Chapter 10: Making the Entire Household Kneel
With every step Xu Youshan took, the various jade ornaments and accessories hanging from his body made a crisp, melodic sound. The clear, pleasant tones seemed to say, “Look at me, I’m a young master, incredibly rich.”
“Prince Xin, I hope you’ve been well.”
As soon as Jiang Lili heard these words, she knew that this self-important figure had come to cause trouble for Xin Che.
She looked toward Xin Che, but he simply stared blankly at Xu Youshan, the peacock-like man covered in gold, silver, and jewels. “May I ask who you are?”
The lethality wasn’t great, but it was extremely insulting!
Xu Youshan’s confident and arrogant smile instantly vanished.
He had remembered his enemy for seven years, but this man didn’t even recognize him?!
Hmph, it must be a show!
He must have fallen on hard times and couldn’t face him, so he pretended not to know him.
Thinking this, Xu Youshan calmed down. He toyed with the jade-handled fan in his hand, gestured, and a servant immediately set up a table and chairs from the carriage, placing them directly in front of the Marquis’ family.
Three beautiful women descended from the carriage, each holding a food box. They laid out delicious dishes and fragrant peach blossom wine on the table. The women arranged the food, and the sight of the gold and silver utensils dazzled the eyes.
Even the chopsticks and bowls on the table were made of gold, and they looked heavy. After the women finished arranging the dishes, they were massaging their wrists.
Jiang Lili’s eyes widened in astonishment!
How extravagant! How wealthy!
She immediately went wild in the group chat, tagging Guan Yue.
[Jiang Lili: Yueyue, where are you?! Hurry up, I have a huge business deal to introduce to your bandits! @Guan Yue]
Jiang Lili took a photo using the group chat tool, sharing Xu Youshan’s lavish setup.
Guan Yue, who was riding a horse on her way, saw the photo and felt that even the melon seeds in her hand had lost their flavor.
[Guan Yue: Forget it, I’ll arrive when it gets dark. Lili, try to stall as much as you can!]
Not long after transmigrating, Guan Yue still hadn’t quite adapted to her rough, bandit leader identity. But when she saw the dazzling display of Xu Youshan’s wealth, she understood. She was naturally a rough person! This identity was fate’s arrangement!
“Brothers, charge! We’ve got a big fish today!”
Guan Yue raised her whip and whipped the backside of her husband’s horse.
It couldn’t be helped—she didn’t know how to ride. Even though her body had muscle memory, she was still quite scared, so she shared a horse with her newly acquired young lord.
The bandit army hurried toward the dilapidated temple where Jiang Lili had marked the location.
*
Inside the crumbling temple, Xu Youshan was still showing off.
“This is a snow mountain white fox fur collar.”
“This is pufferfish meat.”
“Xin Che, you’ve been traveling with little to eat or wear. It really tugs at my heart.”
Xu Youshan let a beautiful woman in his arms feed him a bite of pufferfish meat, his face showing satisfaction.
The aroma of the food and fine wine on the table made the nearby criminals salivate.
But from the whispers of the bailiffs, they learned that this young master was someone they couldn’t afford to offend, so they could only watch hungrily from the side.
Xu Youshan arrogantly looked at Xin Che. “Xin Che, I’m feeling generous today.”
“If you kneel to me, I’ll reward you with a dish.”
Xin Che’s expression remained cold. “There’s no need. Young master should give the food to those who truly need it.”
The entire Marquis’ family, well-fed thanks to Jiang Lili’s feeding, had snacks to munch on along the way and showed no interest in the lavish dishes.
As soon as Xin Che finished speaking, the criminals immediately began shouting, “Young Master Xu, I’ll kowtow to you! Reward me!”
Before Xu Youshan could react, the criminals had already started kneeling on the ground with loud bangs.
“What’s the point of you kowtowing?” Xu Youshan sneered with disdain. “Can your kowtows compare to a former God of War kneeling to me?”
Jiang Lili observed Xu Youshan for a while and quickly figured out his personality.
Thinking of Guan Yue’s advice to delay the situation and not let this golden nugget escape, Jiang Lili cleared her throat.
“Stale flatbread and rice soup can still fill the stomach. Besides, our Marquis’ family has once been noble; we’ve seen mountain delicacies and seafood before. You, a local landlord, are still just a local landlord. Displaying some low-tier dishes won’t impress us.”
Xu Youshan sneered when he heard Jiang Lili speak. “What makes you think you can say my food is low-tier?”
Jiang Lili spoke confidently, and Xin Che was a little surprised but didn’t stop her.
There must be a reason for Jiang Lili to act this way.
“My father is the Minister of Personnel. Your father is just a local thug in some mountain village!”
Jiang Lili placed her hands on her hips, even more arrogant than Xu Youshan. “Even if you serve your food on gold plates, it won’t raise the quality of your dishes.”
“Our Marquis’ household used plates with jade carvings in the past. Not only was the jade high-quality, but the carvings also showcased the skills of top-tier craftsmen.”
“There was one time when a plate had a jade carving of a lifelike emerald cabbage. I almost thought it was real and tried to grab it.”
Jiang Lili shook her head and sighed. “You won’t find craftsmen of that level in this mountain hole in Yanzhou.”
Jiang Lili was so boastful that even Sister-in-law Chen’s face turned red.
If it hadn’t been for Xin Cheng holding her back, she would have wanted to cover Jiang Lili’s mouth. Although the Marquis’ family was wealthy, they weren’t this extravagant.
Jiang Lili continued her mocking tirade: “And this gold plate of yours, tacky.”
“A pheasant, no matter how much gold you adorn it with, still can’t become a phoenix.”
“You think we, from the Marquis’ family, would beg you? Do you even deserve that?”
Jiang Lili’s words were sharp, and Xu Youshan felt as if all the blood in his body rushed to his face, turning it a deep purple.
He wasn’t unfamiliar with being ridiculed as a “country bumpkin” by some wealthy young masters when he went to the capital, but hearing it from this girl felt different.
Xu Youshan wanted to retort, but every word Jiang Lili spoke was like a gem, making him unable to find a response. He noticed that, unlike the criminals who were kneeling and begging him for food, the Marquis’ family remained unfazed by the table of fine wine and delicacies.
It seemed like Jiang Lili might be right—his offerings weren’t impressive to them.
He finally replied, “So what if you have jade plates? My family also has jade plates. Does that give you some special privilege from the Marquis’ family?!”
Xu Youshan, now a bit tipsy, acted more like a child arguing, “Luo Er, go ride quickly and bring back all the jade plates with green cabbage carvings my father has collected!”
Luo Er, the servant standing beside Xu Youshan, noticed his master was drunk and hurriedly advised, “Young Master, you came here to deal with Xin Che, not to argue over such small matters. Let it go?”
Jiang Lili clicked her tongue. “If you don’t have them, then just admit it. No need for excuses.”
“Big or small, it’s about dignity!”
Jiang Lili’s little mouth kept on talking. “Look at all those unnecessary decorations on you, you must have hung up every single thing you could find to look impressive, right?”
Her mocking tone seemed mindless, but in reality, she was already scheming in her mind.
“Stop pretending, you’re just the son of a magistrate from some remote town. No matter how rich you are, how much wealth can you really have?”
Xu Youshan’s anger flared again. He wasn’t just wearing these ornaments; he had so much on him that it was too heavy to carry anymore.
“For this trip, I brought two carriages worth of belongings. Who are you looking down on?”
“Li San, go fetch them! Make sure you blind her with them!”
Perhaps realizing he was in a passive position, Xu Youshan was desperate to find a way to suppress the other party’s arrogance.
Soon, he found his solution.
“Oh, it seems that Madam of Zhaoping is ill?”
Xu Youshan looked at the weak Madam Yang on the ground. “It seems quite serious.”
“If the entire Marquis’ family kneels and kowtows to me, I’ll have my doctor treat Madam Yang, and I’ll have her ride in my carriage.”
Xu Youshan mischievously stared at Xin Che. “Sounds like a pretty good deal, right? What do you think?”