Chapter 65: Currying Favor

Li Shanru's mood could not be described as exceptionally good, but neither was it particularly bad.

Aunt Liang, fearing that she might harbor lingering distress in her heart, chatted with her extensively before finally letting the young ones go outside.

As soon as they stepped out, Pei Yanzhou caught up with her the fastest. Pei Jingxing, walking slightly behind and to the side of the two, was the first to speak: "Big Brother could have at least given me a couple of hints, so I wouldn't have made such a fool of myself in front of our cousin just now."

Pei Yanzhou shot a sideways glance back at him: "That is precisely why I said you need to experience more and temper yourself through trials; only then will your mind become sharp. Leaving me aside for a moment, Third Aunt cares for our cousin so deeply—how on earth could you genuinely believe that fifty thousand taels of silver would be enough to smooth this matter over?"

Pei Jingxing was left speechless.

He must have been possessed by a ghost at that moment.

Li Shanru suddenly slowed her pace to call out to Pei Yanzhou. Her tone remained cool and detached, yet in an imperceptible way, it held a touch more warmth than in the previous days: "Then how do you plan to deal with Li Ziyang?"

Pleased at heart, Pei Yanzhou turned the question back to her: "What does my cousin wish to be done?"

Li Shanru pondered for a moment: "He is notorious for his debauchery and consorting with courtesans. I rather hope that he will never be able to live a romantic and carefree life again, so as to spare the daughters of good families from being ruined."

In her past life, she had heard far too many scandalous tales concerning Li Ziyang. For instance, forcefully seizing commoners' daughters was practically an everyday occurrence for him. Not many of the kept mistresses he maintained had been willing to follow him from the start; most had been abducted by him and placed under house arrest in his detached courtyards, eventually having no choice but to resign themselves to their fate as the long days stretched on.

Ordinary commoner families had no means to fight back anyway. Since Li Shanru's uncle Li Mingshan was unable to keep Madam Chai in check at the time, Li Ziyang naturally acted with absolute impunity.

She vaguely remembered Jingyi telling her back then that because of such matters, the Li family had even been involved in a homicide lawsuit, though it was eventually dropped and left unsettled. As time passed, the people of Yangzhou no longer knew whether it had truly happened or was merely a baseless rumor passed from mouth to mouth.

Yet, in Li Shanru's estimation, there was an eighty percent chance that families who went to demand justice and retrieve their daughters had genuinely lost a life to that brute Li Ziyang.

Later on, naturally, Madam Chai—and perhaps even the Chai family—helped him hush the matter up, and with the passage of time, it simply faded into rumor.

He was truly and thoroughly a scourge.

Upon hearing this, Pei Jingxing was visibly startled: "Cousin, you mean to..."

He did not even finish his sentence, struck with astonishment that a sheltered young maiden of good family would utter such words.

Li Shanru met his gaze openly and candidly. Taking in the shock written all over his face, she raised her brows slightly: "Does Elder Cousin find something amiss with that?"

Pei Yanzhou immediately cast a warning look in his direction.

Pei Jingxing then offered an embarrassed laugh: "Nothing at all. It's just that hearing Cousin say such a thing so abruptly came as rather a surprise."

"I assumed Elder Cousin would think the same way," Li Shanru said, curling her lips slightly. She truly did not see anything improper in what she had said. "For someone like Li Ziyang, shouldn't it be so? Aunt and Elder Cousin's original intention was to spare his life, reducing him at most to broken limbs so he could never walk again for the rest of his days—which, of course, is a fate worse than death. Yet, upon much reflection, since he is a base and dissolute rake, cutting off his desires from that particular aspect would achieve two ends at once: doing a good deed while punishing him. Is that not killing multiple birds with one stone? Come to think of it, more than half of the households in Yangzhou city ought to offer me their profound gratitude."

After all, Li Ziyang was completely indiscriminate; even women who were already married would not be spared by him as long as they possessed some degree of beauty.

Pei Yanzhou merely looked at her with a smile: "I believe Cousin's method is exceptionally good."

In truth, even if she had not spoken of it, he had already intended to do precisely that.

With such wicked intentions, Li Ziyang deserved to die.

Had it not been for the sake of protecting her reputation, and out of a genuine fear that a cornered Madam Chai might lash out wildly and bite back indiscriminately, he would never have allowed Li Ziyang a chance at survival.

Pei Jingxing seemed to harbor doubts: "If we proceed according to Cousin's plan, wouldn't that practically tell the Li family and Madam Chai that we were the ones behind it?"

Li Shanru clearly disagreed, letting out a soft sound of dissent: "And the evidence? Without proof, if their family pins it on me and makes random accusations, that would be slander, and I would take them to court. I heard Aunt mention that a few days ago, regarding the gossip circulating in the city, the Li family firmly believed it was the deliberate work of someone intentionally trying to stir up trouble. Now that something has happened to me, it hasn't necessarily been kept completely airtight either; word may well have leaked. People might simply have no grudge against me and choose to stay silent, yet use this very opportunity to ruin Li Ziyang once and for all while no one can catch the perpetrator—why would that not work?"

Pei Jingxing still felt that carrying out a scheme in such a manner left too many hidden troubles. It would be far cleaner to simply kill him outright, sparing themselves from future complications and further drama.

Yet...

Pei Yanzhou could guess what he was thinking merely from looking at his expression: "Even if they do pin it on us, so what? I already said: the point is to make Madam Chai understand that taking her son's life is an effortless matter for me. Only when she has something to fear will she learn to keep her mouth shut. Third Lang, exterminating the root and branch is often not the supreme strategy. Had it been a vicious, hardened desperado today rather than Madam Chai, then cutting the weeds and digging up the roots to leave no future troubles would indeed be necessary. But Madam Chai is different."

The more ruthlessly you act, the more she will be driven to desperate measures, which would ultimately do our cousin no good."

Upon reflection, Pei Jingxing seemed to have learned his lesson and finally said no more.

Li Shanru found herself somewhat averse to hearing such words.

The logic was sound enough in its own right, yet hearing it voiced by Pei Yanzhou invariably reminded her of how much of this man's intelligence and cleverness in her past life had been used to scheme against and manipulate her. No matter what, she found it unbearable to listen to.

Her expression shifted, and Pei Yanzhou noticed it instantly.

He had originally intended to keep silent precisely because he knew hearing it would displease her.

She still harbored misunderstandings about him, and since those misconceptions had not yet been cleared up, listening to these calculations would surely make her view him as an individual of extreme duplicity and heavy scheming.

Yet, because Third Lang was unable to think this through on his own, as the elder brother he could hardly refrain from offering guidance.

Finding it difficult to explain and knowing she would refuse to listen anyway, Pei Yanzhou hastily changed the subject just as she was about to announce her departure: "Lord Zhou departs tomorrow. Will Cousin be going to see him off?"

The opening was hardly ideal, and Li Shanru's expression clearly turned speechless: "Naturally I am going, otherwise it would make me look like someone who kicks away the bridge after crossing the stream."

Pei Yanzhou inexplicably caught a sarcastic undertone in the latter half of her sentence, and he reflexively rubbed the bridge of his nose: "I had someone ask Uncle Hu; the accounts can be settled by the day after tomorrow at the latest. Why didn't Cousin persuade Lord Zhou to stay for a couple more days?"

This time, Li Shanru truly had no desire to entertain him. Tuck-ing her hands into her sleeves, she retreated two or three steps: "Does Elder Cousin have any other business? If not, I shall return first."

She even lightly stroked the bandaged wound on her palm: "I still need to tend to my injury."

Pei Yanzhou let out a nearly imperceptible sigh: "Then go back and rest, Cousin. If there is anything else you wish to handle, or anything you desire, just send someone to let me know."

Li Shanru thought to herself that even if she had any desires, she would inform her aunt; what did it have to do with him? On the surface, however, she kept her expression neutral, though the impatience in the depths of her eyes remained entirely unhidden, fully exposed for him to see. With a hasty murmur of assent, she offered a rather perfunctory bow and turned on her heel to leave.

Dull-witted as Pei Jingxing might be, even he finally understood the scene: "Why is Big Brother trying so hard to curry favor with our cousin?"