Zhao Huaiyuan rubbed his chin suspiciously, studying Jing Luoluo for a long time before saying, "Hmm, little Jing! Something's off about you!"
This abrupt remark gave Jing Luoluo a start. No way, had his cover been blown so soon?
"What? What are you talking about? What's off?"
Zhao Huaiyuan took a few steps closer and looked him up and down. "You've never cared about these little trinkets before. What's gotten into you today?"
Jing Luoluo wrung his brains for an excuse before saying, "Oh, come on! If you were stuck lying in bed at home for half a month, would you still be immune to these sorts of things when you finally came out? You have no idea how cooped up I've been lately—just lying around day in and day out. Now that I can finally get out, of course I want to look around and take it all in!"
Zhao Huaiyuan was simple-minded enough to swallow this explanation completely, his doubts dispelled as he threw a friendly arm around Jing Luoluo's shoulders. "Let's go! This heir will take you to a good spot. I guarantee you've never seen anything like it!"
Jing Luoluo went along with Zhao Huaiyuan, moving forward step by step. *Phew! That was a close one! Almost gave myself away.*
The two of them stopped in front of a shop. Jing Luoluo looked up, assessing the storefront; the decorations clearly showed it hadn't been open for very long.
"Qingfeng Teahouse! Is this new?" Jing Luoluo felt the name sounded vaguely familiar, though he couldn't quite place where he had heard it.
Zhao Huaiyuan said cheerfully, "It opened not long after you got hurt. Let me tell you, the storyteller here is really interesting! You'll see once you listen for a bit."
Zhao Huaiyuan must have been a frequent visitor lately, as a waitstaff hurried over and said, "Ah, Your Lordship, you've arrived! I've kept the second-floor private room reserved for you. Shall I show you the way?"
"Yeah, I brought a friend with me today. Bring up some tea and pastries!"
"Right away! I'll go place the order now!"
The two were led to a private room on the second floor, completely unaware that several pairs of eyes had been tracking them since they entered.
Since the teahouse was primarily meant for listening to storytelling, the second-floor rooms were not soundproofed. As the pair sat down, eating pastries, sipping tea, and listening to the talk, the sound of men laughing drifted over from the next room.
"Hahaha, Brother Jing, you must be joking. When it comes to scholarship, I simply cannot compare to you!"
Jing Luoluo and Zhao Huaiyuan exchanged a glance. Could the person next door be Jing Shaoxuan? After all, in the Capital, the only family with the surname Jing was the Duke's Estate.
"Who knows? Let's listen to what they're saying," Jing Luoluo murmured. Zhao Huaiyuan nodded in agreement.
More laughter came from next door before Jing Shaoxuan's voice rang out: "I was merely fortunate enough to earn the Third Prince's appreciation, which is how I became his study companion. Alas, if not for the Third Prince, I'd have no hope of taking the imperial exams this year!"
His words left much to the imagination, and someone immediately chimed in, "Oh? What does Brother Jing mean by that?"
In truth, who in the Capital hadn't heard about the trouble at the Duke's Estate recently? Remarks like this were clearly meant for Jing Luoluo in the next room to hear.
Jing Shaoxuan put on a desolate expression. "I don't know how I offended my younger brother to make him frame our entire family and draw the ire of our eldest uncle. With no other choice, we... we had to move out of the Duke's Estate. I don't mind for myself, but I feel terrible for my two younger sisters—they're both at the age for marriage!"
Jing Shaoxuan cleverly left the rest unsaid. Qingfeng Teahouse had been extremely popular lately, and anyone able to secure a second-floor private room was a person of standing.
With words like these, anyone who needed to hear them would certainly hear them!
"Brother Jing must be talking about that good-for-nothing Jing Luoluo. He's always been totally uneducated and incompetent, so it's no surprise he'd pull a stunt like framing his family!"
Condemnations rang out from the next room. Jing Shaoxuan curled the corners of his lips into a malicious smile. *The harsher they talk, the better. Once that little bastard storms over to make a scene, the bigger the spectacle, the better!*
Jing Luoluo nibbled on a pastry with utter indifference, while Zhao Huaiyuan's face flushed red with anger. He slammed a hand down on the table, sending tea splashing everywhere.
"Hey? Doesn't your hand hurt? I'm not even mad, why are you getting this worked up?" Jing Luoluo stared at Zhao Huaiyuan with puzzled eyes.
This reaction actually tamped down a good deal of Zhao Huaiyuan's fury. "They're talking about you like that—how can you not be angry at all? Did hitting your head really scramble your brains?"
Jing Luoluo massaged his temples and said speechlessly, "My brains aren't scrambled. If anything, this has made a lot of things crystal clear to me!"
He had been thinking deeply about recent events. The original body owner had never done anything truly wicked, so why did the outside world constantly spread rumors that he was a good-for-nothing scoundrel?
Coupled with everything the second branch of the family had done, he strongly suspected it was Jing Shaoxuan who had been out ruining his reputation.
The modern-day Jing Luoluo might not care about such things as reputation, but Jing Luoluo the character in the book could not afford to ignore it—not when this was ancient times, an era where reputation mattered above all else!
He pointed toward the teahouse entrance, signaling Zhao Huaiyuan to look. "Look over there. If someone comes in, can't you see them clearly from up here on the second floor?"
Clueless about what scheme he was hatching, Zhao Huaiyuan nodded blankly. "Anyone with eyes can see!"
"Exactly. The people next door couldn't possibly have missed us walking in. Since they knew I was here, yet still spoke that loudly, isn't it obvious they were deliberately spinning those lies for me to hear?"
Jing Luoluo shot Zhao Huaiyuan an arrogant, proud look. The latter, however, looked completely baffled. "Then why would they purposely let us hear it? Aren't they just asking to get beaten up?!"
"How do you even survive in Prince An's Estate, let alone ask that? You can't even see through a petty trick like this?"
As he finished speaking, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind. *Wait a minute.* In the original book, Jing Luoluo didn't seem to have anyone named Zhao Huaiyuan by his side.
After racking his brains to recall the details, he finally remembered: the Heir of Prince An's Estate in the book was supposedly a concubine-born son named Zhao Changfeng!
And once an heir was established, it was practically impossible to replace him—unless... unless the original heir unfortunately died young!
He carefully studied Zhao Huaiyuan's plump, tightly squeezed-together facial features. Had this kid been this fat since childhood?
"Hey! Are you going to keep talking or what? Leaving half your sentence hanging—what's that about?" Zhao Huaiyuan urged impatiently.
Jing Luoluo had no choice but to break it down for him: "Think about it. With your temper and mine, if we heard someone maliciously badmouthing us, wouldn't our first instinct be to rush over and beat them to a pulp? But what kind of place is this? Who are the people sitting next door? If this got out, the first thing people would discuss is the fact that the two of us started a street brawl. Who would care about the truth?"
Hearing this, Zhao Huaiyuan froze in place, taking a long while to respond. "Little Jing... where exactly did you hit your head?"
Jing Luoluo didn't understand what he meant. "When I went to burn incense at Sihe Mountain outside the city! Why?"
Zhao Huaiyuan slapped his thigh excitedly. "Tomorrow, I'm going to have my aunt take me to get my head smashed too! Your brain got way sharper after taking that hit!"
At that, Jing Luoluo really wanted to crack open Zhao Huaiyuan's skull to see what was actually inside. He had just laid out such a serious, detailed explanation, and the guy hadn't absorbed a single word of it!
"Forget it, forget it. Even if you smashed your brain, it wouldn't do any good! You're a lost cause!!!"
Zhao Huaiyuan just let out a silly, goofy laugh. "Little Jing, so what do we do next?"