All the heavens begin with the love in the courtyard.

"What right does the Bai family have to be so tough? If I don't make them suffer this time, I'm not a Zhan. Isn't Bai Laoda the one in charge now? I'm going to get Bai Laoda's head this time. If the Bai family wants to keep his head, they can keep dreaming!"

After hurling his insults, Prince Zhan saw Zhan Yu rubbing his thigh and felt even more annoyed. He grabbed the letter Zhan Yu had placed on his desk, glanced at the cover, snorted, and then tore it open!

Zhan Yu, who was standing to the side, rubbed her leg, which was still aching from being hit by her father. She thought to herself that she should avoid seeing the Bai family for a while, otherwise she didn't know how many more times she would be hit.

As Zhan Yu was pondering this, he didn't see that Prince Zhan's expression changed instantly upon opening the letter. By the end, his hands were trembling slightly, and his anger was visibly rising. Finally, when his anger reached its peak, Prince Zhan tore the letter to shreds and roared furiously.

"Guiwu, I curse your ancestors!"

This sound stunned Zhan Yu. How come they were just talking about the Bai family, and now they've brought up her little cousin?

Just as Zhan Yu was still confused about the situation, Prince Zhan was already furious and roared at Zhan Yu.

"Bring that beast Tan Guiwu here! Now, immediately, and quickly!"

While Zhan Yu was still in a daze, he was hit on the arm by another inkstone from Prince Zhan. The pain made him jump up and come to his senses. He immediately obeyed the order and limped out.

Gui Wu, surnamed Tan, is also the son of Prince Zhan's sister. He inherited the title of Prince Wu and secured a position in the Divine Machine Battalion by virtue of his uncle Prince Zhan's status. He has no real skills, except for his impressive kung fu skills and his cunning underhanded tactics.

As far as Prince Zhan was concerned, he wanted nothing more than to skin this beast alive. This was his own nephew, who had ruined his eldest daughter's life. Years ago, when Prince Zhan tried to force her to reveal the identity of her lover, his eldest daughter refused to speak, resulting in her children being sent to the countryside and her disappearance from then on. This beast, however, had never shown his face from beginning to end.

The letter also mentioned the poisoning of the Second Princess. It was indeed an order from the Empress Dowager, but it was this beast who carried it out. He bribed the eunuchs in the Imperial Hospital to add a poison to the medicine, which resulted in the death of his own second daughter.

This beast, worse than a pig or a dog, first harmed my eldest cousin, and then poisoned my second cousin. Just thinking about this scum makes Prince Zhan want to skin him alive!

When Prince Zhan read the contents of the letter, he still had some doubts. But even with his doubts, he was filled with uncontrollable anger and wished he could bring Guiwu to confront him right now.

It's true, if this were true, once outsiders found out, the reputation of the Zhan Prince's Mansion would be completely ruined. It's estimated that the Zhan Prince's Mansion would not be able to stand in the capital anymore. At this moment, Prince Zhan's heart was in turmoil, and he was so anxious that he could not sit still in his study.

Meanwhile, Zhan Yu led his men to Gui Wu, who was still having a good time at the casino. When Gui Wu saw his aggressive cousin leading his men to find him, his heart skipped a beat. He knew what Gui Wu had been up to lately.

However, Guiwu was good at judging people. He quickly realized that his younger cousin Zhan Yu didn't seem to understand why Prince Zhan wanted to see him. He immediately understood and pulled Zhan Yu aside to ask what it was about. As a result, Zhan Yu didn't understand either and could only recount the visit and letter from Old Master Bai that morning.

Upon hearing this, Guiwu's eyes darted around. He immediately thought of a possibility: this matter must be that Prince Zhan had found out about his affair with the eldest princess. As for why the Bai family knew about it, it was simple. People like Guiwu tend to associate with each other. He often hung out with Third Master Bai, who knew about his affair with the eldest princess.

Now, Guiwu felt a little uneasy. If he went to the Prince's Mansion with Zhan Yu, would he still be able to get out?

The more he thought about it, the more frightened he became. Guiwu quickly pulled Zhan Yu aside and tried to persuade him to go out and avoid trouble. Zhan Yu had just been hit twice with an inkstone and dared not anger his father again.

In fact, when Zhan Yu saw Gui Wu's appearance, he had already guessed why his father was looking for Gui Wu. Back when his eldest sister was still alive, she begged Zhan Yu to let her go out and find her children. At that time, Zhan Yu asked his eldest sister who that man was, and in the end, his eldest sister revealed Gui Wu's name.

Given Zhan Yu's timid nature, she dared not tell her father about this matter. After all, it had already happened, and it was a family scandal for the Zhan family. Now that her father knew about it, it had to be resolved.

So, Zhan Yu had Gui Wu escorted to the Zhan Prince's residence. After this period of time, the Zhan Prince had calmed down considerably. After all, this was a family scandal of the Zhan Prince's residence, and it was best not to make a big fuss about it. However, if this matter was not dealt with, it would be difficult to quell his hatred. He had Gui Wu escorted to the underground prison of the Prince's residence and forbade anyone from entering.

Two hours later, Prince Zhan emerged from the dungeon with a calm expression. He then instructed Zhan Yu to fetch a doctor.

Zhan Yu nodded obsequiously and said yes. He told his servants to call a doctor while he rushed to the underground cell. He found Gui Wu lying on the ground like a dead dog, covered in blood.

Upon closer inspection, one sees Guiwu with disheveled hair, already on the verge of death. The worst part is that two fingers on Guiwu's left hand have been neatly severed by a knife, and the white hand bones are still clearly visible.

Zhan Yu shook Gui Wu awake. Gui Wu opened his eyes groggily, gave a miserable laugh, raised his severed hand, looked at his bare fingers, and finally gritted his teeth and growled weakly.

"Bai family, you just wait! If I don't make sure your Bai family is destroyed and everyone is wiped out, I'm not a Tan!"

Chapter 5: Bai Jingqi has been kidnapped!

The effect of Old Master Bai's letter was like a powerful medicine, with almost immediate results.

The next day, Prince Zhan took the initiative to submit a memorial to the palace, saying that the Second Princess had been frail and sickly since childhood and had a long-standing illness. This was no one's fault, and for the sake of the concubine's reputation, he hoped that the palace would not pursue these matters any further.

Prince Zhan's memorial indeed surprised everyone. After all, many people were waiting to see what would happen, but unexpectedly, Prince Zhan changed his mind the very next day after submitting the memorial.

The Bai family had already spent tens of thousands of taels of silver, including bribing eunuchs and some officials, including Master Guan.

Now that Prince Zhan had spoken up, everyone agreed and asked the palace to let the matter rest and not let Prince Zhan, as a father, suffer again. In this way, the matter was completely resolved with almost no ripples.

This matter originally involved the person in the palace, who didn't want to cause any trouble. Now that Prince Zhan is so sensible, everyone is happy. It would be better if everyone continued to pretend to be confused.

Thus, with the palace making the final decision, no one was allowed to pursue the matter any further.

The matter was out in the open, but the Zhan family, the Bai family, and even that grandson Guiwu held a deep grudge against the Bai family.

After the incident at the Zhan Prince's residence, it is said that Prince Zhan fell seriously ill. It is unknown whether it was from anger or anxiety. In any case, the feud between the two families is now irreconcilable.

However, for the Bai family, everyone was very happy that Old Master Bai had escaped a disaster. The old master even asked the steward to give all the servants an extra two months' worth of monthly allowance.

The biggest contributor to this matter was naturally Bai Jingqi, but only a few of the elders in the Bai family knew about it. The others didn't know, and even the elders didn't know how the matter was resolved.

This matter became an unsolved mystery for the Bai family. Only after this incident did Old Master Bai develop an even greater fondness for Bai Jingqi, insisting that Bai Jingqi sit next to him at every meal.

You know, the Bai family always has separate tables for adults and children when they eat. Now that Bai Jingqi is eating alone at the adults' table, it's become quite unusual, and everyone feels that this is breaking the rules.

However, not only did Grandpa Bai not change his mind, he also declared that starting today, Jingqi would receive an extra monthly allowance, and that annual dividends would also be calculated according to the adults' share.

From that day on, the servants of the Bai family began to call Bai Jingqi "Seventh Master Bai" intentionally or unintentionally. He was the seventh among his brothers and sisters. Normally, no one would call a child "Master," but since Old Master Bai valued him so much, it didn't seem out of place for the servants to call him Seventh Master Bai.

Once Old Master Bai makes a decision, naturally no one dares to object. Although the Third Master Bai of the Third Branch is certainly somewhat dissatisfied with the Old Master's decision, he doesn't dare to complain in front of the Old Master. He can only gossip behind the scenes about how this little monster cast a spell on the Old Master.

And so the matter was settled. Bai Jingqi continued living his life as before, and the Bai family returned to their normal routine.

After the eldest son of the Bai family suffered this ordeal, he naturally looked at Bai Jingqi with new respect and even intentionally or unintentionally encouraged his children to get to know Jingqi better.

Among the three branches of the Bai family, the eldest son of the Bai family has three sons and one daughter. The second son currently only has Bai Jingqi. The third son also has two sons. There are a large group of young masters and mistresses in the family. However, Bai Jingqi does not get along with these children. The only one he is close to is Bai Yufen, the daughter of the eldest son of the Bai family. This cousin is quite good to Bai Jingqi.

After two months of recuperation, Prince Wu, Tan Guiwu, had finally recovered somewhat. Although his fingers could not be reattached and his spirits were much weaker, his hatred helped him recover quickly.

That day, he cornered Master Bai at the teahouse. When Master Bai saw Gui Wu, whom he hadn't seen for two months, he immediately greeted him warmly. However, when he saw the look of hatred on Gui Wu's face, he was completely bewildered.

When they saw Guiwu's bandaged left hand, they were greatly shocked and immediately asked what had happened. Who would dare to cut off Prince Wu's finger in the capital?

Looking at the shocked look on Bai Sanye's face, Guiwu was also a little surprised. Could it be that this letter was not leaked by this person?

Guiwu snorted, pulled Master Bai into the private room, and angrily questioned him.

"Third Brother Bai, we've known each other for a while, and we could be considered friends, right? Your Bai family has gone to such extremes, so don't blame me, Guiwu, for being ruthless!"

Seeing the other party's outburst, Master Bai was baffled. He quickly pulled Guiwu to sit down and had the waiter bring tea and snacks before asking what had happened.

Guiwu naturally wouldn't dare to casually reveal that he had poisoned the concubine, but Master Bai knew about his affair with the eldest princess.

So he told Master Bai about how Prince Zhan learned about his affair with the eldest princess from the old master of the Bai family, and how he cut off two fingers to show his remorse in order to survive.

Master Bai was so shocked by Gui Wu's words that he remained silent for a long time. After a while, he suddenly remembered something, slammed his hand on the table, and exclaimed.

"As expected, it was that little devil. I knew it. What could that little rascal possibly be up to? He's using this to threaten Prince Zhan!"

Guiwu was baffled. Third Master Bai had long been dissatisfied with Bai Jingqi, so he stopped hiding it and told Guiwu the result of the Bai brothers' discussion that day. Guiwu had long forgotten that Old Master Bai had told him not to talk about it.

Guiwu was also incredulous after hearing what Master Bai said. Could it be that his real enemy was just a five-year-old kid? That's just too ridiculous!

Seeing that Guiwu still didn't believe him, Third Master Bai quickly recounted all the extraordinary things Bai Jingqi had done over the years: walking at eight months old, speaking at one year old—but that wasn't all. The most outrageous thing was that Third Master Bai solemnly recounted an incident.

He said that one winter night, he got up to pee and heard a little ghost talking in his second brother's yard. He cautiously peeked out from the edge of the yard and saw Bai Jingqi, who was only three years old at the time, walking in circles in the snow in the middle of the night, chanting "one two one, one two one" in his mouth. Bai Sanye still remembers this scene vividly.

From that day on, Master Bai was completely convinced that Bai Jingqi was a reincarnated demon. What kind of three-year-old child would stay up all night and shout "one, two, one" in the yard? This must be some kind of mysterious demonic ritual.

Guiwu felt a chill run down his spine after hearing what Master Bai said. He felt as if a little ghost was clinging to the back of his neck. He quickly rubbed the back of his neck, but the pain in his hand instantly brought him back to his senses. Damn it, he had almost been fooled. How powerful could a five-year-old brat be, even if he was a reincarnated monster?

Guiwu quickly realized what was happening and angrily rebuked Master Bai.

"Old Bai, are you kidding me? There are no monsters in this world, and no little ghosts this powerful! Let me tell you, Old Bai, I hold your Bai family responsible for my severed finger. If you don't give me an explanation, don't blame me for resorting to underhanded tactics!"

Seeing that Guiwu didn't believe him, Bai Laosan stood up angrily and said loudly.

“Guiwu, don’t you know who I, Bai Laosan, am? Let me tell you, if I’m lying about this, may I be struck by lightning and sent to hell by God. Go ask around the Bai family, who doesn’t know Bai Qiye now? Think about it, why do the servants call a five-year-old brat Bai Qiye? Because this kid is really not human!”

Seeing Bai Sanye's confident demeanor, Guiwu's doubts grew. Could there really be such a powerful little devil?

Guiwu quickly pulled Master Bai down to sit and began asking for detailed information about Bai Jingqi. He had come to the right person; Master Bai had a lot of grievances to vent about that little rascal Bai Jingqi, and now he had found someone to complain to.

In the Bai family, he couldn't get any support from anyone. Even his own old woman sided with that little rascal. Who could blame her? That little rascal was really good at sweet-talking people. Among the elders of the Bai family, that little rascal was like a thousand-year-old tortoise, scheming more deeply than anyone else.

Bai Laosan went on and on, starting from the time Bai Jingqi was one year old and spoke, from the first birthday celebration to how he schemed against him, how he won over the old man, and how he eventually became a unique member of the Bai family. He talked on and on for a full hour, until he was so thirsty that he gulped down a cup of tea and ended his rant.

Guiwu went from being dumbfounded to falling into deep thought, and finally even had a faint trace of envy. If his son were still alive, he would be five years old this year. Why are other people's children so smart, while he not only can't see his son, but also had his finger cut off?

Guiwu grew angrier the more he thought about it. Regardless of whether the child was human or a monster, he had to deal with him and extort a sum of money from the Bai family, otherwise he would not be able to quell his hatred.

Seeing how much Master Bai hated that brat, Guiwu immediately came up with a plan. He pulled Master Bai in front of him and whispered a whole bunch of things in his ear.

Guiwu's plan was simple: to kidnap Bai Jingqi and then extort money from the Bai family.

At first, Master Bai refused, after all, he was the third master of the Bai family. But when Guiwu said that he would get 20% of the profits after the deal was done, he agreed.

This time, Master Bai's thought process started to go against the grain again. He started bargaining with Guiwu and finally agreed on a 50/50 split.

In Master Bai's view, even if he didn't cooperate from the inside, Guiwu would still kidnap that little rascal. His current demand for half of the Bai family's property was to save the Bai family money.

Another point is that the little guy made him lose face in the Bai family. It's good to let that little rascal suffer a bit now. The people outside are not like the servants of the Bai family who will coax and indulge him.

The two plotted for an afternoon, and finally Guiwu said that he would leave someone at a teahouse near the Bai family's residence. Once Bai Jingqi went out, Third Master Bai would go to the teahouse to inform him in time, and leave the rest to him. Third Master Bai felt that the matter was settled, and the two then went their separate ways.

But no one knew that Guiwu's intentions weren't just to make some money; he had no intention of letting Bai Jingqi return alive. That brat had ruined his plans, and he had to get rid of him. Wasn't the Bai family known for producing child prodigies? Then let that prodigy go see the King of Hell!

A few days later, life in the Bai family gradually returned to normal. The children were carefree, the women chatted and joked, and the men were sometimes busy with their own affairs, and when they had nothing to do, they would stay home and sleep with the women.

Only Master Bai has been keeping a close eye on Bai Jingqi's movements these past few days. He knows that this little rascal goes out for a stroll with Bearded Head every now and then, and there's been no news of him for several days now, which has made him quite irritated.

Hard work pays off. It happened to be the temple fair day. Early in the morning, Bai Jingqi and Hu Zitou went out hand in hand, one big and one small. Bai Sanye saw this clearly from behind and quickly ran after them. He ran to the teahouse on the next street and contacted the people left behind by Guiwu.

A few people slipped out of the alley. Bai Sanye stood at the alley entrance and watched as the group sneaked over to Bai Jingqi and his companion. He felt a surge of inexplicable satisfaction. Finally, someone was going to teach this little monster a lesson!

Bai Jingqi would take a stroll around the temple fair almost every month. On the day of the temple fair, farmers from outside the city would come to sell fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as various snacks such as candied hawthorn and street performers.

However, what Bai Jingqi was most interested in was the two middle-aged street performers he had encountered at the entrance of Tianqiao Alley last time. Bai Jingqi could tell at a glance that the two street performers had real skills. The calluses on their hands showed that they were skilled in heavy weapons, but the other party was performing breaking a large stone on their chest.

Bai Jingqi went up and touched the hammer and stone slab. They were indeed genuine. This piqued his interest. He originally wanted to ask for the address so he could visit them sometime. However, when the other party saw that Bai Jingqi was just a kid, they smiled and clasped their hands without saying much, which made Bai Jingqi a little unhappy.

This time he planned to go and take another look. He even brought a small money bag with more than twenty taels of silver in it. Since those two had resorted to performing for money, they must be short of money. Twenty taels should be enough to make friends.

In the world of the Grand Mansion Gate, he remembered that there was another master who came, named Ji Zongbu. This Mr. Ji was definitely skilled in martial arts. Unfortunately, when the Eight-Nation Alliance came, even the most powerful martial arts could not withstand the spear, and he was eventually shot dead by foreign soldiers.

In the past two years, Bai Jingqi has also wanted to find this Mr. Ji, but unfortunately he is still too young and it is not easy to find him. In addition, he has not met him yet, so he simply let nature take its course and will meet him someday in the future.

After strolling around the streets for half an hour, Bai Jingqi and Hu Zitou got a little hungry. They stopped at a small stall and ordered two servings of offal soup. This was not something the Bai family ate, but Bai Jingqi suddenly wanted to try it. Hu Zitou had no choice but to ask the stall owner to bring him two servings.

As the two were eating, Bai Jingqi glanced at the table next to them out of the corner of his eye, and a smile immediately appeared on his lips. Interesting.

He thought for a moment and then said to the bearded man.

"Hu Tou, go over there and buy me a few steamed buns, meat-filled ones, and big ones!"

Bearded Man nodded helplessly, got up and walked towards the steamed bun stall not far away. The crowd was so large that he disappeared from sight in a short while.

Bai Jingqi slowly picked up the spoon and began to slowly eat the offal in the bowl. The taste was so-so, and even a bit fishy. After taking two bites, Bai Jingqi frowned because he saw the large intestine in the bowl and there seemed to be some black stuff in it. A peculiar smell wafted up. Damn it, he had eaten excrement.