TL: Hua
Chapter 29: Afternoon – Roadblock
“Sir, we have confirmed with Second Young Master Pei and Fourth Young Master Zhao that the kidnapper was indeed Young Master Wang’s entourage on the day of the Qixia Banquet.” In the hall, one of the two dispatched Longhe guards reported the result: “We have also gone to the Wang family to check the roster. This person is not a servant of the Wang family.”
You Zong said, “En,” and the two bowed and left. He slowly put down the brush and looked at Wang Yelai. “Can you speak up now?”
At this point, Wang Yelai knew that he could no longer deny the relationship, so he simply gritted his teeth and admitted it, “Fine, I admit that this person is indeed the thug I hired.”
He crossed his arms, pointed at Pei Xiting, and said without care, “I just want to give him a lesson!”
Pei Xiting was startled by the noise and woke up suddenly. He frowned and said drowsily, “Why are you raising your voice? So uncultured.”
Wang Yelai: “…”
Why are you acting so arrogant and free in the Longhe Division office? Do you really treat this place as your home!
Wang Yelai couldn’t help but glance at You Zong. Left Commissioner You, who was promoted by the Crown Prince, has a notorious reputation. At this time, he wasn’t dissatisfied with his slack and rude subordinate, not even giving him a little warning. It was really strange… Could it be that Pei Xiting and You Zong had a private affair?
Yes, that must be it. Otherwise, how could Pei Xiting be in the Longhe Division? The more Wang Yelai thought about it, the more certain he became. He looked at Pei Xiting with more and more jealousy. He hooked up with the young marquis and had an ambiguous relationship with Lord You. He was simply a vixen, shameless!
“I have no grudges against you. Why do you want to teach me a lesson?” Pei Xiting’s lazy voice interrupted Wang Yelai’s thoughts. He came back to his senses and sneered, “Don’t play dumb. Are you and Qing Lingling having an affair!”
“Huh?” There was gossip. Yu Shaoyun pricked up his ears, and the sleepiness disappeared after a while.
As the Crown Prince flipped a page, Pei Xiting’s voice, coming from the other side of the wall, reached him, laced with what sounded like a smile: “You don’t like me because of Qing Lingling? Do you like him?”
“Is it not possible? Qing Lingling has a charming voice and appearance. People who are willing to support him can line up from the Yuanyang Pavilion to the city gate. Is it that strange? Aren’t you also one of them? Don’t deny it.” Wang Yelai raised his voice, “I saw you enter his door with my own eyes once before, and you didn’t emerge after a long time. There was no sound of Qing Lingling singing in the room, so what were you doing in there!”
Pei Xiting didn’t know which time the man surnamed Wang was talking about, and he was too lazy to explain what he and Qing Lingling did in the room. He just said, “There are so many people who support Qing Lingling; why don’t others come to trouble me beside you? Young Master Wang sure got a bad temper.”
He leaned back on the chair and looked at Wang Yelai indifferently. “But as far as I know, Qing Lingling and you have no ambiguous relationship. He may not even remember you.
So where does this temper come from?”
Wang Yelai snorted coldly and said, “I like him, so I’m jealous of you. Is that not possible?”
“You have a strong possessiveness for someone who doesn’t belong to you, and that’s really strange. If you want to be jealous, the one you should be most jealous of is Prince Ning. Why don’t you kidnap the prince?” Pei Xiting sneered, “You don’t dare, do you?”
Wang Yelai said confidently, “Of course I dare not have any dissatisfaction with the Prince. I just bully the weak and fear the strong; is there a problem?”
Pei Xiting didn’t say anything, and sure enough, he heard You Zong say, “Are the people of my Longhe Division that easy to bully?”
Realizing his mishap, Wang Yelai’s expression shifted, and he quickly changed his words: “Lord You, I have absolutely no intention of underestimating the Longhe Division. This matter is a personal grudge between Third Pei and me.”
What he meant by that was nothing more than saying that You Zong was guilty of failing to distinguish between public and private interests and using his power to oppress others.
You Zong said, “Pei-wenshu is a clerk of Longhe Division. You ran to Longhe Division’s territory to bully him, just like a dog deliberately ran to pee on me. Do you still expect me to tolerate your actions?”
You Zong’s eyes darkened slightly, and the inherent ferocity only leaked out by three parts, which had already made Wang Yelai’s face pale and speechless for a moment.
You Zong retracted his gaze, picked up the brush again, and wrote two lines on the letter: “Young Master Wang, considering that you are still young, I don’t want to make things difficult for you and ruin your life and future, but I have to remind you that next time you dare to dirty the ground in front of my door, I will force you to lick it clean. Now—”
He picked up the letter paper and said to Wang Yelai, “Leave your dog here and take this letter back. Give my regards to Lord Wang.”
Wang Yelai’s jaw tightened as he gave a flat response, then he stepped forward to carefully take the letter with both hands and, after a stiff bow, turned and left.
“Stop,” You Zong said, “Apologize to Pei-wenshu.”
Wang Yelai’s fists hidden in his robes creaked. He turned around and held his hands to Pei Xiting, saying, “I’m sorry, Third… Pei-wenshu.”
Pei Xiting turned aside and didn’t accept it.
Your grandmother! Wang Yelai gritted his teeth, and seeing that You Zong didn’t say anything else, he turned around and walked away quickly.
“Don’t be so angry.” Yu Zong looked at Pei Xiting, his tone softened a bit. “He will definitely be beaten up when he gets back. Consider that as a payback.”
Pei Xiting said, “Ah,” and subconsciously adjusted his expression. “Do I look angry?”
You Zong nodded, “Yes.”
“Alright then.” Pei Xiting pressed his cheeks, then bowed and said, “Thank you for helping me vent my anger. You are worthy of being the best person in the world.”
Yu Shaoyun said “huh” silently and saw that his own prince shook his head almost imperceptibly, obviously also having a lot of opinions about Pei Xiting’s sweet talk and flattery.
You Zong also thought of His Highness’s previous words and asked curiously, “How many people have you said this to?”
“Not many,” Pei Xiting said frankly, “a deceased elder, the pancake-selling uncle who gave me a lot of stuffing, and then you, my lord.”
He bent three fingers, innocently, “Not many, right?”
“It’s much less than I thought.” You Zong called Pei Xiting to the table and glanced at him. “What’s the matter between you and Qing Lingling?”
Pei Xiting said, “There’s really nothing between us. We’re just friends. I have offended the young marquis, so I have cut off my relationship with Qing Lingling first, so as not to implicate him, but now it seems that the relationship is not cut off very cleanly.”
You Zong was silent because of his straightforward words and said, “I don’t want to ask about your private affairs, but Qing Lingling has a close relationship with Prince Ning. If you want to have a fleeting relationship with him because of your youthful vigor, it is very unwise.”
“I know, don’t worry, my lord, Qing Lingling and I have no ambiguous relationship, and—” Pei Xiting thought for a while and carefully chose his words, “I think Wang Yelai is just trying to fool us. There are so many people who like to listen to Qing Lingling singing, but he’s only jealous of me? According to his principle of bullying the weak and fearing the strong, there are many soft persimmons among those guests who are softer to pick than me. And from the beginning in Pixia Mountain, he deliberately targeted me. The malice in his eyes can’t deceive people.”
“Wang Yelai’s eyes flickered. He must be hiding something,” You Zong glanced at the kidnapper on the ground. “I will decide after I interrogate this person.”
Pei Xiting was stunned and said, “My lord, you have offended official Wang by helping me. I’m already very grateful for this. You are very busy with official duties, so you really don’t need to be concerned by this.”
“You are my subordinate. If I don’t protect you, what other government office will?” You Zong looked at Pei Xiting. “If you quarrel with others outside, I won’t care, nor will I call people to Longhe Division for questioning, but I won’t let you be bullied at our doorstep. Otherwise, where will the face of Longhe Division be?”
Pei Xiting said nothing more after hearing this. He thanked him and retreated. When he walked out of the front door, there was a roadblock on the path. Under the sun, it was like a ball of golden feathers. Its pair of round eyes was like amber, clear and bright, staring at him straight.
“Hey, good afternoon.” Pei Xiting walked over tentatively, without rashly touching it. He saw the longevity thread on the tiger’s paw and couldn’t help but smile, “So you’re still wearing it. I thought you would throw it away after scratching it a few times.”
Little King raised its front paw following his line of sight, gently leaving an inconspicuous claw mark on Pei Xiting’s robe, looking up at him proudly
