Playing The Victims [BL]

Chapter Twenty-Six | First World

The two men easy managed to fill the short time that they were in the carriage, with Elder Kang holding an even better impression of ShuNing by the time they arrived. The banquet was being held in the same estate as where ShuNing's initial trial was held. But as he had only seen the first layer of this monstrously-sized home of the most important people within XeClan, he didn't know what to expect.

As predicted, from the amount of people they had spotted on the way up, a fair few individuals had congregated, but were shooed away by on-station guards when they identified the Chief Advisor's carriage.

ShuNing waited for the man himself to step out first, before following behind. Expectedly, this caused many to stop and stare before mumbling to one another. Elder Kang didn't give them the time of day as he guided ShuNing into the building.

As opposed to the last time he was here, when there were no servants around, this time there was a plethora of them. They greeted both of them respectfully before carrying on with their duties. They continued walking, with Elder Kang mumbling a few nuggets of information here and there.

ShuNing found it awkward when some people tried to strike up a conversation with the Chief Advisor, who spared them a nod and breezed on without a second thought. Biting the inside of his cheek, he just acted as the official did.

"Elder Kang," the older man immediately gave him his attention as they continued walking. ", this concubines son, what is he like?"

For a moment, the wise man seemed a little lost, before remembering that it was technically who this banquet was for. "To be quite honest with you, Little Shu, I am not entirely sure. I only know a handful of the concubine's children."

"Because there are so many?" ShuNing asked cheekily and Elder Kang snorted.

"That's exactly why."

"Then what about Xe's official son?" That was the title given to XeWife's only son, the first of three children that have been acknowledged by XeLeader and actually granted the title of son. A preposterous notion given that, biologically, they were already his children, but apparently such things can only be so leniently given by XeLeader, who acted as if he was some divine being.

But, the man's expression changed. It was far from the relaxed one he showed when talking about the concubine's son. Elder Kang seemed to be struggling to find his words, perhaps mulling a little too hard over how he would speak. This didn't fill ShuNing with confidence.

In the past, the original Shu Ning's life had been snipped short before he could experience anything this world had to offer. And he only met all of those important figure-heads when he was thrust in front of them, on his knees, for the barbaric trial. Though, because of his weakness and petrified mindset at meeting such intimidating people, he couldn't defend himself. Which made the possibility of meeting 'Xe's official son' impossible.

So ShuNing truthfully didn't know much about the person, but seeing as he came from XeWife, he didn't have much hope.

"You can understand that when children are brought up in such a volatile, competitive environment they won't exactly become the most docile of people."

"En, it must be difficult." He feigned interest

So a mini XeWife then? He wanted to say.

But they arrived at the location where the banquet was being held. As expected, it was tantalisingly beautiful. With the table having actually been set up in a large courtyard that was surrounded, on one side, by the hard-carved pillars of the main building, and on the other was a breathtaking view of the many man-made waterfalls that branched off the humongous one running down the mountain.