spoiled brat

Chapter 65, Section 64: Xiu Ning (Part 4)

Among the officials present were many who understood chess. Seeing the situation on the white stone slab already showing signs of collapse, they couldn't help but wipe the cold sweat from their foreheads.

This time, the one helping to play chess wasn't Xiu Yi, who was knowledgeable in military strategy and literature, but a prostitute who could barely read. Just now, everyone had stepped on Xiu Ning's face. If she won again, wouldn't it make everyone look like petty people who couldn't accept defeat?
After another fifty rounds, Li Wusheng's face turned ashen. Perhaps his thoughts were in disarray, or perhaps his heart for the game had died, for he did not reveal the position of his next move for a long time.

The young boy responsible for recording the game, ink dripping onto his chest with his pen, couldn't help but urge him, "Lord Li..."

Li Wusheng was so anxious that sweat beaded on his forehead, which was particularly noticeable in the candlelight, like boiling oil on a fire. After a full ten thousand years, he finally spoke helplessly: "...five or six."

The servant turned to write it down, but to his surprise, the fifth and sixth pieces had already been placed. He awkwardly touched his nose and said, "Lord Li, this... could you please think about it again?"

There's no need to think about it anymore; it's a dead end. Any further resistance would only make things worse.

The corner of the board is curved, the ko is over, and the game is over.

After a long while, Li Wusheng finally spoke, his aged lips trembling: "Princess, let's play another round."

His tone was like a plea for mercy, or a glimmer of hope, completely devoid of his initial arrogance.

Xiu Ning dipped his finger in the wine and wrote a sentence on the table.

After reading it, Zhao Zhao smiled gently: "Addicted to losing at chess?"

Li Wusheng's aged face turned ashen in an instant, his white hair trembled like withered grass covered in frost, and his wildly trembling finger pointed at Xiu Ning: "You...you..."

He trembled violently, and Zhao Zhao knew inwardly that something was wrong; the old man was suffering from a stroke. Sure enough, Li Wusheng's withered body fell backward, hitting the ground with a dull thud.

Everyone was shocked and cried out, "What happened to Lord Li?" Immediately, someone stepped forward to check his breathing and exclaimed in horror, "He's dead... Lord Li died of anger!"

The single stone stirred up a thousand waves, and the crowd erupted in uproar. Just then, a muffled clap of thunder struck, illuminating the panicked faces of the crowd with a ghastly white light, followed by a deafening roar. The candles in the hall were extinguished by the fierce wind, plunging the room into darkness. The previously noisy crowd scattered like ants from a disturbed nest, and the servants who had been trying to relight the fire were nowhere to be seen.

The servants of Prince Ning's mansion surrounded Xiu Ning and Xiu Yi in the dark. But when Xiu Ning removed the plain silk blindfold and tried to take Zhao Zhao's hand, he found that there was no one else around except Xiu Yi and the servants.

After the candles were relit, a hundred or so eyes stared at them.

Xu Feng glanced at a minor official, who immediately jumped out to stir up trouble, saying indignantly, "Your Highness, Princess, tonight is supposed to be Lord Xu's sixtieth birthday, but now we have to send off Lord Li to his death. Don't you two have anything to say?"

Xiu Yi glanced at Li Wusheng's corpse and said calmly, "He boasted that he loved chess as much as his life. Today, he met a master of chess. He can be said to have died a worthy death."

These words were like adding fuel to the fire, igniting the crowd, who then looked at Xiu Ning with indignation.

Her expression was calm, revealing a profound and compassionate gaze. She picked up the remaining wine beside her, stepped over the gazes of a hundred or so people, walked to Li Wusheng's corpse, and poured the wine from her cup onto the ground as a tribute to this unworthy opponent.

"Arrogant!" The troublemaking official jumped up and roared at the top of his lungs, "Does the Prince Ning's mansion think that just because they're relatives of the emperor they can do whatever they want?!"

These words sparked a chorus of anger. With strength in numbers, they surged forward. The attendants drew their gleaming swords, and the brother and sister stood side by side behind the blades, coldly observing the indignant crowd.

Xiu Yi found it absurd. Bullying others by abusing power? If his family were capable of bullying others, how could they have fallen to such a state? What was the emperor in the Golden Palace anyway? He glanced at the head of the attendants, who immediately understood. He led his men forward, grabbed the troublemaking official by the collar, and threw him heavily in front of Xiu Yi.

"You—!" The minor official, dizzy from the fall, was about to curse when a foot stepped on his face, a cold blade pressed against the back of his neck, and Xiu Yi's mocking voice rang out above him:

"There will always be idiots like you who can't see the bigger picture and risk their lives to be pawns for others to fight on."

As the blade pressed down, the chilling aura of metallic steel spread from the back of his neck throughout his body.

The minor official was a civil servant, and the cruelest thing he had ever done in his life was whipping the common people. Now, with a whip pointed at his neck, he was so scared that he was about to cry, but he didn't even dare to breathe loudly: "Young Master... spare me... spare me!"

The surroundings were deathly silent; no one dared to plead for him.

Xiu Yi stepped on his head: "Thank you for reminding me, otherwise I would have forgotten the meaning of 'abusing one's power to bully others.' What crime is it for members of the imperial family to kill officials without authorization?"

The attendants replied in unison in a deep voice: "Officials of the sixth rank and above shall be punished according to the law; those below the sixth rank shall be fined gold and silver."

Xiu Yi glanced sideways at the head of the attendants, who immediately pulled out a bag of loose silver from his waist and scattered it around the minor official like scattering paper money. The sound was like a death knell, and the minor official trembled like a leaf, a pool of hot urine silently flowing from under his clothes.

He disregarded everything else and looked in panic at Xu Feng, who remained silent in the crowd: "Lord Xu, save me! It was you just now..."

Before he could finish speaking, Xu Feng's chubby body squeezed out, a fake smile on his fat, white face, trying to smooth things over: "Young Master, he is young and ignorant. Please, for my sake, forgive him."

Xiu Yi didn't sheathe his sword, and slowly looked at him: "Lord Xu, is this how you beg me?"

Xu Feng was stunned. This meant he was being asked to kneel. He didn't want to kneel, but the officials behind him were all his men. If he didn't submit now, who would dare to work for him in the future?
Xu Feng sheepishly lifted his robe and not only knelt down, but also knelt in the puddle of hot urine beneath the minor official, revealing a soft and disgusting expression: "Your Highness, it was all my fault for not entertaining you and the Princess well today. It has nothing to do with them. Please don't be angry with them..."

"He's playing the victim again, pretending to be a good guy," Xiu Yi chuckled self-deprecatingly.

"Could it be that he's furious?" Xu Feng was muttering to himself when a cold glint suddenly flashed before his eyes. He shuddered in fright and leaned back like a fat toad. But Xiu Yi simply sheathed his sword and looked down at him condescendingly: "Lord Xu, you certainly know how to act better than those actors from before."

The situation was getting out of control; if things continued, both sides would lose face. A covert struggle was acceptable, but an open conflict was not. Suddenly, some clever fellow knocked over a candlestick and shouted, "Fire!"

The flames licked the wooden beams of the gauze curtain, instantly blazing brightly.

The small flower hall was in the middle of the lake. Although everyone was not in mortal danger, they were still panicked by the fire.

The servants of the Xu family hurriedly rowed a boat to rescue them. Xu Feng took the opportunity to send Xiu Yi, Xiu Ning, and the rest of the Ning Prince's family onto the boat. Just as he was sighing that they were finally getting rid of the plague god, Xiu Ning, who was standing at the bow of the boat, coldly raised his hand.

Xu Feng cupped his hands and asked, "What are your orders, Princess?"

Inside the small flower hall, there was a chaotic scene of people and figures. Amidst the flames, the unconscious Zhao Zhao was being carried out by servants, still clutching the pipa tightly in her hand, dragging it along the ground and making a thumping sound all the way.

Xiu Ning's eyes grew cold as she looked at Xiu Yi: "Brother, the person I wanted has been taken away."

(End of this chapter)