Peace and Prosperity for the Year

Su Li nodded and said to Qing Mu, "Bring him in."

The use of "bring" instead of "invite" immediately gave Qing Mu a clue — the master clearly disliked Su Shimao and didn't consider him a guest at all.

Qing Mu went to the door and opened it, only to see Su Shimao wearing a long robe, his hair neatly combed, looking quite proper. But on closer look, there were patches of ice in his hair, seemingly from undried moisture.

Seeing Qing Mu open the door, Su Shimao shivered from the cold as he entered the courtyard, impatiently saying, "I already told you I'm Ali's cousin. You should've opened the door earlier. I froze outside for half a day. If I catch a cold, can you afford to compensate me?"

Listening to Su Shimao's scolding, Qing Mu thought to himself, what a pretentious guy, acting like he's something special.

Qing Mu led the way, bringing Su Shimao to the room where everyone was gathered. Along the way, Su Shimao couldn't help but look around, noticing how exquisitely decorated Su Li's courtyard was, with beautiful wintersweet blooming in the corner, very elegant.

Looking at the beautiful courtyard, Su Shimao felt a pang of jealousy, which only strengthened his resolve to latch onto Huainan Prince's heir, Li Yanhao.

They passed a corridor, turned two corners, and Qing Mu stopped at the door of a large room, turning back to say, "Su Shimao, the master and Fourth Uncle are inside. Come in with me."

Su Shimao pricked up his ears, hearing laughter and cheerful voices inside the room, nodding eagerly.

Qing Mu led Su Shimao inside. Su Li and Fourth Uncle wore faint smiles, their faces full of scrutinizing looks directed at Su Shimao.

As Su Shimao entered, his eyes quickly scanned the room and saw Li Yanhao was indeed there, sitting with Yuanbao's older cousin, Tudan, drinking and laughing.

A flicker of delight passed through Su Shimao's eyes, but he quickly lowered his gaze, noticing everyone was staring at him like he was some kind of animal.

The room suddenly fell silent, the cheerful laughter from before completely gone.

Feeling extremely awkward and sensing his mismatch with the people in the room, Su Shimao forced a smile and suddenly knelt down, kowtowing to Fourth Uncle, Fourth Aunt, and Lady Wang, saying, "Your nephew kowtows to Fourth Uncle, Fourth Aunt, and Second Aunt, wishing the elders a peaceful year."

"Oh my!" Fourth Aunt Chen exclaimed, her eyes nearly popping out. Su Shimao kowtowing to them? That must be the sun rising in the west!

Su Li was also surprised. Exchanging a glance with Fourth Uncle and Fourth Aunt, she thought to herself, what kind of dark scheme must Su Shimao be harboring to humiliate his scholarly pride and kowtow to these elders he usually looked down on?

Lady Wang, however, was completely unaware. Seeing her nephew come to visit and even kowtow, she felt embarrassed to let Su Shimao stay kneeling and quickly smiled, saying, "Shimao, please get up."

Only then did Su Shimao stand up, ignoring Lady Wang as he walked straight over to Li Yanhao's side.

Li Yanhao was playing a drinking game of finger-guessing with Xiao Yun. Having lost more than he won, he was somewhat drunk and in high spirits, determined to win back his losses, completely unaware that another man had joined them.

Su Li pursed her lips, watching Su Shimao. She guessed that her cousin, who never came without a reason, was here today for some kind of "spectacular performance," though she didn't know what it would be.

Su Li and Fourth Uncle and Fourth Aunt were all curious — what kind of bizarre antics would Su Shimao pull off this time?