Twenty taels of silver was roughly the annual income of an ordinary family in Mingzhou City.
Shen Xiu had originally thought that these twenty taels of silver would be enough for Feng Chengan to live in carefree comfort for quite a while, but she still underestimated his speed at spending money recklessly. She never expected that after only seven or eight days, Feng Chengan would come looking for her again.
However, this time Shen Xiu did not go out to see him.
How could Feng Chengan be willing to let it go when he couldn’t even see her?
Having just tasted sweetness, how could he possibly let go at a time like this? Especially since his addiction to the Five-Stone Powder was about to flare up again.
He knew that Xiuxiu had money again now, and even if she truly had none, she could just ask those people for it.
Biyue Manor was wealthy and influential, and those people had money to spare. A mere few hundred taels of silver must certainly exist, and he didn’t even want much. Five hundred taels would be enough for him.
Therefore, Feng Chengan decided to go all out and simply sat down at the entrance, wailing loudly, “Your Biyue Manor is truly bullying people too much! Just because your family is wealthy and powerful, can you simply snatch away someone else’s wife?”
“Xiuxiu is clearly my fiancée, my fiancée! We were already preparing to get married, yet you snatched her away at a time like this! You are the ones who snatched her away!”
“Xiuxiu.”
The more Feng Chengan spoke, the more grief-stricken he became, until in the end he was truly weeping bitterly. He shouted toward the interior of the gates, slamming his hands heavily against the large doors, “Come out! Lin, you get your ass out here. What, you dare to do it but don’t dare to admit it? You snatched my fiancée, yet you don’t even dare to show your face to me? Is there still any justice left in this world? Xiuxiu, it’s all my fault for being incompetent.”
“It’s all my fault for failing you, Xiuxiu. I couldn’t save you. Biyue Manor covers the sky with a single hand, yet I can’t even catch a glimpse of you. What must I do to rescue you from this place?”
“Xiuxiu, Xiuxiu, where are you? I miss you so much, Xiuxiu. Are you living well right now? Come out and let me see you just once.”
Feng Chengan made a huge scene in the street, causing such a commotion that he finally succeeded in attracting the attention of the surrounding onlookers.
The more people gathered, the more pitifully Feng Chengan wailed. He knew that these so-called martial arts sects and upright orthodox factions cared the most about their face and reputation. The fiercer the commotion, the higher the likelihood that people would come out, and the larger the hush money they would give him in the end.
Sure enough, as he continued making a scene like this, some clueless passersby listened to Feng Chengan’s wailing contents. Seeing the disheveled, sorrowful, and deeply affectionate appearance of the man, they were instantly taken in by the deception, genuinely believing that Biyue Manor was relying on its power and influence to snatch away the man’s fiancée.
A crowd stood there pointing fingers, all feeling that Biyue Manor was simply bullying people too far.
After all, such occurrences were not entirely uncommon, and storybooks described such scenarios all the time. Instances of powerful and wealthy young masters using their influence to oppress ordinary people were countless.
Biyue Manor possessed formidable influence in Mingzhou City, and the Lin family was a prominent martial arts clan with vast estates. If they genuinely committed such acts behind closed doors, it wouldn’t be considered all that strange.
The gatekeeper steward also grew somewhat anxious when he saw the crowd gathering around them growing larger and larger. He hurriedly rushed over, kicked the man away a few times, and rebuked him in a loud, angry voice, “What kind of lunatic has wandered over here? Stop making a groundless disturbance. What unbetrothed wife? You are baselessly slandering the reputation of our Biyue Manor.”
“There is no unbetrothed wife of yours in our estate whatsoever. Get lost quickly. If you dare talk nonsense again, I will have people beat you out of here,” the gatekeeper steward reprimanded with a cold face.
Over all these years, he had seen all sorts of people. Shameless freeloaders, vagrants looking for handouts, and unreasonable troublemakers were countless. This man’s coarse cloth garments were so filthy they were an eyesore; at a glance, he was obviously no legitimate guest. It was crystal clear that he wanted to come into the estate to take advantage of things. If someone like that was let in to disturb other guests, the young masters would beat him to death within minutes.
Feng Chengan lost his footing after being kicked a few times and simply tumbled down, landing squarely seated on the steps.
He hadn’t intended to leave the moment he came here; he had originally planned to demand silver. Since he hadn’t even laid eyes on the master of the house yet, how could he possibly obey the words of a servant and leave just like that?
He wiped the grime off his face and glared back with a trace of lingering malice, “You’re nothing more than a gatekeeper. What qualifications do you have to point fingers at me?”
“That fellow surnamed Lin seized my fiancée and even tried to rely on his power to take a life. Fine! It’s my incompetence, I can’t beat you all. Today, even if my blood spatters three feet high, I will die right in front of the gates of Biyue Manor. Let’s see if the bright light of day can tolerate such violent atrocities.”
Hearing this, the guarding doorman was instead angered to the point of extreme fury.
The main reason was that he suddenly remembered something: a period ago when the young master returned from an outing, he indeed brought back a young woman. However, that young woman was certainly not a concubine snatched back by the young master.
Wait, she shouldn’t be, right?
Doubt and uncertainty filled the doorman’s heart, and his gaze wavered. Right now, he wasn’t entirely certain either.
Because he didn’t understand the young master very well, he only felt that given the young master’s temperament, if he truly fancied some young woman and snatched her back to hide her in the estate, it wasn’t entirely outside the realm of possibility.
While his face flushed red with anger and his momentary hesitation in action gave Feng Chengan an opportunity to exploit a loophole,
Feng Chengan immediately began wailing even louder.
“There is no justice in this world.”
Just as the two of them were pulling and tangling with each other, an impatient voice rang out from behind.
“Making a noisy uproar here since early morning, and you can’t even chase away a lunatic. What use am I keeping you for?”
Lin Guanqing had heard someone shouting outside the door since early morning. He always woke up very early for martial arts practice, and after finishing a full set of combo moves and finding that the noise outside still hadn’t subsided, he paced over.
Only when he reached the vicinity did he hear that the man seemed to be shouting the name of some young woman. Lin Guanqing frowned, pondering for a long while and confirming that he had no recollection whatsoever.
Only then did he emerge from behind the gates with a cold expression.
Seeing the man covered in filth and tear stains, looking thoroughly wretched, he wore no particular expression on his face, merely spitting out a few impatient words: “Just beat him out of here.”
The moment Lin Guanqing’s words fell, servants immediately stepped forward to drag Feng Chengan away.
Yet a person driven to desperation can genuinely burst forth with considerable strength, especially someone with their back against the wall. Gritting his teeth, Feng Chengan stared at Lin Guanqing with eyes full of hatred.
“It’s you, it’s you!”
“You snatched away my fiancée. Return Xiuxiu to me! Your Biyue Manor is simply bullying people too much.”
“Let me go! All of you, let me go!”
“I want to see Xiuxiu. Xiuxiu, come out. Fellow surnamed Lin, you will come to a bad end! You seize other people’s wives, sooner or later you’ll meet your retribution. Return Xiuxiu to me.”
Lin Guanqing’s face turned completely black upon hearing these words.
What did seizing someone’s wife even mean?
When had he ever seized someone else’s fiancée? He didn’t even know who Xiuxiu was, so how could he possibly have snatched her?
“What kind of nonsense are you spouting? I don’t even know who Xiuxiu is, so how could I have snatched your fiancée?”
Lin Guanqing’s gaze was sharp, his expression cold. “A mouth full of wild rambling nonsense. What are you all standing around for? Stuff his mouth and throw him straight out.”
If words like these were spread outside, would there be any end to it?
Their Biyue Manor walked an upright path and sat straight, always open and above board. When had they ever engaged in tyrannical acts of seizing men’s wives or daughters? This man was simply too bold, actually daring to slander their Biyue Manor.
Feng Chengan was given a thorough and ruthless beating by this group of estate guards. Thick wooden cudgels smashed down onto his body one after another, feeling as though his bones were about to shatter.
The pain caused him to roll around on the ground, weeping and wailing.
“It’s true. It’s all true. I’m not lying, Xiuxiu really is my fiancée. She was taken away by you. Ah, stop hitting me, stop hitting me, it hurts too much.”
Seeing that even at this point the man still dared to recklessly and stubbornly bite back at Biyue Manor, the fire in Lin Guanqing’s heart grew even more intense.
He let out a cold laugh, watching the man rolling around on the ground, and was just about to order someone to break one of his legs to serve as a warning to others when a slightly familiar and panicked voice emerged from behind the doors.
“Wait, stop hitting him.”
“I beg you, stop hitting him.”
Shen Xiu had arrived belatedly under the system’s prodding; if the system hadn’t warned her that a human life might genuinely be lost if the beating continued, she wouldn’t have appeared this early.
With reddened eye sockets and a look of nervous tension, Shen Xiu gazed at the man on the ground, tears streaming down her cheeks in a rapid patter.
Almost the moment Lin Guanqing turned his head to look, he caught sight of that slender, delicate figure from inside the door throwing herself recklessly toward the bruised and battered figure on the ground.
If Lin Guanqing hadn’t reacted quickly enough, that arm-thick club probably would have smashed right down onto her. Lin Guanqing felt a wave of irritation flare up in his heart at the sight, but he immediately realized:
Xiuxiu. So Miss Shen was Xiuxiu.
When Lin Guanqing realized this, he paused slightly himself. He instinctively turned his head to look at Shen Xiu, only then remembering that upon their first meeting, she seemed to have mentioned her own name, but he hadn’t paid any attention to it at the time.
Thinking back now, the Xiuxiu that the man had been shouting about all along must undoubtedly be her.
Yet Lin Guanqing never would have imagined that Shen Xiu would actually be entangled with a man like this! And that she was actually that man’s fiancée, it was truly somewhat unbelievable.
Lin Guanqing furrowed his brows tightly, his gaze lingering steadily on Shen Xiu. Thinking of what the man had said, a hint of disgust flashed through his eyes again as he turned to Shen Xiu and asked, “You know this person?”
Shen Xiu’s body stiffened upon hearing this. She raised her head slightly and met Lin Guanqing’s currently less-than-patient gaze.
She opened her mouth, seeming somewhat mortified. Within the span of a single moment, Lin Guanqing watched as the mist in her eyes gradually gathered and dissolved, turning into individual teardrops that fell.
However, before she had a chance to speak, she was interrupted by Feng Chengan shouting from the ground.
“That’s right, of course we know each other!”
“This is my unbetrothed wife! Now that she’s standing right here, do you still dare claim you didn’t abduct her?”
Shen Xiu did not speak; failing to refute was equivalent to tacit approval.
Lin Guanqing felt nothing but suffocated. A wave of gloomy frustration churned in his chest alongside a sense of bafflement, he hadn’t expected everything that man said to be true, and that the two of them were genuinely engaged to be married?
What was this supposed to be? Fresh flowers stuck in cow dung?
His impression of Shen Xiu had actually been quite good. In his view, this Miss Shen possessed a clear mind and sound reasoning; no matter what, she wouldn’t fancy an unreliable man like this, right?
Now that he saw it, he simply felt that this young woman’s taste was truly abysmal. Hearing this, Lin Guanqing’s brows not only failed to relax, but knitted even tighter. He cast a cold glance down at Feng Chengan on the ground.
“Since you know each other, what are you making a reckless uproar for?”
“Your fiancée was in danger, and it was I who rescued her. Not only are you ungrateful for saving her life, what kind of logic is this retaliatory framing? Are you deliberately trying to set yourself against our Biyue Manor?”
Lin Guanqing let out a cold snort, his eyes filled with unkind intent.
After finishing, he turned his gaze back to Shen Xiu. Though displeasure lingered within his heart, it didn’t show on his exterior, and his tone softened slightly. “Since this person is looking for you, why didn’t you have someone report it instead of making a noisy fuss right here at the front gates?”
“Moreover, since your fiancé has come looking for you, he must naturally be here to take you away. Are you planning to leave with him?”
When Lin Guanqing spoke those words, they actually carried a hint of an eviction subtext, naturally intended to steer clear of trouble.
He hadn’t expected that his momentary soft-heartedness in saving someone would instead harvest a trouble, unjustly landing him with the label of seizing another man’s wife, while turning him into a shameless villain who robbed someone of their fiancée.
It seemed Senior Sister’s words were indeed correct: it was best not to provoke people of unknown origin.
Shen Xiu naturally caught the implicit meaning of eviction hidden in Lin Guanqing’s words. Her fingertips dug slightly into her palms, and her complexion paled.
She parted her lips, but the words teetering on the edge of her tongue were swallowed back down. In the end, she merely lowered her gaze and responded in a low voice.
“Alright, I will leave as soon as possible. Thank you for the Young Master’s care during this period, and I am sorry for causing the Young Master trouble.” She smiled gratefully toward Lin Guanqing, her eyelashes still damp with lingering teardrops.
As she spoke, she reached out to support the fallen Feng Chengan on the ground. Little did she know that the moment her hand extended over, Feng Chengan violently shoved her away, forcefully casting off Shen Xiu’s hand.
“Get away, get lost! Don’t touch me!”
With bloodshot eyes, Feng Chengan struggled fiercely to shake off the support, roaring in a hoarse voice, “Fellow surnamed Lin, what kind of person do you take me for? You seize my fiancée however you please, and now that you’re tired of playing with her, you want to casually discard her? Where in all under heaven is there such reason!”
His chest heaved violently, and then he let out a miserable laugh, every single word laced with a hatred akin to blood and tears:
“As an unmarried young woman, she has been locked in solitude with you, a single man and woman, residing together in this estate for all these days, who knows whether her body is still clean. Don’t even dream of getting off so easily.”
Lin Guanqing’s face flushed crimson with anger at such shameless talk, driving him to the point of absolute fury.
Were words like this something that could just be casually blurted out? Truly, a shameless person was invincible. He genuinely never expected this man would dare utter such filth. What kind of preposterous nonsense was all of this?
Had he not been constrained by the surrounding passersby watching, he almost would have lost control and kicked the man to death on the spot.
“What kind of wild nonsense are you spewing? Your fiancée was being trafficked and sold, and I saved her. When did I ever forcibly abduct her?”
Once he finished speaking, he even subconsciously glanced in Shen Xiu’s direction, seemingly wishing for her to say something to help verify that everything he said was true.
Yet upon turning his head, he saw that the person beside him also wore a look of utter astonishment. Her complexion was as pale as paper, and even her slender, frail body trembled lightly, as though she might collapse at any second.
Seeing this, Feng Chengan hardened his heart and resorted to playing the rogue, “Empty teeth and bare words, who knows whether what you’re saying is true or false?”
“Yet it is a visible fact to everyone that an unmarried young woman lived under the same roof with you for so many days! Now that you’ve had your fill of fun, you want to toss this hot potato back to me? Dream on! Am I, Feng Chengan, someone so easily dismissed?”
Lin Guanqing gnashed his teeth in fury. He truly had never witnessed such an unreasonable and overbearing man; it was simply too shameless. The veins on his forehead throbbed violently, and his entire face turned red. “Shut your mouth! She and I are completely innocent and upright; we never did anything.”
Feng Chengan’s voice abruptly pitched higher, carrying the reckless and hateful desperation of someone smashing a broken pot. “I don’t care! Since she followed you, she is no longer clean. Although we had a betrothal, I never touched her. Now that things have reached this point, you must pay compensation! Compensate me with five hundred. No, I want one thousand taels.”
His bloodshot eyes dilated as he thrust forward a single finger, gritting his teeth as he declared, “One thousand taels! As long as you give me one thousand taels of silver right now, I, Feng Chengan, swear to the heavens that I will never mention a single half-word of today’s events to outsiders, nor will I ever come back to pester you again.”