Xia Xingchi stared at the hot search for a long time, dumbfounded, before he finally confirmed with shock that Xia Yu was actually put on various black searches one after another.

After all, this was the favored protagonist of the original book. He had never been blasted like this even as he happily did evil all the way to the finale.

It wasn’t just Xia Xingchi who never expected it. Even melon-eating netizens from all walks of life didn’t foresee such a big, fresh, hot melon and such a slap in the face —

Xia Yu had just finished buying black searches and water armies, which were splashing dirty water, but in less than half an hour, it was like his underwear had been exposed.

The behavior of maliciously withdrawing Xia Xingchi’s hot search was directly revealed, including the screenshot evidence of criticizing, buying black searches, and buying water armies.

Even the various marketing accounts changed sides collectively. While withdrawing the original Xia Xingchi scandal, they all blew up their previous transaction records with Xia Yu.

They showed Xia Yu’s bad attitude as he urged, “Post this content up now!” and “Hurry up, stop dawdling!” All his chat records were exposed.

His character design of a cute, wealthy young master was shattered all over the place.

[Ah, this, personally I can’t whitewash this or blame the company, even though I want to. Drip ~ Idiot card!]

[He’s worried, he’s worried, Xia Xingchi is better than him in endorsement resources, looks, and cuteness! Xia Yu is worried!]

[So Xia Yu, an “innocent baby,” even bought so many black searches for Xia Xingchi just because of the brand’s new seasonal style?]

[It’s too horrible, is he mentally twisted?]

[Laughing to death, look how skillful he is. He must have done such immoral things led by water armies before]

[Such heavy jealousy and desire to win. Brainless fans, don’t brag all day long that “entering the entertainment industry is just playing casually.” The collapse of this character design is really disgusting.]

[Remember how that little handsome guy said “finally appearing” on the red carpet? I just found out that they are in the same management company, Dingming Entertainment!]

[Yeah, isn’t Xia Yu known as their “Number One Male Star?” This famous celebrity is really something, ah. Is he suppressing newcomers out of jealousy?]

[@Dingming Entertainment, don’t pretend to be dead, won’t you give us an explanation for this matter?]

The cause and effect became clear in an instant, and even Xia Yu’s fans, who had always been known for their combat prowess and mania, were struck speechless by the ironclad evidence.

After holding back for a long time, they could only repeat, “This must be photoshopped, he’s being falsely accused!”

And they were easily reprimanded by one sentence, “If it’s really a false accusation, then why doesn’t he send a lawyer’s letter to sue for defamation?”

As that side was torn apart, Xia Xingchi’s fans began to increase again:

[Where is the little brother? He didn’t come back after leaving just now?]

[Xingchi baby, hug hug. It’s too miserable to be bullied all the time. Those black searches are all fake, we won’t scold you.]

[Come back, come back, I haven’t seen enough of this handsome guy]

[Hahahaha I bet fifty cents that he went to the buffet! Let him eat well, the child is starving to death]

Xia Xingchi finally laughed again, realizing how stupid he was being just now —

He’d actually felt a little sad about the nasty words being thrown his way, but they were all fake.

Everyone’s love was real. Although Xia Yu’s fans were not reconciled, after searching everywhere, they didn’t find any marketing traces of him buying hot searches. He really was relying on the enthusiasm of the crowd to push him up little by little.

At this time, Lin Meng also sent a message: “Great opportunity! Just in time for business, your Weibo hasn’t been updated for half a month!”

Xia Xingchi tilted his head. Seeing the word “business,” he subconsciously wanted to find Li Chengyuan. After a three-second pause, he realized that Lin Meng meant for him to post on Weibo.

He saw that everyone was clamoring for his high definition photos, and were very concerned about whether he had eaten or not.

Xia Xingchi thought about it, and tried to take a selfie first. Then he took the photos of the crab meat peeled by Li Chengyuan that he had taken earlier, along with the various delicacies, uploading them together.

[Just the selfie in the middle, and the eight surrounding ones are all food pictures? What a foodie, ah Hahahaha]

[Although his selfie skills aren’t very good, he is handsome and fearless! Want to see more of this handsome guy!]

[Fuck! There are so many delicious foods this evening, I’m hungry, I’m hungry]

[The crab is peeled meticulously. According to my Sherlock Holmes experience, if you eat and peel these yourself, you wouldn’t be able to pile up this much crab meat!]

[Could it be that some kind-hearted person helped Xingchi peel them? Hehehehe]

[This selfie technique, hmmmm. Who will come save Xingchi, ba? The camera angle is too bizarre. Fortunately, he looks good and has no blind areas.]

. . . . . .

On this side was the joy of sharing all kinds of delicacies, but Xia Yu’s side was still engulfed in a violent storm, its members in an all-out melee amongst flashes of scorching lightning.

No matter how professionally the fans controlled the black materials, cleaned up the comment areas, and monitored posts, it was a rare occasion where this had no effect at all.

Even if his public relations team came forward, it was completely impossible to withdraw the black hot searches first if he wanted to post on Weibo.

[Did he offend someone, and they’re messing with him on purpose?]

[They didn’t do anything, it’s nothing more than showing everyone what he’s done]

[It can only be said that if you don’t want people to know about something, don’t do it. This is what he deserves]

But this damn fashion soiree wasn’t over yet. The dancing on stage was full of spirit, and although Xia Yu’s face was nearly contorted, he had to keep a smile in front of the camera.

So more people conveniently scolded him directly in real time during the live broadcast:

“Why is he still putting on this green tea performance? His character has collapsed.”

“Is he not going to explain why he hurt someone?”

Feng Xingyu sent a message: “Act normal for now, and I will figure out what to do afterward.”

Xia Yu gritted his teeth: “Why do you want me to act normal?! Can’t you see what they’re saying about me online? This group of morons are too easily swayed! This Xia Xingchi is setting me up!”

Feng Yingxu was extremely busy dealing with these matters, and anyone’s anger would boil over at this time:

“Didn’t I say to wait and see first, and not to smear Xia Xingchi right now?”

“What did he say to set you up? What part of this evidence is wrong, and which part was not done by you?”

“Even if you were set on doing it, why did you have to contact those marketing accounts in person? They can take your money today and then sell you for money tomorrow, let alone the other party being Li Chengyuan!”

“Do you think I wanted this!” Xia Yu said furiously. “Isn’t it because you refused to help me? I had to deal with him myself!”

This “had to” was justified and well-founded, as if harming people was really something that must be done at once. He was an expert at shifting the blame.

The role of a scapegoat fell from the sky onto Feng Yingxu, but he could only suppress his anger, knowing that this turmoil was only the cusp of the storm, and he couldn’t let himself get distracted.

It was not the first time that he had witnessed Xia Yu’s selfishness and viciousness, and he should have gotten used to it long ago.

He had no choice but to say: “Don’t do anything else tonight, just bide your time. I may have a possible solution.”

– – –

When Li Chengyuan returned, Xia Xingchi had transformed into a happy little hedgehog with his belly exposed again, staring contentedly at his phone while nibbling on a straw as he drank.

“You’re back, why were you gone for so long?” Xia Xingchi tilted his head.

It had been half an hour, and he almost set off to find his family’s missing big, precious cat.

Li Chengyuan thought of the question and answer session he took the time to do just now, and just smiled without answering. After all, Xia Xingchi would know soon.

Xia Xingchi was unaware that revelations had just been made, so he quickly pulled him to sit down. Then he stood behind him and put his arms around his shoulders as if it was something he normally did, and whispered excitedly in his ear: “Dear boss, did you bully him back for what happened today?”

The only person with the strength to forcibly make Xia Yu admit defeat was this big villain.

Xia Xingchi’s good mood was not only due to his fans, but also because he had guessed that it was probably orchestrated by Li Chengyuan – this seemed to be the sense of happiness that came from thinking that “I also have the support of my parents.”

He always liked to lean into his ear and whisper like this. The faint smell of alcohol and the sweetness of his breath swept over Li Chengyuan’s ear.

Perhaps because he was a little drunk, he got extra excited and drew closer.

Li Chengyuan’s brow trembled slightly. He was vaguely worried that if he moved a little more, his earlobe would touch those soft, warm, moist lips.

With just that one thought, the tips of his ears began to feel hot and red again.

“Stay farther away.” He was slightly self-conscious, and after a moment, he gave a blank and indifferent denial: “You think it has something to do with me?”

Li Chengyuan didn’t want to admit that he continued to become soft-hearted toward the little liar again and again. Obviously he was full of resentment and had planned his revenge for many years, but every time, he couldn’t help but become his protector.

However, Xia Xingchi was so close that he couldn’t even maintain the indifferent expression of “it has nothing to do with me.”

From Xia Xingchi’s perspective, he looked like a cold and arrogant big cat.

Perhaps drinking made timid people bolder, because drinking half a glass of whiskey sweetened with Sprite was enough to make Xia Xingchi’s little head lose its sense of danger —

He tilted his head and stared at Li Chengyuan for a few seconds, then abruptly raised his hand and rubbed Li Chengyuan’s hair!

Those at the table who dared not disturb their intimacy were startled, and stared dumbfoundedly at Li Chengyuan’s messy hair. Clearly they had never seen Mr. Li like this before.

Li Chengyuan: “……”

Sooner or later, he would be angered to death by this little brat’s boldness.

Xia Xingchi was still standing behind his chair, laughing unrestrainedly while patting his shoulder.

Li Chengyuan reached out to grab his wrist without looking back. At this moment, a gentle voice suddenly came from behind with a smile:

“Xiao Yuan? Hahaha, your hairstyle is really unique – then this must be Xingchi. I can finally see this child with my own eyes.”

Seeing someone approaching, Xia Xingchi thought they sounded like an elder, so he quickly stopped his wanton laughter and switched to a dignified look.

When he turned around, he saw a very beautiful and elegant lady with a friendly smile and an approachable appearance.

Li Chengyuan stood up and said in a rare gentle tone: “Aunt, why are you here?”

“I came to catch that little Zhao brat, and I heard you were here, so I followed,” Liu Xian said with a smile. “I’m not here for you, but to see Xingchi.”

Xia Xingchi tilted his head, wondering why Li Chengyuan suddenly had an aunt.

But he knew that the big villain had never recognized his relatives and didn’t acknowledge blood relationships, so maybe this elder felt some sort of kindness toward him.

So Xia Xingchi obediently followed his fiance’s lead to call: “Hi, Auntie.”

As he spoke, he swiftly tidied up Li Chengyuan’s messy hair.

Liu Xian nodded, then said with a smile: “The real person looks better than the gifs! Xingchi’s character is good at first glance. Xiao Yuan, you should learn from others – speaking of which, this really shows that everyone has a weakness, ah.”

There was actually someone who could subdue Li Chengyuan’s arrogant and indifferent character.

A few days ago, Zhao Yinhe had told her excitedly about this at home, but she didn’t believe it at the time.

After all, the little brat came to the conclusion that he should pick more flowers, and that maybe he would meet his true love after picking them. It was just absurd.

Getting back to the point, although she couldn’t figure out why Li Chengyuan would suddenly be tempted……could this be the rumored love at first sight?

Just as she was thinking this, she saw Zhao Yinhe hurrying toward them, shouting as he ran: “Mom, mom, mom! Mom, help! Quickly save me, ah!”

Following behind him was an unscrupulous old man of the same type, chasing vigorously after his son as he roared loudly: “Little bastard! Still not stopping for laozi! Today laozi is going to break your dog legs!”

Seeing this, Liu Xian felt resigned and didn’t even look at how many people were around. It was simply embarrassing, and the father and son were obviously owed the same beating.

Fortunately, most of these people were either familiar with this spectacle, or knew that Zhao Ting was a man with a temper even in the business field, so beating his son in public was indeed expected.

Zhao Yinhe quickly shrank behind Liu Xian and whispered: “Mom, I want to report Old Man Zhao for entrapment, so please take care of him!”

While subconsciously playing with Li Chengyuan’s hair, Xia Xingchi came to the sudden realization that this was Dr. Zhao’s mother.

It was said that the two families used to be close friends, and it was likely because they used to take good care of Li Chengyuan in his troubled youth that the ruthless villain could show this rare attitude toward his elders.

Zhao Ting, who had chased his son all this way, strode over while cursing. Li Chengyuan said calmly: “Uncle Zhao.”

“Xiao Yuan is here? It’s been a long time since I saw you, ah!”

As Zhao Ting spoke, he finally gave up on beating his son for the time being and turned to Xia Xingchi at his side, asking boldly: “This is the son of the Xia family? How good is this, ah, much better than that fish.^[1] You can tell this is a good boy just by looking at his eyes!”

Zhao Yinhe whispered: “That one is called Xia Yu, didn’t you see today’s hot searches? Old man, you are out of touch!”

“Shut up, you little bastard!” Zhao Ting yelled again.

The father and son were like a comedy act, and Xia Xingchi couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

He also felt that Dr. Zhao had been badly beaten, and laughing would be unkind, so he simply hung on Li Chengyuan’s body and buried his head in his back, trembling for a while.

Li Chengyuan pressed the little hedgehog’s paw on his left shoulder with his right hand, smiling faintly.

Liu Xian feigned anger and reprimanded her husband: “You shut up too! Your voice is louder than anyone else’s, are you the reincarnation of a megaphone?”

Zhao Ting at last remembered his volume problem after being scolded, and scratched his head while he said with embarrassment: “Anyway, this isn’t the first time Xiao Yuan has watched people make fools of themselves……”

Then he changed the topic again: “Never mind, we haven’t seen one in a while, and we’re meeting the other for the first time. The three of us should grab a drink first!”

With that said, he quickly picked up wine glasses from a passing waiter’s tray and handed them to Li Chengyuan and Xia Xingchi.

Zhao Ting had sincerely promised his wife that he would only find his son and not drink alcohol. He was not good at holding his liquor, and after drinking, he would jump up and down like an acrobat. Liu Xian wanted to slap him for his disrespectful appearance.

Now that he had finally found a good excuse to indulge his greed for alcohol, he naturally couldn’t let the opportunity pass him by.

This was clearly a bad idea. Liu Xian couldn’t bear it anymore and pulled his ear: “Don’t give Xiao Yuan liquor! He has a bad stomach and can’t drink alcohol. Do you want to leave the room and sleep by yourself tonight?”

Zhao Yinhe was laughing and gloating on the sidelines. Fearing that the world was not chaotic enough, he urged Xia Xingchi: “Xiao Xiaxia, why don’t you drink for Li Chengyuan?”

Xia Xingchi thought this was reasonable. Blocking alcohol for the boss was of course a basic operation.

Thus, his worker’s antenna sprung up and he volunteered quite readily: “Uncle, let’s have one, I’ll drink for him!”

Zhao Ting gave a toothy smile as his wife tugged at his ear, and gave a thumbs up in surprise when he heard this, saying: “Good boy! Uncle will take good care of you!”

Xia Xingchi had a young man’s youthful and harmless appearance, looking a bit soft and cute at first glance. But as soon as he opened his mouth, one would find that this was a strong-willed and quick-tempered little prickly head, not an indecisive embroidered pillow.

Xia Xingchi picked up the glass of wine and drank it down in one gulp. After finishing the half glass of whiskey mixed with Sprite, he happily went on to drink red wine.

The unpretentious and approachable elder gave him a good feeling, and so many happy things had happened in one night, so he inevitably wanted to drink more.

Zhao Ting obviously also felt that Xia Xingchi was a good match, so he boldly expressed his affection for the junior with a “friendly toast,” and continued to stuff wine into Xia Xingchi’s hands.

Seeing that Xia Xingchi’s face had turned red, Li Chengyuan immediately frowned and stopped him: “Enough. Uncle Zhao, don’t make him drink anymore.”

Xia Xingchi tilted his head with a smile when he heard this, and said slowly: “It’s fine, it’s fine, I only had a couple of drinks. This wine must be very expensive, it’s really delicious.”

He had worked as a bartender before, and knew good wine when he tasted it.

Zhao Ting patted him on the shoulder upon hearing this: “Come to our house for a drink in a couple of days, I have more good wine there! Xiao Yuan should also come, I want to give you two big red envelopes! Hurry up and prepare to get married and give birth to children, ah!”

“This won’t work! I don’t have this function.” Xia Xingchi’s head shook like a rattle: “Li Chengyuan, if you want a child, even if you double my salary, it won’t work, ah……or you can give birth to it.”

He looked quite sober, and his speech was still articulate, but he was obviously a little drunk, and something he shouldn’t say tumbled out when he opened his mouth.

Liu Xian at the side turned around and asked: “What salary?”

“He’s the one who told me to fake – wu!” Before Xia Xingchi could finish speaking, Li Chengyuan covered his mouth with a cool palm, and at the same time removed the wine glass from his hand.

What was with this poor drinking capacity? For a moment, he feared that he would leak his background all by himself.

Who would have thought that the little drunk would still struggle to grab the glass. Li Chengyuan had no choice but to hold him in his arms and cover his mouth with one hand, while holding the wine glass in the other hand and raising it high.

With the height gap, Xia Xingchi couldn’t reach it. After a few seconds of being at a stalemate, he simply gave up and bit Li Chengyuan’s fingers like a puppy, not letting go.

Even if his mind was confused, he still knew that he couldn’t hurt his big cat’s paw, and only held it lightly, licking it dishonestly with the tip of his tongue.

The warm and slightly wet touch swept across, soft and a little ticklish.

Li Chengyuan was stunned for a moment, and found that the touch felt as if his fingers were connected to his chest, traveling all the way through his limbs and bones, and finally into his heart.

There was a familiar hot, palpitating sensation, and he quickly withdrew his hand.

Zhao Yinhe wasn’t aware of the subtleties in this silence, so he just smiled and said: “Xiao Xiaxia is drunk? You’re a fool, ah, why did you let him drink? When someone gets drunk, things might happen that can’t be described……”

“Little brat, you want to be beaten again, don’t you?” Zhao Ting exhorted.

It was this child’s wayward character that earned him a pummeling. How dare he bring up such a delicate subject! “Are you thinking only with your lower body!”

Seeing that Zhao Ting’s voice was about to grow louder after drinking too much wine, and it was such an embarrassing topic, Liu Xian’s expression was horrified: “Enough, you two! Hurry up and go home!”

After sending the junior and the elder away to get into the car first, Li Xian paused and turned to Li Chengyuan again

At this time, her expression gradually became solemn, and her tone was slightly hesitant: “Xiao Yuan, it will be the eighteenth year soon…..”

Li Chengyuan frowned slightly upon hearing this. He knew what she was going to say.

She continued: “It’s been so many years. Don’t visit the grave this year, and don’t think about it again in the future. It’s not your fault, it’s over.”

It was indeed unheard of to persuade someone not to go to their mother’s grave.

But Liu Xian believed that if her best sister saw this from the netherworld, she would not want her child to live in torment forever.

Li Chengyuan didn’t speak for a long time. In the end, he was noncommittal, and calmly said with a blank expression: “Xiao Chi is drunk. I’ll take him back first.”

– – –

Xia Xingchi changed his posture to lie in his arms, and the dead weight caused him to be unable to move.

Li Chengyuan lowered his eyes: “Let go. Walk properly by yourself.”

“Why?” Xia Xingchi analyzed seriously in a solemn tone, “Why are you talking about me walking? Don’t you really like carrying me?”

Just by looking at his demeanor and tone, one couldn’t tell that he was drunk, but Li Chengyuan didn’t know when he would have acquired this unwarranted hobby.

Not only did Xia Xingchi make a show of being very much in earnest, he even put on an expression of being generous enough to tackle a difficult job and allow him to hug……clearly, he was very drunk.

“Do you want people to know about our relationship?” Li Chengyuan asked lightly. “There are a lot of people, and the media are outside.”

Xia Xingchi was even more puzzled when he heard this, and looked at him as if beholding a fool: “Then why don’t we just close our eyes?”

He seemed to be saying, “Aren’t you aware of such a simple method?”

Li Chengyuan frowned. He really couldn’t do anything about his shameless behavior, and he didn’t want to reprimand him and order him around like he would with others, so in the end he just picked him up horizontally.

After some thought, he wrapped him tightly in a coat and pulled the hood up to cover his face so that he wouldn’t be photographed by the media.

“See! You just like to carry me!” Xia Xingchi’s muffled voice sounded from under the hood. “For the sake of being a nice person, I’ll let you carry me for free.”

Li Chengyuan denied it coldly: “I don’t like it.”

“You like it!”

Xia Xingchi persisted, and after a few seconds’ pause, he muttered again, “All right, it’s me who likes it.”

“No one has carried me before. I just think that it’s quite comfortable, and I like the smell of you too.”

Li Chengyuan pursed his lips slightly when he heard these words. He carried him to the car without speaking, then removed the hood covering his face.

Presently, Xia Xingchi drew near and said quite earnestly: “Li Chengyuan, you are so kind to me……I seem to be a little bit reluctant for you to die.”

Li Chengyuan was slightly taken aback upon hearing this.

Even if he was drunk, there should be some subconscious logic – Xia Xingchi thought he was going to die?

Drunk people were bound to be extra emotional. He was obviously still giggling just now, but after speaking two sentences, he was the first to feel aggrieved.

Xia Xingchi promptly reached out to hug his neck, looking up at him with misty eyes: 

“Don’t die, okay?”

“Otherwise, I would be left alone again, with no one to give me clothes, back me up, or accompany me to eat and sleep.”

“I usually don’t even have anyone to talk to, and no one likes me either.”

Li Chengyuan saw that he was about to cry, as if he had been bullied to tears, so he could only touch his head as gently as possible and reply: “I won’t die.”

“No, you’re lying! You are obviously going to die!”

This manner of confident certainty was almost like a curse.

Li Chengyuan almost laughed angrily at his troublemaking appearance. He couldn’t figure out why he had such an idea, and as a little liar, how he could justifiably accuse others of deceit.

The journey was silent all the way. Xia Xingchi had gone quiet when he started to feel sleepy. After being drunk, he was very clingy. He insisted on lying on Li Chengyuan’s lap to sleep, and also insisted on holding his hand to prevent him from dying.

After finally letting the little brat fall asleep, Li Chengyuan pulled his hand away and picked up his phone.

He looked indifferently at the huge storm on Weibo’s hot search. After a while, he smiled faintly.

– – –

Xia Xingchi was woken up the next morning by his cell phone.

He had drunk too much the night before and couldn’t remember what happened, much less how he got back.

Today, he didn’t wake up until after ten o’clock, and Li Chengyuan was no longer beside him. As usual, Summer was lying beside him leisurely while staring at him.

Xia Xingchi glanced at the closed door, and suddenly suspected that Li Chengyuan had carried it quietly inside to accompany him before he left.

Seeing that the phone was continuously vibrating, Summer seemed to find it very novel, so the whole cat lay on top of his phone and remained motionless.

As a result, Xia Xingchi could only hear the vibration, but couldn’t find the phone. He pulled back the blanket and pillow and searched for a long time before finding it.

Wait……

He always put his phone under the pillow, so who put it next to him on the bed?

Who took off his clothes last night?

Xia Xingchi looked down and realized that he wasn’t wearing clothes, but simply a pair of underwear, and the strong smell of shampoo in his hair reminded him that he had taken a shower last night.

Xia Xingchi abruptly turned pale with fright. It was hard to picture the crazy villain giving him a bath, but it was easy to imagine the horrifying scene of Li Chengyuan stripping him naked and throwing him in a cooking pot.

The phone was still vibrating, so he had to check the news first. For a moment, he tried to remember if he had washed himself and then forgotten.

First, he picked up his phone and saw that it was Lin Meng who was frantically poking him with WeChat messages, telling him to hurry up and look at what commotion was occurring on Weibo.

Xia Xingchi was taken aback, feeling that Lin Meng’s attitude was not excited and happy, but rather anxious and frightened.

Could it be that bastard Xia Yu did something wicked again?

He clicked on the hot search, but found that it had nothing to do with that green tea spirit, and his name didn’t appear.

But Xia Xingchi took a closer look and was suddenly frightened out of his body by the string of entries on the screen, so frightened that he almost smashed his phone on his face —

#Li Chengyuan’s first interview#

#Li Chengyuan officially announces his love affair#

#Li Chengyuan: Today I am accompanying my lover to a dinner party#

#Li Chengyuan’s mysterious lover is suspected to be a star in the entertainment circle#

#Li Chengyuan: they are a very cute person#

Xia Xingchi stared at the hot search for a long time, speechless, and finally made haste to shrink back into his bed and hide, suspecting that he hadn’t woken up yet.

---

[1] Zhao Ting is pronouncing Xia Yu’s name wrong, using the Yu for fish (鱼) instead of the name Yu (喻). ⮐

---

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Chapter Twenty-Two << Table of Contents >> Chapter Twenty-Four

In the early morning, after Zhao Yelan finished washing up, Li Yucheng came to the room to ask him to have breakfast and gave him several mischievous glances.

“What are you looking at so sneakily?” Zhao Yelan said mildly.

“Where’s Yan Mingting?” Li Yucheng glanced around.

“What are you looking for him for?”

“I’m afraid I’ll see something I shouldn’t see again,” Li Yucheng said, covering his face.

Zhao Yelan gave him a sidelong glance. When Yan Mingting left and returned last night, he didn’t have time to close the door and had caught a glimpse of Li Yucheng’s figure passing by. Before he had time to speak, Yan Mingting had kissed him on the forehead, and he didn’t bother to care what Li Yucheng thought.

“You two……” Li Yucheng organized his words and said cautiously, “Are you together?”

Zhao Yelan replied flatly: “Thanks to the Emperor, everyone knows we are together.”

“Aiya, you know I’m not talking about that sort of ‘together’……” Li Yucheng scratched his head, held up two thumbs, and said, “It’s the heart-to-heart kind……”

Zhao Yelan’s eyes dimmed: “Why are you asking this?”

“I’m just a little curious……” Li Yucheng couldn’t tell what it was like. From the beginning, he felt that the relationship between the two was not simple. They might be friends or confidants, but he didn’t expect it to be the kind of relationship between a husband and a wife.

He inevitably thought of his sister, and looked at Zhao Yelan with a sense of loss: “To be honest, I have actually regarded Yan Mingting as my brother-in-law these days.”

Zhao Yelan’s eyes flashed as he shot him a sharp look, and he swiftly added: “But I also know that he can’t be my real brother-in-law, so I also treat you as my sister!”

“Fuck you.” Zhao Yelan slapped him on the forehead and said sharply, “Let’s go eat.”

Li Yucheng’s eyes kept falling on him during the meal, and Zhao Yelan said flatly: “If you look again, I’ll dig out your eyeballs.”

Averting his eyes immediately, Li Yucheng turned his head and asked in a low voice: “Did you kiss last night?”

Zhao Yelan paused.

“I listened for a long time last night, but I didn’t hear anything. Is Yan Mingting not good…..mm mm mm……” Li Yucheng had a bun stuffed in his mouth, and when he saw Zhao Yelan get up and go upstairs, he immediately followed while eating the bun.

The two had just walked to the second floor when they happened to meet Yin Pinglu opening her door.

Yin Pinglu had changed into clean clothes, but was still dressed as a man. She nodded in greeting, but Li Yucheng thought she was Yan Mingting’s subordinate. After telling Zhao Yelan to go to the Cheng residence, he left.

Zhao Yelan glanced at Yin Pinglu, who had a dark complexion, and said in a whisper: “Your hands are too white.”

Yin Pinglu looked down and her face turned red. She turned and went into the room to continue to smear color on her hands, and then pretended to be delivering a snack as she went to Zhao Yelan’s room.

“Are you really willing to help me investigate the affairs of Magistrate Yin?” Zhao Yelan sat at the table and got straight to the point.

“En.” Yin Pinglu set down the snacks and sat opposite him, neither humble nor overbearing. “He has shown me no kindness. If he really did something to wrong the people and the court, I am willing to bear the infamy and send him to the execution grounds with my own hands.”

“But you are from the Yin family, so you will be implicated. Aren’t you afraid?” Zhao Yelan asked.

Yin Pinglu shook her head: “I’m alive now, but what is the difference from being dead? I worry all the time that I will be captured back, then married to someone I have never met before, and I will only be imprisoned in someone else’s birdcage for the rest of my life. If they are happy, they will give me something to eat. If they are unhappy, they will beat and curse me. There is no self, no freedom.”

Her expression and eyes were soft with the gentleness of Jiangnan women, and her tenderness was like water, but there was a firmness in her eyes that said perhaps this water was not that which lingered in Jiangnan, but the water of the Yellow River that could break through its embankments.

Zhao Yelan examined her, then told her the details of his coming to Jiangnan.

After hearing this, Yin Pinglu frowned and said: “I don’t know Kuang Sheng, as I escaped from Huaizhou a few years ago. As for my father, although he is only interested in profit, he can only think of marriages, and would never dare to do such a bold thing.”

“Because he is soliciting contacts everywhere, perhaps someone will use his name to do things.” 

Yin Pinglu nodded: “For example, my third brother-in-law is a county magistrate. He doesn’t have a good relationship with my third sister, and flirts with women all day long, but he is very close to my father.”

“Tell me about the situations of your brothers-in-law.”

With the help of Yin Pinglu, a person who knew the inside story, a lot of effort was saved in enquiring about information. After one morning, Zhao Yelan had almost mastered the network of Magistrate Yin. If one didn’t check carefully, they would not know that Magistrate Yin was more or less connected to all the officials in this area by virtue of his in-law relationship. And he was obviously not the only one who used this method, as many of them were close relatives. Everyone had the same network and common interests, which would automatically form a situation where officials would shield each other.

It was no wonder that no Jiangnan officials had reported any adverse situations when they went to Beijing to report on their work every year.

Yin Pinglu escaped from Huaizhou and her death, keeping her name anonymous since then, just because she was afraid of being noticed by people in Jiangnan. These officials were colluding and covering for each other, and it was difficult to escape from their reach.

“My lord, how do you plan to deal with it?” Yin Pinglu asked.

“Wait for good news from Yan Mingting.” Zhao Yelan smiled slightly. “Let him open the first incision.”

A few days later, Yan Mingting captured all the leaders of the bandit group and took advantage of the situation to find out that the Jiangnan governor colluded with the bandits to rob some of the disaster money. The news spread like wildfire, shocking the entire Jiangnan area.

“Is the news reliable?” Magistrate Yin asked the messenger in a panic.

“En, the governor is already on his way to the capital!” The servant replied. “Originally, the governor had already arrested these bandits and was about to silence them. Who would have thought that Yan Mingting would suddenly bring people to take over, and deliberately interrogate them over the disaster funds, exposing it……”

“Foolish, ah!” Magistrate Yin slapped the chair heavily. This governor was his eldest son-in-law, who was at the height of his powers all these years. Only six years younger than him, he had taken the position of governor. “Call the others quickly, we need to discuss a solution!”

Not only the Yin Mansion, but many other officials were like ants on a hot pan, beginning to urgently discuss countermeasures.

There was also a lot of discussion about this matter in the inn, and there were voices conversing everywhere.

Zhao Yelan was playing chess with Yin Pinglu leisurely, while Li Yucheng scratched his head and looked at the ledger.

Li Yucheng’s trip was not entirely to accompany Zhao Yelan on business. He listened to Yan Mingting’s suggestion – since he was no good at writing or martial arts, he would rely on his own advantages to do business. Therefore, he came to Jiangnan to discuss business with his uncle, and Li Jinyu naturally supported him. It was rare that he was interested in doing something serious.

“I just saw a few brothers-in-law passing by downstairs, and they all went to the Yin residence,” Yin Pinglu whispered.

“En.”

“It’s really wonderful to use generals as chess pieces to break the game.” Yin Pinglu smiled faintly.

Only Yan Mingting had such power. On the surface, he was going to wipe out the bandits, but caught the governor by surprise. Before anyone could react, he sent him to court with thunderous force, saving interrogation and investigation time in Jiangnan. Others wanted to save themselves but were at their wits end, and it was even more impossible to recruit people from the Yan family army.

“Those bandits in Quzhou should have been taken into custody by the governor long ago, only the two people in Huaizhou didn’t go back to Quzhou to be arrested as planned, and we caught them first by mistake,” Zhao Yelan said.

At this moment, a messenger entered the inn and called: “May I ask who Fu Qian is?”

“It’s me.” Zhao Yelan poked his head out, and the messenger ran upstairs to hand him the letter.

He opened it to have a look, and a wooden hairpin rolled out of it.

“What is this?” Li Yucheng leaned over curiously.

Zhao Yelan pushed his head away, unfolded the letter paper, and read –

Mengting, I carved this wooden hairpin myself. I know you don’t like to use such simple things, but I just miss you. Every time I missed you, I carved a little bit, and it took shape unknowingly. I’ve never made one of these before, don’t be disgusted. At worst, you can decorate it with gold before returning to Beijing.

Now let’s speak of business. I have already grasped the evidence of collusion between the governor and the bandits, and I will go to arrest people soon. Wish me the best.

I really want to finish things quickly and come to see you.

“Ah, don’t mess around,” Yin Pinglu said abruptly.

However, Li Yucheng had already picked up the wooden hairpin under Zhao Yelan’s eyes and looked it over carefully: “What an ugly thing, it’s worth no money at all.”

Zhao Yelan kicked at him and snatched the hairpin back: “Go mind your own business.”

Li Yucheng rubbed his thigh and said aggrievedly: “What’s the matter, don’t you usually only wear gold and silver? I don’t believe you will still wear this garbage hairpin – uh……”

Li Yucheng watched him calmly put on the hairpin, his mouth slowly opening wide: “Are you possessed by a poor wretch?”

“Great extravagance is unacceptable,” Zhao Yelan taught the fool seriously.

Li Yucheng: “I think you’re possessed. What you said……does it have the slightest credibility? Get rid of your expensive outfit first!”

Yin Pinglu lowered her head and smiled, then asked about business: “Do you want to inquire about the situation in the Yin mansion next? But for what reason can you enter? Direct visits will be rejected, right?”

“The Yin family will come to pay respects.” Zhao Yelan pointed to Li Yucheng, who was dazed from reading the accounts, and said in a low voice, “You may not know yet, but this fool’s father is the Prime Minister.”

Yin Pinglu was surprised: “I really wouldn’t have thought it.”

Li Yucheng: “……Hey! Can you keep your voices down? I can hear everything!”

In the evening, the Yin residence sent someone to invite Li Yucheng over. A few days ago, they were ignoring him, but today they remembered his identity as the Prime Minister’s son. It would be the best way to inquire about news from the capital and ask for help.

Li Yucheng was the guest of honor. He had quite the power and prestige, and let it be known that he would take a good brother with him. Zhao Yelan cooperated with his performance without saying a word.

And “Fu Qian” was actually a person invited by the Yin family. After all, he was the son of Dali Siqing, so he should be able to find out some information.

As soon as the two entered the mansion, Magistrate Yin led a group of people to greet them. Yin Pinglu couldn’t follow them on this trip, so she only gave them rough outlines of those people’s characteristics.

Zhao Yelan looked around covertly, and found that the two younger brothers and several sons-in-law of Magistrate Yin had come. The battle array was quite large, ah.

The dining table was much richer than when Yan Mingting was hosted last time. Perhaps it had been to impress Yan Mingting with their frugality, or maybe this was to cater to the dandyish habits of these two people. In short, the food was pretty good, but the people they were eating with ruined the atmosphere.

While eating, one must also pay attention to the mood.

He was sitting at the same table with a large group of crooked melons and split dates,^[1] which made Li Yucheng look handsome in comparison, and he really lost his appetite.

“Why does Fu-gongzi not eat? Is it not to your taste?” The man opposite him asked with a smile.

Zhao Yelan lowered his eyes, and Li Yucheng on the side replied: “Oh, he’s just……homesick.”

Zhao Yelan glanced at him, and Li Yucheng smiled.

“It’s normal to be homesick, when does Fu-gongzi plan to return to the capital?” The man said, “Since you came out to play, your family must be worried about you. It’s only that just recently, Fu-daren may be busy and not be able to take care of you, so why not play in Huaizhou for a while?”

Zhao Yelan smiled: “He is busy every day, I am used to it.”

“There are so many cases in Dali Temple?”

“En, not only are there many cases, but they are all serious cases. Almost none who enter Dali Temple come out.” After Zhao Yelan finished speaking lightly, everyone present had a change in expression.

Magistrate Yin stabilized his breathing and said with a smile: “The governor’s case that has been handed over to Dali Temple in the past two days?”

“I don’t know about that. I’m so far away from the capital. How can I know any news that none of you know?”

In fact, Magistrate Yin wanted to know if he would be interrogated in Dali Temple and the Ministry of Criminal Justice, or if people would be sent to Jiangnan for a thorough investigation. However, seeing that he didn’t know what he was asking, he had no choice but to turn his target to Li Yucheng again. After drinking several cups of wine with him, he patted him on the shoulder earnestly: “Nephew, I’m ashamed to say it, but if it weren’t for my daughter’s age difference, we might have become in-laws too. There is something I have to tell you. Although the governor is married to my eldest daughter, they seldom interact with one another. We didn’t even know that he had done such a stupid thing, ah! You see, can you ask your father to help speak for us?”

Li Yucheng glanced at Zhao Yelan, following his instructions and saying perfunctorily: “It is useless for you to tell me about this. Since you have nothing to do with it, just wait until the truth is found out.”

The others were taking turns to show favor and talk, when someone shouted outside: “General Yan is here!”

Everyone was startled, and they looked over at the gate together to see Yan Mingting stride through it. He went straight to the lobby and came to them in a hurry.

Zhao Yelan was also a little surprised, and watched him intently.

“General, you are back so soon?” Magistrate Yin was taken aback, and quickly asked someone to add a stool.

“Don’t bother, I’ll just squeeze in.” Yan Mingting inserted a foot between Zhao Yelan and Li Yucheng and then sat down.

Li Yucheng’s body tilted and he fell to the side. Then, under everyone’s mocking gazes, he stood up and made a pretense at composure: “Let’s add a stool, I have a big butt.”

Everyone laughed, and only Magistrate Yin wore a strange look as he glanced between the two of them, becoming more and more sure that they were secret cut-sleeves!

Fortunately, he had already sent someone to the capital to inquire about Fu Qian on the night of the Ghost Festival and would have answers soon. Then he would have a handle on Yan Mingting, and may be able to escape.

“General Yan, are you here late at night for something important?” Someone asked.

“I heard that you guys were having a banquet, and just came to have a quick meal since I was hungry. You don’t mind, do you?” Yan Mingting said with a smile.

“Don’t mind, of course we don’t mind. It is our honor that the general is willing to show his face.”

Because of Yan Mingting’s visit, this group of people no longer dared to openly discuss the governor, but just secretly observed his expression. They found that the other party was smiling all the time, and didn’t know if this was beneficial or unfavorable to them.

Ever since Yan Mingting had caught a glimpse of the wooden hairpin he made on Zhao Yelan’s head, the corners of his mouth had not lowered.

Magistrate Yin accidentally knocked his chopsticks to the ground and he bent down to pick them up, only to find that Yan Mingting was secretly holding the hand of the person next to him under the table.

Magistrate Yin: “ ! ”

The case was settled, the two really were having a clandestine affair!

It couldn’t be forgotten that Yan Mingting was the one who received an Imperial decree and married Zhao Yelan!

And who was Zhao Yelan? Even if they had never met before, he had heard about him. If Zhao Yelan knew about this, could Yan Mingting still have a good life?

He thought for a while, and when he raised his head again, a smile finally appeared on his face.

“I want to……hiccup, go back.” Li Yucheng lay on the table, obviously drunk.

Magistrate Yin was asking someone to escort them back, but at this moment, the servant at the door suddenly rushed in: “My lord! Someone is here!”

Magistrate Yin rebuked: “Why are you in a panic and afraid of meeting guests? Who is here?”

“The Imperial envoy from the capital, Zhao Yelan. Zhao-daren!”

Everyone was taken aback, including Yan Mingting and Li Yucheng.

The others walked to the gate in surprise, but the two looked at Zhao Yelan in unison.

Zhao Yelan signaled for them not to act rashly, and the two withdrew their gazes. After a moment, Yan Mingting walked out behind him and whispered something into his ear. Zhao Yelan nodded.

There was a sound of footsteps outside, and the hearts of the others were on edge.

Magistrate Yin didn’t know why, but he looked back and saw Yan Mingting standing behind “Fu Qian,” whispering something and even brushing his hair back.

He got a toothache when he saw this. He had never witnessed such a blatant affair. The wife of the main house has just arrived at the door, and you are still here flirting? I will expose you!

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[1] Crooked melons and split dates (歪瓜裂枣) are ugly/repulsive people or things. ⮐

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Chapter Fifty-Four <<Table of Contents >> Chapter Fifty-Six

The streets were very lively that night, and every family came to the market and released river lanterns.

The two walked against the current and were carried around by the crowd many times. Zhao Yelan was a little annoyed and walked into a nearby alley, planning to take a detour.

Yan Mingting followed closely behind, and just as he was about to hook his hand again, he heard someone shout: “Child, where is my child?! My child is missing, can anyone help, ah?”

The crowd started to riot, everyone looking around for the child, but not a trace was found. The woman became even more flustered, saying that someone had stolen her child.

Yan Mingting glanced at Zhao Yelan, who said: “Go, ba.”

“There are many people here, you go back to the inn first. I’ll be back soon.” After Yan Mingting gave the order, he turned around and ran back.

Zhao Yelan continued walking along the alley. However, the alleys in this canal town in Jiangnan were many and winding. After walking and walking, he reached a dead end.

He turned around to go back, but stopped abruptly, turning his head to look at the house next to him. There was no light, but there was a muffled grunt from inside, followed by the sound of a head striking the door or window.

When he went to listen carefully again, it was too quiet.

He knocked on the door, then went into the courtyard and called out: “Mother Yun, are you at home? I’m here to bring you something.”

There was a sound inside, and then a candle was lit and a man replied: “Mother Yun has already fallen asleep, come back tomorrow.”

Zhao Yelan narrowed his eyes slightly. It really wasn’t the owner’s house.

He made a gesture under the moonlight, and after a moment, Yu Dali and the others appeared quietly.

Zhao Yelan gave them a meaningful look, and everyone stood guard around the house in an orderly manner.

“Mother Yun, why is there a man in your room? Do you have another lover? Let me see who it is.” Zhao Yelan stepped forward and kicked the door open.

“Don’t move!” A black shadow appeared behind the door, strangling his neck from behind. His voice sounded hoarse, as if he hadn’t had a full meal in a few days. “Who are you?”

“I’m Mother Yun’s good friend, who are you?” Zhao Yelan asked.

“Don’t worry about it.” The person behind raised his knife and was about to make a move, but he was stopped by another person.

“Don’t do anything, he looks like he might be somebody. Maybe this is a fat sheep.” A woman came out of the shadows and questioned, “What are you giving Mother Yun?”

Zhao Yelan said: “I brought some money. Mother Yun’s life is too hard.”

“Where is the silver?” As the woman spoke, she started to take out the money on his body and there was a sudden pause. She looked down at her waist, where a short, sharp arrow protruded. Blood flowed from the wound, and she looked at the expressionless man before her in astonishment.

“Ah-Li!” The man behind hurriedly helped the woman cover her wound, and then looked at Zhao Yelan furiously. “I’m going to kill you!”

At this time, a wooden stick hit the man’s back fiercely, and Zhao Yelan realized that there was another person in the room. It was a woman, but she was wearing men’s clothes. Her face was filthy, and there was a broken rope under her feet. She should be the girl who was kidnapped by these two people.

The man was so angry that he turned around and decided to kill the woman first. However, a large group of people poured through the surrounding doors and windows, knocked the knife out of his hands, and subdued him to the ground in two or three moves.

Zhao Yelan lit a candle, and the room brightened up. He went up to the man and said: “The arrow is poisonous. If you still want to save this woman, tell me honestly, who are you? What are you doing hiding here?”

The man struggled for a long moment. Looking at the dying woman, he gritted his teeth and revealed their identities. They were the first and second masters who had escaped the bandit’s den.

The two of them were about to flee to the border of Quzhou, but then thought that the most dangerous place might be the safest place, and sneaked back. Unexpectedly, as soon as they returned here, they were discovered by a person who was also sneaking around. That person saw that something was wrong and wanted to send them to the government, and after they kidnapped her in a fit of anger, they found out that she was the Magistrate’s daughter. They were discussing whether to exchange the hostage for money or just dispose of the corpse when they heard footsteps outside.

Zhao Yelan said: “Who else is with you?”

The man held back.

Zhao Yelan picked up the knife and stabbed it into his leg. The man immediately screamed: “Ah –! I’ll talk, I’ll talk!”

After he explained everything in detail, Yu Dali asked what should be done. Originally, Zhao Yelan wanted to silence them after getting his answers, but thinking that this was Yan Mingting’s responsibility, he said: “Take them back first and hand them over to Yan Mingting for disposal.”

“Ah-Li’s poison……” The man asked hesitantly.

“There is no poison.” Zhao Yelan waved his hand and Yu Dali took the two away, leaving only a few people to protect him.

“Yan Mingting……do you know General Yan?” The woman who had been silent up to now suddenly approached and looked at him vigilantly.

“En.” Zhao Yelan also observed her. “Are you Yin Pinglu?”

“You know of me?”

“You asked Zuo Ran to go to the General’s Mansion to seek help. It would be difficult not to know of you.”

Yu Pinglu was a little surprised. Seeing that he knew everything and had an extraordinary bearing, she said: “You are that Zhao Yelan……Zhao-daren?”

Zhao Yelan nodded and glanced around: “Where are the people of this family?”

“They should have gone out to set off river lanterns. These two thieves randomly found an open house. I had wanted to go to the inn secretly to find the General and the others, but I didn’t expect to meet these two thieves on the way,” Yin Pinglu replied.

“Then let’s go back together.”

Yin Pinglu nodded. Noticing a little blood on his hands, she asked: “Are you injured?”

“No.”

“Wash them first, ba, it won’t be good if others see.”

Yin Pinglu swiftly fetched a basin of water. Zhao Yelan didn’t refuse, and saw that she was going to wash the blood from the room in the meantime, likely afraid that the owners would be shocked when they returned to this scene. He asked: “You were the one who made the knocking sound just now?”

“En, when I heard footsteps, I took desperate measures to hit the window.” When Yin Pinglu said this, her expression was polite and indifferent.

She was saved tonight thanks to this man, so she answered all of his questions. However, she also knew that this man’s reputation outside was not very good. She had learned at the border that General Yan had married him, but she still didn’t know what their true relationship was, so she dared not let down her guard easily. Everything could be discussed after meeting General Yan and Zuo Ran.

Fortunately, Zhao Yelan didn’t intend to communicate further with her. The two exited the gate in silence, and Zhao Yelan’s expression froze. He said somewhat awkwardly: “You lead the way.”

Yin Pinglu was taken aback, smiled inwardly, and then led the way without a change in expression: “The alley back here is a bit difficult to traverse. Be careful, my lord.”

“Call me Fu Qian.”

“All right, Fu Qian.”

“……” Zhao Yelan hadn’t met such a sensible person for a long time. She never voiced a word of doubt.

In the inn, as soon as Yan Mingting sat down after helping to find the child, he received a message from Yu Dali. After ordering the two to be sent to prison first, he rushed out of the inn anxiously, but was lucky enough to see Zhao Yelan’s figure right away. Relieved, he stepped forward and asked: “Are you hurt anywhere?”

“No, we’ll talk when we get back,” Zhao Yelan said in a low voice.

Yan Mingting watched until he entered the building before turning around to do something, but unexpectedly ran into Yin Pinglu, who wasn’t looking very good. He said in a daze: “Why are you here?”

“……I’ve been here for a while,” Yin Pinglu said. “It is only that your attention has been focused on others.”

Yan Mingting smiled in embarrassment: “It’s great that you’ve returned safely. I’m going to the prison now, you go to Zuo Ran first. She’s in the opposite room.”

Yin Pinglu nodded, glanced at his back, and then looked up at a certain room on the third floor, thinking to herself that these two seemed to get along very well, and she had been worried for nothing.

When the restaurant closed, the waiter went to the drinking table in the lobby and said: “My lords, we are going to close. You should go back to rest early.”

“I know, I know.” Li Yucheng waved his hand, looked at the closed door, and said in a low voice, “Are you going to go back to your room? You are comfortable drinking tea, but I am about to throw up after drinking so much wine.”

Zhao Yelan got up, and Li Yucheng quickly followed with a burp: “Don’t worry, with his martial arts, no one can hurt him, ah. He will be back soon, so you can go to sleep in peace.”

Ignoring his words, Zhao Yelan went back to the room, undressed, and took a bath.

About a quarter of an hour later, he heard the sound of a door. He subconsciously grabbed the weapon that was set to the side, and only withdrew his hand when he heard Yan Mingting’s voice.

“You even left the door open for me?” Yan Mingting walked into the room with ease and saw the unfolded glass screen. He could vaguely make out the figure of the person inside, and paused. Sitting down at the table, he finally couldn’t hold back, and looked over steadily. 

Anyway, it was so opaque. The other party would never know.

Zhao Yelan wiped off his body and put on his inner robes. He stepped out from behind the screen, but suddenly stopped in his tracks, saying with a strange look: “You peeked.”

“No, no, no, what nonsense are you on about? Now could I peek?” Yan Mingting firmly denied it.

“Come here.” Zhao Yelan walked over to tug him by the sleeve toward the bronze mirror. “See for yourself what you look like now.”

Yan Mingting only felt two streams of heat billowing out of his nose, and smiled awkwardly: “It’s so hot, it’s easy to get overheated.”

Zhao Yelan gave him a sharp glance and picked up a handkerchief to staunch the bleeding, asking: “What did the interrogators find out?”

Yan Mingting raised his face and replied: “Their accomplices have been recruited. This matter may be related to the officials in Quzhou. I’ll have to go there in person.”

“When are you going?”

“Tonight.”

Zhao Yelan paused: “Why don’t you go sooner?”

“There’s no hurry, my men are preparing horses and dry food.” Yan Mingting’s bleeding stopped, and he pressed the other down on the stool, picking up a new dry handkerchief to wipe his hair. He said, “I’m leaving some people here for you. You must pay attention to your safety these few days.”

Zhao Yelan: “The terrain in Quzhou is dangerous. Those bandits have not been wiped out entirely, and are taking advantage of the terrain, so don’t be careless.”

“I know, I will take these two thieves as bait, and Zuo Ran will also go with me. She is very familiar with the terrain in Quzhou.”

“Will that Yin Pinglu also go with you?”

“She won’t, we’re going to catch bandits, and it would be inconvenient to take her with us. Aren’t you checking on the situation of the officials in Huaizhou? I have spoken to her, and she is willing to stay and assist you.”

“She listens to you, it seems that your relationship is very close, ah,” Zhao Yelan said inexplicably.

“Don’t slander my reputation, she is doing it to get herself out of trouble. If she can’t rid herself of the Yin family completely, she won’t be able to escape her fate and will be captured sooner or later, becoming a society-climbing tool in the hands of Magistrate Yin.”

Zhao Yelan let out a long sigh.

Yan Mingting spoke again: “You probably won’t be able to hide your identity for long. It’s not like there are people like you everywhere in the capital, so be more cautious.”

The two made themselves clear and Zhao Yelan’s hair was almost dry. He lay down on the bed and saw that the other hadn’t left. He said: “Still leaving?”

“Why are you urging me so hard?” Yan Mingting sat down beside the bed unhappily. “You want me to get lost so much?”

“Exactly.”

Yan Mingting choked: “You’re so cruel!”

Zhao Yelan smiled and patted the seat next to him: “Let’s lie down.”

Yan Mingting glanced at him, flattered, and his face beamed with joy. Without saying a word, he took off his outer robes and lay beside him. He didn’t seem to know where to put his hands. At first they were tightly pressed to the outside of his thighs, and then they were folded across his chest.

Catching this sight from the corner of his eye, Zhao Yelan turned sideways, propped himself up, and stared openly at his embarrassment.

Yan Mingting: “……”

The atmosphere was very good at this time, and he felt that something should be done. Yan Mingting slowly looked at Zhao Yelan and grinned: “Are you going to sleep yet?”

Zhao Yelan raised his eyebrows. His gaze lingered on his face, and he slowly opened his lips: “Not sleeping.”

“Then why don’t we……get to know each other better?” Yan Mingting suggested, swallowing.

Zhao Yelan glanced at him and asked in a low voice: “How do we get to know each other better?”

Yan Mingting’s ears itched, and he asked what he had kept in his heart for a long time: “Can you tell me about your past?”

Zhao Yelan paused.

Yan Mingting waited for a while, inexplicably feeling that the atmosphere had been ruined, and as expected, he was kicked out of bed the next moment.

Ever since confirming their intentions, he wanted to know more about the other party. Even though they had met previously, they hadn’t had much interaction, and he was a little disappointed that he hadn’t been able to participate in the other’s past.

His mentality had changed unnoticeably. At first, he was unwilling to take the initiative to investigate because he feared that Zhao Yelan would be hurt, but now, Zhao Yelan had completely become his other half in his eyes. It was reasonable to want to know more about the other party’s past, and even bear the pain together.

Even though the past may be painful, it was like pus, painful when squeezed out, but more conducive to recovery, ah.

“I was wrong, I won’t ask you in the future.” Yan Mingting got up and sat in front of the bed, and was quick to admit his mistake. He stretched out his hand aggrievedly. “You hit me, ba.”

Zhao Yelan sat up, stepped on his shoulder with one foot, and pinched his chin. Looking down into his eyes, he asked calmly: “Is this what you meant by getting to know each other better?”

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t want me to know,” Yan Mingting said.

Zhao Yelan kicked his shoulder: “You’d better sleep on the floor, it’s cooler.”

Yan Mingting knew he was wrong and went to make the bed bitterly, but when he passed by the table, his eyes accidentally stopped on the bronze mirror.

It was facing the person on the bed. Two lotus root arms in their blue silk sleeves rested beside the pillow, and he lazily tried to hook the blanket up with his feet, but couldn’t do it for a long time.

Yan Mingting turned around to cover him with the blanket, looking down at him silently.

“……” Zhao Yelan stared at him. “You have a nosebleed again.”

Immediately covering his nose, Yan Mingting picked up the handkerchief and wiped it: “This weather is really terrible, hehehehe……”

At this time, there was a loud whistle outside as Zuo Ran signaled him.

“I have to go, you have a good rest.” Yan Mingting put on his clothes, took one last look at him, and softly walked out the door.

Zhao Yelan’s lips curved when he heard the sound of the door closing, and he got up to lock it.

Unexpectedly, when he was just a few steps away, the door was suddenly pushed open. Yan Mingting rushed in again in a hurry, stopping abruptly in front of him as if he hadn’t expected him to be up.

The two looked at each other. Zhao Yelan glanced at the door and was about to speak, when suddenly Yan Mingting cupped his cheeks, short of breath.

Zhao Yelan: “ ? ”

“I will miss you.” After saying this, Yan Mingting kissed him forcefully on the forehead. Afraid of being beaten, he turned around and ran away after the kiss.

Zhao Yelan was stunned for a moment. After locking the door, he touched his forehead and muttered: “Blockhead.”

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Chapter Fifty-Three <<Table of Contents >> Chapter Fifty-Five

Although Zhang Hai had never seen Li Chengyuan with his own eyes, the second he was glanced at by those cold eyes that could exert pressure even in the absence of anger, he came to a sudden realization.

Looking at the huge entourage and the flattering, smiling face of his immediate superior, who else could it be in front of him other than that bigshot?

But the VIP lounge was on the second floor of the inner hall, far away from the waiting area constructed for the red carpet. How could Mr. Li suddenly appear here?

It wasn’t only Zhang Hai and the other people who had guessed his identity who were very surprised by this. Even Xia Xingchi himself was very confused.

Just now when Li Chengyuan asked if he was cold, he had brushed it off with a smile and replied that he wasn’t.

After all, they were just two people with an agreement between them, not actual lovers, so it was impossible to expect his indifferent boss to deliver clothes.

Seeing Li Chengyuan appearing here with a thick coat in his arms, Xia Xingchi’s heart skipped a beat – Is he here to bring me clothes?

As soon as that thought occurred to him, he remembered a certain time when the temperature dropped suddenly when he was a child. He had also been shivering like this, enviously watching the other children put on the thick clothes delivered by their parents.

An indescribable sense of satisfaction and happiness immediately filled his heart. It turned out that this was the feeling of “parents” sending warmth.

Xia Xingchi had twisted the opponent’s hand a moment ago, but now he had to let go and put away the thorns all over his body.

And he completely forgot that he had stepped on the villain’s tail, and was originally running around to avoid being hunted.

He subconsciously took a step toward Li Chengyuan. Unexpectedly, as he was momentarily distracted, he was shoved by someone and staggered, nearly falling down.

Zhang Hai pushed aside Xia Xingchi, who was blocking the way, and rushed toward Li Chengyuan as if he had seen his own father. Obviously, the importance of Xia Xingchi, a “nobody,” could not be compared with that of a big financial tycoon.

Xia Xingchi was instantly furious, thinking that he shouldn’t have been merciful just now. This idiot should have a taste of what it felt like to have a dislocated wrist, see if he dared to be so rude again.

Zhang Hai leaned forward flatteringly and asked: “Mr. Li, why are you here?”

He had previously heard internal news that Li Chengyuan was here to accompany his lover today. Could it be that the big boss who had never shown his face wanted to accompany him on the red carpet?

He had also long guessed the identity of his mysterious lover. Combining age and identity with various rumors, it was likely to be the only young master of the Xia family – Xia Yu!

Therefore, Zhang Hai had already had the foresight to please him, and wondered if this was the right time to take credit.

However, Li Chengyuan’s expression was gloomy, and he just looked at him without saying a word. The dreadful sense of oppression at once intensified exponentially after the act of pushing someone just now.

He also noticed that his immediate superior’s face had frozen just now, and they gazed at him with horrible expressions, as if looking at a dead man.

This fool also realized that something was wrong. Zhang Hai became doubtful, and asked in a low, trembling voice: “Mr. Li, you —”

Xia Xingchi’s voice at his side sounded faintly: “Weren’t you going to let Li Chengyuan fight you just now? Are you in such a rush to be beaten?”

Zhang Hai: ?

He was already terrified, but when this little low-tier artist dared to call Li Chengyuan by name, he was shocked and outraged:

“What nonsense are you talking about? When did I say that!”

“I would have to be a crazy person to fight Mr. Li for no reason. I said that your fiancé……?!”

Before he finished speaking, Zhang Hai realized something and stared at the “low-tier artist without a backer” before him with wide eyes, as if he had seen a ghost.

Xia Xingchi shrugged: “Yes, ah, is my fiancé not here?”

As soon as these words were spoken, it was like a bomb had been dropped into the crowd.

After the boom, the people who were whispering fell into dead silence, and they all turned to view Zhang Hai’s shocked expression.

“This is Li……” One person whispered.

Another person quickly covered her mouth: “Hush! Keep your voice down!”

The assistant who had made the loudest malicious speculation before even lost his grip in fright, and spilled half a cup of hot coffee on his collar.

After becoming wet and scalded, the man didn’t dare to make a sound, for fear that Xia Xingchi would notice him and bide his time to settle accounts. 

But of course Xia Xingchi couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to them. He had already turned his eager and loving eyes on……the clothing in Li Chengyuan’s hands.

— This heartless little person only recognized clothes, but not people, and the matter of him slipping away to take the bus alone had not yet been settled.

Li Chengyuan frowned in displeasure and ignored him with a sullen face, deliberately refusing to give him the clothes and only letting him continue to shiver.

Seeing this, everyone was unaware that this was just the boss’s sudden childishness and the awkwardness between young lovers. They thought that Li Chengyuan was angry about the matter just now and dared not breathe for fear of becoming collateral damage.

“Achoo!”

The few seconds of silence were interrupted by Xia Xingchi’s loud sneeze.

He was so cold that the tip of his nose and even the tips of his eyes were red. He obviously didn’t change his expression, but the way he blinked and stared at the clothes had the illusion of being pitiful.

Li Chengyuan pursed his lips, and finally let out a helpless sigh. In the end, his heart softened before a certain person could learn to ask for help, and he couldn’t bear to see him be wronged in the slightest.

He didn’t pass the clothes in his hands to Xia Xingchi directly, but motioned for Secretary Ye beside him to take it —

Then he took off his own coat and stepped forward to wrap it tightly around Xia Xingchi until only a small part of his frozen face was visible.

The coat he had just taken off was cozy and warm, carrying the faint fragrance of Li Chengyuan’s body, and instantly withstood the surrounding chill.

……Like a firm and reliable embrace.

Xia Xingchi’s eyes immediately widened. He hadn’t expected Li Chengyuan to behave like this.

Especially as this person still wore a cold face as he lowered his head and carefully arranged his clothes. The warmth seemed to not only envelop his whole body, but also turned into a tingling heat that made its way to the tip of his heart, very unfamiliar.

— He’s quite good-looking.

Xia Xingchi looked at Li Chengyuan’s handsome features so close at hand, and this thought popped into his mind.

He thought for a moment, and then took the initiative to pick up the coat in Secretary Ye’s hands and conscientiously put it on Li Chengyuan.

But this sort of ambiguous and complex atmosphere stayed solely between the two, and the others could only be filled with great horror. The more they watched the interactions between the two, the more shocked they were.

Among them, the one frightened to the point that his legs were weak was Zhang Hai.

Although he had helped Xia Yu clean up the little low-tier artist because of the high salary he received, his reasoning was that Xia Yu claimed to be Li Chengyuan’s fiance, and Zhang Hai wanted to please him by doing him a favor.

Witnessing the scene before him, Zhang Hai stood trembling in bewilderment. How could Li Chengyuan’s fiance not be Xia Yu?

But Xia Yu clearly admitted his identity himself, ah!

Wrong!

He suddenly realized that Xia Yu had never admitted this directly, but only ambiguously “implied” it. This was just using his identity to bluff and deceive him – he was actually a fake!

It was a pity that he had found out too late, and only now did Zhang Hai know that he had been deceived and used as a weapon to offend the real Young Master Xia.

At once terrified and angry, he knew that his end would be quite tragic, and for a moment, he wished that he could rush up and take Xia Yu down with him.

But when he looked up, where could he see even the shadow of Xia Yu?

– – –

When Li Chengyuan arrived just now, Xia Yu had realized something was wrong, so he quickly left when everyone was in a daze. 

He had always wished to get engaged to Li Chengyuan before, so he got to know him carefully. He knew how ruthless he could be after becoming enraged, and knew even better how astute he was —

Perhaps Li Chengyuan could immediately find out that he was the culprit due to one look from Zhang Hai.

Xia Yu reckoned that if he didn’t leave, he would be detained on the spot.

Leaving the red carpet was a trivial matter, but disappearing for no reason after building up momentum for so long was quite embarrassing, and how could he explain the reason for his absence?

After all, he was a popular idol. Showing his face set off a small upsurge in the barrage area, and he became the topic of a battle between fans and anti-fans:

[ Xia Yu! After waiting for so long, my baby is finally here!]

[Handsome, so handsome, see how good-looking Xiao Yu is in his high-end suit. He is indeed the only one who can rent this brand.]

[Enough from upstairs, hyping all day long. Your idol isn’t even wearing the new season’s style, what are you talking about?]

[Well said, grumpy dude. Even in this weather, he still wears the summer and autumn style. Doesn’t he feel cold or ashamed?]

[You’re just sour. Baby Xia Yu didn’t borrow the winter style because the brand must not have rented it out. Isn’t there no one else wearing it today?]

Xia Yu had always valued his reputation, and haute couture was originally what he cared about the most, but at this moment, he didn’t care about it at all —

He didn’t realize something was wrong until he stepped onto the red carpet. If Li Chengyuan suddenly ordered the security guards to drag him away on the spot, it would be a real-time broadcast in front of tens of millions of viewers, and the consequences would be disastrous.

[Did you notice that Xia Yu is walking very fast today? It’s as if something is chasing after him.]

[Is this the demeanor of your family’s rich and noble son? Understood, this good family made their fortune through speed walking competitions (dog head.jpg)]

[Hahaha god damn, speed walking. Upstairs is really on point.]

[His expression is stiff, those who don’t know better would think he’s being hunted down. Is he going to sprint down the red carpet?]

– – –

Zhang Hai was deathly pale as the security guards dragged him out the door on the orders of his immediate superior.

It was taboo to take bribes in private to bully entertainers, and he would definitely lose his job. With such a dismissal record of misconduct on his file, it would be impossible to continue to work in this industry, and difficult to apply for jobs in all other sectors.

As for how Li Chengyuan would deal with him, that was even more terrifying.

All kinds of apologies and pleas for mercy spilled out at once, until Zhang Hai was escorted out.

Xia Xingchi turned a deaf ear. Blinking his eyes, he looked at Li Chengyuan again and suddenly realized that the clothes on his body were the same as his own – he was actually wearing that black couples’ outfit!

It must have been that the manager’s sales ability was strong enough to persuade Li Chengyuan to buy another set in the end.

Thinking of this, Xia Xingchi realized that it was time for him to get to work.

Although he didn’t want people to know of his relationship with Li Chengyuan, things had come to this point. He couldn’t reveal his secrets under the eyes of everyone, so Xia Xingchi quickly went to grab Li Chengyuan’s arm with affection.

This sort of thing was familiar after doing it once or twice. The more he did it, the more natural it became, and he subconsciously rubbed his head against the big villain’s shoulder.

He rubbed it twice, but it didn’t feel right.

Li Chengyuan was taller than him, and would tilt his shoulders a little before so that Xia Xingchi could reach them effortlessly, but this person was so unmoved today that Xia Xingchi had to tiptoe slightly.

Then Xia Xingchi remembered that they had not settled the matter of him stepping on the vengeful cat’s tail. When he looked up, he saw Li Chengyuan watching him indifferently.

This person had never lost his composure, and it seemed to everyone that his expression had not changed, but now Xia Xingchi could more or less tell that he was angry.

“Trying to escape” was Li Chengyuan’s minefield that couldn’t be touched. Xia Xingchi grew increasingly timid the more he thought about it, but he didn’t dare to move, freezing in place without knowing what to say.

Seeing that the atmosphere had grown cold during the silence and no one else had the courage to speak, Xia Xingchi could only turn to Lin Meng for help, hoping she could rescue this child.

Lin Meng, as half a fan of Li Chengyuan, was also a professional in the realm of imagining dog-blood plots. She simply couldn’t figure out how these two could be connected, and how the sadomasochistic love triangle between the handsome driver and the vile benefactor had turned into such a crazy thing.

She managed to pull herself out of her shock, and noticing Xia Xingchi wildly hinting at her to break the silence and rescue him, she could only bite the bullet and say: “Mr. Li, would you like some hot cocoa? This cup has not been touched, or if you want something else, I can go purchase it……”

Li Chengyuan: “No need.”

One sentence killed the conversation again.

Xia Xingchi knew that he didn’t drink sweet things, and was struggling to change the subject to warm up the atmosphere when he heard him continue naturally: “I’ll just have a drink of Xiao Chi’s.”

Then he leaned over and took a sip of the half full cup of hot cocoa in Xia Xingchi’s hand.

His movements were natural, but Xia Xingchi’s eyes widened as if he had seen a ghost.

He had already drunk from this cup, but the picky clean freak wanted to use his straw to drink hot cocoa that he usually would never touch?

Li Chengyuan pursed his lips slightly. The sweetness lingered on his tongue, and it seemed as if the temperature of Xia Xingchi’s soft, warm lips still lingered on the straw, like a direct kiss on the……

No need to think about it any further. His ears were slightly hot, but Li Chengyuan’s expression was still without waves or ripples. 

In fact, this was not the first time. The two had shared a drink together more than ten years ago.

There were various legitimate reasons at that time, but today he was indeed just teasing Xia Xingchi with malicious intentions, hoping to see how he would react.

Li Chengyuan raised his eyes slightly, but saw that Xia Xingchi was only stunned for half a second, and then took the initiative to grab his hand. Fingertips rubbed against his palm lightly, but his expression was unexpectedly earnest, with no intent to tease.

There was a subtle warmth in his palm, and Li Chengyuan couldn’t help being startled. He watched Xia Xingchi step closer on his own, his lips almost kissing his ear.

As a result, the light blush from Li Chengyuan’s ears gradually spread to his neck, and even a person who was perpetually calm would find their mind going blank.

Contrary to expectations, Xia Xingchi doubtfully whispered in his ear: “It doesn’t look like hypoglycemia, ah. Are you feeling uncomfortable anywhere? Are you all right?”

According to his “big cat observation experience” during this time, Xia Xingchi had found that by feeling the temperature of the other’s hand, he could get a general idea of Li Chengyuan’s physical state.

But he didn’t dare to rashly grasp the tiger’s paw, and only had the guts to try when he was worried that Li Chengyuan was pasting a brave face over his pain.

Li Chengyuan: “…….”

The last four words were extremely lethal. He almost laughed at Xia Xingchi’s obtuseness, but the little bastard didn’t notice anything and dishonestly reached out to test his stomach.

Li Chengyuan finally couldn’t bear it any longer. Grabbing that warm hand, he gritted his teeth and said in a low voice: “I’m. Fine.”

Xia Xingchi didn’t know why he suddenly became angry again, but he noticed all at once that his ears and neck were red, which stood out against his cold pale skin.

This seemed to be something he had never encountered before. What was going on?

Xia Xingchi was about to ask, but Xiao Li, the person in charge, ran over and hurriedly said: “Hurry up, Brother Xingchi, it’s your turn to walk the red carpet! I don’t know what Brother Xia Yu is in a hurry for, but he took less than half the scheduled time!”

After saying this, he found that Li Chengyuan was wearing a matching suit, so he asked cautiously after some thought: “Mr. Li, this is……you want to accompany Brother Xia on the red carpet?”

Before Li Chengyuan could speak, Xia Xingchi answered firmly for him: “No. He won’t, he doesn’t want to.”

This kind of official announcement was tantamount self-destructing. Fans needed time to accept it. If they hit everyone with this all at once, he would be eaten raw with dipping sauce.

Li Chengyuan: “…….”

Lin Meng, who was pretending to be part of the background, was momentarily horrified that this low-key boss who never showed his face really wanted to walk the red carpet with Xia Xingchi.

– – –

Because Xia Yu was walking so fast and the original schedule was completely disrupted, the officials had no choice but to ask Xia Xingchi to delay the time.

But even if there was an extra task, Xia Xingchi had no problem walking the red carpet. He had previous experience on the runway, and was even a sought-after amateur model.

Everyone in the barrage was still discussing Xia Yu’s strange behavior just now, laughing and wondering if he was under some spell.

Just as they were discussing, a figure in white appeared on the screen:

[Eh? Why is there a little brother I don’t know?]

[Wow, handsome, ah (sexy.jpg) I want all the information on this man!]

[Xingchi ! ! ! God, ah. I’m dazzled, I feel like I haven’t seen my baby in months!]

[This is……Xia Xingchi? This guy is really so good-looking? Strange how I didn’t notice it before]

[I recognize him, this is the brainless loser who’s trying to imitate my idol!]

[Yeah, he really has all five vices. He ties himself to others, tries to sabotage them, puts on airs……and what’s more, he stutters. I suspect he’s mentally handicapped]

[How many times has it been said that he doesn’t stutter! It’s nerves! You’re poisonous, ba, do you trust this kind of dark marketing account?]

[Wuwuwu no matter what you say, this brother is really good-looking]

[I’m sorry, beauty is justice for me. Is he a model? He seems so classy, ah, long legs and a good figure]

The first thing passers-by noticed were his good looks. Amidst the admiration, Xia Xingchi’s pitifully few fans could finally hold their heads up high.

However, the fans also quietly wondered, although Xia Xingchi always seemed to have looked like this in their memories, why didn’t they find this babe so good-looking before?

Even more than real fans, anti-fans couldn’t bear to show weakness, and immediately found new black spots: 

[Look at him wearing the latest winter style, I’m dying of laughter. The brand wouldn’t lend one to this low-tier artist unless they were crazy]

[I heard that even Xia Yu couldn’t get one, ahhh, he’s wearing a counterfeit, right?]

[Is he going to cheat Xiao Yu today? Try it. Our family has tens of millions of fans and you, a fool with thousands of fans, can’t compare]

[Although, that outfit does look good on him (lovestruck.jpg) It looks genuine, I love it]

[Let’s just say, is there a possibility that this is real? An amateur counterfeit would have some signs of fakery]

[Upstairs, are you okay? Could it be that a lowly person like Xia Xingchi has a water army these days?]

As a “street rat”^[1] who had offended half the entertainment industry, suspending his career may not have been a bad idea for the original owner.

Otherwise, these were the voices he would hear upon showing his face, and his fragile mind was already on the verge of depression.

Xia Xingchi couldn’t see nor care about the bloody storm in the barrage area at the moment. He just kept a proper smile and walked down the red carpet at an even and slightly slow speed, controlling the timing very precisely.

He walked all the way to the host, and logically he should sign an autograph and move on. After all, on-site interviews were for the big names.

Unexpectedly, the host didn’t let him leave directly, but took the initiative to ask with a smile:

“This is the first time Xingchi has participated in our fashion soiree, do you want to share how you feel?”

Seeing this, Lin Meng, who was watching the live broadcast, immediately stood up and said anxiously: “Why didn’t they notify us of an interview in advance? We didn’t even prepare for it!”

Don’t blame her for making a mountain out of a molehill. Although an artist should have some improvisation skills, “Xia Xingchi” would get so frightened that people would think he had a stutter. He really couldn’t handle this sort of thing.

Xiao Li was taken aback by her, and also stammered: “It seems to be to, to prolong the time, and isn’t it —” Isn’t it a good thing for him to show his face more?

Li Chengyuan was sitting to the side, holding the hot cocoa that Xia Xingchi had given him just now, and said calmly: “He can handle it.”

Lin Meng thought this was impossible. She knew her artists well.

Just as she was hesitating on whether it would be disrespectful to refute “His Majesty” on the spot, Xia Xingchi tilted his head in thought and then replied simply and calmly: 

“Firstly, I feel the need to thank the organizers for the invitation, which gave me the opportunity to finally appear here in front of everyone.”

Then he smiled brightly, his eyebrows curved as he said: “Secondly, I feel so hungry now, ah. I really want to eat the buffet at the reception hall!”

[Fuck! The little handsome guy looks so good when he smiles! The eyes are killing me, ah ah ah ah let me hug!]

[Such a cute and honest little snack, hehehe. Jiejie has something delicious here, what color gunny sack would you like, baby?]

[Sure enough, no making, believing, or spreading rumors. Who said he stutters? If this is called stuttering, ah, then what are we called?]

[Is the first sentence deliberately hammering the company for suppressing him and not giving him resources? I just said there was a problem with that company!]

[Pei! I remember that he was notoriously short and fat, and now he has a marketing character design? He definitely secretly lost weight! What a fucking scheme]

[Upstairs is sick and needs to be treated. Didn’t you say Xia Xingchi was mentally handicapped before? Are you the one who’s scheming again? You self-contradictory anti-fans, let’s fight, ba]

[So no one is going to explain the matter of him wearing a counterfeit, huh?]

[Dying laughing, you said this while using Xia Yu’s head as your avatar. Yours is an outdated summer and autumn model and his is the new one, so you got angry from embarrassment?]

[You fight, I declare that this cute little handsome guy is mine! I secretly carry him away!]

All the way down the red carpet, the barrage area exploded in every sense.

And Xia Xingchi, the person involved, never looked back at the explosion. He just breathed a happy sigh of relief and finally headed for his beloved free buffet at the center of the venue.

– – –

There were not only entertainers in the venue, but also big bosses from all walks of life.

The seats were divided into two sections. The side near the stage was for artists, which was very noisy and far away from the self-service dining area, but the advantage was that it was exposed to numerous cameras.

After all, artists seldom ate here, and would not take this opportunity to discuss business like the industry bosses, so they were not afraid of noise.

Xia Xingchi searched around, and finally found that his seat was actually placed at the table closest to the stage by the organizer, fully and enthusiastically expressing his sincerity to Mr. Li’s little fiance.

This effort was too fierce.

This high-traffic table was full of popular idols, and his appearance as a small low-tier artist was really quite out of harmony.

The most terrible thing was that the burden of being an idol caused everyone here to sit still and upright, so as not to have a bad picture taken. No one went to visit the buffet, in great contrast with the tables in the back.

Although Xia Xingchi was very hungry and had an ardent love for food, he was not so greedy as to walk around at will regardless of the situation.

So he had no choice but to sit in place and stare at the camera, thinking with frustration that he might lose two catties from starvation.

Even if the overly high-definition live broadcast cameras came with a beauty filter, it was still possible to see who was wearing badly applied makeup or had a pimple.

Xia Xingchi’s longing look toward the distant dining area and his dejected expression were clearly captured, and his appearance was rather cute and amusing.

[Look at the little handsome guy there, is that the little brother in white?]

[Hahahaha so cute, don’t starve the child, give him food quickly!]

[Hahahaha The foodie lost his soul]

[So cute, want to hug]

Fans of each idol were admiring the masters of their families through these lenses. Seeing the barrage suddenly appear like this, they became puzzled.

Then they found that there was an additional entry added to the hot search at some point, “#Ready to finish class and eat vs the teacher suddenly dragging out the lesson#.”

Netizens moved so fast that the opening dance program to set the mood had just finished, and they had already captured Xia Xingchi’s expression full of anticipation and frustration, and made it into cute little gifs.

The young man in the gifs was fair and handsome, with dimples that showed whenever he smiled, and his slightly pouting appearance when he was depressed made people want to poke his face. There was just the right amount of cuteness, without the slightest pretentiousness.

Xia Xingchi didn’t know that he had gained a bit of a following, or that there were thousands of troops discussing how to rub his head.

He sat on the chair in a daze and began to list the names of dishes in his mind to divert his attention. This was the way he used to feast in his mind when he couldn’t eat.

– – –

Xia Xingchi didn’t care too much about public opinion, but Xia Yu was different. He was staring rigidly at his phone, almost gnashing his teeth in anger.

Because of Xia Xingchi, the hot searches below happened to be his two black hot searches.

One ridiculed his 100-meter sprint on the red carpet, and the other mocked that his resources weren’t as good as a rookie’s.

This so-called rookie naturally referred to Xia Xingchi. While his gifs became popular, more people naturally paid attention to his clothing.

Knowledgeable passers-by seemed to agree that they should indeed be genuine.

Those passers-by who had long been dissatisfied with Xia Yu’s marketing all over the place decided that they were genuine, so as to intensify the ridicule toward Xia Yu’s fans for their idol not wearing the newest model.

“He’s mocking me!” Xia Yu quickly typed to his manager, Feng Yingxu. “Xia Xingchi, that bitch, he must have done this on purpose!”

“If not for my anti-fans who want to take the opportunity to step on me, why would he make these calculations to be noticed? This is the only attention I’m getting!”

“And he’s deliberately playing the same character as me. How cute, ah, he’s fucking imitating me!”

“It’s too late to buy black materials for marketing tomorrow, I want you to go and buy a black hot search for this bastard right now!”

Seeing that Xia Yu was completely mad with rage, Feng Yingxu quickly went to the live broadcast to take a look at his expression.

Fortunately, he was still smiling “innocently and cutely.” No one could know that he was tossing about all kinds of dirty words.

Feeling relieved, Feng Yingxu replied: “Xiao Yu, his hot search may have been put in place by a team. I checked our company’s records, and it was not done by our company’s team.”

Xia Yu gritted his teeth. He naturally knew it wasn’t the company’s team. With him around, Xia Xingchi could never try to use any of the company’s resources.

Therefore, either Xia Xingchi had gained heat by attracting a flow of surprisingly heartfelt fans,  or it was orchestrated by Li Chengyuan.

Both possibilities made him gnash his teeth.

The first made him go mad with jealousy, because Xia Xingchi shouldn’t be liked by anyone. The second meant that the hot searches couldn’t be withdrawn, or it would definitely offend Li Chengyuan.

Xia Yu immediately said: “But it can’t be Li Chengyuan’s doing. He has always disdained such things.”

What’s more, how could someone like Xia Xingchi deserve to be favored by him?

Feng Yingxu still disagreed: “Xiao Yu, I can only go and remove your black hot searches. Don’t pour dirty water on Xia Xingchi at this time.”

“This is just short-term enthusiasm, why do you have to take him so seriously?”

The two disagreed, and Xia Yu knew that he could not convince his manager, and that Feng Yingxu would not help him with this operation.

But when he saw everyone’s praise and admiration for Xia Xingchi, he would go crazy with hatred. He had to do something.

The crux of it all was that this bastard shouldn’t exist. If it wasn’t for the appearance of Xia Xingchi, he would be the only son of the Xia family.

Instead of making him the shameful adopted son, stealing his life away, and causing him to bear the original sin of being a fake young master.

– – –

The more dishes Xia Xingchi listed in his mind, the hungrier he became. He thought that when he became famous and rich, he must say boldly in front of the chef: “Steamed lamb, steamed bear paw, steamed deer tail…..I’m ordering them all!”

Just as he was lost in thought, he suddenly saw a figure bouncing around from the corner of his eye. He looked up and saw a person standing behind a camera and waiving unceremoniously, which was at odds with everyone sitting so straight and still that it was almost like they were at a funeral.

Everyone naturally turned to look at this person. Xia Xingchi was taken aback, and suddenly felt that the person waving at him looked very familiar……

It was the doctor from that night!

Heavens, he was so worried about Li Chengyuan that night that he failed to take a closer look at this “Doctor Zhao.”

Upon closer examination today, this was obviously a very frivolous young man like a peacock with its tail feathers spread, ah. How could he look like a doctor?

Xia Xingchi gasped in astonishment. He had to doubt the “medical skills” of this guy who actually gave Li Chengyuan an injection and infusion……

One dared to puncture and one dared to suffer. The two of them really had guts.

Most of the other people here knew Zhao Yinhe, the prince of the largest film company in China. He would always pick flowers on such occasions, and after picking those flowers, he would give resources quite readily and generously.

But he didn’t look like he was picking flowers now. He looked like he was asking his friend to go play together.

Everyone speculated who he was asking to play. The other party had such a big connection.

Then they saw Xia Xingchi, who they had inwardly asked “why is he sitting at this table,” stand up and quietly slip away.

– – –

The two slipped all the way to the back area where there were no cameras, and Zhao Yinhe took the initiative to say proudly: “First of all, I am really a doctor, I have a certificate!”

Having just seen Xia Xingchi’s expression of panic, Zhao Yinhe had guessed what he was thinking.

After all, he was often questioned about this. After speaking, he added with practiced ease: “I took the test myself, it wasn’t purchased!”

Xia Xingchi blinked suspiciously: “Huh, okay. Then, Doctor Zhao, Brother Zhao, why did you ask me to come?”

“Two reasons. The important one is —” Zhao Yinhe turned serious and lowered his voice. “Can you let me have a taste of the cookies you made?”

Xia Xingchi: ……It doesn’t really seem to be important.

Zhao Yinhe complained bitterly: “Do you know how stingy Li Chengyuan is? He won’t let me eat a bite, and he won’t even let me touch the box!”

Not only did he not give him food, it was like slapping him head-on with cold dog food, and flaunting his superiority everywhere at having a little boyfriend at home.

The corners of Xia Xingchi’s mouth twitched when he heard this. It seemed that foodies did not distinguish between occupations and identities.

Li Chengyuan was also strange. It was just a few cookies, but he actually made others greedy like this. At worst, he could just make some more.

“It smells really delicious. The sweets in the dessert shop are not as fragrant as yours. Please make me some.”

Xia Xingchi had no choice but to nod, and then heard Zhao Yinhe continue: “The second thing is that Li Chengyuan was unable to find you for a while, and succeeded in making himself so angry that his stomach hurts……why don’t you go and see him?”

Zhao Yinhe had long been accustomed to this. He had even seen Li Chengyuan vomit blood when he was a child. This was just a drizzle.

But Xia Xingchi couldn’t endure. As soon as he heard that the bad-tempered big cat that he had carefully fed had a stomach ache again, he hurried to find him.

– – –

Fortunately, either this time was not as serious as the previous night, or it had already gotten better. Li Chengyuan’s lips were only a little pale, and he was sitting in his seat with a cold expression at the moment – peeling crabs?

It seemed that he was really in a bad mood. Xia Xingchi inwardly suspected that this poor crab was him, being ruthlessly chopped to pieces.

Seeing him approach, Li Chengyuan raised his eyes and said lightly: “Sit.”

There was an empty seat next to him, and the peeled crab meat was placed on a plate in front of that seat. Apart from the crab, there were all kinds of delicious foods, including exotic delicacies.

Xia Xingchi blinked at all the delicious food, not understanding what this meant.

He didn’t think he was special enough that the big villain might carefully peel crabs for him to eat, but thought that a certain person might peel him and feed him to crabs.

So, thinking about whether this meal was the “Last Supper,” he finally sat down with caution.

But truth be told, he had just muted his phone when he was walking the red carpet. He had been dazedly listing the names of dishes and didn’t look at his phone. Who would have thought that Li Chengyuan would be angry because he couldn’t get through to him by phone?

Xia Xingchi tilted his head, and a strange thought flashed through his mind – Li Chengyuan wasn’t angry, he was actually afraid.

But after thinking about it more carefully, Xia Xingchi was the first to discard his own idea.

How could such a cruel and ruthless madman experience the emotion of “fear?” Even if he did, it was impossible for him to fear the disappearance of such an insignificant person as himself.

Just as he was thinking, he heard Li Chengyuan say lightly: “Eat.”

As he spoke, he peeled another shrimp and put it on the plate in front of him.

When that affirmative word was spoken, Xia Xingchi was completely at a loss. He couldn’t believe that Li Chengyuan was really peeling shrimp for him.

He only doubted if he had heard correctly, or if this was some kind of conspiracy.

As soon as Li Chengyuan turned his head, he saw a certain person staring at him with big black round eyes like a vigilant little hedgehog, as if he would be caught and cooked in a pot after taking a bite, so he didn’t dare to move.

“Didn’t you just say you were hungry, Xiao Chi?”

His tone was even, but he intentionally emphasized the last two words slightly. This actually made Xia Xingchi look suddenly enlightened, thinking that it must be time to pretend to be a loving couple in front of others!

This made sense. Xia Xingchi finally lost his vigilance and pretended to nod obediently, then began to happily eat.

Feeling helpless, Li Chengyuan wiped his hands and gently stroked that fluffy head. The heartless person who was performing a job while eating didn’t notice.

– – –

After eating and drinking his fill, there were other methods of entertainment besides listing the names of dishes in his head. Xia Xingchi never forgot to “seriously do business,” and leaned against Li Chengyuan tiredly as he began to browse Weibo. 

Who could have imagined the startling fact nobody had ever shown interest in this small person.

Unexpectedly, the ample amount of fans had skyrocketed into a wave. He was shocked to find that he was so popular.

Xia Xingchi had almost never been liked by others, so although there were a lot of inappropriate or abusive remarks in the comment section, there was enough love and encouragement for him to feel an unprecedented sense of happiness.

He looked very cute when he smiled, defenseless like a little hedgehog with its soft belly completely exposed.

Li Chengyuan gazed at him quietly as he looked at his phone, and then couldn’t help poking the dimple on his face when he realized that most netizens wanted to do so.

In all his excitement, Xia Xingchi didn’t pay attention at all, and subconsciously touched Li Chengyuan’s finger: “Look, look! I have fans —”

Before he could finish speaking, he saw the hot search list suddenly change, and all the trending searches that belonged to him suddenly disappeared.

Instead, there were various black hot searches:

#Are there really people who regard a fake as being cute?#

#Fraud Xia Xingchi, who do you want to scheme against today?#

– – –

[Even his appearance as a reincarnated starved ghost can be called cute? No?]

[I heard that he was born in a very poor family, and that he knows how to eat because he couldn’t get enough to eat back then, right? Is he a pig?]

[This is just called poverty stunting ambition. I heard that he came from a poor mountain valley. Once a person is poor, it is easy to have no moral bottom line.]

[He’s desperate, ah, he’s wearing counterfeits and he’s here to leech off our idol, Xia Yu]

[If it’s genuine, he probably bought it by crawling into someone’s bed. Otherwise, how could he afford it if he’s so poor?]

[He also has a pretty face, but there’s no telling how dirty he is behind the scenes. He’s not worthy of this outfit if he sells himself]

Seeing this, Xia Xingchi was taken aback for a moment. His mouth opened, but no words came out, and the hand that had originally raised the phone to show Li Chengyuan retracted silently.

Clearing his throat, he said calmly: “Forget it, there’s actually nothing to see. Anyway, they praise me and scold me, and don’t give money or deduct money, so it’s not important at all.”

He said it wasn’t important, but he lowered his head and turned the screen away silently, and it seemed he was trying to extract a little bit of encouragement from the black hot search and the overwhelming water army of anti-fans.

But he discovered that amidst the dense personal attacks, discrimination, and insults, he couldn’t find the original cute and heart-warming comments at all. It seemed that the short-term excitement just now was an illusion.

This was not beyond Xia Xingchi’s expectations. After all, he was used to enduring more and greater malice in his previous life.

But it didn’t matter. If a dog bit him, he wouldn’t go bite it back, and he couldn’t bite so many dogs anyway. If he paid attention to them or was influenced by them, he would lose.

Xia Xingchi lowered his eyes for a moment, and finally shrugged his shoulders with a nonchalant expression. He quickly shifted from Weibo to a mobile game, putting it all out of sight.

Li Chengyuan frowned, watching helplessly as the happy and unsuspecting little hedgehog with his belly exposed silently rolled himself into a ball of thorns.

When Xia Xingchi’s screen flashed in front of him just now, he couldn’t see it clearly, but saw just enough to know it didn’t say anything good.

After all, Xia Xingchi didn’t know enough about the entertainment industry, and didn’t know that the overwhelming maliciousness was not all from real people. The ones who guided public opinion at the beginning were the various water armies bought by someone behind the scenes.

Without saying a word, Li Chengyuan used his cell phone to scroll through Weibo again with an increasingly sullen look on his face. In the end, he stood up wordlessly with a dark expression, as if to make a phone call.

Xia Xingchi looked at his phone and ate snacks intermittently. He didn’t think much about him leaving, and only thought that His Majesty the Emperor, who was busy all the time, had gone to work again.

He had just broken the record on his parkour game when it happened that Lin Meng sent a message to comfort him:

“It’s okay, Xingchi, don’t read Weibo. We don’t need to talk to those trolls with their cesspit mouths.”

“Look at them, ba, lashing out at their opponents and the world all day long.”

“They strike hard on the internet, but in reality they’re just dumb trash.”

. . . . . .

Lin Meng had originally wanted to comfort him, but unexpectedly, when she saw someone defaming Xia Xingchi, she was so angry that she couldn’t stop herself. After cursing several times in a row, she remembered that the important thing was to tell him not to look at it.

Xia Xingchi knew that she meant well, so he finally laughed and began to type back that it was fine, he didn’t care, but suddenly saw her message in surprise: 

“Oh my god, ah! Xingchi, go check Weibo! Oh my god!”

Xia Xingchi was surprised. Although he didn’t know why Lin Meng changed her mind from one moment to the next, he obediently opened Weibo to take a look.

He saw that the hot search list had suddenly tilted on its head, and all those insulting comments disappeared completely.

The luxury brand had come forth to claim the genuine haute couture he was wearing, and even broke their usual official format. Instead, it praised him several times, saying “His body proportions are like those of a professional model,” and “He is a noble and elegant young man.”

The cute hot search comments that were originally withdrawn by Xia Yu also reappeared at the top position, and what was even more shocking was that there was a whole row of Xia Yu’s black hot searches right after it:

#Xia Yu pours dirty water to buy black hot searches, evidence with pictures and truth#

#Xia Yu’s character design collapsed, jealous of a popular young artist#

#Xia Yu, such a vicious human being#

. . . . . .

One stone stirred up a thousand waves. If it was a grenade that had hit Xia Xingchi just now, then this counterattack against evil forces was an atomic bomb.

T/N: *Gasps for breath* This chapter was so……frickin……long. I would have liked to cut it into two chapters, but this is the way the author wrote it, so what could I do? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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[1] A “street rat” (过街老鼠) is someone who is detested by all/a target of scorn. ⮐

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Chapter Twenty-One << Table of Contents >> Chapter Twenty-Three

In the end, Magistrate Yin still agreed that the two should come together as guests. Firstly, he didn’t want to offend these two young masters from the capital, and secondly, he was afraid that Yan Mingting would think that he was treating others snobbishly.

This group of people walked into the front hall, and Magistrate Yin called for food to be served.

Yan Mingting said that he had already eaten, and would just drink some wine, so Magistrate Yin brought up several jugs of good wine.

Everyone sat down one after another. Magistrate Yin came back to his senses and saw that Yan Mingting was sitting on the same side as “the most beautiful man in the capital.” Li Yucheng and Yan Mingting’s little companion sat on the other side, along with two lieutenants.

He smiled in embarrassment, but seeing that everyone was undisturbed, he didn’t say anything, thinking that they had just chosen seats randomly.

Zhao Yelan had already heard Yan Mingting mention the Yin family’s situation last night, so he covertly looked around and saw that there was no one else in the front hall except the servants. After Yin-furen helped greet the guests, she had taken all the female relatives back to the courtyard.

The dishes on the table were quite satisfactory, not too extravagant, but they also took into account the tastes of the capital, providing half Beijing cuisine and half Huaizhou cuisine.

Magistrate Yin toasted with Yan Mingting for a while before talking about serious business: “I wonder if General Yan still needs manpower? Just say the word, and I will do my best to help the General catch the thieves.”

“There is a need, but let’s wait until Pinglu’s body recovers first,” Yan Mingting said.

Magistrate Yin’s smile froze slightly, and then he laughed again: “This is natural, when she recovers, I will definitely let her serve the General.”

At this time, Zhao Yelan, who had been eating in silence, said abruptly: “What is wrong with Miss Yin?”

“Joke all you want after hearing this, but my daughter ran away previously and suffered some hardships, and became ill when she came back,” Magistrate Yin said.

Zuo Ran’s face puffed up in anger, and she buried her head in her food without saying a word, gritting her teeth.

“I also get sick from time to time, and I happened to bring a famous doctor with me on this trip. How about asking him to look at Miss Yin?” Zhao Yelan said.

“There is no need to trouble you. I have already invited many doctors, and they believe that she will recover soon.” Magistrate Yin responded. Seeing that he had finally stopped talking, he breathed a sigh of relief and turned his attention to Yan Mingting again. “General, how long will you stay in Huaizhou on this trip?”

“Not sure, the first thing to do is to catch those two thieves,” Yan Mingting said.

Magistrate Yin nodded, thinking inwardly that he only hoped his people could find Yin Pinglu as soon as possible, so that the two of them could get along well. The original marriage was canceled two days ago, and only then did he put his mind on Yan Mingting. Perhaps Yan Mingting was willing to marry Pinglu? Then his Yin family would truly prosper.

After three rounds of drinking, Magistrate Yin continued to praise Yin Pinglu to Yan Mingting, and everyone else’s ears seemed to grow calluses.

Li Yucheng finally couldn’t bear it anymore and said: “Magistrate Yin, hearing you say these things, your daughter is a celestial maiden like no other in heaven or earth. I am so moved by what you said. How about marrying your daughter to me?”

“Nephew, don’t joke.”

“I’m not joking with you. If you don’t like me, then my brother is fine too, ah. Fu Qian. You send someone to the capital to inquire, who doesn’t know this name? His father is the Minister of Dali Temple.”

Magistrate Yin was inwardly startled. He calmly looked at Zhao Yelan but saw that he didn’t seem to be moved. He just indifferently played with an empty teacup, and suddenly glanced at Yan Mingting’s hand with sharp eyes.

Yan Mingting’s hand suddenly paused, and he immediately put the wine cup he had just picked up back down on the table in silence.

Magistrate Yin frowned, feeling that the way these two got along with each other was a bit strange, but after some thought, they were both well-known people in the capital, and it wasn’t  surprising that they knew each other previously.

Yan Mingting looked at the color of the sky. Realizing that Magistrate Yin only wanted to talk about unrelated matters with him, he prepared to leave.

The others stood up one after another. Li Yucheng’s sharp eyes saw that there were several footprints on Yan Mingting’s shoe, and he glanced at Zhao Yelan with a suppressed smile, thinking that if they didn’t go back, Yan Mingting’s leg may be crushed.

“Daddy, daddy, I also want to see the great General!” At this moment, a little girl ran into the front hall. 

“Aiya, Miss Ba, come back quickly.” The nanny swiftly chased after her.

“This is Pinglu’s younger sibling. She is still young and a little naughty, please forgive me,” Magistrate Yin said awkwardly.

Yan Mingting’s leg was suddenly hugged. He looked down and saw that the little girl was only as tall as his thigh. She clutched his leg and asked with a smile: “Are you a general who knows how to fight? Holding a sword, hei xiu hei xiu, huchi huchi?”^[1]

Yan Mingting and Zuo Ran laughed at the same time.

“Can you teach me? I want to learn too!” The little girl stretched out her hands. “You teach me huchi huchi, and I’ll give you something nice!”

“What is it?” Yan Mingting asked with a smile.

“Tanghulu!” The little girl took out the tanghulu from her bosom and insisted on giving them to him.

“How can the General eat your tanghulu? Hurry up and go back to your room to sleep.” Magistrate Yin came over to pull her away.

“It’s okay, the little girl has heart.” Yan Mingting wrangled his expression under control and exchanged glances with Zhao Yelan, taking the tanghulu before going back to the inn with the others.

In the middle of the night, Yan Mingting snuck into Zhao Yelan’s room again along with Zuo Ran.

He placed the tanghulu on the table: “This should have been given to me by Yin Pinglu.”

“What?” Zuo Ran was taken aback.

“The only people who know I like tanghulu are my own people,” Yan Mingting said. “By letting the little girl give it to me, no one would be suspicious at all.”

Zuo Ran didn’t hesitate to tear off the candy paper and place it next to the candle. Carefully inspecting the traces on it, she finally found that each sugar-coated hawthorn contained a pattern of very thin lines.

There were flowers, the sun, streams, rivers and mountains.

“What do these mean?” Yan Mingting asked.

“Ask her.” Zhao Yelan looked at Zuo Ran.

“This is what she mentioned when she taught me to read, and the meaning of these patterns is – freedom. She is free now, she escaped safely!” Zuo Ran trembled and wept with joy.

“That’s great.” Yan Mingting let out a sigh of relief and sent her back to her room. Then he smiled, “This girl, Yinglu, is clever. Although the tanghulu were given to me, only Zuo Ran could understand the secret code. Is it because she was afraid that I would be swayed by her father?”

“Why, the foul old man has spent most of the day talking to you, but you’re not affected at all?” Zhao Yelan glanced at him.

“You joke, am I someone who can be persuaded with just a few words?” Yan Mingting smiled and stretched out his feet, swinging them triumphantly. “It is only that somebody stepped on me twice in one night, and those who didn’t know might think that a lot of vinegar had been added to the tea.”

“I was about to be suffocated to death by the smell of your alcohol,” Zhao Yelan said.

Yan Mingting tentatively embraced him from behind, and the other person stiffened for a moment. Then he immediately turned around, and the two faced each other.

Yan Mingting’s heart beat terribly fast, especially when he saw the other party nearing his neck. Breath fell on his skin like embers, about to ignite him.

Zhao Yelan turned his head sideways and sniffed him, his nose caressing his skin intentionally or unintentionally. Hearing the other party’s heavy breathing, his lips curled up and he pushed the person away: “It stinks to death.”

Yan Mingting’s hands were empty, and he looked at him with some sorrow. As soon as he took a step forward, the other poked him in the chest with his index finger, preventing him from approaching.

“Go bathe.”

“Hug me first.”

“Don’t even think about it.” Zhao Yelan raised his eyebrows. “Do you want me to picture you drinking or picture you taking a bath?”

“Okay, I’ll go bathe now, wait for me!” Yan Mingting turned around and slipped away to bathe. He scrubbed himself hard, and was afraid that his body would still smell, so he held his nose and picked up some incense, waving it around his body. Only then did he happily sneak back into the upstairs room.

However, the room was pitch black, and the fellow who was supposed to flirt with him was already dead asleep!

Yan Mingting wanted to cry but had no tears, and could only lay down on the floor to let himself cool down.

In the darkness, the corners of Zhao Yelan’s mouth silently twitched.

The next day, Yan Mingting was called to the government office to discuss business. The officials in Quzhou had received the letter and were cooperating in the search for the escaped culprits.

Zhao Yelan went to the teahouse again to observe Kuang Sheng’s movements.

After a while, Yu Dali came in to report the situation: “There is still no one lingering around his house, but he went to the gate of the city whenever he was free to ask the guards if there was anyone from the capital.”

Zhao Yelan suddenly had a guess in mind and said: “I see, leave eight people here to continue guarding, and the rest will withdraw.”

“Yes.”

Zhao Yelan was walking alone on the street when he suddenly saw a large group of people progressing toward the government office. The escorts were tall and strong, holding weapons in their hands, and were transporting ten large boxes.

It should be the team escorting the disaster relief money.

The common people stopped to watch curiously, but were kicked back by the officers and soldiers.

He paused, returned to the inn, picked up the still-sleeping Li Yucheng, and asked him to take him to the Cheng mansion.

He had been to the Cheng mansion two or three times before for food and entertainment, and they didn’t inquire about his identity. This was because when Li Yucheng came back this time, he also brought a letter from Li Jinyu instructing them to follow the previous person’s arrangements, not ask too many questions, and not make noise.

The Cheng family had accumulated some wealth over the years, but had always listened to Li Jinyu’s warnings to never bribe other officials and to be well-behaved businessmen. Although it couldn’t be said that they were as rich as a small country, they had a good reputation and the family property was enough for three generations to squander.

The head of the Cheng family was now Li Yucheng’s uncle, so he took him to the study and asked: “Fu-gongzi, since you came here today, do you have something important to do?”

“I wonder what the relationship is between Master Cheng and Magistrate Yin?”

“Except for necessary contact, I rarely communicate with him.”

“What is necessary contact?”

“Such as trafficking in goods, opening up business routes, or his birthday……”

Zhao Yelan: “How is his relationship with other businessmen?”

“He used to be very close to the Wang family, but after the Wang family fell, he completely ignored them. On the contrary, they had heated fights with other officials. From the county magistrate to the governor, he has connections.”

“Have you paid the commercial taxes this year?”

“Not yet, but we are counting the days, and we will hand it over soon.”

“Go now, there are too many merchants at the end of the month, and the government office will be too busy in a while.”

The government office was very busy at this time. Magistrate Yin received the news of the arrival of the Imperial court’s disaster relief money, but there was no rain these days, so it could only be stored in the government office’s treasury.

After discussing the deployment in the city with the people in the criminal chamber, Yan Mingting was about to leave, but at the door, he bumped into Li Yucheng and his uncle, who had come to pay taxes.

He walked out the gate of the government office with his arms folded, his gaze scanning every corner of the neighborhood carefully, and finally spotted Zhao Yelan’s figure in a restaurant diagonally opposite.

The other party naturally also saw him, and while fanning himself, he raised his chin at him.

After a while, Yan Mingting opened the door to the private room and said: “You had them go to the government office?”

“En.” Zhao Yelan paid attention to the movement inside. “What is Magistrate Yin’s reaction?”

“Quite normal. It seems that there is no indication of corruption.”

“I doubt he has the guts to set his heart on making contacts.” Zhao Yelan sneered.

The two sat and waited for half an hour before they saw the nephew and uncle come out. After Li Yucheng bid farewell to his uncle, he dashed upstairs. When he saw Yan Mingting, he was not surprised, saying: “Uncle has had countless exchanges with the people in the building, and in a few words, the total amount of money put into the treasury is 38,000 taels.”

The Imperial court had allocated a total of 100,000 taels, divided into two teams to Huaizhou and Zhizhou, each with 50,000 taels. This was not only to spread out the transportation risk, but also to facilitate disaster relief. Along the way, it was handled by many middlemen, and since there was no disaster, it was convenient to scrape a little off the top. But this was too little, and was too easy to arouse suspicion. The best way was to –

“I heard that the escort team encountered a robbery, and the governor’s troops were able to save this amount,” Li Yucheng said.

“En, it just so happens that the bandit incident has made the surrounding area restless, which is indeed a good opportunity.” Zhao Yelan began writing the memorial and handed it over to Yan Mingting, who found a few reliable people to personally deliver it to Beijing.

After all this work, it was almost dark, and Li Yucheng went back to the Cheng residence.

The two were eating in the restaurant when Yan Mingting suddenly remembered a very important matter: “What about Xiao Gao? Why didn’t you take him with you when you went out this time?”

“He has other things to do,” Zhao Yelan said mysteriously.

It was a little cooler at night, and the two of them finished their meal and took a walk along the waterways. The oncoming wind blew across their cheeks, bringing a touch of coolness to the hot summer day.

Yan Mingting turned his head to the side, saw the hair on both sides of his head blowing in the wind, and couldn’t help but reach out to touch it.

Zhao Yelan didn’t make a sound, but stopped suddenly. Watching the lanterns floating by the river, he remembered that today was the Hungry Ghost Festival.

After a while, as they walked upstream, they saw many people putting out lanterns. Seeing this, Yan Mingting also went to buy two: “Shall we let them go?”

Zhao Yelan took one, but didn’t move.

“I’ll send one for my parents and younger brother,” Yan Mingting said. “What about you?”

Zhao Yelan lowered his eyes, and was about to light his when a gust of wind blew over, making the candle flicker on the verge of being extinguished.

At this time, a pair of hands surrounded it to prevent the wind from blowing it out. The flame flickered a few times, and then stabilized again.

“Better.” Yan Mingting smiled at him.

Zhao Yelan chuckled lightly.

The two river lanterns squeezed into the big crowd together with other river lanterns of various colors. Carrying the longing and condolences for the deceased, they gradually floated downstream along the current.

“They will be able to see,” Yan Mingting said to himself. He turned his head and said solemnly, “They will definitely see that we are doing well now and have a new family.”

Zhao Yelan’s expression moved, and he stared at him until the people behind urged them to return to the road.

More and more people came to release the river lanterns, and the crowd began to grow. Yan Mingting glanced at his hand intentionally or otherwise, and quietly hooked his little finger under the cover of his sleeve.

Zhao Yelan didn’t swat his hand away. Yan Mingting was beaming with joy, his face full of smiles towards the people they passed as he walked all the way to the inn next to his shoulder.

At this time, a sedan chair passed by.

Magistrate Yin’s eyes widened. He quickly lowered the curtain, then pushed aside the curtain at the back worriedly, looking back at their secretly hooked fingers, horrified in his heart – Mother, General Yan is really a cut-sleeve?!

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[1] Hei Xiu (嘿咻) is an onomotopoeia for applying force to something, but is also a colloquial phrase for having sex. Huchi (呼哧) is another sound that represents heavy breathing. This little girl is making an unintentional innuendo. ⮐

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Chapter Fifty-Two <<Table of Contents >> Chapter Fifty-Four

Xia Xingchi was stunned by this discovery, and turned his head to look around, thinking, Li Chengyuan might be looking at me from somewhere, right?

At a glance, there were still only celebrities and big names in the waiting area.

Those at the end of the sequence were obviously very high-ranking, and everyone was surrounded by stylists, making careful preparations. But Xia Xingchi was not favored by the management company, so he sat there and waited a little pitifully.

Fortunately, his foundation was good, and he looked excellent in his natural state without makeup.

He looked around again, but Li Chengyuan was nowhere to be seen in the crowd.

Xia Xingchi tilted his head in doubt. Maybe the other person was just asking casually, or maybe this business legend also had the ability to predict things in this commercial competition like a god?

After some thought, he bowed his head and replied:

[Of course it’s not cold, I’m getting heated up (dog with rose in its mouth.jpg)]

When Li Chengyuan received the news, he had already stood up with a thick coat over his arm, and was about to go out.

Seeing Xia Xingchi’s ears turn red from the cold on the screen in the lounge, yet insisting he was not cold, he couldn’t help but find it a little laughable.

After Xia Xingchi put down his phone, he looked around vigilantly, trying to find someone, but suddenly found that Xia Yu had been looking at him obliquely through a mirror for an unknown length of time.

The moment the two locked gazes, Xia Yu didn’t look away, but smiled strangely with malicious intentions.

Anyone who suddenly saw this rat-like gaze coming from the gutter would be stunned.

Xia Xingchi was taken aback, then could help but frown. He had a very bad feeling in his heart. Could it be that Xia Yu was trying to cause trouble here?

The moment this intuition flashed by, the door of the waiting area suddenly opened, and the cold wind rushed in as if it had found a flaw in the defenses. 

A middle-aged man walked in, wearing a metal name tag on his chest instead of an ordinary work badge. He seemed to be the leader of the organization, and was followed by two security guards.

The person in charge of the waiting area was holding a walkie-talkie to arrange and adjust the time for the artists to appear on the red carpet. Seeing him, he came over to greet: “Manager Zhang.”

The other party just nodded his head with an air of greatness.

At this moment, Xia Xingchi didn’t care about who the hell this was. He just wanted to know, who is going to close the door?

Although no one expected that the heater in the waiting area would be broken and it would be so cold, the big names all had down jackets sent urgently by their assistants, but he could only shiver and endure it.

If the door was kept open like this, he would definitely be the first to freeze to death.

But that person seemed to be taking a tour and didn’t intend to leave. Xia Xingchi’s teeth were chattering as he debated whether to abandon the finally warmed up chair and close the door.

Then a figure came rushing in at once, and as if a savior had come, the first thing they did was to quickly close the door.

— Lin Meng held two cups of hot cocoa. Striding forward, she quickly stuffed them into Xia Xingchi’s reddened hands.

“Hurry and warm your hands.” Lin Meng felt very distressed when she saw him cowering like a little quail. “I really couldn’t find any warm clothes, so you’ll have to make do with this.”

Xia Xingchi was stunned for a moment, then automatically accepted the hot cocoa, uncharacteristically embarrassed.

The little cabbage who had never been loved by anyone had long been used to starving and freezing alone, and had never thought of asking anyone for help, let alone that Lin Meng would suddenly appear to offer him warmth.

“Could it be that he’s really been frozen stupid?” Lin Meng asked jokingly, seeing his wide eyes.

Only then did Xia Xingchi regain his senses and laugh with a burst of satisfaction.

He was opening his mouth to thank Sister Mengmeng, when he saw Manager Zhang stride up quite aggressively.

Xia Xingchi’s eyelid twitched, and the bad premonition from when Xia Yu looked at him just now reappeared.

The other party already had a bad complexion as he said: 

“Which low-tier internet celebrity is this coming in to freeload on the red carpet?”

“Xiao Li, what’s the matter with you? You just let anyone in? Isn’t this the person who lost our sponsor?”

“What are you looking at, ah? Get out by yourself!”

All of these ugly words carried targeted malice, which was particularly harsh in the quiet waiting area.

It was very sudden and inexplicable, as if this person had appeared in order to find fault.

Xia Xingchi frowned, then a kind and foolish look quickly appeared in his eyes.

The person in charge named “Xiao Li” heard the commotion and came over: “No, this is……”

Zhang Hai didn’t want to hear an explanation, so he waved his hand and said: “Security, remove this person quickly!”

It was not uncommon for this kind of person to sneak into the crowd while taking advantage of the chaos, and some even successfully walked the red carpet. 

Xia Xingchi was especially unknown, so he was out of place among the crowd.

An assistant whispered: “I wanted to say something just now! That person has never been seen before, so how could he be arranged at the end?”

Another whisper followed: “And as for his clothes, Xia Yu wanted to rent them but was rejected. Those must be fakes.”

“I know him, he seems to be called Xia Xingchi, right? An obscure low-tier artist, is he this crazy about becoming popular?”

Xia Yu suppressed his triumphant smile, and just sat aside to watch the flames.

After living under the same roof for a year, he knew that with “Xia Xingchi’s” cowardly and fragile character, all the maliciousness and suspicion, as well as everyone’s scorn and ridicule, would easily break this trash.

But to his disappointment, Xia Xingchi was such a prickly person that he couldn’t tolerate these fault-finding remarks. He immediately responded without suffering a loss:

 “What is this Zhang thing, don’t you know something called a roster? If you don’t need your brain, don’t donate it. It’s all water and nobody wants it.”

“The way you recognize people now, if you saw a dog tied up at the door, would you think it was your relative?”

His tone was sincere and cordial, and the more it was like this, the more ridicule it conveyed. Lin Meng, who had been about to speak up, couldn’t help laughing.

Zhang Hai never thought that he would dare to talk back, and asked angrily: “What did you just say?!”

The person in charge, Xiao Li, was jolted into action by Xia Xingchi, and quickly said: “Yes, there is a list. Manager Zhang, please look.”

Written in black and white, Xia Xingchi’s name was shockingly listed. Obviously there had been a mistake in identifying the person.

Zhang Hai was unmoved, and instead ordered security: “You still haven’t driven him out? Are you really going to let him walk on the red carpet?”

Lin Meng immediately stood in front of Xia Xingchi, refusing to give in: “What are you doing? Can’t you see our family’s name clearly written on it?”

She also knew that someone was deliberately finding fault. In fact, she didn’t know who Xia Xingchi had offended since his debut, but someone had been deliberately targeting and smearing him, and he had even been suppressed for no reason.

Unexpectedly, after finally receiving a red carpet invitation with big exposure, the black hand behind the scenes dared to disrupt the situation so blatantly.

Zhang Hai just sneered when he heard these words, and arrogantly handed his phone to Xiao Li: “Looking at him myself, he is not a guest who was invited tonight at all.”

What he had in his hand was a guest invitation list. Unlike the red carpet list, it was included with the original invitation.

But the “Xia Xingchi” of two months ago was not Xia Xingchi. As a party with relationship connections that had just appeared out of thin air two weeks in advance, he was indeed not on the initial invitation.

Li Chengyuan had so much prestige that he just casually ordered, “Protect the identity of my fiance,” but the organizer inadvertently used excessive force and kept it too private.

Except for a few high-level executives, no one knew Xia Xingchi’s background.

The entertainment industry loved to catch rumors and spread gossip. In order to avoid making people suspicious, his appearing out of nowhere method was very low-key, and he had been added to the list without any fanfare.

“This……?”

Xiao Li searched for a long time, and finally cast over a suspicious look.

There had never been a sudden appearance after the invitation time had passed, so at every soiree, the two lists were only different in order of appearance.

Seeing this, Lin Meng, who was full of confidence at first, couldn’t help but inwardly weaken a little.

After all, she didn’t understand why the organizers suddenly arranged to invite Xia Xingchi, and now that this matter was suddenly being questioned, she felt a little guilty.

Although she took his patron into consideration, it stood to reason that no one should be able to command the well-known organizers in the circle to forcibly stuff someone in. Otherwise, what level of person must this patron be?

Xia Xingchi turned his head just in time to meet Xia Yu’s triumphant eyes – sure enough, it was the green tea spirit who must be punished.

The moment they locked gazes, Xia Yu’s assistant said just at the right time:

“Our management company received three places, namely Brother Yu, Brother Jiang, and Sister Bai. There was no one else, right?”

The implication was clear. Xia Xingchi was also in this company, but how could there be a place for him, an unpopular low-tier artist?

As a green tea spirit, he always stayed out of the way, so Xia Yu reprimanded hypocritically: “Be quiet! It’s none of your business!”

He did not deny the claim.

Xia Xingchi’s frown tightened. That bastard Xia Yu obviously knew that he didn’t want to reveal his relationship with Li Chengyuan at all, and even if he said something, no one would believe him. It was as likely as the sun rising in the west.

After Xia Yu spoke, the tables turned even more, and the crowd began to discuss more unscrupulously:

“He’s so crazy about becoming famous? He could do anything for fame, what method did he use to change the roster?”

“I’m laughing to death, he had the cheek to arrange for himself to be in the finale at the end.”

“This is the self-confidence of a low-tier artist. What advantages does he have other than a good-looking face?”

“There are countless anti-fans and black materials.”

“It’s a pity that there are still loopholes. He must not have thought that there was still evidence of the original list, right?”

Xia Xingchi didn’t say a word, and all kinds of malicious accusations had already filled in a multitude of complex crimes for him.

Everything was under Xia Yu’s control, and he was just waiting for his state of mind to collapse, delaying his red carpet walk.

Fortunately, in his previous life, Xia Xingchi had been used to receiving all kinds of malice and faces full of disgust and contempt towards him. If he was capable of collapsing under this drizzle, he would have long since taken his own life.

At this time, the two tall and burly security guards had already forcefully greeted him, planning to throw him out of the waiting area without a word.

Lin Meng became anxious immediately: “Wait! There are only two lists, how can you be sure that the previous version is not wrong? Can you afford to take responsibility if you’ve made a mistake?”

Zhang Hai squinted at her, and said with contemptuous indifference: “Since there are doubts, let’s check you out first, ah, and talk about it after we are sure that people like you are qualified.”

At this moment, the walkie-talkie in Xiao Li’s hand rang, and there was a message from the red carpet that they were ready for Xia Yu to go out.

This meant that the timing was now very tight, because the person going behind him was Xia Xingchi.

The so-called “check out” was very clearly a play for time to prevent him from going onto the red carpet.

Xia Yu managed to leave with a smile. Of course a bastard like Xia Xingchi was not worthy to be on stage with him.

Don’t even think about wearing the same brand as him and the new season’s styles, making people compare the two and see that his resources were not as good as those of a low-tier joke.

Xia Xingchi saw that wretched smile on his face and felt that his prickly temper had reached the limit of his patience, so he took a deep breath.

At this time, Zhang Hai, that bastard, actually stepped forward in public and viciously shoved Lin Meng!

The little firecracker absolutely couldn’t endure this. Xia Xingchi swiftly stepped forward and grabbed his wrist with one hand, and twisted with a clever and vicious kacha!

The first one to provoke a fight was always in the wrong, so since this idiot started it, he would be the one to end it.

Zhang Hai was caught off guard and screamed in pain. He wanted to pull his wrist away, but was in too much pain to move. He suspected that his hand had been broken.

Xia Xingchi ignored his painful struggle, and only continued to increase his strength while asking expressionlessly: “Do you know who my fiance is?”

The sincere tone was still the same, filled to the brim with ridicule.

Hearing these words, Zhang Hai roared angrily: “Let go! Don’t you fucking try to bluff me! Who do you think you are?!”

In fact, Xia Xingchi had been asking seriously this time.

He was very suspicious about this idiot Zhang not even knowing who he was. He really had no clue how Xia Xingchi came to be here, so he rushed to be used as a weapon by Xia Yu.

It seemed that this was indeed the case.

At this moment, Zhang Hai was so furious that he didn’t care about his public image, and opened his mouth to roar: “Let go of laozi! Fuck your fiance, let your shitty fiance beat me up if they have the guts!”

The door of the venue opened as if in response to these words to reveal a handsome man with an indifferent expression, standing there with a thick jacket draped over his arm.

Just standing there motionless, the man had a condescending and powerful aura. For a moment, the entire audience subconsciously went silent, instinctively sensing danger.

Li Chengyuan had obviously heard what was said, and turned to look at Zhang Hai expressionlessly.

Following behind were the brightly smiling executives of the organization, who naturally knew who Xia Xingchi was. Upon witnessing this scene, their smiles froze instantly, and everything fell into dead silence.

---

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Chapter Twenty << Table of Contents >> Chapter Twenty-Two

The online broadcast was finally warming up. Although there were no stars on screen, everyone was already full of enthusiasm and the barrage^[1] was already coming one after another.

[It’s so cold in Beijing now, do you feel sorry for your wife who has to wear a strapless dress? Alas, this is the problem with high-end luxury endorsements~]

[Good grief (soybean sweating.jpg) By virtue of how awesome the high definition is, seeing Xia Yu’s screen marketing is enough to make me feel sick.]

[Your sourness is overflowing the screen, and your impotent rage is useless. Dying laughing] 

[Stop making noise, you’re all banned for a while. By the way, this year’s venue is extraordinarily luxurious, huh?]

[Of course, this year not only will there be bosses from every circle……according to inside information, there will be a super mysterious big-shot!]

[No, I only want to see handsome guys. Even if the world’s richest man comes, I’m not interested.]

[He is indeed a handsome guy, a young financial tycoon! A business legend, oh!]

[Wtf? This description sounds familiar, you don’t mean that Li Chengyuan is going to be there?!]

[Ahhhhhh I heard that too! Will it be possible to finally see what my male god looks like?]

One stone stirred up a thousand waves. This was a big topic, and everyone pondered the credibility of the news and discussed his reasons for coming to the soiree.

Someone else said boldly, “I remember all nine photos on a grid. As long as Mr. Li appears in front of the camera, I will definitely recognize him!”

It was a pity that Li Chengyuan only attended the soiree to put in an appearance, and this had already made the person in charge of entertaining continue to repeat: “Your presence is an honor! An honor!”

As for wanting him to walk the red carpet, that was simply a pipe dream.

Entering the venue through the hidden VIP entrance, Zhao Yinhe immediately got to flirting. After all, there were countless beauties in the entertainment circle, and many flowers who wanted to be plucked by Mr. Zhao.

If even iron trees like Li Chengyuan were blooming, maybe a single dog like him would suddenly encounter springtime?

Zhao Yinhe was infamous for picking flowers everywhere. The person in charge wasn’t surprised and didn’t ask too many questions, continuing on to take Li Chengyuan to his exclusive lounge on the second floor.

Unexpectedly, Li Chengyuan also stopped and indicated that the other party’s work could end here.

“Mr. Li, do you want to……?” Shocking, was it possible that this unsentimental boss was also going to flirt with women?

Li Chengyuan could see what the other party was thinking. Usually he would never pay attention to such trivial matters, but when he thought about his plan to “officially announce” his relationship with Xia Xingchi, he felt that his reputation might still be important.

He said lightly: “I’m going to find someone.”

To catch his little domesticated hedgehog who was always running around and slipping away, and then give him a hard lesson.

At this time, Xia Xingchi was looking around like a thief. Based on the time, he guessed that the big villain had already arrived.

This person didn’t reply after many messages were sent, so he must still be angry about him sneaking out without authorization. Meeting him now would be just tragic.

In order to avoid the fate of misfortune falling upon him once more, Xia Xingchi didn’t dare wander around in crowded places, but just shrank into a corner where no one was watching, quietly searching for the feeling of walking the red carpet.

Lin Meng previously took him on a special trip to learn skills that he could sell now. It was not difficult to walk the red carpet, but she was still worried that he would get stage fright.

Even if “Xia Xingchi” was just recording a video, he would be too nervous to speak in front of the camera, not to mention having fans on both sides of the red carpet, countless cameras, and a live broadcast of the whole process.

Fortunately, the current Xia Xingchi had always been thick-skinned. This insignificant thing didn’t compare to the nerves and fright of hiding from his furious fiance.

Li Chengyuan usually placed no restrictions on him, and didn’t even stipulate how he should dress, like a financial backer or a person looking for a substitute might do.

But once Xia Xingchi’s actions were out of his acceptable range of control, and there was a risk of him running away, he would puff up in anger on the spot like a big cat whose tail had been stepped on.

Xia Xingchi shook his head, thinking to himself that this would not work. Treating a marriage partner like himself with such a strong desire for control, no matter how hard he tried, something would go haywire.

And losing one’s temper all the time was not good for one’s health, and could easily shorten a lifespan.

Just as he was thinking about how to customize a desensitization plan for the short-lived boss in order to prolong his life, he heard footsteps behind him, followed by a hand clapping down on Xia Xingchi’s shoulder.

He jumped in fright, thinking, could it be that the main villain is here? He wanted to run away, but heard Lin Meng’s voice: “Xingchi? Why are you hiding here, don’t you want to go and see the celebrities?”

Seeing that it wasn’t Li Chengyuan, Xia Xingchi released a long sigh of relief. He thought the boss already had him, but it was just that his own life was often in a state of precarious worry.

He said in a furtive whisper: “I’m afraid of meeting the benefactor……I just made him angry, and I’m afraid he will kill me in public.”

Lin Meng was surprised to hear this. Apart from celebrities, all the people who could attend the soiree were rather powerful business tycoons, and all of them had reputations.

It seemed that even though that vile old man bought counterfeit clothes and didn’t provide resources, he seemed to be quite powerful?

Speaking of clothes, she had just taken a look around, and perhaps fortune favored the fools, because no one had rented out the genuine counterpart to his knockoff product.

It seemed that the latest autumn and winter styles of that big brand were indeed too difficult to obtain. Today, only Xia Yu wore this brand, but it was the summer style rather than the current model.

“So your patron is actually here?”

Xia Xingchi was helpless upon hearing these words, thinking that not only was he here, but he was already on the top searches. The organizer should have already obtained Li Chengyuan’s permission, because they even officially liked a gossip Weibo comment:

[Inside information: I heard that Mr. Li will also be there tonight! I just don’t know if we’ll be able to see him.]

As soon as the official hammer of Thor struck down, the already huge fashion soiree heated up in an instant!

The mysterious rich man of legend suddenly appeared, and searches related to Li Chengyuan rushed to the top of the hot search list. Everyone speculated on what made a person who was so low-key that he didn’t even show up in photos attend such an occasion.

Although there were some people who suspected that Li Chengyuan was deliberately being mysterious to set himself up as a male god, fans would ask, “What use would this person have for such a thing?” Even if others wanted to drum up hype to make money, they were reduced to silence for a moment.

Seeing that Xia Xingchi was brooding, Lin Meng thought that his must have been caused by that cruel old man, so she actively suggested: “Xingchi, why don’t we go and see some handsome guys!”

As she said this, she took out her cellphone and pointed to the hot search list, picking exactly the wrong subject: “Look! Li Chengyuan is really here! Let’s go around a few times and see if we can run into him!”

Xia Xingchi was dismayed. If he ran into him by chance, he would really be a sheep in the tiger’s mouth, so he shook his head like a rattle drum.

But seeing Lin Meng eager to try, it was only then that he discovered that she was also half a fan of Li Chengyuan, and now nine heads of cattle couldn’t stop her enthusiasm for finding the male god.

However, even if she did, she probably wouldn’t recognize him. After all, she had seen Li Chengyuan as early as that night.

The truth would come out sooner or later, and Xia Xingchi had to suspect that when it was revealed, he would be ground up between agent Lin’s teeth. Thinking about it in this way, it was best to find a time to confess and beg for leniency.

But now was definitely not the right time, so he had to quickly find an excuse: “I’m going to the bathroom! Sister Mengmeng, you go first!”

– – –

The minute hand moved forward leisurely until seven o’clock in the evening, and the soiree that had been preheated to boiling finally began.

[It’s started! Grandma, the live broadcast you have been waiting for is finally here!]

[Awesome! Is it true that Mr. Li wants to participate? (sexy.jpg) Can we see the male god?]

[Really, really! Sisters, go watch the Weibo hot search, the official channel liked “Inside News!” Amazing!]

[Looking at it again, I remember that Li Chengyuan was at the top of the hot search list (eating melons). How could it disappear?]

[As a die-hard fan, I can only say, get used to it. Our husband’s ability to make money can really remove trending searches at will.]

Sitting in the waiting room, Xia Xingchi watched the live broadcast and the barrage, thinking that he was indeed the great villain boss, but there were so many fans inside and outside of the book.

He was browsing with relish at first, until his eyes fell on the word “husband,” and he paused unconsciously.

He stared at this word several times, and after a while, he seemed to experience a flash of subtle discomfort.

— He belongs to my family, how can you call him indiscriminately?

After some consideration, he finally attributed this indescribable sourness to just being too stingy. He also comforted himself that no matter what everyone called him, Li Chengyuan would only eat his desserts and only pay him a huge salary.

However, seeing more and more people addressing him that way and referring to him quite affectionately, this person suddenly had the illusion that his own money tree had been robbed by others, and he felt even more uncomfortable.

Xia Xingchi tilted his head and pondered for a while. A few minutes later, a Weibo account named “Chi Xiaoxia”^[2] was registered.

This “fan” quickly joined Li Chengyuan’s super chat, and the first Weibo post was a sentence in a positive tone:

[Chi Xiaoxia: Let me introduce you, this is my fiance! Mine! @Li Chengyuan]

The post attracted a few fans to laugh and like it, and seeing that he was a new fan, they joked around with him.

But after a few likes, they realized that something was wrong —

The @ account actually existed and bore an official certification mark. Was this the genuine Li Chengyuan?

Oh my god, President Li actually opened a Weibo account? When did this happen?

What caused an out-of-reach guy to make such a change?!

Xia Xingchi didn’t notice the turbulent waves. He felt happy after secretly declaring his sovereignty, and continued to watch other artists walk the red carpet on the live broadcast with his cellphone in his hand.

He was near the end of the lineup. Seeing that there were fewer and fewer people in the waiting room, because he didn’t understand the relationship between the order and the coffee position, he could only suspect that it was very muddled near the back.

After all, if you entered the venue early, you could go to the free buffet early, and you didn’t have to freeze in the waiting room with ventilation on all sides and a broken heater.

But when he turned his head, he saw a popular “acquaintance” waiting for him —

Xia Yu was surrounded by stylists and make-up artists who repeatedly arranged his looks, trying to make his entire appearance perfect on the spot.

The last time the two met was at the engagement banquet, where he had kicked Xia Yu over in public and forcibly interrupted his tea ceremony performance. During this time, he had also blacklisted the cheap father and son of the Xia family, so as not to be harassed all day long.

With the villain protagonist’s vengeful nature, he couldn’t even pretend to be friendly now.

The two looked at each other for a second, and Xia Yu glanced away with a hint of arrogance and disgust, trying to seem as if he hadn’t noticed him so that Xia Xingchi couldn’t leech off his popularity.

Xia Xingchi’s lips curled. Such an unlucky green tea spirit would make a dog shake its head after seeing him. As if anyone cared.

If he had spare time, it was better to smooth the fur of his own big cat. He wouldn’t be able to avoid him when he entered the venue, so he needed to coax him now.

When the message sounded, Li Chengyuan was sitting in the lounge, and the big screen in front of him showed the footage of the waiting area.

He watched Xia Xingchi pick up his phone on-screen and send him a message with a sly smile on his face: 

[Honey~ Are you happy now? Being angry causes stomach aches, and I’ll feel bad. Everyone is responsible for their health!]

[Gege, you have a lot of fans, unlike me, who can only be thrown onto the red carpet at the end _(:з”∠)_]

[I’m hungry, I’m hungry! I could absolutely eat a cow right now! Do you see any delicious food inside?]

[Why isn’t it my turn yet……?]

In fact, the organizer deliberately arranged for him to be at the end. After all, it had always been a convention at this soiree that by default, the bigger the coffee position, the later they went in the sequence.

In order to treat Mr. Li’s little fiance sincerely, they even arranged for Xia Xingchi to be further back than the popular idol Xia Yu.

Ordinary celebrities were either paying attention to their weight or afraid to dirty their luxury clothing, so they would not salivate over the free buffet or look forward to rushing in to eat.

Xia Xingchi was a newbie who didn’t understand these things, but Xia Yu knew very well, and when he saw the sequence, he gritted his teeth angrily. 

In addition, the two were wearing clothing of the same brand, but his was from last season, while Xia Xingchi was in the latest winter style – the bastard must have done this on purpose to disgust and provoke him!

He didn’t know what method was used to get Li Chengyuan to spend the money to buy this suit, but if there was no Xia Xingchi, he would be the only son of the Xia family and the marriage should naturally belong to him.

It seemed as if only by taking every penny he had now as his own, could Xia Yu feel a little more at ease.

The waiting area was too cold, and it was too late to repair the heater on site.

Xia Xinghi didn’t wear a jacket, so he could only sit there shivering. His fingers were almost numb from the cold, and he put down his phone to breathe onto his hands.

After warming them for a long time, his fingers became flexible again. He was about to persevere in his harassment of Li Chengyuan, but then he saw a message from the big villain who had ignored him all day:

“Cold?”

Xia Xingchi immediately typed “Cold, cold, cold!”

Before he had time to post it, he suddenly felt that something was off, and looked through the chat history suspiciously —

He didn’t seem to have told Li Chengyuan that it was cold in here, so how did he know?

---

[1] Barrage =  Real-time comment section. ⮐

[2] 迟小夏, or “Late/Delayed Little Summer” ⮐

---

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Chapter Nineteen << Table of Contents >> Chapter Twenty-One

“Did you go drinking?” Yan Mingting closed the door and walked inside.

“The Cheng family hosted a banquet, and Li Yucheng drank a lot,” Zhao Yelan said.

Yan Mingting moved closer and sniffed him: “You didn’t drink? Can you refuse on such an occasion?”

“Of course I can, I just declared in advance that I can’t drink alcohol. The Cheng family won’t embarrass me. Although, I may have to put on a show outside,” Zhao Yelan replied.

“En, anyway, drink less, ba. Your body is indeed unsuitable,” Yan Mingting said with concern.

Zhao Yelan was taken aback: “My body is unsuitable?”

“That’s right, aren’t you prone to colds? Drinking alcohol will hurt your health, ah.” Yan Mingting still remembered what Xiao Gao had told him before, that Zhao-daren couldn’t drink alcohol and would have some strange reactions, presumably because his body didn’t allow it.

Zhao Yelan raised his eyebrows slightly but said nothing. Because this was indeed an excuse he used on the outside world, but occasionally when he was alone, he would have a drink or two to taste fine wine. He was not a big drinker, and it was easy for him to get drunk. It would be unfortunate if he made a fool of himself in front of other people, so in order to keep his composure, he refused all wine offered by others.

Yan Mingting sat on the side, quietly watching him handle business. He had originally wanted to accompany him in his work, but as he watched him, his mind drifted.

The summer was scorching, and it was hotter than in the capital here. Even if ice was placed in a room, it was difficult to cool down the heat.

After Zhao Yelan took a bath, he wore a comfortable thin robe. Jiangnan’s weaving methods were top-notch. The material was slippery but not sticky, light and comfortable, and it would slide down one elbow when he raised his hand, revealing a white forearm. The collar even more faintly concealed the scenery beneath, making a person’s mind wander.

Yan Mingting subconsciously swallowed, feeling inexplicably hot, and picked up the teacup in front of him, draining it in one gulp.

Zhao Yelan couldn’t stop him in time, and said flatly: “You are drinking from my cup.”

“……” All right, it was getting hotter.

Without explanation, Yan Mingting poured a few more cups one after another. After drinking from this cup, he got up and walked behind the screen. There was a block of ice in a wooden tub, and he touched it with both hands. It took him a long time to get relief from the heat.

Zhao Yelan hurried to finish everything, and was about to rest, but found that this person didn’t seem to want to leave.

“Aren’t you leaving?” Zhao Yelan asked, standing in front of the bed.

“It’s not like we haven’t slept in the same room before. It’s not easy for us to meet, so naturally we have to sleep in the same room.” Yan Mingting was about to confidently get into bed, but was stopped by Zhao Yelan.

“It’s fine to stay overnight, but you will still sleep on the floor.” Zhao Yelan opened the cabinet, took out two thin blankets from inside, and placed them in his arms. “Lay them out yourself.”

Yan Mingting was dumbfounded – why couldn’t they sleep together even after expressing their feelings?!

“It’s hot,” Zhao Yelan said concisely.

“I’m not afraid of the heat!” 

“I am.”

“……” Yan Mingting aggrievedly made the bed, took off his robes, and lay down on it. Then he glanced at the person beside him and saw him loosely covering his stomach with a thin blanket. His legs were exposed, and his pair of jade feet were resting on the side of the bed, almost hanging off.

He got up and moved those feet onto the bed, and then took a painless kick.

“What are you doing?” Zhao Yelan looked at him meaningfully.

“I’m afraid you’ll fall.” Yan Mingting had an upright face, but that foot was not upright. It rubbed against his waist, gently lifted his clothes, and pressed on his abdominal muscles.

Yan Mingting’s face turned red in an instant, and he stood abruptly, bumping his head against the bannister and making Zhao Yelan chuckle.

“I wasn’t lying to you, isn’t it hot?” Zhao Yelan asked.

“……Yes,” Yan Mingting replied hoarsely and quickly rolled back to his bed. He thought it was too hot! If they really slept in the same bed, how hot would it be, ah!

Zhao Yelan glanced flirtatiously at his blushing face, and a secret smile appeared at the corners of his mouth.

– He, Zhao Yelan, would absolutely never make a decision that would allow him to lose.

In order to reduce the chance of regret in the future, he would firmly hold on to this person, make this person put him first in everything and only place his eyes on him. Even if he wanted to leave, the other party would never let him go like he had this time.

He also knew very well that things that were too easy to get were easy to lose interest in, so he had to hold his heart and hook his soul. He would rather go to hell together than let go of the other person.

At maoshi, Yan Mingting woke up and delicately put away the bed. When he was about to leave, he fell back to the window and looked at the sleeping person. 

When the weather turned hot, Zhao Yelan didn’t sleep well. With his head turned sideways, his neckline was wide open, his hair scattered across the pillow.

It was cool at this time, and Yan Mingting took advantage of the hazy moonlight to cover him with a blanket. As he did so, he secretly pinched his foot to vent his anger, and then quietly returned to his own room.

The inn was still quiet in the early morning, and there were just a few residents in the lobby eating a tranquil breakfast.

After Zhao Yelan finished washing up, he went downstairs and heard Li Yucheng’s eager voice: “Zhao……I’ve been looking for you for a long time, Fu Qian, come down and eat quickly.”

Unruffled, Zhao Yelan sat down and ate slowly, looking outside. The sun was about to rise again, and he searched around for a fan. It happened that Li Yucheng opened a fan and waved it around, and upon closer inspection, the big characters “Number One Dandy in Beijing” were written on it. The corners of his mouth twitched slightly.

“Do you want a fan?” asked Li Yucheng. “It’s really too hot here, let’s go out and buy one later. I know a store that has excellent fans.”

“You go, I have other things to do.”

“What things?” Li Yucheng asked. Seeing that he didn’t answer at all, he knew he was talking too much and shrugged. “Okay, ba, I’ll go buy it for you.”

After eating, Zhao Yelan went to the market to buy some small things and strolled all the way to Mingye lane, which was a residential area. This was where the water reporter lived.

He used the excuse of shopping nearby to inquire about the market conditions, and asked about the personnel situation as he did so. After most of the day, he had found out the basic situation of the reporter’s family.

Kuang Sheng, 39 years old, a husband with a pair of children who had their own families now and lived separately. He was a dull person, ineloquent, and had an average relationship with his neighbors. Since becoming a water reporter, he had been paid by the court, but his everyday life was still tight.

Zhao Yelan found a teahouse to drink at and sat on the second floor, just the place to view Kuang Sheng’s house.

The courtyard was a bit dilapidated and there was not even a servant. It looked very deserted.

He was an official appointed by the Imperial court. It was really unbelievable that an honest man who lived so poorly would blatantly lie about the disaster funds.

But one thing was for sure – this water reporter who dared to act like this after only being established for one year was probably related to the local officials. He may have a protective umbrella, or was perhaps forced to act, so Zhao Xuan had sent him to investigate the people involved.

Aside from Beijing officials, most of the officials from other places still used people from the former Emperor’s time, therefore some places harbored filth that must be cleaned out.

“Esteemed guest, your tea is here.” The waiter placed the tea in front of him with a smile, and couldn’t help but look a few more times. Yesterday, he had heard on the street that two fellows from the capital had come.

One was Li Yucheng, the grandson of the Cheng family. They knew him well, and he would come to Jiangnan for a while every year.

There was also Fu Qian, who was said to be the most beautiful man in the capital.

The waiter saw that there was no one else around this unfamiliar guest, but judging by his attire and appearance, this person should be Fu Qian without a doubt! As expected of the most beautiful man in Beijing, ah……

Zhao Yelan saw that the waiter was in a daze and hadn’t left, so he shook the tea leaves and smiled slightly: “The tea in Jiangnan is delicious. I wonder if you use spring water?”

“We have several kinds of water, well water, spring water, and honeydew water. Honeydew water is the dew that is taken every morning and night, and then through our special technique, this sweet and delicious water is produced. Esteemed guest, this cup of yours is honeydew water,” the waiter presented.

Zhao Yelan nodded: “But the sun is so strong, can you still collect dew?”

“It is hard to obtain these days and we are using all our stock. It will run out soon, and the last time it rained was a month ago. I hope it will rain soon.” The waiter sighed.

Counting the days, a month ago happened to be the day when the water reporter sent the precipitation results. Perhaps a lot did fall at that time, and he reported it.

“Did it rain heavily last time?” Zhao Yelan asked.

The waiter thought about it carefully and shook his head: “It was drizzling. I was running errands outside and I didn’t need an umbrella.”

Then it appeared to be a false report, perhaps taking into consideration the time difference. It was supposed to rain these days after the report went out. As soon as the disaster relief money arrived in Jiangnan, they would give a half-hearted justification to the Imperial court and put some of the money into their own pockets. Yet they couldn’t, because there wasn’t any more rain.

He sat in the teahouse until the sun was westward, and finally saw Kuang Sheng return to the house. He couldn’t see the real situation from a distance, but he noted the exhaustion evident in his figure.

He found a secluded place and called Yu Dali out to ask: “Have you found anything?”

“My lord, we have been guarding this house for the past two days. We didn’t find any guards, and no one has come to visit,” Yu Dali replied.

It was strange. No matter whether it was instigated by someone, or Kuang Sheng himself had plucked up some courage, knowing that there was no rain these days, the government would definitely come to investigate. Why did they not take any protective measures?

“Continue to have some people stand guard here.” After giving his order, Zhao Yelan returned to the inn.

As soon as he walked into the lobby, he saw Yan Mingting, Zuo Ran, and the others sitting at the table eating.

Upon seeing him, Zuo Ran subconsciously wanted to call out to him, but when he passed by the table without looking over, she remembered Yan Mingting’s instructions and could only pretend that she didn’t notice him.

However, Zhao Yelan sat down at the next table over, ordered a table of good dishes, and took a few bites of each one to try them.

Watching this, Zuo Ran finally had the same inner experience as He Cuizhang and Zhong Yuehong – how could the disparity between people be so huge!

Li Yucheng also came back after some time, carrying a lot of new baubles in his hands. He asked a waiter to take them to the room, leaving only a fan on the table, and was about to speak when he became aware of a pointed gaze.

He turned his head and saw Yan Mingting staring at him while biting down hard on peanuts.

Li Yucheng made a face at him, and graciously took up his fan to fan Zhao Yelan, deliberately showing a good scene of two brothers: “I bought some calming incense for my father. He often uses this and says it works well. I’ll share some with you when we go upstairs. And I specifically bought this fan for you, the pendant is made of jadeite.”

Yan Mingting chewed a few more peanuts. It seemed that when he returned to Beijing, he couldn’t just beat up that Fu Qian, but Li Yucheng also needed to be dealt with.

There was a commotion at the door at this time as Magistrate Yin came to the inn in person. He looked around and went straight to Yan Mingting’s table: “General Yan, have you had dinner early?”

“Why?” Yan Mingting looked at him.

“The General came in a hurry and was busy with those bandits. Now he finally has some clues, so I thought to invite General Yan to a gathering at the mansion, which can be regarded as a way to show our welcome.” Magistrate Yin smiled.

Yan Mingting and Zuo Ran looked at each other, and then Magistrate Yin looked at Zuo Ran.

Fortunately, for the convenience of movement, Zuo Ran had been wearing men’s clothing these days, so Magistrate Yin did not realize that she was the maid who had run off with his daughter.

Zuo Ran was slightly joyful. Magistrate Yin took the initiative to invite them to the mansion. Did this mean that Yin Pinglu had been found safely?

“Oh? I wonder if Pinglu’s condition has improved? We would like to have a nice meal with her too,” Yan Mingting said.

“Ai, I’m afraid that Pinglu’s illness won’t be cured for a while, so she is unable to have dinner with the General tonight.” Magistrate Yin cautiously probed, “However, I will definitely convey the General’s feelings to her. I never thought that the friendship between her and the General was so deep that he actually misses her all the time.”

These words were so ambiguous. Zuo Ran, Yan Mingting, and Zhao Yelan next door felt awkward.

“What does this man mean, ah?” Li Yucheng moved closer to Zhao Yelan, whispering in his ear, “Does he he want Yan Mingting to be his son in law?”

Zhao Yelan didn’t speak, but Li Yucheng received his answer in those murderous eyes and turned to sneer: “Tsk, tsk, tsk, I didn’t expect you, Yan Mingitng, to leave the capital and actually become a sweet pastry.”^[1]

Everyone heard this and looked over together.

Magistrate Yin had been purely focused on Yan Mingting, so he sought out Li Yucheng’s figure and said with a smile: “Nephew Li has come to Huaizhou again.”

Who is your nephew! That old thing was climbing the dragon and clinging to the phoenix!

Li Yucheng scolded him bloody in his heart. He and this Magistrate still had somewhat of a relationship. Magistrate Yin was very calculating, and he especially liked to use his daughters’ marriages to benefit himself, so he had climbed all the way to the position of prefectural Magistrate.

The Cheng family originally saw that his fourth daughter was good-looking and belonged to a family of officials, and wanted to discuss a marriage for Li Yucheng. As a result, Magistrate Yin put it mildly – That daughter was still young and not suitable. But in fact, it was clear that Li Yucheng did not have an official position, and his father was an official who didn’t accomplish practical things, so he had no future.

Li Yucheng asked with a false smile: “Magistrate Yin, are you really not afraid that Yan Mingting, an evil star, will kill your daughter?”

Magistrate Yin’s face tightened, and he quickly comforted Yan Mingting: “General Yan, don’t listen to this nonsense. How can you be an evil star, you are clearly a good man that is hard to find in this world!”

If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, Magistrate Yin would never have imagined that Yan Mingting, an evil star, was born so abundantly handsome and powerful, and still had a friendship with his daughter. He was indeed the better choice.

Li Yucheng said again: “Yan Mingting is already married to Zhao Yelan. Don’t you know him? Oh, you don’t.”

He’s sitting right in front of you, you must be blind!

“I don’t need to speak of Zhao Yelan’s greatness. Be careful of marrying your daughter off. He wouldn’t stop at just harming your daughter, but would ruin your whole family!” Li Yucheng said.

Magistrate Yin paused for a moment with a look of embarrassment on his face. This was indeed a problem.

“Nephew, what are you saying? I never said that I was marrying my daughter off, guard your tongue.” 

You just insinuated and didn’t say it clearly. Li Yucheng rolled his eyes, not bothering to look at him again.

Magistrate Yin ignored him and warmly invited Yan Mingting several times. Yan Mingting wanted to know what kind of medicine he was selling in his gourd,^[2] and happened to need to investigate the situation at the Sun Mansion, so he agreed.

Magistrate Yin was so happy that he stretched out his hand to lead the way: “Come, come, let the lieutenant generals go too.”

“Ow!” Li Yucheng was suddenly trod upon heavily, and seeing the meaningful look Zhao Yelan shot at him, he understood: “Magistrate Yin, can we go too?”

Magistrate Yin did not expect this fellow’s face to be as big as a biscuit!

Was it not just you who publicly criticized me? Now it’s you again who wants a meal!

Yan Mingting turned his head to look at the expressionless Zhao Yelan, and the corners of his mouth couldn’t stop rising.

“To be honest, I came to Jiangnan this time mainly to show my brother around to see the excitement,” Li Yucheng said.

Magistrate Yin had already noted the gongzi who shared the table with him and saw that his disposition was either rich or noble, but didn’t have a chance to inquire, so he took advantage of this opportunity to closely inquire: “Who is this young master?”

“Look at true power,” Li Yucheng immediately handed the specially prepared fan to Zhao Yelan. “Come on, Fu Qian, tell him your identity quickly and scare him to death!”

Zhao Yelan opened the fan without thinking about it, fanning it in front of himself very elegantly. He was about to speak when he saw the people in front of him staring at his fan with strange, flabbergasted expressions on their faces.

Lowering his head suspiciously, he took a look at the fan and saw the six characters “Most Beautiful Man in the Capital.” 

Zhao Yelan: “……”

“Indeed, he is indeed the most beautiful man,” Magistrate Yin commented sincerely, and wiped away his cold sweat. He had never seen such an ostentatious pretty boy.

Li Yucheng was particularly clever and leaned in to whisper in Zhao Yelan’s ear: “How about my trick? Now he will only suspect that you have a brain problem, not an identity problem.”

Zhao Yelan: “……”

Yan Mingting had already covered his face, going wild with laughter.

---

[1] A “sweet pastry” can refer to someone who is popular or in high demand. ⮐

[2] Equivalent to “what he has up his sleeve.” ⮐

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Chapter Fifty-One <<Table of Contents >> Chapter Fifty-Three

The soiree was approaching day by day, and people from all walks of life had begun to demonstrate their talents to create momentum.

Xia Xingchi scrolled through Weibo, and the names of the people on the hot search were all familiar. In the past few days, he had clearly distinguished the people inside the circle.

The original owner had already been made miserable enough by Xia Yu, and had countless enemies and black materials everywhere. If he received another charge of deliberately pretending not to know people, having bad manners and putting on airs, he would die unjustly.

Bored, he scrolled through the pages and casually clicked on a trending search for #Xia Yu, I prefer to depend on hard work#.

He was worthy of being a popular idol, and various marketing accounts and water armies^[1] overwhelmingly praised his character model of “clearly a wealthy young master, but wants to keep a low profile and rely on his own efforts.”

Although his fame was all due to his family spending money and resources, and although he was so “low-key” that he wanted people all over the nation to know that he was a rich second-generation child, any voices of doubt were drowned out by crazy fans until they disappeared. Xia Yu alone was inspirational and beautiful.

Xia Xingchi tilted his head, recalling the tragic ending of the original cannon fodder:

As the real rich young master, the Xia parents forced the original owner not to reveal his identity, just to avoid affecting Xia Yu’s stardom.

It got to the point that when the original owner died, he was still infamous for the original sin of “suspected to be an illegitimate child of the Xia family.” Xia Yu, a fake who had taken over the magpie’s nest, instead became the “pitiable” victim and the “real” rich young master.

The original owner timidly endured this grievance until his death, but Xia Xingchi really couldn’t bear it. Leaving aside other things for the time being, coffee position^[2] and reputation were critical to the process of making money.

As the saying went, cutting off someone’s financial resources was like killing their parents. Whoever dared to influence a little money-grubber’s path to stardom and making lots of money, he would fight them with all of his strength on the spot.

– – –

“What exactly is going on?” Xia Yu pointed to the soiree invitation list on his phone and asked angrily, “When did his name appear?”

In front of him was his ace manager, Feng Yingxu, who was also one of the very few people who knew the truth about his and Xia Xingchi’s identities.

Most of Xia Yu’s ingenious persona marketing came from Feng Yingxu’s hand, so he naturally knew what he was anxious about.

The purpose of suppressing Xia Xingchi all this time was not just for pleasure, but also because he must not become popular or appear in the public eye —

Otherwise, it would be hard to hide who the real and the fake young masters were.

“Don’t worry.” Feng Yingxu analyzed, “Even if this soiree is highly publicized, there are so many people on the red carpet every year, and no one has ever become popular because of this.”

“But Xia Xing……!” Xia Yu was so furious that he opened his mouth and found himself speechless.

He wanted to say, “But Xia Xingchi looks so good, if people see him, there will definitely be enthusiasm.”

But it felt wrong. He clearly remembered that this person looked mediocre, very similar to his cheap father, Xia Pingjian, unsophisticated and thick. He could only be used as a foil in the entertainment industry.

It was precisely because of this that he had “generously” helped him enter the circle and gained a good reputation for helping others in front of all his relatives and friends. In any case, that ugly Xia Xingchi could only play the role of an extra for a lifetime.

Xia Yu thought about it carefully again, but the appearance in his memory instantly blurred, and only the manifestation of this handsome, pure, pretty boy remained……it seemed like he had always been like this?

Simply so good-looking that he made people jealous.

“Then continue to buy his black materials and splash dirty water! His name can only be followed by disgrace! He must not gain popularity!” Xia Yu gritted his teeth.

Feng Yingxu did not approve this time and was hesitant to speak: “Xiao Yu, it must be because of Mr. Li that an exception was made and he was issued an invitation.”

The implication was that Xia Xingchi was likely favored by Li Chengyuan and could not be touched anymore. Otherwise, if he offended someone who could not be provoked, no one would be able to afford the consequences.

Xia Yu replied decisively: “Impossible!”

He had paid special attention to the changes in Xia Xingchi’s resources after his engagement, but they were still pitifully scarce, and Li Chengyuan didn’t provide him with anything.

If he was aided by the company, he would not be ignored and idle away at home.

Li Chengyuan must have just wanted to attend this soiree, and the organizer knew about their relationship, so they just accepted Xia Xingchi as his plus-one. 

That sort of lofty and fickle madman couldn’t be tempted by anyone.

Xia Yu gritted his teeth and comforted himself that it was okay to lose this chance at marriage. Anyway, Li Chengyuan was stubborn and frosty in relationships, so it was useless to marry him.

– – –

Although it was a fashionable “late” banquet, many people arrived early at noon. Not only could they carefully adjust their looks, but it was even better to meet some big bosses from other social circles who didn’t usually appear in public. Perhaps they could meet some high-ranking people.

Xia Xingchi was too bored at home and had long wanted to go out, like a prisoner released for exercise. After staying at home for ten days, one more would result in mushrooms growing on his head.

“Sister Mengmeng, what do you think!” He jumped out of the changing room and turned around in a little circle, excitedly showing off his achievements in wool gathering.

Lin Meng immediately gave a thumbs up and praised without hesitation: “It’s really great!”

The tailoring of the white suit was extremely high-end, and looking at it under the light, there were diamonds that were luxurious but not tacky. Especially alongside Xia Xingchi’s youthful temperament, it made him look more upright and dazzling, like a noble young master.

At first, she had been very worried about the vile old man who didn’t give any resources to her silly didi and received services without paying. However, this outfit actually fit well and looked so good?

Although small artists who could only afford food and clothing couldn’t pursue the most luxurious new styles to compete for beauty, at least now he could be the most well-dressed young man.

Lin Meng was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief: “It seems that your benefactor has good aesthetics, and is at least still a little bit reliable.”

The reason why it was only “a little bit” was because she was very angry just now – someone who was rich enough to afford to drive a limited edition supercar actually made Xia Xingchi come here himself by bus?!

They were already living together, was it difficult to send a driver? She really wanted to ask where that incredible-looking driver brother went, but it suddenly occurred to her that this outfit was bought through pleasing the benefactor.

Therefore, Lin Meng’s rich imagination immediately conjured up a picture of Xia Xingchi making out with the benefactor while the driver could only watch helplessly from the sidelines with a pale face, and then be sad and heartbroken all alone.

— My god, what human suffering is this! What a vile old man!

– – –

Li Group Headquarters building.

Li Chengyuan, who had no idea that he was “one person playing two roles,” was furiously reprimanding several bodyguards who couldn’t even watch one person, and just let Xia Xingchi leave the driver and slip away by himself.

Just as he went to confirm with the person in charge of the venue if Xia Xingchi was there, he sneezed.

It just so happened that Dr. Zhao Yinhe pushed the door open and walked into his office. Seeing this, he raised his eyebrows and said: “Oh? It seems someone scolded you behind your back?”

Li Chengyuan: “……..”

On the other side, Lin Meng had enough of the sadomasochistic love triangle and began to study Xia Xingchi’s clothes with satisfaction, but as she looked at them, she experienced a sense of familiarity.

“Wait a minute?” She hesitated before taking out her cell phone to look it up. “Why do I think this suit looks a bit like —”

On the screen, the latest style from a certain top luxury brand suddenly appeared.

Lin Meng gasped. She remembered how Xia Xingchi had called a few days ago to report that the clothing situation had been resolved, and that his benefactor had bought him a super beautiful and expensive outfit.

Bought……how could this benefactor be rich and loving enough that it was possible for him to spend millions on haute couture?

Then there was only one truth. When this thought occurred, she instantly turned into the famous painting ‘The Scream’: “Xingchi, you can’t wear knockoffs on the red carpet, if you are noticed by the brand, you’ll have to pay for it!”

Although the cut was high-end and the details were exactly the same, with this type of luxury brand that had attracted much attention, he might bump into the genuine product as soon as he arrived, even before the brand found out.

Xia Xingchi wasn’t on the same channel, but he heard the word “pay” and quickly asked in horror: “Why would we lose money?”

Facing his big, dazed eyes, Lin Meng was at a loss for words. She really wanted to overthrow this benefactor and roar: How did you choose these clothes! My didi is ignorant, don’t you understand that?

The two stared at each other for a few seconds, and Xia Xingchi finally understood her string of words, explaining happily: “Don’t worry, Sister Mengmeng. This one of mine is genuine, and my sponsor is super rich.”

The type of rich that was one of the top in the country. You could pluck so much wool in one go.

Contrary to expectations, this not only did not bring Lin Meng peace of mind, but instead made her even more depressed and unable to bear it: This is too much, how can an old man deceive a child who doesn’t know anything?

Not to mention spending millions, more importantly, even if you wanted to spend the money, not everyone was qualified to buy it. Ordinary rich brands didn’t even sell them.

But Xia Xingchi couldn’t be stripped down to his naked body now. Guessing that the brand would not come to sue, Lin Meng could only comfort herself that there were too many lice to be afraid of being bitten, and that there would be plenty more people wearing fakes.

– – –

As night fell, the outdoor red carpet extended all the way to the street, with countless cameras erected on both sides.

Countless fans stood excitedly outside the venue next to the red carpet, waiting for their idols and waving support lights in various colors.

The live broadcast was ready as well. Although there was only the logo of the organizer of the soiree on the screen, the broadcast was already full of eager fans.

Relying on being so obscure that no one knew him, Xia Xingchi wandered around to pass the time and, at a glance, saw the face of the “popular idol Xia Yu” in the crowd —

Not only were his support lights overwhelming, but the fans even practiced shouting their slogans for a while.

He was worthy to be called the universally loved protagonist in the book, who could always be pampered and adored by everyone, all evil deeds justified and forgiven.

There were also sweethearts among the fans, and if one day he were to suffer heaven’s retribution and be killed by lightning, many people would shed tears for him.

Xia Xingchi blinked, thinking that he didn’t know how long it would take for someone to notice that he was missing. And if he disappeared from here, perhaps only Li Chengyuan would look for him.

The likely reason was that this person’s paranoid character would not allow anyone to escape his control.

Speaking of this terrifying desire for control, Xia Xingchi couldn’t help frowning:

Secretary Ye had just tipped him off that his slipping away to take the bus had been discovered, and that Li Chengyuan was furious. The atmosphere was so terrifying that nobody even dared to send him documents, and they begged her to take them all in with her.

In the end, she came to a conclusion: Mr. Li is in a rage, you should either coax him or stay away. The driver had already arrived, and it was estimated that Mr. Li would be at the soiree soon.

Xia Xingchi was dumbfounded after receiving this news. Li Chengyuan was coming soon?! Was he planning to attend, or was he coming to angrily arrest someone? 

In all honesty, Xia Xingchi hadn’t wanted to sneak away.

But for a dark coffee^[3] like him to be made a fuss about and be seen with a dedicated driver and a luxury car, it would cause a lot of trouble. What’s more outrageous was that there were four bodyguards tailing him.

The fashion soiree would look like the outing of a prince. Not to mention the anti-fans who disliked him anyway, even he himself thought that it would look like he was putting on airs.

Who would have known that it was actually because of his paranoid, overly-controlling fiance who was always somehow afraid that he would run away?

Xia Xingchi suddenly didn’t dare to continue wandering around. It was better to calm Li Chengyuan down now before he arrived, and at the same time, slip away and hide so as not to get his head viciously bitten off after he was found.

– – –

Li Chengyuan was sitting in the car when messages from a certain person exploded like a cannonball, causing his phone to continuously flash:

[Dear Boss Li~ Are you happy today? Are you cheerful? Are you satisfied?]

[By the way, were the snacks of love that I made you delicious? They’re Chef Xia’s newly developed salty cheese-baked soda cookies!]

[Do you feel like the forecast is good now? You’re not angry with anyone?]

Then he posted a favorite popular science article of the elderly: “The Disadvantages of Being Angry: Can anger really drive people crazy? 5 major hazards of frequent anger – do you still dare to be angry after reading it?”

Li Chengyuan smiled softly and looked up at the night sky outside the car window. It was clear that he couldn’t see whether the forecast was good or not.

Of course he understood why Xia Xingchi was chattering non-stop, but he just pretended to be angry and indifferently refused to reply to his messages, taking cookies from the little hedgehog-patterned box.

The mellow cheese and milk flavor bloomed on the tip of his tongue. Li Chengyuan pursed his lips, seeing a hand quietly stretching out from the seat next to him, also wanting to take a piece to taste.

So he immediately closed the lid of the box expressionlessly, and even the box could not be touched by another person.

Zhao Yinhe, who was shameless enough to sit in the car, had no choice but to withdraw his hand angrily, rolling his eyes and saying: “You don’t even want to give me one cookie, why are you so stingy! You can’t put it down, how delicious must it be, ah?”

After thinking about it, he spoke again: “Didn’t you dislike these before? I heard that you’ve been eating them every day recently?”

Indeed, Li Chengyuan was not very interested in any desserts, but he still finished eating the snacks every day and then placed the empty box on the table.

So Xia Xingchi misunderstood that he had discovered a secret recipe that was “exactly what he liked,” and excitedly changed up the pattern every day to create various flavors for him to eat.

Zhao Yinhe lowered his voice mysteriously and asked: “Are you switching your affection to someone else? It’s not your fault. After all, little friend Xia is really cute, but it’s a pity that he’s already engaged to you, or I would……”

Li Chengyuan abruptly gave him a cold look, and the latter quickly shut up to express that he did not dare to speak.

After a pause of two seconds, Zhao Yinhe continued to have a misbehaving mouth: “Let me just say, if you can’t find him after searching for so many years, you should give up. There are plenty more fish in the sea —”

“It’s him.”

“Oh……Ah?” Zhao Yinhe was stunned.

He wasn’t stunned because Li Chengyuan had actually found that person, but because it was absolutely impossible for Xia Xingchi to be the person he was looking for.

Back then, the Xia patriarch and his wife were on a business trip in a small city, and their child, after less than nine months of pregnancy, was born prematurely.

It was precisely because of this unexpected rush that “Xia Xingchi,” the true young master, had his life wrongly changed due to a conspiracy, and ended up living in that small city thousands of miles away from the capital.

However, although his life was tragic and impoverished, it was possible to trace step-by-step. When Li Chengyuan was seven years old, the other had never set foot in the capital, so how could he be the person he was looking for?

Thinking of this, Zhao Yinhe didn’t know what to say for a long time.

He understood that according to Li Chengyuan’s keen and meticulous character, he must have investigated the other party’s background before getting engaged, so he must be perfectly aware of the impossibility of this.

The reason why Li Chengyuan said such a thing……could it be that he was not only deceiving himself, but also using Xia Xingchi as a substitute?!

Zhao Yinhe felt that his three views had been shattered in an instant. Where was the iron tree blooming?^[4] This was simply the iron tree growing crookedly and bearing poisonous fruit, ah.

He immediately wanted to reprimand him for this scumbag behavior, but when he turned his head, he found that Li Chengyuan’s eyes were filled with a faint smile. He had put away the hostility that had always been difficult to dispel, showing an expression that he had never worn before.

— Forget it, the matter of other peoples’ love lives had nothing to do with himself.

After all, even if this was a stand-in situation, whether his so-called White Moonlight existed or not was still a mystery.

Now no one would raise any doubts in front of him, but at that time, little Li Chengyuan had really paid a price and endured hardships in order to grit his teeth and insist on the existence of “him.”

It was good that Li Chengyuan was happy now, and to beat a mandarin duck^[5] with a club would be a great crime. What if he was condemned by god to be a single dog for the rest of his life?

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[1] “Water armies” are paid online commentors and/or trolls who are hired to influence public opinion. ⮐

[2] “Coffee position”  refers to the status of a star in the entertainment industry, and a celebrity with status is called a “big coffee.” ⮐

[3] “Dark coffee” = an unknown or unwelcome star. ⮐

[4] “The iron tree blooms” is an idiom that describes a highly improbable or extremely rare occurrence. ⮐

[5] To “beat a mandarin duck” is to meddle in a love affair. ⮐

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Chapter Eighteen << Table of Contents >> Chapter Twenty

The painted boat continued to move forward, stirring the water and Yan Mingting’s heartstrings. He had thought he had a heart like an old dog, accustomed to life and death, and would not easily encounter surprises.

However, the exhaustion and worry of the past few days had disturbed his sleep and appetite, and due to the delay in news, he had fallen into endless loss. But when he heard the other party say these words in person, he seemed to have won a battle he had never fought before, and his heart was so impassioned that it was as if tens of thousands of horses were galloping wildly through it with the drums of war shaking the sky, almost breaking through.

But after all, he was no teenage boy. He suppressed the intensity of his expression, hugged him into his arms, and took a deep breath. Inwardly going wild with unscrupulous laughter, he pretended to be calm and steady and said: “Good, my heart is like yours. Whoever breaks the promise will be the other’s grandson.”

The corners of Zhao Yelan’s mouth twitched slightly. He slowly lowered his eyelashes, looking at those broad shoulders, and a trace of hesitation flashed in his heart –

Would he really not regret this decision?

He had no experience with being close to people, and had never thought that he would spend the rest of his life with someone, let alone an exasperating man.

At this time, he should have gone to the Western Regions, the Southern Border, or Dongpu. The world was so big, and there would always be a place for him. He could escape from the treacherous waves of the court, get rid of the name Zhao Yelan, and simply change his surname. He could wander around, with plentiful money to spend on leisure and wine, wanton and unrestrained until the end of life.

But……on the third day after Yan Mingting left, the day he planned to fake his death, he got up early in the morning and coughed profusely, his face pale. This was just to pave the way for his death due to illness.

He took out the pill and placed it on the table, trying to recall anything he might have missed, as if this could slow down the passage of time. Then he remembered the account books that Yan Mingting gave him before leaving.

In any case, he was not in a hurry, so he took out those account books and handed them to Housekeeper Qin: “Leave these to the accountant, I can’t handle them.”

Housekeeper Qin did not doubt him, but asked him to wait for a moment, as the General had something for him. 

He waited doubtfully for a while, and Housekeeper Qin handed him a letter, saying: “Before the General left, he specifically said that if my lord didn’t want to take care of the accounts and returned the ledgers to me, I should give you this letter.”

Zhao Yelan took the letter in surprise. It was whole and like new, and he opened it curiously as he walked slowly back to the bedroom –

Mengting, in fact, I really don’t want you to read this letter. It means that you’ve made up your mind to leave, doesn’t it? After careful calculation, we have only been together for three or four months, but you have more than twenty years behind you. So if you really want to rid yourself of the past, and I have no grounds to force you to stay, then I wish you all the best for the rest of your life. 

It seems that I really can’t get rid of the name ‘evil star,’ and that all the people I want to cherish will leave me for various reasons. Is there really destiny in this world?

Originally, I wanted to play tricks so that you would covet some of my property and I could keep you, but it seems that this plan has failed. I know you despise what little property I have, but it represents my good intentions. I am not like you, who wants the best and most expensive of everything, and there won’t be any reason for me to spend it in the future, so you should just use it.

Of course, if you want to come back one day, the gate of the General’s Mansion will always be open for you, as well as the back door and the side door. Haha, just kidding.

Zhao Yelan walked to the door of the room, paused in his steps, and held the door frame with one hand, calming down his flustered breathing – it turned out that he had already guessed it.

“My lord, what’s wrong with you?” Gao Tan approached with the medicine bowl in hand, and saw him lean against the door and slide to the ground weakly, not caring if he dirtied his clothes. His hands were trembling, and his eyes were fixed on the letter in his hand.

Zhao Yelan read it again, and then found that there seemed to be some handwriting on the back. He turned it over and found only a short line of words –

I’ll also wait for you, this sentence is not a joke.

“My lord, get up quickly, the ground is dirty and cold.” Xiao Gao hurriedly tugged him up with the other hand, but the other party didn’t move, continuing to sit on the ground with his head drooping heavily.

Xiao Gao had never seen him like this. Even when his enemies attempted to assassinate him before, this person scolded them to their faces. The Emperor even asked him to marry a man, and he accepted these things calmly, always giving Xiao Gao a strong sense of security – even if the sky was falling, Zhao-daren would say it was fine without a change in expression, and then try to mend the hole.

But at this time, Xiao Gao looked at his lost expression and felt that he was very sad for some reason, and that it was not a simple kind of sadness. He couldn’t tell what emotional state he was in, so he went to help his lord again, but he didn’t notice the bowl tilting until the contents poured onto this lord’s clothes.

Xiao Gao’s expression was horrified, as if his life was about to be over. These clothes were precious, and his lord loved cleanliness so much that he would surely be severely punished!

After a long time, Zhao Yelan smelled the scent of medicine on his body and came back to his senses. Raising his head to look at the immobilized Xiao Gao, he said: “What are you doing, why haven’t you poured another bowl?”

“I’ll go right away!” Seeing that he didn’t intend to beat or scold him, Xiao Gao immediately ran to the kitchen to pour another bowl. Carefully returning to the room, he saw that the lord had finally moved his seat from the ground to sit slouched at the threshold, and thought for a moment that he had been possessed by the spirit of the General.

His family’s lord wouldn’t sit like this!

Xiao Gao waited for him to drink the medicine in one gulp, and said with a smile: “My lord drank the medicine obediently today! Great!”

For the past two days, his lord had been refusing to take the medicine, which caused him and Housekeeper Qin a lot of headaches, but he was doing very well today!

On that day, Zhao Yelan threw away all of his plans and couldn’t help but linger on this question at night – would he regret it?

Perhaps he would a long time later, but that was far in the future.

He just felt that if he left now, he would regret it immediately.

The two arms around his back hugged him firmly, wrapped up tight, until he was almost out of breath. Zhao Yelan said: “Let go.”

“I won’t.” Since Yan Mingting understood his intentions, he became a little arrogant and not only did not let go, but even continued to hug him and shook him twice. “Mengting, I missed you so much. Did you miss me too, that’s why you came to see me?”

At this time, the boat stopped abruptly and Li Yucheng’s voice sounded outside: “Brother, are you done yet?”

“Why is he here?” Yan Mingting asked in surprise.

“He found this boat.”

Zhao Yelan pushed him away and ordered the boatman to pull over. There was the sound of footsteps, and Li Yucheng walked in, unsurprised to see Yan Mingting’s figure. He said: “My cousin invited us to drink, will you go?”

“No……why are you two getting involved? Who are you going to drink with again?” Yan Mingting continued to ask.

“Didn’t you tell him about it?” Li Yucheng’s eyes tracked across the two of them, and he said in a hushed voice, “Did you quarrel?”

“You stop talking nonsense,” Yan Mingting said.

Zhao Yelan cleared his throat to interrupt them, and answered Yan Mingting’s question: “I was directed to secretly investigate the false report of the disaster situation by the water reporter.”

“Someone lied about the disaster?”

“En.” Zhao Yelan sat down and said, “I had been skeptical before. I heard Sun Muyun talk about the scene in her Jiangnan hometown, and it was different from the reporter’s account. But the distance between the two places is great, so the rain situation could not be known immediately. It wasn’t until Concubine Xian mentioned the matter to the Emperor that he realized something was wrong.”

Sun Muyun’s appeal to the Emperor about homesickness was normal, after all, she had passionately followed them and introduced herself a few days after she first came to the capital, so Yan Mingting had no doubts. It had never occurred to him that Zhao Yelan secretly notified Sun Muyun about this matter and asked her to bring it up in front of the Emperor.

Because Yan Mingting promised to help bring the token to her father, Sun Muyun had given Zhao Yelan some pastries as a thank you. It was not something valuable that would cause others to talk, so Zhao Yelan asked the maid to bring her a message.

In the palace, Zhao Xuan heard her inadvertently mention that there had been no rain in the south of the Yangtze River recently, and his face darkened. He didn’t expect that someone would overly interfere with the disaster relief plan, and called Kan Chuan and several other officials into the palace overnight to ask who would be sent to investigate the matter.

This business was a lucrative job. Firstly, the water reporter was a new official position that had just been established, so it was easy to handle. Second, Jiangnan was rich in resources and people, and the allowance to be harvested would fill their purses to bursting, so several courtiers secretly recommended their own people.

Only Kan Chuan remained silent.

Zhao Xuan asked the opinion of the Minister of the Ministry of Officials, and he said: “There are still vacancies in official court positions at this time. Sending people to the south of the Yangtze River would take more than a month at the least, and it is very likely that the affairs of the court would be delayed. If we send important officials to Jiangnan, we will have to find someone to fill the vacancies of those people, but it will be difficult to quickly find the right people to take over. Although if you send someone with a low position and weak ability, they may not be able to handle the officials south of the Yangtze River.”

Zhao Xuan thoroughly took this at face value. He was very strict with the conferring of these official positions now, and leaving any one of them open would affect the whole body. After much deliberation, he actually felt that only Zhao Yelan was the most suitable.

He had no important position in the court and was capable, and the officials in Jiangnan had hardly seen him in person.

In this way, on the fifth day after Yan Mingting left, Zhao Yelan set off for Jiangnan.

Yan Mingting had no objection, but was only curious: “Why did you bring Li Yucheng along?”

With a swish, Li Yucheng opened his fan smartly, waving it pretentiously: “Don’t look down on me, ba, who am I? I am the number one dandy in Beijing, ah!”

“You’re quite proud.” Yan Mingting snorted.

“I don’t know much about the situation in Jiangnan, and my investigation is secret, so I temporarily cannot reveal my identity. And his mother’s Cheng family are merchants in Jiangnan. He would come here for a period of time every year to have fun, so it is perfect to have him as a guide and middleman,” Zhao Yelan said.

Li Yucheng proudly nodded his head.

“Since you are secretly investigating, why are you acting so high-profile?” Yan Mingting pointed to the exterior of the boat and the many people standing on the bridge and by the waterside, whispering over this richly and luxuriously painted boat.

“It is easy to spot those who have been sent, and most of the relevant personnel are already prepared to deal with people from the Imperial court, so they will scrutinize people who enter the city in a low-key manner. Now I’m just a dandy who came to play with Li Yucheng. Fu Qian, the most beautiful man in the capital, and the Cheng family vouched for me, so no one came to investigate me. When they find something suspicious, they will send someone to the capital to look into it, and the round-trip time is enough for me to complete my investigation.”

Yan Mingting, hearing “Fu Qian, the most beautiful man in the capital,” twitched the corners of his lips.

This Fu Qian was really shameless, who gave him such a title!

“Exactly!” When Li Yucheng thought that he was here to accompany Zhao Yelan on business, he raised his chin higher than the others with an inexplicable sense of responsibility and pride. He was determined to do well so that his father could feel relieved.

He proudly said: “Don’t worry, Zhao-xiong and I went to the biggest restaurant to drink as soon as we entered the city today. He is used to eating well and is very stylish, and he invited several female pipa players to play. We went to the best brothel, and now many people believe that Zhao-xiong and I are the same.”

“What? You went to a brothel again?!” Yan Mingting gave Zhao Yelan a fierce look, and immediately transferred his anger to Li Yucheng.”

“No, no, nothing happened, he was in charge of eating and drinking and I was in charge of whoring and gambling!” Li Yucheng quickly explained. “Actually, we did nothing! This young master is just playing around!”

“Stop talking nonsense. Throw Li Yucheng to the shore,” Zhao Yelan said.

“ ? ” Li Yucheng didn’t expect him to cross the river and destroy the bridge^[1] so quickly!

When Yan Mingting heard this, he really didn’t hesitate at all. He carried him out of the boat and threw him to the shore.

“Aiyo, I’m going! Yan Mingting, are you still human?! This young master’s ass is about to fall apart” Li Yucheng cursed, and the people watching the excitement all around burst into laughter.

As soon as Yan Mingting entered the cabin, he heard Zhao Yelan say reluctantly: “Now, throw me out too.”

Yan Mingting was taken aback for a moment, and immediately guessed his intention.

There were many people standing by the lake, and his identity as a general was directly revealed. If those officials knew that he had chatted with the people on this boat for so long, they would definitely be suspicious.

They would create a scene where he was entangled by two dandies and righteously taught them a lesson.

“Then you get ready, ah,” When Yan Mingting grabbed his belt and led him out, he asked in a whisper, “Where are you staying? With the Cheng family?”

“The biggest inn in the city,” Zhao Yelan said.

“Good fellow, I said I wouldn’t drink, so you had to force it!” Yan Mingting walked out of the cabin, reprimanded and glared at him, and then, under the eyes of all those watching the show, held his waist with both hands and lifted the person safely onto the shore.

“ ? ” Li Yucheng rubbed his bottom and cursed in his heart: you treated him differently!

“Old bastard, let go of my brother! Just wait, us brothers will settle accounts with you sooner or later!” Li Yucheng led Zhao Yelan towards the inn while cursing and waving his sleeves. “Go, go, go, what are you looking at, scram!”

Yan Mingting returned to the inn and studied map routes until late at night, when he heard the voices of two drunks. After closing the map and listening intently to their movements, he heard the two walk to the two most expensive rooms upstairs, one of which was directly above his own.

The inn was already closed at this time, and the waiter yawned as he locked the door, not noticing the dark shadow that flashed by on the second floor.

Yan Mingting knocked softly on the door.

“Who is it?” Zhao Yelan didn’t lift his head when he heard the sound, still sorting out the list of Jiangnan officials.

“I’m looking for Mengting.”

“There is no such Mengting here, just Fu Qian, the most beautiful man in the capital.”

“……” Yan Mingting choked for a long time before enduring the discomfort and saying, “Then I’m looking for Fu Qian.”

“Come in, ba.”

Yan Mingting quickly pushed open the door and entered, thinking to himself, what is this, ah? It’s nothing more than sneaking around like having an affair, an affair with “Fu Qian!”

When he returned to Beijing, he would definitely beat up Fu Qian!

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[1] To cross the river and destroy the bridge (过河拆桥得) is to abandon one’s benefactor upon achieving one’s goal. ⮐

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Chapter Fifty <<Table of Contents >> Chapter Fifty-Two