Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Long-Tongued Scholars

“Princess, what did you say?” Ting Lan had not heard clearly.

Sheng Zhi Wan withdrew her gaze and shook her head slightly.

A knock sounded at the door at just the right moment.

A man dressed like a refined scholar entered. When he saw Sheng Zhi Wan, there was no surprise or probing on his face. He only bowed slightly and did not fully lift his head. “I am Mo Qing. The teahouse has four types of Talent Cup Token for guests to choose from. The White Cup Token specializes in medicine, the Azure Cup Token is skilled with poison, the Gold Cup Token excels in schemes, and the Black Cup Token is skilled in martial arts. Which color of Talent Cup Token does the guest need?”

“I don’t want tea.” Sheng Zhi Wan looked at him. “Do you sell the Talent Cup Token in your house?”

The Talent Cup Token she meant was not the literal meaning. Each Talent Cup Token represented a person with outstanding ability in a certain field. Gathering Sages Teahouse secretly did business in hiring out these people.

Sheng Zhi Wan had learned it by chance in her previous life. This time, she came to try her luck and see if she could buy two who were skilled in martial arts.

Mo Qing lifted his eyes in surprise for an instant, then quickly lowered them again. “I’m sorry, guest.”

That meant they did not sell.

She had only come to test it. Now that she was refused, Sheng Zhi Wan was not disappointed. She dismissed Mo Qing and was about to leave.

But she heard that the zither music downstairs had already been replaced by a storyteller’s voice at some point.

“…Then the handsome young general moved his fingers across the sand table, striking the enemy’s flank and catching them off guard to break the Six Tribes alliance. After that, he used a feigned retreat to lure them, then crushed them one by one. He used Heaven’s timing and the terrain. The method was exquisite and brilliant. Inside the command tent, gasps and praise rose without end!”

Sheng Zhi Wan’s fingers paused.

“Princess, was that about the Heir Apparent’s battle where he repelled the enemy?” Ting Lan also recognized it.

Sheng Zhi Wan did not answer. Only cold mockery appeared in her eyes as she sat back down.

When the storyteller finished, excited cheers burst out downstairs.

Shang Xiu Yuan praised first. “Planning within the tent and winning a thousand miles away, unmatched in strategy, rare in this world! Qi Shi truly deserved to be a Threefold First Laureate. Turning a weather disadvantage into an advantage like that, even my father, who has fought for years, would have to admire it!”

“Exactly!” Another young master with them quickly agreed. “And it was his first time on the battlefield. With this vision and planning, if he trains for a few more years, what strong enemy would Sheng Kingdom fear?”

“But… how did such a powerful young general end up only getting a junior fifth rank?” a scholar at another table asked curiously.

“You don’t know, then,” Brother Zhang said when no one answered, putting on a mysterious air. He raised one finger and pointed upward. “Have you forgotten the imperial Princess who went on a hunger strike two years ago just to marry Qi Shi? Heh. This time, Qi Shi didn’t just return with merit. He also brought back a beautiful woman. And when a woman gets jealous…”

He wore a complicated expression, then added in a strange, mocking tone, “Everyone here understands, right?”

“So that’s how it was?!”

“Only women and petty men are hard to raise. The ancients truly did not lie!”

Once the scholars understood, their faces filled with anger, and their words grew even less restrained.

Even if they had a hundred times the courage, they still did not dare curse the Imperial House openly. So Sheng Zhi Wan, the so-called jealous and unvirtuous Princess Qing Ning who only knew how to fight for affection, was cursed until she was drenched in filth.

They cursed her for being born of the Imperial House and using power to act arrogant. They cursed her for being a mere woman, ignorant and shallow. They cursed her for being a woman of the inner residence who only knew love and lust, enjoying the peace protected by soldiers at the frontier passes, yet using dirty tricks to target a meritorious general…

“Princess!” Ting Lan’s eyes turned red with rage. She clenched her teeth so hard she looked ready to throw open the window and curse those sour, rotten scholars downstairs. “Princess, they don’t know anything! What does the Heir Apparent’s reward have to do with you? You never even went to see His Majesty. Why did they blame you? Just because you were a woman, they guessed and gossiped like this!”

“The Heir Apparent did have merit for repelling the enemy, but Princess, the silver you donated for the soldiers at the frontier passes, the grain, the medicine for the wounded…” Ting Lan’s voice choked-

Sheng Zhi Wan calmly put a piece of pastry into Ting Lan’s mouth.

Not only that.

If these people learned that the brilliant tactics they praised so eagerly had actually come from her, a woman, what would their faces look like then?

“Princess! Are we just going to listen to this?” Ting Lan pulled the pastry back out of her mouth.

Of course not.

Cold light slid through Sheng Zhi Wan’s eyes. She was about to tell Ting Lan to lift the window.

Then, from the private room next door, a pleasant voice suddenly rang out. It sounded clear and unrestrained, elegant yet wildly arrogant.

“Tsk, tsk… I never knew that you gentlemen who read the classics could be even sharper than market women when you gossiped in the shadows. Everyone calls women long-tongued, long-tongued. If you ask me, it should be changed to long-tongued Scholars instead.”

The moment the words fell, the floor below fell dead silent.

Everyone was stunned by the sudden ridicule.

But after that brief hush came an even more violent storm, especially after they saw who had spoken.

“Xing Yu?!” Shang Xiu Yuan’s face turned especially ugly. He stared at the man standing on the third floor looking down. His eyes narrowed as he shouted, “Get down here right now and apologize to all the scholars!”