Diverting Disaster Eastward

Bang!

With a tremendous crash, the two flimsy wooden doors were brutally kicked open from outside, and an icy wind laced with ice shards flooded the entire servants' quarters.

"Get the hell up! Don't sleep yourselves to death!"

Several young servants inside jolted awake from their dreams. One by one, they wrapped themselves in their blankets and huddled in the corners, trembling so hard they did not dare breathe loudly.

Chen Ping had already concealed the sharp glint in his eyes the instant before the door was kicked open.

Now, his hair was disheveled, his gaze dull and terrified. He wrapped his blanket tightly around himself, exposing only a pair of timid eyes. He looked exactly like a coward frightened out of his wits.

"Instructor... Instructor Wang, what happened so late at night?"

One of the braver servants in the room asked in a trembling voice.

"What happened? Something big!"

Wang Meng gave a vicious grin. The torch in his hand cast shifting light and shadow throughout the room, making the flesh on his face look especially ferocious in the firelight.

"The Jade Pendant Second Young Master carried on him is missing. Someone saw it heading toward the servants' quarters. If we don't find it tonight, every last one of you will be skinned alive!"

With that, he strode into the room. His official boots, caked with mud and snow, made dull thudding sounds against the floor.

Chen Ping cowered beneath his blanket, trembling all over, while his heart remained as still as water.

Having just broken through to the first level of Longevity of Pine and Crane, his five senses were no longer what they had once been.

Amid the shadows cast by the swaying torch, he clearly caught sight of Wang Meng's right hand, which remained tucked inside his sleeve. As the sleeve shifted slightly, a faint, mottled green gleam showed through—not the warm luster of fine jade.

That jade pendant was of abysmal quality, practically a street-stall trinket.

Second Young Master Lin Yici was a wastrel, but none of the ornaments on his person were worth less than a hundred taels of silver.

This was clearly planted evidence prepared in advance.

This is aimed at me.

Understanding dawned on Chen Ping, and a chill flashed deep in his eyes.

Wang Meng paid no attention to the other beds. He walked straight toward the corner where Chen Ping lay.

"Chen Ping, you've been looking rather rosy lately. Did you steal something good from the master's household to eat?"

Wang Meng stopped beside the bed and looked down at Chen Ping, his eyes brimming with mockery and malice.

"N-No... how would this lowly one dare..."

Chen Ping stammered in defense, shrinking farther back.

"You wouldn't dare? I think your guts are enormous!"

Wang Meng raised his foot and kicked over the wooden board at the head of Chen Ping's bed.

With a clatter, sundries scattered all over the floor.

The empty clay jar that had not yet been washed rolled out, stopping right beside Wang Meng's foot.

It was already empty, but the lingering aroma of chicken soup seemed utterly out of place in the servants' quarters, which reeked of sweat.

"Well, well, looks like there really is stolen evidence!"

Wang Meng stepped on the clay jar and bent down, pressing his wine-reeking face close to Chen Ping's.

"This smell... it's chicken soup slowly simmered over a low fire in the Inner Kitchen, isn't it? Where did a lowly bookboy who sweeps floors get something this good?"

Without waiting for Chen Ping's answer, he let out a lewd, ugly laugh.

"Hehehe, let me guess. Did that little widow Yun Niang save it for you? Tsk, tsk, tsk. Chen Ping, Chen Ping, I never expected such a scrawny little thing like you to have some skill. You even managed to hook that little widow? What, did you please her so well in bed that she rewarded this pretty boy with things from the master's household?"

The room instantly fell silent.

Lai San and the others standing by the doorway to watch the spectacle also broke into a chorus of filthy laughter.

Under the blanket, Chen Ping clenched his hands tight enough for his nails to dig into his palms.

Of all things, Wang Meng should never have sullied Yun Niang's honor with such filth.

In this era where ritual propriety devoured people alive, if such rumors spread, Yun Niang would be drowned in a pig cage, while he would be beaten to death with clubs.

Killing intent churned in his heart, but Chen Ping's expression became even more terrified. Tears and snot immediately streamed down his face.

"Instructor Wang, I'm innocent! Th-This was leftover food that I picked up. This lowly one truly wouldn't dare steal..."

"Whether you stole it or not, a search will tell!"

Wang Meng did not listen to his explanation at all, his gaze fierce.

The map was finally revealed and the dagger exposed.

He reached for Chen Ping's pillow. At the same time, his right hand, which had been hidden in his sleeve all along, flicked sharply downward.

The mottled jade pendant slid from his cuff and flew straight beneath the pillow.

He was extremely practiced at this sort of framing. Had it been anyone else, before they could react, the charge of being caught with the goods would already have been nailed in place.

But to Chen Ping, whose breakthrough had granted him enhanced dynamic vision, Wang Meng's movement, swift as a thunderclap before one could cover one's ears, looked like a shadow-puppet show played in slow motion.

He could clearly see the pendant spinning through the air, as well as the vicious smile at the corner of Wang Meng's mouth as his scheme was about to succeed.

The pendant must not land on the bed!

In that flash of lightning and spark of flint, Chen Ping moved.

"Ah! Don't hit me! Don't hit me!"

He suddenly let out a shrill scream. As though scared out of his mind, he convulsed and rolled wildly across the bed, flailing his arms at random.

His struggle appeared chaotic and panicked, yet his left elbow struck, with perfect concealment, the numb spot on Wang Meng's right arm.

Bang!

Chen Ping had used concealed force in that strike.

Wang Meng felt his entire right arm go numb. The fingers holding the jade pendant loosened against his will.

The jade pendant, which should have fallen beneath the pillow, changed course from that jolt. It traced a graceful arc through the air and shot away with a whoosh.

As luck would have it, Lai San, who stood not far from the bed watching the fun, was grinning broadly in delight.

He wore a pair of loose, tattered cotton shoes, with his trouser legs rolled up.

Plop.

The jade pendant landed squarely on the top of his foot, then slipped neatly through the loose shoe opening and into the bottom of his shoe.

The entire process took no more than a blink.

The room fell silent.

Wang Meng froze. He still held the posture of planting evidence, but his hand hung empty in midair.

Lai San froze as well. He only felt something cold touch the top of his foot before a hard object slipped inside.

At that moment, Chen Ping abruptly stopped "convulsing." Pointing at Lai San's foot, he shouted innocently, "Oh! Brother Lai San, why is there something glowing in your shoe?"

Everyone's eyes snapped toward Lai San's foot.

Lai San instinctively lifted his foot. The jade pendant, glowing green, was awkwardly lodged in the opening of his shoe, half exposed.

"Th-This..."

The smile on Lai San's face froze, and cold sweat instantly broke out across him.

"This... this wasn't me..."

He looked at Wang Meng in a panic, his words tumbling over one another.

Wang Meng's face instantly flushed the color of pig liver.

His original script had been simple: find the jade pendant, beat Chen Ping senseless, then force him to confess to an affair with Yun Niang—killing two birds with one stone.

But now the planted evidence had ended up in his own lackey's shoe. How was this play supposed to continue?

Say Lai San had stolen it?

That would be slapping himself in the face.

Say he had thrown it crookedly?

That would put the framing scheme out in the open.

Smack!

A crisp slap shattered the awkward silence.

Humiliated and enraged, Wang Meng backhanded Lai San hard across the face, sending him spinning in place.

"You bastard! Your hands and feet aren't clean—you even dared touch Second Young Master's belongings!"

Wang Meng roared, using his fury to conceal his blunder.

Lai San clutched his face, so aggrieved he wanted to cry, but he did not dare argue. He could only obediently take out the jade pendant and offer it up with both hands.

What had originally been a meticulously planned deathtrap had now become a ridiculous farce.

Wang Meng snatched the jade pendant and shot Chen Ping a vicious glare.

He knew this scheme was ruined tonight, but Wang Meng never left empty-handed.

"Hmph! You may not have taken the jade pendant, but privately keeping eating utensils and stealing food offered by the master's household are also grave offenses!"

Wang Meng bent down and picked up the clay jar, then seized the few dozen copper coins Chen Ping had placed beside his pillow.

They were all Chen Ping had left to his name.

"I'll take this money as a fine! This jar is confiscated!"

After saying that, he ignored Chen Ping's pleas and kicked Lai San, who was still standing there dazed. "Why aren't you leaving? You disgraceful fool!"

The group departed amid curses and grumbling, as hurriedly as they had arrived.

The door was shut again, but its broken latch could no longer keep out the cold wind.

The room returned to silence.

The servants let out long breaths of relief, thankful that the baleful star had finally left. At the same time, they cast sympathetic looks at Chen Ping.

The money he had saved for so long had been taken, and even his means of eating had been confiscated. Chen Ping was truly too unlucky.

Chen Ping silently climbed up, tidied his ruined bed a little, and lay back down beneath the freezing blanket.

He touched his empty chest.

That was where he had kept the life-saving money meant to buy his next meal of meat.

Outside the window, the wind and snow continued.

Wang Meng could still be heard humming smugly in the courtyard. It seemed robbing a few dozen copper coins had put him in quite a good mood.

In the darkness, Chen Ping slowly opened his eyes.

Those eyes, once timid and muddied, were now deep as a pool, carrying a chilling cold that made one's heart tremble.

Chen Ping believed in keeping his head down, and in the saying that a gentleman's revenge could wait ten years.

But he had a temper too.

"Instructor Wang..."

"Keep those few dozen copper coins safe."

"Consider them the spirit money I'm burning for you in advance."

Chen Ping murmured to himself.