“Aah! My leg, it looks like it is broken!” An old man wrapped in a headscarf wailed in agony, clutching his leg as he screamed on the ground.
“Huh? Isn’t that Lord Fifth’s boy, Fifth Zhongxi?”
The muscular man chatting with Qin Duoye looked up at the scene outside the window, seeming somewhat surprised as he muttered to himself.
The Fifth family?
Hearing this name once again, Qin Duoye grew a bit interested and asked, “What is wrong with this kid?”
“Oh right, brother, you have been sick at home so you would not know. This Fifth Zhongxi is the little tyrant of West Fang Street. His old man is Grand Academician Fifth of the current court, and he is super powerful, so no one on our street dares to mess with his kid! The little tyrant acts willful and arrogant on a daily basis, and nobody dares provoke him.”
Is that so.
Listening to the burly man’s explanation, Qin Duoye let his gaze fall calmly onto the young man in purple outside the window. The purple-clad youth was currently furious, cursing the old man sprawled on the ground for failing to act his age.
When Liu Xuanhai had privately threatened him yesterday, he had also mentioned Grand Academician Fifth’s eldest legitimate daughter, seemingly intending to use her as a strong contender for the empress’s seat.
Grand Academician Fifth, was it?
Qin Duoye rubbed the wine bowl in his hand, his slender fingers pressing against the rim and tapping lightly, causing ripples to spread across the wine inside.
The burly man intended to pull Qin Duoye along to watch the commotion, but halfway through extending his hand, he caught sight of Qin Duoye’s slightly lowered gaze. His movement froze as a faint chill crawled up his spine.
Qin Duoye swept his sleeve and stood up, saying, “I will go take a look.”
On the street outside the tavern, a crowd of onlookers quickly gathered, pointing and whispering among themselves.
“Who is that person on horseback?”
“You do not even know? That is little Master Fifth Zhongxi from Grand Academician Fifth’s household!”
“Ah, you mean that ruffian who bullies men and women?”
“Goodness, if the son is a ruffian, would not the father be even worse? And they call him a grand academician?”
Sitting high in the saddle, Fifth Zhongxi turned red with anger upon hearing those words. He raised his horsewhip and lashed it down fiercely, the whip cracking right near a bystander’s feet.
The bystander turned pale, stumbled backward, and fell flat on his backside with a yelp before wailing at the top of his lungs, “People are being beaten! The child of Grand Academician Fifth is assaulting commoners!”
Low gasps of shock rippled through the surrounding crowd.
Suddenly, a clear shout rang out from somewhere: “Grand Academician Fifth cannot even discipline his own child, let alone the scholars of the world!”
The crowd fell silent for a fleeting instant, and right on the heels of that silence, another echoing voice came from a corner, “Exactly! His reputation sounds so pristine and noble, who knows how filthy his heart really is!”
Then, as if an explosion had gone off, voices rose one after another, merging together into a chorus of public condemnation.
“Acting overbearingly.”
“Academician Fifth is unworthy of leading the literati.”
Qin Duoye stood silently outside the crowd, furrowing his brow slightly as he listened to these remarks, which carried an unmistakably deliberate agitation and bias.
Holding back his breath, Fifth Zhongxi pointed at the heckler and yelled, “He was the one who cursed my father first! Are you all deaf?”
Yet public indignation ran too high; this pale defense was utterly powerless, quickly drowned out by the angry jeers of the common folk.
Amidst the chaos, someone hurled a chicken egg that struck Fifth Zhongxi squarely on the head. The shell shattered, and raw egg yolk slid down his face in a miserable mess.
The young man reached up to wipe it away, but more vegetable leaves and small stones continued to fly from the crowd, pelting him into a daze where he stood, though his hands still kept a death grip on the reins to control his startled horse.
Standing right beside Qin Duoye, a bystander plucked a few fresh, mud-stained vegetable leaves from his own basket, raised his arm high, and swung with all his might. Not paying attention, his elbow landed a vicious jab right into Qin Duoye’s chest.
Qin Duoye: “?”
“Oh dear brother, why are you standing here without a peep? I did not even see you there. Are you alright?”
“Cough, cough.” Qin Duoye clutched his chest, frowning as he sidestepped a couple of paces and waved a hand to signal that he was fine.
How utterly absurd. The dignified Emperor Lie of Great Wei had almost been beaten to death just for going out to watch some fun—what a disgraceful way to go.
Gently rubbing his chest, he slowly edged his way out of the infuriated mob.
Something was deeply bizarre.
The public denunciation unfolding right before his eyes felt as though a blazing hot wok of oil had been prepared beforehand, complete with firewood and kindling. Someone had just tossed a stray spark onto the fuel and thrown a target straight into the pan.
Sizzle!
The wok of oil would instantly boil over, scattering hot grease everywhere!
It was strange. The trajectory of events seemed deliberately guided by someone, funneling everyone’s attention entirely onto the perpetrator’s influential father, as if intent on dragging the powerful official down into the mud.
Qin Duoye lowered his hand, narrowed his eyes, and swept a rapid glance across the crowd.
Oddly enough, everyone seemed to have completely forgotten about the person who started it all.
Right there!
At the very edge of the ring of onlookers, the old man who had claimed to be knocked down was quietly sneaking away as the conflict shifted. A pair of wicked, glittering eyes gleamed with smug triumph as he watched the purple-clad youth trapped in the center of the crowd, unable to clear his name.
Suddenly, the old man felt a tap on his shoulder.
He turned around and came face-to-face with a strikingly handsome visage, whose ethereal pallor lent his features a uniquely refined air.
Qin Duoye wore a benevolent smile that did not reach his eyes, his voice soft and smooth, “Well now, old timer, where are you rushing off to with a broken leg?”
In the center of the crowd.
The topic of shouting had already escalated to demands of reporting to the authorities, stating that officials protect officials and nobody stands up for the common folk, and threatening to beat the supreme grievance drum.
Suddenly, the crowd parted, and a young man dressed in simple yet imposing attire dragged the elderly scammer step by step right up to Fifth Zhongxi’s side.
Despite looking sickly and frail, the young man hoisted the old man—who had been dragged along the ground the entire way—straight up to his feet with a single yank, reached out, and knocked off the headscarf the fellow was wearing.
The headscarf, along with the messy white wig wrapped inside it, tumbled down to the ground together.
Qin Duoye let out a cold laugh, lightly clapping his hands twice.
The surrounding crowd was instantly stunned into absolute silence.
“Everyone,” Qin Duoye spoke in a moderate voice that nevertheless carried an unforced, majestic authority, his tone dripping with sarcasm, “keep your eyes wide open. You have been watching the show for so long, yet not a single person thought to call a physician for this poor old man with a broken leg.”
Qin Duoye intentionally emphasized the words broken leg and old man, making the earlier self-righteous uproar of the bystanders look utterly foolish.
Realizing the truth, Fifth Zhongxi shook off the various vegetable leaves clinging to his coat, puffed out his chest, and bellowed, “I told you all I never hit him!”
Qin Duoye shot a cold, sideways glance at the youth, freezing him with a chilly tone: “You were racing horses on the public street. Were you in the right?”
Fifth Zhongxi instantly clamped his mouth shut, shrinking his neck like a quail as he dismounted from his horse.
With a single sentence, Qin Duoye had rendered the surrounding crowd utterly speechless. After muttering a few scattered, disgruntled curses at the true culprit, the gathered onlookers rapidly dispersed.
Trembling all over, the fraudster instantly dropped to his knees right there on the ground, kowtowing frantically toward Qin Duoye and Fifth Zhongxi while begging for mercy.
Having grown far too accustomed to people kneeling before him in his past life, Qin Duoye stood his ground calmly and steadily, turning his gaze toward the Fifth family’s kid and saying, “Deal with him as you see fit.”
Instead, Fifth Zhongxi sprang back like a frightened rabbit, dodging the man’s kowtows and shouting, “Hey! I cannot afford this kind of treatment! Today’s mess—you owe me an apology!”
The man apologized profusely.
“Do not ever pull this kind of scam again,” Fifth Zhongxi threatened, brandishing his horsewhip upon seeing the man’s attitude. “If the young master catches wind of it again, I will beat you to a pulp! Alright, get lost!”
Seeing Fifth Zhongxi let the matter go so lightly, Qin Duoye could not help giving the kid a second look.
He had expected someone purely rotten, only to find a blockhead instead.
Without warning, Fifth Zhongxi lunged forward and grabbed Qin Duoye by the wrist.
Qin Duoye widened his eyes slightly as the boy’s bright, shining eyes gazed up at him with immense excitement. “What is your name?”
“My surname is Wen, Wen Qinghe.” Qin Duoye calmly and smoothly withdrew his hand.
“Brother Wen, thanks to you today! Come on, I am going to take you to meet my dad!” Fifth Zhongxi grabbed Qin Duoye and bolted.
Qin Duoye: “?”
“Hey! Slow down! I am a patient.”