TL: Hua
Chapter 31: Past Events – Little Pei’s Theater Opens!
Wang Yelai returned to the Wang Manor and was immediately met with a furious scolding from his father upon entering the study: “You unfilial brat! Your wings aren’t even fully grown, yet they’re harder than iron! Who gave you the audacity to provoke the Longhe Division?!”
Wang Yelai dodged the book his father threw at him and retorted stiffly, “It was You Zong who was being unreasonable.”
“Even your old man has to respectfully address him as ‘Lord You,’ and you dare call him by his given name? Whose young master do you think you are?!” Official Wang grabbed the family disciplinary rod that had been brought out earlier, rushed from behind the desk, and lashed the beast, “I’m telling you, if Lord You were truly unreasonable, you would have been carried back from Lan Yin Street covered in blood today!”
Wang Yelai quickly dodged, saying with displeasure, “Just because of Third Pei?!”
Official Wang’s hand trembled as he stared at Wang Yelai in disbelief. Sometimes, he truly wished he could be as “unyielding” as this foolish son so that he could die of anger at the same time as this beastly son, and neither would survive!
“His father is a fifth-rank official, and your father is an upper fifth-rank official. Where do you get the confidence to look down on him?” Official Wang jumped up and struck Wang Yelai’s back with the rod again. “Let me tell you, he’s a concubine’s son from the Pei family, not our Wang family! Your legitimate young master’s temper cannot be spread to others! Not to mention that the third son of the Pei family has now joined the Longhe Division!”
Wang Yelai jumped in pain, desperately dodging the strikes while roaring, “Just a mere clerk, without even a rank—”
“That’s still someone from the Longhe Division, a follower of the Crown Prince!” Official Wang struck down hard, forcing Wang Yelai back two steps, then he shouted at the top of his voice, “You ran to the Longhe Division’s territory to kidnap their people, and Lord You caught you red-handed! You might as well take your father’s official hat and kick it around like a ball! Who gave you the courage? Who gave you the nerve? Even at the peak of our Wang family’s power, your elder uncle—before his demotion from the imperial censor position—wouldn’t dare to show the slightest disrespect to the Fifth Prince, let alone now!”
Official Wang took a deep breath, his face flushed red as he glared at the tight-lipped Wang Yelai. “Our Wang family is already in a precarious situation. Your father being able to serve as an official in Yejing is all thanks to His Highness the Crown Prince’s mercy. And yet, you dare to cause trouble at the Longhe Division! Are you worried about your father, the only child left, staying in the court and trembling with fear every day, and you wish I could take my pots and pans and go back to the countryside to farm?!”
“…” Wang Yelai’s chest heaved, his face also flushed as he gasped for breath, unsure if he was truly scared or just hurting from the beating. He stubbornly stuck out his neck and finally admitted his mistake.
Official Wang asked, “Do you truly know your mistake?”
Wang Yelai said, “Yes!”
“Pah!” Official Wang slammed the rod onto the desk, using it to support himself as he sat back down. After a long pause, he said, “Son, do you know how the Third Prince died?”
Wang Yelai said, bewildered, “Wasn’t he bitten to death by a tiger while hunting in the mountains? They claimed that the tiger had torn off his arms and legs, and if the imperial guards hadn’t arrived in time, even his head would have been mangled.”
“Yes, that was a dignified death,” Official Wang said.
Wang Yelai scoffed, “‘That’s’ a dignified death?”
Official Wang said, “What if I told you that the one who bit the Third Prince to death wasn’t a wild beast from the forest, but the Crown Prince’s ‘hunting dog’?”
Official Wang’s eyes, though cloudy, held a sharp glint as he stared deeply at his son. Wang Yelai suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.
Useless!
Official Wang shook his head at the sight, his voice heavy. “When the Crown Prince was still the Fifth Prince, he traveled extensively for years. You only thought of him as gold and jade walking out of a wealthy nest, but you didn’t know that he was an incarnation of a demon who emerged from a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. A prince traveling outside of the kingdom is like a piece of flesh and bones thrown into a pack of hyenas. How many people wished they could tear him apart and devour him? But the Crown Prince stepped on their bones and returned to Yejing in one piece. The Third Prince is among that pile of bones.”
It was the first time Wang Yelai had heard this, and he listened quietly as his father revealed the bloody inside story of the past. “It was the spring of the thirteenth year of Xining’s reign. That day, the Third Prince went hunting in the mountains and caught much prey, but in the end, he became the hunted. The Fifth Prince didn’t even set a trap for him. Just five arrows—” Official Wang held up five fingers, looking at Wang Yelai, “He nailed the Third Prince’s wrists and ankles to the wild boar he had hunted himself. The last arrow pierced the Third Prince’s throat. Later, when people from the palace came to collect the Third Prince’s body, the blood had stained the wild boar’s fur red.”
Wang Yelai’s pupils dilated. “Was the Crown Prince deliberately humiliating and torturing the Third Prince?”
Official Wang didn’t answer immediately. “Do you know why I know this so clearly? Because at that time, His Majesty was in the forest opposite, and I was following behind.”
“His Majesty didn’t stop it?” Wang Yelai said in shock. “I remember the Third Prince’s birth mother was very favored back then, and the Third Prince was said to be very much loved by His Majesty…”
“Compared with Concubine Wan’s favor, Concubine Li’s favor is not worth mentioning at all. If the late emperor had not chosen our Wang family’s daughter, the position of empress would definitely have belonged to Concubine Wan. The weight of a mother is significant, and the Third Prince simply couldn’t compare to the Fifth Prince. Between a mediocre, arrogant prince and a prince who was both civil and martial, calm and self-restrained, which one held more weight?”
Official Wang sighed. “Besides, there was no stopping it. At that time, the father and son exchanged a distant look; a shared calmness and composure passed down through their bloodline. I didn’t dare to savor the sparks in the air. I collapsed on the ground and couldn’t even get up.”
The wounds on Wang Yelai’s body throbbed with pain as he listened to his father. “Do you know why I’m telling you this story from the past? If the crown prince wants to kill you, don’t even think you’ll have a chance to beg for mercy.”
Wang Yelai said, “Then what happened afterward?”
Official Wang didn’t answer but asked, “Do you know why His Highness the Crown Prince wanted to kill the Third Prince?”
“Wasn’t it because the Third Prince sent someone to assassinate him first and was found out?” Wang Yelai rolled his eyes. Seeing his father’s deep gaze, he said impatiently, “Is there another reason? Just say it! I wasn’t there to witness it firsthand; how would I know? Stop acting mysterious.”
This scoundrel! Official Wang took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to beat him again, and said in a low voice, “Because the Crown Prince wanted him to pay for You Jing’s life.”
Wang Yelai asked, “Who is that?”
“A young boy who took several arrows to protect the Crown Prince back then and was finally killed by an arrow through his throat, pinned to the Crown Prince’s shoulder. They said he was only twelve years old that year,” Official Wang said. “He was Lord You’s younger brother.”
Wang Yelai felt as if his wound was grazed by an arrowhead, prompting him to shiver all over, feeling inexplicably cold.
“The Crown Prince is protective of his people. If anyone touches the people around him, no matter who you are, nothing can stop him. Remember this: Pei Xiting is now also the Crown Prince’s person. Even if he stands at the very end of the ranks, there’s a white jade staircase taller than the sky separating him from you. Besides—” Official Wang’s gaze was complex. “Do you really think that useless, cowardly, and incompetent people can enter the Longhe Division?”
Wang Yelai seemed to have been slapped hard. He stood there, his face alternating between red and white, looking extremely unpleasant.
*
“Who are you pulling that long face for?” Pei Xiting frowned at the dog blocking his path. “Move.”
He had strolled back after work, never expecting a stray dog to block his door.
Shangguan Jie was easily provoked by this person and said in a low voice, “Do you no longer even have superficial, hypocritical respect and courtesy?”
“Oh,” Pei Xiting took a step back, cupped his hands, and lowered his head. “Greetings, Young Marquis. For you to stop by my humble abode, it’s definitely my lifetime honor. May I ask what Young Marquis commands?”
…Ha, indeed hypocritical enough, superficial enough!
Shangguan Jie took a deep breath and grabbed Pei Xiting’s arm. “Come with me!”
Pei Xiting staggered back two steps, then turned his back and said, “How strange, is my doorstep so attractive to mad dogs? I got two in one day.”
Shangguan Jie turned his head, his eyes sparking with fire. “You dare call me a dog?”
Pei Xiting didn’t bother to utter another word of retort. “Wang Yelai is your dog, isn’t he? You can’t control your own dog, letting it come to my door to piss at noon, and still feel unsatisfied, so you have to come and take a piss yourself?”
“Fine, you’ve even learned to fabricate stories and slander people now?” Shangguan Jie glared at Pei Xiting. “I left the city yesterday and just returned!”
“Even if you didn’t instigate it, you’re still the reason. I have no grudges against that surname Wang, but he keeps coming to provoke me again and again. Isn’t it just to curry favor with you? Who doesn’t know,” Pei Xiting laughed, “that surname Wang always follows behind Young Marquis Shangguan, wishing he could kneel down and lick your shoes?”
Shangguan Jie glared at him for a long while, then suddenly laughed and said straightforwardly, “Yes, I instigated it. So what can you do?”
“I can’t do anything, but what can you do?” Pei Xiting looked coldly at Shangguan Jie. “Young Marquis, you are still above others, but I am no longer the same as before.”
Shangguan Jie sneered. “Don’t think that entering the Longhe Division will make you invincible!”
“I don’t want to turn the world upside down, but coincidentally, only the heavens can override me now, because I entered the door of the Longhe Division,” Pei Xiting’s tone was helpless, laced with icy thorns. “That’s a government office where even a high and mighty Young Marquis can’t have my superior dismiss me without a reason. As long as I’m in the Longhe Division, don’t even think about treating me like a b*tch.”
Pei Xiting took a step forward, slightly tilting his head to look into Shangguan Jie’s gloomy eyes, his voice very soft. “Young Marquis, aren’t you very skilled at using your power and influence to bully others? Today, you’ve only tasted a tiny bit of it, so don’t get angry.”
As his words fell, Shangguan Jie grabbed the back of his neck and forcefully pressed him forward, saying grimly, “Then you’d better hold onto You Zong’s thigh tightly; otherwise, once you touch the ground, I’ll cut off your arrogant tongue, pull out your sharp teeth, and chain your unruly neck, making you kneel on the ground like a mute b*tch that only knows how to eat s*men and get f*cked.”
People born into this kind of p*rnographic novel always have crude speech.
Pei Xiting indifferently roasted him. When his eyes locked with Shangguan Jie’s, he suddenly tilted his head, revealing a light and fleeting smile.
Shangguan Jie’s eyelids twitched inexplicably. The next moment, Pei Xiting suddenly reached out and pushed him away. Then he fell to the ground while clutching his collar and screaming miserably, “Young Marquis, kill me! I’d rather die than be your plaything!”
Shangguan Jie: “?”
Shangguan Jie stared blankly at Pei Xiting, only to see him suddenly stand up and stumble towards his own courtyard door, only to realize that he was really going to commit suicide by knocking his head on the door!
What’s going on?!
Shangguan Jie couldn’t understand and subconsciously reached out to stop him, but suddenly, a gust of wind swept past his side. Someone rushed ahead and grabbed Pei Xiting’s arm, using himself as a shield between Pei Xiting and the courtyard door.
Pei Jintang hugged the trembling Pei Xiting, raised his eyes to look at Shangguan Jie, and said coldly, “Young Marquis, what are you doing?!”
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