The Tang Family’s Seven Os

Chapter 180 - TTFSO Chapter 180

The day after Sheng Cen succeeded to the throne, Empress Xia prepared a family banquet in Orchid Palace.

Of course her husband would not be attending, as he had voluntarily moved out of the palace to recuperate, and Sheng Cen had thoughtfully sent his favourite son there to reunite them as father and son.

Apart from family, Empress Xia also invited Tang Qi Yuan to the family banquet.

After receiving the news, Tang Qi Yuan was happy to go. Empress Xia had always taken care of him over the years, and he had long considered Empress Xia as family.

This time he did not ask Sheng Cen to pick him up from school, but went to Orchid Palace by himself after classes.

Sheng Cen took office on his first day, and he had a lot of official business to do. When he had finished his business, he realised that it was already time for Tang Qi Yuan to leave work. He quickly picked up the key and walked out in a hurry.

His car was parked at Orchid Palace, he walked through the front yard and was just about to walk towards the car park when he heard Empress Xia shouting at him.

He looked back at Empress Xia, then glanced down at his watch and said with a slightly anxious look on his face: “Mum, is there something wrong? If it’s not urgent, let’s wait until I pick up Xiao Qi.”

He turned around and wanted to leave, but Empress Xia tugged him back and asked in a deep voice: “I thought about it all night yesterday, do you really not want to marry Xiao Qi?”

“……En.” Sheng Cen replied softly and said: “Mum, don’t mention this matter again in the future, I’ll go pick up Xiao Qi first.”

Empress Xia did not stop him this time, but went back into the house a little lost.

Sheng Cen’s face was slightly stony as he turned around and walked towards the car park, just as he reached the garden, he saw Tang Qi Yuan walking in by himself, he couldn’t help but freeze and asked with a frown: “How did you get here?”

“By taxi.” Tang Qi Yuan smiled, “You’re busy now, you don’t have to pick me up in future.”

Sheng Cen wrinkled his brow and before he could say anything, Tang Qi Yuan continued: “I’ll go in first and help Auntie.”

He bowed his head and walked past Sheng Cen, unconsciously dodging his gaze.

Empress Xia was directing everyone to set up the banquet hall, her face somewhat sad, as if she was thinking about something.

“Auntie.” Tang Qi Yuan called out obediently.

She froze for a moment when she saw Tang Qi Yuan, then immediately smiled and beckoned to Tang Qi Yuan, saying in a soft voice: “Xiao Seven, come here quickly.”

Tang Qi Yuan smiled sweetly and walked over, “Auntie, is there anything I can help you with?”

“I don’t need your help, I’m all set. Why did you leave so early last night? Auntie didn’t even have a proper talk with you.” Empress Xia took Tang Qi Yuan’s hand and sat down on the sofa.

“My Big Dad had too much wine last night, so he was in a hurry to go home.” Tang Qi Yuan replied with a smile.

Sheng Cen walked in after Tang Qi Yuan and sat down opposite Tang Qi Yuan and Empress Xia, casually picking up the newspaper next to him and flipping through it a few times.

Empress Xia did not look at him, but looked at Tang Qi Yuan and smiled, suddenly asking: “Xiao Qi, I heard that your brothers have all gotten married, right?”

Tang Qi Yuan nodded, “En, they have all gotten married.”

“Then has General Tang rushed you to get married?” Empress Xia asked with a smile.

Tang Qi Yuan shook his head, “No, my Big Dad said he hoped I could spend more time with them and that there was no need to rush into marriage.”

“What about you? You are already so old, even if you don’t get married you should fall in love, do you have any ideas?”

Sheng Cen paused in his flipping through the newspaper and looked up at his mother, the spot on his brow unconsciously furrowed.

Tang Qi Yuan froze for a moment, his first reaction was to want to look up at Sheng Cen, a habit he’d had for so many years.

Over the years, every time he encountered a question he didn’t know how to answer, or something he didn’t know what to do, he would unconsciously rely on Sheng Cen, but this time he tried hard to suppress this urge to look at Sheng Cen, and instead of looking up, he thought for a moment and said: “Auntie, I haven’t thought about it that much.”

“It’s not too late to think about it.” Empress Xia looked at him with a gentle gaze and said in a soft voice: “Auntie has a good candidate here that I would like to introduce to you, would you be willing?”

“Mum!” Sheng Cen raised his head from the newspaper and called out in dismay.

Empress Xia gave him a faint look, reached out to brush the hair around her ear and said indifferently: “I don’t care if you get married or not, or who you marry, but Xiao Qi can’t delay any longer, this is not your business.”

Sheng Cen’s brow furrowed extremely tightly, his black face didn’t say anything for half a day, he annoyedly pretended to look down and continue reading the newspaper, but his ears unconsciously perked up.

Empress Xia looked at Tang Qi Yuan and asked in a gentle voice, “Xiao Qi, what do you think?”

Tang Qi Yuan lowered his eyes and was silent for a moment before saying to Empress Xia in a very soft voice: “……I’ll listen to you, auntie.”

Sheng Cen’s movement of holding the newspaper paused and raised his head incredulously, if he was just stunned earlier, this time he was already stupefied.

When Empress Xia heard Tang Qi Yuan’s reply, she immediately smiled and took Tang Qi Yuan’s hand affectionately, saying: “The person I want to introduce to you is a distant nephew of mine, named Xia Ming, he is handsome and has outstanding abilities, I have watched him grow up, I guarantee that there is no problem with his quality and three views. Later on, he should also be coming over, keep an eye out for him, if you feel satisfied, I will introduce you to him.”

The newspaper in Sheng Cen’s hand was wrinkled in his hand, and he snorted coldly, saying: “Just Xia Ming’s looks, what’s so handsome about him?”

Empress Xia turned her head and glared at him angrily, ever since Sheng Cen said yesterday that he would not marry Tang Qi Yuan, she had been looking at Sheng Cen in an unpleasant way.

Who wouldn’t be angry at the loss of her daughter-in-law whom she has loved for so many years?

“I’m talking to Xiao Qi, what does it matter to you?” Empress Xia looked at him with no good humour and said unhappily: “Everyone says that Xia Ming looks three points similar to you, you saying this now, are you saying that, I, your mother, made you look ugly?”

Sheng Cen couldn’t refute, his frown deepened and he said very reluctantly: “I don’t look anything like him.”

When she looked at Tang Qi Yuan, her eyebrows became as soft as before, she smiled and said softly: “Don’t listen to him, Xia Ming is really good looking, he is very spirited, you will know when you see him later, and he is a gentleman, unlike this boy who has such a bad temper, if you are together, he will definitely treat you well. ”

Tang Qi Yuan nodded gently, feeling a little bewildered in his heart, unable to tell what he felt for a moment.

Empress Xia said: “Don’t put too much pressure on yourself, even if you don’t like Xia Ming it doesn’t matter, Auntie still has many suitable matches waiting to be introduced to you, don’t worry, Auntie will find a satisfactory partner for you.”

“……Thank you auntie.” Tang Qi Yuan smiled.

He tried to ignore the little discomfort in his heart and kept telling himself that this was the right thing to do, that he should just study well when he was at an age to study and fall in love when he should, that was the life he had planned for himself and he should have done this a long time ago.

When Empress Xia heard his answer, she was overjoyed and immediately went to call Xia Ming to urge him to come sooner.

After Empress Xia left, Sheng Cen looked at Tang Qi Yuan and coldly curled his lips as he said in a deep voice: “What? Are you anxious to get married?”

Tang Qi Yuan did not look up, he hesitated for a moment and nodded gently.

Sheng Cen’s expression shook, his face sank fiercely, “Tang Qi Yuan, you……”

His voice choked and he couldn’t finish his sentence for a long time, he knew what that feeling of disappointment in his heart was, yet he couldn’t say anything, he just kept his eyes fixed on Tang Qi Yuan, his gaze was filled with incredulity, shock, and also caught unprepared.

Tang Qi Yuan blinked gently, lifted his head to look at him and said lightly: “It’s about time to think about it at this age.”

Sheng Cen froze, the anger in his eyes dissipated and a trace of bewilderment flashed through.

His little table mate, who had always followed the rules and procedures, had reached an age where he really wanted to fall in love.

Tang Qi Yuan pursed his somewhat dry lips, holding back the discomfort in his heart as he slowly spoke up and advised: “It’s not just me, now that you’re the Emperor, you should also find a mate, now that the people of the empire are eager for you to start a family soon, I’ve heard that the daughter of Governor Li’s family is good, and the son of the Sun family……”

Before Tang Qi Yuan could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by Sheng Cen.

Sheng Cen sat up from the sofa at once, his deep, bottomless eyes looked at him for a long time, and said with a cold face, word by word: “You don’t need to worry about my affairs, and you don’t need to worry about whether I want to get married or not.”

When Tang Qi Yuan heard his words, he was stunned for a moment, he paused for a moment, then nodded numbly, “……Oh ……Ok.”

Tang Qi Yuan’s gaze darkened, and his mind unconsciously recalled what Sheng Cen had said to Empress Xia yesterday.

“Have I gone mad? It’s not enough to be controlled by him for so many years, but to let him control me for the rest of my life?”

Only now did Tang Qi Yuan realise, somewhat belatedly, that he had indeed controlled Sheng Cen too much over the years, and had long since gone beyond the realm of being table mates and overstepped the mark somewhat. He could not go on like this.

After a moment of self-reflection, he hurriedly spoke up to assure himself, “Then I won’t care¹管 (guǎn): means care, but can also mean control based on the context. about you from now on.”

Sheng Cen looked back at Tang Qi Yuan in surprise.

His little table mate said he won’t care about him anymore?

Oh, his little table mate wanted to fall in love, so he didn’t want to care about him anymore.

Realising the fact that he had been abandoned, Sheng Cen’s gaze became deeper, and his heart welled up with a great loss and a sourness that he couldn’t ignore.

He looked at Tang Qi Yuan and angrily threw down a sentence and turned to leave, “Whatever you want!”

Sheng Cen’s back was cold and upright, every footstep seemed to carry anger with it.

Tang Qi Yuan bowed his head and sighed, after so many years, his table mate’s temper was still so bad, his temper was so temperamental, and he didn’t know who could stand him, could everyone wait for the future empress of their empire?

Although Tang Qi Yuan said that he didn’t care about Sheng Cen anymore, he still couldn’t help but worry about his table mate.

He decided that when he had time, he would go to the bookstore and buy some relationship guides for his table mate to read, so that his table mate could learn relationship skills properly.

His table mate is so smart, he was sure that his table mate could learn how to fall in love very quickly, and he should also buy a copy for himself in the meantime, after all, they should both fall in love, each with a different person.

But he was a bit dumber than his table mate, so he probably wouldn’t learn as fast as he did. By the time his table mate got married, he should almost be able to find a partner, and by the time his table mate’s child was born, he should be able to learn to fall in love, right?

In any case, when spring comes, the flowers are going to bloom one way or another.

• 1管 (guǎn): means care, but can also mean control based on the context.