100. The Faker

The layout of the Qunyu Court is very elegant. After passing through the main hall, there is a large open space, and then various elegant courtyards are connected by different paved stone paths. The courtyard where Ying Wuchen is entertaining guests is called Caixiao Garden. At this moment, he is surrounded by a group of helpers, sitting around several small round tables, lively cheers and toasts.
The lively atmosphere also attracted several scholar guests from the neighboring Cai Ge Yuan and Cai Ai Yuan.
In fact, there is another reason.
Naturally, it is because Yang Mama told them that this is a reward to the helpers by Ying Wuchen. As the authors of imaginative and naturally flowing poems like "Qingping Diao", the scholar guests from the neighboring gathering must come to pay their respects and admiration.
After all, their purpose in coming to the Qunyu Courtyard today is to observe and gather information about Yuanchen.
In fact, when they first heard this poem yesterday, they were amazed. At that time, they thought about asking Yang Mama for an introduction. However, Yang Mama told them that Yuanchen was busy investigating the secrets of Su Yanru's body. Upon hearing this, these group of literary people, who exude an air of elegance, burst into laughter and even created a few lighthearted poems like "Half shy, half reluctant, turning back to gently admonish" and "In the double bed, mandarin ducks become pairs at night, one pear blossom tree pressing down on a sea of crabapples".
As soon as I walked in, I heard Yang's mother teasingly mention this matter, which embarrassed Ying Wuchen so much that he almost ran away. Although he prided himself on being free-spirited, he couldn't withstand the teasing of this group of jesters.
So when faced with the respectful toasts from the scholars, Yuanchen resorted to his usual trick and drank a few cups before collapsing into the serving dish, refusing to get up no matter how much they called him.
As a result, the scholars who came to toast were pleased with the host's display of hospitality and even shouted, "After finishing this cup, there are still three more cups!" before passing out. They forgot about their differences in status and joined the other commoners in the scene, drinking until dawn before finally dispersing.
----
Yang Mama and Su Yanru supported Ying Wuchen and walked into the room. As soon as the door was closed, Ying Wuchen stood up on his own.
Yang Mama, not surprised, gestured for Su Yanru to bring some water. She smiled at Ying Wuchen and said, "Sir, why did you have to pretend to be drunk and pour it on the table? Look at this mess, tsk tsk."
"If we're going to put on a show, we might as well make it realistic." Wu Chen casually wiped some vegetable soup off his face and took the satin cloth that Su Yanru handed him, without even looking at it, and put it on his head. There was no way to avoid the soup dripping down from above.
After cleaning up, it was only when everything was dust-free that he noticed the room he was in now was not the same as the one he stayed in last night. In fact, it was much more luxurious than the previous one. He felt puzzled and turned to Yang Mama, asking, "Where is this? Why isn't it the same room as yesterday?"
"The master is really unimaginable. He cannot even understand such a simple matter." Mother Yang said as she placed the newly prepared clothes on the embroidered couch, "Before yesterday, Su Yanru had not yet married, so naturally her living conditions were a bit inferior. But now, with your support, her status has risen high. It would be against convention for her to continue living in her previous room."
Finally, Yang's mother said sarcastically, "You don't know, this heartless girl even asked me this morning if she could redeem herself!"
Ying Wuchen said angrily, "I understand perfectly well why you, the snobbish madam, treat her poorly. It's because she didn't make money for you before, so her living conditions were so bad. Now that Su Nanru has successfully made it to the stage, she has the ability to earn money for you, and that's why you've improved her treatment."
As for the statement that she wants to sell her body, Xi Wuchen never took it seriously at all. Even if it is true, Su Yanru would not do it for herself. Since she has no connection with me, what's the point of asking?
The only thing that makes Ying Wuchen curious is that Su Yanru is most likely the money tree planted by Yang Mama herself, so why would she be so negligent?
Although he is curious, Ying Wuchen has never shown any intention of inquiring. Because according to common sense, if the other party wants to tell you, she will tell you no matter what. If she doesn't want to tell you, even if you ask, the most likely outcome is a lie.
Plus, since Suyan Ru once had a close relationship with him, he didn't want to talk about this topic anymore. So he changed the subject and said, "Since Auntie Yang is so efficient, I wonder if she can arrange a place for me to stay tonight?"
"Residence? Isn't this your residence? Is Master not satisfied?" Mother Yang gestured around and said, "Although there are many girls in the courtyard who are willing to offer their pillows, both in appearance and character, they are far inferior to Yuru. Is Master only interested in new melons?"
"······" said Wuchen with a smirk, thinking to himself, "You're thinking too much, Yang Mama."
Then he looked around the room and pondered over what Yang Mama had said, and realized, "So Su Nanru enjoys her current treatment only because of her father's influence?"
So it doesn't count as mooching tonight?
No, wait, I think I got "Qing Ping Diao" last night too, so I'm not really a moocher.
But then again, if I think about it, wouldn't I be even happier if I mooched?
If there is anything happier than freeload, it must be double freeload, or freeload squared.
Indeed, in this world, freeload is the essence of life.
Once she understood, Wu Chen smiled and said with a modest face, "Miss Su, are you free tonight?"
"What is she busy with? Didn't the master say that he doesn't like eating with others? She will only be busy when you are full or want a change of taste," Yang Mama's words were very straightforward and she didn't mince her words. Su Yanru remained indifferent and silently stood by the door without saying a word.
"Okay, you rest early. I'll go outside and see those scholars. After all, they are the priority care objects requested by the governor." Yang's mother waved her hand and was about to leave. Yin Wuchen stopped her and said, "A branch of beautiful flowers carries the fragrance, with clouds and rain in the misty mountains my heart breaks in vain. I ask, who in the Han Palace can compare? Pity the flying swallow leaning on a new attire. With this poem, I repaid tonight's expenses and hope Yang's mother won't be displeased."
After finishing speaking, Shen Ying moved on to pose as a master, closed his eyes, and waited for the flattery of Yang's mother's applause.
After waiting for a half day without hearing anything, he opened his eyes in confusion.
Yang's mother had a thoughtful expression on her face.
It was only when Ying Wuchen waved his hand in front of her that she snapped out of it.
"Mr. Ying, I know the allusion of 'King Xiang had a dream, the goddess had no intention,' but who is the 'pitiful swallows leaning on a new makeup' referring to?" Yang's mother asked in surprise after coming back to her senses.
“······”
Okay, I thought Yang Mama was a pseudo-intellectual, but it seems she doesn't even know who Zhao Feiyan is.
However, Ying Wuchen didn't explain much and casually said, "Anyway, she's just a great beauty from a thousand years ago."
Yang's mother is even less concerned when she sees him speaking casually, as long as it's not one of the girls from Fragrant Pavilion.
Now that he has another poem of similar quality, Yang's mother naturally went out happily to promote him. As for how someone who had just gotten drunk could write a new masterpiece, she didn't care.
And those literati and inksters outside, they naturally delight in such carefree and spontaneous behavior, and they couldn't care less whether he is truly drunk or fake drunk.
----
“I'm not that good.” Su Yanru served Ying Wuchen to bed and whispered, “The master's poems must refer to the person in his heart.”
You Xichen didn't answer, but went into bed to rest.
It's not that he believes in the rumors of auspicious or inauspicious, but because he was outside the whole night last night and wants to see if there will be a different scenery inside today.
----
Early the next morning, Ying Wuchen woke up Su Nanru, who was still asleep. He then put on the clothes prepared by Yang Mama from yesterday and was ready to go out. However, Su Nanru wanted to get up and help, so Ying Wuchen pulled the blanket and stuffed her back into bed, saying, "You rest well. If you want to redeem yourself, then stay quietly during this period. After the Ghost Festival, I will find a way to comb your hair. By then, you can explore freely in the vast world."
After he finished speaking, he hurriedly left, after all, performing a play requires the full package.
Whether it's the workers outside or Su Nv Ru, the show must be done in full.
For those hungover people outside, wouldn't it be amazing if they could wake up in the morning and have a warm bowl of rice porridge?
For Su Yan, Yun Chen's strategy is more gentle, after all, she is not sure how long she has been working at the Qunyu Academy, and how much negative emotions and careful thoughts she has accumulated, so she can only adopt a roundabout tactic.
According to the words of "Central Air Conditioning's Fourth Brother," it means using a gentle and warm image to conquer the other person, without seeking to enter her heart, only hoping that she can remember his goodness in her heart. To further expand, it means hoping that Su Yanru can bring favorable emotions about himself when reporting work to the person behind her.
Regarding the last sentence about Hui'er not sparing any effort to redeem herself, let's just treat it as a joke. We are all people from the martial arts world, who would take it seriously?
----
Ying Wuchen fully portrayed the image of a caring boss, knocking on Yang Mama's door early in the morning and arranging for a group of women to serve porridge to the helpers. He also kindly imparted a set of Fengzhong's Law to her.
For a normal person, if the feelings at the peak and ending of an experience are pleasurable, then the overall experience is also pleasurable for them.
Yang's mother then said, "If it weren't for You Yingjun's face, who would care about those poor ghosts?"
This is why Yang's mother is not simple. In one sentence, she not only elevated You Wuchen's identity but also gave him face, while conveying her own position and emotions.
As for Yang's mother's behavior of giving face, Wuchen should teach her another way of looking at things: that is, looking at a person's additional value.
Although these people do not have the ability to consume at Qunyu Court now, even in the future for a long time, who doesn't have one or two wealthy friends? As long as they share their feelings with their friends, everyone will naturally understand. Since Qunyu Court can take care of the feelings of the poor, it is no longer just an ordinary Qinlou Chu Pavilion, at worst, it should be a Qinlou Chu Pavilion with a soul.
Yang's mother gave a thumbs up and exclaimed that she had learned from it.
In fact, all of this was a fabricated story that Yin Wuchen made up for convenience. He would just say whatever was beneficial to himself. As for whether Yang's mother believes it or not, it's entirely up to her own judgement. What does it have to do with me?
This is like a gamble. If Aunt Yang wins, everyone will be happy. Losing is just a matter of a few taels of silver.
Ying Wuchen believes that Aunt Yang can afford to lose.
After waking up this group of helpers, Yin Jiawo held a short mobilization meeting for them in the Qunyu Courtyard. The theme of the meeting was the Yulanpen Festival dinner tonight. These people had just eaten and drank to their heart's content under the accompaniment of the maidservants in the Qunyu Courtyard. Now they were full of enthusiasm. If at this moment, Yin Jiawo asked them to take explosives and go blow up tanks, I'm afraid there would be several people vying to volunteer.
After finishing up things here, he hastily left the Gugong Park.
At this time, the streets were still quiet, with only a few early morning pedestrians and some breakfast stalls.
Originally, he didn't actually need to get up so early, but it was just to convey a message to everyone. As an envoy of the Ghost Festival, he is not always indulging in eating, drinking, and having fun. Instead, he is busy with "official duties" every day, which can be very tiring.
Another main reason is that when he has something on his mind, his sleep is very shallow. And today at the third quarter of the fifth hour, around eight o'clock in the evening, the Yulan Festival banquet officially began.
Although he always appears calm and composed on weekdays, it is impossible for him not to feel any nervousness at all. After all, the success of this dinner party will determine the direction of his future development.
If successful, then it would be fine. But once failed, all the previous planning and calculations would go up in smoke. And what one would face, apart from the retaliatory actions of the business associations, is also the denunciation and criticism from the people in the city.
Even the suppression of Emperor Fudidu must be included.
So no matter what, this time it must be successful.
Ying Wuchen arrived early at Yingxiantai, because Emperor Fudidu had previously instructed that people from Tian Ting or Ling Shan could come here at any time today.
Although he had already made a plan to "break up" with Emperor Fengdu in his heart, it is far from that point, so at this time, Wu Chen still has to follow Emperor Fengdu's arrangements without worry.
In front of you is the newly built Yinxian Terrace, which was also constructed by Luo Qing and Bai Shouxin three days ago at his request. Of course, as a reward, he pointed Bai Shouxin towards a path of wealth. As for Luo Qing, they now have a relationship where they share prosperity and losses, so Ying Wuchen couldn't be bothered to talk to her about anything trivial.
In order to rush to finish a high-end and classy Welcome Platform, Wuxian also recruited the designer who had previously designed the main stage for the banquet. As a result, this guy is also quite clever. He directly demolished half of the existing foundation and used the extra bricks to pave the outer perimeter, creating not only a high-end look but also a wild and beautiful atmosphere.
Of course, this is just the designer's own perception. In the eyes of Ying Wuchen, this is just a slightly organized wasteland with a few pieces of broken stones. Listening to the designer shamelessly describing his design inspiration, Ying Wuchen was so angry that he almost wanted to bury him in the crevices of those bricks and stones.
However, now that things have come to this point, Ying Wuchen doesn't have the time to blame and complain about anything. He can only make up for it as soon as possible, or else there won't be enough time.
Fortunately, he has always been resourceful. He took out the brick that he had been carrying on his back, and asked Luo Qing to restore the brick to its original form as a stone tablet. Then, he hired a stone carver to engrave a touching story on it - "The Peacock Flies Southeast".
And this stretch of pebble road extending from Yingxiandai is divided into boulders like "You should be a boulder", so this is not an ordinary Yingxian Road, but a Yingxian Road with soul and story.
Nowadays, Wuchen is leaning against a stone monument, hugging his knees, lost in thought, organizing all the various incidents that have occurred in the past three months.
It is now too late to fill in the gaps, so he can only try his best to make amends after unexpected events occur. Therefore, at this moment, he is thinking about where is the easiest breakthrough point and how he should respond in case of any mishap.
He actually wanted to ask Su Yanru about the attitude of the instigator behind her last night, but after hesitating for a long time, Yu Wuchen still couldn't bring himself to ask.
"Now, only you can accompany me to relieve boredom." Yu Wuchen patted the head of the tortoise hanging outside its shell.
There is still no response from the Shizhi creature, it is still half dead and asleep. If it wasn't for the fact that it eats every day, Ying Wuchen would think it was dead.
Bored, Ying Wuchen continued to play with the Shizhi creature for a while. He found an empty space and took out a hairpin from his pocket, randomly sketching on the ground. According to the current progress, everything is going smoothly, even if there may be some potential instability, he has made appropriate arrangements in advance.
Before going to Quanyuyuan yesterday, he specially met with Hou Han to arrange the affairs in Chengxi. After the arrangement, Hou Han reported that the internal upheaval in the Gongcao Division was forcibly stopped by Prince Bingcheng Wang using tough measures.
Originally, Wuchun didn't bother much about it. After all, falsely accusing Chen Hanyuan was just a way to make him quiet and not disturb their plans. Now that Prince Biancheng has taken action to discipline him, it is naturally a great thing.
Can Hou Hanqi said later that King BIANcheng did not punish Chen Hanyuan and Lin Tianyi.
This matter is very subtle.
If it is to consider the face of the underworld and not to deal with them at the time of the Yulan Feast, at least warn them verbally, but King BIANcheng did not do so.
At the same time, Hou Han brought another explosive news: According to the brothers who have contacts with several other involved personnel in the Judicial Yuan, they reported that "we cannot act now, we need to observe the situation."
Ying Wuchen can now be almost certain that Prince Biancheng must be the one targeting him from behind.
Because the information gathered from Hou Han and his brothers indicates that Prince Biangcheng has already made dismissals within the Ministry of Rites, those involved people are saying things like "wait and see" in order to obtain the evidence they just collected from Lin, the shopkeeper.
As a smart person, Wuchen immediately discerned the different meanings behind it.
From a normal perspective, since Prince Biancheng has prevented internal strife within the Department of Meritorious Officials, whether he punishes or not, it should be done openly. However, in reality, he shows leniency on the surface, but strikes with heavy blows behind the scenes.
This can only indicate that Chen Hanyuan must have a connection with the Prince of Biancheng, at least closer than others.
Another reason that prompted Qu Shiwu to make this judgment was that the Prince of Biancheng publicly announced that the rumors of Chen Hanyuan and Lin Tianyi tarnishing the Lord's reputation were deliberately spread by someone.
If the notice posted says that there is no evidence found, he wouldn't think too much about it, but the notice deliberately includes words such as "someone" and "intentionally," which, in the opinion of Ying Wuchen, seems a bit deliberate and unnecessary.
Because the common people, although infuriated by the defamation of their "noble and upright" city lord, only need to know that this matter is false, and they do not need to know if they have been misled by others.
But the King of Biancheng still did so.
Ying Wuchen knew that this was his follow-up plan, on one hand, to elevate himself to a high position, on the other hand, to sow seeds in the minds of the people. When the event erupts, he will become the main culprit of deceiving the people and superiors.
Once the common people realize that they have been deceived, they naturally need to release their emotions, and I become the outlet for their emotional release.
By taking advantage of this opportunity, King Biancheng can become the "righteous" and discerning "celestial lord" in the mouths of the common people.
"It's really a clever plan to kill two birds with one stone," murmured Wucheng to himself as he wiped the lines on the floor clean.
Although the two tactics of King Biancheng were prepared hastily, if used properly, they could also have unexpected effects.
After all, people are vain, so suddenly entering a high position and facing others' praise, it is inevitable to feel a bit proud.
But Yuwenchen is not some inexperienced newcomer, even though his current status seems prosperous, it is like a mirage, a castle in the air that will be destroyed in an instant after a strong wind.
Because I have no roots in the underworld.
And as someone without roots, I naturally have to be cautious and careful when taking action, fearing making mistakes or wrong steps.
Moreover, I haven't done anything significant for the benefit of the country or the people, so why would the people think well of me?
Just because I helped them to talk to the Lord of the city?
Don't joke around.
Although the gratitude of the people at that time was indeed from the bottom of their hearts, as long as they left that scene, all they cared about was a few small things in their pockets. It won't take long for them to even forget who Ying Wuchen is. As for the things I did for them, how could they be more important than the silver in their pockets and the food in their homes?
Based on the timeline, it can be inferred that the other party doesn't accept my goodwill, as I first conveyed it through Su Yanru and then the Lord of Biancheng dealt with the officials of the Ministry of Works. Since the other party is no longer on my side, there's no need for me to continue ingratiating myself to someone who doesn't acknowledge it.
"If it weren't for the fact that I have been cautious and careful since the beginning, I might have fallen into this trap." Yi Wuchen adjusted his emotions and managed to force out a standard smile. "Just the right amount—eight teeth."