Honor was often found among dog butchers; faithless hearts belonged to scholars.
-A folk saying
"Splendid, splendid! A shameless wretch like that deserved a kick over the edge. Let's see if he dares come pestering my hall again!"
"Still, that scoundrel is a disciple of the Daoist Order. Why is he so vile?"
Even as Xing Yan shouted his satisfaction, he could not help feeling puzzled. Zhao Wuchen was, after all, Hua Piaochen's friend, and Huang Ran thought well of him. If "things of a kind gather together, and people divide into their own circles," how could the fellow have uttered such filthy, intolerable words?
There was something the youth did not know. Some people in this world wore splendid skins, while their very substance was rotten. When they met those they admired and respected, they unconsciously tucked away their sordid thoughts and assumed an elegant air, discoursing on wind and moon, trading verses with everyone, and looking quite like decent human beings. But once they encountered someone they despised, they automatically put on another face.
Zhao Wuchen was precisely such a snobbish petty man. He came from a great aristocratic family in the Jieyang region, whose ancestors were supposedly royal kin and nobles of the long-vanished Nanyue Kingdom. Relying on that background, he had already held Xing Yan in utter contempt, scarcely treating him as a person. How much less regard would he have for Kou Xueyi, now revealed as an inhuman spirit? Inevitably, he became even more brazen, regarding her as nothing but a cheap commodity.
Unfortunately for Zhao Wuchen, he had miscalculated this time. The fellow was also destined for bad luck: the Hall Master Zhang he had provoked might hold an empty title and be young, but he was learned and sensible, tempered by years amid