The Floating Tu Ancient Clan's arrangements for Lu Yuan were naturally thorough.
It was like the difference between appearances and substance.
No matter how ugly the substance became,
the appearances had to remain presentable.
However, Qing Yan Jing did not trust the Floating Tu Ancient Clan's arrangements for Lu Yuan. Although it was unclear whether she had selfish motives, there was no denying that she had disregarded their arrangements and instead placed Lu Yuan in her own courtyard, leaving Qing Qing Cang, this old father, so furious that he blew his beard and glared helplessly.
There were naturally downsides to doing this.
It was detrimental to one's reputation.
Although Lu Yuan did not care about his reputation,
and Qing Yan Jing did not care about such matters either,
it had to be acknowledged that reputation was the first calling card in social interaction. Appearance came second, while temperament and talent came last.
Yes.
It might sound ridiculous.
But that was reality.
An ugly reality.
Because the essence of Human Nature was to pursue benefits and avoid harm.
And because people's prejudices were difficult to change.
Thus, for any normal person, when you heard that someone had a bad reputation—perhaps he was unfilial, greedy for money and women, untrustworthy, petty, and so on—you would naturally become wary of him and examine him with a scrutinizing gaze. The inevitable outcome was that you would find faults in him. As the saying went, once you suspected someone, that person was fundamentally no longer trustworthy, because when you trusted someone, you would not suspect him. There was another way of putting it: if you tested someone's sincerity, the final answer you received would always be negative. Once you chose to test them, their sincerity no longer mattered. Even if the test proved that they