Chapter 109

Chapter 109

Meng Shuping instinctively looked up, his eyes meeting Jiang Cihe’s. He froze for a moment, the tips of his ears instantly flushing red.

After a long pause, he suddenly snapped out of it and quickly backed away. "You—you—if you want to talk, why do you have to be so close to me?"

Jiang Cihe smiled, amusement dancing in his eyes. "Why are you stammering?"

Meng Shuping retorted, embarrassed, "Who's stammering?"

[I was just scared by him, okay? I haven't even asked him to compensate me for emotional distress yet!]

Jiang Cihe didn’t pursue the topic further, instead returning to his earlier question. "You still haven’t answered my question."

Meng Shuping’s eyes darted around, and he cleverly deflected, "Well, if you were me, would you take responsibility?"

[Crap! Isn’t he being too cunning? If I say I’d take responsibility, wouldn’t he think I’m interested in him? But if I say I wouldn’t, he’d probably accuse me of being a jerk, right? Would I be dumb enough to fall into his trap?]

[The best move right now is to turn the question around on him. What a clever little devil!]

Seeing Jiang Cihe fall silent, Meng Shuping felt rather pleased with himself. Surely Jiang Cihe would be stumped by his question now? But just as he began to look smug, Jiang Cihe looked at him seriously and said, "I would."

Meng Shuping: "..."

[Miscalculated! How could he actually answer? What am I supposed to say now? Luckily it’s me—if it were someone else, they’d think he’s interested in them!]

He let out a dry laugh. "Haha, well, you’re quite responsible then."

Jiang Cihe’s lips curved as he said, "You’re right about that."

Meng Shuping’s mouth twitched. [So thick-skinned, doesn’t know how to be modest at all!]

He stepped around Jiang Cihe and got off the bed. "Where are my clothes?"

Jiang Cihe also got out of bed. "Your clothes reeked of alcohol, so I had someone take them to be washed. I prepared another set for you and left it here. Why are you looking for clothes?"

Meng Shuping said matter-of-factly, "Of course, to go back. Am I supposed to stay overnight at your place? I don’t know how long I’ve been asleep—it must be pretty late by now, right?"

As he spoke, he walked to the door, lifted the curtain, and glanced outside. But as soon as he lifted the curtain, a blast of cold air hit him in the face. Meng Shuping shivered violently from the cold and immediately closed the door again. "So cold!"

[Damn, is it completely dark outside? Could it already be midnight? I just said I was leaving—if I say I’m not going now, wouldn’t that be super awkward?]

Even though candles were lit inside, he really thought it was just early evening!

Jiang Cihe almost couldn’t hold back his laughter. He said with a straight face, "It is very late—it’s already Hai hour (9-11 PM). If you go back now, you might not even be able to get through your front door. The road is dark, cold, and unsafe. Why don’t you just stay here for the night?"

Meng Shuping immediately said, "Mhm, okay."

So Meng Shuping went to wash up and then returned to bed. However, since he had already slept for quite a while earlier, he wasn’t very tired now. The two of them began to chat casually.

Remembering how Meng Shuping hadn’t seemed at all surprised when he saw the glass cup, Jiang Cihe asked curiously, "Have you seen a glass cup before? You didn’t seem to find it particularly unusual."

Meng Shuping hesitated for a moment and said, "I have."

[It’s just a glass—what’s so special about it? If we had the technology, we could make plenty in no time flat. Sigh, who knows how much money those foreign merchants have made off this? Just thinking about it makes me jealous. This is all a loss for Great Chu! How much silver has flowed out to foreign countries!]

Jiang Cihe glanced at Meng Shuping in surprise. In Meng Shuping’s eyes, could glass cups really be produced in such large quantities?

He asked Meng Shuping again, "Then do you know how to make them?"

It wasn’t as if Great Chu had no glass workshops, but the glass they produced, while beautiful, wasn’t suitable for everyday use. Most of it was used for decoration.

"How would I know how?" Meng Shuping looked at Jiang Cihe in surprise. "What, are you planning to have someone make glass cups?"

[That’s a good idea. Those easy marks are dumb and have plenty of money—might as well let our own people earn it. But he’s going to be disappointed—I don’t know how either. Instead of asking me, it’d be better to find a few craftsmen who specialize in this and have them research it. They’ll definitely figure it out.]

Jiang Cihe didn’t deny it. "I just don’t want to be taken for a sucker."

Meng Shuping nodded in agreement. "Makes sense."

After chatting for a while longer, Meng Shuping gradually drifted off to sleep, unknowingly falling asleep. Jiang Cihe propped his head on his hand, looked down at him, and after a moment, also smiled, lay down, and fell asleep.

The next day, when Meng Shuping woke up, he found himself holding onto Jiang Cihe again. Not only that, but he had casually thrown his leg over Jiang Cihe’s body. Feeling guilty, he quickly and carefully lifted his arm and leg away.

Seeing that it was getting light outside, he decided to get up first. But after glancing at Jiang Cihe, he ran into a problem: since he was sleeping on the inner side of the bed and Jiang Cihe was on the outer side, he would have to climb over Jiang Cihe to get down.

However, there was only a small space by the bed. To avoid waking Jiang Cihe, he could only first place his hands on either side of Jiang Cihe’s body and then swing his legs over.

But just as he placed one hand on Jiang Cihe’s side and hadn’t yet put his leg down, Jiang Cihe’s leg suddenly stretched out and bumped against the other leg he was using to support himself.

Startled, Meng Shuping lost his footing and fell onto Jiang Cihe. To his extreme embarrassment, his lips actually touched Jiang Cihe’s chest—right on his bare chest.

He quickly pushed himself up with his arms and once again met Jiang Cihe’s teasing gaze. "What, throwing yourself at me first thing in the morning?"

Meng Shuping’s face flushed instantly, and he quickly scrambled off the bed. "I—I didn’t mean to!"

[Maybe he did it on purpose, he tripped me while I was getting out of bed or something. And he has the nerve to say that—if I fell on him, it’s partly his fault too, right?]

He secretly glanced at Jiang Cihe’s lips. [Thank god I didn’t kiss his mouth, or I’d never be able to explain it.]

Jiang Cihe sat up and said cheerfully, "Alright, let’s get dressed first."

Seeing Jiang Cihe change the subject, Meng Shuping let out a sigh of relief and quickly said, "Okay."

After breakfast, a while later, Meng Shuping said goodbye to Jiang Cihe and left. On his way back, he couldn’t hold back his curiosity and called his servant Jia Yue into the carriage. "What did I do after I got drunk yesterday?"

Jia Yue hesitated—should he tell the truth?

Seeing Jia Yue hesitate, Meng Shuping got a bad feeling. But since he’d already asked, there was no backing down. He took a deep breath. "Just say whatever it is straight out."

He was mentally prepared!

Jia Yue then glanced cautiously at him. "After you came out yesterday, you leaned against Prince Zhao’s shoulder and fell asleep."

Meng Shuping immediately relaxed. That’s it? And he thought it was something serious. That dog Jiang Cihe actually tricked him!

But just as he was preparing to confront Jiang Cihe, he heard Jia Yue continue, "Later, he woke you up by patting you. When getting into the carriage, you lost your balance and fell onto him, and you said… you said… you said Prince Zhao is so hard!"

Meng Shuping’s expression immediately fell. [No way? Jiang Cihe wasn’t lying? I actually said something like that?]

He took a deep breath. "What happened after that?"

Jia Yue couldn't look him in the eye now. "After that, the two of you went into the carriage. When you came out, your clothes… your clothes were messy. After Prince Zhao took you to his residence, as soon as you entered the room, you took off your clothes. Then Prince Zhao brought you into the inner chamber, and we didn’t go in after that."

Meng Shuping put his face in his hands. [Ahhh! What exactly did I do? Did I really take advantage of him? But why don’t I remember any of it?]

Thinking about Jiang Cihe asking if he would take responsibility, Meng Shuping felt a headache coming on. [Wuwuwu, I get it now. Jiang Cihe asked that probably to sound out my thoughts, right? Because my reaction didn’t match his expectations, he had to say it was a joke?]

He waved his hand weakly. "Alright, you can go out now."

[Ughhh, how am I going to face him after this... ?]

...

The next day, New Year's Day arrived. Meng Shuping was in a funk about the situation with Jiang Cihe, yet he had no choice but to get up early to attend the grand court assembly.

Lacking sleep and feeling irritable, he couldn't help but vent during the assembly. [Seriously, it's the New Year—can't people just stay home and relax? We only get seven days off, and they have to take one of them away. Who even came up with this rule? We’ve been working hard all year; can’t we even get a proper break?]

Emperor Qianyou shot Meng Shuping an annoyed look. How dare this kid complain about having too few days off? Compared to him, Meng Shuping had it easy—after all, the emperor didn’t get a single day off during the New Year!

Soon, though, Meng Shuping’s spirits lifted. It was time for officials to receive their New Year’s rewards, and he looked ahead eagerly. [Isn’t this just the year-end bonus? I wonder how much we’ll get. Heh heh, if it’s a decent amount, then maybe coming here was worth it after all.]

But when the announcements were made, his expression instantly fell. [The Emperor is stingy as hell! Not a single coin? Couldn’t he at least give us cash instead of rice and wine?]

Emperor Qianyou’s face twitched. So what if he was stingy? Besides, these gifts were meant to symbolize honor, not to be spent!

After the foreign envoys’ audience and other procedures, it was nearly noon. Meng Shuping hadn’t eaten a bite since the early morning and was starving, but he still couldn’t leave—the grand court banquet was next.

He had assumed the food at the banquet would be excellent, but to his disappointment, due to his low rank, the dishes assigned to him were mediocre and, by the time they reached him, had gone cold.

After being toasted repeatedly by many attendees, Meng Shuping endured until the banquet was finally over. As soon as people started leaving, he eagerly stood up to exit.

But not long after he started walking, he ran into Jiang Cihe.