Chapter 46 Can't You Just Give Me a Better Deal?

When Bai Yu returned home, it was much later than usual. His father, who could still only move around on the heated brick bed, suddenly asked, "Did something good happen to you?"

Bai Yu replied with an unchanged expression, "What are you letting your imagination run wild with now?"

His father said with absolute certainty, "You smell of alcohol, and after coming back, you don't even want a good dinner like tofu and rice. This means someone treated you to a feast today, and you ate your fill, which is why you aren't very hungry. If it wasn't a joyous occasion, how could you possibly get such treatment?"

Bai Yu still brushed it off, saying, "You're overthinking it." In the crowded courtyard, and especially in front of his father, he had never disclosed the specifics of his life outside. Everything he had experienced far exceeded the cognitive limits of these people, which could easily cause mental strain and bring unnecessary trouble upon himself. Deep down, Bai Yu was someone who dreaded trouble, especially petty and useless nuisances.

Seeing that Bai Yu refused to reveal anything, his father said with great displeasure, "I'm afraid you'll make a misstep in your actions. I've lived a couple of decades longer than you, so I can at least offer you some pointers."

Bai Yu wanted to laugh, almost letting out the sarcastic thought, *This statement reeks of paternal condescension.* Oh wait, he truly was his own father, so never mind.

Thus, Bai Yu retorted, "Pointers on what? Should I learn from how you mishandled the timing while skimming the fodder, only to get mauled by a starving elephant?"

Struggling to sit up, his father cursed furiously, "I'll beat you to death, you unfilial wretch!"

Bai Yu quickly pressed his father back down. "They say it takes a hundred days to recover from broken bones and tendons. Just rest assured and tend to your injuries, old man—taking another year to heal would be fine too!"

The next day, Bai Yu arrived early at the guard post on the west side of the Imperial Wall and recounted to Thousand-Householder Qian what had happened after the banquet concluded yesterday.

Thousand-Householder Qian's sense of balance was immediately restored. "So it wasn't that some beauty took a fancy to you and took you out to play! I was actually wondering what on earth a wet-behind-the-ears kid like you had that could catch a beauty's eye. Clearly, a mature aura like mine should be the most popular."

"That's not the point!" Bai Yu said with dissatisfaction.

A look of anger flashed across Qian's face as he slammed his palm on the table and declared, "Let's muster the troops right now and raid her household!"

Bai Yu hurriedly stopped him, suggesting, "For Sai Yu and that brothel procuress to dare plot against me, they must have someone backing them up behind the scenes. We should gather intelligence first to find out who their backers are, so we can know both ourselves and the enemy."

Faced with this seemingly sound advice, Qian instead said, "Although we can certainly uncover their background, I still think we shouldn't go around poking about. If you just follow me to gather our men, march straight in with weapons, and vent this stifling anger, that will be the end of it. But if you don't exact your revenge immediately and instead go inquiring everywhere, people might assume you intend to escalate the situation further."

These words from Thousand-Householder Qian could be considered the hard-earned wisdom of a seasoned player on the streets of the capital.

Remembering how he had been falsely accused out of nowhere and almost branded a rapist with a criminal record, Bai Yu still felt a burning resentment and insisted, "Let's gather intelligence first and talk afterwards!"

Seeing that he could not be dissuaded, Qian agreed, "Fine then, I'll help you go and ask around."

Afterwards, Bai Yu brought up another matter: "There's another issue. Among those who attended the banquet yesterday, there might be an insider. Without someone on the inside assisting, how could the other party so precisely track my itinerary? How could they manage to arrange Sai Yu into the banquet?"

Thousand-Householder Qian attached great importance to this speculation and said with hatred, "For us Embroidered Uniform Guard officers and soldiers to serve as secret agents for the Eastern Depot is normal. But if someone collaborates with the Eastern Depot to deliberately frame their own people, that crosses the line! We must investigate this thoroughly!"

Then, Qian tentatively asked Bai Yu, "Should we report this to the Commander?"

Bai Yu refused without hesitation. "Not for now! Let's wait until we truly can't contain it anymore."

Bai Yu's current attitude was to avoid troubling Lu Bing whenever possible. Qian was somewhat used to Bai Yu's deliberate distancing from the Commander, but he simply didn't understand it. In his view, wasn't this wanting to maintain a moral high ground while still playing the game? Did educated people all enjoy being this pretentious and affectatious?

Qian then steered the conversation back to work. "Now you are also a Hundred-Householder, and you can lead ten guards under your command. But a bunch of you can't just idle around the guard post every day; you need to find some routine tasks to do."

Bai Yu blurted out, "Surveil West Alley!"

Thousand-Householder Qian: "......"

Who didn't know that place was a veritable money-sink? Extravagant consumptions costing dozens of gold pieces a night were everywhere, but the stakes were too high—aren't you afraid of choking to death on profits you can't swallow?

"You should first consider how to build your own core team. How do you plan to fill these ten slots?" Qian reminded him.

Bai Yu thought of Liu Cunyi, the good brother who was capable of both stirring up trouble and bearing the consequences, and asked, "During this crackdown on the White Lotus Sect, Liu Cunyi made the initial proposal. Does the court have any rewards for him?"

Qian replied, "Let's first see what his own ambitions are, and then we can properly submit a petition to the court."

For Qian to say this was entirely out of consideration for Bai Yu's face, giving Liu Cunyi a chance to make his own choice.

Suddenly, a commotion was heard coming from outside the house. Thousand-Householder Qian and Bai Yu walked out to see what was happening.

They saw a group of people arriving, carrying a stretcher and a small sedan chair. What was inside the sedan chair could not be seen, but Bai Yu recognized the person lying on the stretcher: it was the procuress from the courtyard that had framed him yesterday.

At this moment, the procuress's clothes were torn, and whip marks were clearly visible across her face. She was obviously severely injured and on the verge of death.

A retainer stepped forward and said to Bai Yu, "My Lord heard about yesterday's events and was exceedingly furious. It was all subordinates acting behind his back and misbehaving; the perpetrators have already been severely whipped, and she is being sent here for the Hundred-Householder to inspect."

Bai Yu was quite surprised. He hadn't expected the figures behind the scenes to take the initiative and show up so quickly, before he even had a chance to investigate.

He subconsciously asked, "Your master is...?"

The retainer replied, "It is the current Duke of Cheng."

Bai Yu was startled. They really weren't kidding when they said the capital's situation was complex, crouching tigers and hidden dragons were everywhere, and nobles walked by the dozen. Just such a petty little incident from yesterday had actually managed to drag the Duke of Cheng into it.

This Duke of Cheng was one of the three great dukes of the capital, sitting at the very apex of the hereditary nobility. The current Duke of Cheng, Zhu Xizhong, also had the privilege of serving directly in the West Garden, making him and Lu Bing the only two military officials with that honor.

Bai Yu truly couldn't fathom why someone of the Duke of Cheng's exalted status would meddle in such a low-end affair.

Fearing that Bai Yu might act rashly, Thousand-Householder Qian answered on his behalf, "Well and good! Even if you don't respect the monk, you must respect the Buddha—we must give face to the Duke."

That retainer bowed back to Thousand-Householder Qian, then pointed at the sedan chair and said, "Inside here is an unmarried beauty, specially presented as a gift to the Hundred-Householder as an apology."

Bai Yu: "......"

What use was giving him a woman? He didn't even have a place to house her! Couldn't they be more practical and convert it into silver taels instead?

*(I'll be conceiving the next phase of the plot today, and starting tomorrow I'll burst out a few days of updates. Stay tuned!)*