[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-i-am-the-xu-family-s-son":3,"chapter-i-am-the-xu-family-s-son-i-am-the-xu-family-s-son-chapter-46":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","I Am the Xu Family's Son",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2307824,4510,"Chapter 46: The Qi State Duke","i-am-the-xu-family-s-son-chapter-46",46,"\u003Cp>In the evening, a palace eunuch arrived at the Xiangyang Marquis House and delivered an apology from Consort Rong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next day.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Many residents of Bianjing saw the Rong family’s carriage return to the Xiangyang Marquis House.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Marquis of Fuchang and his wife stepped down from their carriage, evidently to apologize to the Xiangyang Marquis.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The couple stayed less than an hour, then went to the Qi State Duke’s Mansion to apologize.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After returning from the Qi State Duke’s Mansion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The couple returned home, ate lunch, and then a carriage arrived at the Fuchang Marquis House.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only then did this lady realize that her relative serving in the Imperial Guards had nearly lost his head for failing roll call.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Among the Imperial Guards, noble youths were the most numerous, and they always got along well, treating roll call as a mere formality.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But on this day, the Regional Military Commissioner himself showed up to conduct roll call.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This Rong family relative, accustomed to Consort Rong’s protection, had found an excuse to skip that morning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The commissioner’s personal guards dragged him straight out of his bedroom.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just as the verdict was about to be announced, one of the guards whispered something into the commissioner’s ear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a moment,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>the Rong family relative felt the palpable killing intent above his head vanish.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He then heard the sentence: twenty strokes of the military cudgel.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By the time the sentence was delivered, the Rong family relative was drenched in sweat, his inner garments soaked through.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even the fabric near his crotch.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had truly believed he would be executed on the spot under military law.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The relative, carried back after receiving the cudgel blows, wept before the Fuchang Marquis’s lady:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Cousin, I can’t keep this job. What exactly did you do? My fellow soldiers who used to be close to me today turned into monsters—they nearly killed me!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing this, the Fuchang Marquis himself turned pale.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yesterday his son had offended the Xiangyang Marquis; today came retaliation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Had he not listened to his daughter’s advice, the relative now being carried home would have been a corpse.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The relative was loaded onto a carriage and taken home; the Fuchang Marquis arranged for him to resign from the Imperial Guards.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Back in the inner courtyard, Rong Xian had already been pinned to a stool by the household servants.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rong Xian’s eyes were glazed; his intellect understood what his relative had endured today.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If, yesterday, my ball had struck the son of Princess Pingning,”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>even the Rong family lady, who had always doted on her son, turned pale.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If her kin had truly been beheaded, she would have had no one to appeal to.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Fuchang Marquis took the bamboo board from the servant’s hands.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Take off your pants.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Soon, the courtyard echoed with the sound of bamboo striking flesh.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fortunately, the Fuchang Marquis had long since worn himself out with wine and courtesans; otherwise, Rong Xian would likely have been crippled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sweating profusely, the Fuchang Marquis took the silk handkerchief offered by his concubine and said to his lady:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Prepare gifts and send them to the Yongyi Marquis House.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Had he not blocked your son’s ball, who knows what might have happened today.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Quyuanjie,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yongyi Marquis House,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>not far from the marquis house lay a bustling, lively street.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A vendor selling seasonal fruit occasionally glanced toward the Xu family’s gate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then he witnessed something unbelievable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the morning, a carriage bearing the Qi State Duke’s insignia had delivered goods into the Xu household,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>then a carriage flying the Xiangyang Marquis’s banner entered as well.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Court ladies in sedan chairs arrived, carrying heavy items into the Xu residence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the afternoon, the Fuchang Marquis’s Rong family sent another cart of goods into the Xu household.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This greatly troubled Xu Zai’s eldest son, Xu Zaijing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For today, he had intended to ask his mother and sister about the Xie girl.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But four times, gift-bearers interrupted him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When guests were present, the Xu siblings behaved with proper decorum.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But once the guests left, Sun Shi smiled at her children and said:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Go see for yourselves.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Immediately, Pingmei and Anmei opened the chests and trunks placed in the courtyard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Aside from the Fuchang Marquis House’s gifts—all gold and silverware—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>the other chests contained rare treasures impossible to buy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though Qingyun had saved the girl, he was an Xu family servant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The credit naturally belonged to the Xu family, and to Xu Zaijing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sun Shi did not store these riches in the Xu family vaults; she left their disposal to Xu Zaijing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Zaijing kept one-third for himself, gave one-third to his brothers and sisters, and turned the rest over to his mother.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of what he kept, Xu Zaijing split it in half and gave one portion to his master.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The coachman, after consulting Qingyun, used the wealth to purchase a house in Bianjing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>News of the incident within the Imperial Guards spread swiftly through the noble network.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a small display of power by the Xiangyang Marquis House and the Qi State Duke’s Mansion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In this tiger-and-wolf den of Bianjing, if you don’t roar, people will truly mistake tigers for sick cats.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next day, an auspicious date.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Qi Heng’s father, the Qi State Duke’s second legitimate son, not yet inherited, represented the Xu family in performing the betrothal rites—nacai and wenming—with the Xie family.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Suddenly, the noble families of Bianjing viewed the Xu family with new eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Zaijing’s marriage was settled; the Xu family sent invitations to the Sheng family in Yangzhou.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the Rong family’s scandal and the Gu family’s power gradually reached the common people’s ears,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Zaijing was harvesting corn in the courtyard with Deng Bo.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That night, Xu Zaijing ate steamed young corn.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not as sweet as in his past life, but still quite good.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The weather grew colder; the cotton planted in the Xu household turned white. The servants were assigned to harvest it, dry it, and remove the seeds—yielding a hundred jin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Deng Bo, a peasant’s son, had signed a lifetime indenture with the Xu family.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For a long time, his main task was leading other indentured servants to catch pests in the cotton fields.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The pests caught fattened several old hens in the household.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Every morning, after completing his lessons, Xu Zaijing spent his afternoons studying calligraphy and literature with his brothers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gu Tingyu and Gu Tingye visited several times.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Each time, Xu Zaiend, Xu Zaihang, and Gu Tingyu wrote inside the room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gu Tingye stood aside, challenging Xu Zaijing to archery pot games, winning and losing alternately.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the evening, Xu Zaijing went with his master to Deng Bo’s place to study how to fluff cotton.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fortunately, Xu Zaijing retained memories from his past life and vaguely recalled that fluffing cotton required a large bow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Remember: ancients were not stupid, merely limited in exposure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Zaijing described the method broadly; Deng Bo and the servants soon figured it out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A servant skilled in carpentry even crafted a smooth circular board to press and flatten the fluffed cotton.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On this day, Xu Zaijing was using his front teeth to split a sugarcane.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The cane had been sent by the Sheng family; each stalk was washed clean,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>cut to half a man’s height, uniform in thickness, white-fleshed and juicy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Two more stalks, vertically halved, were being chewed loudly by the now much taller Qiliju,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and in the nearby trough, his former mount had also been given one.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Crack.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Zaijing winced—his front tooth had broken off.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Qingyun, who had just finished chewing and sucking the sweet juice from his sugarcane, spat it out and saw his master’s tooth fall.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Zaijing sat stunned—he’d forgotten he was at the age for losing baby teeth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No wonder Anmei has been so proper lately, smiling without showing teeth, barely speaking when given gifts—she’s losing her baby teeth too.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sun Shi naturally knew her young son was losing teeth; over the past year, her dowry had slowly been recovered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though Princess Pingning was proud, she held some fondness for Xu Zaijing, and gradually, the Xiangyang Marquis also showed friendliness toward the Xu family.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At several banquets and gatherings, it became known that the Xu and Sheng families had resolved their decade-old grudge.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The clearest sign was that Sheng Wei’s business improved markedly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sheng Wei naturally wrote to his aunt about all this; one-tenth of the Sheng family’s business profits now flowed into the Xu household.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the imperial palace with its Cengceng  palaces, the empress’s lady-in-waiting carried a wooden basket respectfully into the empress’s sleeping quarters.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Your Majesty, the Marquis of Courage and Resolve, the Xu family, presents Your Majesty with a bundle of white cotton wadding.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Dropping the first 100 chapters of the new book hurts; please support this reader, love you!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1474,"2026-06-20T10:32:38.675Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","f29af49860a79287b272ddd83240e7fcaf53f6460156a4438566317c4620783c","i-am-the-xu-family-s-son-chapter-47","i-am-the-xu-family-s-son-chapter-45",790,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fi-am-the-xu-family-s-son-cover.jpg"]