“I could work as a servant,” Hua Cheng suddenly spoke up, and everyone paused and turned to him.
His mother shifted nervously. “Hong-er, dear, you don’t have to–”
“I don’t mind,” Hua Cheng said with a smile. “I learn fast and I’ll be very diligent, I promise.”
“We don’t have much money these days,” his father said grumpily. “It’ll be hard work for little pay.”
“That’s fine with me,” Hua Cheng said in the same cheery tone. Xie Lian started to suspect he was having fun riling up the king.
“Still,” his father said, looking darkly at Hua Cheng, “we don’t know where you’ve been and where your loyalty lies these days, so it would be better for you to–”
“Hong-er is going to work for me,” Xie Lian said pleasantly. “I trust him implicitly. Certainly more than any of the other servants I’ve ever had, who didn’t have to undergo a whole background check, if I might add.”
“If I might remind you that it’s still me making these decisions.”
Xie Lian clicked his tongue. “I’m going to spend most of my free time with him anyway.”
His father was starting to turn red from all the back talk, but Xie Lian’s mother put a hand on his arm and leaned close to look at him with a pleading look and whisper something into his ear. As his father listened, he slowly lost the angry flush and finally leaned back with a heavy sigh. “Oh well, alright. We can use all the servants we can get for Xie Lian’s wedding anyway.”
From the other side of the table, a choking noise came and Hua Cheng set down his teacup, holding his hand in front of his mouth. “Excuse me, his what?”
#pbp #tgcf
Another snippet of the long #hualian fic im writing on, peach blossom prince!