Chapter 425: Chapter 425

"Greetings, Family Head!"

Xiaoyao was brought before Xuanwu Wenyuan. He maintained his consistently polite manner while not making people feel his humility. This let people understand that this was merely his politeness, not that he was inferior to others.

"Very good! Very good!" Xuanwu Wenyuan looked at Xiaoyao and applied some pressure, but found that Xiaoyao remained as calm and relaxed as always, completely unaffected. This made him certain that Xiaoyao was definitely no ordinary person.

"Mm, this young one has always been good. Is the Family Head giving this young one a reward?" Xiaoyao smoothly replied.

"..." Xuanwu Lingxiao was somewhat speechless. I told you to speak properly—do you call this speaking properly?

"Hehe, interesting!" Xuanwu Wenyuan praised again.

"Uncle, this isn't the time for that. I've already brought him out—you need to punish his crimes," Shang Lingjian spoke up. He felt this situation seemed to be getting stranger and stranger. Most strangely, his uncle seemed to quite like that dog slave. What was this situation?

"What crimes? I can say with a clear conscience that I've done right by the Xuanwu family!" Xiaoyao replied.

"You still have the nerve to say that! Tell me, what was your purpose in coming to our Xuanwu family?" Shang Lingjian jumped up, pointing at Xiaoyao and loudly questioning him.

Xiaoyao thought for a moment and said, "My purpose is actually very simple—to better learn servant skills. As a servant, one must constantly strive to improve oneself and become the top among servants!" New ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄhapters are published on novel-fire.net

"..." Everyone fell silent. It seemed like many crows were flying through their minds.

"Pfft..." Xuanwu Lingxiao couldn't help but laugh. She wasn't doubting Xiaoyao's statement—she just found his way of putting it very amusing. She'd never heard such a statement before.

Becoming the top among servants...

Usually, servants would say things like: "I want to work hard to get promoted, escape this servant profession, become a steward, become a head butler," or "Work hard to become a master myself."

Those were the normal things servants would say. No one would say, "I want to become the top among servants," because even if you were the top servant, you were still a servant!!

"You're lying! What you're learning aren't servant skills. What servant learns monster beast care, alchemy, or goes to the academy to read books? Are these servant skills? You could even take the imperial examinations with these!"

"Eh, I did mention this before. Didn't I say I wanted to take the imperial examinations? Base young master, you even mocked me then," Xiaoyao replied blandly.

"Also, why do you think what I'm learning aren't servant skills? Let me ask you—if the master's family needs me to help care for monster beasts, shouldn't I learn monster beast care? If the master's family wants me to refine pills, shouldn't I learn some alchemy? If the master's family needs me to find books for her, like Miss Lingxiao does, shouldn't I familiarize myself with book contents beforehand?" Xiaoyao looked at Shang Lingjian and questioned him back.

"..." Shang Lingjian was speechless again. Xiaoyao's words weren't wrong. If the master's family needed it, servants indeed had to know these things. But—

"You're right—it is needed. But the problem is that's for many people. For you alone to learn everything is very problematic."

"What's problematic about it? I want to become the top servant, so naturally I need to know all servant skills and satisfy all the master's family requirements. I'm a full-time servant—this is basic!!" Xiaoyao said very seriously.

"The servant profession seems simple, but actually requires very high talent. Someone like base young master could only be an ordinary servant. Compared to a professional like me, the difference isn't just a little," Xiaoyao took the opportunity to look down on Shang Lingjian.

"You should be the servant! Your whole family should be servants! Only lowly people like you would do such lowly work. I don't need to!!" Shang Lingjian roared angrily.

"Base young master, I want to tell you that no profession has distinctions of nobility or lowliness. People are the same—what differs is people's behavior. Just like base young master—whether in behavior or speech, you're of the lowly sort. This is something status can't explain," Xiaoyao said with a smile.

If Xuanwu Wenyuan weren't present, Xuanwu Lingxiao would definitely applaud in agreement!

"You, you, you dare scold me!!" Shang Lingjian was quite stimulated, even stuttering. Being stimulated in front of Xuanwu Wenyuan made him even more agitated.

"No, this isn't scolding—this is stating a fact. If I were scolding you, it wouldn't be these words!" Xiaoyao shook his head very seriously.

"Pfft..." Xuanwu Lingxiao couldn't help laughing. Seeing Xiaoyao's expression, she really couldn't hold back.

"Dog slave, you fucking want to die!!" This time Shang Lingjian completely lost his composure.

"Now THAT'S called scolding!" Xiaoyao said. "I'll tolerate you once!"

"I'll fucking kill you!"

"Ahem, Lingjian, watch your language and remember your status. You represent the Xuanwu family's young master—every word and action must match your position. If you can't do this, then go face the wall until you can," Xuanwu Wenyuan spoke up to stop Shang Lingjian's behavior and gave him a lecture.

"Yes, Uncle, I was wrong!" When Xuanwu Wenyuan spoke, Shang Lingjian already understood he'd lost his composure. He could mess with this dog slave, but not in front of Xuanwu Wenyuan, especially not so disgracefully.

"You're called Xiaoyao, right? Is your purpose really just this?" Xuanwu Wenyuan looked at Xiaoyao.

"Mm! Nothing more!" Xiaoyao could answer this with certainty. His purpose was indeed to learn, and those incidents of infiltrating the secret chamber were done because of this learning goal.

Xuanwu Wenyuan looked at Xiaoyao for a while, then said, "I believe this statement is true, but can you explain why you associate with people from the Wei family?"

This matter was finally coming!

"I don't!" Xiaoyao replied.

Xuanwu Wenyuan looked at Xiaoyao and said, "I originally thought you were an honest person, but now it seems otherwise. Even if Lingjian hadn't mentioned this, I would know something about it. Do you think your daily activities on the wall would go unnoticed?"

"I do sit on the wall, but I'm just moon-gazing, sometimes reading books and such," Xiaoyao replied. He understood that Xuanwu Wenyuan must have received reports about this, because as family head, Xiaoyao's strange behavior would definitely be reported to him.

Xuanwu Wenyuan had indeed paid attention to this matter but felt there was no problem—just a servant chatting with a girl. He hadn't paid much attention until Shang Lingjian brought it up now.

"Moon-gazing and reading? Every midnight?" Xuanwu Wenyuan asked.

"Yes!" Xiaoyao nodded with an expression that said "that's exactly right."

"On the wall, same position every day?" Xuanwu Wenyuan continued.

"It's a hobby—I'm quite devoted!" Xiaoyao replied.

"... Then you don't know the girl across from you?" Xuanwu Wenyuan asked.

"I don't know her. Maybe she shares my hobby and also likes that position. It's a feng shui spot," Xiaoyao shook his head, not admitting he knew Wang Yanyu. This wasn't because Xiaoyao didn't want to admit it, but because Wang Yanyu had told him not to say he knew her in front of outsiders, and he had promised.

If Xuanwu Wenyuan knew Xiaoyao's reasoning, he'd probably be angered to death. In your current situation, you're still lying with a straight face for this reason—aren't you afraid of making us angry?

A feng shui spot—you can even say that!

"Fine, let's say all this makes sense. I also know you two were having conversations," Xuanwu Wenyuan held back and asked another question.

"Were we? I don't remember talking with her. You must have seen wrong. I was just talking to myself, and she seemed to be talking to herself too. You can't control that, can you?" Xiaoyao waved his hand with an expression of absolute denial.

"..." Everyone was speechless. Xiaoyao's words were really too far-fetched. But if he didn't admit it, there was no way to prove this matter—at least they had no concrete evidence that Xiaoyao and Wang Yanyu knew each other.

"Don't you think no one would believe what you just said?" Xuanwu Wenyuan looked at Xiaoyao with a very strange expression.

"Whether you believe it or not is your business. I believe it anyway," Xiaoyao said indifferently.

"..." Everyone was speechless again.

"It's useless even if you don't admit it. Anyway, you have connections with the Wei family, so you definitely can't stay in the Xuanwu family. You might as well admit it honestly—maybe we'll even give you some severance pay," Shang Lingjian jumped out to say.

Damn it, I really shouldn't have promised Wang Yanyu. This severance pay is just gone!

"I wasn't planning to stay anyway. Family Head, since it's come to this, I formally resign. But you still need to pay this month's wages!" Xiaoyao said indifferently.

Xuanwu Wenyuan looked at Xiaoyao, feeling very strange. Since Xiaoyao had no intention of staying, why wouldn't he admit to this matter? He had thought Xiaoyao would shamelessly try to stay, but from these words, he originally had this intention.

If he was originally planning to leave anyway, why not admit to having relations with the Wei family? Although he couldn't stay because of the Wei family, he wouldn't be made difficult for because of them either.

Xuanwu Wenyuan couldn't understand this point.