A Fine Brawl

Night fell, slightly cool.

Just past the Hai hour, the second-watch gongs and drums sounded inside the Xiao Manor, and the lights in the various courtyards gradually went out.

Only the guards on rotation patrolled.

Yet they also walked slowly, trying not to make a sound so as not to disturb the masters resting.

Outside Chunhe Garden.

Two red lanterns hung under the porch, with a double-happiness character on the front and the Xiao character on the back, swaying gently with the breeze, and the candlelight inside was flickering.

"Brother Xing, could the second son-in-law have finished standing his stance today?"

"Mn." Wang Lixing deliberately lowered his voice, and said, "He can stand for one shichen at a time with the Great Spear Stance Cultivation; he has natural talent, but unfortunately he started martial arts late."

Three armored soldiers nearby showed astonishment on their faces, glancing at each other.

"Indeed a pity, if he could have practiced the martial path early on, by now he should be considered capable in both civil and martial arts, which would indeed be a match for Second Miss."

"Ge Laosan, watch your tongue!"

Wang Lixing glared at the person who had spoken, and said, "Is the Miss's marriage something you can casually discuss?"

The person named Ge Laosan hurriedly begged for mercy, saying, "Brother Xing, don't get angry; I just can't stomach how he ran away from the wedding that day."

"Brother Xing, forgive him, Third Brother here doesn't keep his mouth shut."

Hearing the other two armored soldiers urge, Wang Lixing shook his head: "Do not speak of the wedding-fleeing matter hereafter; since Second Miss has already made her decision, we need only obey orders."

"Yes, yes..."

For a moment of silence, Ge Laosan could not help speaking out once more:

"Yet the son-in-law is also a pitiful person."

"Indeed, not only is he unrestrained and carefree in character, he even has scholarly talent, yet he was treated like that by the Chen Family."

"The day he was brought into the Disciplinary Hall, the people of the Chen Family simply left directly, leaving not even maidservants or servants behind, which shows how he fared in the Chen Family."

"Fortunately Second Miss protected him, otherwise, according to Second Master's intentions, expelling him from the household would have been the light of it, and there might even have been a severe beating..."

Just as Wang Lixing and the others were chatting softly, within the silent Chunhe Garden, there came a faint creak of a door.

Chen Yi tiptoed out of the side room, glanced all around, and then quietly walked toward the western courtyard wall.

At this moment he was neatly dressed, and did not put on a full set of night-walker clothes or cover his face or anything, simply so that if he were discovered, he could find an excuse like "the long night is boundless and I cannot sleep."

As for why he appeared inside Jiaxing Garden... hearing people fighting and going over out of curiosity to watch the excitement, that is very normal, right?

Though he thought this way, Chen Yi still tried his best not to make a single sound.

After all, one lives under someone else's roof, and even if he had a legitimate reason, it would be hard to escape punishment.

Chen Yi walked along the corridor to the entrance of Jiaxing Garden, and seeing the door tightly locked, it was not beyond his expectations.

He looked left and right, spotted a low stone pier beside the wall, and immediately stepped on it to peer into Jiaxing Garden with his head poked out.

He saw that in the vast courtyard, pitch-black and indistinct, only the lanterns outside the two wooden towers cast a dim light.

Seeing that Jiaxing Garden was completely silent, Chen Yi glanced again at the "Daily Intelligence", and after confirming the time and place, he directly vaulted over the wall and jumped into the courtyard.

"Hoo."

Chen Yi gently exhaled a breath; this Great Spear Stance Cultivation was indeed effective, for merely a single instance of stance-standing made him feel much looser in his body.

It seemed that in the future, acting was one thing, but martial path cultivation could not be neglected.

"Wealth and honor are sought in danger; let us first see what this Fortune business is about."

Chen Yi found a shadowy corner to crouch down in, patiently waiting for Young Marquis Xiao and the heir apparent whose name he had not heard to make their entrance.

He wondered what the sparring scene between that Xiao Wuge and Zhang Heng would be like; it would probably be about on par with Yin Tiankuang, right?

Without making Chen Yi wait too long, in about the time of an incense stick, he heard two faint sounds drifting from not far away.

"...Brother Heir Apparent, you are going too far; according to seniority, you ought to call him brother-in-law."

"I won't do it at all; he is just a runaway groom, and I am not wrong."

Hearing the voice from the garden behind that wooden tower nearby, Chen Yi wondered why this was dragging him into it as well.

With no time to overthink, he quietly crept over.

Treading on patches of shadow all the way, he went straight into the garden, wanting to see the state of the two people inside.

Yet because of the angle, he only saw two shadows elongated by the light, while the voices of those two people became even clearer:

"You, you... asking for a beating?"

"Fight? Xiao Wuge, you certainly cannot beat me; if we really start moving hands, I am afraid I will make you cry." One of the slightly childish voices said smugly:

"How about you follow along and shout with me, runaway groom, runaway groom, ha ha..."

"You-you're still saying it!"

The other voice shouted angrily, followed immediately by a flurry of punching and kicking sounds.

"Daring to make a move? You truly think that here in the Marquis's mansion, I wouldn't dare beat you?"

"You, you stop talking..."

Chen Yi watched the two shadows entangled together, a trace of strangeness flashing across his face.

This looked nothing like the actions of experts; they were fighting completely without method or discipline.

Taking advantage of the gap while those two were fighting, he quietly changed positions to a spot where he could just see those two martial path...

"Martial path children?"

He saw two children less than waist-high to him, approximately four or five years old, mutually grabbing each other's necks and wrestling together.

A moment later one was on top, a moment later the other was on top, rolling back and forth on the ground.

Interspersed throughout were a few mumbled phrases, roughly amounting to letting you speak, letting you speak, do you still dare, you dare hit my face, and words of that sort.

Chen Yi blankly watched them, the image of "martial path experts" he had imagined collapsing with a crash.

"This is the so-called fierce battle to decide supremacy?"

If this "Daily Intelligence" wasn't about "gossip today", he would eat his name backward.

The commotion here quickly alerted the others in Jiaxing Garden, and two maidservants hurried over in a panic.

"Young Marquis, Your Highness the Heir Apparent, please stop fighting at once."

Yet those two mischievous children showed no intention of stopping whatsoever.

The maidservants did not dare step forward, and one of them ran off again.

Chen Yi's sense of anticipation was shattered to pieces, and he wanted to leave as well, but seeing that the system panel remained completely motionless, he knew his "Fortune" had not been secured, so he had no choice but to continue squatting in the corner and watching.

Just at that moment, a voice came from inside the doorway:

"Wu Ge, Heng'er, you two stop at once!"

The voice was soft and gentle, as smooth and sweet as that of a woman from Jiangnan Prefecture.

A name popped into Chen Yi's mind: Xiao Wan'er?

Quickly, a woman draped in a heavy cloak, with crystal-white skin and an extraordinary demeanor, walked over briskly and stepped forward to stop the young marquis and the young heir apparent who were wrestling together.

"Speak, why are you fighting?"

Xiao Wuge stood to one side with his head drooping.

Meanwhile, the other bruised and battered young heir apparent, Zhang Heng, glared at him and said, "Elder Sister, Wu Ge started hitting me first, and he even said he was going to beat me to death."

Xiao Wan'er, her back turned to Chen Yi, looked at Xiao Wuge: "Is this true?"

"Eldest Sister, I..."

"Is it or is it not?"

"It is..."

Hearing this, Xiao Wan'er immediately beckoned to the maidservant: "Take Heng'er back to his room first, and attend to him so he can rest."

A smile instantly appeared on Zhang Heng's small face, and glancing at Xiao Wuge, he followed the maidservant out of the garden.

That smug air was so strong that even Chen Yi found it somewhat hard to bear, thinking to himself that this brat was ruined.

As the saying goes, "You can tell what a person will be at seven by the age of three"; if he was full of such malicious tricks when little, he would be no good when grown.

[Witnessed the beginning of the grudge between Young Marquis Xiao Wuge and Heir Apparent Zhang Heng, and comprehended the profundity of their fisticuffs from the fight. Reward: Profound Tier Fist Technique--Collapse Mountain, Fortune +12.]

[Critique: Person arrived, voice heard, scene witnessed, but the stealth-guilt vibe is far too strong; truly a person of base and sneaky disposition.]

At this time, as two lines of illusory characters drifted past, Chen Yi paid no heed to the extra bit of fist technique memory in his mind, fixing his gaze solely on the end of the critique.

He would overlook the previous "slothful", but this time it was actually "sneaky".

He had risked being discovered to run over and watch a children's squabble, and even if it wasn't heroic and extraordinary, it couldn't be counted as "sneaky", could it?

Going too far in bullying people!

Having finally calmed his emotions, Chen Yi was just about to stand up when he suddenly felt a chill at the back of his neck.

Then a cold voice reached his ear:

"Don't move."