“Marquis Guanjun!” A chorus of whispers arose from the crowd.
Shao Mingyuan sat upright on his horse, his voice like a sharp blade forged from ten thousand years of ice, piercing into the two men’s hearts: “Who told you that if you did this, this Marquis would regret it?”
Two consecutive questions made not only the two men’s expressions stiffen, but even the onlooking crowd felt a chill in their hearts.
Under the cold-faced general’s gaze that seemed tangible as he stared down from his steed, the two men could no longer withstand this oppressive force. Bracing themselves, they said: “No one told us, we… we just felt we couldn’t stand watching…”
Shao Mingyuan chuckled lightly, his gaze shifting slightly, taking in the various expressions of the spectators, and said indifferently: “Make these two clean up what they splashed on the door!”
Two personal guards behind him dismounted and stepped forward, each grabbing one man by the collar and pushing them to the Li family’s black lacquered gate.
Old Madam Deng came out from the side door with Second Madam Liu Shi, looking at everything before them with fury written across their faces.
“Old Madam, please don’t be angry. I believe Marquis Guanjun will certainly handle this properly,” Liu Shi said with certainty in her tone.
The key point was that anyone who provoked Third Miss would suffer misfortune—this was valuable experience she had gained from countless observations.
Old Madam Deng reluctantly nodded, instructing in a low voice: “Control the servants’ mouths, don’t let word reach Yahe Courtyard. Your sister-in-law is with child and cannot bear distress.”
“Rest assured, this daughter-in-law will go instruct them immediately.”
Old Madam Deng turned her gaze back to the Li family’s black lacquered gate, looking at the filth on it and the pointing and whispering of the onlooking crowd. A surge of anger blocked her chest, making her wish she could grab her walking stick and beat those people.
Their Li family’s West Residence had always been kind to others, low-key, and proper for so many years. Who exactly was so vicious as to instruct street ruffians to do such wicked deeds?
This happened right in front of the man’s marriage proposal procession, with countless spectators as witnesses. If not handled well, even if the Li residence and Marquis Jing’an’s residence successfully arranged the engagement, the Li family would lose face completely, and Third Girl would forever be subject to ridicule.
Old Madam Deng slowly shifted her gaze to look at the young man on horseback.
She very much wanted to know how this young Marquis would handle this.
The two men were pushed to the gate. The foul stench emanating from the door made them repeatedly dodge backward. This action angered the two guards, who forcefully pressed their faces against the door’s iron rings.
In the twelfth lunar month, the iron rings were ice-cold. The sticky filth touching their faces drew gasps of shock from the onlookers.
“Clean it up quickly!” the guard commanded sternly.
“You, even if you’re from a Marquis’s residence, you can’t bully people with your power like this!” one man shouted with false bravado.
The young Marquis sitting on his horse smiled faintly, raising an eyebrow: “You want to reason with this Marquis?”
“Just because you’re a Marquis, you don’t need to be reasonable?” the man asked, suppressing his inner fear.
What kind of person Marquis Guanjun was, even he, a street vagrant, knew well. Not to mention provoking him—just thinking about it made his legs tremble. But the silver was too tempting, so he and his brother couldn’t help but accept this deal.
But this story’s development was wrong! The other party had clearly said that after they splashed two buckets of filth on the Li residence’s gate, they could just run away and escape. Why was Marquis Guanjun appearing here?
“This Marquis never reasons with beasts.” Shao Mingyuan’s thin lips pressed tightly together. He nodded slightly to the two guards and said word by word: “Make them lick it clean.”
The guards applied force with their hands, and the two men immediately screamed miserably, making the spectators’ hearts jump with fear.
Under countless watching eyes, the two men were forced by Marquis Guanjun’s guards to begin licking the filth off the Li residence’s gate bit by bit with their mouths.
Retching sounds rose and fell continuously.
The steward from Marquis Jing’an’s residence wiped cold sweat and stepped forward to advise: “Second Young Master, with so many eyes watching, isn’t what you’re doing a bit excessive?”
Meeting the young Marquis’s cold gaze, the steward swallowed his remaining words.
“What can others do to this Marquis?” Shao Mingyuan asked indifferently.
He wasn’t one of those civil officials who needed to carefully maintain their reputation. All his glory and status were earned punch by punch, and it even included his wife’s blood.
Now, in this flower-filled capital, what right did these people enjoying peace and stability have to trample on his wife?
Yes, they didn’t know that Third Miss Li was his wife. He couldn’t let them know that the girl he loved was the one who had spilled her blood on the city walls of Yan City in the Northern Territories. But at least he could use everything he had to defend her dignity.
“But those censors will impeach you for bullying people with your power, oppressing the common folk…”
The young general’s sword-like eyebrows raised slightly. The crimson cloak behind him fluttered fiercely in the cold wind, his voice colder than the wind itself: “Let them try.”
Two quarters of an hour passed. The two men collapsed on the ground, pale as earth, retching continuously.
“Still not getting lost!” The guard lifted his foot to kick them. “Do you want to lick the filth on the ground clean too?”
At these words, the two men jumped up like startled birds and ran away quickly.
The guard returned to Shao Mingyuan’s side.
Shao Mingyuan instructed in a low voice: “Follow them later, pry open their mouths for me, and find out clearly who exactly instructed them.”
“Yes, sir.”
Shao Mingyuan turned to look at the crowd.
The onlooking crowd instinctively stepped back, silent as cicadas in winter.
The young, handsome general smiled slightly, like spring snow beginning to melt, brushing away the chill from people’s hearts.
“The scene just now caused discomfort to all fellow townspeople. Shao apologizes here.” Shao Mingyuan bowed to the crowd, warm and courteous. “It’s just that in front of those two beasts, Shao was merely a son-in-law-to-be who couldn’t help but feel angry when his future father-in-law’s family was insulted. I hope the elders and fellow townspeople can understand.”
Looking at the young man bowing respectfully, those present couldn’t help but fall silent.
Yes, what wrong had Marquis Guanjun done? If it were an ordinary family and the father-in-law’s family was insulted like this, anyone with blood in their veins would take a knife and fight those two beasts to the death.
“Marquis, you did nothing wrong! Those two beasts deserved to be taught a lesson!” someone in the crowd couldn’t help shouting.
Soon, voices of agreement formed a chorus.
Yang Houcheng, hiding in the crowd watching the excitement, stroked his chin and murmured: “I always feel something’s not right. Zi Zhe, do you have this feeling?”
Zhu Yàn, standing beside Yang Houcheng, smiled and shook his head: “Tingquan is good at obscuring facts.”
“How so?” Yang Houcheng was completely puzzled.
Zhu Yàn smiled: “People are excitedly agreeing because they’re imagining what they would do if their own father-in-law’s family were insulted, or whether their son-in-law would defend their family’s face like Tingquan did. This naturally generates righteous indignation toward those two men. They’ve just forgotten that Marquis Jing’an’s residence and the Li residence haven’t set the engagement yet.”
Yang Houcheng clicked his tongue and muttered quietly: “This guy is cunning enough.”
Listening to the onlooking crowd’s condemnation of the two men, Shao Mingyuan dismounted, took the live geese from the stunned matchmaker’s arms, and strode toward Old Madam Deng and the others.