Chapter Thirty-Five

Zhao Yelan had been very quiet after he returned to the mansion. Even if he saw a servant make a mistake, he didn’t bother to reprimand them.

“Is there something on your mind?” The more Yan Mingting looked at him, the more he felt that something was wrong, so he followed him back to the room worriedly after finishing his dinner.

Zhao Yelan glanced at him once, then twice, and shook his head.

“Something is the matter, you’ve sighed three times.” Yan Mingting sat down beside him. “What happened? Are you worried that Li Jinyu won’t come? Still tired from today?”

Zhao Yelan put one hand on the table and propped his head up. He raised his eyes to look at him, and kept looking. His scrutinizing gaze made Yan Mingting even more flustered.

“What happened” Yan Mingting asked, a little nearer. 

The emotions in Zhao Yelan’s eyes were obscure, and he asked slowly: “Yan Mingting, are you……”

“Am I what?”

“……It’s nothing.” Zhao Yelan turned his head away and rubbed his temples. “I’m just a little tired.”

“Then go to bed earlier, I’ll ask someone to heat some water.”

“But Li Jinyu, later……”

“What are you afraid of? Will he be able to run away if we don’t see him today?” Yan Mingting said softly, “You are really tired and confused, so take a good rest tonight.”

Zhao Yelan was urged by him to wash up and go to sleep, but he didn’t feel sleepy while lying on the bed.

In the darkness, he quietly turned over to look at the figure on the ground, and his eyebrows lowered.

At nighttime, Zhao Yelan heard Gao Tan’s knock on the door. He opened his eyes and was about to get up, but heard Yan Mingting open the door fist and whisper to Gao Tan: “What is the matter?”

“The Prime Minister is here and wants to see my lord.”

“Just say he’s asleep. And keep your voice down.”

“Yes.”

After closing the door, Yan Mingting tiptoed back to his spot on the floor.

After a long while, Zhao Yelan slowly closed his eyes. He suddenly thought of Yan Mingting wiping his face with the handkerchief……and he burst out laughing.

“What happened?” Yan Mingting woke up, startled by the sound.

“It’s nothing, go back to sleep,” Zhao Yelan said with a smile.

Early the next morning, Li Jinyu came to the General’s Mansion again. He had just gone out a few days ago to take care of some errands, and when he returned, he found Li Yucheng clamoring to hang himself. After careful cross-examination, he found out that he had been gambling and owed Zhao Yelan a large debt.

He was so angry that he almost fainted, pointing at Li Yucheng and unable to speak a word for a long time.

Li Yucheng knew that he was ashamed of him and burst into tears, wanting to die.

Li Jinyu had taken him to the ancestral hall to reflect, and seeing that he was still making a racket, he finally couldn’t help it and slapped him backhand: “You rebellious son!”

Li Yucheng was stunned by the blow. He hadn’t been beaten since he was a child. Every time his father wanted to teach him a lesson, he would just bring him to the ancestral hall to kneel for a few days, and never did anything else. Knowing that his father was truly angry this time, he didn’t sob and make a fuss, only daring to cry silently.

“You are the only child of the Li family now. If you don’t live well, how can you be worthy of the mother who gave birth to you, how can you do right by your sister, who died for our Li family!”

Li Yucheng’s body froze and he forgot to cry. With tears still on his face, he asked in surprise: “Dad, what do you mean? Wasn’t my sister killed because of Yan Mingting?!”

Li Jinyu slumped down to sit, his face full of vicissitudes, and covered half of his face with trembling hands.

“Dad, speak clearly, ah! How did my sister die?!” Li Yucheng shouted.

In the end, even though Li Yucheng yelled until his throat hurt, he didn’t get an answer, and just knelt in the ancestral hall all night. On the second day, he was tied up and taken to the General’s Mansion, and saw with his own eyes his father bow from the waist and show Zhao Yelan a smiling face.

“Zhao-daren, this dog is stupid and wicked, please do not lower yourself to his level. If this matter continues to stir up trouble, I am afraid that it will reach the Emperor’s ears, which would not be good for you, ah.”

“Why would it not be good for me?” Zhao Yelan played with a jade pendant in a nonchalant manner. “It was Li Yucheng who came to the mansion to disturb me frequently, so I had no choice but to agree to the appointment. It was he who bribed the dealer, but still lost to me. Now you want to renege on your debts and personally report it to the Emperor.”

Li Jinyu said: “Since he had already bribed the dealer, why did he betray him in the end? Zhao-daren, you should know more about this than me, right? If the Emperor becomes aware of the master behind this gambling hall……”

Yan Mingting, who was sitting on the other side, glanced at Zhao Yelan in surprise when he heard these words and had a sudden epiphany. No wonder Zhao Yelan didn’t lose face when he went back to the gambling hall. The gambling hall was his!

Furthermore, this old man seemed to usually pretend to be deaf and dumb, but actually knew quite a lot of information.

He looked sideways at Zhao Yelan to see how he would respond.

Zhao Yelan got up and walked to Li Jinyu’s side, slanted a glance at him, and said slowly: “What you can find out, can the Emperor not find out? Why do you think the Emperor only dismissed me, but didn’t touch my gambling hall?”

Li Jinyu was slightly taken aback, and shook his head with a sigh: “That being the case, can you give us a little time to raise the money? After all, this is not a small sum.”

“As I said, you have only a day. If you can’t do it, then leave his hands and feet, ba.” Zhao Yelan took out a short knife and slowly slid the sharp blade across Li Yucheng’s cheek. “Li Yucheng, if I had lost, what would you have done?”

Li Yucheng stared at the knife, sweating profusely. He clenched his mouth shut tightly and did not dare to open it.

The blade drew a little blood on Li Yucheng’s neck. Seeing Zhao Yelan’s increasingly indifferent appearance, Li Jinyu hurriedly said: “Zhao-daren, what will it take for you to let us go?”

Zhao Yelan gave a light scoff, touched the blade with his fingertips, and said leisurely: “I only love money. How can I be willing to give up ten thousand taels of gold?”

“I can’t afford so much gold, but if my lord wants my official position, he can take it at any time. I will retire and return to my hometown, and recommend you to the Emperor,” Li Jinyu said.

Zhao Yelan walked back in front of him and smiled slightly: “If I wanted your official position, I wouldn’t have waited until now. How about this, I can let your son go if you just kneel down to me right now.”

“Dad, don’t!” Li Yucheng called loudly. “Just give it to him, I don’t need these hands and feet!”

However, the more he said such words, the more shaken Li Jinyu became. After a long while, he opened his robes, knees already bent, but was dragged up by someone.

“Enough,” Yan Mingting said.

Zhao Yelan asked: “What, you want to oppose me?”

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“This is too much.” Yan Mingting looked at him disapprovingly, then ordered someone to untie Li Yucheng and helped Li Jinyu to the study. He said respectfully, “Li-daren, I apologize.”

Li Jinyu sat down on the chair tremblingly: “Many thanks, General.”

“I am your junior, so don’t call me General. According to seniority, I should be calling you Uncle.”

“General Yan, you are courteous, just as loyal and courageous as your father. It is a pity that Yanran didn’t have a better fate,” Li Jinyu sighed.

“Dad……” Li Yucheng also ran inside. He stood behind him and looked at Yan Mingting.

“I’m really sorry about your precious daughter, but there is one thing I want to ask: why did she die?”

Li Jinyu froze for a moment and kept silent, but Li Yucheng cast a hesitant look at him and then stared at Li Jinyu, as if he also wanted to know the truth.

Seeing this, Yan Mingting said again: “To be honest, Zhao Yelan read the Emperor’s annals before and it is recorded that your daughter attended the Empress Dowager’s birthday banquet before she died of illness, so I have some doubts……you are also aware that due to these matters, there are a lot of rumors about me, so I wanted to check it out.”

“Dad, is this really the case?” Li Yucheng said straightaway. “Hadn’t my sister been ill for a long time? Why would she go to the Empress Dowager’s birthday banquet? How did my sister die, you tell me, ah!”

“You hold your tongue,” Li Jinyu scolded.

After quite a while, Yan Mingting’s voice suddenly chilled: “Li-daren, I thought you were a person who would consider your children, but I didn’t expect you to be so partial. Your son is stubborn by nature and causes trouble everywhere. You are willing to kneel down and beg for mercy for him, but you still refuse to give him the truth about your daughter?”

“Stop talking, you stop talking……” Li Jinyu’s tears rolled down unexpectedly, and he covered his face as he spoke in pain.

Outside the door, Zhao Yelan heard sobbing and turned to go back to his room.

The Li family’s father and son stayed in the General’s Mansion for a long time, and left around sunset. Yan Mingting personally escorted them back to their residence.

Li Jinyu wanted to keep him for dinner, but he politely declined: “No need, I have something to do when I get back, so I will take my leave.”

Li Jinyu called out again: “Wait, for the matter of Yucheng, Zhao-daren……”

“I’ll go and talk to him, don’t worry.”

After he returned to the General’s Mansion, the servants told him that Zhao Yelan had finished his meal and gone to the study.

He finished his meal in a hurry and strode back to the room to find Zhao Yelan teaching Xiao Gao how to read. Hearing footsteps, Zhao Yelan looked up at him, scoffed coldly, and pointed to the words on the paper as he said: “You idiot.”

Gao Tan lifted his head blankly: “ ? ”

“Impossibly stupid.” 

“Don’t scold, don’t scold, if you scold again, I’ll be even more stupid.” Gao Tan ran out with his head in his arms. “I don’t want to practice calligraphy anymore……”

Yan Mingting looked at the back of the person fleeing in shame and said with a smile: “He doesn’t understand your indirect scolding.”

“At least someone understands.” Zhao Yelan cleaned up the table and walked to the bedroom without looking back.

“You can’t blame me, ah. As we agreed before, we would just use Li Yucheng’s gambling debt to ask Li Jinyu to help us investigate.” Yan Mingting chased after him and walked at his side. “There was nothing about making him kneel.”

“Why, do you feel sorry for your ex-father-in-law?” Zhao Yelan sneered.

“How can he be my ex-father-in-law when I never married? It doesn’t count, I just respect him as an elder. Besides, my father had a good relationship with him before, otherwise it would be impossible for him to agree to the marriage.”

“Yes, yes, yes.” Zhao Yelan stepped into the room, quickly took off his outer clothes, and threw them aside. Yan Mingting caught them and put them away properly.

“I just dislike the look of you people who want to achieve your goals but can’t make up your mind to be ruthless. To put it nicely, it is kindness, and to put it bluntly, it is stupidity.” Zhao Yelan sat on the bed and took off his boots. A sudden shadow fell over him and he raised his head subconsciously, almost bumping into Yan Mingting’s nose. He leaned back, eyes flickering. “What are you doing?”

Yan Mingting bent down, supporting himself with both hands on the edge of the bed so that Zhao Yelan was between his arms. Aided by the faint candlelight, his eyes wandered inch by inch over his face, and he said: “I also dislike the look of you like this.”

Zhao Yelan frowned, narrowing his eyes as the emotions in them surged: “What’s wrong with me?”

“Why do you deliberately play dirty tricks?”

“What do you mean?”

“If you wanted him to kneel down, it was only because I couldn’t bear to see it and would help him. You played the villain, I played the hero, so that Li Jinyu would be grateful to me and lower his guard. Coupled with the identities of me and my father, this caused him to readily associate with me. But why did you have to do this? Obviously there were many other ways……”

“This was the most effective,” Zhao Yelan said.

“It’s a pity……” Yan Mingting smiled suddenly. “I’ve already explained to him that you didn’t mean to embarrass him, but only meant to help me, and he understood.”

“You! What an idiot!” Zhao Yelan’s face turned serious. “If you let people know you are on my side, who will still work with you wholeheartedly?”

“Why not? Look at He Cuizhang and Zhong Yuehong, which one of them isn’t invisibly at your disposal? What’s more, you would rather bear the infamy yourself in order to help me. You being with me is my honor.”

“It’s not.” Zhao Yelan turned his head angrily.

“Mengting.”

Zhao Yelan was startled, and slowly looked at him.

“Have you always acted like this?” Yan Mingting asked softly. “How much infamy have you taken on for Zhao Xuan?”

Zhao Yelan’s throat tightened, and after a long while, his Adam’s apple bobbed and he said vaguely: “It’s none of your business……”

“Can I give you a hug?” Yan Mingting asked abruptly.

“What did you say?” Zhao Yelan was stunned, but before he could react, the other party took him into his arms.

He was not used to the unexpected warmth, and his heart was in a mess. He was about to automatically push him away, but Yan Mingting’s voice sounded in his ears.

“I don’t like you like this. Don’t gamble with your reputation in the future, it isn’t good. You are not alone. You and me, let’s discuss things together, okay?”

Zhao Yelan’s body was very stiff, and it seemed that he didn’t know where to put his hands or feet.

“Okay?” Yan Mingting asked again.

Zhao Yelan moved his fingers slightly. It took a while to close his eyes and adjust his breathing, and then he heard his own dry voice: “Okay.”

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