The servants who had just been beaten by planks were dragged in again. This time, everything poured out of their mouths like beans out of a bamboo tube, including what the two stewards said and why they did what they did.

“Your Highness, you see, since this matter involves the stewards of the Marquis residence…” Lord Wang smiled flatteringly at Qi Wang, “It is better to look into this matter thoroughly.”

With His Highness Qi Wang’s benevolence and virtue, it was absolutely impossible for him to send people to do this kind of thing. Unfortunately, the Pingyuan residence failed to manage its subordinates well, and thus, Qi Wang’s reputation had to undergo such damage.

“It should be.” Qi Wang nodded, and told his chief attendant, who was standing behind him: “Go and bring the stewards mentioned by these two.”

“Fourth brother need not worry. Ben Wang’s people have already gone to fetch them.” Chen Wang smiled: “Surely fourth brother also knows that there are many good horses in Chen Wang’s residence because Ben Wang likes to ride horses. The guards of the residence are also experts at horse riding. They are fast so we only need to wait for a little.”

“Fifth brother is thoughtful.” Qi Wang’s action of stroking his yupei paused: “Your fourth brother forgot that you have numerous precious horses and colts in your residence.”

“It doesn’t matter. In case you forget this next time, I will remind you again.” Chen Wang took out the pouch at his waist and dug around for some food. But he had to give up after not finding anything edible: “Ben Wang has never cared for such trivial things.”

Taking note of his actions, Jiuzhu fished out a few pieces of dried meat from her pouch and stuff them into Chen Wang’s hands.

Chen Wang turned and stared at Jiuzhu, who blinked and smiled at him.

Lord Wang gaped at Chen Wang and the young lady clad in pink who were sharing snacks and took a deep breath.

People just got flogged with large planks. How could these two manage to eat anything at this moment?!

The guards of Chen Wang’s residence were indeed very fast. Not only did they bring the stewards mentioned by the two servants but also a steward from the Pingyuan residence.

After hearing what had happened, the stewards of the manor looked baffled: “My Lords, we are merely little stewards of a manor outside the capital. How dare we be audacious enough to do such a treacherous thing?!”

Hearing their words, the two young servants responded in anger, “Obviously what we did was your idea!”

“I remember that you two secretly drank alcohol while still on duty a few days ago and I deducted your wages. Is it because of that incident that you hold a grudge against me and used this method to slander me?” A steward retorted: “The Marquis residence has always had strict standards for selecting stewards. Why would they transfer me for such a ridiculous reason?”

Lord Wang nodded, thinking that this steward’s words made some sense. No master would like subordinates who acted on their own initiative; not to mention transferring to the Marquis residence, probably they would never think it was too late to drive that one out.

Jiuzhu didn’t have the heart to hear what they talked about. As she looked at the Marquis residence’s steward, who had a scar on his chin, her hands resting atop her knees clenched into fists.

The scar was the result of her stabbing him with her silver hairpin. When the blood dripped on her face, it was sticky and smelled fishy.

That silver hairpin was the very first little silver hairpin that the masters had bought for her after saving up for a long time. She cherished it greatly, so much so that she made sure to polish it every day before carefully inserting it into her hair.

When she was gagged and thrown into the river with her hands and feet tied, the little silver hairpin fell off somewhere. Perhaps it sank into the mud at the bottom of the river, never to meet the light again.

“Who is that?” Chen Wang pointed at that steward of the Marquis residence: “Stay far off, don’t let Ben Wang catch a glimpse of your face. You are ugly.”

Done speaking, he stuffed a piece of dried meat into Jiuzhu’s mouth: “Aren’t you hungry? It’s already time for lunch.”

Jiuzhu recovered. She turned to look at Chen Wang and chewed the piece of jerky without saying a word.

The gaze of the scar-faced steward, whom Chen Wang bluntly pointed out to be ugly, turned gloomy but he didn’t dare to refute. He squeezed out a somewhat distorted flattering smile and retreated to the corner, turning sideways so that Chen Wang could not see his face.

“Stunned again?” Chen Wang raised his brows and looked at her.

Jiuzhu stroked buyao dangling by her temple; now she didn’t need to do that anymore.

“Your Highness.” Jiuzhu lowered her head and gently tugged on the accessory hanging on her waist1T/N: ‘禁步’ [jìn bù] was an ornament used as a way of imposing restriction on women. This thing was like a jade ornament or yupei hung from women’s skirts in ancient times. The women at that time were not allowed to take big steps when walking, so they hung these gold, jade or bead ornaments on their skirts. If they walked too fast or took steps a little too large, this ornament would jingle and that was considered impolite. It restricted the women’s movements so it can rightly be translated (literally) to ‘forbidding steps’ in English. .

“En?”

“Nothing.” Jiuzhu shook her head and raised her face to show him a big smile.

Chen Wang pointed to the pouch at her waist: “Is there any more dried meat?”

Jiuzhu nodded: “There is.”

Saying so, she took off the whole pouch and put it in Chen Wang’s hand.

While eating the dried meat, Chen Wang listened to Lord Wang’s interrogation. After the two servants finally pleaded guilty, he slowly opened his mouth and said: “Ben Wang has heard about the Pingyuan residence’s way of conduct to some extent. Just didn’t expect them to not clarify even after two of their servants committed such a big crime.”

The scar-faced steward standing in the corner: “……”

Before he came, the guards of Chen Wang’s residence only said that the servants from the outside manor had done something wrong. Who knew it was such an enormous thing?

“Oh, Ben Wang forgot.” Chen Wang looked at Qi Wang: “Marquis Pingyuan is fourth brother’s maternal uncle. With such a nephew, it’s normal for Pingyuan residence to not be too worried.” 

Qi Wang’s chief attendant’s expression suddenly turned unsightly. What did Chen Wang mean by this?

“Ben Wang has suffered such a great humiliation but didn’t see anyone from Pingyuan residence coming to apologize. It may be assumed that they simply do not think much of Ben Wang.” Chen Wang stood up, not forgetting to stuff the dried meat that Jiuzhu gave him into his sleeve: “Fourth brother does not need to plead on behalf of the Pingyuan residence anymore. Ben Wang will enter the Palace to meet Father Emperor and ask him to make a decision for me.”

Qi Wang’s chief attendant: “……”

His family prince obviously didn’t utter a word. What did Chen Wang mean by saying that?

After making such a big fuss and bringing people to the magistrate to settle the case, he finally came to the conclusion that Pingyuan residence did not think much of him?

“Fifth brother…”

“Fourth brother doesn’t need to say anything. As a younger brother, Ben Wang knows that you feel uncomfortable due to this matter.” Chen Wang’s red sleeve drew an elegant arc in the air as he spoke with a benevolent expression: “Don’t worry, this younger brother won’t blame you for this matter.”

After speaking, he glanced at Jiuzhu meaningfully.

She got up quickly, thought for a while and raised her white and tender chin up. Snorting at the two servants who were kneeling on the ground, she followed Chen Wang’s example and swung her sleeves before walking out.

“Humph! Despicable evildoers.” After the chief attendant of Chen Wang’s residence dropped these strange words, he led the other guards and left. Instantly, the magistrate’s yamen was vacated by a half.

Lord Wang hurriedly bowed his hands toward the gate that Chen Wang walked out of. Turning around, he smiled awkwardly at the unsmiling Qi Wang: “Your Highness…”

“Lord Wang has worked hard. Ben Wang will now take his leave.” Qi Wang turned and left.

Lord Wang took off the black hat on his head and wiped off the cold sweat on his forehead with his sleeve. Being the capital’s magistrate, he indeed did not have a day’s worth of peace.

“My Lord, what should we do now?” Qi Wang’s attendant did not expect Chen Wang to handle things… as he pleased like this. As soon as they left, he spoke up in anxiety: “This subordinate is worried that Chen Wang will use this matter as a pretext to wrong you.”

“Let Pingyuan residence’s shizi bar Chen Wang’s way before he enters the Palace and beg him for forgiveness.” Qi Wang announced with a grave expression, “The more sincere the plea, the better. Even if he has to kneel down in the street to plead guilty, he must do it. Everyone needs to witness Pingyuan residence’s earnestness in apologizing to Chen Wang.”

“This subordinate will set forth to fulfill this task immediately!” As the attendant mounted his horse, he became more and more critical of the Marquis residence. His master was usually not favored by the Emperor so he never dared to take a wrong step or say a wrong word. The Pingyuan residence normally put forth the prince’s name to go around in the capital. Nevertheless, even if they couldn’t lend a hand at all, they should refrain from becoming a hindrance to him.

After sending Ming Jiuzhu back to Assistant Minister Ming’s residence, Chen Wang turned around and rode towards the Imperial Palace.

Since he had already said that he would enter the Palace to complain, he would definitely not wait until the next day.

Midway, Chen Wang noticed the owners of two restaurants quarreling across the street, accusing each other’s chefs of not being authentic enough in their cooking.

“My chef cooks the authentic cuisine of the capital but yours has the taste of Lingzhou cuisine in everything! And you have still the nerve to claim the title of being a century-old restaurant of the capital?”

Chen Wang pulled the rein of the horse and pointed at the restaurant owner who was being scolded for not serving authentic dishes. He told his attendant: “The chef who can cook Lingzhou cuisine, go and invite him to cook at the residence.”

The attendant promptly replied: “My Lord need not worry. This subordinate will definitely bring that person into the residence before it gets dark today.”

Hearing this, Chen Wang turned his head and look at the attendant. His bad reputation outside must have something to do with this kind of subordinates who didn’t know how to speak properly.

“Your Highness Chen Wang, please wait a moment!”

Chen Wang looked back and saw Pingyuan residence’s shizi riding a horse at full speed and following him. He told the guard: “One should not ride so fast in the downtown area, go and stop him.”

After he finished speaking, he patted the horse and continued to move towards the Imperial Palace unhurriedly.

Want him to wait?

Humph.

Did he, a dignified prince, need Pingyuan residence’s blockhead to teach him how to do things?

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