Chapter 137 - Officials Who Come
"I heard that there's a guest coming from the palace again today, so I come to see." Nan Luo shrugged. "And in terms of creating trouble, shouldn't it be you, Young Master Shangguan?"
Shangguan Yi snorted and flung his sleeve. "I'm not such a troublemaker like you. I heard that you challenge everyone under the age of 12. Do you really think of yourself as invincible?"
"I'm challenging because I need some exercise. If you would like to have a bout, I don't mind." Nan Luo smiled, yet the smile contained hint of darkness. It was clear that once Shangguan Yi agreed, he would not hold back in the slightest bit and beat up the other party until General Shangguan couldn't even recognize his son.
"Ooh, I'm so afraid." Shangguan Yi snorted and turned around. "Don't follow me around."
"As if I have that intention."
Though, the two of them ended up entering the hall at the same time. There was simply no other choice since there was only this one entrance. On the other hand, Nan Hua and the other manservants entered right after the two young masters.
The hall was big and bright. It could be seen that the place was indeed decorated fully in order to make sure that they could practice here. There were not many valuable items but the exquisite paintings on the wall fully expressed the sight of war.
It was as if this hall was made as a preparation for those who wanted to enter the battlefield for real.
The two young master stopped.
There were several people inside the hall. One of them was a very familiar person: Long Qian Xing. He turned his head when he saw the door opened as a faint smile formed at the corner of his lips.
"I didn't expect that there will be other students coming to visit this place too."
"Nan Luo greets Commander Long Qian Xing," Nan Luo greet formally. While he didn't care about behaving badly and treated Long Qian Xing sourly in private, the same couldn't be said to be done in public. His grandfather would surely spank him until he doubted his life if he dared to tarnish Nan Family name just because of his dislike to Long Qian Xing.
His dislike was mainly because this man would take his sister away in the future, though.
On the other hand, Shangguan Yi's face scrunched. "I thought that the one who will come was someone from the palace. It turns out that the one who comes is you, Young Commander Long."
Long Qian Xing didn't seem to care with Shangguan Yi's poor behavior in front of him. It was not a secret that the Long Family and Shangguan Family didn't have good relationship with each other. As for Shangguan Yi himself, he was not the type to hide it if he disliked someone.
"It's been a while, Second Young Master Shangguan. I presume you've been well in your study?" Long Qian Xing asked with a smile.
Shangguan Yi snorted. He crossed his arms. "Since you're the one who are coming here, I don't seem to see any point to linger any longer."
Shangguan Yi was a year older than Long Qian Xing, but different than Long Qian Xing who had achieved a lot in the battlefield… Shangguan Yi was the second generation young master who didn't have much achievement.
His father had already grounded him so many times because of his hobby of playing around. He might be only 15 years old, but his name had long been known in the Capital City. In fact, it might have been floating around for some time.
If not because there was no grand war where they needed to put more people to fight, he would have long been pushed to fight at the frontline.
He didn't have any military title for now.
But because he came from noble family, it wouldn't be hard to arrange him to become a 100 man commander right away when he entered the military. It was the greatest difference between those who were born from military family and those who were commoner.
Though, there were some nobles who chose to start from the very bottom.
Such as Long Qian Xing who wanted to hone his skill and eventually paved his own way to become several hundred-man commander even though he was only 13 years old.
"Since when I said that I'm the one who come?" Long Qian Xing asked with a low laugh. He was quite amazed by their capability to come into conclusion without even asking around. It was not like he was alone in this massive hall.
"Hmm?"
Nan Luo looked at the few people near Long Qian Xing. He didn't recognize any of them, so he cupped his fist. "Nan Luo, the first young master of Nan Family greets the honorable guests."
Shangguan Yi then realized his lack of manner and quickly cupped his fist too. "Shangguan Yi, the second young master of Shangguan Family greets the honorable guests."
A middle aged man near Long Qian Xing nodded and quickly returned their greetings. "This one is Minister Xiang. There's no need to be so polite towards me."
"Nan Luo greets Minister Xiang," Nan Luo greeted once more, still very polite. He smiled, showing a kind look that could easily melt one's heart away. "It's rare for such an honorable guest to come here. May I ask if there's any special event?"
"There's no special event." Minister Xiang liked Nan Luo almost right away. The young man was quite polite and tactful. It was completely different from Shangguan Yi, who was very impolite right off the bat. "This Minister is here because of the library. There have been some new records that His Majesty wished to add."
"The library is not here. This is the hall designated for fighting. Would you like this student to show you the way?" Nan Luo asked once more.
While he was curious what books the Emperor would ask for them to put in the library, he would not be so rude to ask right away. After all, there was a chance that the books were for the second floor, which meant that he was not allowed to even see it.
"There's no need. Thank you for your kindness, Student Nan."
Nan Luo nodded then turned his head to look at Long Qian Xing who was also looking at him. The smile on the young man's face seemed to be provoking… However, Nan Luo didn't want to lose his temper in front of other people, especially when his sister was also right behind him.
'Luo is good.'
'Young Master is always like this,' Xiao Yan replied with signal.
Nan Hua's dark obsidian eyes were watching how her brother controlled himself and put himself in favorable light in front of Minister Xiang. It seemed that the training he underwent when he was still in Nan Shu Cheng's Residence was not for naught. At least, he was not a completely muscle brain like a certain someone.
Somewhere far away, Feng Ao Si suddenly sneezed. He looked at the sky with confusion, wondering just who was thinking bad about him. There shouldn't be any survivor amongst the enemies he fought at the battlefield, right?
"Minister Xiang is it, are you perhaps here to meet with Long Qian Xing?" Shangguan Yi asked.
Long Qian Xing's eyes flashed with coldness. Even the guard who was standing behind him looked displeased when he heard the word Shangguan Yi uttered. "Second Young Master Shangguan, I don't recall we being close enough for you to call me by my name directly."
Rule of nobility was complicated.
One of them was the fact that they were not allowed to directly call someone else's name without their title. The exception was of course if they were close or had been given the permission by the other party.
If it was done without such thing, it could be considered as provocation or impoliteness.
But of course, there were many occasions where the strict rules could be forgotten. Only when they were in formal events would they have to follow the rules strictly. Unfortunately, the academy was included amongst those places where they had to greet the other party very formally.
Nan Hua listened from the back. From what she knew, Long Qian Xing was not that picky about his nickname with her, but right now, it was clear that he was adamant to make things difficult for Shangguan Yi.
As expected, Minister Xiang's expression was not good. It was clear that he also didn't have good impression of this Shangguan Yi, who was clearly disrespecting the young commander.
"Second Young Master Shangguan, this minister had clearly told Student Nan that this minister comes here to see the library. Does this minister's words held no value that you can forget about it so quickly?" Minister Xiang asked.
"it's not like that… I…."
"What is it, Second Young Master Shangguan?"
"I… I…"
Nan Luo looked at Shangguan Yi and sneered internally. "Minister Xiang, Second Young Master Shangguan might be curious as to why Minister Xiang is in the hall while the library is on the other way."
Nan Luo kindly explained, which relieved Shangguan Yi as he nodded. Seeing how Shangguan Yi easily follow his lead, Nan Luo really wanted to say to this young master…
How stupid.
It was very clear that he was disparaging the other party and yet, Shangguan Yi was treating it as if the excuse was to help him out. He, Nan Luo, was not such a kind man to the point of helping someone who had harmed him in the past!