Chapter 535: Ningning Has a Plan
Chapter 535: Chapter 535: Ningning Has a Plan
Shen Ningning pressed her ear to the door, eavesdropping quietly.
She had almost never seen her father this furious.
Inside the study.
Xie Mingxu, Xie Ming’an, and Xu Jingxi knelt on the floor, their backs ramrod straight.
Each one had a tense expression, their lips pressed into a thin line.
Second Master Xie sat in a chair to the side, his expression grim and sharp.
Behind the desk, Xie Suzhi paced back and forth with his hands behind his back, fuming.
"The three of you—two are court officials, and one is about to take the autumn examinations. Brawling with some fop in a brothel... how is that any different from ruining your own futures?"
As the eldest, Xie Mingxu silently lowered his head.
"Father, please calm your anger. It is my fault for not supervising my two younger brothers properly."
Xie Ming’an immediately piped up, "It has nothing to do with Big Brother! He was just passing by and thought I was being bullied. When it comes down to it, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have taken our cousin to a brothel."
Xu Jingxi resolutely shouldered all the blame himself.
"Uncle, Father, this is ultimately my fault. I was the one who hit Wu Ke first. If not for that, none of this would have happened. I was reckless and impulsive."
Second Master Xie finally spoke, his brow furrowed as he sighed.
"If you’re going to strike, you might as well kill the man. Beating him half to death just makes things difficult to explain."
Xie Suzhi shot his younger brother a cold glance. "If you teach them that, will you have time for regrets when they actually do kill someone in the future?"
Second Master Xie gave a helpless smile, showing a shadow of his high-spirited youth.
"Big Brother, our family’s boys have always known their limits. Besides, you know Mingyuan’s temperament. If he wasn’t truly provoked, why would he have resorted to violence?"
"Why on earth did you fight with Wu Ke?" Xie Suzhi asked, looking at Xu Jingxi.
From last night until now, Xu Jingxi had refused to say why he had hit the man.
And he had been so brutal—he’d torn out half of Wu Ke’s hair and had supposedly knocked out his front teeth.
Xu Jingxi was silent for a moment as every man in the room stared at him.
After a long while, he finally said, "I was passing by the door and heard Wu Ke insulting Miss Ye."
Suddenly, the study door was pushed open from the outside.
Shen Ningning burst in. "What? How dare he? Jingxi, you did the right thing!"
Xie Ming’an immediately raised his head. "I hit him too!"
"You did a good job too, Second Brother."
Xie Ming’an broke into a proud smile, but when he caught Xie Suzhi’s icy glare, he quickly lowered his head again.
As stern as Xie Suzhi had just been, his face softened completely when he looked at his daughter.
"Ningning, Father needs to discuss with your brothers how to handle this. Go back and rest for a bit."
Xie Mingxu nodded. "That’s right. When we’re done talking, Brother will take you out to fly kites."
Xie Suzhi’s expression darkened.
’Still in the mood to fly kites? That Mr. Wu is a very difficult man. This could end up being a whole ordeal in front of the Emperor.’
But in front of Shen Ningning, Xie Suzhi didn’t contradict Xie Mingxu.
However, Shen Ningning wasn’t leaving.
She asked Xu Jingxi exactly how Wu Ke had insulted Ye Shangyi.
After Xu Jingxi spelled it all out, the faces of the other Xie family members turned cold.
"What a bastard. A good man should have lofty ambitions, not be thinking about how to humiliate his future wife," Second Master Xie said, his fists clenched.
He couldn’t stand scum like that.
Xie Ming’an said, "Our cousin was absolutely right to hit him. Besides, Miss Ye is one of Ningning’s closest friends."
"The problem is, the Wu family has found a way to exploit this. At the time, only our cousin heard what Wu Ke said about Ye Shangyi. The other young masters eating with Wu Ke all rely on the Wu family for favors, so they would never testify that he said such things."
That was the root of the problem.
Wu Ke was now insisting that he had just been minding his own business, drinking with friends, when Xu Jingxi burst in and beat him up.
That morning, Xie Suzhi had sent a doctor to the Wu Mansion to check on Wu Ke’s condition, but Mr. Wu just kept shouting that he wanted to send Xu Jingxi to prison.
Shen Ningning’s bright eyes darted around. "They refuse to testify because they’re afraid of the Wu family’s retaliation. That’s fine. We won’t look for them for now. But we can find the women from the brothel!"
Surely one of the girls who were with Wu Ke at the time would be willing to testify.
After all, a brothel is a business open to the public; they can’t afford to offend anyone.
After the incident, they had hung up a sign this morning saying they were closed for business.
The Madam must be scared and trying to lay low until things blow over.
Shen Ningning came up with a good plan and immediately laid it out.
Finally, she took Xie Mingxu, Xie Ming’an, and Xu Jingxi and headed straight for the government office.
Only after they left did Xie Suzhi let out a heavy sigh, quite worried.
Second Master Xie stood up. "Big Brother, you don’t need to worry. The children have grown up. They can handle this."
"Do you remember? We got into a fight together when we were young, too. The Princely Heir of Prince Pingbei insulted our mother, so I started fighting him. You happened to be visiting me at the National Academy and saw me being ganged up on. Didn’t you immediately dismount and run over to help me?"
Speaking of the past, Second Master Xie’s smile grew wider.
He was sixteen that year, and Xie Suzhi was nineteen.
The two brothers beat down all sixty-two guards the Princely Heir had brought with him.
Afterward, Mr. Xie Sr. dragged them off to kneel in the ancestral hall.
But inside the ancestral hall, though their faces were bruised, they looked at each other and smiled.
They felt the fight had been exhilarating and didn’t regret it one bit.
Recalling the past, Xie Suzhi pursed his lips. "We were young and hot-headed then."
"It’s the same with them now," Second Master Xie said. "Besides, with Ningning here, this incident will be handled much better than the trouble we caused back then."
They had nearly crippled one of the Princely Heir of Prince Pingbei’s legs.
In the end, it took Mr. Xie Sr. and the Emperor himself intervening to smooth things over.
After Prince Pingbei left the capital, the two families haven’t had any contact for all these years.
「Meanwhile.」
Ye Shangyi dismounted from her carriage and entered the gates of the Wu Mansion.
A maid led her all the way to Wu Ke’s room.
Mrs. Wu was wiping away tears by the bedside. Wu Ke’s head was wrapped in three layers of bandages, his face pale and his lips purplish.
"Changyi, you’re here?" Mrs. Wu choked up. "You’re such a kind-hearted child. No wonder before our Ke’er passed out, he told us not to tell you, for fear of making you worry."
Ye Shangyi pressed her lips together. "With such a big commotion, I would have found out even if you tried to hide it. Mrs. Wu, why did he get into a fight with Xu Jingxi?"
"How would we know? I heard Xu Jingxi just rushed in and smashed our Ke’er’s head. He was even yelling for our Ke’er to stay as far away from you as possible."
Mrs. Wu’s eyes flickered as she asked probingly, "What is your relationship with Xu Jingxi?"
Ye Shangyi replied, "We’re friends from the academy."
Just then, Wu Ke woke up. Seeing Ye Shangyi, he said weakly, "Changyi, y-you... why are you here? I didn’t want you to see me looking so weak. You should go back. I’ll come find you when I’m better."
Ye Shangyi’s eyes, however, were filled with doubt.
"Wu Ke, tell me the truth. The rumors outside say that Xu Jingxi fought you because of your debauched behavior. Is that true?"
Ye Shangyi couldn’t think of any other reason. She could only guess that Xu Jingxi knew she was engaged to Wu Ke, and when he saw Wu Ke carousing in a brothel, he lost his temper and attacked him.
Before Wu Ke could speak, Mrs. Wu quickly interjected, "How could that be? Our Ke’er only went there to listen to music. He enjoys refined and elegant things, you know that."
"That’s right, Changyi," Wu Ke nodded. "The young masters who were with me can all vouch for me. How would I know why Xu Jingxi wanted to hit me?"
Hearing this, Ye Shangyi said nothing and did not stay long.
She wanted to go to the Xie Mansion first and ask what was going on.
Mrs. Wu saw her to the door.
Suddenly, an idea flashed through Ye Shangyi’s mind. She slipped the gemstone bracelet off her wrist.
"Mrs. Wu, I heard Wu Ke values this item very much. Take a look, do you recognize it? Could this be the reason for the conflict between him and Xu Jingxi?"
Mrs. Wu glanced at it and shook her head. "This bracelet is so plain, it’s probably not even worth fifty taels. Why would our Ke’er fight with him over something like this? However, I heard that Xu Jingxi was originally very poor. He might actually lose his temper over such a shabby thing."
Ye Shangyi no longer heard the rest of her words.
Her expression turned icy cold as she stared at the so-called ancestral heirloom from Mrs. Wu’s family, a sneer slowly forming on her lips.
"So that’s how it is!"
’I knew it,’ she thought. ’How could an honest person like Xu Jingxi just attack someone for no reason?’
That smooth-talking Wu Ke had lied to her!