Chapter 183 - 143: The Prefecture Examination Begins
She walked toward a less crowded corner without even asking for Fang Yue’s opinion. It was clear she held him in complete disregard.
Seeing this, Fang Yue couldn’t help but rub his nose.
He had no idea what this young lady from the Wen Family wanted with him. He hadn’t seen her for several years—they had only met once before. There was certainly no friendship between them; on the contrary, they even had some friction.
But Fang Yue followed her anyway.
"Stay away from my third aunt from now on. Don’t go pestering her; she’s not someone you can set your sights on. And if something did happen between you two, you’d best take that secret to your grave."
"And I’m sure you’re not aware that my father is the examiner for the Military Strategy portion of this Prefecture Examination. So, you’d be wise to agree."
With that, Wen Lan gave a faint smile. Without even waiting for Fang Yue’s reply, she turned and left.
She left a dumbfounded Fang Yue standing in place.
Watching Wen Lan’s haughty, retreating figure, Fang Yue was left speechless.
’So, Wen Lan came all this way just to spout a bunch of nonsense at me.’
’Telling me not to have any improper designs on Widow Yu, telling me not to see her again?’
’And even implying that something happened between me and Widow Yu?’
’She made it sound like I’d actually done something.’
’But we haven’t even seen each other in years. How could anything have happened?’
Although, Fang Yue admitted to himself, his heart had fluttered for her before.
But his Martial Dao cultivation was more important. With his Marrow Transformation not yet at the Great Success stage, how could he possibly think about such matters?
"How ridiculous."
Fang Yue chuckled and shook his head, not taking Wen Lan’s threat to heart.
He turned and headed back toward his inn.
~~~~~~~
’I never would have guessed. To think Fang Yue actually knows the young lady of the Wen Family... Heh heh, I’ll be damned if Xue Bing doesn’t kill you now!’
Just then, Liu Chuanzhi emerged from the shadows.
His gaze fell grimly upon Wen Lan’s retreating figure, then shifted to Fang Yue, who was heading in the opposite direction.
Although he didn’t know what the two had discussed,
the very fact that they were speaking privately proved they must be acquainted.
And in all of Shanyang Prefecture City, everyone knew that Xue Bing had his eyes on Wen Lan.
All he had to do was add a little fuel to the fire, and there was no way Xue Bing wouldn’t fly into a rage.
The more he thought about it, the more delighted he became. Unable to contain himself, Liu Chuanzhi immediately headed for the Xue Mansion.
~~~~~~~
「Yuezhong Mountain Tea House.」
"Hasn’t this month’s tea been delivered yet?" Hundred Families’ Steward Wang, who had come for an inspection, snorted coldly at the tea house’s Shopkeeper.
"Steward Wang, they say the snow has made the roads difficult to travel. It will take a few more days," the Shopkeeper said with a pained smile.
"Hmph. In my opinion, that Fang Yue doesn’t know his place. It seems the Young Master was too kind to a country bumpkin like him, giving him the false impression that he could cut off our supply to strong-arm the tea house."
"Heh, how naive."
Steward Wang sneered, dissatisfied with this explanation.
He had been put in charge of the tea house after the Young Master left, and he naturally wanted to earn more silver—or rather, earn more silver for himself.
He didn’t dare touch Bai Xingqiu’s share, so his eyes naturally fell on Fang Yue.
Clearly, in this partnership, Fang Yue’s status was a far cry from that of their Bai Family.
And yet, he took the lion’s share of the silver they earned.
How could this be allowed? After taking over the tea house, he had tried every trick in the book to force Fang Yue to submit—to lower his tea prices and reduce his share of the profits.
That way, not only would the Young Master’s revenue increase, but he would also be credited with a great achievement by the main family.
At the same time, he could skim a little off the top for himself. In a year’s time, he could easily make a fortune.
It was a perfect plan to kill two birds with one stone.
’And now, that country bumpkin Fang Yue is being so unreasonable, daring to use this as an excuse to cut off the tea house’s supply. The sheer audacity!’
’Looks like I’ll have to find a chance to teach this guy a proper lesson.’
As he thought of this, a sinister, cold expression appeared on Steward Wang’s face.