Chen Xi belonged to that category of people who ordinarily didn’t act wildly, but when they did, they were incredibly over the top—truly a perfect exemplar. According to Chen Xi, if you’re going to play the fool, then you better be convincing. Getting caught would be embarrassing. Mainly, Chen Xi was so convincing in his act that he didn’t seem like an ordinary citizen, so practically no one suspected him when he wanted to vent some psychological stress, nor did his actions provoke public outrage due to manipulation by certain individuals. As for conflicts within aristocratic families, what were they to him? Chen Xi declared he was not afraid of trouble at all.
The three rich heirs on the other side had no time to react when Chen Xi kicked in the door, but they were certainly aware when Guan Ping came in and took his girl away. What did this mean? This was intolerable!
"Stop right there!" A young man dressed in light yellow silk robes slammed the table and stood up, "You dare to snatch my woman!"
"Get lost, don’t bother me. Snatching her is actually doing you a favor. For your own safety, I think it’s best if you stop whining!" Chen Xi casually glanced at the young man opposite him, then flicked open his wooden folding fan and fanned himself twice.
Chen Xi’s gaze swept over Zhu Li, and suddenly Zhu Cai felt as if he was facing his father, an authority not to be trifled with.
"Let’s go." Chen Xi turned and left directly. He had realized that these three probably came from Great Aristocratic Families, but that was no problem for Chen Xi. In a place like Mount Tai, it didn’t matter that he had snatched a singer girl; even if he had taken some people and casually killed these three clients, nobody would care.
"Seize him!" As Zhu Cai stood there dumbfounded, Zhang Xuan had already angrily stood up and yelled at the servants in the adjacent rooms.
With a clattering noise, more than twenty stout men quickly emerged from the second floor, clearly the guards of the three men.
"Leave the woman behind, and we’ll spare your lives!" Zhang Xuan, flinging his sleeves, strode out of the room and fixed his gaze on Chen Xi.
"My lord, please go. They are sons of Great Aristocratic Families, and I’m not worth your trouble!" The singer girl, upon seeing this, spoke with tearful eyes, knowing that even in her family’s prosperous days, she couldn’t provoke these three men, let alone this seemingly naive and simple young lord who visited her daily in the backyard. To the singer girl, Chen Xi was plainly an arrogant fool.
"Tanzhi, over to you. You can take them, right?" Chen Xi said with a swish of his folding fan, which he then used to cover the lower half of his face, completely void of the panic Zhang Xuan expected.
"Uncle..." Guan Ping smiled bitterly but showed little fear, "Yueniang, stand back. They’re just a bunch of servants, after all!"
"Hmph, just a bunch of servants? Attack! Let this kid learn the kind of people he shouldn’t offend!" Zhang Xuan shouted angrily.
Chen Xi shrugged his shoulders, having mingled in the military, he could tell these servants were all old soldiers. However, in a place without the ability to form a battle formation, let alone defeat Guan Ping, even beating a weakling like Chen Xi was difficult. As expected, within seconds, Guan Ping effortlessly tossed all the servants down to the first floor; after all, although he wasn’t yet an adult, he was already at the level of a second-rate military general.
"Guan Ping, beat up these three jerks too. They dared to fight you for the girl; can’t let them off without a full package, can we?" Chen Xi glanced over at Guan Ping and instructed.
"Huh?" Guan Ping was momentarily stunned, but it wasn’t the time to ask questions, nor was there much to hesitate about—he had already beaten a group of men; why would he care about three more? With a clatter and bang, the three were quickly knocked to the ground.
"You just wait, our Zhang Family will never let you get away with this," Zhang Xuan spat angrily from the ground, unaccustomed to such treatment.
"Our Gu (Zhu) Family too!" the remaining two fellows also shouted.
"Oh my, three of the Four Great Families of Eastern Wu against me, and you still plan not to let me go?" Chen Xi chuckled coldly as he swept his gaze over the three, sending a chill through their whole bodies, "Even the heads of your three families don’t have the guts to speak to me , and here you three are?"
Chen Xi slowly squatted down, eyeing Zhang Xuan, "You can try and see if I can’t force your three families into a corner without a chance to fight back. And by the way, robbing you is a sign of respect from me, so don’t make me unhappy, or else I wouldn’t mind vaporizing you all!"
The calm tone of Chen Xi’s words made the three of them break out in a cold sweat. Anyone who could speak so brazenly had to be either a madman or utterly unrivaled, and the man before them did not seem like a madman...
"Well, let’s go, Tanzhi. We’ll need to teach these three families a lesson later. They’ve been holed up in Eastern Wu for so many years, they have completely lost touch with the situation in the Central Plains, those three dimwitted families still want to make their mark on us," Chen Xi said as he stood up, clicking his tongue in wonder.
Chen Xi wasn’t just contemptuous of those three Eastern Wu Families, but all the families of Eastern Wu. The entire collective of Eastern Wu Families had questionable vision and all too petty ambitions. Even becoming lords of their respective domains was but a fool’s fantasy. Even after Lub Su had gone to Eastern Wu, he lacked the courage and vision to see that one’s perspective ultimately determined their pinnacle of success.
While the Central Plains Aristocratic Family, represented by Chen Xi, had their faults, they at least had to be acknowledged for their grandeur and ambition. Every aristocratic family in Yingchuan aimed for unifying the whole world and expanding their territories, none had the final goal of simply becoming a lord of a region; whereas the families of Jingzhou, Yizhou, and others of similar vision, ultimately envisaged nothing more than regional lordship. With equal intelligence, ambition, and vision determined the heights one could reach, it was no accident that Shu Han and Sun Wu were eventually eradicated by the forces from the north.
Xun Yu, Xun You, and Guo Jia, among others, still proclaimed their goal of pacifying the universe even in Cao Cao’s darkest times. Their fearless ambition and the display of the Eastern Wu Aristocratic Families when Cao Wei’s power approached the Yangtze River shores made Chen Xi scoff—he would simply trample on such laughable families, knowing they wouldn’t even dare to protest!
Zhang Xuan and the other two looked at each other after witnessing Chen Xi’s arrogant departure. In each other’s eyes, they saw a ruthless glare. These three were not yet family heads, and even Cao Mengde had his moments of furious defiance, let alone these young men whose disposition and wisdom were far from Cao Cao’s level.
"Oh~" Chen Xi patted his chest and discovered that the pouch embroidered for him by Chen Lan was missing, inside it filling with pearls of gold that ordinary people couldn’t circulate.
"Sigh, what a bout of bad luck today. Seems like I’ll need to get tougher on the thieves in Fenggao City," Chen Xi said somewhat helplessly, "Forget it, I’ll write you a note. I’ll write you a note, and you can use it at the Political Office to exchange for cash. Consider it the fee for the Singer Girl." As he spoke, Chen Xi felt around his person, pulled out a piece of paper, and stamped it with his official seal.
"Let’s go, Tanzhi," Chen Xi yawned, "I’ve ’played the overlord’ several times, but never at this place. Guo Fengxiao and I often come out without money, then end up wanting to enjoy the wine houses. Usually, after confirming that Guo Jia doesn’t have cash, I slip away. How he deals with it after that, I haven’t got a clue. Ditching a teammate, sigh~"
"Uncle, we’ve already beaten up those people, why are we still paying?" Guan Ping asked innocently.
"We beat up those three. This madam is just an innocent bystander, and we’ve affected her business. It’s no fun to bully people like her. If we are to bully anyone, it should be those who think too highly of themselves." While speaking, Chen Xi heard a ruckus outside, and upon turning his head back, he saw the three unfortunate souls he had beaten up earlier standing tall on the second floor, looking down on him with an air of arrogance.
"Sigh, seems like I went too easy on them. Now the commotion is a bit too big," Chen Xi said with resignation, "Madam, it looks like your establishment needs to be trashed. But don’t worry, I’ll compensate you as an innocent victim. Just lie back and relax." With that, Chen Xi quickly wrote something on the note, then stamped it with his private seal as proof. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please visit to cast your recommendations and monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)