Chapter 1321 - 11: The Killing Intent
Marquis Jibei was furious.
He had three sons; with the eldest and the youngest he could sit and chat calmly.
Only with the second son, they couldn’t get through two sentences of serious talk before tempers flared.
As for idle chatter—
His idea of idle chatter was scolding his son and punishing his son.
The servant listened outside the study to the Marquis roaring in anger, the corners of his mouth twitching again and again.
The Marquis had a very good temper and was amiable to everyone, except the second young master; with him, that temper just went up and up with no ceiling.
But the second young master really had it coming; usually he ruled the streets, you could always find trouble if you went looking for him.
Even if you weren’t looking, you could still run into him. So when the Emperor sent a summons, half the servants in the Marquis Mansion went to look for him and still couldn’t find a trace.
Marquis Jibei forced his anger down as hard as he could. "Where did you go this afternoon?"
Shen Junshan’s eye twitched.
If he said he’d gone to Ciyun Temple to wait for a female thief and ended up missing the audience at the palace, keeping the Emperor waiting, his father would probably faint dead away from rage.
He’d always been straightforward; if he could avoid lying, he would, even if that meant letting people wildly guess.
But right now, the situation was forcing him to lie.
"I found a shady spot and slept the whole afternoon," Shen Junshan said with a deadly serious face.
If they weren’t going into the palace at dawn tomorrow, Marquis Jibei really would have punished his son by making him kneel in the Buddhist Hall.
The whole family had been as anxious as ants on a hot pan, and he’d been snoring away?!
Feeling his father’s temper rising higher and higher, Shen Junshan hurriedly said, "Father, if there’s nothing else, I’ll head back first."
Without waiting for Marquis Jibei to agree, Shen Junshan turned and bolted.
Marquis Jibei was so angry his head throbbed.
Shen Junshan took a bath, then lay down on the bed.
He really wanted to sleep, but he just couldn’t.
That female thief had nowhere else to go and had no choice but to stay at Ciyun Temple.
He’d found her in the daytime only for her to run off again.
If she didn’t go back to Ciyun Temple, where else could she go?
Forget it.
Better to think about how on earth you’re supposed to comfort a crying girl.
He wasn’t worried he wouldn’t find her; as long as she was in the Capital City, she couldn’t escape even if she grew wings.
What he feared was that once he did find her, she’d burst into tears before they got through three sentences, and her crying would throw his heart into a panic.
The weather was stifling, and there were no ice basins in the room.
It wasn’t that the Jibei Marquis Mansion couldn’t afford ice basins, but Marquis Jibei wouldn’t allow anyone to prepare them for his three sons.
How could a man be so delicate?
When you’re campaigning at the border it’s even hotter; never mind ice basins, sometimes you couldn’t even count on having a good, long drink of water.
If you got used to being pampered at home, you’d suffer even more once you reached the border.
Of course, it wasn’t that they could never use ice basins. Once they married and started their own households, they could ride on their wives’ coattails.
Tossing and turning, unable to sleep, Shen Junshan started craving a drink. He grabbed a jug of wine and went straight up onto the roof.
The sky was full of stars, and a gentle breeze was blowing.
In this kind of weather, drinking on the roof was just about perfect.
The only thing missing was a drinking companion.
But a companion appeared soon enough. Eldest Young Master Shen had been reading in the study; feeling a bit drowsy, he was about to turn in.
As he left the study, a servant reported that Shen Junshan was drinking on the roof.
Eldest Young Master Shen climbed up onto the roof.
Shen Junshan handed the wine to him.
Eldest Young Master Shen took a few swigs and said, "That hits the spot."
Putting the wine jar down, Eldest Young Master Shen asked, "Run into something you can’t figure out again?"
As an older brother, Eldest Young Master Shen knew his little brother very well.
He was gifted at making trouble and just as big-hearted.
Even if he poked a hole in the sky, he could still flop into bed and fall asleep.
If he’d come up to the roof, there had to be something on his mind—and it definitely wasn’t about making the Emperor wait all afternoon.
Eldest Young Master Shen really did want to know what could possibly be more important than making the Emperor wait.
Only his little brother might not tell him.
Just as he was thinking this, he saw Shen Junshan looking at him and saying, "Big Brother, how do you comfort a girl when she cries?"
Eldest Young Master Shen, "..."
"That’s it?" His voice sounded as if it drifted in from distant mountains.
"What else?" Shen Junshan shot back.
"..."
Eldest Young Master Shen raised a hand to his forehead.
This problem had stumped Shen Junshan, and now it had left Eldest Young Master Shen himself utterly baffled.
It really was a problem.
He’d never even made a girl angry, let alone made one cry.
But seeing his little brother looking so earnestly eager to learn, Eldest Young Master Shen felt, for the first time, what it meant to be an older brother.
Even if he couldn’t quite handle it, he had to handle this question.
Frowning, Eldest Young Master Shen said, "Not to lecture you, but girls are delicate. How could you make her cry?"
Shen Junshan, "..."
He was exhausted.
Did they think he wanted to make her cry?
He’d done nothing at all and she was already sobbing her heart out.
Clearly he was the one who’d been robbed and swindled half to death, yet somehow it was like he’d committed some unforgivable crime.
Every time he thought of how miserably she’d cried, he felt completely out of sorts.
Kneeling in the ancestral hall for a whole day hadn’t felt this hard.
Seeing his brother fall silent after a single line, Shen Junshan looked at Eldest Young Master Shen and said, "Big Brother, don’t tell me you don’t know how to coax a girl either?"