Chapter 20
Chapter 20: I’ll Take the Fall!
Gu Nan Xi curled her lips into a cold smile. These boys wanted to make it big? Fine. Let it be big.
If she felt even a little afraid, she’d write her name backward.
“Su Xuan Ming. Su Yun Ting.” Her gaze cut across them. “If your father can’t even shoulder something this small for you, then that title and that post aren’t worth keeping.”
She weighed the coachman’s self-defense baton in her palm and strode up to Li Shao Yan. “As for whether His Majesty will scold me, that’s none of your concern.”
The stick snapped down across Li Shao Yan’s back.
He cried out, folding forward.
“Spoiling your son into violence?” Gu Nan Xi gave a short, icy laugh. “No. I’m simply helping the Dragon-Martial Grand General’s madam discipline her son.”
The sudden attack pinned the entire crowd in place. No one dared blink.
Then Li Shao Yan’s voice tore through the stunned silence. “What are you standing around for?! Save me!”
In an instant, everything dissolved into chaos.
Bodies crashed together. Fists and feet flew. No one could tell whose punch landed where—only that pain came from every direction. People swung blindly just to protect themselves, striking anything within reach.
By the time the sun sank, the clearing was painted in molten gold. The last light spilled across the earth like melted coins.
Three figures lay sprawled on the ground, clothes rumpled, chests heaving.
“Hiss… Mother,” Su Yun Ting complained, voice thick. “Your stick hit me too. It hurts.”
His right cheek was swollen high, and he spoke as if he had cotton in his mouth.
Gu Nan Xi stared at the purple bruises blooming across her knuckles and blew on them. “Serves you right. Every day you claim you’re ‘recovering,’ and every day you sneak out. If you’d brought a few more servant boys, would we have ended up three against ten today?”
Under the carriage, the coachman—who had hidden the whole time—shrank even deeper, as if he could vanish into the shadows.
Su Xuan Ming looked like he’d been wrung dry. “Mother’s right. Second Brother, next time you go out… go openly.”
“Openly?” Su Yun Ting shot him a glare. “You were being extorted, and it never occurred to you to bring more people? If it were me, I’d rather spend a few hundred taels hiring errand men than let those thugs think I’m easy to bully!”
He couldn’t stand Su Xuan Ming’s soft, indecisive way—always swallowing it, always giving ground. Grandmother doted on him, so he only ever acted tough where it was safe.
Su Xuan Ming’s expression turned pained. “They didn’t ask for much at first. Usually it was just a meal. But little by little the food got more extravagant, and in the end they started demanding silver outright.”
Su Yun Ting bristled. “So all that spending money you get every month just went to lining outsiders’ pockets? If silver burns your hands, give it to me! I won’t hit you—I’ll praise you!”
Su Xuan Ming’s voice thinned. “Second Brother, don’t be angry. I told Grandmother. She said the students at Song Shan Academy are either rich or noble. Marquis Yong Chang Residence can’t contend with them. She told me to endure.”
“Are you thick-headed?” Su Yun Ting started to explode—then stopped.
All three fell silent.
Gu Nan Xi let out a quiet breath, something between a sigh and a weight settling. Memories that weren’t hers flashed behind her eyes. Su Xuan Ming had told the original Gu Nan Xi more than once that he didn’t want to go to school.
But that place at Song Shan Academy had been something the original owner fought hard to obtain. How could she allow him to refuse just because he didn’t feel like it?
She’d told herself he simply couldn’t bear the hardship. She’d been firm—too firm. Once, when he refused no matter what, she’d ordered servants to tie him up and drag him there.
Bound and hauled into the school in front of students and teachers.
Gu Nan Xi’s chest felt heavy. In the original book, these three children met miserable ends, and everyone blamed their personalities. But how much of it had been shaped by the hand that raised them?
After a long while, Su Yun Ting asked uneasily, “Mother… we beat them that badly. If their families come looking for trouble, what do we do?”
Gu Nan Xi planted a palm on the ground and stood. “If they don’t come looking for me, I’ll go looking for them.”
She hauled both boys to their feet, shoved them into the carriage, and returned to Marquis Yong Chang Residence.
They’d barely reached the gate when Su Yun Yan charged out like a lit firecracker, yanking up the curtain and rattling off in one breath. “Mother, where did you go? Did you find Brother? I’ve been waiting at home—he never came back!”
Then she saw them.
“Mother—Brother—Brother… what happened? Who did this to you?”
Her eyes went red instantly.
Su Xuan Ming covered his face with his sleeve. “Little Sister, tell them to boil water. I need to wash up.”
Su Yun Ting rubbed his thigh, grimacing. “Go get a doctor! This is bad—my leg might be ruined!”
“Wait.” Gu Nan Xi cut them off. “No washing. I wash first.”
Su Xuan Ming and Su Yun Ting exchanged a look—helpless, resigned.
At the same time, in the capital city, several households were thrown into chaos.
In the Dragon-Martial Grand General’s Li Residence, a crowd swarmed around Li Shao Yan.
“My precious grandson,” Old Madam Li cried, voice shaking with fury, “who has the guts of a bear and leopard to beat you?! Someone—go to the wine shop and call the Grand General back!”
Li Shao Yan’s face twisted as he complained, “Grandmother… it was Madam of Marquis Yong Chang and her two sons. They hit so hard. It hurts—so much.”
Old Madam Li clutched her chest, eyes blazing. “Gu Nan Xi. Fine. However she beat you, I’ll beat her back the same way tomorrow!”
A gentle woman tried to speak softly. “But the rumors outside—”
Old Madam Li waved her off. “Street filth. I don’t believe Gu Nan Xi, a married woman, would dare drag this into the open.”
Her voice turned icy. “She and the Late Emperor were childhood sweethearts—there was something between them. And now she dares to have something with the current His Majesty too. A woman serving two generations of emperors—if that’s laid bare, those sour scholars would tear her apart.”
Li Shao Yan relaxed a little, leaning into her. “Grandmother, you have to help your grandson vent this anger.”
At Song Shan Academy, Headmaster Wu pressed the doctor urgently. “Doctor, how is my nephew?”
Headmaster Wu had been married twenty years and only had two daughters.
In the entire Wu family, Wu Fa Tian was the only male heir.
Mischief was one thing. But this time, he’d been carried back lying down—injured in the most vital place.
If something went wrong…
Wouldn’t the Wu family line end here?
The doctor accepted the silver and spoke honestly. “Young Master Wu suffered a minor injury. In the future, in matters of the bedchamber, he may be somewhat less satisfying. But it will not affect carrying on the family line.”
“I’ll kill Su Yun Ting!” Wu Fa Tian howled. “I’ll kill Su Xuan Ming!”
He thrashed, trying to sit up, trying to grab a blade and charge out.
Headmaster Wu hurried to hold him down. “Don’t be angry. Rest first. Recover.”
“Uncle,” Wu Fa Tian sobbed, tears streaming, “you have to avenge me!”
A Wu family girl tending him tossed her handkerchief into the basin with a wet slap. “So it was Su Xuan Ming who beat you? Then you deserved it. You and Li Shao Yan always bully him. Why isn’t an honest person allowed to hit back?”
“What are you saying?” Headmaster Wu snapped, glaring at her. “Can’t you tell who’s family and who’s not?”
Then he turned back, soothing Wu Fa Tian with a hard smile. “Don’t worry. I’ll expel him.”