It is so difficult to keep a smile off his face, which would just ruin his reputation as a curmudgeon. What is wrong with him? This is just like last time they were together and he hadn't been drinking yet today. It hadn't been like this before, but that was back when he thought Huaisang was in love with his brother. Now that he knew otherwise and having the man here after they'd spent far too short a time together at Lotus Pier, it was all he could do to keep this charade going long enough to get rid of these other people.
He gestures to one of the Lanling servants. "Please, escort Nie-zongzhu's men to their guest rooms and get them whatever they need." He rises to his feet and gestures for Huaisang to join him. "So long as you aren't too tired from the journey yourself, Nie-xiong, let's go somewhere we can discuss matters more privately." Like, his own guest suite, that may also have tea, wine, steamed buns, other pastries, various snacks in case things had gone this way.
~~~
"A price?" Jingyi is dumbfounded as he listens. It never occurred to him before, being the son of a gentry family and then a disciple, that there would be a cost to any of this. He remembers when Wei Wuxian, as Mo Xuanyu would point out things like this to them over the years and it always caught him by surprise. He didn't mean to, but he was rich and had never experienced what it was like to be without anything he wanted or needed.
"But the house you worked for, didn't they buy you the things you needed?" He asks unaware of the ignorance in his question. "Ji- er, um.. I heard you played the qin before. Didn't they pay for your lessons? I don't understand."
He definitely didn't think it was silly, but it was so foreign, he didn't fully understand it! He was trying to though.
no subject
He gestures to one of the Lanling servants. "Please, escort Nie-zongzhu's men to their guest rooms and get them whatever they need." He rises to his feet and gestures for Huaisang to join him. "So long as you aren't too tired from the journey yourself, Nie-xiong, let's go somewhere we can discuss matters more privately." Like, his own guest suite, that may also have tea, wine, steamed buns, other pastries, various snacks in case things had gone this way.
~~~
"A price?" Jingyi is dumbfounded as he listens. It never occurred to him before, being the son of a gentry family and then a disciple, that there would be a cost to any of this. He remembers when Wei Wuxian, as Mo Xuanyu would point out things like this to them over the years and it always caught him by surprise. He didn't mean to, but he was rich and had never experienced what it was like to be without anything he wanted or needed.
"But the house you worked for, didn't they buy you the things you needed?" He asks unaware of the ignorance in his question. "Ji- er, um.. I heard you played the qin before. Didn't they pay for your lessons? I don't understand."
He definitely didn't think it was silly, but it was so foreign, he didn't fully understand it! He was trying to though.