Keeping Him Company (2)

The man stroked his chin beneath the mask.

"Tian Feng, huh? A befitting name for a Beauty such as you." He complimented.

Shen Tianyu pouted and put her hands on her hips. "Young Master, it's your turn now. You promised, you can't back out."

"Haha. Of course. I'm not backing out." He laughed as he put his cheeks in one hand, looking at her pouting face. "I... I am Rong Jian."

"Then, Young Master Rong." Shen Tianyu replied with a smile. After a brief moment, her smile faltered and a questioning look appeared in her eyes. "Rong Jian? Isn't that the name of..." she trailed off.

A trace of panic flashed across his eyes but he covered it up with a laugh. "Haha. I hear that a lot. Unfortunately, I'm not him. If I was..., maybe I'd have more time visiting you."

His panicked eyes did not escape Shen Tianyu but she didn't mention anything further out loud. 'If you were worried about getting found out, why did you use your real name? Couldn't you have used an alias or something? It's not like I gave you my real, birth name either.'

What Shen Tianyu didn't know was that Rong Jian had already done his research on her. With her former reputation, it wasn't hard to find out her identity, at least in the outside world, and it eoukdn't be easy to cover that up. Of course, because of that, she didn't try to sweep he roast under the rug. Yet, she never thought someone would look her up so soon, and for such a trivial reason like a song. Perhaps Rong Jian was feeling a bit guilty about it and unintentionally told her his real name, thinking that she might not know him. After all, he was only an adopted prince, who would pay attention to him? Though he should have known that Shen Tianyu was more than the rumors made her out to be, but he didn't think she'd know about matters outside of Nang Zhou.

"Come, Young Master Rong. Emperor's Smile is quite good." Shen Tianyu smiled as she picked up the jar and poured some wine into a glass(1). She then picked it up and handed it to him. She did the same for herself and held up her glass.

"Cheers to our first meeting."

"Cheers," Rong Jian copied her, clinking his glass with hers, and downing the alcohol.

Shen Tianyu who had only taken a sip giggled. "Young Master Rong has a high tolerance, it seems." She praised.

"Naturally. With such a beauty, how could I not show off? Come, is there anything else here you want? I'll buy it for you." He coaxed her.

"Heehee. Young Master is very kind. Have you eaten yet?" Shen Tianyu played along.

"Hm... Have I? I've forgotten." He replied, staring at her with warm eyes.

"Oh? That's troublesome. How will I know how much to order?" She joked.

"Just order as you wish. I have enough to pay." He told her. She shrugged and proceeded to order some food for dinner. As the food, came, she didn't forget her manners and invited Rong Jian then started eating in an elegant manner.

Lavender Palace had wine and company, but also food services. After all, most of the employees lived there so they needed cooks to make food, or at least a kitchen so Shen Tianyu thought, 'Why not make it into a part of the business?'. They were working at night so they might need dinner anyways. In addition, certain refreshments can make them thirsty, and therefore, order more drinks or alcohol.

There were two "menus" to order from. One was for customers, which was plainly written and could be handed out and ordered from. This menu included a lot of refreshments that increased thirst or hunger, like peanuts. The other menu wasn't written and is known only to the workers there. It's more a list of what to order when in front of customers, the best-looking foods, to make them hungrier. Of course, if they are not working, they can order whatever they want from the kitchen. If they want, they could even go in and fix something for themselves, if they weren't busy at the time.

'So what if it's sketchy? This is a business. Besides, we deal in information, we're shady enough, what's more shadiness?' Shen Tianyu thought to herself as she used her chopsticks to pick up some meat. She had ordered from the "secret" menu. Even if she was the Palace Master, she was still currently working as a courtesan and not everyone here knew her true identity.

"Is it good?" Rong Jian asked as he looked at her eating away. She nodded with her chopsticks on her mouth, briefly glancing at him before turning back to her food.

"I've been busy today, ah. I even forgot to eat. I actually didn't remember I haven't eaten until you asked." Shen Tianyu said in between bites of food.

"Ah, yes. The matter with the Wen Fmaily. My poor Tian'er. How could you forget to eat?" He stroked her hair with a hurt look in his eyes. "Those Wens are not worth you getting hungry. It is not good to not eat, it will hurt your body."

Shen Tianyu lowered her chopsticks and bowl, a satisfied smile on her face. Rong Jian swore he could see cat ears and a wiggling cat tail. "I wasn't. I just got too excited and forgot to eat. Heehee. Those Wen people won't dare to brazenly mess with us now." She stated proudly.

Thinking how cute she was, Rong Jian kept stroking her head. After a while, Shen Tianyu started to eat again, with a bright face.

...

After a few shichen, when it was just past midnight, Rong Jian excused himself and left. Shen Tianyu roamed around and interacted with other customers that had initially called out to her until dawn came. As a courtesan, she didn't need to clean up so she went back to her room, debating whether she should sleep or cultivate. She settled on sleeping until noon and going to cultivate again.