In all his long years, Uncle Xiao, a man of considerable age, had never encountered such a situation.
And to top it all off, it had happened to their Young Marshal, who was known for his aversion to female company.
Who was their Young Marshal? He was the kind of man who could have a naked woman standing before him and still, without a change in expression, order her to be thrown out.
Could it be?
Looking at the scene before him, a terrifying guess formed in Uncle Xiao’s mind.
Could it be that their Young Marshal was actually into men?
No, regardless of whether the Young Marshal liked men or not, the fact that he was completely unresponsive despite someone entering the room meant he must have been drugged. The first priority was to wake him up.
Uncle Xiao didn’t dare let the police handle this, fearing they might injure Xiao Tang, so he and the few servants he had brought from the Shaoshuai Residence had to step in themselves.
Could the effects of an animal aphrodisiac be ordinary? It was meant for beasts, and even beasts couldn’t withstand it, let alone a human.
With tremendous effort, Uncle Xiao and his men finally managed to separate the three. The naked bodies were an indecent sight, and the clothes on the floor were in tatters. They had no choice but to find a few large bedsheets and wrap each person up.
However, the effects of the drug hadn’t worn off yet!
Uncle Xiao was extremely reluctant to send them to the hospital, but he ultimately succumbed to Xiao Tang and the others’ frenzied state. He called over two soldiers, who carried them into a car and drove them to the hospital.
Because the matter involved Young Marshal Xiao, no newspaper dared to publish the story, even if they knew.
However, Yehuanchen had such a high volume of patrons. Even if the papers didn’t report it, the rumors and gossip throughout Hong City didn’t diminish in the slightest. All sorts of outrageous rumors flew about wildly.
Things like “Young Marshal Xiao’s Fierce Battle with a Stud at Yehuanchen,” “Young Marshal Xiao Remained a Virgin Not for His Betrothal, but for His Adjutant,” and “Young Marshal Xiao Has Been with Numerous Men for Years, and the Shaoshuai Residence Staff Have Been Covering for Him…”
There were even some bold male courtesans from the brothels, who didn’t value their lives, sharing their own unspeakable stories about themselves and the Young Marshal.
By the time Xiao Tang woke up, these rumors had already escalated to another level—that Young Marshal Xiao had secured his top position in Hong City by engaging in an unspeakable transaction with a higher-ranking leader.
And so, the moment Xiao Tang regained consciousness, while enduring physical discomfort, he was so enraged by the news presented to him that he nearly fainted again.
Even if something like this had happened, Xiao Tang would never admit it. He immediately used iron-fisted tactics to make the major newspapers report on other stories that the subjects had paid to bury, diverting public attention from his own incident.
Then, he remembered he had a fiancée.
He felt that the Su family wouldn’t dare refuse his request, so he had Uncle Xiao go and “invite” his fiancée over to take care of him. This would allow the newspapers to report on the deep affection and love between him and his fiancée.
Mr. Su naturally didn’t dare to offend Xiao Tang. He hadn’t managed to rebuild his business yet, and his future endeavors all depended on the Shaoshuai Residence.
Therefore, when Uncle Xiao arrived at his door, he immediately took him to Hongcheng Women’s University to find Ting Wan.
When they arrived, Ting Wan was humming “The chrysanthemum is withered, the ground is covered in wounds,” while applying rosin to her cello bow.
She had long anticipated that Xiao Tang would summon her, his fiancée.
However, this suited her plans perfectly.
She was even planning to bring Su Xiaomo along.
She intended to give the opportunity to Su Xiaomo, but she wouldn’t give up the engagement for the time being.
Go on, move the Young Marshal with love, gentleness, and kindness!
Everyone in Hong City knew that Young Marshal Xiao’s fiancée was the eldest daughter of the Su family from Liu City. So, let the second daughter appear with him in the papers!
“Father, I’m scared to go alone. Can my younger sister come with me? Besides, I still have to attend school, and the school doesn’t allow taking leave,” Ting Wan presented her request to Mr. Su.
Mr. Su had already been entertaining the idea that if one daughter failed, the other could take her place. Although he had heard about what happened with Xiao Tang at Yehuanchen, he felt it was a non-issue. The position of the Young Marshal’s wife had to belong to his family.
So, when Ting Wan made this request, he agreed without a second thought. He used the excuse that Ting Wan wasn’t very meticulous and sometimes had to return to school, and that Su Xiaomo was also worried about the Young Marshal, to add Su Xiaomo to the list of people going to the hospital.
Uncle Xiao did not object. On the night of the dinner at the Shaoshuai Residence, Uncle Xiao had noticed that the Su family’s eldest daughter was dull and timid, and the Young Marshal clearly disliked her. The second daughter, on the other hand, had caught the Young Marshal’s eye.
With Mr. Su being so eager, a situation of two sisters serving one husband wasn’t out of the question.
And so, Uncle Xiao brought the two Miss Sus to the hospital.
At the hospital, Xiao Tang was naturally staying in the most luxurious private room, the kind with two rows of soldiers standing guard outside the door and patrols throughout the entire corridor.
Anyone who didn’t know better would think he had been assassinated and was now half-dead.
When Uncle Xiao led Ting Wan and Su Xiaomo in, Xiao Tang was frowning as he listened to a subordinate report the findings of last night’s investigation.
And what were the findings? The kind of findings where the culprit, Ting Wan, was standing right in front of him, yet he had no idea.
The person had worn makeup and a disguise, changed into a waiter’s uniform, and moved about without attracting anyone’s attention. Even the one waiter who had come face-to-face with the person couldn’t recall the generic-looking face of the individual who had asked him to reserve a meal to be sent upstairs.
Xiao Tang’s subordinates had even resorted to torture, but they still had no conclusive results. They could say Xiao Tang was drugged, but they couldn’t even find evidence of how he was drugged.
Xiao Tang was burning with rage. He smashed the vase on his bedside table, sending it flying straight toward the door. Ting Wan feigned fear and took a step back.
With a crash, the vase shattered at Su Xiaomo’s feet.
“Go! Find everyone who went to Yehuanchen last night! Interrogate them one by one!”
Xiao Tang was like a furious lion, grabbing and smashing whatever he could.
The subordinate still had some sense. “Young Marshal, the people who can go to Yehuanchen all have some connections, more or less. We can’t just arrest them all!”
But Xiao Tang didn’t care, roaring, “I am the Young Marshal of Hong City! All of Hong City is mine! Someone plotted against me like this, and you’re spouting this nonsense to me now!”
The subordinate was in a difficult position. “But, the regulars at Yehuanchen include the nephew of the Military Faction’s General Secretary, the nephew of Grand Marshal Peng from Longcheng, and even people from all the major merchant houses. If we make a move on these people…”
The subordinate didn’t finish his sentence, but the reasoning was simple. Xiao Tang was able to sit at the very top in Hong City entirely because he maintained a peaceful coexistence with those people. At most, it was a matter of spending some money to keep the peace. But if he really made a move and people ended up dead, no one would come out of it well.
Xiao Tang seemed to have taken it in, but it only made him angrier. His face was so dark it looked like ink could drip from it.
At that moment, Su Xiaomo spoke up.
“Young Marshal, perhaps this assassin is from the underground party? That group hides in the shadows, so of course their methods would be despicable.”
Xiao Tang glanced at her, his expression softening slightly. “Second Miss Su is intelligent. What are you waiting for? Go investigate!”
It was a classic case of just wanting to vent his anger.
Ting Wan, the despicable one herself, felt a slight pang of regret. She had genuinely taken things too far. Hearing Su Xiaomo’s words, she thought about the version of the plot 666 had reinstalled for her, the one without the other transmigrator. The plot Su Xiaomo knew was that version. In that version, a group had once tried to assassinate Xiao Tang, and it was indeed the underground party hiding out in the slums.
In the original plot without the transmigrator, Su Youning had become a successful businesswoman, eventually divorcing Xiao Tang and leaving for Southeast Asia. That story didn’t involve the Red Faction’s underground party much; that one assassination attempt was the only mention in the entire book.
Therefore, the moment Su Xiaomo brought it up, Ting Wan knew what she was planning.
It was a good thing the incident she and Bai He had caused was so big that Principal Tan, for safety’s sake, had already contacted all organization members to lay low, fully prepared for Xiao Tang to go berserk. Otherwise, they would have been in trouble