After saying that, Bai Zheng retreated.
Watching Bai Zheng's departing back, Zhuo Lingxiao tilted his chin slightly and glanced at Feng Linyuan from the corner of his eye. "I didn't expect that after all these years, not only has the Marquis of Dingyuan grown older, but he's also become more tempered. He's not as sensible as your little wife."
"My wife is timid, but she's always gentle and considerate. Naturally, she's extremely sensible," Feng Linyuan said with a relaxed expression, completely ignoring the teasing in Zhuo Lingxiao's words.
"Father said that the marquis must have good taste, and the new marquis's wife must have something extraordinary about her. Now it seems that Father's words have truly come true," Zhuo Lingxiao said meaningfully.
"Zheng'er is truly extraordinary when it comes to being gentle and considerate," Feng Linyuan nodded with a faint smile.
"Speaking of the Prince of Xuanning, this marquis was fortunate enough to witness the prince's elegance on the city wall of Yan City seven years ago. After all these years apart, I wonder if the prince still looks as majestic as before?"
Zhuo Lingxiao's eye twitched, and he quickly smiled. "Thanks to the marquis's blessing, Father is in good health. He often tells this heir about the new Marquis of Dingyuan of the Great Zhou. He was extremely talented and outstanding among the people of Yongding when he was young. He always instructs me to learn from you."
Feng Linyuan remained calm and said, "The prince has overpraised me. Seeing the heir today, I can tell that the prince's peerless elegance has found a worthy successor."
As the two of them were exchanging polite words, Bai Zheng returned to the main hall with Qingzhi and Qingshao.
Seeing Bai Zheng bringing the tea, Zhuo Lingxiao stopped his verbal confrontation with Feng Linyuan. He leaned back and sank into the chair.
He glanced provocatively at Feng Linyuan and began waiting for him to come over with the tea to apologize.
Bai Zheng acted as if she didn't notice. She motioned for Qingzhi and Qingshao to serve the brewed Biluochun tea to everyone present.
Seeing Feng Linyuan smilingly accept the tea from Qingshao and taking a sip on his own, without any intention of getting up.
And Qingzhi was respectfully about to offer the tea to him.
Zhuo Lingxiao, who had been sitting in the chair casually, suddenly sat up straight. His eyes swept across Feng Linyuan's calm and gentle face like a blade, then he turned to look at Bai Zheng.
"What do you two mean?"
Bai Zheng was helping Bai Yinan take a sip of tea. Only then did she have time to turn to look at him and asked with a hint of confusion, "What's wrong?"
"Are you pretending to be stupid with this heir, or is it that in the Great Zhou, when someone offers tea to apologize, they always let the maid do it instead?" Zhuo Lingxiao tried hard to suppress his anger. "Or is the marquis a man of no integrity, not willing to admit what he just said and not willing to apologize to this heir properly?"
Feng Linyuan just pursed his lips and said nothing.
But Bai Zheng let out a soft laugh. "Maybe the heir has misunderstood. When did the marquis say he would apologize to you?"
"Not apologize? Didn't he say it himself just now that if he slandered this heir, he would personally apologize? What does this mean now? He just refuses to admit it. Is the marquis so afraid of losing?" Zhuo Lingxiao said contemptuously.
"The heir has misunderstood," Bai Zheng said with a beaming smile. "The marquis did say just now that if he slandered the heir, he would apologize. But the marquis didn't slander the heir, so naturally there's no need for him to apologize to the heir."
"Didn't slander?" Zhuo Lingxiao widened his eyes and pointed at the sword. "Marquis of Dingyuan, do you admit that you just said that this heir really didn't tamper with the sword?"
"The heir really didn't deceive us on this point," Feng Linyuan nodded.
"Then you still said..."
"But the heir deceived us by saying that you couldn't draw this sword," Bai Zheng interrupted with a smile.
Zhuo Lingxiao was a bit slow to react and replied, "I really couldn't draw it out."
Suddenly, he stared round his eyes. "Does the marquis think that this heir would lie to you about this?"
Bai Zheng gave Zhuo Lingxiao a half - smiling look, and her gaze landed on the Fengyin Sword in the box.
Then she reached out and took out the sword. She grabbed the sword body with one hand and gently touched the simple scabbard with the other. Her expression changed from calm to gradually showing appreciation.
"Although I don't understand swords, just from my feeling, this sword shouldn't be as hard to draw as the heir said."
Seeing this, Feng Linyuan also relaxed his eyebrows. "Zheng'er is right. Fengyin is not the kind of sword that throws a tantrum. It's only fierce on the battlefield. Usually, it's very gentle to its own people."
Zhuo Lingxiao glared at Feng Linyuan angrily. "Does the marquis think it's embarrassing to apologize, so he just refuses to admit it?
Whether this sword is easy to draw or not, what reason does this heir have to lie to you?
Do you think I did this so that you could draw it out easily and make this heir and the whole Great Liang look bad?"
Bai Zheng turned a deaf ear to this argument and just focused on the sword in front of her.
She stroked the sword body and examined it carefully.
No one noticed that there was a handkerchief in Bai Zheng's sleeve at some point, dripping something into the gap between the scabbard and the sword body.
Feng Linyuan lowered his head and smiled softly. "This marquis really doesn't understand the heir's intention. Maybe the Prince of Xuanning had good intentions and wanted to give Zheng'er a good gift. He deliberately came up with this pretext just for fun to scare Zheng'er?"
"Who's having fun with you?" Zhuo Lingxiao was so angry that he was almost foaming at the mouth. This was the first time he had been so angry!
This sword clearly couldn't be drawn out, but they insisted that he was lying?
Did he have nothing better to do?
He stared at Feng Linyuan, his chest heaving violently.
But Feng Linyuan was sipping his tea leisurely. "Zheng'er, this is really good tea. Thank you for going through the trouble."
Bai Zheng smiled faintly and turned around. "As long as the marquis likes it, it's worth it..."
Before she could finish her sentence, the sword in her hand was snatched away by Zhuo Lingxiao.
"This sword can't be drawn out, and that's that. If you have the ability, Miss Bai, draw it out for me..." As he said that, he tightened his grip on the scabbard.
"Shua" came a sound.
The sword came out of the scabbard, and he pulled out half of the silver blade.
The teacup in Bai Yinan's hand fell to the ground and shattered into pieces.
The King of Wen and the Grand Duke Zhou couldn't hide their excitement and opened their mouths wide.
"Fengyin! Fengyin has been drawn out!"
Zhuo Lingxiao looked at the half - drawn sword in his hand in disbelief. He stared at it for a long time, blinked hard, and then reached out to rub his eyes.
"How is this possible? Even Father couldn't draw it out..."
He murmured to himself. Then he suddenly woke up and threw the sword away. "This is fake. This can't be Fengyin!"
Bai Zheng quickly stepped forward to pick up the sword and carefully hugged it in her arms before she spoke.
"The heir should be careful with his words. This item was entrusted by the Prince of Xuanning to the heir to be escorted all the way to the Bai Mansion. How can the heir say that Fengyin is fake at this moment? How will you explain it to the Prince of Xuanning then?"
Zhuo Lingxiao immediately fell silent, but he still looked at the sword in Bai Zheng's hand doubtfully. "But this sword, I really couldn't draw it out before..."
"Really?" Bai Zheng smiled sweetly. She held the hilt with one hand and lifted the sword body with the other.
She slowly pulled it out...