Leander said quickly, “A set of pills is far too great a gift, even one would be.Shanlin and Xi shall both benefit from learning without assistance.”
Leander smiled at Xi, who was looking back and forth between them with a confused expression.He knew something was happening, but Leander refused to translate the offer.He might jump at the chance without understanding the value of the pills.Language pills were less valuable than something like cultivation pills, but Xi could not grasp their worth.They were distilled magic.Pure power.
“Nonsense,” said Mother Huiling.“Shanlin is the first son of the qidi of my second son.And your friend is your qidi.We shall provide.This is the way of things.I will not allow my grandson to learn Chinese the slow way when such learning might cause an inauspicious accent.”She nodded firmly, clearly feeling the topic was closed.
Leander opened his mouth, but there was nothing he could say to counter that.Leander could not deny their familial relationship.He had no escape, and he felt like he had just been run over and then ordered to thank the driver.It left him feeling off-balance and unsure, even if the driver who had run him over had the best of intentions.
He bowed his head.“I thank you, Mother Huiling.I shall weave my best basket in appreciation.”
She beamed at him, and Father Xiaobo chuckled.“It is a wise son who knows never to argue with Mother,” he said with a wink.“I will order the finest reeds.”
“Please do not,” Leander said.“My gift is with plants, and I can do my best work if I find live reeds and tangle my qi with the plant.”Leander could, of course, affect the magic in an individual leaf or harvested reed, but the magic never responded as well.
Father Xiaobo nodded.“Then I shall hire a local boy to show you places where reeds may be found.”
Leander wanted to turn down the offer, but refusing favors was as dangerous as asking for them.So he smiled graciously and accepted that he would have an escort.Luckily, his escort would not recognize what he was doing if he were to commune with a few trees and set a few sentinels.
“Excellent!”Father Xiaobo said, “and I shall inform everyone of our grand feast.”
“‘Feast’?”Leander asked, alarmed.
“The Nie family has a new son to honor,” Father Xiaobo said, “and a new grandson with Shanlin.The presentation of the first grandson of the family is always an auspicious moment, and we shall feast with the city to celebrate.”
Leander could gave a weak smile.Apparently, the adoption extended to Shanlin, so not only would Leander need to overcome the stereotype of a scheming adopted child, but he would need to do so after stealing the coveted position of first grandson.Maybe Heng would forgive him for this, but the first-born Nie Zhiyuan certainly would not.
Chapter Seventeen
Leander stared in dismayat their room.The three of them had two small bedrooms on one side of a small private sitting room in Heng’s wing of the house.One bedroom was for Shanlin, decorated with statues of fantastical creatures and decorative scrolls with famous aphorisms from Mencias and Confucius.It had a child-sized bed with an elaborately carved wooden canopy, a tall chest and a bookcase made from Xs that contained rolled-up scrolls and books set at an angle on the forty-five-degree shelf.
However, the dilemma was the second room.
“It’s smaller than I expected,” Xi said, which was a polite way of saying they only had one fucking bed.One.It was huge.However, there was one.Just one.
This was a nightmare.
A large lacquered chest stood across from the doors that led into the courtyard.The bed had a carved canopy and a rounded opening and across from it was a small table with a board for Go set into the top and two chairs.The space between the three pieces of furniture was so small that there wasn’t even room for one of them to sleep on the floor.
