Chapter 65

"Do you know what tricking someone means?! Tricking someone requires it to be natural and logical! If I call someone over in the middle of the night without rhyme or reason, and I haven't mentioned it before, won't they be suspicious? If they're suspicious, how can I trick them?! Besides, this matter is of such great importance; if there really is a hidden agenda, would he easily tell me? Paving the way, timing, and sense of proportion—all these must be mastered well. You're not preparing anything, just empty words, and you want to go up and ask?!"

Wang Yang was in such pain that he stopped being careful and scolded her head-on.

The young lady wasn't angry. She blinked and asked: "Then when will you be ready?"

"This tricking requires an opportunity; it needs the right time, place, and people. I only have the name of an aristocrat now, which is not enough to make him completely convinced. I have to wait until he completely trusts and obeys me, and only then can I take action."

The young lady was skeptical: "Then how will you make him trust and obey you?"

"I have my own ways..."

Seeing the young lady's face sink, he immediately added: "Just wait. Six days from now, my name will resound throughout Jingzhou City!"

The young lady's suspicion grew, suspecting Wang Yang was using a delaying tactic. Wang Yang said:

"If you don't believe me, you'll naturally see the truth in six days. By then, Jiao Zheng will definitely respect me even more. As the saying goes, 'without desire, one is strong.' Jiao Zheng has desires, so he naturally won't be strong. By then, he'll be mine to manipulate!"

To gain the young lady's trust, Wang Yang made bold claims.

The young lady pondered in silence. Wang Yang added: "Don't worry, leave this matter to me. Let me go first. In six days, come find me again, and you'll know whether it's true or false."

The young lady let go. Wang Yang breathed a sigh of relief and said: "It's too unsafe here. If you are discovered by people from the Jiao residence, it will be bad. Take advantage of the night to escape first. I live at the Commandery School. Come find me in six days."

The young lady didn't speak, just looked at Wang Yang seriously.

Wang Yang felt a bit guilty and changed his words: "You can sit for a while longer if you want; it's still early before dawn anyway."

"Liu Bi, do you think I'm stupid?"

Liu Bi?

Oh right, that's me.

Of course you're stupid. If you're not stupid, am I?

Wang Yang said solemnly: "How could that be? You are as clever as ice and snow; you don't fit the word 'stupid' at all!"

"Then you let me go? So you can escape? So you can report to the authorities? So you can set an ambush and wait for me to walk into the trap in six days?"

Hey, you person, why are you blurting out the truth?

"What are you talking about? How could I be that kind of person?! Since I promised you, I will definitely do it!" Wang Yang looked righteous.

The young lady didn't speak, just stared at Wang Yang.

"Alright." Wang Yang was defeated. "Then what do you say we should do?"

"I'll follow you until you finish the matter."

Damn, she's really latching on?

"How can you follow me? I moved in alone; the Jiao family knows that!"

"I will sneak out of the Jiao residence first and meet up with you after you leave."

"This isn't appropriate... a lone man and a lone woman..."

The young lady played with the dagger casually, the blade flashing back and forth, making Wang Yang's heart jump: "If you continue to be glib, I will follow the rules of the world and make you lose a liter of blood."

You're tough. I won't argue with you for now. Just wait, we'll settle the score later.

Wang Yang apologized with a smile: "Miss, don't misunderstand. I just mean that having an extra person by my side is not very convenient."

"There's nothing inconvenient about it. I saved that little girl, and today I saved you. You can consider it repayment—"

"Wait! When did you save me?! Are you kidding?"

Wang Yang didn't realize this girl actually had a sense of humor?!

The young lady's eyes were calm, her temperament cold as snow:

"When you hid a candlestick in your right sleeve and were preparing to stab me, but I kept you alive, I had already saved your life."

Wang Yang: ￣▽￣~*

He shook the candlestick from his sleeve to the ground and smiled awkwardly: "A joke, just a joke."

"It's best to tell fewer jokes like that, otherwise I'll take them seriously. Also, I'll warn you in advance: if I find any signs of you deceiving me in the future, I will take action without mercy."

Whoosh!

Cold light appeared!

The dagger was as fast as a shooting star, flying past Wang Yang's ear and nailing into the wall with a clang.

Wang Yang gasped, feeling his ear go cold. He quickly reached out to touch it and found nothing missing and no blood, which made him breathe a sigh of relief.

No, no!

Who can stand being scared like this all the time!

Does this mean I'll be under someone else's control from now on?

Still shaken, Wang Yang turned to look at the dagger, then stood up, walked over, pulled it out, and said with a cold face:

"If you continue to be so reckless, no one will be able to help you."

Wang Yang pointed at the mark left on the wall with the dagger and lectured:

"Do you not use your brain when you do things??? What if the Jiao family checks the room later, finds this, and becomes suspicious?"

The young lady was slightly stunned by Wang Yang's attitude, as if she hadn't expected the other party to dare to speak to her like this. She thought for a moment and said: "I'll scrape it off."

Wang Yang tapped the wall, his tone even more severe:

"Look! It's so deep, how can you scrape it off?! Do you want to scrape off a layer? Scrape it into a pit? You're such a grown-up, why are you so clumsy? Ah, is it amazing that you can throw a dagger, so you have to show off at any time? If you don't show off, your hands itch! Is that it?!"

"You!" The young lady was annoyed by his words, her beautiful eyes glaring at Wang Yang.

Wang Yang glared back without hesitation: "What are you looking at? Can't I say anything when you do something wrong? A thousand-mile embankment collapses because of an ant hole. One detail being wrong is enough to ruin the entire plan! Tell me, what if Jiao Zheng finds something wrong?!"

The young lady's soft lips moved, as if she wanted to argue, but in the end, she didn't say anything. She could only lower her eyes and say softly:

"Then what should we do now?"

Wang Yang looked at the mark left by the dagger and said coldly: "Come here. Along this vertical line, add three more strokes and carve the character 'Wang'."

"Why carve the character 'Wang'?"

"I'm telling you to carve it, so carve it! I'm cleaning up your mess!"

The young lady bit her lip. After thinking it over, she obediently took the dagger to carve the character. She calmed her breath and voice, like a little girl who had done something wrong.

Seeing her obedient appearance, Wang Yang's heart blossomed with joy. Crisis, crisis—there is opportunity in crisis. Haven't I always wanted to solve the problem of being a "level five trash"? Isn't the opportunity here now?

After the young lady finished carving the character, Wang Yang let her sit down:

"You can follow me, but we have to agree on three chapters. If you don't agree, there is no basis for cooperation, and the matter won't be accomplished. Then you might as well just kill me with a throwing dagger right now."

"What happened just now was my recklessness, but if you dare to take the opportunity to make unreasonable demands—"

"Don't worry, they are all reasonable. First, you can no longer use force against me. We are in a cooperative relationship, and I am helping you. If you threaten to hit people at every turn, firstly, it hurts my dignity; secondly, it affects my judgment; and thirdly, it ruins my mood. If I'm in a bad mood, my planning is prone to mistakes! Besides, if our hearts are not in harmony and our strength is not unified, it's not easy to succeed."

————————

Note: During the Western Jin Dynasty, one standard liter was equivalent to 202.3 milliliters today. Therefore, the record in "Book of Jin: Biography of Ruan Ji" that Ruan Ji "drank two dou of wine, let out a cry, and vomited several liters of blood" after hearing of his mother's death is plausible. By the Southern Qi Dynasty, the standard liter had changed to 297.2 milliliters, which is not a large increase, so losing a liter of blood is not a fatal punishment.