In this present world, servants and maids were equal to private property and could be dealt with at will. It was a little better in the Tang Empire, where deliberately hurting servants was banned by Tang law, but buying and selling them was not banned. It was not rare in Chang’an to see to beautiful concubines and maids given to others. However, giving concubines and maids among the nobles was even a little legendary and romantic.
When the child from West-Hill spoke of the intentions of Prince Long Qing, people did not think it was strange. The students of the Academy and the Tang people, like Hua Shanyue, took a dislike to the child’s arrogant attitude. But because the two sides had different classes, they went silent.
In people’s opinions, Sangsang was just 13 or 14 standing beside Ning Que, skinny like a bean sprout with dark skin. Prince Long Qing wanted to take her back to sleep with him not because of her look,of course, but had some interest in her because of their drinking game.
The bigwig from West-Hill fancied a normal maid in Chang’an because she was good at lyre-playing, chess, calligraphy, painting, drinking, and so on, it was a literary pursuit in the upper class. If Ning Que was willing to give the maid to Prince Long Qing, the prince would give him a valuable gift. Perhaps it would be an anecdote in the future.
Therefore, no one felt astonished, strange, or even annoyed. Instead, some people like Zhong Dajun cast an envied eye at Ning Que, and thought he would have many benefits if he gave Prince Long Qing a maid.
Princess Lee Yu also kept silent at this time, but her silence had nothing to do with her demeanor. She was thinking about something that happened last year. She looked at Ning Que with a spurious smile, because she knew this thing could turn in an interesting direction.
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In fact, when he heard about the child’s gentle but extremely arrogant declaration, Ning Que was in a daze for a long time, and then he understood what they wanted. The reason why he reacted slowly was he never thought that someone would ask for Sangsang and would have such a hateful attitude.
Why? I’m sorry. No reason. It was just because he was Prince Long Qing, the bigwig from the Judicial Department of West-Hill Divine Palace. He liked your maid, and wanted a maid to drink with him when he was bored. Therefore you should send her away, she who you had raised and slept with for a dozen years, then you expected he gave you some silver or granted you a bright future when the prince was happy?
It made no sense in fact. Ning Que’s mood was so bad, but a bright smile was on his face. He said to the distant table, “Prince Long Qing, you look so beautiful.”
He reacted slowly, but Sangsang, who reacted extremely slowly ordinarily, reacted more slowly than him due to drinking too much alcohol. She just realized that the prince sitting beside the table wanted to steal her from her young master, so she could not help but refute him. “Young Master, he becomes ugly now.”
According to the people’s minds, this matter had nothing to do with Sangsang herself. As long as her master was willing to give her away, then she just should obey. They only cared about Ning Que’s answer and were quietly waiting for his reply.
Most of the people guessed that Ning Que would say yes, but a few of them thought he should say no. No one had expected that Ning Que’s answer would have nothing to do with this thing, it seemed to be unreasonable. “Prince Long Qing, you look so beautiful… what hell was that?”
As Prince Long Qing became sober, he was quietly looking at the small empty wine jars. He suddenly heard the words and, frowning, lifted his beautiful face and said lightly, “Thank you. I know.”
“Now that you know you are beautiful…”
Ning Que looked over there and said seriously, “Then you shouldn’t think too beautifully.”
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After he said that, everyone in the room was astonished.
Even though some people thought that Ning Que would refuse to give his handmaiden away, or he would take some polite way to refuse—for example, he used this handmaiden well, the handmaiden was lowborn, or she could not go to a refined place—they never thought that he would refuse so rudely and harshly.
You thought too beautifully, how you dare to want my handmaiden!
Prince Long Qing’s complexion gradually sank, and he then turned to smile suddenly.
Ning Que laughed, explaining, “The reason is simple, because I don’t agree.”
Prince Long Qing slowly stretched out his hands from his sleeves and put them on the table quietly. He looked at Ning Que sitting in the dark corner, saying slowly, “If that is so, you may have missed a lot.”
“I never worried about missing anything,” Ning Que answered.
Prince Long Qing’s eyesight fell on his face from a remote distance, and after being silent for a while, he said, “Even my friendship?”
Ning Que lifted his eyebrows and answered, “Maybe your friendship is not as valuable as you think.”
Hearing this, Prince Long Qing’s picturesque eyebrows were like plated with a layer of frost, saying unhappily, “It looks like you value your handmaiden very much.”
Ning Que answered with a smile, “Does this concern you?”
Prince Long Qing said indifferently, “The handmaiden’s master is so interesting, which intrigues my interest more.”
Ning Que shook his head, saying, “Drink your interest with wine, if you could drink more.”
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When these two were talking with each other, the Victory Messuage was very quiet, even the birds perched outside on the Yanyu Veranda were so nervous that they did not dare to tweet. The others began to show various expressions, which gradually became strange. They had not expected that an ordinary Academy student like Ning Que would talk with a bigwig from the Judicial Department of West-Hill Divine Palace and manage to get the upper hand. Moreover, his way of expression was extremely satiric and tough.
Prince Long Qing’s expression was still calm, but everyone could see his angry emotion and his bossy words. He asked coldly, “But I am still curious, who has the qualifications to be her master?”
Under the strong coercion, Ning Que seemed to feel nothing, and answered with a slight frown, “In fact, it still has nothing to do with you. But now that you are so interested, I only can say… you don’t have the qualifications at least.”
“If I don’t have them, who does?”
Prince Long Qing laughed out loud, but no one could feel any happiness in his laughter, only strong confidence and arrogance. As his smile vanished, he cast his eyes on the silent Princess Lee Yu and asked, “Does the Princess have them?”
Ning Que laughed with a clear dimple on his left face, saying, “No, she also doesn’t.”
After he said this, the people were astonished again. However, before the people had more emotions, Lee Yu made explanation with a smile on her face. She said to Prince Long Qing, “I asked him for Sangsang so many times, but he just ignored me. As for you, I think you don’t have more chance than I do.”
The West-Hill people and Yan People, like Prince Long Qing, had the upper hand for a long time on the scene, and Lee Yu smiled and watched them silently the entire time. Now she used some words to shut them up as she was the favorite princess in the Tang. “Even though you are the peerless talent, the bigwig from the Judicial Department, and the prince from Yan Kingdom, but can you compare yourself with me? I wasn’t angry with Ning Que, how could you be particular about him?”
It was a simple but powerful logic, and it was a typical Tang person’s reasoning and style.
The princess endorsed him with some words, so it seemed that this crisis would stop. Sangsang pulled Ning Que’s sleeves, saying with a lifted face, “Young Master, let’s go home?”
Ning Que nodded his head, smiling. The people, including Lee Yu, thought that he would just leave, but instead, he rubbed Sangsang’s head and said to Prince Long Qing seriously,
“Prince, I want to ask you some questions.”
Hearing this, the people on the scene thought about what Xie Chengyun had said before. Suddenly, they turned silent, and the students from the Academy looked at Ning Que in astonishment. They thought Mr. Xie had totally failed in the debate, how could he who avoided exams by pleading illness surprise people?
Prince Long Qing’s face hardened. He tidied up the front part of his clothes and sat up, and stretching out his right hand, he said, “Please.”
“Don’t misunderstand me. I have no interest in the debate. In fact, I am not good at it. I am just confused about your previous confidence, so I wanted to ask you some questions.”
Ning Que took a step forward, asking, “Prince, does the firmament have eyes?”
How could the sky have eyes? Even the stars could not be counted as eyes. Although Ning Que said it was not a debate, Prince Long Qing still took it quite seriously. He pondered, then he understood. Haotian was higher than the sky overlooking the people, then…
“The firmament has eyes of course.”
Ning Que asked then, “Is there Primordial Qi in the world?”
Prince Long Qing answered, “Of course.”
Ning Que asked the next question quickly. “Is there a regularity in the change of Primordial Qi?”
Prince Long Qing answered, “Yes.”
“Does a locust tree have a root?”
“Yes.”
“Does a worm have life?”
“Yes.”
“Do normal people have minds?”
“Yes.”
“Does the Tang have an emperor?”
“Yes.”
“Does West-Hill have a doctrine?”
“Yes.”
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Ning Que asked at a quicker and quicker speed, but these questions were so simple and had nothing with debating. Prince Long Qing also answered faster and faster. Their Q&A was as quick and clear as fried beans. People on the scene were so confused about what on earth he wanted to do. At that time, they heard the next question.
“Do socks have holes?”
“Sure.”
Prince Long Qing stopped speaking with his eyebrows lifting. Then he smiled, looking at Ning Que standing in the center of the place. It was like he was looking at a pitiful worm whose cleverness was grinded. He answered with an indifferent mood,
“No.”
The series of problems were vapid and even boring. However, because it concerned Prince Long Qing and had something to do with the conflict from before, people on the scene listened very carefully. When Ning Que asked, the students also thought together and answered with Prince Long Qing in their hearts. When Ning Que asked the last question, they even answered “yes” in their hearts. Once they heard Prince Long Qing say “no”, they were astonished after they understood that Ning Que had set up a language trap.
Situ Yilan frowned and thought for a while. Looking at Ning Que, she shook her head and said to Jin Wucai, “What a pity, he couldn’t make a fool of Prince Long Qing.”
Prince Long Qing was certainly the bigwig of the Judicial Department of West-Hill Divine Palace and the talent who attracted people. He was a player. However, he found that Ning Que asking him these questions was only to lure him into some mind-set—wanting him to make mistakes on these simple and stupid questions and wanting him to admit that socks have holes in front of people. So naturally, he would not fall into the trap.
He looked at Ning Que with pitiful expression, and said, “I don’t think that I listened to your question patiently. Yet in the end, you are just playing petty tricks, which truly disappoints me.”
Ning Que looked at him and smiled, then he shook his head after he was silent for a while, saying, “Of course I’m playing some tricks. But it is a pity, Prince, that even you can’t deal with the trick, which really disappoints me.”
No one understood what he said, they just thought he began to talk nonsense out of shame. Even the students who were alienated from him turned their heads, being reluctant to admit that they were classmates.
Ning Que shook his head, then looked down at Sangsang, saying, “Remember the story that I told you in your childhood? How do the majority of bears die?”
“They die because of stupidity.”
Sangsang said, “You were right on that day. Most of the men who are too-beautiful are stupid.”
Then she looked at Prince Long Qing and explained carefully, “If there are no holes in socks, then how can you get your foot in?”
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All the people became quiet again. The ones who figured it out were astonished and lowered their heads, shamefaced. The ones who did not figure it out could guess why the other people were astonished from their looks, but they had no time to lower their heads.
Lee Yu and Situ Yilan could not help but smile. But the people from West-Hill had a very embarrassed look. As well as Prince Long Qing himself, after Sangsang called him a stupid man and figured out that it was a language trap, his face clouded.
“Just now, I asked you and you also answered me. We all know Haotian has eyes. He just looks at everyone, we are just like worms living in Primordial Qi, so we should follow some rules.”
Ning Que looked at Prince Long Qing, saying quietly, “These rules are the valuable words from the emperor or the Law of Tang in our Tang. In your West-Hill, it should be a sacred doctrine. No matter what it is, we should admit that everyone’s private property shall not be infringed upon. Therefore, my things always belong to me. If I don’t agree, you can’t take it from me.”
Now people just realized his meaning was hiding behind these seemingly boring questions.
Ning Que continued to say, “My asking you this question is to let you know this. Even though you give the answer that even a three-year-old boy knows, it is meaningless. The socks have holes surely, and my maid is mine as well. As long as I don’t agree, you can’t steal one Qian from me.”
Prince Long Qing stared at him and, after he was silent for a long time, laughed and said calmly, “You make sense. But I also know other reasons. If you have no power, you can’t protect your last penny.”
Ning Que smiled and asked, “Prince, are you threatening me?”
Then he looked at Zeng Jing and Lee Yu, making a bow with his hands folded in front, and asked seriously, “Princess, and Grand Secretary, he is threatening me. What shall I do?”
Grand Secretary Zeng Jing was surprised, and he smiled, “Maybe you heard wrong. It won’t happen.”
Lee Yu smiled and answered, “Do you want to fight him just with your weak abilities?”
Suddenly, she said, “However, I really don’t know who dares to threaten my people in Chang’an City.”
That was the real threat.
Priest Moli was angry. He patted the table and was ready to stand up. However, just at that time, Prince Long Qing coldly looked at his teacher of previous years, suppressed him, and then looked at Ning Que, asking,
“You are also a student from the Academy. Can I see you on the Second Floor?”
Suddenly, some people answered, “He didn’t even pass the exam for the course of magic skills, so he can’t enter the Second Floor.”
Zhong Dajun was the person who interrupted them. Just now, Ning Que’s question embarrassed most of the people, and he felt the most awkward. At this time, when he heard Prince Long Qing ask the question to Ning Que, he first said Ning Que did not have the ability of cultivation, and had no qualifications to enter the Second Floor, which seemed to be a way that he could humiliate Ning Que.
Prince Long Qing looked at Ning Que and said, “What a pity.”
Ning Que smiled after he was silent for a while, “There is not much pity in the world.”
Sangsang pulled his sleeve and said for a second time, “Young Master, let’s go home.”
Ning Que looked at Zhong Dajun and his students. “I know you are ashamed of being classmates with me. Today, you only think I just played a language game. I don’t care what you think. I just want to remind you that you should put more attention on your study. If you can’t answer this question that even three-year-old boys can, it will be time for me to be ashamed of you.”
After he said this, he gave a salute to Lee Yu and some officials, then he left with Sangsang.
He walked out of the yard, and said, “The peerless talent… the hope of the world…”
Then he shook his head, and said, “Pia, Pia!”
Hearing his voice, people were silent and embarrassed. Prince Long Qing’s face was so ugly now.