"That's not what I said, looking at me won't help. The one who said you have short, thick legs was Xiaoyao. He's the one who made that evaluation." Young Miss said with a laugh.
"That little servant never has anything good to say, so it can be ignored." Nangong Suxin said disdainfully. However, in her heart she was still fuming - if Xiaoyao appeared again, she would definitely skin him alive.
"You can't say that. Though he can be shameless sometimes, he never lies. At least I've never seen him lie." Young Miss said seriously, defending Xiaoyao.
She continued: "The reason he said that about you was in comparison. When he commented on me, it was to a slightly higher degree than you."
"In comparison? Are you saying he compared us to other people, and the result was that you're inferior to me, and I'm inferior to that person?" Nangong Suxin cleverly analyzed the meaning behind Young Miss's words, while not forgetting to take a jab at Young Miss.
Hmph. So what if she's just a little better than me - that's only for now.
"Inferior, you're inferior to her." Young Miss deliberately emphasized 'inferior' and repeated it.
"Who is 'she'?" Nangong Suxin said disdainfully. She felt this was just Young Miss trying to anger her.
"She's my Seventh Sister, Xiaoyao's boss."
"Seventh Sister? Boss?" Nangong Suxin thought about it, and suddenly remembered someone. Though she wasn't familiar with the term "Seventh Sister," she had heard and seen his "boss" before.
"Lone Star?. This..." Nangong Suxin thought of Lone Star and lost her confidence, because at that time, she had specifically compared herself and found that at most she was evenly matched with Lone Star - Lone Star wouldn't be weaker than herself.
"You've met her?" Young Miss asked in surprise. From what she knew, Lone Star never went out, and Nangong Suxin had never come to the Mo family.
"So what if I've met her? We're not that different. That damned little servant - how am I inferior to his boss?. No, I need to find him and get this cleared up." Nangong Suxin said through gritted teeth. This wasn't about caring what Xiaoyao thought, but about being unable to accept that she was inferior to someone.
"Find him? You'd better give up. That boy only operates within the Mo family grounds - do you dare come there?" Young Miss said contemptuously.
"Who says I don't dare? This young miss will go tomorrow." Nangong Suxin made a harsh threat.
"Big Sister..." Third Miss Nangong spoke up at this moment.
"Third Sister, don't be afraid. The Mo family wouldn't dare do anything to me." Nangong Suxin interrupted Third Miss's words. Though the Nangong family didn't get along with the Mo family, they hadn't reached the point of drawing swords the moment someone visited. They even had quite a bit of interaction.
Otherwise, Young Miss wouldn't be so relaxed hanging around with them.
"Big Sister, I'm not afraid. What I wanted to say is, you don't need to go anymore..." Third Miss said weakly.
"Why?" Nangong Suxin asked in confusion.
"Look at that platform..." Third Miss pointed in a direction where there was a tower platform. This platform was the climax of the lantern festival - a live literary competition, and everyone on the platform was a person of literary talent and style.
If Third Miss had appeared on this platform, it would have been quite normal - she was known as the number one talented woman of Qingyun City.
In fact, someone had invited her, but she didn't want to go. She didn't like performing in front of crowds and would be very shy, so she declined.
Although the number one talented woman wasn't there, the number one talented scholar was on the platform, along with the second and third ranked scholars and talented women. The platform could truly be said to be filled with talent.
Among all these people, Third Miss spotted a creature - a fluffy little monster beast that looked very familiar. Wasn't this the little servant's pet?
Then Third Miss noticed Xiaoyao beside the little monster beast. At that moment, Xiaoyao was holding a large bag, munching on things he pulled from it, and occasionally tossing some to Chi Chi beside him.
If Xiaoyao knew that he, a grown man, was spotted later than Chi Chi, he'd probably be a bit depressed and lament that women's eyesight was indeed quite peculiar.
At that time, Third Miss was stunned. She felt extremely surprised and couldn't understand how Xiaoyao, a mere servant, ended up there.
Just like Third Miss, Young Miss, Nangong Suxin and the others couldn't understand how Xiaoyao got up there.
"Hey, Mo Yu, how did your little servant get up there? Did you arrange it?" Nangong Suxin asked while looking at the platform.
"How could that be possible? He was probably attracted by the prizes. He's someone who's easily tempted." Young Miss said. Based on her understanding of Xiaoyao, he was a responsible servant, but outside of his servant duties, he often went to make some extra profit - that is, he was susceptible to temptation.
"The prizes go to the winners. Can he manage that?" One of the Nangong sisters said with a tone of faint disdain, clearly telling everyone she didn't believe Xiaoyao could win.
"Looking at him like this, there shouldn't be any problem. I'll go ask." Young Miss said and ran over. It was just a platform - if she wanted to barge in, she'd barge in. Let's see who dared to stop her.
"I'll go take a look too..." Nangong Suxin's eyes darted around, then she followed Young Miss.
"Big Sister..." Third Miss and the others looked at each other, then followed as well.
On the platform, Xiaoyao seemed to notice Young Miss's approach and came to the side. He didn't want Young Miss to come up on stage - that would make him famous.
"That servant, please don't move around casually. We're about to begin." Someone on the platform noticed Xiaoyao's movement and reminded him.
The tone, attitude, and word choice didn't seem very polite toward Xiaoyao. No wonder - on the platform, Xiaoyao was the person with the lowest status.
"I understand. I'm just going and coming right back, I won't delay you." Xiaoyao responded very politely. Others can be rude, but I must be polite - this way I can highlight their rudeness.
When dealing with rude people, Xiaoyao generally became even more polite. This was a servant's special way of protesting.
"Xiaoyao, what are you doing up there, you rascal?"
Seeing Xiaoyao come down, Young Miss didn't go up to the platform. She stood near the platform and directly questioned Xiaoyao.
"This wasn't my choice. I just went to buy twenty catties of sugar-roasted chestnuts..." Xiaoyao shook his head and began explaining the reason.
Hearing about twenty catties of sugar-roasted chestnuts, everyone understood what was in Xiaoyao's large bag - it was all sugar-roasted chestnuts.
They were also puzzled why Xiaoyao bought so much. Everyone except Young Miss, because she knew the reason - Xiaoyao bought them for Chi Chi beside him.
Never mind twenty catties - even twenty more catties, this little glutton could easily handle.
"Then, a girl much uglier than Young Miss very flirtatiously invited me." Xiaoyao continued.
"Who? How was she flirtatious?" Young Miss didn't understand.
"She came over and struck a pose, then winked at me, gave me sultry looks, and said, 'Little handsome guy, come with me.'" Xiaoyao continued, and even demonstrated the pose and the winking, sultry expressions.
"..."
Indeed very flirtatious. This woman must be very ugly - otherwise, why would she try to seduce Xiaoyao, a mere servant?
Almost simultaneously, Young Miss and the other girls all concluded in their hearts that the woman Xiaoyao mentioned was very ugly.
"Then what? You were seduced?" Young Miss looked at Xiaoyao with a smirk, her expression very punchable - at least that's what Xiaoyao thought.
"No way. I of course sternly refused. I'm an upright, pure man - how could I be seduced by such feminine wiles." Xiaoyao immediately shook his head.
"Bah. Shameless. You just thought she wasn't beautiful enough." Young Miss said very directly.
"She wasn't beautiful enough... uh, no, that's not it. No matter beautiful or not, even if she were prettier than Young Miss, I wouldn't be seduced. I'm an upright..."
"Alright, alright, stop talking. Since you weren't seduced by beauty, how did you end up here?" Young Miss directly moved to the next question.
"Because when she saw seduction didn't work, she gave me one tael of silver. Damn, isn't that looking down on me?" Xiaoyao said very indignantly.
"Mm, very good, very principled. This is what a Mo family servant should be like. So later, did she threaten you to come here?" Young Miss patted Xiaoyao's shoulder. She was very satisfied with Xiaoyao's principles and proudly glanced at Nangong Suxin.
However, her good mood wouldn't last long. Soon she'd want to kick Xiaoyao to death, because Xiaoyao said one sentence—
"No, she later gave me ten taels, so I came."
"..."
Several girls fell silent. It seemed it wasn't that he couldn't be bribed - just that the bribe was too small.
"Damn. How embarrassing. I want to kick you to death." Young Miss was furious.
Xiaoyao immediately kept his distance from Young Miss, then said: "Young Miss, what's embarrassing about this? I'm on my break time now. Someone gave me money to do something, and it's not something shameful."
"..."
Xiaoyao's words subtly indicated that this was his private business, unrelated to Young Miss, and also that this wasn't something embarrassing.
Though subtle, all the girls present could hear it. Nangong Suxin looked at Young Miss with particular meaning, wanting to provoke Young Miss by saying she couldn't even control a little servant.
Young Miss didn't care about this at all. After thinking through the situation, she felt it didn't really matter.
"Getting ten taels of silver for nothing - which woman is so foolish? When you said no, you were definitely just trying to raise the price, right?" Young Miss was now hitting the nail on the head.
At this moment, everyone seemed to forget to ask Xiaoyao what exactly he was supposed to do.
"Hehe... well, this..."
"Oh my, Third Miss, what a coincidence to see you here?"
Just then, a beautiful voice came, and a lovely, beautiful girl appeared before everyone. This girl seemed to know Third Miss.
"Oh, it's Miss Han. Hello." Third Miss returned the greeting.
(End of Chapter)