Chapter 69

Chapter 69: Slay the Lord

This time Chu Yao couldn’t hold back. He laughed out loud, fanning himself like it was the funniest thing he’d heard all week.

“Qi Yuan Liang,” he mocked, “you actually let an eleven- or twelve-year-old kid trick words out of you?”

Qi Shan shot him a glare sharp enough to cut. Chu Yao wasn’t intimidated in the slightest.

With that threat wasted, Qi Shan turned back to Shen Tang. “Young Master Shen. Who did you run into?”

“A Gu,” Shen Tang said.

Qi Shan waited for the rest.

Nothing came.

Chu Yao happily jumped in to stir the pot. “Someone named Gu—male or female?”

Shen Tang caught the angle immediately. “An old flame can’t be male?”

“Oh, that’s hard to say,” Chu Yao replied, enjoying himself far too much. “Places like Moonlight Tower stay prosperous year after year. That tells you the taste is still thriving.

And given Qi Yuan Liang’s youthful reputation… who knows?”

Shen Tang clicked her tongue. “So it really is a man.”

Qi Shan looked like he wanted to slam the half-woven bamboo strips onto Chu Yao’s head. Chu Yao kept going anyway.

“So what does he look like?” Chu Yao asked.

Qi Shan cut in, voice clipped. “There is no ‘who knows.’”

Shen Tang and Chu Yao didn’t push further. They were joking, not suicidal.

Chu Yao continued fanning himself, urging Little Pang Dun Er to keep practicing, but his ears were clearly tilted toward Shen Tang and Qi Shan’s conversation.

Qi Shan’s voice stayed steady. “Say it properly. Who is he?”

“I honestly don’t know his name,” Shen Tang said.

Qi Shan’s laugh sounded more like a grind of teeth. “You don’t know his name, only his surname, and you still called him my ‘old flame’?”

“It’s that sir at Moonlight Tower,” Shen Tang said. “The scholar who’s hiding Gong Cheng with the male courtesan.

He claims he knows your ‘scholar’s dao.’ He also tried to drive a wedge between us. If he isn’t your old flame, then he’s your enemy or your rival—otherwise how would he know so much?”

She shrugged. “Fine. Calling him an old flame was bad wording.”

Qi Shan’s expression shifted fast.

“My scholar’s dao?”

“That guy’s not acting in good faith,” Shen Tang said. “His weakness is still in my hands and he still dares to play that game. This is what he said—”

She mimicked Sir Gu’s tone, complete with the smug little expressions. “I feel an instant bond with Young Lord Shen. I’m only saying this because I’m worried. If you don’t believe me, go back and ask about Qi Yuan Liang’s scholar’s dao.”

Qi Shan’s mouth curved into a faint, unreadable smile. “Do you want to know my scholar’s dao too?”

Shen Tang answered honestly. “A little. But the answer isn’t what matters. I want the process of uncovering it.

If you just tell me outright, it ruins the fun.”

She paused, then added quickly, “It isn’t mind reading, right?”

Qi Shan’s eyes narrowed. “That man’s scholar’s dao is mind reading?”

Shen Tang didn’t answer.

Qi Shan said, “Mine is not mind reading.”

Shen Tang let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.

Qi Shan’s gaze turned faintly dangerous. “You seem relieved.”

Shen Tang blurted, “Of course I’m relieved. Otherwise I—”

“Otherwise you’d be exposed every time you trash-talk me in your head?” Qi Shan finished for her.

His voice was calm. The threat wasn’t.

Shen Tang went quiet.

Qi Shan watched her for one beat, then said with certainty, “So you did trash-talk me.”

Shen Tang’s silence was its own confession.

The teasing faded. Qi Shan’s mood darkened, more serious now.

“My scholar’s dao draws fear,” he said. “Compared to mind reading, it’s even worse. If you’re afraid, don’t dirty yourself by keeping company with someone like me.”

Shen Tang didn’t respond.

The air thickened. Even Chu Yao’s fan sounded loud.

Qi Shan’s fingers kept weaving, but his knuckles had gone white.

Shen Tang frowned, thinking. “Is it really that serious?”

Her words didn’t lighten anything. If anything, the weight in the air pressed harder.

“I don’t know much about scholar’s dao,” Shen Tang said. “The little I know came from Wu Hui sir.

Do you people really have to consider someone’s scholar’s dao just to be friends? Your standards are high.”

Qi Shan asked, “What if it isn’t just friendship?”

That question stopped her cold.

A heartbeat later, Shen Tang’s face lit with sudden, horrible understanding.

“Y-you…” She clutched her chest with one hand and shoved herself backward with the other, scooting away like her life depended on it. “Don’t tell me you—”

Under Qi Shan and Chu Yao’s confused stares, she shouted, “Qi Yuan Liang, I want to swear brotherhood with you, and you want to put me on your household register?”

Chu Yao went quiet.

Qi Shan went quiet.

Then Qi Shan finally snapped. He slammed the woven bamboo strips onto Shen Tang’s head with a dull thump.

“If you can’t speak like a human,” he ground out, “don’t speak.”

He stormed into his room and shut the door.

Shen Tang sat there, stunned, rubbing her head. “Talking in half sentences is cruel.”

Chu Yao sighed. “Some things can only be understood, not spoken.”

Shen Tang pouted. “I’m clever and bright and all that, but expecting me to ‘understand’ half sentences is just bullying.”

She turned to Chu Yao. “Wu Hui sir knows whatever it is Qi Shan wants me to ‘understand.’ Can’t you tell me a little?”

Chu Yao’s gaze went distant. “Not yet. When the time is right, you’ll know.”

Shen Tang looked even more confused.

Worried, she hugged the bamboo strips and followed to Qi Shan’s door, chattering through the wood.

“Yuan Liang? Are you there?

Let me say this first—I’m not going to fall for some cheap wedge tactic.

If scholar’s dao is tied to your nature, what’s so scary about it?

We haven’t known each other long, but I believe you’re a good person.”

As long as it wasn’t mind reading.

For a chatterbox, mind reading was basically a gag.

She knocked again, then again, until the door finally opened.

Qi Shan leaned against the frame, hands tucked into his sleeves, looking down at her with a strange, amused calm.

“What if my scholar’s dao is ‘slay the lord’?” he asked.

Shen Tang’s eyes widened.

“Slay the lord…?”