Chapter 77 : Chapter 77

Chapter 77: Since We’re Already Here, We Might as Well Confiscate a Household

“Outrageous! Absolutely outrageous!”

Inside the Gao Residence, Gao Song roared at the top of his lungs, smashing the exquisite ornaments in the room until shards littered the floor.

His mouth was smeared all over with black medicinal paste, making him look utterly ridiculous.

The household servants trembled where they stood, each afraid of being caught up in his rage.

Gao Guobang knelt at the doorway with his head lowered, listening to his father fly into a fury, not daring to make a sound.

He had overestimated his father.

He had thought Gao Song was a true schemer, utterly unafraid of Cheng Yu’s arrival, a man who did not even need to hear the other party’s name.

Who would have thought he was only a coward?

Without making the slightest preparation, he had run straight to the Jinyiwei Thousand-Household Office and begun with sneering sarcasm the moment he opened his mouth.

In the end, a blade had been pressed to his neck, and boiling water had been poured down his throat.

Only after groveling and swallowing every humiliation had he managed to crawl back alive.

Though Gao Guobang grumbled inwardly, Gao Song was still his own father, and the face that had been lost was the face of the Gao Residence.

So when Gao Song seized a bamboo rod and cursed him out, what Gao Guobang felt was less resentment than guilt and humiliation. He swore to turn the disgrace Gao Song had suffered into fuel and one day win it all back.

Fortunately, seeing that his son was obedient, Gao Song had eventually put away the rod and decided to apply medicine and tend to his injuries first.

Gao Guobang was deeply moved. He engraved that great humiliation in his heart and swore that one day he would avenge it.

But the moment Gao Song reappeared after the medicine had been applied, Gao Guobang broke.

He truly could not hold it in.

The sight of his father sticking out his scalded tongue, with a black ring of medicinal paste smeared all around his mouth...

was simply too funny.

He laughed.

The bamboo rod broke...

“I am furious to death!”

After smashing the last fine vase in the room, Gao Song finally calmed down a little.

“Get in here and kneel!”

“Of course, Father!”

Gao Guobang hurriedly rose from outside, stepped in, and used his foot to clear a patch among the shards on the floor so he could kneel properly.

Then he even looked up, trying to show an attitude of having reflected bitterly on the lesson.

But the instant he saw Gao Song’s face, he immediately lowered his head again.

“Ah! Good child.”

Seeing the way his son kept his head down and trembled, Gao Song was filled with emotion.

The boy must have been so humiliated on his father’s behalf that he was crying!

Though this son of his was somewhat lacking in wit and strategy, and had no talent for martial arts either—even after pouring resources into him, he had only barely entered the ranks, at least he was obedient, sensible, and thoroughly filial.

He was a good child.

“My son! So many people have seen me in this state. If we do not avenge this insult, how are we supposed to keep living in Jiannan Circuit?”

“The position I have painstakingly built over twenty years is hanging by a thread!”

Gao Song spoke in grave earnest.

He himself had been humiliated, and the guards from his residence had been hauled into the Jinyiwei prison.

All of it told him one simple fact.

“That brat Cheng Yu has come to suppress the entire jianghu of Jiannan Circuit. He has come for me!”

“Just as he once did in Qingjiang Prefecture of Dragon Abyss Path—he will kill until blood flows like rivers and no one dares utter a word!”

“Ah?”

Gao Guobang shuddered all over. “Then what do we do, Father?”

The man had already killed so many people. A few more would make no difference at all!

What if one of those few happened to be him?

Gao Song shook his head with a gloomy expression.

“But there is no need to worry too much. Jiannan Circuit has no Sword-Forging Manor, and its jianghu is not like the people of Dragon Abyss Path, who acted so brazenly.”

“This time, he cannot call on experts from the Jinyiwei Headquarters Command Office to assist him. At bottom, he is only a junior of the Middle Three Realms!”

Gao Guobang’s eyes lit up, and he raised his head.

That was right!

The times were different now. Cheng Yu no longer had two Eighth-Rank Jinyiwei experts at his side!

At the end of the day, he had only been exceptionally promoted to Thousand-Household Commander because he had rendered great merit and won the Great Qian Emperor’s delight.

As for Cheng Yu’s own realm, it was written plainly enough on the Human Ranking.

He was only Fifth Rank!

Gao Guobang was overjoyed. “So Cheng Yu is nothing much after all. Then the enmity of my Gao Family can surely be avenged!”

Hearing that his son now had a plan in mind, Gao Song stroked his beard and nodded in gratification.

“And how do you intend to avenge it? Speak.”

“Simple. We ask Mother to step in and directly suppress that brat Cheng Yu with thunderous force!”

As his emotions surged, Gao Guobang even rose to his feet while speaking.

Suppress Cheng Yu?

The moment Gao Song heard his son’s answer, the hand stroking his beard froze, and the whole man went still.

The smile on his face turned into disappointment and fury.

“That is your plan? The man is just waiting for an excuse to confiscate our household!”

Seeing his father explode in anger, Gao Guobang hurriedly explained.

“If Cheng Yu wants to raid our household, we have nothing to fear from him! Without Jinyiwei experts backing him, he is only a mere Fifth Rank. Mother could crush him with ease!”

“Crush your head!”

Gao Song snatched up the broken half of the rod from the corner and brought it down hard on Gao Guobang. A pig-like scream immediately rang out.

“Are you trying to doom the entire Gao Family?!”

So what if Cheng Yu had no experts by his side right now?

What happened after they made a move?

Once they struck, would the experts not come then?

To dare kill a Jinyiwei Thousand-Household Commander personally appointed by His Majesty the Emperor—was that not simply courting death?!

After taking the beating, Gao Guobang also understood the crucial point.

Compared with the previous Thousand-Household Commander, Cheng Yu drew far more attention.

To make a move against him casually was the same as slapping the Great Qian Emperor in the face.

Weak though Great Qian might be, it was still not something just anyone could slap in the face.

“Th-then what do we do, Father? Are we just supposed to let him do as he pleases?”

After venting his anger, Gao Song tossed the rod aside and said coldly, “It is not that we do nothing. It is that we cannot be too hasty or too obvious. We must plan this over the long term.”

“Was he not asking about the jianghu situation in Jiannan and hoping to recreate what happened in Qingjiang Prefecture? Then let us grant him his wish and see whether he can truly handle it.”

Gao Song had maneuvered for years between the jianghu forces of Jiannan Circuit and the Great Qian court. No one understood better than he did which powers could be used.

Since Cheng Yu was so fond of confiscating households and exterminating jianghu forces, he would naturally be far more likely to draw the attention of those very people in return.

That was precisely where a man like Gao Song came in, maneuvering in the middle.

Of course, that would take some time.

And in his current state, he could not meet anyone anyway.

After settling on his plan, Gao Song began issuing instructions to Gao Guobang.

“My son, have people spread false reports throughout Jiannan Circuit that Prince Qing’s remnants have appeared. Do not spread too many. The more remote the place, the better. It is enough if the Jinyiwei exhaust themselves running about.”

“But the most important point is this: under no circumstances can anyone discover that we were the ones who spread those false reports!”

“Yes!”

Gao Guobang accepted his father’s orders, nodded solemnly, and went out to handle the matter.

Now that Gao Song had settled on a plan, he could already picture Cheng Yu leading the Jinyiwei around on one fruitless chase after another, returning bedraggled and empty-handed.

And during that time, Gao Song himself could exchange a few words with the jianghu forces.

In the end, he would settle Cheng Yu—the thorn in his side—in one stroke and avenge the humiliation he had suffered!

At that thought, his spirits rose at once, and even his injuries seemed to hurt less.

Watching his son leave, Gao Song felt more satisfied than ever. He truly felt that, with a few strokes of strategy, he had already toyed with Cheng Yu in the palm of his hand.

In his delight, he decided to secretly go and dote on the little beauty he kept hidden outside the residence, all without Madam Gao finding out.

What he did not know was that his own son, Gao Guobang, was at that very moment brewing up a dreadful idea.

Where should he arrange for the false report to be spread?

Remote...

easy to arrange people to pass along false information...

Then was not the best place the Gao Family’s ancestral land a hundred li away?

It was far enough, and everyone there was kin, so there was no fear of exposure!

That settled it!

...

Two days later.

“My lord, someone has reported seeing traces of Prince Qing’s remnants!”

Hearing the report from his subordinate, Cheng Yu, seated in the hall, frowned slightly.

He was somewhat puzzled.

“So quickly? Are Prince Qing’s remnants truly this careless?”

Even so, now that there was news, Cheng Yu could not ignore it.

He quickly gathered the Jinyiwei and led them out to investigate.

In any case, even if it turned out to be a false alarm, it would not matter much.

After all, as the old saying went:

since they were already here, they might as well make the trip worthwhile.

If there turned out to be no Prince Qing remnants, then picking a nearby household to confiscate would not be a bad choice either.