Chapter 50: Lan Ruoting Has Ruined Me

Shang Chaozong was only a breath away from completely losing his temper. There were limits to what a man could endure, and he looked ready to go mad with rage. Ordinarily, a retainer cultivator still counted as a subordinate.

Niu Youdao's situation might be unusual. Shang Chaozong's personal strength was limited and he had no way to restrain him, so in practice he could not control the man at all. But at least in name, the relationship still existed. Who had ever seen a subordinate like this?

He had actually dared arrange a marriage for his lord on his own initiative, without so much as saying a word beforehand. How was that any different from selling his own lord? By now, the personal guard finally understood. So His Highness truly had known nothing about this! Lan Ruoting stroked his beard in thought for a moment, then waved the guard away.

Only after the man withdrew did he slowly say, "Your Highness, calm your anger. I'm afraid this is still aimed at borrowing troops."

Shang Shuqing nodded gently as well.

"Brother, Mr. Lan has a point. Marriage and borrowing troops do not conflict. If anything, the marriage may help. Do you remember what Master Dao said before leaving? He warned that Brother might have to suffer a small grievance. Perhaps this is what he meant."

Shang Chaozong forced himself to calm down. The anger on his face slowly receded.

Once he recovered a little reason, he said heavily, "Feng Ruonan is one of Feng Lingbo's principal generals. How could he casually marry her away? Much less to me. Marry his daughter and then borrow his troops too? Do either of you really think that is possible?"

The whole thing left both of them puzzled as well. To borrow troops by marrying the man's own daughter?

Feng Lingbo was no fool.

And given Shang Chaozong's present circumstances, why would Feng Lingbo ever agree to give him his daughter? One impossibility stacked on another became absolute impossibility.

None of it made sense.

After pondering, Shang Shuqing said, "By all reason, Feng Lingbo should never agree to marry his daughter to Brother. Yet look at the people arriving from both sides. Even the Feng household's steward came personally. It seems... genuinely possible."

If it had simply been impossible, Shang Chaozong could have let the matter go. What frightened him was precisely that it now seemed possible. This was not some small joke.

He gritted his teeth.

"Have either of you ever seen Feng Ruonan? I've heard she's even more powerfully built than most men. I don't know whether that's true."

The corner of Lan Ruoting's mouth twitched awkwardly.

Shang Shuqing asked in her soft, gentle voice, "Brother, does appearance truly matter that much?"

"..."

Shang Chaozong froze.

He hurriedly explained, "That isn't what I meant. I only think Feng Lingbo couldn't possibly agree."

His heart filled with guilt.

He blamed himself for saying something like that without considering his sister's feelings.

After all, her appearance...

No amount of guessing brought them any closer to the truth. In the end, they decided to go to the commandery capital and understand the matter face-to-face.

The troops assembled.

After everyone paid respects and bade farewell before the fresh graves, they descended the mountain together with Shounian's party. Once they reached the official road, the column surged forward at a thunderous gallop. Throughout the journey, Shang Chaozong remained deeply melancholy. In truth, he did not care much what Feng Ruonan looked like. Of course, if he truly had to marry, who would not prefer a delicate, pretty wife?

But Shang Chaozong knew himself.

At this point, he no longer had the right to be choosy. So long as he could keep everyone moving forward, give them a road to survival, and win some kind of future for those who had staked their lives on him, his personal gains and losses no longer mattered. He had long since stopped indulging in dreams of romantic love.

Once his anger passed and he thought calmly, he instead found himself hoping Niu Youdao would live up to expectations. If the matter truly succeeded, then even if Feng Ruonan were a night-roaming demoness, he would marry her!

Amid the thunder of hooves, Shang Shuqing, rising and falling in the saddle, occasionally glanced toward her melancholy elder brother.

She understood too.

If Feng Ruonan truly matched the rumors, then for someone of her brother's birth and status, the marriage would indeed be something of a grievance. Yet Shang Shuqing neither advised him, comforted him, nor showed him sympathy.

She knew very clearly that brother and sister had reached a point where neither possessed the luxury of extra choices. Their situation was no longer merely about the two of them. The people following beside them had entrusted their homes, lives, and fortunes to brother and sister. They were not ordinary commoners living quietly in some village. Personal honor and disgrace no longer mattered. Forget her brother marrying Feng Ruonan.

Even if Feng Lingbo demanded Shang Shuqing herself as a concubine, she would grit her teeth and accept. Unfortunately, her ghostlike face was enough to ward off evil. Lift the veil and she could startle a man on the spot. She doubted any man would want her anyway. Shounian, riding with the escort, occasionally looked back. More than twenty monks followed behind the column.

Every one of them had changed into civilian clothes and wore a felt hat to hide his shaved head. Each carried bundles upon bundles of Buddhist scriptures on his back.

Shounian could not understand it.

Why was Shang Chaozong bringing a group of monks with him? After a long stretch of travel, they met the five hundred cavalrymen Feng Lingbo had dispatched to receive them. The two forces merged into a much larger cavalry column.

Shounian also noticed that, from time to time, scattered men under Shang Chaozong emerged from the forests beside the road and joined the column.

Naturally, the enlarged group's pace could not compare with Shounian's journey out, when he had changed horses at relay stations and galloped without pause.

Night had already fallen.

Lanterns glowed throughout the Commandery Governor's residence. A fast report arrived stating that Shang Chaozong's party would probably need another four hours before reaching the commandery capital. Niu Youdao decided to go to the city gate early and wait for them. Certain things would be better explained to Shang Chaozong and the others outside the Commandery Governor's residence. If Shang Chaozong became stubborn and refused to cooperate, Niu Youdao would still need a way to escape.

Getting away from a residence packed with experts would be considerably harder. He therefore had someone request Feng Lingbo's permission.

A retainer cultivator going to welcome his own lord was perfectly proper, so Feng Lingbo did not stop him.

Permission granted, Niu Youdao and Yuan Gang had only just left the guest courtyard when they found several people blocking the way.

Niu Youdao looked carefully.

It was Peng Yulan, accompanied by several others.

"Greetings, Madam!"

Niu Youdao cheerfully cupped his hands.

"If your eyes are working, take a look for yourself."

Peng Yulan flicked a sheet of paper outward. Someone beside her took it and passed it to Niu Youdao. Niu Youdao held it under the light and immediately broke into a faint sweat. Wasn't this the written wager between him and Feng Ruonan? His own signature was there, along with Feng Ruonan's and Yuan Gang's. He had a copy of the agreement himself. There was no need to think about where Peng Yulan had gotten it. Feng Ruonan must have told her mother everything.

Niu Youdao had been hoping the woman might care enough about her dignity to keep the humiliating story to herself. He had not expected that enormous woman to be genuinely unafraid of losing face. Yuan Gang glanced sideways at the writing and recognized it too.

Niu Youdao laughed cheerfully.

"Your daughter is quite mischievous."

He casually tried to fold the wagering agreement away and keep it. Peng Yulan crooked a finger at him. Niu Youdao had no choice but to obediently hand it back. Trying to seize it openly in front of her would probably just get him beaten. A wise man did not suffer the loss directly before his eyes.

Peng Yulan waved the wager in one hand and asked coldly, "I've seen shameless people before, but never anyone as shameless as the two of you. You can actually do something this disgraceful?"

After learning the truth from her daughter, Peng Yulan had been stunned. They had borrowed her daughter's money—no, cheated her daughter out of money—to purchase the betrothal gifts used to propose marrying that very daughter. The sentence itself was almost difficult to untangle. Yet someone had actually done it. How could people be this shameless?

Feng Ruonan herself had been so humiliated and furious she practically wanted to smash her head against a wall. Unfortunately, her great vengeance remained unpaid. Dying now would only let the dog thief off too easily! Feng Lingbo had learned the truth afterward as well. He had told Peng Yulan to let the matter go. Compared with what this marriage alliance was meant to accomplish, the money was trivial. Men tended to take a broader view. Peng Yulan, however, could not swallow the insult.

Her daughter was already being wronged enough by this marriage. How could they send her away after humiliating her like this too? As a mother, she had come to demand justice for her daughter.

Niu Youdao sighed repeatedly.

"Madam, there truly was no other way. You've probably heard something of His Highness's present circumstances. His purse is painfully light. Yes, painfully light. Yet he couldn't very well come propose a marriage empty-handed. Mr. Lan had no choice but to devise this desperate measure!"

Feng Lingbo had previously asked whether the plan came from Lan Ruoting. This was the advantage of not seeking the spotlight and keeping a low profile. Niu Youdao could now dump all the responsibility onto Lan Ruoting at once.

Peng Yulan's expression remained icy.

"I don't care whether he's Mr. Lan or Mr. Purple. The names on this wager are yours, so I'm coming to you. These one hundred thousand gold coins—and him..."

She raised her chin toward Yuan Gang.

"When are you going to hand them over?"

If she had only demanded the money, Niu Youdao could have pushed that debt onto Shang Chaozong.

But Yuan Gang?

There was no chance he could agree to that. So he had no choice but to become shameless one more time.

His face immediately hardened.

"Madam, if you put it that way, then you're being somewhat unreasonable."

"Oh?"

Peng Yulan gave a cold laugh and shook the agreement in her hand.

"I'm being unreasonable? Are the terms written here in black and white somehow false?"

Niu Youdao waved a hand, his expression solemn.

"The document isn't false. But if we're going to judge strictly according to the wager, then I never actually lost. Who can say I couldn't have repaid the money within two hours? The crucial point is that before the two hours were even up, I was taken to the Commandery Governor's residence. If your daughter and the Governor's residence join hands to make a wager like that, then naturally you can never lose. But take this argument anywhere beneath Heaven and it still won't stand. Isn't that bullying a man too far?"

He had originally prepared this reasoning as a defense against Feng Ruonan. Unexpectedly, he ended up using it against Feng Ruonan's mother instead.

"..."

Peng Yulan was briefly rendered speechless. Thinking it through, the argument did make a certain amount of sense.

But then she thought again.

No.

The whole thing had plainly been a trap.

Anger twisted into laughter.

"Fine! Forget the wager. Then what about the ten thousand gold coins? Don't tell me you plan to refuse repayment of that too."

Niu Youdao nodded repeatedly.

"How could I refuse? I'll repay it. Of course I'll repay it!"

Peng Yulan snapped, "When?"

Niu Youdao answered decisively, "The moment His Highness arrives, I'll have him repay it!"

There was no chance Niu Youdao intended to carry that debt himself.

"Good! I'll be waiting. Just try breaking your word and refusing to repay it!"

Peng Yulan threw down the threat and turned away. She was certain they could not currently produce the money. If they could, they would never have needed such a disgraceful method in the first place. She was already planning how to thoroughly humiliate Lan Ruoting, the man who had supposedly invented the scheme. Repay the ten thousand immediately, or be granted extra time and repay according to the wager.

His choice!

With her watching, she could guarantee that no one anywhere in Guangyi Commandery would dare lend Shang Chaozong money. She had made up her mind to win back some face for her daughter. If she did not vent this anger, she would suffocate.

The woman left.

Bai Yao, however, remained behind with a sword cradled in his arms.

He tilted his head slightly.

"I hear you're going to welcome the Commandery Prince. The Commandery Governor ordered us to accompany you."

Part of the reason was to protect Niu Youdao against any assassination attempt from the Song clan.

The other part was surveillance.

There was no helping it.

This fellow was Dong Guo Haoran's disciple and might be useful in finding the hundred thousand Crow Generals. Niu Youdao caught the contempt in Bai Yao's eyes and laughed dryly.

"Poverty leaves a man short of options. I've embarrassed myself before Senior."

Bai Yao replied indifferently, "It was indeed rather shameless."

"Ah! Lan Ruoting has ruined me!"

Niu Youdao shook his head with a bitter smile, extended a hand in invitation, and left with the group.

[End of Chapter 50]