Chapter 15#

Of course, the most important reason they made me close my business and reflect at home was that they finally discovered the truth about me not returning home at night to “look after the business.”

That day, after I sent Fang Xueying “to the west,” as soon as I got home, I saw several of my capable subordinates from the Tea Scripture House kneeling in the courtyard.

And my parents were waiting for me to go back and kneel in the ancestral hall.

“Tell me, what’s going on between you and His Majesty?” After I knelt down, my father asked my brother to close the door, and he asked with a face that suggested a storm was coming.

Although Chu Ruiyuan claimed that the prince was poisoned by eating tea snacks brought into the palace, it was not difficult to guess the trickery behind it when it caused such a city-wide storm at the time.

I was not surprised that my parents and my brother guessed my entanglement with the CEO of this dynasty.

But I didn’t expect that my father, a veteran of two dynasties who had been loyal to the monarch and patriotic for more than 30 years, would ask the question so directly.

I thought to myself, to deny it at this point would be to look down on the intelligence of these three people, but if I admitted that we were friends with benefits, I probably wouldn’t see tomorrow’s sun, so I lowered my head and said, “Where love leads, even if you know you can’t, you must do it.”

My father raised the whip in his hand high and whipped it fiercely on the ground, and continued to ask, “How long has it been?”

The whip landed next to my leg, which scared me so much that I accidentally told the truth: “Ten, ten years.”

My father was stunned for a moment, and the whip that was raised high again finally fell softly to the ground. He seemed to be asking me and talking to himself, “Did he force you?”

How should I settle the muddled accounts between me and the CEO of this dynasty?

Although I was forced by circumstances to be my brother’s substitute at the beginning, in the end, I also recommended myself. Besides, except for the first few times, I have had a lot of fun in the past ten years, and I have not wasted Chu Ruiyuan’s precious dragon essence time and time again.

So I think it’s better not to let Chu Ruiyuan take the blame.

So I shook my head and said, “I like him.”

My father sneered and said, “How can I not know your personality of always wanting to be lazy and slick?! Even if you have ten points of liking for him in your heart, as long as you think of the trouble of getting involved with the royal family, it will become one point. If he hadn’t forced you back then, how could you have gotten involved with him?!”

This is the trouble with the saying “no one knows a son better than his father.”

I couldn’t make it clear that Chu Ruiyuan was coveting my brother at the time—that would make my parents and my brother explode—so in the end, I could only silently let the CEO of this dynasty take the blame.

Then I was forced to close the Tea Scripture House and was placed under house arrest in the prime minister’s mansion.

My parents and my brother never mentioned the matter between me and Chu Ruiyuan again after that night. My father and brother were still looking up to the CEO in the court, but they showed in their actions that they wanted to break us up, a pair of friends with benefits.

I thought to myself that my father is the prime minister of the current dynasty, and my brother is waiting for the Minister of Personnel to retire in a few years to take over. Both of them are people with status, and Chu Ruiyuan is not the impulsive sixteen-year-old boy he was back then. It probably won’t be a problem for us to break up so implicitly.

It’s been ten years, and his affection for my brother back then should have passed. It’s even less likely that he would look for my brother, the prospective Minister of Personnel, to play by the unspoken rules.

Besides, after what happened with Fang Xueying, I felt a little awkward. It was indeed cool to have sex while looking at his handsome face and big bird, but after the coolness, it always felt a little off.

So I didn’t make a fuss, and obediently cultivated myself at home. I didn’t go out the main gate (the outer gate of the prime minister’s mansion), but I still had to step out of the second gate (the inner gate of the small courtyard).

Chu Ruiyuan probably also tacitly agreed to our breakup.

He didn’t send anyone to look for me for the next month.

I was both relieved and had a slight sense of loss that he was so ruthless.

But I soon had no time to feel lost.

Because the neighbors in the southern border, whom we usually call the “Southern Barbarians,” were going to send envoys to the court for the new year.

About a year ago, the head of our “neighbor’s” family died, and several sons fought to the death for the property. Later, the CEO of this dynasty was said to have supported one of the sons with some money and troops out of compassion for the people next door. Some time ago, that son successfully inherited the inheritance, and now he sent one of his nephews to our dynasty as an envoy to pay tribute, with the added meaning of sending a hostage to show his loyalty.

The nephew who was to be sent by the new head of the neighbor’s family was named Dugu Yan, and he was a famous handsome man in the southern border.

How handsome was he?

It is said that if the CEO of this dynasty is a global limited VIP custom-made product, then Dugu Yan is a one-of-a-kind masterpiece.

As soon as I heard that there was such a beauty in the world, I immediately expressed my loyalty to my parents, striving to be able to go out and watch when the envoy group entered the capital.

My parents thought that it was not easy for a 27-year-old man like me to be locked up at home for a month. After thinking about it, my father asked his trusted attendant to “accompany” me to book a private room on the second floor of a teahouse on the road that the envoy group must pass, and wait to watch.

Well, the one-of-a-kind masterpiece is indeed devastatingly handsome.

I think that although the gap in appearance between Chu Ruiyuan and him is not as big as the legend says, there is still a certain distance.

So when the young ladies and madams in the next private room were arguing about who was more handsome, him or the CEO of this dynasty, I silently stood for Dugu Yan in my heart.

Of course, this may also have something to do with the fact that I have been looking at the global limited VIP custom-made product for ten years and am almost aesthetically fatigued.

Moreover, I don’t know if it was my illusion or what, but I always felt that Dugu Yan looked up and smiled at me when he passed our teahouse.

The charm in that smile was truly devastatingly handsome.

This devastatingly handsome Dugu Yan led the envoy group to the court on the second day of entering the capital and was received by the truly handsome Chu Ruiyuan.

According to my brother, Chu Ruiyuan looked at Dugu Yan for a long time and even specially kept him in the palace for an audience after the court session.

According to my father, Chu Ruiyuan’s audience with Dugu Yan was a bit long, probably about two hours.

I know what my father and brother mean.

They were just hinting to me that the CEO of this dynasty was lustful and not a good person.

I felt a little uncomfortable after hearing their words.

It was probably the feeling of a game console that I had borrowed for a long time being taken back by the owner and then lent to someone else.

I regret even more that there are no pinhole cameras in this era.

Otherwise, the GV of these two beauties, no matter who is the top or the bottom, would definitely sell tens of millions of copies worldwide without any problem.

However, the affair between the CEO of this dynasty and the envoy from next door was terminated before it could spread widely.

The next day, Chu Ruiyuan summoned the envoy group to the court again and thanked the new head of the neighbor’s family for his kindness.

However, considering the great differences in soil, water, and customs between the capital and the southern border, he could not bear to let the envoy stay in the capital for a long time and suffer from homesickness. He allowed Dugu Yan and his party to play in the capital for three days, after which they could return to the southern border.

Chu Ruiyuan actually sent the guests away just like that.

It made me have to wonder if he failed to top the other person and was topped instead, so he had to send the god of plague away quickly.

I feel like I might have guessed the truth.

Because that afternoon, my friend with benefits, whom I hadn’t seen for more than a month, sent a eunuch to the prime minister’s mansion and, under my brother’s glare, summoned me to the palace.

I think his male dignity was damaged and he wanted to make it up to me.