Xu Xie couldn't make heads or tails of it.
The classmate he knew wasn't someone who would easily accept his fate. He had a fiercely competitive nature and rarely bowed to anyone. So how could he say something so dispirited, so sapping of one's will, as "It's fine to accept it"? Until—
Xu Xie happened to spot the young man embracing another scholar, much taller than him, beside a rockery. They were laughing and talking about something.
That intimate pose—
Even calling it brotherly affection would be a stretch.
So utterly shocked was Xu Xie that he let his presence slip, and the unfamiliar scholar noticed him. He had no choice but to steel himself and come out.
On second thought, he felt he was making a fuss over nothing.
Though one couldn't say that relations between men were in fashion these days, they were hardly unheard of. He had heard of people who were very close to one another, after all; he just hadn't seen it with his own eyes. He was still working out how to break the awkward silence when he saw the young man take the other's hand and come over to introduce them.
"Xingning, let me introduce you two."
Compared to the young man's enthusiasm, the scholar called "Xingning" was far less warm. There was even a hint of displeasure in his gaze when he looked at Xu Xie. The name sounded familiar to Xu Xie. A moment later, he found the memory it was tied to—and felt as if he'd been struck by lightning.
Wasn't that the name of Master Yan's son???
So—
He stared at the two of them, speechless for a long while. Did Master Yan know that his most prized pupil and his most precious son were seeing each other? Probably