Chapter 1644 — Feng Xiaoxiao's Return

"Hee hee, but I'll be seeing my husband Wei Zhao any moment now—oh, I'm so happy!" Feng Xiaoxiao said. "Ah, but we left in such a hurry this time. I've no idea what fine things the Ice Palace has. I should have brought a few back for my husband Wei Zhao and Sister Tang Yun!"

"Ahem, ahem... Xiaoxiao, you're to be the Ice Palace's mistress one day. How can you be so ready to turn your elbow outward?" Bingtang coughed twice and said.

"Am I? Since I'm to be the Ice Palace's mistress one day, then the Ice Palace is my family's—which means it's my husband Wei Zhao's. Is there any difference?" Feng Xiaoxiao asked.

"..." Bingtang suddenly rather regretted having kept Feng Xiaoxiao by her side. Had she let a wolf into the fold? The girl was not even mistress of the palace yet, and already she was scheming to seize the Ice Palace's wealth. Would she be moving house next?

Yet Bingtang also knew that Feng Xiaoxiao was mostly joking, and so she was not vexed. "Heh heh, by the time you've stepped into the Heaven Rank and set your sights on loftier heights, you won't much care for such things..."

"True. But by then, my husband Wei Zhao must have become a first-rate Heaven Rank master too. Otherwise it would be no fun for me!" Feng Xiaoxiao said.

Xiaoming felt a little envious of Feng Xiaoxiao, and glad for her own daughter. True, it was the same situation of several women loving one man, but their lives were completely different from hers—they were people of two different worlds entirely!

Their lives were filled with friendship and sunshine, and they lived together in harmony. And when she thought of herself... inside the Hidden Tang family, her position was lower than that of a household servant...

Thank goodness Bingtang had come. Only then did she have **... To speak plainly, she no longer felt any love at all for Chief Tang. Back when she had first resigned herself to her fate, she had harbored some hopes, but now she had long since lost every shred of feeling for Chief Tang. She even thought that if it were possible, she would leave the Hidden Tang family!

But then she feared her elder sister and brother-in-law might not take her in—might think she was coming to contend with them for Tang Yun... At this thought, Xiaoming could not help sighing; her own future seemed to her rather hazy...

"Auntie, don't worry. From what Xiaoxiao says, my sister Tang Yun should be a sensible person, easy to get along with. And with Xiaoxiao's help then, the two of us shouldn't be shunned or given a hard time," Bingtang said. "Since Xiaoxiao is so confident, there's nothing for us to worry about!"

"That's right, Aunt Xiaoming, it'll be fine. Sister Tang Yun and I are the best of friends!" Feng Xiaoxiao chimed in. "You'll see once we get there."

Heartened by Bingtang's and Feng Xiaoxiao's persuasions, Xiaoming felt a little easier in her mind. And so the four of them made ready to set out!

As for Bingtang's going to Songshan City herself to see her birth parents, Old Master Tang was naturally none too pleased. Bingtang's going on her own amounted to bypassing the Hidden Tang family; plainly put, it had little enough to do with the Hidden Tang family now. When the time came, the Ice Palace would surely grow distant from the Hidden Tang family—and that was hardly the outcome Old Master Tang wished to see!

So, after Bingtang and the others had gone, Old Master Tang once again gathered the family members and held a brief family council, to study how they might maintain good cooperative relations with the Ice Palace in the future!

Chief Tang sat there sullen and silent, saying not a word. These past few days he had been thoroughly stifled. She was plainly his daughter, and then in an instant she was not. To hold on to his position as head of the Tang family, he had had no choice but to go crawling back to the Right family's coattails, and had been treated to a fine round of Right Xiaoxin's cold mockery.

As for Xiaoming, he was no longer so keen on her either. Xiaoming, after all, was only Bingtang's aunt. For him to go courting Xiaoming's favor would be of little use at all—Bingtang did not even acknowledge him as her uncle-in-law!

Between father and uncle-in-law lay a world of difference. If Bingtang did not acknowledge him as her father, there was still a chance to slowly mend the bond—they were father and daughter, after all! But as an uncle-in-law, there was simply no hope at all.

So Chief Tang was rather relieved that Xiaoming had left. Gone was gone. And this time he had a reason to bring Right Xiaoxin out of the cold palace!

"Chief Tang, tell me, how can we keep the Ice Palace's mistress looking out for our Hidden Tang family? The duck that was all but cooked has flown away. As things stand, we are little better than vassals of the Ice Palace—they treat us as their eyes and ears, not as trusted confidants, to be cast off whenever they please. Such a relationship is far too unstable!" Old Master Tang was a clear-sighted man. "Between the Ice Palace and us there are no ties of profit, no **. It would be all too easy for us to go our separate ways..."

"Father, that... there's nothing I can do about it!" Chief Tang said with a bitter smile. "Heaven will rain and a mother will remarry—such has been the way since ancient times. Bingtang's ties with our Tang family are not much now, and it's hardly realistic to expect her to keep looking out for us. And the Ice Palace seems not to lack for money, nor does it need our Hidden Tang family to manage its business. It's truly difficult!"

"Elder Brother, those words are mistaken!" Before Old Master Tang could speak, the second Tang son had already opened his mouth. "Isn't that Tang Jucheng a collateral branch of our Tang family? That makes him one of ours as well. We can present him with a villa hereabouts, so that his whole family moves over. When the Ice Palace's mistress misses her parents, she will come back here to visit them—and in this way her chances of coming into contact with our Hidden Tang family will increase. Would not this relationship, little by little, be cultivated?"

"There is sense in that!" Old Master Tang nodded after hearing the second son's words. "Well done, Second Son, you have some brains. Then it is settled!"

"Father, the villas around here cost tens of millions apiece, even a hundred million. Such a vast investment..." Chief Tang's private purse was never large; though he was family head, Old Master Tang stood above him, so his yearly allowance was but a few million. To spend tens of millions, even a hundred million, buying a villa for Tang Jucheng—that struck him as rather a loss!

"Compared with the Ice Palace's mistress favoring us with a special regard, what is a hundred million? Buy it!" Old Master Tang struck the table and declared.

Meanwhile, as Wei Zhao and Tang Yun's household made ready to pack their belongings and set out, several uninvited guests arrived at the Gu family villa—and one of them gave Wei Zhao quite a surprise! When Wei Zhao opened the door and Feng Xiaoxiao flung herself into his arms, he was somewhat struck dumb.

"Xiaoxiao? You're back?" Though Wei Zhao was at present only a first-rate master at the peak of the late Yellow Rank, dodging Feng Xiaoxiao's pounce would have been a simple matter—and he had not dodged because he had already recognized her.

For the latest updates, please read with no pop-up windows.