Chapter Eighty-Three Beautiful Encounter

  But after some thought, Nie Bowen still turned to ask Du Haoran: "How about it? Are you going or not?" As the eldest son of the Nie family, when did he ever have to look at others' faces to eat?

  Now, the old jade mine of Nie's family can't produce much jade material anymore. They are eager to find a new jade mine. Du Haoran and his apprentice have an extremely high level of expertise in mining, so at this critical moment, Nie Bowei naturally cannot afford to offend Du Haoran over a trivial matter.

  "Alright." Du Haoran said lazily. Although he didn't like Xie Yunfeng, the chef at De Yue Lou wasn't someone he disliked, and since Nie Bowen had already agreed, he might as well go eat a meal there.

  "Get the carriage ready." Nie Bowen ordered his servant, Nie Feng.

  "The carriage below is also quite large, if Master Nie doesn't mind, let's go together, it will be more convenient for us to talk and chat." Xie Yunfeng hurriedly smiled and said, "I'll send the two young masters back later."

  "No need." Nie Bowen refused with a single word without even raising an eyebrow.

  Xie Yunfeng's smile on his face stiffened for a moment, but after an instant, it was still a perfect and extreme smile.

  Du Haoran glanced at him and picked up his teacup to take a sip, suddenly asking: "Is Mr. Xie familiar with Miss Ye?"

  "Ah?" Xie Yunfeng was taken aback, and he quickly denied it repeatedly, "No, no, I don't know her." He also smiled and said, "I just met her once at Guang Nianren last time."

  "How did you know Ye Xiuniang's fate was bad?"

  “Th...” Xie Yunfeng broke out in a cold sweat, and the smile on his face could no longer be maintained. “That... my mother heard it from someone.” He was worried in his heart: Would Du Haoran really have taken a liking to Ye Niang and intentionally inquired about her?

  But thinking again: Ye Zhuo's fate is bad, and it's not his own fabrication; now speaking to remind Du Gongzi of a sentence, Du Gongzi still has to acknowledge his favor, what's there to fear?

  As he thought about it, he relaxed a bit. However, in his heart, he had great reservations about Du Haoran - this Du Haoran was completely unlike Nie Bowen, who was easy to deal with. He was like a male lion, looking lazy and careless on the surface, but beneath that exterior lay an unimaginable clarity and sharpness, speaking as if pouncing on prey like a lion. Unpredictable, striking at the vital point.

  "Who did your mother hear it from?" Nie Bowen asked with a seemingly interested expression.

  He was extremely displeased to hear that Du Haoran was still asking about Ye Zhuo. During the auction, he had used Ye Zhuo to provoke Du Haoran, but it was just a test to get his approval for his sister's marriage, not genuinely hoping for Du Haoran's help in buying her work. Now, however, Du Haoran not only clearly rejected the marriage proposal from the Nie family but also showed strong interest in Ye Zhuo, making him extremely uneasy - there was no more stable way to bring Du Haoran into the Nie family than by making him his brother-in-law. But now, that girl from the Ye family had become a stumbling block for the Nie family's plans. With this in mind, Nie Bowei secretly made up his mind: even if Ye Zhuo had exceptional jade carving talent, he would not allow her to be included in the Nie family's plans, nor would he give her more opportunities to interact with Du Haoran.

  Now, what he needs to do is to let Xie Yunfeng emphasize again that Ye Zhun's fate is not good, in order to dispel Du Haoran's unnecessary thoughts. Although in his opinion, with Ye Zhun's humble family background, at most she can only be a concubine for Du Haoran, and it won't affect the marriage between Du and Nie families. However, Du Haoran usually doesn't care about social status when interacting with people, he only cares if their personalities match. So, it's better to prevent problems before they arise.

  "I heard it from her sister," said Xie Yunfeng. He lowered his eyelids, and a hint of embarrassment suddenly appeared on his face: "My mother originally wanted me to take her as a concubine, so she specifically inquired about her, but later heard that she was unlucky, fearing that I would be affected by her bad luck, and immediately gave up the idea."

  Nie Bowen had his own thoughts, and Xie Yunfeng also had his own plans: looking at Du Haoran like this, it seemed that he really took an interest in Ye Zhuo. Once Ye Zhuo climbed up to Du Haoran's high branch, the pillow wind would blow, and the Xie family who had offended her would not end well. It's better to destroy this marriage, with the Ye family's small door and small household power, they can't stir up any big waves. Thinking that way, even if he didn't deign to take her as a concubine, Du Haoran wouldn't dare to marry her as his wife either. What's more, there was also the saying "hard life"? Even if he liked her again, it couldn't compare to his own life!

  "Oh?" Du Haoran looked at Xie Yunfeng with a hint of a smile, but made no comment on the matter.

  Xie Yunfeng was looked at by him, and suddenly felt that his five internal organs were all seen through, the little thoughts in his heart were exposed without hiding in front of Du Haoran.

  Although it was early winter, Xie Yunfeng's forehead was sweating.

  Just as Xie Yunfeng wiped the sweat from his forehead and was getting restless, a servant named Nie Feng came in to report to Nie Bowen: "Young master, the carriage is ready."

  "I'm actually a bit hungry, let's go." Nie Bowen put down his teacup with a lack of enthusiasm and stood up. Du Haoran's reaction always made him feel like he was punching cotton balls, very powerless. At this moment, he just wanted to fill his stomach with delicious food and didn't want to engage in a battle of wits with Du Haoran again.

  Three people came out of the door and were about to get in the car when Xie Yunfeng suddenly exclaimed, "Ah!" He instructed his attendant, "My fan was left inside, hurry up and bring it over." Then he apologetically said to Nie Bowen, "Sorry, I have this habit of being careless and forgetful, can't seem to change it."

  "Haha, you're quite similar to me." Nie Bowen patted his shoulder. Compared to Du Haoran, Nie Bowen felt that he liked talking to Xie Yunfeng much more at this moment, so his attitude was even more enthusiastic than before.

  This intimate gesture made Xie Yunfeng somewhat surprised and delighted. He opened his mouth to speak, but suddenly saw a horse-drawn carriage coming towards him on the road, with a familiar face peeking out of the half-open window. He exclaimed in surprise: "Sister?"

  "Xiao Lei?" A melodious voice like a silver bell came from the carriage, followed by a shout: "Stop!" The horse-drawn carriage slowly stopped in front of Nie's house.

  "She's my older half-sister, only ten days older than me. I'll go talk to her for a bit." Xie Yunfeng turned his head to explain to Nie Bowen and Du Haoran, then hurried over as the carriage came to a stop.

  A delicate hand, as white and tender as jade, first appeared on the car curtain. This hand was so beautiful that it couldn't help but make one wonder what kind of woman its owner was. Next, the car curtain opened, and a slender figure with a subtle and elegant demeanor got out of the car. The beauty of this figure's posture and movements was so captivating that people wanted to applaud for her even before they could see her face clearly.

  As soon as he got a clear look at the woman's appearance, even Nie Bowen, who was used to seeing beautiful people, couldn't help but stare blankly for a moment.

  The woman's skin was like snow, her cheeks were like peaches, her nose was like a hanging gallbladder, and her mouth was like a cherry. Under the lightly swept eyebrows, a pair of eyes as black as shining stone sparkled like spring water rippling with waves. When she raised her eyelids, clear ripples appeared, and when she turned around, brilliance was born. On her head, only one simple flying butterfly silver flower hairpin was inserted at an angle, and the silver fine pearls swayed with her movements, shining brightly. She wore a silver fox fur cloak on her body, and the silver white fox fur wrapped around her neck, making her face even more radiant, like a spring morning, and her eyes were like stars.

  Xie Yunfeng carefully helped the woman down from the carriage, said a word to her, and then led her to Nie Bowen and Du Haoran's presence, introducing: "This is my sister." He also pointed at Nie Bowen and Du Haoran, saying: "This is the eldest young master of the Nie family in Nanyun City, Young Master Nie. This gentleman is the famous mining expert Feidu Dashi's senior disciple, Young Master Du."

  "Yun Yi has met Nie Gongzi and Du Gongzi." Xie Yunyi elegantly folded her hands in a salute, her voice as melodious as an oriole's song, even more pleasant than the call she made earlier in the carriage.

  "Thank you, young lady." Nie Bowen returned a courtesy. Du Haoran also followed suit and made a casual bow.

  After the ceremony, Xie Yunfeng asked: "The sky is getting late, sister, where are you going?"

  Xie Yun smiled slightly and explained: "As the weather turned cold, I hurried to Guang Neng Ren to deliver winter clothes to Master Neng. Unexpectedly, I played two rounds of chess with the master, and it was already this late. Remembering what you said last time about that piece of jade material, I thought I'd take a detour to the workshop to pick it up, but I didn't expect to run into you all here." Miao Mu glanced at Nie Bo Wen and Du Hao Ran, and gently scolded Xie Yun: "Since Master Nie and Master Du have arrived in Nan Shan Town, how could you be so rude as not to bring them back home for a good reception, to fulfill the host's courtesy?"

  Xie Yunfeng looked at Nie Bowen with some trepidation and stammered: "What kind of identity do Master Nie and Master Du have? I'm afraid that mentioning them casually would make the two masters disdainful."

  Xie's siblings both spoke in this manner, and Nie Bowen couldn't help but smile wryly: "Young Master Xie, your words have made me blush. Although the Nie family has relied on our ancestors' reputation to expand our business, at the end of the day, we are just ordinary merchants, with the same social status as the Xie family. What's all this talk about looking down on each other?"

  Xie Yunfeng was overjoyed to hear this and said: "If that's the case, I'll boldly invite you two gentlemen to my home for a visit. If you don't mind, I have a quiet and elegant pavilion at my place, how about you two stay overnight at my house tonight?"

  Is this really hitting the snake with a stick? Nie Bowen suddenly felt some toothache.

  He was just being modest, it was his humility that made him say so. As the nephew of the current noble imperial concubine and the heir to the largest jade mine excavation rights in the country, Nie Bowen was naturally very proud, so proud that he didn't even bother to talk to someone like Xie Yunfeng, let alone visit his home. It wasn't until Du Haoran annoyed him today that he needed Xie Yunfeng to mediate and calm him down. As a noble young master, he had his own set of social rules. He knew exactly how to interact with people of different statuses, what to say, and how far to take the relationship. Otherwise, those small merchants would just use their connections with the Nie family to brag and show off, cheating men and bullying women, which would ruin the Nie family's reputation and bring them trouble.

  Thank you for the rewards from Huā Yǔ Róng, Thank you to Christ Mountain-Maple Leaf, Do I still have a chance?, and Feng Wu Yu Tian's pink votes. Although this book didn't do well in terms of results, it is the only one that remained on the new book monthly vote chart until the end of the month. This is all thanks to everyone's support for Líng Shuǐ, thank you all sincerely.