Chapter 87

Chapter 87: Bringing Honor to the Family

Ye Rong leaned forward and suggested: “Shang Er, you heard everything. Think about it. Around the capital city, where are there still Mountain Bandits for us to kill?”

“Kill what?” Shang Xing Yu rolled Shang Xing Yu’s eyes and sat back down. “You really thought Mountain Bandits were that easy to kill? With the little tricks we knew, over two hundred bandits would just stand there like tofu and wait for us to chop them?”

Ye Rong hesitated.

Chen Bao Jing grinned foolishly: “Well… couldn’t we do what we did this time? Wait until they got drunk, then charge in? Drunk Mountain Bandits are like idiots.”

Shang Xing Yu fell silent. Shang Xing Yu’s gaze swept across the four of them, meeting four confident looks that were stupid in the same way.

Shang Xing Yu chuckled: “You really thought those Mountain Bandits were only drunk?”

“What-what did you mean?” someone asked.

“Didn’t you hear what His Majesty said when he praised us?” Shang Xing Yu said. “The Da Li Court found out those bandits drank counterfeit liquor before they died.”

“Fake liquor is still liquor,” Ye Rong said, not caring. “Then we’ll just find a way to make them buy fake liquor next time!”

Shang Xing Yu snorted. “Is your brain just for decoration? Those Mountain Bandits did things that could get their heads cut off. Why would they be stupid enough to buy counterfeit liquor? And why would it happen so perfectly, right when we showed up?”

“Then… what was it?” Ye Rong blinked, mind stuck.

“Did you forget?” Shang Xing Yu said. “When we found Princess Qing Ning, Princess Qing Ning had already escaped. Princess Qing Ning was even injured. That wine must have been tampered with ahead of time by Princess Qing Ning’s people.”

Shang Xing Yu’s voice turned blunt: “Our ‘merit’ was something Princess Qing Ning handed to us for free.”

The four of them stiffened.

How… how could it be like that?

“Then why would Princess Qing Ning do it?” Ye Rong asked, still not understanding.

Shang Xing Yu said: “Because we went back. We might’ve been useless, but at least we had some loyalty. We didn’t leave a woman alone in a Mountain Bandit den.”

Ye Rong fell silent. Somehow, Ye Rong felt just a tiny bit better.

Pei Yu An asked slowly: “So in the end, we were still the same useless fools as before?”

Great. Now they were not even proper dandies. They were fools.

“Who said that?” Shang Xing Yu said. “Whether you stayed fools or became real talents depended on what you did next. No one knew the truth about this anyway. If you wanted, you could still turn it into something real.”

“What did you mean?” The dandies’ eyes lit up at once.

Shang Xing Yu looked them over. Seeing their eager faces, Shang Xing Yu laughed: “You really wanted to become talents?”

“Of course!” Who wanted to be a fool if they could be a talent? No one was born wanting to amount to nothing.

“Being a talent isn’t easy,” Shang Xing Yu said, glancing at them.

Ye Rong hesitated for a moment, then refused to back down: “It’s just suffering a little. Young Master wasn’t even afraid of killing people. How could Young Master be afraid of hardship?”

“Exactly,” Pei Yu An urged. “Shang Er, did you have a way or not? As long as you don’t make us carry sandbags at the docks, we can still do things.”

Shang Xing Yu stared at them. “It wasn’t that terrifying.”

Shang Xing Yu beckoned them closer. They immediately leaned in, and Shang Xing Yu whispered a few sentences into their ears.

Ye Rong burst out and sprayed a mouthful of wine.

Pei Yu An could not help reaching out to touch Shang Xing Yu’s forehead: “Shang Er, were you out of your mind?”

“That was Te Dan,” Ye Rong said, sucking in a breath as Ye Rong looked Shang Xing Yu up and down. “Te Dan might not be as big as Sheng Kingdom, but Te Dan has plenty of grain and strong troops. You want to make money, fine, but how could you talk that big?”

Shang Xing Yu let them stare. Shang Xing Yu’s expression stayed calm, almost indifferent, and that calmness made the others’ doubts look loud and silly.

Ye Rong paused, then asked, “Shang Er, were you serious?”

Pei Yu An looked shocked. “Ye Rong, you went crazy too? Even His Majesty-” Pei Yu An stopped short, afraid of ears behind the walls, and lowered Pei Yu An’s voice. “Even His Majesty wasn’t sure Te Dan could become our granary and moneybag. How could you dare say something like that?”

“Just tell me whether you’ll do it or not,” Shang Xing Yu said with a smile. “If we succeed, we’ll bring honor to the family. If we fail, we’ll just earn a bit less silver.”

Pei Yu An stared at Shang Xing Yu for a long moment, teeth aching like Pei Yu An had bitten something hard. Finally, Pei Yu An clenched Pei Yu An’s jaw: “Shang Er, then tell your brothers the details. At least let us know what we’re stepping into.”

Shang Xing Yu briefly explained Sheng Zhi Wan’s plan.

Ye Rong clicked Ye Rong’s tongue. “So this is Princess Qing Ning’s idea?”

“Why did Princess Qing Ning come to you and not us?”

“A single pot of flowers really could do that?”

“Princess Qing Ning might be overthinking it.”

“Princess Qing Ning is still a woman and hasn’t done business. If doing business were that easy, wouldn’t wealthy merchants be everywhere?”

“Shang Er, maybe you should persuade Princess Qing Ning not to do something that hard and thankless.”

None of them believed it would work.

They didn’t even like flowers. No matter how pretty a flower was, it bloomed for two days and then wilted. How could it possibly sell for the sky-high price Princess Qing Ning predicted?

Shang Xing Yu asked them: “Then did you ever think you could kill over two hundred Mountain Bandits?”

They looked at one another, speechless.

“But how was that the same?”