Quelou was a bustling district, and within it, Xianmantang stood as one of the premier restaurants in Tianshangjing. The flavors were exquisite, but the prices were equally steep.
This was the first time Jiang Ziqi had ever treated anyone to a meal here. However, he knew that the effort Ye Zhao had put into helping him was worth far more than the cost of this dinner.
Ye Zhao looked as though he intended to make Jiang Ziqi bleed money, but in truth, the dishes the group ordered were just enough to satisfy them. *One must be considerate of Jiang Ziqi’s purse,* thought Ye Zhao, who considered himself a fellow pauper.
Su Jinzhou and Xie Yusong truly did not get along. Although they maintained a thin veneer of civility on the surface, the result was that Jiang Ziqi was squeezed between them, trapped in a subtle, stifling atmosphere.
Ye Zhao didn’t know what the history was between those two, and he spared a second of silent pity for Jiang Ziqi. Yet, Jiang Ziqi lived up to his reputation for social prowess; he didn't seem awkward in the slightest. In fact, he managed to single-handedly liven up the atmosphere.
Watching him chatter away without pause, Ye Zhao smiled and said, "Jiang Ziqi, if you have the time, you should really practice Silent Zen."
"Eh? Why is that?" Jiang Ziqi asked, puzzled. "Silent Zen? Isn't that something only monks practice?"
He had heard the term before. Only a tiny minority of monks undertook such a discipline, and even among the general clergy, it was rare. Now Ye Zhao was suggesting he take it up? Jiang Ziqi couldn't wrap his head around it.
Ye Zhao explained calmly, "You don't have to be a monk to practice it. I’m not asking you to be as rigorous as a cleric; just set aside a specific time each day where you are forbidden from speaking. It would be good for you—to quiet your mind and temper your character. You understand the principle that 'disaster issues from the tongue,' don't you?"
Ye Zhao slowly poured himself a cup of wine. Jiang Ziqi thought in silence for two seconds before nodding. "Mm, I understand." Then he broke into a grin again. "Alright, alright, let’s eat first. The food is all here."
Looking at him, Ye Zhao wasn't sure if he had actually taken the advice to heart. He added a worried reminder, "When you have a moment, give my suggestion some serious thought."
"Yes, yes, I’ve got it..." Jiang Ziqi’s face was full of smiles as he served Ye Zhao a bowl of soup, his tone sounding more like he was humoring a child. He laughed, "Besides, don't I have you by my side? With you here, what do I have to fear?"
Ye Zhao was momentarily speechless, then replied instinctively, "And what if I’m not here one day?"
"Where could you go?"
"To the ends of the earth, perhaps. Who can say? No banquet lasts forever."
Ye Zhao meant it as a joke, but the chopsticks in Pei Shi’an’s hand suddenly clattered onto the table.
"Ahem, my hand slipped..." he explained tonelessly. He set his chopsticks down, his gaze flickering to the bowl of soup in front of Ye Zhao. He suddenly spoke up, "He doesn't like drinking soup before a meal. You should drink that soup yourself before it gets cold."
Jiang Ziqi was taken aback. "Oh, really?" He looked at Ye Zhao.
Ye Zhao gave a slight nod of confirmation and pushed the bowl back. "Mm, I prefer to drink soup after finishing the meal. Let's not let it go to waste."
"Oh..." Jiang Ziqi took the bowl back without a second thought and gulped it down in a few mouthfuls. When he finished, he muttered in confusion, "How did I not know you had that habit?"
Ye Zhao heard him but didn't bother to answer; there was nothing to say.
As the others' attention shifted, Pei Shi’an lowered his eyelids slightly. Those words just now had triggered a fragment of memory. In that memory, it seemed someone had asked that person the same question. Back then, Tianshu’s answer had been exactly the same.
Pei Shi’an’s momentary distraction was noticed by the other two, though both remained silent.
Ye Zhao and Jiang Ziqi continued their vacuous conversation, which was both simple and childishly dull.
"Then tell me, where would you go?"
"I'm not going anywhere; I was just making an analogy. I can't stay by your side every moment of every day for the rest of my life, can I?"
"Every moment? Of course not! I still have to spend time with my Rongrong!"
"...Get lost." A black line of exasperation appeared on Ye Zhao’s forehead.
"But we’ve played together since we were kids. It wouldn't be so bad to hang out for a lifetime, would it?" Jiang Ziqi laughed heartily.
Ye Zhao maintained a deadpan expression. *No, I don't want to hang out with you anymore. Go away.*
Jiang Ziqi ignored the look in Ye Zhao's eyes and raised his cup, signaling for a toast. "Come! A toast to our Fengyun Tower—may its name spread across the world and its grand blueprint unfold! And may we remain friends until we are old."
With a resigned face, Ye Zhao picked up his cup and clinked it against Jiang Ziqi’s. Jiang Ziqi drained his cup heroically.
"It’s not 'our' tower. It’s yours," Ye Zhao said before taking a slow sip of his wine.
"What?" Jiang Ziqi froze. The others also turned to look at Ye Zhao.
"Did you forget? The establishment of Fengyun Tower was meant to prepare you for your marriage to Miss Li. My ambitions do not lie there."
As Ye Zhao finished speaking calmly, Jiang Ziqi shot up from his seat so abruptly that the bowls and chopsticks on the table rattled.
"What?!"
"You mean..." His words stumbled. "You don't plan to manage Fengyun Tower? You... you're not going to build our career with me?"
Faced with Jiang Ziqi’s shock, Ye Zhao remained composed. "I will help you, but Fengyun Tower is yours. Yours alone."
"You...!"
Ye Zhao raised a hand, cutting him off. "Calm down and listen to me first."
Fuming, Jiang Ziqi sat back down heavily, glaring at Ye Zhao as he waited for an explanation.
Ye Zhao spoke unhurriedly, "I told you a long time ago that I have no desire to be an official, nor do I have any interest in power or status."
Jiang Ziqi snapped back irritably, "Yes, you have no interest. You just want to go back and guard those few broken shops of yours, earning a bit of pocket change to support your family."
The words were dripping with sarcasm. Ye Zhao suppressed a twitch of his lips and continued seriously, "I think such a life is very good. My father and mother don't expect me to achieve great things; as long as I can ensure they have no worries about food or clothing and live a comfortable life, that is enough. To live out this life in such a mundane way—I can face myself, and I can face everyone else."
Seeing that Jiang Ziqi wanted to argue, Ye Zhao added, "Just consider me naturally lacking in ambition. I only want to look after my own little plot of land. If you feel you owe me, then giving me a ten percent share of the monthly profits from the *Fengyun Gazette* will be more than enough."
After that speech, Jiang Ziqi didn't know what to say. He fell silent for a short while before sighing with emotion. "I only recently felt that you had changed, but it turns out you’re still like a little old man. Fine... I'll give you twenty percent!"
"Eh?" Ye Zhao paused at the generous offer, though he didn't pay much attention to the "little old man" comment.
Jiang Ziqi wasn't really angry anymore, just filled with his usual frustration and helplessness at Ye Zhao's lack of drive. He slowly sipped his wine and remarked idly, "I really wonder if you were a tortoise in your past life. How can you be so..." He paused to find the right word. "...so devoid of any youthful passion? *Sigh*..."
*You're the one sighing? I'm the one being insulted and I haven't even lamented yet,* Ye Zhao thought.
"Oh? Why do you say that?" Pei Shi’an suddenly asked, sounding genuinely interested.
Jiang Ziqi didn't think twice and answered directly, "You have no idea. This fellow has been unable to muster interest in anything since he was a child. He’s been lazy and lukewarm all day, every day, as if he’s just drifting through life. Especially when he was little—he really was just like a little old man."
"I met him by chance when we were six. Back then, he didn't have a single playmate; no one wanted to play with him. It was mainly because he was too dull and didn't really want to talk to anyone."
Jiang Ziqi continued his critique, "He’d spend all day lying in a rocking chair basking in the sun, dazing off, or flipping through a book, or looking at the scenery. If not that, he’d be doing something else, but no matter how you looked at it, it seemed like he was just killing time. I never saw him play with the other children."
"He lived his life like he was in retirement. It was exactly like the life my grandfather led before he passed away."
Jiang Ziqi had held these thoughts in for a long time; pouring them all out at once made him feel much better.
Ye Zhao’s face was dark with exasperation. He looked left and right, searching for something to throw at Jiang Ziqi.
To his surprise, Pei Shi’an took these words very seriously. He mused, "Is everything you said true?"
"It is."
"It seems that after you met Ye Zhao, his personality brightened considerably." Pei Shi’an recalled what Madam Ye had said.
*Six years old... a drastic change in temperament...*
Jiang Ziqi, suspecting nothing, gave a cheeky grin. "Exactly! Back then, I was the only one who didn't find him boring and sought him out to play. Otherwise, he’d probably still be 'retiring' at home."
Hahaha...
"Shut up," Ye Zhao said, speechless. "Don't you know how annoying it was when you kept pestering me back then?"
Jiang Ziqi said candidly, "I know. Of course I know. You said it plenty of times."
Since the topic had come up, Ye Zhao couldn't help but ask the question that had puzzled him for years. "Then why did you keep sticking to me and refusing to leave?"
"Hmm... that question..." Jiang Ziqi thought for a good while. "At first, I felt you were very quiet. You wouldn't interrupt me when I spoke, even though you didn't really care to acknowledge me."
...
Ye Zhao couldn't help but recall the scenes of facing the young Jiang Ziqi. This fellow had been a chatterbox since childhood. Back then, Ye Zhao had lost his memories; even if he had forgotten he was once an adult, when faced with a cute child who babbled incessantly, he had chosen to be kind and not hurt the child's fragile heart. No matter how annoyed he was by the noise, he had chosen to give him the cold shoulder.
He never imagined that the reason Jiang Ziqi had pestered him so relentlessly was such a ridiculous one.
Ye Zhao: *I have ten thousand curses I’m not sure I should say.*
Enduring a headache, he pressed on, "And later?"
"Later?" Jiang Ziqi continued to think. "Later... I just felt you were different from other kids. For some reason, I just had a feeling in my heart that you were very formidable."
As for what event triggered that feeling or when it started, he couldn't remember...
After finishing, he added a final sentence full of conflicted regret, "I must have been blind back then. How did I ever get a feeling like that?"
Ye Zhao could no longer restrain himself. He drained his wine and threw the cup at him.
"Exactly! You were blind to pester me for so many years! Do you have any idea how much you annoyed me back then?"
Looking back, Ye Zhao felt that the fact he hadn't beaten Jiang Ziqi to death was a testament to his immense tolerance and generosity.
Jiang Ziqi caught the cup easily and stuck his neck out defiantly. "After all these years, I’m your only friend. Do you still find me annoying?"
"Yes."
"Oh?" Jiang Ziqi was shocked. "Do you believe I’ll break off our friendship right here and now?"
Ye Zhao was cold and ruthless. "...Oh. I can't wait."
Jiang Ziqi looked wounded, staring at Ye Zhao with an expression of disbelief, as if looking at a heartless lover.
Then, the scene devolved into chaos.
Pei Shi’an and the other two watched them bickering like fighting roosters.
*Eat, just eat.*
The three of them finished their meal in silence. Then, they watched as the two "enemies" left Quelou and went their separate ways, heads held high, walking in opposite directions. It was a picture of two people who intended never to speak again.
Xie Yusong remarked, "Uncle, I really couldn't tell. To think Ye Zhao was such a dull person when he was a child, haha..."
Pei Shi’an murmured in a low, flat voice, "He is indeed different now..."
His words seemed to carry a hidden meaning. Having said that, he departed, giving no one a chance to probe further.
Su Jinzhou also turned and returned to his manor without a word. From Pei Shi’an’s strange behavior today, he vaguely sensed that something was not quite right.
***
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