upon his wrongs, he still indulged in eating. Thus, additional punishment! Unless…" Ren Yue smiled.
"Unless what?" Sheng Yao Shan eagerly asked.
"9th prince, unless you bring with a few of Miss Wen's grilled bread with you, your punishment will be 2 shichen of reflection outside, don't bother to come it!" Ren Yue ignored Sheng Yao Shan, as he leaned over to smile at Liu Xian.
"Third Ren, what kind of request is this? Just a few grilled bread, I trust that Miss Wen will certainly allow us to take a few skewers over to master. What a simple request!" Sheng Yao Shan laughed, as he thumped his chest.
Haha, and here he was wondering what difficult mission was coming after Ren Yue's mysterious 'unless…'! Looked like it's just grilled bread!
"Sheng Yao Shan, please don't look down on Miss Wen's grilled bread. Since this is your first time, you may not know that Miss Wen's grilled bread is actually quite difficult to obtain. Master has tried many times, it could be said that he's been quite unlucky, ah!" Ren Yue said in a gently, on the other hand Madam Zhen almost could not hold in her laughter.
What unlucky, it's clear that that old man had somehow offended Wen Rou, to the point that no matter how many times he came to the stall only to be confronted with two words 'Sold Out' time and again!
To think that this shameless old man would make use of a 6 years old child to get hold of the grilled bread for him!
Hmph, the more you want to by, the less likely Wen Rou will let you have any!
Madam Zhen made a hmph sound and looked at Wen Rou.
Since Wen Rou was the closest, she could clearly hear her little snort.
However, right now she did not stop her hands as she continued to flip the skewers, her hands moving even faster as she grilled a few portions of bread and meat.
"Miss Wen, would you…" When Sheng Yao Shan heard Ren Yue's words, for some reason he felt that there was some hidden obstacles to these grilled breads. After considering for a moment, he still could not see what the matter first and made his request. However, he had not finished making his request when Wen Rou interrupted him.
"Here, would 9th prince please take these.! To think that for the sake of a few skewers of food would actually put a child in a difficult position. A sad day for all who had to call him 'master'" Wen Rou said bitterly, handing out a few skewer full of grilled meat and bread, she quickly grilled a few more bread and meat and handed them over to Sheng Yao Shan.
"Here, take these and give them to your soldiers ba! To think that stinky old man would create difficulties for a child on such a cold day, moreover, to create difficulties for all the soldiers present!" Wen Rou snapped, the words coming straight from her heart.
"Is that so, then, many thanks to Miss Wen!" Sheng Yao Shan looked at the piping hot skewers of delicious food, a light gleamed in his eye as he nodded at Wen Rou and proceeded to arrange for the food to be handed out.
Then, he fetched some silver ingots from his waist coin bad and placed it in front of Wen Rou. "This is just some silver I have, though it's not quite the reward quoted by his highness, would Miss Wen Rou please accept them."
After saying this, he led Liu Xian over to Yen Yue, intending to enter the little house.
"Wait!" Wen Rou suddenly said as she rushed forward.
All this time, Ren Yue had been standing on the side, flabbergasted.
Just what had gotten into Miss Wen today?
After so many days of refusing to service to his teacher, to be so generous now, just what happened?
Was it to give face to the 9th prince?
But then, why was she running over right now?
"I can sell you have my grilled bread, but not until you've taken a bite in front of me first!" Wen Rou immediately blocked Liu Xian's path.
This was really unexpected; Ren Yue started to smile, his narrow eyes narrowed further into single lines.
"Nom!" Liu Xian showed no hesitation as he opened his mouth ad took a large bite, indiscriminately taking a bite of every piece of bread!
When Sheng Yao Shan and Ren Yue finally recovered their souls, they saw that the burgers made for Sir Song Tao all had bite marks on it.
Black lines appeared on Sheng Yao Shan's face!
"Delicious! Delicious!" Cries of joy was suddenly heard behind them.
Sheng Yao Shan turned, and saw his comrades in arms all eating, smiling and nodding at each other!
[Zhi ga~]The door opened again, this time a free spirited man in green, a figure of elegance in white, and a round dumpling prince strode in, carrying the smell of barbecue like incense into the little courtyard.
TRANSLATOR'S RANT
[This Eunuch Sheng certainly cares for his charge, doesn't he?] [Also, seeing this grand general being pushed around by an old man and a child really makes me wonder about his abilities… he probably has a good strategist sent by his parents to make sure he didn't make too big a blunder…] [I reserve the right to complain since this novel is filled with unknown words, ?? and alphabets in place of proper words, also the missing " for dialogues, which I have to guess and edit]RANT OVER
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