Chapter 999: Sitting Together

"Yuan Gonglu, we’ve met before. Pretending not to know me isn’t very polite, is it?" Chen Xi looked calmly at Yuan Shu across from him. Despite Yuan Shu's now much thinner appearance, Chen Xi could still recognize him at a glance.

"Isn’t this our Zhuyexiang Marquis? Not inviting me in? So this so-called gathering of noble families isn’t inviting the Yuan family? Isn’t that a bit excessive?" Yuan Shu glanced at Chen Xi, looking ahead rather than at Chen Xi, his tone filled with sarcasm.

"I never sent out invitations to anyone," Chen Xi replied calmly. "But your presence is indeed a surprise. Maybe the Yuan family has its reasons for designating you as the head."

"Hmph!" Yuan Shu glanced at Chen Xi, let out a cold snort, and with a flick of his sleeve, walked straight inside. Chen Xi then reached out to help Xin Xianying, who had been hiding in the carriage, down.

"Zhen Mi of the Zhen family greets the head of the Yuan family," Zhen Mi said with a calm expression, though she was quite shocked by Yuan Shu’s arrival. Her years of education, however, allowed her to maintain her composure as she bowed.

Yuan Shu glanced at Zhen Mi. In the past, he would have mocked her about the lack of men in the Zhen family, but in this setting, at such a gathering of noble families, Yuan Shu didn’t want to bring shame to the Yuan family. He returned the bow with a calm expression.

Afterward, Yuan Shu strode into the main hall, scanned the nearly full room, and sat in the first seat on the left, where Zhen Mi had previously been seated. As for the other families, Yuan Shu didn’t bother to greet them, walking directly to his seat and closing his eyes to rest.

"Greetings, Lord Chen," Zhen Mi bowed respectfully to Chen Xi, her movements and expression almost identical to before, though her slightly trembling eyes revealed much more.

"Hmm," Chen Xi frowned slightly.

At this moment, outside the main hall, Chen Xi clearly saw that the seats were already full. It seemed that Yuan Shu’s unexpected arrival had caught the Zhen family off guard, and they hadn’t prepared a seat for him.

"Xianying, go to Zijing’s place and ask him to release your father," Chen Xi instructed after a moment’s thought.

"Alright!" Xin Xianying eagerly ran off.

Chen Xi wasn’t sure if this was Zhen Mi’s plan or if Yuan Shu had ambushed the situation to create this unexpected outcome, but now wasn’t the time to exclude the Zhen family. Not only would that be humiliating, but the consequences could also be quite troublesome.

"Don’t say anything, just follow me and sit next to me," Chen Xi said calmly. Zhen Mi hesitated for a moment before quickly following him.

The two walked into the main hall, and Chen Xi led Zhen Mi to the main seat. Fortunately, Chen Xi had already prepared a companion seat. Otherwise, the Zhen family would have been in serious trouble. Now, however, Chen Xi felt like he was the one in trouble.

Chen Shang and Chen Guang exchanged glances, their eyes filled with amusement. Nearly all the noble families from Jizhou had similar expressions, especially the Zhang family, whose members rolled their eyes—wasn’t it obvious that the Zhen family was about to change heads again?

As Zhen Mi took her seat next to Chen Xi, he couldn’t help but inwardly smile wryly. This was the main seat, and having Zhen Mi accompany him was a significant gesture. In normal circumstances, it might have been barely acceptable, but at such an important gathering of noble families, with Zhen Mi holding the Chen family’s token, sitting here could truly cause serious problems!

Scanning the room, Chen Xi immediately noticed the head of the Fan family sitting toward the back. He was relieved that Fan Liang had already stepped down as head of the family. Otherwise, Fan Liang would surely be glaring at him with murderous intent.

"First of all, thank you all for coming. And Yuan Gonglu, your presence is truly unexpected," Chen Xi said, turning to Yuan Shu, who sat in the first seat on the left, his eyes practically burning with anger.

Although Chen Xi had anticipated Yuan Shu’s arrival when he brought Zhen Mi inside, if not for Yuan Shu’s sudden move, things wouldn’t have unfolded so quickly before he was ready.

Yuan Shu glanced at Chen Xi, his eyes conveying unspoken meaning, but Chen Xi, with his thick skin, simply ignored it.

"Alright. The big players are already dissatisfied, so I won’t put on any airs. Let’s keep it simple—aside from my status, I’m sure the real reason many of you are here is because of the strength of the forces I now command," Chen Xi said, sitting down and speaking in a calm tone.

His voice carried evenly to every corner of the hall, with no echo, and it sounded perfectly clear throughout the room.

"First, you all know that I’ve done a lot of things that have troubled you. If our forces weren’t strong enough to suppress everyone here, many of you, as vested interests, might have acted like your predecessors two hundred years ago," Chen Xi said with a smile. "But by now, I’m sure most of you realize I’m not like that. At least, there’s still room for negotiation."

"That’s true. If not for Lord Chen’s overwhelming strength and the fact that every move seems premeditated, today wouldn’t be about him gathering us. Instead, we would be discussing how to deal with him," Xun Shuang said, lightly coughing to break the tension.

With the ice broken, others chimed in, "It’s not that we didn’t want to resist; we just didn’t know how."

Chen Xi listened as the crowd muttered to one another. Though many of their words were flattery, he couldn’t deny that he had indeed handled things well.

After listening for a while, Chen Xi raised his hand, and the hall quickly quieted. "Alright, let’s not dwell on flattery. Let’s talk about real matters. The reason I’ve gathered you all here is that I think many of you are falling behind. At this point, aside from a few exceptions, most of your families are starting to feel the strain, aren’t they?"

Many of the family heads remained silent. Anyone who still felt completely at ease now was either from a family so powerful they had nothing to fear or had fully grasped the direction history was heading. In either case, they were rare exceptions.

"Let’s get to the point, Chen Zichuan. I don’t recall you being this long-winded when we met at Hulao Pass years ago," Yuan Shu, who had been silent until now, suddenly opened his eyes and spoke.

His voice, though not loud, resonated through the hall, causing all the family heads to fall silent. The Yuan family still commanded absolute authority. Even though they had failed once, no one dared to underestimate them. Yuan Shu was still very much alive!

"Fine, to put it simply, I need your help," Chen Xi said casually. The hall went silent again. No one knew exactly what Chen Xi meant by "help," but there was a sense of intrigue in the air.

"What do you need?" No one answered, so Yuan Shu spoke again. The Yuan family’s momentum could not falter, and Yuan Shu was no softhearted fool like the Yang family.

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