Buying a slot? Wu Youren frowned at that. "Was it you?"
"How could I afford it?" Liu Jingming spread his hands. "Don't bother asking. The banknotes would go straight into your hands."
The hostage residence was just a somewhat more luxurious cage. Banknotes mattered far less than hard currency-blood food and medicinal meals, for instance.
But they had one advantage: banknotes were very easy to hide.
His meaning was perfectly clear: if you were given hard currency, you might not be able to keep it; offering banknotes... was already quite a sincere gesture.
But Wu Youren knew perfectly well that if someone really wanted to seize it by force, he had no way to refuse, unless he wanted to fall into the water again.
He shook his head decisively. "Thank you for looking out for me, Brother Jingming, but... I'm not selling!"
Liu Jingming nodded slightly. He had not expected the other man to sell his slot, either.
"I was only asking. You've finally taken a step ahead of us, and that deserves congratulations. Don't forget me in the future."
He was not annoyed at being refused, because in his eyes, the other man was already well worth winning over.
Unfortunately, there was something of a gap in their status, and they had not been particularly close before. He could hardly change his attitude too drastically on such short notice.
Not wanting to provoke him, Wu Youren stopped questioning the list's reliability and instead spoke in all seriousness.
"You could try working at it too, Brother Jingming... if even I can do it, there's no reason you can't."
"I can't follow your example." Liu Jingming gave him a thoughtful look.
Everyone had plenty of questions about this lord's grandson making the list-how had he won His Highness's favor?
Shi Linyuan and his companions had shown a passing level of awareness and ability when it came to keeping secrets. At least, no related news had leaked out yet.
More people guessed that perhaps, because this fellow had "attempted suicide," His Highness had bent the rules to avoid an even bigger scandal.
Liu Jingming believed that was something he could not imitate.
If playing dead turned into actually dying, he would suffer a tremendous loss, and his family would suffer along with him.
"My family only holds a lordship," Wu Youren said candidly. "Brother Jingming, your surname is Liu!"
Your father may have married into the family, but your surname really is Liu!
"That's true." Brother Jingming nodded. In legal terms, he was a Liu with roots straight and seedlings red, and he deeply resented his clansmen's prejudice.
Somewhat tempted, he said, "Then I'll give it a try."
Unfortunately, not everyone was as straightforward as Liu Jingming.
That evening, Wu Youren deliberately went to the dining hall a little late.
Great Liang's Office of Protocol preserved the most basic proprieties, providing the hostages with basic food and lodging.
However, those were only up to the standard of ordinary people in Liang. Anyone who wanted to eat better had to find their own way.
It was fortunate they did that, too. Otherwise, the mere tenth of his household allowance Wu Youren still received would never have kept him alive until now.
He had thought arriving late would let him avoid the limelight. Instead, the dining hall was actually packed.
Even a few hostages who never ate in the dining hall were there.
Among them was even a concubine-born son of the Duke of Wei.
This man was already over forty, more than a decade older than the Seventeenth Prince. He was not only a personal guard but also captain of the guard detail.
Yet he chose to ignore Wu Youren's arrival altogether, simply sitting in the dining hall and leisurely drinking tea.
The dining hall had never been very large, a little over a hundred square meters, while the entire hostage contingent numbered over five hundred.
Aside from the hostages, there were guards, study attendants, servants, menials, and the like...
Ordinarily, everyone ate in shifts. With Wu Youren's status, he generally belonged to the second shift.
The catch was that Jin Garden's dining hall had a rule: food had to be eaten inside and could not be taken away.
A country as vast as Liang should not have cared about that little expense. Most likely, they were worried about the possibility of "secretly stockpiling provisions."
But that was fucking ridiculous. It was all cooked food... wouldn't it spoil after a few days?
Wu Youren thought this had to be that workplace PUA routine: whether a restriction served any purpose or not, impose it first!
While he had still been recovering a little while ago, he had been allowed to take food away as an exception. Now he had to eat at the dining hall.
With the place packed, Wu Youren collected his food and squatted outside the dining hall entrance like a menial to eat.
Appearances really did not matter anymore. Getting a full meal was the way to go.
The people of Liang were happy to see them embarrass themselves, too, so no one interfered.
He had barely eaten a few mouthfuls when two men walked over, and one lifted his leg to kick his tray.
If the tray really was kicked over, the dining hall would ban him from eating there for three days on the grounds of "wasting food."
Wu Youren had martial training. He abruptly darted diagonally aside, moving two meters away, then straightened his back and stood upright in the same motion.
Protecting his tray with one hand, he glared at the other man. "What's wrong with you?"
Both men opposite him were hostages, and both outranked him. The one who had kicked was Lei Lixing, an earl's second son.
This man had always looked down on him, but ordinarily would not pick a fight without cause-he truly was not worth the trouble!
But that kick had been so malicious that Wu Youren was finding it hard to endure.
"Hand over your slot," Lei Lixing said expressionlessly.
He was on the thin side, but he was no weakling. Right now, he did not even offer an excuse; he simply demanded it by force.
This really was looking down on him a little too much. Wu Youren smiled faintly. "Have your elder brother put in a word, and I'll give it to you!"
Lei Lixing's expression changed abruptly. "You... have a death wish!"
His elder brother was the earl's eldest son, and the two brothers actually got along very well.
Unfortunately, their birth mother had died young, and the earl had remarried and had more children.
The earl's eldest son had a secure position, but the second son... those who knew, knew.
What angered Lei Lixing was not that his elder brother's word could never reach Jin Garden, but that the other man was tearing open his scars!
After eight years as hostages in a foreign country, everyone knew exactly what everyone else's circumstances were. They could hit a sore spot every time.
"Enough." A cold snort came from inside. It was the Duke of Wei's concubine-born son, speaking mildly. "Discuss it properly. Don't disgrace our nation!"
Given his status, he should have known why Wu Youren had been chosen for the list.
But he had no intention of stopping this, either. He merely stressed that infighting among the hostages would make them a laughingstock for the people of Liang.
Lei Lixing could be unreasonable with Wu Youren, but he dared not disobey this man.
The corner of his mouth twitched as he looked coldly at the person before him.
After pausing for several breaths, he finally asked softly, "You don't really want to die, do you?"
"This is His Highness's generous favor." Wu Youren looked at him and spoke without a change in expression. "If you object, you can take it up with His Highness."
The other man certainly had the standing to see the Seventeenth Prince, unlike him, who could only gaze respectfully from afar.
But how would Lei Lixing dare approach His Highness? He snorted coldly. "Making the list through self-harm... you're the shame of Great Jin!"
This fellow's access to information was clearly somewhat inferior.
Wu Youren had no interest in correcting his mistaken understanding.
He smiled faintly. "So you only think His Highness was unfair. I thought... you intended to take first place in the next academic examination!"
Taking first place in the academic examination was essentially equivalent to betraying Great Jin. This accusation, conjured out of thin air, was rather venomous.
More importantly, the earlier remark about "His Highness being unfair" was not much better.
"You've gone too far, Youren," the man beside Lei Lixing spoke up. "No one said His Highness was unfair. He was merely deceived by you."
Wu Youren nodded at that. "Oh, so His Highness is easily deceived... I didn't know that before."
"You!" Lei Lixing nearly erupted again. That fucking mouth of yours is really begging for a beating.
The man beside him reached out to hold him back. "Brother Lixing... decorum!"
Ultimately, with the Duke of Wei's son sitting nearby, it really would not do to take certain things too far.
"You... very good!" Lei Lixing said through bared teeth. "This isn't over between us!"
Young people's grudges really did arise for no apparent reason. He would never consider what he himself had done wrong.
Wu Youren's response was to squat down and keep eating.
More than one or two people had their eyes on his slot, and quite a few were silently watching this scene.
Relying on his family status, Lei Lixing had approached most directly, and most recklessly.
What worried him was that if someone else snatched the slot first, the opponent he would have to face would be harder to handle.
He would not necessarily fear that person, but since taking it from Wu Youren required the least effort, why not hurry?
Yet he had ended up with his face covered in dust, which also brought the other covetous onlookers to their senses-the little fellow was not easy to provoke!
More importantly, with the Duke of Wei's son presiding there, violence was inappropriate, so... this was all they could do.
Wu Youren ate extremely quickly. As a noble scion from a military family, he was very familiar with this way of eating.
In the blink of an eye, he finished a heaping tray, then got food twice more, swept it all away like wind scattering clouds, and immediately left!
A half-grown boy could eat his father out of house and home. He was full, but with so little fat in the food, he would get hungry especially quickly.
Watching him leave, quite a few people's eyes shifted as they silently made their calculations.
Wu Youren felt particularly helpless too, but there was nothing he could do.
His place on the list was too conspicuous, and his virtue did not match his position... no, his strength did not match his position!
The next day, he attended morning lessons as usual. When class ended, Yan Sanmin deliberately lingered to wait for him again.
The female hostages generally ate with His Highness, but she had also learned what had happened in the dining hall yesterday.
She said solemnly, "You'd better sell the slot. I'm serious!"
So the person who wanted to buy the slot yesterday was you? Wu Youren could hardly avoid thinking that.
But getting him to agree was absolutely impossible. He shook his head slightly. "Sorry, I've paid a great deal for this!"
At that, Yan Sanmin's expression instantly turned cold. "Don't you have any idea what your own status amounts to?"
What she meant by that went far beyond his simply being a lord's grandson.
If Wu Youren knew Lei Lixing's background, how could others not know his circumstances?
Yet he answered without any change in expression, "If you think something is improper, Sister Sanmin, you can raise an objection to my status!"
Yan Sanmin narrowed her small eyes at that, and the flesh on her face twitched twice. "Good, very good... it seems you really have come up in the world!"
The hostages from Great Jin each had their own reasons for coming to Liang. They truly made up a panorama of the human world.
But there was no question that, for them to come as hostages, their identities had all been endorsed by Jin.
(First update, celebrating this book's first Alliance Leader, "Mount Huaguo's Old Mu," a longtime reader who has always supported Fengxiao. Thank you very much.)