143 The Defiance (2/2)
And then he swung the horsewhip and pointed at Ye Xiao. He shouted, “Ye Xiao, get the hell over here. It is time for us to make things even now.”
The crowd behind him bursted into laughter. Some of them started to talk.
“I wonder how Brother Li will go even with him. Is he going to eat some ‘midnight snack’? It isn’t at night though… hahaha…”
“It is good to do it before the night comes, isn’t it? So that he can eat it a few more times…”
“That’s true. With plenty of time, we can eat it together. Eat the shit out of it!”
Their voices were filled with viciousness.
There were others staring at Su Yeyue with thirsty eyes while they were talking.
If Prince Hua-Yang was still in the capital, these guys would never dare to even look at Su Yeyue, because Prince Hua-Yang would get to their house and beat the shit out of them all.
Yet Prince Hua-Yang was gone for the battle now. He was not going to return in the coming future.
These fellas heard about how severe it was in the south. They knew that the situation wasn’t going well and Prince Hua-Yang might die in the battle.
They didn’t think deep about it. If Prince Hua-Yang failed and lost the battle in the south, the kingdom would be in great danger. None of them would survive the enemies’ arrival!
Yet they were just some foolish foppish fellas who didn’t have the ability to think deeper. They only saw that since Prince Hua-Yang left, they were free to do anything they wanted. They felt they could do something they had always wanted to do now.
Su Yeyue was too young, yet she was the first beauty in the capital. These fellas had always been eager for this pretty girl.
The reason why they kept messing up with Ye Xiao before was that eagerness. They didn’t put it on the table, yet everybody knew that they didn’t like Ye Xiao being titled of ‘the fiancé of the pretty princess’.
They would love to see Ye Xiao crippled…
Su Yeyue’s face turned red because of embarrassment. She stepped forward and stood in front of Ye Xiao shouting angrily, “What do you want?”
One of the fellas smiled, “Little princess, don’t be afraid. We are here to collect a debt from Ye Xiao. We will leave after it is done right away… Hahaha… We will not get to you.”
He said and kept looking up and down on Su Yeyue. His deltoid eyes were full of ardor.
“Jiang Taisui!” Zuo Wuji shouted furiously, “Behave yourself!”
This Jiang Taisui was the son of the Revenue Minister. It was said that when he was born, it happened to be the time he conflicted the Tai Sui [1], so he named him Jiang Taisui.
It meant something like “Tai Sui befalls; no evil appears”.
Maybe it truly worked. This fella, Jiang Taisui had never encountered any difficulties since he was born. He was extremely full of lechery. He bullied guys and insulted girls. He was just onto anybody!
Jiang Taisui laughed and then spoke pruriently, “Look who's talking. Wow. I am so scared. It is the man whose pxnis doesn’t work, Lord Zuo! Ouch… You better keep your voice down, Lord Zuo. I am quite tremulous…”
Zuo Wuji was pissed so bad that he couldn’t think of anything to say. His face turned red.
His natural-born disease wasn’t a secret, yet it was the first time somebody insulted him with it in front of everybody.
He hated this Jiang Taisui so deep into his bones. He was shaking because of anger.
Lan Langlang laughed and said, “Bravo! The son of the Revenue Minister! You are indeed the bastard of the most wealthy malfeasance in the kingdom. You talked so shamelessly just like your father! That’s admirable!”
Jiang Yuming, the Revenue Minister, was the richest officer in the Kingdom of Chen. Somebody directly called him a living mammon. It didn’t refer to the truth that he was in charge of the national treasury; it referred to the truth that he himself had a huge amount of money.
He was a rat in the national treasury indeed. His personal wealth was not the most impressing thing about him; the most impressing thing was his financing capability.
He had been serving the king since the king was a child… That was why the king never got serious about him. The king just took something as an excuse to make Jiang Yuming give out some money from time to time…
Jiang Yuming was an important person in the court though. He was irreplaceable. He was in fact a secret ‘treasury’ of the king. Whenever there was a financial problem in the kingdom, everyone knew that it was time to fine Jiang Yuming for some money…
Jiang Yuming was an outstanding man really. Again and again, his properties would be taken as a fine, but again and again, he became rich again within half a year… He just never stopped making dirty money…
It was kind of a “miracle” in the royal court of the Kingdom of Chen for dozens of years though.
…
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[1] Tai Sui (太岁), a Chinese term for the stars directly opposite Jupiter during its roughly 12-year orbital cycle. Personified as deities, they are important features of Chinese astrology, Feng Shui, and Taoism. The time when an individual conflicts Tai Sui means when he/she faces major obstacles in health, job and studies.