Chapter 120.1

Editor: Casey

That was all Shi Qing had to say. He glanced at Shi-furen, who could change faces in a flash, and observed her.

Shi-furen’s cries were so delicate and timid, like the cries of a blue songbird. Due to her soft, pitiful and delicate tone, Father Shi’s heart softened almost immediately. He coaxed her in a whisper: “Don’t cry, isn’t our Qing-er fine?”

“That’s just what it looks like on the surface.” Shi-furen hit her husband softly on the chest and sobbed, “Jiang Liye compared our Xi-er to a prostitute. Qing-er confronted him to defend his sister’s honour, but that Jiang Liye actually didn’t give Laoye any face and pushed him into the lake!”

“Our Qing-er has always been sickly since he was a child. On such cold weather, if he hadn’t been lucky, he wouldn’t be standing in front of you and me today.

“Jiang Liye pushed Qing-er??” Father Shi’s eyebrows immediately furrowed; “What do you mean, didn’t a concubine-born son push him?”

“How could this be? He was just a scapegoat pushed out by Jiang Liye to take the blame. Qing-er confirmed that it was Jiang Liye who pushed him. What else is there to say?”

After Father Shi heard that from his wife, he looked at Shi Qing, who was leaning lazily against the wall. “Qing-er?”

Shi Qing nodded. “No mistake about it, Father. It was that Jiang Liye who pushed me. He said something like he didn’t care that I was the Shi family’s young master. He’s definitely looking down on our family.”

His voice had the same soft accent as Shi-furen’s, and he sounded just as coquettish as her.

But Jiang Bieyu, who was still on the ground, looked up at Shi Qing again.

At that time, what Jiang Liye actually said was clearly, “If you dare to hit me, I will definitely go to the Shi family to seek justice. Even if you are the Shi family’s young master”. How did the meaning of those words completely change when they came out of Shi Qing’s mouth?

But Father Shi believed him completely. His expression turned steely.

Everyone knew that the Crane City Shi family had only one heir, and that was Shi Qing. Even if he always looked down on his son for being unmotivated and told people outside that he was an unfilial prodigal, he was still Father Shi’s only son.

Jiang Liye!

Not only did he not treat my daughter well after marrying her, he actually wanted to kill Shi Qing.

Father Shi’s thought delved deeper into conspiracy. If something did happen to Shi Qing, and Jiang Liye placed all the blame on a concubine-born son, he would get off pretty much scot-free.

Then his Shi family would have no heirs and only one legitimate child left. So when he and Shi-furen die, all of their wealth would remain with Shi Xi.

Jiang Liye happened to be Shi Xi’s husband, so when you think about it, he would benefit greatly from Shi Qing’s death.

Father Shi’s expression was dark.

Of course, he didn’t even spare a thought for Shi Qing’s concubine-born sisters during his musings.

Daughters that married out were like spilled water from a basin, leaving no way to put it back. Besides, those girls were all concubine-born, they were raised by nannies in separate courtyards. Father Shi barely saw them ten times a year. How could they compare to his Xi-er, who lived in his courtyard when she was a child, who he personally held, consoled, and took out to play?

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that this might be Jiang Liye’s plot against the Shi family. It was even possible that the entire Jiang family was involved.

Who didn’t know of their Shi family’s wealth back in Jiangnan? Sure, under the previous dynasty, they might have had little authority despite their wealth, but their gifts to King Sheng in this new world order gave them great backing.

In the current world, apart from military power, money and food are the most important. The Shi family moved from Jiangnan and are merchants, so how did they establish themselves so quickly in Crane City?

Of course it was because of money!

Although the Jiang family was a local power in Crane City, it wasn’t as wealthy as the Shi family. When the Shi family first came to Crane City, the Jiang family was under a lot of pressure and fought back hard.

If the Shi family wasn’t made of down-to-earth people with bottom lines, both families would have suffered many losses. Then, the Shi family wouldn’t have agreed to this marriage. They would definitely supplant the Jiang family’s place at the top.

But who would’ve thought? Although the two families had joined through marriage, the Jiang family still harbored evil and ambitious intentions.

Did they think their Shi family was an easy target?

“Laoye?”

Shi-furen carefully clenched her handkerchief. Looking at Father Shi’s ugly expression, she hurriedly reached out with a worried face to stroke his chest. “Don’t be angry, don’t be angry. Your face even changed colours.”

Father Shi returned from his thoughts and calmed down. “I’m fine. Qing-er, are you sure Jiang Liye was the one who pushed you?”

“Of course I am.”

The little master was still as self-righteous as ever. He leaned against the wall lazily and drawled in his soft voice, making him seem a bit more innocent and obedient:

“If Father doesn’t believe me, just ask Jiang Bieyu.”

He pointed to the man on the ground whose back was covered in blood. It was only then that Father Shi, whose focus had been on his wife and son since he entered, realized that there was someone else on the ground.

He wrinkled his brow at this half-dead and haggard-looking person. He shot a suspicious look at his disappointing son.

The evidence was a man surnamed Jiang…

Shi Qing didn’t force him to make a false confession, right?

As soon as the little master noticed his suspicious gaze, he immediately understood and drawled.

“Don’t look at me like that, Father. He was already like this when I brought him back.”

Yep. Technically, Jiang Bieyu was already like this when he was brought back.

After all, Shi Qing had lashed him outside before he was brought back.

Jiang Bieyu glanced at Shi Qing with dark eyes again. He stared at the little master standing barefoot on the thick carpet, his fair and slender delicate fingers still clutching the hand stove. Shi Qing lifted his chin slightly and returned the look, his delicate brows revealing his confidence.

He was confident that Jiang Bieyu would not tell the truth.

And he was right. Jiang Bieyu didn’t say anything. He just lowered his eyes again and minimized his presence.

Seeing that her son had started, Shi-furen hastened to follow suit.

“The people of the Jiang family are so ruthless! He might be concubine-born, but this man is still Jiang Liye’s brother, his blood relative! But Jiang Liye ordered him to be beaten to this degree, and even forced our Qing-er to do it… My poor Qing-er, he’s always been a timid child. If they didn’t frighten him so much, he wouldn’t have had such a high fever right after coming home…”

Shi-furen began to cry quietly again. Her sobs were convincing but not irritating, so Father Shi felt a wave of disgust for the Jiang family as he listened.

He was actually a little jealous too.

He worked so hard to expand his family, but he’s only had one son in all these years, Shi Qing.

The Jiang family was so prosperous that they even used sons as scapegoats.

How could Father Shi not be envious?

Although it was wrong of him to be jealous, at least he was thinking along the lines Shi-furen wanted him to.

Shi-furen began to sob again, “Poor Xi-er, we pampered her in every way growing up, but she ended up married to such a wastrel. Her little brother was even beaten up like this when he tried to stand up for her.”

Father Shi alternated between anger towards the Jiang family and Jiang Liye and heartache for Shi-furen. But he wasn’t good at comforting others. He stood there, not knowing what to do.

Shi Qing had to say, “Father, look at how much Mother is crying. Why aren’t you comforting her already? You know she has angina. What if her being so sad triggers it?

Shi-furen did have a problem named ‘angina’.

But from the very beginning, this problem was her way of pretending to be weak and pitiful in front of Father Shi. With her son’s reminder, she immediately pressed a hand to her chest and lightly frowned with tear stains on her face, looking as if she was in great distress.

Father Shi was startled. With his son’s reminder, he hurriedly went forward to support his wife, softly coaxing her.

“Don’t cry, you’ll scare Qing-er. You and I will go back to the courtyard and discuss what to do.”

Shi-furen nodded her head softly. “I will listen to Laoye.”

The maidservant at the door immediately stepped forward and lifted the curtain for them.

Seeing that they had left, Shi Qing turned and yawned, lazily ordering, “Hurry up and bring some food. I’m dying of hunger.”

Just as he said that, Father Shi, who heard his disappointing son’s words from outside, lifted the curtain and half stepped in again. He reprimanded Shi Qing with a serious expression. “Eat, eat, eat. You only know how to eat all day. Stay at home and study for the foreseeable future. Just look at the Liu family’s sons. Every one of them…”

Shi-furen’s coquettish voice came from outside again: “Laoye, quickly come hold me up.”

“Okay, coming.” Father Shi hastily turned around and replied. With his wife urging him, he knew this wasn’t the time to lecture his son. He could only give his obviously not listening son another look before rushing out.

As for Jiang Bieyu on the ground, Father Shi didn’t care about him at all.

The fact that Jiang Liye had let Shi Qing bring Jiang Bieyu back to the Shi family when he had been beaten like this meant that he had no status in the Jiang family.

Father Shi was still fuming inside. He didn’t care about some concubine-born son with no status.

With the masters of the Shi family gone, Shi Qing was the boss again.

He relaxed almost immediately. Putting down his hand stove, he picked up the cold water on the table for a drink.

“Ah! Qing-er, it’s already cold. You shouldn’t drink it.”

As soon as he put the cup to his mouth, three or four maidservants with anxious faces came up to stop him.

Shi Qing: “It’s not like it’s poisoned. One sip won’t hurt.”

Ignoring the maidservants’ careful attempts to stop him, the little master drained the cup of water straight away.

Then he discarded the hand stove and ran with great interest to Jiang Bieyu’s side again, squatting down and extending his soft little hand, which was still a little hot, to pat the man’s cold, hard cheek.

“How old are you? How come I’ve never seen you at the Jiang family’s manor before?”

Maybe it was because his hand was so soft, or maybe it was because Shi Qing’s soft, sticky tone made him unable to bring himself to say no, but Jiang Bieyu didn’t feel insulted that his face was being patted.

His eyes were downcast, like a wild wolf that had to lay low for a while, hiding its fangs and behaving submissively.

“I’m eighteen this year. I’ve been living in the courtyard with my aunt.”

Satisfied with his meekness, the little master reached out and stroked his head. He then withdrew his hand in disgust when he felt the dried blood still on Jiang Bieyu’s hair.

Almost as soon as his face showed his disgust, a maidservant hurriedly poured water into the basin and made sure it was warm. She then quickly brought it to Shi Qing.

He extended his hands in a very accustomed fashion and didn’t move after that. Another maidservant carefully washed his hands gently, making sure that every single one of those long, thin, white fingers was clean, before taking the soft towel handed over by the maidservant next to him and wiping Shi Qing’s hands dry.

After that, a different maidservant gently applied hand cream to his soft and uncalloused hands.

Shi Qing didn’t say a word throughout, but four maidservants served him silently and respectfully. Keep in mind that this was just to wash his hands.

But there was no pride or a desire to show off in Shi Qing’s expression. There was only a sense of entitlement, as if not treating him with the utmost care would actually be strange.

In other words, he thoroughly demonstrated to Jiang Bieyu what it meant to be a spoiled little master.