"Shang Xingyu? Isn't he that good-for-nothing wastrel who was out drinking with five women just the other days—"
"Clack!" A teacup smashed directly into the mouth of the man speaking.
"Xingyu!!" Shang Xiuyuan furrowed his handsome brows.
Before he could say another word, however, a second teacup hurled straight toward Zhang Yuanzhuo's head.
"Enough!" Shang Xiuyuan pulled Zhang Yuanzhuo out of the way. As the teacup shattered on the floor, he looked back and ordered, "Go down and escort the Second Young Master up here!"
"Yes!" Two servants from the General's Mansion rushed up the stairs.
Shang Xingyu curled his lip. "Fine, fine, why go to all this trouble? I'll go down myself. By the way, Big Brother, make sure you pay my tab here at Juxian Teahouse. And those two cups I just smashed—they're the most expensive ones they have, so remember to pay for them, too.
"I was actually planning to pawn the jade pendant my maternal grandfather gave me, but don't you and Father both want that? If I pawned it, you two wouldn't be able to swindle it from me anymore."
Shang Xiuyuan's temple twitched. Watching the fellow who was being held by the servants yet still wore a grinning face, he felt a surge of stifled rage in his chest. "Apologize!"
"Apologize for what?" Shang Xingyu raised his voice in surprise. "Did I say something wrong? A bunch of well-read scholars like you, guessing at the imperial will yet not daring to utter a critique! You only dare to sneak around behind people's backs speaking ill of a woman.
"What? Did you see it with your own eyes, or do you have some other evidence? Calling you gossiping hags is an insult to gossiping hags! At least what gossiping hags say has some logic and backing to it. But you lot, a bunch of learned scholars, sit here condemning people based on your own wild imaginations, and now you won't even let people speak?"
Shang Xingyu dropped "learned scholars" this way and "learned scholars" that way, his thick-skinned shamelessness reaching its absolute peak.
Yet it left every single person present utterly speechless, unable to utter a single word of rebuttal.
And still, he wasn't finished. He suddenly leaned right up to someone's face. "I remember you! The eldest son of the Left Assistant Censor, what was his name again? Fang... Fang Shaohui! Right! Since you're so dissatisfied with His Majesty only granting Qi Shuxian a lower-fifth-rank post, why don't you have your father submit a memorial requesting it?"
He then leaned right up to the man who had been struck by his teacup. "And you. Is drinking with five women considered debauchery? If someone with a dirty mind sees everything as dirty, then does that mean when you're with your mother, your older sisters, and your younger sisters, you're also out whoring? Pah!"
"You—you!" The man trembled with rage, wanting to hurl abuses, but held back by his pride.
Ignoring him now, Shang Xingyu turned his attention to Zhang Yuanzhuo, who was still being held back by Shang Xiuyuan. "Zhang Yuanzhuo, is it? Before you look down on me, you ought to take a look at what kind of trash you are yourself. I heard you've been negotiating a marriage recently?"
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk," he circled around Zhang Yuanzhuo before dropping a stunning revelation: "I wonder if the young ladies discussing marriage with you know that you actually... prefer men?"
Zhang Yuanzhuo: "..."
Shang Xiuyuan: "..."
Shang Xiuyuan instinctively let go of the hand he had on Zhang Yuanzhuo and took a step to the side.
Seized with fury, Zhang Yuanzhuo clutched his chest and glared viciously at Shang Xingyu.
"What are you looking at? This young master is dashing and debonair—even if I looked again, I'd never fancy a dead cut-sleeve like you!"
"Pfft..." Recovering from her shock, Tinglan couldn't help bursting into laughter.
As for Sheng Zhiwan, she was at a loss for words.
In her past life, she hadn't had much contact with the illustrious Prince Qinyu; she had only heard that while he was in the Capital, he was a willful, lawless wastrel who stopped at nothing, offending no end of people until he finally stirred up some massive trouble and was driven out of the family in a fit of rage by General Shang, vanishing from the scene entirely thereafter.
When he finally reappeared, the eastern border had fallen into chaos. Dongwo warships were rampaging deep into Sheng State, and the common people wailed in misery.
An obscure force known as the Yu Army suddenly burst onto the scene. At first, no one held out any hope for this "bandit" army. It wasn't until victory after victory rolled in, until the Yu Army drove the invading bandits out of Sheng State, that His Emperor Father finally began to take them seriously and ordered Qi Shuxian to lead a delegation for peace talks.
Only after those negotiations did it finally come to light that the commander of the Yu Army was none other than Shang Xingyu—the former number one wastrel of the Capital and the good-for-nothing second son of General Shang.
Even now, Sheng Zhiwan could vividly recall the look on Qi Shuxian's face back then.
A faint smile tugged at the corner of her lips.
"Princess, Princess! A fight's broken out! That eldest Young Master Shang is actually trying to force the second young master to kneel and apologize!" Tinglan said anxiously.
Although she had previously thought Second Young Master Shang was outrageous and dissolute, but... but he had stood up and spoken out for her princess! Tinglan suddenly felt this man wasn't as terrifying as the rumors made him out to be!
Sheng Zhiwan's eyes flickered slightly.
"Open the window," she commanded.
"Yes!" Tinglan's face lit up with excitement. It was high time to scare the wits out of this bunch of sour, gossiping—no, gossiping scholars who talked behind people's backs!
"This princess did indeed originate from the imperial family, and I am indeed arrogant and extravagant! But ignorant and shallow, a mere woman playing at scheming—hm, I never knew I had acquired such a reputation," a calm female voice drifted down from upstairs.
The servants who had been forcefully trying to make Shang Xingyu kneel paused, and Shang Xiuyuan also raised his head in astonishment.
Sheng Zhiwan remained seated by the window, her calm gaze sweeping over the men who had just been running their mouths.
For a moment, the crowd failed to react, standing in a daze as they stared at the luxurious and dazzling woman by the window. It wasn't until they caught the words "this princess" from her recent remarks that the first person, and then a second...
One after another, every single person's expression changed drastically!