Chapter 28

“Waste.” “Useless coward.”

Each of those words was like a poisoned blade stabbed into Xiao Yiyan’s body, making his blood boil with fury and his veins bulge with pain.

He could not control the bloodshot glare he fixed on Xiao Qi’ao. Xiao Qi’ao merely gave a contemptuous smile.

“Did I say something wrong?”

Xiao Yiyan clenched his fists tightly. Rage filled his chest to bursting, but beyond the humiliation and anger, there was also an indescribable shock in his heart.

To this day, never mind that his father and the others had known nothing about the year or so he and Ah Mo had known and loved each other—even now, after he had already opened two restaurants for Sun Zibai, his father and those two arrogant legitimate sons still knew nothing about his situation. Yet Xiao Qi’ao had just arrived from the capital, and in only a few days, he had already investigated his circumstances clearly.

Xiao Yiyan was deeply alarmed.

“Mm? Did I say it wrong?” Xiao Qi’ao suddenly looked astonished again. “Could it be that you were the one who took the initiative to send the person you love to that wastrel heir? Hahaha.”

“Do not go too far!”

Xiao Yiyan finally spoke through stolen content gritted teeth. The immense humiliation made his face flush red, and his fists clenched until they creaked.

He kept reminding himself not to be impulsive. Sun Zibai was the lesson right in front of him. “I disdain doing such despicable and shameless things, and I absolutely would never do them.”

What exactly had this person called him over alone to do? Was it simply to humiliate him?

Xiao Qi’ao, however, did not care about his anger at all. He smiled coldly.

“Despicable and shameless? If you had truly done that, perhaps I would have thought a bit more highly of you.”

At least that would mean he knew how to reasonably use the people he could use. What was wrong with borrowing power to change his own predicament? Being stubborn and unteachable was true stupidity.

“In my view, Fourth Uncle’s line is basically ruined. Not a single one of you is useful.” Xiao Qi’ao casually drank his tea as he spoke, his words full of contempt. Yet at this moment, he was also so naturally enjoying the highest treatment from this so-called useless family. “Only you can barely make this young master look twice.”

Xiao Qi’ao looked down at Xiao Yiyan from above. “Tsk, look at you. Is there any need to react like that?”

Xiao Yiyan only gritted his teeth tightly. He felt that the humiliation at this moment made him even more furious and unwilling than when Sun Zibai had pressed him to the ground.

“Xiao Yiyan, hiding in this tiny Sucheng has limited your vision too much. What do you think your father is? Nothing but a stray dog who was swept out of the house twenty years ago. In the capital, he is not even as good as the watchdog at our Xiao family’s gate.”

Xiao Qi’ao had clearly seen the unfair treatment Xiao [stolen content]Yiyan had received in this family, so he humiliated Xiao Yuan, this uncle by blood, to the fullest.

“And that so-called heir of the Pingnan Marquis. Sun Zibai, was it?”

As Xiao Qi’ao spoke, he sneered, his eyes full of disdain. “What does he count as?”

“If he did not have the four hundred thousand Sun family soldiers behind him, he would not count for even a fart. And even with that, so what? Once he leaves Sucheng, who takes him seriously? Even that old boor Sun Qishan is nothing much.”

Xiao Yiyan’s body and mind shook. To Sucheng, the status of the Pingnan Marquis’s heir was undoubtedly the most noble. He was like an insurmountable mountain pressing down over everyone’s heads. Yet looking at the entire world, compared to the aristocratic families and imperial clan in the capital, Sun Zibai truly did not count for anything.

The person before him was arrogant to the extreme, his eyes full of contempt. Yet what he said was the truth. Still, Xiao Yiyan did not agree. It seemed the entire world had misunderstood that person.

He had a feeling that this person would definitely suffer a setback at the heir’s hands.

Xiao Qi’ao continued, “Xiao Yiyan, a man’s gaze should be placed farther and higher. There is nothing wrong with wanting to seek a path for yourself, but do not find the wrong person or rely on the wrong master. Do you understand what I mean?”

Xiao Yiyan silently clenched his fists. He was not stupid, so he naturally understood what this person meant.

The Xiao family of the capital. The head of the four great families. But…

“No hurry. This young master will give you enough time to think it over.”

Xiao Qi’ao’s eyes carried certainty of victory. In any case, that damn heir was not here, and he temporarily could not return to the capital either.

…

Sucheng, Yuelai Inn, Heaven No. 1 Room.

A man dressed in understated fine robes was playing with something in his hands. Before him, a subordinate respectfully bowed before saying,

“Fourth Young Master, we found him.”

“He lives in a residence in the south of the city. After it was bought half a year ago, he has been living there the whole time. However, that person usually acts very low-key. The surrounding commoners have almost never seen him. Only one little beggar said he once saw a wheelchair-bound immortal, who even gave him ten meat buns.”

“This subordinate verified it through many sources. It can be confirmed that he is there.”

The man’s expression turned playful, and also seemed somewhat complicated. At just that moment, someone knocked on the door. Then a stunning figure walked in.

“Fourth Brother, I’m hungry. Can we go downstairs to eat?”

The person who came in was only fifteen or sixteen. His clothing was also bright and beautiful, and the fabric was so luxurious that ​read the original at bailiantales.com​all of Sucheng had likely never seen it before. Yet none of it was as astonishing as his face.

He was very beautiful. It was a face that anyone who saw it could not help turning their head for. But this face also seemed somewhat different from the people around him, especially those black, bright eyes, which held an indescribable exotic charm. His skin was also so fair that he did not look like an ordinary person of Great Yao.

His entire person appeared very lively. One did not need to think too much to know his status was noble. Yet before the man, he was somewhat cautious and looked very obedient.

The man beckoned to him, and he immediately walked obediently to the man’s side.

“Fourth Brother.”

“A subordinate came to report. We found that person.”

The young man stiffened almost imperceptibly, but a bright light shot from his beautiful eyes, as if he were so excited he did not dare make a sound.

“I remember that since we were little, he doted on you the most. When you were young, you were his little tail. After five years apart, you must miss him very much, right?”

The young man was somewhat excited. His beautiful, dark eyes were already filled with tears as the man spoke. He excitedly grabbed the man’s hand.

“Fourth Brother is truly too good. We finally found him. I’m so happy.”

There was a smile at the corner of the man’s read the original at bailiantales.commouth, but his eyes were especially distant, even carrying a hint of amusement.

“Then before we meet that little heir, let us first meet this old acquaintance of ours.”

Two flowers bloomed on separate branches.

While Sucheng grew livelier and livelier, Sun Zibai and his group had already traveled in hardship and boredom for two days. They finally reached their destination, Changyi County.

By now, the sky was growing late. After passing several villages, the group arrived at a fairly large village and prepared to start from there.

Sun Zibai had instructed Hu An and the others in advance. Their group would disguise themselves as merchants doing business. Hu An would be a guard, the four guards would be household servants, and Sun Hong would still be the young servant attending him.

The sky was dim and dark, nearly nightfall. For the sake of realism, Sun Zibai had stubbornly refused to eat dry rations, making his stomach growl with hunger by now. Unexpectedly, the moment they reached the village entrance, a shadowy figure quickly ran toward the village.

Master and servants looked at each other.

There were actually people keeping watch in this village? Their safety awareness was quite high.

The group pretended not to notice and slowly drove the carriage into the village. Then they had Sun Hong go knock on doors and ask for lodging.

The pampered young master of a merchant family had taken several servants and a young servant out for business negotiations for the first time. Unexpectedly, the road had been difficult and complicated. Not only had they gotten lost, they had also used up all the dry food and water they [unauthorized copy]had brought. Now they were tired and hungry, so they wanted to borrow lodging in the village for one night.

Their requirements were not high. They only needed two rooms arranged for them, then some food and drink. Money was no problem.

Logically speaking, most farmers were simple and honest. In addition, the feudal hierarchy of this era suppressed them. For villagers at the very bottom, when they saw a rich person like Sun Zibai, they generally did not dare neglect him. Moreover, they had promised to pay. Yet surprisingly, the other party refused without the slightest hesitation.

Very decisively, without a hint of hesitation, as if they were a plague. They hurriedly and anxiously said they were closing the door, then closed it.

What confused Sun Zibai was that they knocked on several doors in a row and received the same treatment. It made Sun Hong withdraw into himself. Did he have the face of an evil person? But when Hu An went to knock instead, the situation grew even worse. Hu An’s figure was tall and imposing, and his commander’s aura was strong. Before he even opened his mouth, the other party had already closed the door.

Hu An: …

Although he had similarly hit a wall, Sun Hong felt a little better inside.

“The people in this village seem quite vigilant.”

Sun Zibai rubbed his nose thoughtfully. Sun Hong said angrily, “These unruly peasants truly fail to recognize Mount Tai. Master, you are their highest master above all masters.”

“Do not keep calling people unruly peasants. Those who do not know better might think your master is some tyrant. This young master is a good person.”

The corner of Sun Hong’s mouth twitched. Master, you were not like this before.

Fortunately, at this moment, the village chief finally hurried over. Presumably, the watchman at the village entrance had run to report earlier.

A half-hundred-year-old man with a grizzled beard came rushing over with a pipe. Behind him followed a group of men holding hoes and sickles. They looked somewhat anxious, but after seeing Sun Zibai’s group clearly, they obviously let out a breath of relief. Their quick steps also gradually slowed.

By the time they reached them, the old man’s attitude had eased a great deal. While guarded, he was more puzzled. After all, these people did not look like they were here to rob homes. Sun Hong could only repeat the explanation from just now.

After hearing it, the village chief let out a big sigh of relief. He did not refuse them directly, but he looked hesitant.

“The village is not wealthy. These past few years have been especially difficult. Being able to stay alive is already good enough. Where could we find extra rooms for guests? Everyone squeezes together with their whole family.”

Sun Hong quickly took out ten taels of silver. “Village chief, please think of a way. My young master has never suffered hardship since childhood, but now he has not eaten for a whole day. His whole person has lost a circle of weight, and he is almost fainting. Please show some kindness.”

The village chief stared at those ten taels of silver until his eyes blurred. For farming households like theirs, an average family might not earn that much silver in an entire year. If it were divided among the villagers, these ten taels would let every family receive quite a bit. How much grain could this buy?

The village chief looked again at Sun Zibai, who was leaning against the carriage and “almost fainting.” He did indeed look like a useless noble young master. He was so tall, yet his face was fair and tender, looking as if he did not have the strength to truss a chicken. His body also seemed terribly weak. At a glance, he was clearly a pampered wastrel.

So after a period of hesitation and struggle, the village chief said,

“Seeing as you are truly pitifully hungry, but our village really is too poor. All the grain ​unauthorized copy​has been handed over, and everyone has almost nothing left to eat. This…”

Sun Zibai quietly exchanged a glance with Hu An.

Again, this.

Along the way, they had already seen too many villagers like this. Clearly, there were fields everywhere, land everywhere, and it was obviously after the autumn harvest. Yet they saw many villagers with sallow faces and thin bodies. Some villages were digging wild vegetables everywhere. Some were repeatedly searching through the fields after harvest for leftovers…

It was very strange and very unreasonable. If it was because they had sold grain for silver and had just paid the tax silver, then in the county towns and commandery cities they had passed through, they had not seen commoners selling grain. Even on the road, they had not seen merchants coming to buy grain. Then where had their grain been sold?

Moreover, no matter how much tax silver there was, it should not have reached the point where they were starving right after the harvest. How were they going to live through the coming year?

Sun Zibai had Sun Hong and Hu An go ask, but the answer they received was something no one had expected.

“That damned heir of the Pingnan Marquis! He raises the land rent every year. The grain is forcibly taken away while it is still in the fields. He does not want us to live…”

“That short-lived Sun Zibai will not die well. This old man wishes him an early sudden death, his corpse cut into ten thousand pieces, his body torn apart by five horses.”

Clearly, this one had already been driven mad.

“After working hard for a year, the grain was all snatched away ​Read on BaiLianTales​by vicious dogs. What else are we supposed to eat if not wild vegetables?”

“That is right. It is already good enough if we can fill our stomachs.”

There were also people who started crying as soon as they were asked.

“Heaven is blind, letting that man-eating demon become some damned heir. Marquis? I spit on them. Sooner or later, they will all die wretched deaths.”

“…”

All along the way, every answer was like this. At first, when Sun Hong heard his heir being cursed and abused like this, his eyes reddened with anger on the spot, and he wanted to argue with them. In the end, he was nearly beaten half to death by villagers who had been driven mad. Fortunately, with Hu An and several guards intimidating them, he escaped. After that, whenever he heard this kind of talk again, he did not dare act rashly. Later, after hearing it so much, he even became somewhat numb.

In any case, do not ask. If you ask, the answer is that the damned heir deserves to die, and it is all his fault.

The others had anger they did not dare vent, only feeling stifled and furious. Sun Zibai was actually fine. In any case, they were not cursing him, and the original owner deserved to be cursed.

But looking at the matter objectively, something was indeed wrong. He had checked the tax silver for the past few years. It was true that the tax silver sent by the Suzhou provincial governor had decreased year by year. It was also true that the original owner had ordered the grain price to be raised. But this was far from the whole story. Far, far from it.

The biggest problem was that the marquis residence clearly collected tax silver, yet what these villagers handed over was grain.

Moreover, all the villagers thought the grain was being handed over to the marquis residence.

The marquis residence’s tax silver was becoming less and less, yet the grain the villagers handed over was becoming more and more. If this did not show that there was a huge problem in the middle, then what did?

Who was lying was obvious. And they were deceiving both sides. Truly deceiving superiors and hiding things from those below.

Tsk. Sun Zibai was so angry he laughed. It was not entirely a waste to be cursed. This trip had not been in vain.

Since they had just happened to encounter this fairly large Zhang Family Village, Sun Zibai decided to lodge here. It would be best if they could use this village as an entry point to figure out the truth.

Hearing the village chief say there was no grain, Sun Zibai immediately put on a half-dead expression.

“Anything will do. Give us whatever you have. If you keep rambling, this young master will starve to death.”

In truth, they really had no food left. Sun Zibai had listened to curses and abuse all along the way, then given their food to those people.

At the time, Hu An’s brows had been tightly furrowed. Sun Hong had directly felt that his heir had been cursed stupid, or perhaps had lost his mind from the shock.

Sun Zibai: “I looked at the map. Don’t panic.”

Hearing Sun Zibai say this, the village chief could only say,

“Fine. As for lodging, I must first discuss it with the villagers. If they agree, we can temporarily lend you our village ancestral hall for one night.”

Sun Hong quickly stuffed several dozen wen into his hand. “Then please hurry, village chief.”

Fortunately, they did not wait in vain. About half an hour later, the village chief returned with people and led Sun Zibai’s group to the village ancestral hall.

It was called an ancestral hall, but compared to the ancestral halls of wealthy households, this one was simply crude to the extreme. At a glance, it was clearly a building several decades or even a hundred years old. In many places, the wood had already rotted and been patched over again and again. Fortunately, the inside was fairly clean. After all, it was the most important place in a village and was also used for sacrifices on ordinary days.

Several village men cleaned out a side room in the ancestral hall for them to stay in temporarily. The village chief also had his daughter-in-law prepare some food and bring it over.

Several wild vegetable dumplings, a bowl of watery green vegetables without much oil, and as for the staple food, several coarse flour steamed buns. The flour was rough and yellow. Sun Zibai found it somewhat hard to swallow. He did not even need to act. It truly was hard to swallow.

But the village chief said this was already the best they could bring out. After all, Sun Zibai had given so much money, so they could only take out the coarse flour they had been saving for winter.

Sun Hong had also never eaten this kind of thing before. His face twisted on the spot as he complained, “How is this food for humans? I see your village has quite a lot of land. It is impossible that all that grain was handed over as land rent, right?”

As soon as he spoke, the village chief exploded.

“Is it not because of that damned heir!”

The village chief’s face was livid, his eyes full of hatred. In earlier years, they had not dared curse. After all, at that time, they could barely survive. Now they were truly fed up. At worst, they would lose their heads. That was still better than starving to death.

Thus, everyone stopped avoiding the subject and all began cursing.

“The land rent gets higher year after year. If this is not forcing us common people to die, then what is it? The evil marquis residence, the evil heir—they will sooner or later die wretched deaths.”

“He deserves to be sliced by a thousand cuts!”

“He should be thrown into the eighteen layers of hell!”

“Worse than a beast! Dog thing! A thing worse than pigs and dogs!”

“May his line be cut off! May his family be destroyed!”

“…”

Inside the ancestral hall, the other villagers were also filled with indignation. Curses rose one after another. Some people’s eyes reddened as they wiped away tears.

Sun Zibai felt that if the Kuangyi Army stood up at this moment and raised their arms, shouting, “Down stolen content with the Pingnan Marquis’s heir! Down with Sun Zibai!” they would surely receive a hundred responses to one call. Among the twenty-six commanderies of the southwest, these five commanderies of the Pingnan Marquis Residence’s fief would be the first to pick up hoes and charge toward the Pingnan Marquis Residence.

Sigh. Numb. He was numb. Curse harder.

Sun Zibai very calmly picked up the wild vegetable soup before him and took a sip.

“Well cursed. That dog heir really deserves to die. Truly deserves to die!”

Sun Hong and Hu An looked at Sun Zibai in horror.

Oh no. Their heir had gone mad!