"Cheng Biyuan and Luo Yuqin were both legend to be handsome and beautiful. Their daughter must be fair!"
"I've heard that Cheng Biyuan's oldest daughter's name is Cheng Xiao Xiao and she's quite pretty. We've got to check that out for ourselves, hahaha...."
"Hehe, you wish. You think she will have an eye for you?"
"HA HA HA..."
Joyous and teasing noises filled the big hall of the inn. Among them was a young man in black sitting in the corner. He was also a student of School of Divine Condor. He merely sat there quietly as he listened to his schoolmates' bantering.
Right then and there, a name entered his mind, it was none other than Cheng Xiao Xiao that the others were talking about.
His name was Gu Junxian from the Gu's in the city of Yan. He had heard this name since he was a child; a name that had brought him much shame.
The reason he felt shameful was because of a man by the name of Cheng Biyuan. Whenever the name Cheng Biyuan was brought up, Cheng Xiao Xiao would be brought up; whenever Cheng Xiao Xiao was brought up, him, Gu Junxian would also be brought up sooner or later.
Gu Junxian's fiancée was none other than Cheng Biyuan's daughter – Cheng Xiao Xiao.
Cheng Xiao Xiao's father was a useless piece of trash; his future father-in-law was a useless piece of trash.
This joke followed him through his entire childhood; now, he was finally able to be completely unaffected when these two names were mentioned in front of him, as though he was oblivious to them. Having a deep, meaningful look and a faint smile, it was as though he had merely heard the names of some strangers.
"Shi xiong Gu, have you ever heard of this Cheng Xiao Xiao?"
Suddenly, a familiar voice rang next to his ears. He turned slightly to look and found a more junior schoolmate of his looking at him curiously.
Gu Junxian gave him a cold look with no intention of responding to his question.
The one who asked the question smiled with slight embarrassment and stop disturbing his peace but turned his attention back to listening to others making fun of Cheng Biyuan and his family with perked ears.
Gu Junxian, with his eyes half closed, looked at though he was meditating. As to whether he could hear the bantering or not, only he'd know.
Over at the Cheng's at Willow!
Cheng Xiao Xiao was observing Innkeeper Zhu with the servants and maids of various ages and listening to him giving them lectures on rules after rules of how to be respectful and follow orders of their employers. Cheng Xiao Xiao couldn't help but nodded.
Even though she was from the modern age, she still understood that ranks and rules have their places and reasons. She had no intention to play God and therefore she was not about to advocate that everyone was an equal. She could only made the best out of living within the bounds of what was the norm.
You want to be above everyone else? Let's see if you can make that happen. You want respect from others? Let's see whether you are able to earn that. No matter what, nobody would just hand it over to you, everything must be gained through hard work.
As the saying goes, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Whatever it is that you want, you'd better be prepared to pay the equivalent cost. Don't dream about it if you can afford it!
"Xiao Xiao, what are you thinking about?"
Mrs. Cheng was standing next to Cheng Xiao Xiao without her realizing it. She following her daughter's line of sight and couldn't help but to smile, "Xiao Xiao, good job thinking ahead, now that we have Innkeeper Zhu's help in training the underlings, that's truly a lot less headaches for me."
"Mom, don't worry too much. Anything you can delegate down, you go ahead and delegate. You just need to supervise from the side."
"Oh you kid, I know that much!" Mrs. Cheng complained lightly, then sighed again, "Now that we are starting to rebuild our family all over again from scratch, there are so much to worry about."