You shameless scoundrel!
Three or four days later, Shang Ya Zi sits in his study holding the bitter strength Gu, resisting the urge to crush the thing that cost him eight hundred and ten thousand primeval stones. Humiliated and now avoided by his own clansmen, and unsettled by his father Shang Yan Fei’s total silence on the matter, he resolves to salvage his reputation and make Fang Yuan pay a terrible price. The narration states his hatred toward Fang Yuan has hardened into something that has seeped into his soul. ch. 310
A servant rushes in with worse news. A rumor is spreading across Shang clan city that Shang Ya Zi and Fang Yuan once fought over a Qin Yan brothel woman named Lady An Yu, which Shang Ya Zi waves off as nonsense. A second, far more dangerous rumor claims he struck a secret deal with Fang Yuan to fake his account records for the yearly assessment, elaborate enough to include the exact transaction time and amount, and that the clan’s internal affairs hall has already been alerted and is sending investigators. Shang Ya Zi is certain this exposure will cost him his young master title beyond even his mother’s power to shield him, and cannot understand how the secret leaked, since he believes only Fang Yuan knew of it. Despite two capable years managing the clan’s shops, he is still too inexperienced to keep his composure once a real crisis lands on him. ch. 310
At a lake pavilion in Nan Qiu garden, Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing sit over a chess game. Bai Ning Bing, who set the fake accounting rumor loose herself, wonders aloud why Shang Ya Zi is taking so long to arrive; Fang Yuan says he has already told the guards to let him through when he comes. She tells him she is struck by how he found and exploited a loophole in the poison vow Gu the two young men swore, planning the whole scheme two years ago and simply waiting for Shang Xin Ci to gain a foothold in the clan before springing it. Fang Yuan explains that Shang Ya Zi, being petty, would always come for revenge eventually, so clearing him out and opening the young master seat for Shang Xin Ci serves them both. Watching him, Bai Ning Bing feels a chill at how far ahead his scheming reaches, and thinks privately that Shang Ya Zi is courting death by making an enemy of him. ch. 310
Shang Ya Zi storms in and accuses Fang Yuan of starting the rumors. Fang Yuan points out that if he had broken the poison vow himself he would not still be standing there alive, and Shang Ya Zi’s fury cools as the logic lands. Then Fang Yuan adds that while he did not spread the rumor, Bai Ning Bing did, and Shang Ya Zi’s rage turns fully on her, his aura suddenly predatory as he screams threats and an insult at her. Bai Ning Bing rises and coldly dares him to fight to the death, reminding him she is rank three peak stage, undefeated on the battle stage, and carries the purple thorn token in her own right; Shang Ya Zi, only rank three upper stage, holds himself back. ch. 310
Confused, Shang Ya Zi asks how Bai Ning Bing could have known of the deal at all, wondering if Fang Yuan somehow disabled the vow. Fang Yuan explains that the vow only bound them against telling an unknowing third party, and that he had told Bai Ning Bing about the deal before the vow was even sworn, making her a knowing party from the start; it was she, not he, who let the secret out, so no vow was broken. Shang Ya Zi is left dumbstruck as it sinks in: he never suspected Fang Yuan would confide in her beforehand, never realized Fang Yuan’s apparent surprise at the vow’s use was itself a performance meant to dull his guard, and had been too desperate and too pained by the vow’s recitation at the time to think it through. He erupts, screaming that Fang Yuan is a shameless, despicable scoundrel who tricked and deceived him. ch. 310
