51 - New Year in Di Mansion

Chapter 51 – New Year in Di Mansion

As for Ling Wang , although he need not attend court during the New Year, he still had to deal with matters that his Royal Father had entrusted him.

Ling Wang sent Ling Wangfei to the Governor’s mansion and at the most, he could only accompany Ling Wangfei for two days because, on the third day, he must return to the imperial capital.

By nature, the Governor is an honest man and although his mansion is not magnificent, it is still very elegant and quiet.

Except for the courtyard that was usually in use, the rest of the courtyards were left vacant as the mansion seldom entertains guests. Unexpectedly, the first time the mansion received guests, it was similar to the Governor receiving his daughters and sons-in-law returning home to their maiden family.

Those who should come had come, and those who should not have come, had all followed!

Suddenly, the servants of the mansion became busy, hurrying back and forth and quickly cleaned up the guest courtyards.

Even Ling Wang is coming to stay, of course, His Highness mustn’t be slighted!

After Shangguan Yan had assigned duties to the various stewards, she led her sisters to the rear courtyard to have a private talk.

As the male host of the mansion, Di Jing was responsible for entertaining the ‘brothers-in-law’. The four men hold different statuses and identities and were not related to each other. However, they were all gathered here at this time because of their wives and it was a rare opportunity for them to sit down together in the same hall.

Although their wives are not biological sisters, their affections are much deeper than biological sisters. They would not hesitate to stand up for each other and share a life-or-death comradeship. Therefore, the men knew in their hearts that the brotherhood of them four ‘brothers-in-law’ was set, No matter whether it is in the imperial court or the commoner’s world, they cannot escape the responsibility of looking out for each other in the future.

Although Ling Wang is a noble prince, he is broad-minded and ignored his high status to chat and enjoy the wine with them. As the leader of the Cao Gang, Gong Changxiao naturally possesses the arrogance of Jianghu, but even Ling Wang had lowered his status, so he also did not restrain himself.

Between men, this kind of thing does not need to be said clearly. Just by looking at their attitudes, it can be seen that these ‘brothers-in-law’ had thrown all their tedious etiquette and Jianghu’s mundane affairs to the back of their minds to talk and laugh in a relaxed manner.

After everyone had a few cups of wine accompanied by some dishes, they started to converse freely.

Both Gong Changxiao and Yeqing come from Jianghu and are like-minded people. There are a lot of topics in Jianghu that they can talk about, especially when Gong Changxiao is very curious about Shadowless Gate.

Ever since the last time Yeqing performed the invisibility stunt on the day of Lord Di’s wedding, Gong Changxiao had been thinking about it and was unable to forget the matter. All this while, he had always wanted to find a chance to spar with Yeqing.

Yeqing is a habitually silent and uncommunicative man. However, when he met up with the talkative Gong Changxiao, it seemed the sense of unfamiliarity did not exist and Gong Changxiao’s enthusiasm made up for Yeqing’s coldness. People who did not know about them would think that these two people were old friends who had known each other for many years.

However, this is also because Gong Changxiao and Hua Qianqian are very similar. Both of them are thick-skinned and are not afraid of being splashed with cold water. Gong Changxiao understood the saying of ‘love the house, love the crows’ and since this is his ‘Third Brother-in-law’, so he must love him dearly.

(Love the house, love the crows is the same as love me, love my dog.)

Both Si Liujing and Di Jing are officials in the imperial court and are familiar with the affairs of the court and the various factions. Moreover, Si Liujing has always admired Di Jing’s steady and restrained temperament.

In the beginning, when his Royal Father wanted to rectify the Jiangnan Salt Administration, both he and Di Jing were the few insiders who knew about the matter, and both of them participated in setting up the great plan. It was just that one was in the imperial court planning while the other was in the commoner’s world investigating the case and both of them did not have much interaction.

Now they have the opportunity to talk and they were so deeply immersed in their conversation, talking more to each other than to their wives, that they even forgot to eat.

In the end, it was Shangguan Yan who sent a steward over to remind Di Jing. Then only did Di Jing realize that he had forgotten his duties as the host to have dinner with his guests. When he turned his head around to look for Gong Changxiao and Yeqing, he discovered that both of them had disappeared. He then sent someone to look for them and found out they had gone to the training room to spar with each other.

While they were having dinner, the atmosphere was even livelier and coupled with the fact that they treated each other informally, it had the lively atmosphere of New Year.

After Ling Wang stayed for two days, it was time for him to return to the imperial capital. He also promised to come back on the agreed date to fetch his Wangfei home.

However, he appeared again the next evening. This time, he had brought along his official work with him and swaggered into the guest courtyard like he owned the place and refused to leave.

During this festival, the Governor’s Mansion was very lively as though it had become a holiday resort. The whole mansion was filled with harmony and joy.

On the first day of the first lunar month, all officials had to enter the palace to attend prayers. Early in the morning, both Ling Wang and Lord Di left with their respective wives for the imperial capital with a team of guards.

After the prayers were over, the Emperor proclaimed that Ling Wang , Lord Di, and all the other First-ranked Officials were to go to the imperial study for a discussion and they were not to rest during the New Year.

Gong Wuhuan would only be going back to Jiangnan after the Lantern Festival *, so Hua Qianqian and Bai Yuxiao naturally refused to leave and of course, Yeqing and Gong Changxiao also stayed behind.

(Chinese New Year is celebrated for 15 days and the Lantern Festival falls on the last day of the celebration which is on the 15 th day.)

Anyway, the two men were already acquainted with each other. Every day they would either go to the training room to spar with each other or chat about the affairs in Jianghu.

The most pitiful person was Ling Wang .

On normal days, he had to attend court, and whenever possible he would seize the opportunity to ask for leave from his Royal Father. Then he would run to Lord Di’s mansion to stay for a few days.

Today is a rest day, so Ling Wang naturally came running back again and swaggered into Di Mansion with familiarity as though he was entering his Ling Wang Mansion.

Just before lunchtime, someone knocked on the door of Di Mansion and a young servant opened the door to find a middle-aged man and four young men standing outside.

Although they were dressed in ordinary commoner’s clothes, the aura they exuded was extraordinary.

The servant respectfully asked the young man in front of him. “This Master, who are you looking for?’

“My family’s surname is Si and is an old acquaintance of this mansion’s Master. We are here to pay a visit. Please inform your Master.”

“So, it is Old Master Si. Unfortunately, my Lord and Madam have gone out. Would this Master like to leave a message? When my Lord returns, this servant will inform him.”

“Do you know where they have gone to? When will they return?”

“My Lord accompanied Madam to the market. It’s afraid that they will only be back around dinner time.”

Just at this time, Gong Changxiao was passing by and when he saw people at the door, he asked curiously. “Who is here?”

When the young servant saw the Chief of Cao Gang, he respectfully replied. “Chief Cao, this Master here is surnamed Si and they have come to visit my Lord but unfortunately, my Lord and Madam are coincidentally not in.”

“Oh?” Gong Changxiao stepped forward and glanced out of the door. With just this one glance, he could recognize the person standing outside the door to be the famous constable, Yi Dingfeng.

“Huh? It’s you!” Gong Changxiao met this Yi Dingfeng once before when he chased after his wife, Wuhuan, all the way from Jiangnan to Anshi City.

Yi Dingfeng was caught by surprise as well.

“Chief Cao? Why are you here?”

In the past, the two people could be considered as rivals in love but when the love rivals meet now, there are no feelings of jealousy and instead, Gong Changxiao showed a proud grin.

“This small one is here to accompany my wife for a short stay in Di Mansion.”

When Gong Changxiao said the word ‘wife’, he deliberately deepened his tone as if he was afraid that other people would not know Gong Wuhuan belongs to him.

Others may not be able to sense the meaning of those words but Yi Dingfeng did and his expression stiffened.

This guy is acting like he is looting during a fire *! Isn’t this a roundabout way to show off?

(Looting during a fire means to take advantage of people’s misfortune to seek personal gain or to use the opportunity to attack an opponent.)

It was just that he and Gong Wuhuan were not fated to be together. At that time he was in the midst of a mission and could not keep an eye on her, so Gong Changxiao had the opportunity to marry the beauty.

If this can happen once again, he is certain that he won’t lose to this man!

But this matter is a foregone conclusion and thinking more about it is useless. Today, he is on a mission, and will not dispute with him.

“So it turns out Chief Cao and Lord Di are old acquaintances.”

“It’s not me, it’s Huan’er and Madam Di. They are love-sisters and since Huan’er wanted to come here for the New Year, so I accompanied her.”

The corners of Yi Dingfeng’s mouth trembled. He felt that Gong Changxiao’s grin really needed to be dealt with.

Gong Changxiao was acting like a proud child that had snatched a toy. First, he said ‘wife’ and then said ‘Huan’er’, calling her so intimately as if he was afraid that others would not know how sweet is their husband and wife relationship.