Situ Yiyun and Chen Heqing had wanted to pretend they hadn't seen or heard anything.
But since Lu Jing'an had gone this far,
there was no way he'd let them truly pretend they hadn't seen or heard.
The heart-chilling silence lasted only a moment.
Smack—!
Lu Jing'an suddenly snatched up the white jade wine cup on the table.
Without even looking, he hurled it hard to the ground!
The sharp crash rang out, and porcelain shards and leftover wine flew everywhere.
A few drops even splashed onto the gleaming tips of Situ Yiyun's leather shoes.
"What a bunch of ungrateful wretches, no matter how much you feed them."
Situ Yiyun and Chen Heqing stood off to the side, too terrified to breathe.
They couldn't tell whether he was talking about them or the Lin Family.
The brief, deathly silence pressed down until it was hard to breathe.
In the end, Situ Yiyun was the first to crack.
His Adam's apple bobbed.
He steeled himself and stepped half a pace forward.
He bowed deeply as he clasped his fists.
His voice carried just the right degree of respect:
"Please calm your anger, Young Master Lu.
If there's anything this humble Situ can do to serve you,
please don't hesitate to give the order!"
Chen Heqing came to his senses as if waking from a dream.
He hurried forward too and bowed deeply, his voice tight:
"I, Chen, am just a martial artist with no other talents, but I'll do whatever Young Master Lu commands, without a word of complaint!"
Lu Jing'an spoke in an even tone, as though he'd only just noticed them:
"What do you two Hall Masters mean by this?
I wasn't targeting either of you just now."
"I was talking about that bunch of ungrateful wretches from the Lin Family."
"The Lin Family has thrived these past years thanks to my Lu Family."
"Now that they've used my Lu Family, they're planning to wipe their hands clean and walk away."
"They're simply ungrateful."
Situ Yiyun and Chen Heqing chimed in repeatedly, agreeing with him.
Lu Jing'an changed tack and continued, "Although this matter has nothing to do with either of you,
I was still very moved by what you just said.
On behalf of my father, I'd like to thank you both in advance."
Situ Yiyun and Chen Heqing could only keep agreeing with him.
"Young Master Lu, you're too kind! Too kind!"
Only they knew how bitter they felt inside.
Lu Jing'an hadn't decided on the spur of the moment to win these two Hall Masters over.
He'd already made up his mind when Chen Xuan brought them over.
Lu Jing'an even suspected that Chen Xuan had brought them here
because he and his father had deliberately sent them over
so that Lu Jing'an could win them over.
After all, these two weren't worth Lu Huaiqian personally trying to recruit.
Now that people from the Xiaoshan Li Family had arrived,
the waters of Yinshan County could no longer stay calm.
Whether the Lu Family would sit securely on the shore and watch the fishing boats fight,
or have their stage overturned
and be reduced to spectators,
would depend entirely on how each side played its hand.
On the surface, the Lu Family seemed to hold undisputed sway in Yinshan County.
But beneath it, undercurrents were surging.
Otherwise, no one would have dared set their sights
on him, the crown prince of Yinshan County.
In the end, the Lu Family's foundations were simply too shallow.
If they tied Situ Yiyun and Chen Heqing to the Lu Family's chariot in advance,
they would have secured more than half of Yinshan County's martial world.
The sparring continued that afternoon.
The threat from the Li Family hung over him like a thorn in his back.
Lu Jing'an had to seize every moment to improve his strength.
Naturally, he hoped he would never have to fight in person.
But if the moment came when he had no choice but to step in,
he needed the strength to control the situation absolutely.
After an afternoon of sparring,
Lu Jing'an's experience putting his skills into practice had clearly improved again.
As he saw Situ Yiyun and Chen Heqing off,
Lu Jing'an also had his people prepare a thousand silver dollars apiece as compensation for their trouble.
After that,
neither of them felt bitter anymore.
Both left satisfied.
Lu Jing'an stood beneath the corridor, watching their carriage disappear into the distance.
Just as he was about to turn around, the conversation between two idlers at the nearby alley mouth
drifted to his ears on the wind.
"Just look at the Li Family's show!
Two whole trucks' worth of betrothal gifts.
Silks, foreign goods, wooden crates packed to the brim.
They practically blinded you in the sun!"
"Isn't that the truth? The most lavish display Yinshan County's ever seen!
Miss Lin's certainly lucky. What a grand gesture they've made, tsk, tsk..."
Lu Jing'an said to the people beside him:
"Grab those two, beat them badly, then dump them at the Lin Family's gate."
"Yes, Young Master."
The servant didn't question Lu Jing'an's order at all.
He immediately took some men to grab the two of them.
The two passersby
were suddenly seized.
They panicked at once, and in their alarm, shouted:
"What gives you the right to arrest us?"
"We were only passing by!"
"What law have we broken?"
At their words, Lu Jing'an slowly turned around.
Unhurriedly,
he took a
gleaming golden Western pocket watch from his inner coat pocket.
Its chain swayed lightly between his fingers.
His gaze was cool as he flicked his wrist.
The pocket watch traced a short arc.
Click!
It landed precisely in the open coat pocket of one of the men.
"You two stole my pocket watch. Now you can beat them."
Both men instantly turned ashen, their souls nearly flying from their bodies.
They really had taken money
to wait here and deliberately say those things where Lu Jing'an could hear, hoping to provoke him.
The person who'd paid them had sworn
that Young Master Lu would never lay a hand on them for the sake of his reputation.
But now,
Lu Jing'an really did seem intent on beating them half to death.
"Young Master Lu, Young Master Lu, we know we were wrong!"
"We were blinded by greed. We shouldn't have taken someone else's money to deliberately provoke you."
"Young Master Lu, please let us go!"
But Lu Jing'an had already lost interest in listening.
As though he'd merely brushed a speck of dust from his sleeve,
he turned and headed straight back inside, leaving their desperate cries behind him.
Petty men who hid in the shadows and dared only to provoke him with words
would learn their lesson most directly and effectively from a beating.
Naturally, someone reported Lu Jing'an's actions to Lu Huaiqian.
But Lu Huaiqian made no comment whatsoever.
The two men Lu Jing'an had ordered beaten
were pummeled by the Lu Family's guards for half an hour.
Only when their faces were swollen and bruised beyond recognition
were they dumped like broken sacks in front of the imposing gates of Lin Mansion.
The Lu Family's attitude gave Lin Shouxin a genuine fright.
Because of the incident,
Lin Shouxin hurried to find the person the Li Family had sent to oversee things.
The Li Family had sent someone to deliver the betrothal gifts and take charge this time.
He was one of the Li Family's strategists, the equivalent of a steward.
Many of the Li Family's affairs were handled by this adviser.
The fact that the Li Family had sent him this time
showed just how seriously they took the marriage alliance.
Of course, the ones they were taking seriously weren't the Lin Family, but the Lu Family.
This time, the Li Family intended to use the marriage alliance
to break the Lu Family's backbone
and destroy their prestige for good,
stripping them of any ability to compete for the position of provincial police commissioner.
At the same time, after the Li Family secured the commissioner's post,
they planned to turn around and swallow up the Lu Family, getting ahead of the game.
In the side room, after Li Jinglin heard what Lin Shouxin had said,
he not only wasn't worried but even smiled faintly.
"It's good that the Lu Family beat them."
"We're not afraid of the Lu Family striking.
What we're afraid of is them sitting tight and swallowing their anger."
"Now the Lu Family has made its move."
"That shows they're burning with anger."
"The Lu Family can only use this sort of thing to flaunt its authority now."
After hearing Li Jinglin's words,
Lin Shouxin felt that they made sense.
But if the Lu Family really panicked and jumped over the wall,
and came straight for the Lin Family,
the ones who would suffer would still be them.
Li Jinglin seemed to see the worry in Lin Shouxin's heart.
"Master Lin, rest easy."
Li Jinglin set down the lid of his teacup. His voice was steady, carrying the composure of someone in control of the situation.
"For now, let the Lu Family make all the trouble they want.
The more wildly they jump around, the bigger a scene they make,
the more thoroughly they'll lose face later."
He leaned forward slightly and lowered his voice, revealing a bombshell:
"To be frank with you, Master Lin, in two days, I'll spread the word
that my family's Eldest Young Master will personally come to Yinshan County to welcome his bride."
"Wh... What?!"
Lin Shouxin's eyes flew wide. He was so excited he could barely speak coherently.
"Eldest Young Master Li... coming to welcome the bride in person?
H-how could my daughter possibly deserve such an honor?"
Li Jinglin looked at Lin Shouxin's expression.
He couldn't help but feel contempt for how green Lin Shouxin was.
Eldest Young Master Li was coming in person
naturally not for someone as insignificant as Lin Qingyi.
He was coming to personally bring the Lu Family to heel.
Once the news got out,
the more forcefully the Lu Family acted now,
the more ridiculous and wretched they would look
when faced with the imposing spectacle of Eldest Young Master Li's arrival.
Unless the Lu Family truly wanted an all-out war with the Li Family,
they would never dare do anything more outrageous to the Lin Family
right under Eldest Young Master Li's nose.
Did they really dare present the Li Family with a corpse?
If they did, there would be no turning back from an all-out war.
After receiving Li Jinglin's firm assurance,
Lin Shouxin's heart was entirely free of worry.
As long as Eldest Young Master Li came in person,
the Lu Family surely wouldn't dare do anything to the Lin Family.
In the end, Lin Shouxin took his leave of Li Jinglin's room.
Not long after Lin Shouxin left,
another person slipped silently into Li Jinglin's room.
He was slender, with larger-than-usual ears.
His eyes held a hidden glint. He was one of the cultivators Li Jinglin had brought from Xiaoshan,
a Listening Cultivator skilled in eavesdropping and gathering information.
The Listening Cultivator came before Li Jinglin and spoke respectfully:
"Steward Li, there's a powerful Martial Cultivator of unknown strength at the Lu Family estate."
"I had just started listening in when he noticed me."
"He locked onto me instantly. If I hadn't withdrawn quickly, I might have been exposed."
After hearing his subordinate's report,
Li Jinglin wasn't surprised in the slightest.
The Lu Family couldn't have risen so quickly
without a powerful expert protecting them.
Li Jinglin hadn't expected to truly uncover anything in the first place.
"Go get some rest. Don't go near the Lu Family's old residence again."
"Follow the plan we discussed earlier and gather crucial information from other places—things we'll need when we take over Yinshan County."
Seeing the Listening Cultivator hesitate, Li Jinglin asked, "Did something happen on Lawrence's end?"
When Li Jinglin asked, the Listening Cultivator no longer held back.
"Lawrence went straight to the brothel as soon as he arrived."
"He booked ten girls all at once."
"This subordinate is worried he's drawing too much attention and might alert the Lu Family."
Li Jinglin's brows knit slightly at the Listening Cultivator's words.
After a moment's thought, Li Jinglin finally said:
"Let him be. With his strength, unless that Martial Cultivator from the Lu Family comes after him personally, ordinary people won't be able to get near him."
After a pause, Li Jinglin asked, "Anything else?"
The Listening Cultivator shook his head, then left Li Jinglin's room.
The room fell silent once more.
Li Jinglin sipped his tea alone,
gazing at the dusk settling over Yinshan County beyond the window.
His fingers tapped soundlessly on the table as he worked through the possibilities that lay ahead.
About half an hour later,
in a private room on the second floor of Yuelai Restaurant, two streets from Lin Mansion, the window facing the street stood open.
Lu Jing'an set a few silver dollars on the table.
With two seemingly ordinary attendants,
he unhurriedly walked down the stairs,
mingled with the thinning crowd, and headed toward Lu Mansion.
Just moments ago, in this restaurant,
he had [heard] the news he wanted to hear.
And [seen] the people he wanted to see.
On the chessboard, his opponent's pieces had all taken their places.
Now it was his turn to make a move.
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