I just wrote a love poem, how did that make me so powerful?

Xu Danian poured out his confession like beans spilling from a bamboo tube.

"I'll talk...I'll talk! Don't hit me, Sun Decai forced me to do this!"

"If you had said so earlier, you would have avoided a beating." Xiao Mingyuan sneered.

"I was halfway through the fight just now, and I was thinking, why don't you guys just stop..."

Xiao Mingyuan raised his chubby fist. "You fucking blaming me?"

"No... I wouldn't dare..."

Xu Danian knelt on the ground, his face covered in snot and tears, and poured out everything:

How Sun Decai found him, how he got him to take Xu Qing out for drinking, gambling, and whoring, how he forced Xu Qing to lose all his family's wealth, and how he coaxed Xu Qing into selling Song Yao...

Furthermore, the person behind all of this... is Chen Shijin.

After listening, Xiao Mingyuan turned to Xu Qing and lowered his voice, "This charge might not be enough to bring down that Chen guy. What do you plan to do? How about... we make him disappear first?"

Xu Danian understood, and collapsed to the ground, his pants soaked...

I was so scared I peed my pants.

"No! Don't kill me!" Xu Danian twisted on the ground, crawled forward a couple of steps, and grabbed Xu Qing's leg.

"Brother Qing, Brother Qing! I was wrong, I confess everything! I have other things to say! If you spare my life, I'll give you all the embezzled accounts from the county treasury!"

Xu Qing stopped in her tracks.

Xiao Mingyuan suddenly stood up, causing the chair to tip backward with a loud thud due to his large buttocks.

"What did you say? The county treasury is in deficit?"

Xu Danian kowtowed repeatedly.

"Yes...it's true. I work at the grain depot, and the reported grain inventory doesn't match the actual stock—it's several tens of percent less! That deficit was swallowed up by the higher-ups, but it's been balanced on the books. Only the detailed ledger I handled has this record!"

Xiao Mingyuan grabbed Xu Qing and dragged him to the corner of the wall.

With their heads close together, Xiao Mingyuan lowered his voice, which trembled slightly.

"This is a huge deal! A grain depot deficit is a capital offense in every dynasty! If it's confirmed, the entire officialdom of Hengyang County will be shaken up!"

Xu Qing's mind raced.

He glanced at Xu Danian, who was kneeling on the ground trembling like a leaf, and then at Xiao Mingyuan's chubby face, which was flushed with excitement.

"Will this benefit your family?"

Xiao Mingyuan was taken aback, touched his double chin, and frowned as he thought for a long time.

"I'm not sure either... My dad is a businessman and has connections with officials, but not many. Even if this gets out, my family won't gain any direct benefits, and we might even offend people... My dad probably won't let me get involved."

Xu Qing remained silent for a moment.

Then he turned around, walked up to Xu Danian, and looked down at him.

"Write down everything you know, put your fingerprints on it, and I'll let you go today."

Xu Danian's eyes lit up: "Really...really?"

"However..." Xu Qing bent down, her voice icy.

"If you dare to run away tonight, I won't even need to look for you; by tomorrow morning, news of the grain depot's deficit will have spread throughout Hengyang. There will be far more people looking for you than for us. Think it over carefully."

Xu Danian swallowed hard, nodding his head vigorously: "I won't run, I absolutely won't run!"

Xiao Mingyuan had his follower hand him paper and pen. Xu Danian lay on the broken chopping board in the woodshed, wrote two pages with trembling hands, and finally pressed his fingerprint on the paper with a shaky hand.

Xu Qing folded the testimony neatly and put it in his pocket.

"Let's go."

The three of them came out of the backyard, and Xiao Mingyuan's henchmen escorted Xu Danian out through the back door.

As Xu Qing and Xiao Mingyuan walked onto the front corridor, a maid in green quickly came forward and curtsied.

"Young Master Xiao, Young Master Xu, my lady Zhiyi invites you."

Xu Qing paused in her steps.

Gu Zhiyi, the most beautiful courtesan in Chunhong Courtyard?

Why would she come looking for me?

He turned to look at Xiao Mingyuan, who also looked bewildered and scratched the back of his head.

"What's going on here? Isn't the gambling den under Madam Money's control?"

The two exchanged a glance.

A question mark rose in Xu Qing's mind...

The gambling den is subordinate to Chunhong Courtyard. The madam should be able to handle it, so why is it the courtesan who has to step in?

There's probably more to this than meets the eye.

……

……

Xu Qing and Xiao Mingyuan followed the maid in green through the corridor, around a rockery, and into a quiet courtyard.

As soon as you enter, you can hear the sound of flowing water...

A stream of fresh water was brought in from outside the courtyard wall, meandering along a small ditch made of bluestone. Several red carp swam in the water, occasionally splashing a little water.

The madam, Madam Qian, had somehow followed us up, her face beaming with smiles and her tone carrying a hint of smugness.

"Gentlemen, our Miss Zhiyi usually wouldn't even get a glimpse of us for a hundred taels of silver. For her to take the initiative to invite us today is an immense honor. In the entire Hengyang County, you can count the number of people who receive this treatment on one hand."

Xiao Mingyuan hummed in response, saying nothing aloud, but his eyes darted around...

Although he was the son of the richest man, he rarely visited the backyard of Chunhong Courtyard, especially the place where the courtesan lived, which was a first for him.

Passing through the moon gate, you'll find yourself in front of a charming two-story building.

The vermilion railings, the half-rolled bamboo curtains, and the string of wind chimes hanging under the eaves, tinkling in the breeze, created a rather elegant scene.

Slender bamboos grow in front of the building, casting their shadows on the white wall, sparse and scattered, like a blank ink painting.

But when they reached the steps downstairs, someone blocked their way.

Chen Shijin.

He stood with two attendants behind his back in the middle of the steps.

Her long, moon-white robe swayed slightly in the night breeze, but the expression on her face was completely at odds with her attire...

It was terribly gloomy.

"Xiao Mingyuan," Chen Shijin sneered, "what are you doing here?"

Seeing the way he was posing at someone's door, Xiao Mingyuan felt contempt. "This isn't your house, for crying out loud," he thought. He prepared to unleash a torrent of abuse.

His mouth was open, and the words were already on the tip of his tongue.

Suddenly someone grabbed my arm.

Xu Qing held onto Xiao Mingyuan's forearm, her voice low so that only the two of them could hear her.

"There's no need to argue with him now, lest he make things difficult for your family's businesses."

Xiao Mingyuan paused, swallowing the profanity he was about to utter.

He frowned and said, "Then what do we do? He schemed against you like that?"

"Wait for the right time," Xu Qing said calmly. "Then we'll uproot him completely."

Xiao Mingyuan's bulky body trembled slightly.

He turned his head to look at Xu Qing, whose poor scholar's face was calm and expressionless under the moonlight.

But what he said sent a chill down Xiao Mingyuan's spine.

"...You scholars are really something, always uprooting things completely." Xiao Mingyuan muttered under his breath. "What's that saying again? A gentleman takes revenge even after ten years."

"You are also a scholar."

"Ahem, I'm just a rotten taro pretending to be a big shot."

"That's called pretending to be someone you're not." Xu Qing released his arm. "But since you asked me to mentor you, then you are a true scholar. From now on, let's not talk about pretending to be someone you're not."

Xiao Mingyuan paused for a moment, then grinned and said nothing more.

The two men stopped in front of the steps, not even glancing at Chen Shijin, and lowered their heads to walk around him and go inside.

Chen Shijin's face turned even uglier.

He had just finished venting his anger at the Top Scholar's Tower...

Even coming here to find the courtesan resulted in being mistreated...

When they saw Xiao Mingyuan, did these two treat him like he wasn't there?

"Xiao Mingyuan!" Chen Shijin finally couldn't hold back any longer, his voice rising, "What do you mean? I'm talking to you!"