Chapter 47: with translation of chapter title

"Chen Yan!"

"You've eaten a bear's heart and leopard's gall, daring to hit this young master?!"

Tao Yunshi, flung to the ground, endured the burning pain on his body, the intense pain transmitted, climbed to his feet, and flew into a hysterical rage.

No matter how he strayed from the orthodox path, his father, the Marquis of Pingyang, had never laid such a heavy hand on him.

How dare this discarded son of the Chen Family?

"Eh eh eh!"

"Tao the Persimmon, you'd better not spray people with blood!"

Chen Yan gave a light smile, shrugged his shoulders, and joked: "I'm standing right here, I haven't even moved...."

Saying that, he pointed again at the ground.

Chen Yan was planning to reward this lump of pork belly, a few Big Ear Seeds....

But unfortunately someone got there first.

Tao Yunshi reacted, looked left and right, searching, and blurted out subconsciously: "Which son of a bitch...."

Before he finished speaking, a response came from beside him: "It's me!"

Only Yuwen Ze stood at Tao Yunshi's side, the corner of his mouth curling into a cold smile.

In his hand he still held a long wooden stick, plucked from somewhere unknown.

And indeed it was the "weapon" used to beat the pork belly!

"Yu..."

"Ze..."

"Young Master Ze?!"

Tao Yunshi followed the sound and, in the instant he saw the true face of the 'culprit,' his pupils shrank, his mouth gaped open, his voice trembled, and he said, "How could you be here?"

On that fatty face was an indescribable shock.

As a foppish scion of Chang'an, or the heir of the Marquis of Pingyang, how could he fail to recognize who this gentleman before him was?

Heir of the Jin Prince!

The sole son of the Grand Minister who holds great power.

Sun He, who had just taken his guards and was about to discipline a ruffian, heard Tao Yunshi's address to him and hastily stopped his actions.

Even his own master must show respect to this person—someone he could not afford to offend.

"Because I am the son of a bitch you just called!" Yuwen Ze said through gritted teeth, each word deliberate.

"No no no!"

Tao Yunshi shook his head, hurriedly explaining: "I wouldn't dare scold you even if you lent me ten thousand courages!"

"The lowly one was cursing the one who just sneak-attacked...."

At that moment, Tao Yunshi panicked.

To call the Jin Prince's heir a son of a bitch is tantamount to calling the Grand Minister a bitch.

No matter how many heads he had, they wouldn't be enough to chop off....

But before Tao Yunshi finished speaking, Yuwen Ze's stick came down first.

"Bang!"

"Ah!"

Tao Yunshi curled up into a ball, letting out a wretched howl.

"Open your dog eyes wide and see clearly!"

"Just now and now, the one hitting you is me!"

Yuwen Ze raised the stick, pointed at Tao Yunshi, and said in a low voice.

Chen Yan, watching the whole scene as a bystander, clicked his tongue and thought to himself: "Ah Ze, this kid looks all frail and weak, but when he gets physical he pulls no punches!"

Yuwen Ze's outward appearance is indeed refined and harmless.

But his veins carry the blood of the Grand Minister—how could a tiger father have a dog son?

This lump of fatty pork belly also ran into the gun's barrel.

"Young Master Ze, you've misunderstood!"

"I was scolding Chen Yan that bastard...."

Tao Yunshi, ignoring the painful wound transmitting pain, put on a mournful face and hastily changed his explanation.

He tried to point the spearhead at Chen Yan.

"Bang!"

Just as he had spoken half of the insult toward Chen Yan, Yuwen Ze brought down another stick.

"Ah!"

Immediately a red stick mark appeared on Tao Yunshi's ample belly.

"Coming to my elder brother's manor to cause trouble, and daring to insult my elder brother—your Pingyang Marquis manor really has some nerve!"

Yuwen Ze's eyes flickered with chill, he gave a cold laugh, and spoke in a yin-yang tone.

"Elder... brother?!"

"Chen Yan is your elder brother?!"

Tao Yunshi muttered the words over and over, digesting this huge piece of information, stunned beyond belief.

Things have gotten serious!

The Jin Prince's heir has no brothers.

For him to address him that way, and still show such respect and protection, he must have received the Grand Minister's approval.

This abandoned child of the Chen Family will never be simple....

"Otherwise?"

Yuwen Ze smiled, pressed his staff against Tao Yunshi's throat, and retorted, "You, Tao Yunshi, deliberately pick on me, coming to pick a fight while visiting A Xiong's mansion....."

"Did you come specifically to humiliate me?"

Between the lines, irritation is evident.

"Stop hitting!"

"I, the petty one, was wrong!"

"It's all a misunderstanding!"

Just as the staff was about to fall again, Tao Yunshi did not hesitate; with a "thud" he knelt on the ground, begging for an explanation.

"Misunderstanding?"

"You came to wreck the venue and cause trouble, arrogantly cursing my A Xiong—surely that wasn't you?"

Yuwen Ze heard this, his gaze sharp, looking down at Tao Yunshi.

He had seen that dead fat man disrespect A Xiong just now; does he really think everyone is blind?

At a time like this, you still want to argue?

"It's truly a misunderstanding!"

"Young Master Ze, please hear my explanation...."

Tao Yunshi, unable to mind his status, rolled and crawled to Yuwen Ze's feet, and said.

"An excuse!"

Yuwen Ze cut him off, sneering, "Do you really think I'm easy to fool?"

"A Ze, wait a moment!"

"Listen to what our Peach Master has to say...."

Chen Yan hurried forward, reached from behind to seize Yuwen Ze's staff, and laughed, "Perhaps someone really uses him as a gun!"

Having said that, his gaze dropped, meaningfully scrutinizing the slab of pork belly on the ground.

Chen Yan didn't intend to defend the pork belly; he merely wanted to verify his earlier conjecture....

"A Xiong, do you trust him?" the restrained Yuwen Ze asked.

"Really, really!"

"How could I, the petty one, dare deceive you?"

Seeing this, Tao Yunshi hurriedly seized the chance, laid it all out: "It's a member of the Chen Family... it's Chen Gubai!"

Without the slightest hesitation, he sold it completely, clean and decisive.

Drinking was all brotherly affection, the testimony all brotherly names.

The police baton shattered brotherly affection; three pages of testimony, two pages of names.

"Oh?"

"My good third brother?"

Chen Yan released the staff from Yuwen Ze's hand, blinked, and laughed, "Keep going!"

It was almost exactly what he had guessed.

From memory, when at the Duke of Wei's mansion, the second brother Chen Cijiu was openly troublesome, while the third brother smiled on the surface but stabbed behind the scenes.

A solid old silver coin.

Tao Yunshi, choosing his words, his face bitter, began, "Chen Gubai, the Capital Prefect, came to me, crying bitterly, accusing Chen Yan... the lord's persecution of them, as well as arrogance, overbearing, cold‑bloodedness, words that cannot be fully expressed...."

"I, in a moment of heat, fell for his scheme!"

The more Tao Yunshi spoke, the redder his eyes became.

Unclear whether it was grievance or pain in his body that caused it.

"Using a borrowed knife to kill, diverting disaster eastward—things only Chen Gubai could do," Chen Yan said with a half‑smile, savoring the tone.

He wanted the Pingyang Marquis Mansion to clash with Chen Yan, while he hid behind, watching the spectacle and reaping the benefits.

What a treacherous brat full of foul water!

"Right, right, right!"

Tao Yunshi nodded like crushing garlic, exonerating himself: "I was deceived...."

"It was all Chen Gubai's mischief inside!"

Chen Yan smiled calmly, as if something occurred to him, and asked with interest, "Then what was your original plan to deal with me?"

Chen Yan was curious: if A Ze weren't here, and by chance had disrupted their scheme, how would it have turned out?

"Forcing you to attend the poetry gathering...."

Tao Yunshi lowered his head, timidly saying, "The two brothers have linked many literary talents in Chang'an."

To compare their poetry and prose with me, a transmigrator? You've gone mad, brother!... Chen Yan twitched his mouth corner, feeling helpless.

They just wanted to suppress him with a poetry gathering—stupid, clumsy, and childish.

It would be better to spend money hiring a few assassins; that would be more skillful.

Zhu Yi, who had remained silent, stepped forward, stopped beside Chen Yan, and whispered, "Young Master, someone has been watching us from the shadows over there!"