A taste for men

Jin Kingdom

Capital City

Xiao Yu walked down the street.

Suddenly, he shivered involuntarily, feeling a chill creep up his back.

He kept feeling that everyone was looking at him strangely.

He turned to the man beside him.

"Brother Zhijie, have you noticed that everyone is looking at us strangely today?" he asked.

Shen Zhijie's eyes darted away.

Looking a little guilty, he said, "...No? Aren't you overthinking it?"

Xiao Yu stopped and scanned their surroundings.

Whenever those people noticed him looking their way, they hurriedly averted their eyes. Once he looked away, they secretly turned back to glance at him...

Xiao Yu narrowed his eyes.

So he wasn't imagining things.

They were stealing looks at him.

...Something was fishy.

He turned back.

And stared at Shen Zhijie.

Then he suddenly asked, "Brother Zhijie, am I handsome?"

Shen Zhijie's entire body stiffened at the question.

Looking at Xiao Yu, his face abruptly flushed red, and he hurriedly held both hands in front of his chest.

"Your Highness, no matter how handsome you are, I like women!" he cried.

The moment Shen Zhijie finished speaking, the number of eyes on them shot up.

Xiao Yu stiffened.

Wait, what did Shen Zhijie liking women have to do with me?

Did he have to announce it so loudly?

He stepped forward, about to ask what was going on, only for Shen Zhijie to retreat several steps.

He advanced again, and Shen Zhijie backed away again.

Xiao Yu: "..."

Was I the plague? Why was he so scared of me?

"Your Highness, please, don't do this. If you come any closer...I won't be able to clear my name even if I jump into the Yellow River!"

Shen Zhijie pleaded, blurting out whatever came to mind in his panic.

Xiao Yu stopped in his tracks.

He lifted his eyes to look at him.

"Do I look that lecherous?" he asked irritably. "Must you act as though I'm about to abduct an innocent man?"

Shen Zhijie immediately replied, "A-aren't you?"

Xiao Yu was so angry he laughed.

Who had given him the impression that I liked men?

He couldn't help snapping back, "Even if I were going to abduct someone, I'd choose a beauty, not a rough fellow like you, Brother Zhijie!"

Shen Zhijie bristled at that and glared at him.

"Yes, yes," he said sarcastically. "Only that Southern Zhao Hostage of yours, whose beauty puts the moon and flowers to shame, could leave you utterly besotted. Who could possibly compare?"

Xiao Yu's foot slipped.

His eyelid twitched.

What did he mean, 'that hostage of yours'...?

"Who told you I liked him?" he retorted.

Besides, if Qi Yunheng heard you describing him that way, he'd probably bury you alive.

"Do I even need to say it?" Shen Zhijie asked with a hint of mockery. "By now, everyone in the Jin Kingdom probably knows. Didn't you admit it to His Majesty yourself?"

Understanding dawned on Xiao Yu.

So that was it.

No wonder everyone had looked at him so strangely along the way.

They had heard the rumors that he had a taste for men.

Suddenly, something occurred to him.

"Um...the rumors haven't reached the Southern Border, have they?" he asked.

"That, I don't know," Shen Zhijie said.

Then he abruptly asked, "Why? Are you afraid the Prince of Zhennan will scold you?"

The corner of Xiao Yu's mouth twitched.

How could I not be?

In all the generations of the Xiao family, no one had ever had a taste for men.

Father and the others would surely think I'd picked up bad habits in the Capital City.

And if those things I said reached Southern Zhao and Qi Yunheng heard them, how could I ever show my face again?

"Brother Zhijie, do you know who spread these rumors?" Xiao Yu suddenly asked.

He remembered that the only people in the Imperial Study at the time had been himself, his imperial brother, his Imperial Sister-in-Law, and Little Girl.

Oh, and Eunuch De. There had been no other outsiders present.

Who had spread the word?

"I don't know. I only heard it through the grapevine."

Shen Zhijie looked at him.

"Would you like me to investigate?" he asked.

"Sure," Xiao Yu replied.

"Find out who's hiding in the shadows, trying to undermine me..."

Though he might already know who it was.

After all, there were only a handful of people he had offended.

His gaze suddenly caught what was happening up ahead at the Ruyi Noodle Shop.

"Brother Zhijie...it looks like someone's pestering Sister Yuzhu," he said quickly.

The two exchanged a glance, then hurried toward the Ruyi Noodle Shop.

Ruyi Noodle Shop

"Yuzhu, if you ask me, a woman ought to find a good marriage. That's the proper path."

The Heir of the Marquis of Pingxi stared fixedly at Shen Yuzhu. "Rather than spend all day in this little noodle shop, showing herself in public and wasting her youth. Don't you agree?"

Shen Yuzhu acted as though she hadn't understood his insinuation.

"You jest, my lord," she said calmly. "I have no thoughts of marriage for the time being.

"Nor do I have any grand ambitions. I simply enjoy kneading dough when I have nothing else to do. It's a pleasant, carefree life."

A trace of disdain flashed through the heir's eyes.

"How is that any different from kneading dough at home after marriage?" he asked haughtily. "If you enjoy it, once we're mar-"

"There's a world of difference."

Shen Yuzhu interrupted him. "My lord, there's a world of difference between pleasing myself and pleasing someone else."

"Aren't you treating me like an outsider, Yuzhu?" the heir asked with a light chuckle. "Once we're married, we'll be family. How could making noodles for your family be called pleasing someone else?"

"One is something I choose to do. The other is being forced to choose it. They aren't the same," Shen Yuzhu said, utterly unmoved.

Seeing that she gave him no opening and remained unpersuaded, the heir's smile began to slip.

"Yuzhu, no one wants a woman once she's past twenty," he said, a faint threat in his voice. "You're already twenty-one. If you remain this stubborn, no one will dare take you. When that happens, you-"

"Thank you for your concern, my lord."

Shen Yuzhu remained unruffled.

"I have working hands and feet. I can support myself. Besides, I still have my parents and brother to look after me."

The heir scoffed. "Oh, Yuzhu, you're far too naive!"

"Your father will grow old, and your brother will marry. When that happens, you'll be nothing but an outsider to them. Only your husband will always be someone you can depend on."

"Bullshit!"

Shen Zhijie arrived just in time to hear those words, and anger surged through him.

He looked at Shen Yuzhu. "Sister Yuzhu, don't listen to his nonsense!

"Even after I get married, there will always be a place for you at home. As long as I, Shen Zhijie, have a mouthful to eat, I'll never let you go hungry!"

"Shen Zhijie, how dare you ruin this for me!"

The heir's composure cracked at the interruption. "It's Yuzhu's good fortune that I've taken a liking to her! Are you trying to ruin her chance at a good marriage and oppose me?"

"The nation has its laws, and families have their rules. What, does being an heir mean you can defy the law and abduct an innocent woman?" Shen Zhijie demanded righteously.

"Who said I was going to abduct her?"

The heir suddenly remembered something.

"I have a marriage contract written by Yuzhu's father himself," he declared smugly.

Afraid that Shen Zhijie and Shen Yuzhu wouldn't believe him, he took out the marriage contract for them to see.

"With her parents' consent and a matchmaker's arrangement, Shen Yuzhu is my rightful fiancée. Mine, Xie Guifan's."

He looked at Shen Zhijie, his face full of mockery. "You, Shen Zhijie, have no right to interfere!"

Xiao Yu, who had hurried over, froze when he heard the heir's name.

Xie Guifan? The wastrel who, in my previous life, constantly beat and berated Sister Yuzhu after they married, and even tried to sell her to a brothel when his family fell on hard times?