“The Tang Sect can’t get rid of this matter either. Dirty water had already been splashed over1to say insulting or unfair things about someone the Tang Sect too. You and I account for each half of it. So is it appropriate for you to make such sarcastic remarks now?” Liang Yanbei asked with a smile.
“Weird.” Tang Yixiao placed his chin on his hand and joked, “It’s obviously not you who got the dirty water splashed on. So why are you rushing to catch it?”
As he said this, he glanced at the real McCoy, who got the dirty water splashed on.
Wen Chan’s expression remained unchanged, and he said quite calmly, “My business is also his business.”
As soon as these words came out of his mouth, even Liang Yanbei was a little surprised.
“What? Did I say something wrong?” Wen Chan glanced at Liang Yanbei shamelessly and asked, “Isn’t it always like that for you?”
Since the first time they met on New Year’s Eve, Liang Yanbei seemed to be attached to him. Whenever they met, whether it was an accident or a premeditated meeting, Liang Yanbei always had to stop him in public.
Even after getting the door slammed in his face repeatedly, he never changed.
Ever since they met on Wuyue Island, he has taken care of Wen Chan everywhere. And even though it seemed like Wen Chan knew nothing, he was actually aware of everything through the bright mirror in his heart.
Liang Yanbei was very good at taking care of people. To be precise, he was very good at spoiling people.
Whenever he placed someone at the forefront of his heart to spoil, matters were not separated according to their importance, and he took care of everything. No matter what kind of situation they were in, he would protect them well.
In the previous life, the Wen Clan was almost exterminated. Wen Chan’s close relatives were all killed by the Zhong family. The bright red blood stained the entire palace, and he was the only one who was rescued by Liang Yanbei.
During those years, Wen Chan, who had been greatly upset, felt like his whole world was falling apart.
Afraid of people and light, he turned into a frightened bird, both cowardly and closed off, on the verge of collapse.
Even sleeping had become a luxury. And as soon as he closed his eyes, there was blood in the sky, hideous faces, and desperate cries.
Wen Chan had even sought death once.
At that time, Liang Yanbei had used some god-knows-what amount of patience and tolerance on him.
The war was imminent, but their luck was unfavourable to them. Even in the most pressing situation, Liang Yanbei always smiled softly at Wen Chan and never said a harsh word to him. They ate the three meals of the day together and slept together at night.
Even though Wen Chan yelled at him hysterically, smashed everything around him, and went so insane that no one dared to approach him, Liang Yanbei still gently took him into his arms, comforted him with a gentle voice, and took him away from everything that could cause him harm.
As the only hope left for the royal family, Wen Chan naturally bore a heavy burden, but he had no will to fight at all. And due to being in despair all day long, he aroused a lot of rumours and ambitions of wild wolves2rapacious designs.
But Liang Yanbei kept the rebellious enemies under control and suppressed the rumours. Whenever something offensive came out, he investigated and handled it rigorously. And then finally, the punishment would be the death penalty, and no kind of grovelling was useful.
His resolute actions and cold-blooded decisiveness allowed Wen Chan to rekindle his new life in a bright environment.
At that time, Liang Yanbei had said to him, “You are fighting for all the people of Xi Liang and for your dead relatives. So you can neither fall, nor be afraid.”
In the darkness, where nightmares were rampant and seemed like boundless purgatory, Liang Yanbei was the beam of light that broke through the nine dark clouds.
Wen Chan’s love was born in the most rotten and filthy abyss of mud and had taken root in the deepest part of the heart. If you wanted to remove it, you could only dig out his heart and let it stop beating.
For many years, whenever Wen Chan thought about his condition at the time, it felt like a small hammer covered in honey was knocking on his heart, both sweet and painful.
When Wen Chan thought about it, he thought far and wide. Seeing that he was suddenly distracted, Liang Yanbei poked his forehead with his finger in a friendly way and asked, “What are you thinking about?”
He came back to his senses and subconsciously touched the place where he was poked lightly. Just as he was about to speak, he looked up and saw Tang Yixiao on the opposite side with a teasing smile.
He lowered his voice slightly and asked, “What’s the relationship between you two?”
Wen Chan was stunned by his question and didn’t know how to answer it for a while.
Liang Yanbei pressed forward and retorted in a low voice, “What does it have to do with you?”
“Okay, I won’t ask.” Tang Yixiao shrugged, “Where do you want to check next?”
“It’s simple. You and I will check separately.” Liang Yanbei tilted his head slightly, with a lazy smile on his face, “I’ll check the touch-me-not, and I’ll leave the commelina benghalensis to you. If you can’t find out the reason the day after tomorrow, you can go and give an explanation to Yao Mengping yourself.”
“Give an explanation?” Tang Yixiao touched his chin and said, “I don’t like to give explanations to others.”
“That’s your business.” He said, “Even if you poison the entire Yao family, I won’t have the slightest objection.”
After Tang Yixiao heard this, he started to think seriously.
“This is not right……” Wen Chan suddenly said from the side.
Liang Yanbei was quite surprised, “Are you still friends with the Yao family?”
“I’m not talking about that.” He said with a serious look, “We are all slandered, and we have been busy for a whole day because of this matter. How can the Tang Sect pick up the readily available data?”
“I think that both kinds of grass should be handed over to them for investigation.”
That was right.
Tang Yixiao raised his eyebrows slightly. And as soon as he wanted to speak, Tang Qin took the lead.
“You are full of!” Tang Qin started shouting as soon as she opened her mouth. Her eyebrows were raised, and she seemed a bit fierce for no reason.
But when she was halfway through her words, she caught a glance at Liang Yanbei and bit her tongue immediately. She then instantly lowered her volume to a normal range and said, “You are fully allowed to be out of worry. We will definitely investigate the matter tomorrow.”
Wen Chan was sure that her first sentence just now was definitely the words “You are full of shit”.
But this was the closest thing to a normal person’s speech that this girl had said since he met her. So Wen Chan didn’t care.
“The commelina benghalensis……” Tang Qin spoke again.
She said quite a bit embarrassedly, “There is a patch of commelina benghalensis around the yamen.”
Wen Chan noticed her glancing at Liang Yanbei and then quickly lowering her eyes. But there was neither shyness nor admiration in it. It was just clear reverence.
He wondered, asking in his heart: Does this lady devil also revere people? And the one she revered was Liang Yanbei?
Could it be because Liang Yanbei twisted one of her arms?
“Thank you for reminding me of that.” At this moment, Liang Yanbei only felt that that girl looked a bit more pleasing to the eye. After accepting Tang Qin’s kindness unceremoniously, he got up to leave.
Tang Yixiao and Tang Qin stopped talking and watched him walk out the door.
Wen Chan also stood up and walked to the threshold. But then he turned around and asked in surprise, “Why are you guys still sitting in someone else’s room?”
I, the host, am leaving. Then why are you two guests still sitting here?
The words intended to turn the visitors out were so obvious. And Tang Yixiao was no fool, and neither did he like to pretend to be one. So he stood up and followed Wen Chan out.
Walking outside the door, Tang Yixiao suddenly stopped Wen Chan and said to him, “I have something for you.”
Wen Chan was a little confused. He and Tang Yixiao had only met four times in total.
When they met for the first time, Tang Yixiao deliberately gave him the wrong directions, causing him to sleep in the bandit’s den for a whole night.
The second time they met, he poured water all over Tang Yixiao, got poisoned by Tang Yixiao, and then sneezed for nearly an hour.
He really couldn’t think of any good things he could come up with, and Wen Chan became a little wary.
Unexpectedly, Tang Yixiao put his hand into his sleeve, felt around for a while, and then took out a beautiful object.
At first glance, it looked like a thick thread made of bright gold silk, with a flat white card strung in the thread, about the width of one’s finger and the length of one’s little finger, glowing with a gentle light.
It looked like a bracelet.
“Why are you giving me this?” Wen Chan didn’t take it, wondering why Tang Yixiao suddenly handed him a bracelet.
“You can regard it as returning the property to its rightful owner.“ Tang Yixiao put it into his hand without letting him say anything in objection, turned around, and left, “Let’s do our own thing. See you later.”
Wen Chan held the bracelet in his hand and was about to call after him when he heard Liang Yanbei’s voice say, “What did he give you?”
Liang Yanbei leaned over his head curiously, just a short distance away from his shoulder. He unnaturally took two steps to the side and raised the bracelet strung with gold thread, “It’s just this thing.”
After seeing that it was a beautiful bracelet, Liang Yanbei’s expression changed a bit, and darkness flashed in his eyes slightly, “Tang Yixiao… Why did he give you this?”
“I also want to know the answer to this question.” Wen Chan shook the bracelet, making the creamy white flat card above it circle, and he casually complimented it, “It looks pretty good.”
“Heh.” Liang Yanbei sneered and stretched out his hand to hold the bracelet, along with the half of Wen Chan’s hand holding it. Wen Chan broke free subconsciously and put the thing into Liang Yanbei’s hand.
Liang Yanbei hurriedly took it in his arms, “We shouldn’t get a reward if it’s not deserved. I will help you return this thing to him.”
That was just right. Wen Chan no longer wanted to deal with the people of the Tang Clan, who were always malicious. So he tactically agreed to Liang Yanbei’s words.
After putting away the thing, he looked up at the sky and saw that the sun that had been there had completely disappeared. Except for the faint ray of light hanging in the distant sky, the entire earth was covered with night.
“This is just the right time.” Liang Yanbei said suddenly.
“Now?” Wen Chan raised his eyebrows in confusion.
“Yeah.” He responded vaguely, raised his foot, and left without giving any specific explanation.
Upon seeing this, Wen Chan followed up with him closely and asked again, “What are you going to do?”
“Investigate.” He said.
As night fell, the servants in the mansion began to hang up lights and walk to and fro, busy with their businesses. Liang Yanbei took Wen Chan and walked along the road until both sides of the road were covered with lush trees.
The further they went in, the quieter it got.
When the two stopped in front of a small courtyard, there were no servants around, only lush green vegetation.
“Where is this place?” Wen Chan couldn’t help but ask.
This courtyard was not as big as the one where Wen Chan and the others lived. There were a few lamps hanging under the eaves, and it was very dim. There was one main room and two secondary rooms in it. The door was closed, and there were no servants guarding it. However, there were several women’s clothes hanging in the courtyard.
“This is where Tan Qiong’s daughter lives.” Liang Yanbei walked in without any scruples.
Wen Chan looked around in fright, quickly caught up with him, and whisper-yelled at him, “What are you doing in someone else’s yard?! That too in a girl’s.”
“Tan Qiong is the matriarch of the Tan family. She was the one who had been by Yao Mengping’s side, calling him ‘Brother Yao’ today.“ Liang Yanbei continued walking in nonchalantly, “She has a daughter and a sister, and together, they are called the Three Beauties of the Tan family. Among them, her daughter Tan Yuji was engaged to Yao Yanming.”
“So you doubt Tan Yuji?” Wen Chan’s mind turned quickly, and he understood what Liang Yanbei’s meant almost immediately.
Tan Qin had said this morning that her daughter had seen Qin Qi and Ah Fu going to Yao Yanming’s residence with her own eyes. And after asking Qin Qi, he also said that a woman had deliberately pointed them there.
Connecting the dots, Wen Chan had doubts about Tan Qiong’s daughter. But when he heard what Liang Yanbei said just now, he became a little unsure.
“Since Tan Yuji is engaged to Yao Yanming, why should she poison him? You also said that neither poison was fatal. Does she want Yao Yanming to feel uncomfortable for a while, or does she want him to have erectile dysfunction?”
There must be no woman who would want her husband to have erectile dysfunction, right? That was undoubtedly like torturing yourself.
If Tan Yuji wanted to kill Yao Yanming, wouldn’t it be more convenient to poison him directly?
“I don’t know either. So I came here to look for any clues.” Liang Yanbei walked around in the courtyard, walked to the row of clothes that were hung to dry, and fiddled with them a few times.
Wen Chan couldn’t bear it anymore, “What are you doing, touching other people’s clothes?”
He thought to himself that this man was indeed romantic by nature. In his previous life, he always went to Yu Fu House either for Zhu Xue or Lan Lian, which made all the girls in Yu Fu House jealous.
Sensing that something was wrong in his tone, Liang Yanbei looked back at him in surprise and said, “I was just taking a look.”
“It’s indecent!” Wen Chan snorted coldly.
“Okay, okay. Then let’s not look at that.” Liang Yanbei took back his hand, turned around, and walked to the main room, “Let’s go in and have a look.”
He opened the door directly as if he didn’t care at all that he was pushing into a girl’s room.
Seeing that he was moving swiftly and neatly, Wen Chan couldn’t do much. So he followed him into the room and closed the door after him.
It was unknown whether it was because of his guilty conscience, but Wen Chan was very careful while closing the door and made very little noise.
Since there was no light, the room was very dark. With the faint light from the doors and windows, he could barely see the figure of the person clearly.
Wen Chan followed very closely but did not dare to move randomly, for fear of touching something he shouldn’t be touching.
“We can’t see anything at all. Then how can we search?” He asked in a low voice.
As soon as he finished speaking, a light suddenly lit up in front of his eyes, and then he heard two whooshes and a small flame jump out, reflecting half of Liang Yanbei’s handsome face.
“Don’t worry. I’ll light a flame stick first.” He said.
Wait? You sneak into someone else’s room and then light a flame stick there?
“Are you crazy?” Wen Chan stretched out his hand to hold him, “If I am discovered, how will I explain it to others? If the news spread, wouldn’t it ruin my reputation?”
The Ninth Royal Highness traveled thousands of miles to woo a young girl but failed. So he visited the house of the young girl at night?
When Wen Chan thought about this, he shook his head repeatedly: No way, no way, the rumours would be too terrible.
Liang Yanbei found it quite funny when he heard this, “Your Ninth Royal Highness, do you think you still have a good reputation?”
It was okay if it was not mentioned, but he got angry when he mentioned it, “You clearly know that I was slandered. Only a fool would believe those rumours.”
“Okay, okay. Fortunately, I never believed it.” Seeing that he was angry, Liang Yanbei hurriedly came to an understanding and said softly, “There is no one around at this time. So I’ll just light the flame stick for a while, and then we’ll leave after completing the search.”
“That won’t work either. What if someone comes back en route?” Wen Chan insisted.
His mouth was unexpectedly accurate at this time, and as soon as he finished speaking, a woman’s voice came in.
The sound was not loud, and it was very vague when it reached their ears. It seemed to be calling someone’s name, and it was barely possible to tell if the person was near the small courtyard or not.
Wen Chan was originally on tenterhooks. When he heard this sound, he immediately pulled Liang Yanbei’s hand holding the flame stick over and blew it out with a strong blow. The flames were extinguished.
Translator’s corner
Thank you so much for reading the chapter. If you liked my translation and wanna support me, you can comment down your thoughts or send me a Kofi.
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