"Then we'll use a slightly more troublesome method—find a way to get rid of your opponents so they can't take part in the competition. Kidnap them, threaten them, ruin their faces, drug them... we can stop at nothing!" Ye Lang proposed another method, though this one seemed to go even further overboard.
"Stop, stop! That method won't do either. Change it. Give me a normal method that doesn't hurt anyone!!" Zhen Xiaoyan was starting to lose patience with Ye Lang. She was afraid he might actually do it.
"Fine, then we'll skip all that and use the last method. But this method will be very hard, and I'm afraid there won't be enough time, so we have to start immediately! Come on, we're leaving now and won't return until the day of the competition. You can help notify our families and ask the school for leave." As Ye Lang spoke, he prepared to leave, directly entrusting others with informing their families.
"??" Zhen Xiaoyan was baffled, unable to understand what Ye Lang wanted to do.
"Come on, don't just stand there like a fool! Trust me, you'll definitely win the championship this time! Sigh, looks like I won't be able to squander the family fortune again this time." Ye Lang shook his head rather helplessly.
Zhen Xiaoyan rose suspiciously and followed Ye Lang, half-believing and half-doubting.
At the very end, Ye Lang gave an evil smile and said to Shalan, "That pig over there, you'd better be careful these days. Don't blame me if something happens to you later!"
"What are you trying to do? I'm not afraid of you!!" Shalan said, forcing herself to remain calm.
At that point, Ye Lang ignored Shalan and left with Zhen Xiaoyan. For the following twenty-odd days, until the competition began, neither of them appeared again.
After leaving...
"Ye Lang, why are you helping me?" Zhen Xiaoyan was very puzzled. She could not understand why Ye Lang had suddenly decided to help her. With his personality, there was no reason for him to meddle in this matter—especially when he had bet on her losing. That made even less sense.
Ye Lang replied casually, "I'm helping because I'm helping. What's there to ask why about? Don't think I'm doing this for free. You have to promise me one thing."
Though he said it casually, Zhen Xiaoyan seemed to sense something. He disliked seeing her humiliated like this, seeing others look down on her like this, which was why he had stepped forward.
"What is it?" Zhen Xiaoyan asked with a smile.
"From now on, you have to cook for me every day, and make extra pastries!" Ye Lang said. Zhen Xiaoyan's pastries were truly unmatched, but she rarely made them because the process was too troublesome. Besides, while pastries were delicious, she felt they were too small to even fill the gaps between her teeth.
"As long as you help me win this competition and give me a chance to be with Moya, I'll cook for you for the rest of my life. However many pastries you want, I'll make them all for you!" Zhen Xiaoyan said. She did not care what consequences those words might bring. As long as he could help her win, she was willing to do anything.
"Then it's settled!" The muddleheaded Ye Lang naturally did not think there was anything strange about those words. He was only delighted that he had talked his way into getting a private, lifelong top-class chef.
"Ye Lang, what are you going to do?" Only now did Zhen Xiaoyan ask what method Ye Lang intended to use.
After hearing that, Ye Lang became very solemn and said seriously, "Fatty! It's not too late for you to regret this. Otherwise, for the next twenty-odd days, you'll be living in hell—and you still might not succeed. After all, there's too little time, and your foundation is truly too terrible!"
"No! Even if it's hell, I'll still go!" Zhen Xiaoyan gritted her teeth and answered with utter determination.
"Since you're so determined, then prepare yourself to suffer. Sigh, it would have been fine if your qualifications were even a little better, but you're terrible beyond measure. You know nothing of qin, chess, calligraphy, or painting. You haven't even learned noble etiquette. And you're only one meter sixty tall, yet you have over two hundred jin of fat on you. Even if you tried to lose weight, I'm afraid it would already be too late..." Ye Lang spoke while shaking his head, while Zhen Xiaoyan's face grew redder and redder beside him.
"Enough already! If you keep talking, I'll crush you to death!!" At last, Zhen Xiaoyan flew into a rage from embarrassment.
"Desperate times call for desperate measures!" Ye Lang sighed.
After this, over the following days, events developed in a very interesting direction. Many people were watching the vanished Ye Lang, though naturally, everyone was concerned about different things and from different angles.
"Chengtian, have you found that brat of yours yet?" During court, the emperor directly asked Ye Chengtian, seeming to treat the matter as a matter of national importance.
This was not favoritism for private reasons. Rather, Ye Lang had recently given him quite a headache. What should have been a perfectly good matter had now turned into something that left people both amused and exasperated.
If Ye Lang had merely left with Zhen Xiaoyan, then at most the Ye Clan would have been worried. But Ye Lang was already an adult; there was a limit to how worried the Ye Clan could be. Besides, the Ye Clan knew Ye Lang's personality, just as the following words showed—
"No, he's disappeared again and we can't find him. You know how it is—if that brat decides to play at disappearing, then unless he shows himself on his own, we won't find him no matter how hard we search. But one thing is certain: he must be somewhere nearby. We just don't know where." Ye Chengtian said helplessly.
Ye Lang had disappeared many times before, and each time he had returned on his own. This time, moreover, he had left word himself, so the Ye Clan was naturally not overly worried and did not make as much of a commotion as before.
The problem was that Ye Lang had left behind certain words beforehand, causing many people to live in fear during this period. Among that group, everyone was on edge.
That group consisted of the talented women participating in the Pigsty Competition—no, the Talented Women Unrivaled Competition. After receiving the news, they all feared that Ye Lang would do something detrimental to them.
No one could guarantee what Ye Lang might do. Judging by his past behavior, he could be described as a fool doing foolish things. Such people were the most frightening, because everyone knew he acted without regard for the consequences.
After hearing Ye Lang mention kidnapping them, threatening them, and even disfiguring them—the thing they feared most—they began to panic. They mobilized every force they could to protect themselves, day and night without rest!
Because the Lineages of these talented women could not find Ye Lang, they went to the emperor instead. Now they could only beg the emperor to decide the matter and locate Ye Lang's whereabouts!!
This situation gave the emperor no end of headaches. Ye Lang's open threats against them were indeed somewhat excessive, and he could not be certain whether that brat would truly carry out those acts. Thus, all he could do was tell the talented women to watch out for their own safety.
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