I became the God Brother of the Regent King after Transmigration!

Chapter 439 - 324: Grilled Fish (Part 3)

Rong Heng sneered coldly, "Go call the head chef of this grilled fish place, have him write down the grilled fish recipe. If he can’t write, he should recite it to you."

Jiu asked, puzzled, "What is Your Highness planning to do with this?"

"Give the recipe to Su Zixiao later, so he can make grilled fish for Lanlan and me," Rong Heng said as if it was the most natural thing.

Jiu: "..."

A moment later, under the coercion and persuasion of Prince Xiang of Dayan, the head chef tearfully revealed his family’s secret recipe, while Jiu scribbled down rapidly nearby.

Rong Heng shook the paper with the ink still wet, observed it with satisfaction, tossed out a small gold leaf and a few pieces of broken silver, saying, "Why is he crying, I didn’t bully him. This is the market price; I won’t take his secret recipe for free."

"You are Prince Xiang, can’t you be more generous?" Jiu weighed the broken silver in his hand.

Such a stingy move from the grand Prince Xiang, unlike Young Master Gu, who would casually reward others with gold ingots and East Pearls.

Rong Heng nodded, gave Jiu a fleeting smile, then took back the broken silver from his palm, and slowly said:

"Jiu, you’re right. I remembered, the silver is for Lanlan to spend. If you think I’m stingy, you can top up the price for generosity."

Jiu: "..." He had something to say but didn’t know if he should say it now.

Soon, the Immortal-Merging Building by the riverside returned to its calm state. This truly chaotic place made the street seem as if nothing had happened in less than a two-hour span, still bustling and lively.

"Xiao Qi really came back, and Yuan Lang too." Jiu glanced outside, two small dimples appeared on his innocent bun-shaped face.

"Your Highness, Yuan Lang has been brought here," Xiao Qi’s voice came from outside the door.

Rong Heng didn’t respond to him, kept his head down, eating his grilled fish unhurriedly.

The grilled fish was placed on a high copper plate with a hollowed-out base, burning charcoal inside kept it boiling hot, and it tasted extremely delicious.

Xiao Qi pushed the door open, tossed Yuan Lang he was carrying onto the ground, and without seeing what Rong Heng was doing, sneered:

"At first, he didn’t recognize me. When he wanted to act, it was too late, and they didn’t resist much. Your Highness, I did well, right?"

Rong Heng looked up, saw Xiao Qi’s face sporting a bright, complacent grin, the perfect villain expression.

He frowned, paused with the fish in his hand, and slowly said:

"Don’t make such a disgusting face using my appearance."

Xiao Qi’s face stiffened briefly, then struggled to hold his smile: "Uh... I didn’t mean it."

Rong Heng’s forehead twitched: "Forget it, go ahead and smile, holding it back looks even worse."

"Hahaha!"

Rong Heng felt as though he had gone blind.

Yuan Lang struggled to look up and finally saw the real Rong Heng.

He sincerely wanted to collaborate with Rong Heng, but having not met for a long time, the once downtrodden Fifth Young Master Rong had become the lofty Prince Xiang of Dayan. He feared unforeseen changes and thus had arrived half a day early, hiding his men at the meeting spot to probe Rong Heng’s background.

Especially half a two-hour ago, Yuan Lang discovered the person meeting him was not Rong Heng himself, and acted immediately.

But Yuan Lang hadn’t expected that when he was hiding his men, Rong Heng, along with Jiu and others, had arrived in Jinzhou two days prior and had Pingnan Army set up ambushes on the outskirts.

Yuan Lang gathered his composure, stood up from the ground, tidied his disheveled attire from the struggle, and sat opposite Rong Heng.

They had not met for almost a year, and Yuan Lang for a moment didn’t know how to start; his eyes narrowed to a pair of sparkling, transparent willow leaves in glass-like colors.

Yuan Lang’s eyes wandered between Xiao Qi and the man in front of him, and upon seeing Jiu who he had met a few times before, his gaze became more complex.

Yuan Lang still remembered, Jiu had supposedly died in the palace... Now it seemed that Rong Heng had hidden his strength from much earlier, and his own self-proclaimed exceptionalism, in Rong Heng’s eyes, was perhaps just a laughable clown’s act.

Now Xiao Qi’s face bore significant resemblance to Rong Heng’s, but when both appeared together, Yuan Lang could instantly tell who was truly Rong Heng— even if Prince Xiang was eating grilled fish right in front of him.

In this past year, countless changes had occurred.

He had regained the Crown Prince identity, no longer the lowly hostage subject to others’ whims, only to fall into disgrace overnight, becoming the unacknowledged Prince Lin’an, with the emperor’s demise and the queen mother’s passing, Yuan Qian’s ascension, Wei Junzhuo’s incessant pressure...

Each event weighed on Yuan Lang like mountains, leaving him breathless.

Only after experiencing these did he realize how trivial were the past humiliations he’d faced in the presence of life and death.

And the man in front, clad in a dark cloak, remained unchanged, every gesture as aloof and indifferent as before.

Rong Heng’s deep, dark eyes betrayed no emotion, unfathomably vast, as if nothing in this world could stir the depths of his gaze.

Perhaps, there was something.

Yuan Lang thought of Gu Lan.

Only when that person was present did Rong Heng seem like a person of flesh and blood, vivid and vibrant;

Only that person could evoke emotions in Rong Heng beyond rationality.