You shameless scoundrel!
Three to four days pass, and Shang Ya Zi holds the bitter strength Gu in his study, feeling extremely gloomy and wanting to crush it but restrained by the eight hundred and ten thousand primeval stones it cost. Fang Yuan tricked him in front of everybody at the auction, and he is now a laughing stock whom even clansmen refuse to meet. Shang Yan Fei says nothing of the matter, which unsettles him more. Shang Ya Zi decides to salvage his reputation and make Fang Yuan pay a terrible price. ch. 310
A servant rushes in, terrified, to report a rumor across Shang clan city that Shang Ya Zi lost Lady An Yu to Fang Zheng and went looking for trouble over it. Shang Ya Zi laughs it off as rubbish about a Qin Yan brothel prostitute. The servant adds that the rumor says he made a secret deal with Fang Zheng to pass the yearly assessment and faked the accounts, with the transaction time and exact amount circulating. By the servant’s account, the clan’s internal affairs hall seems to have been alerted and is sending Gu Masters to investigate. Shang Ya Zi goes pale and nearly falls, thinking he is finished: once the fake accounting is exposed he will lose his young master position, and even his mother cannot protect him. ch. 310
Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing play chess in Nan Qiu garden’s lake pavilion. Bai Ning Bing, who sent the rumor out long ago, wonders why the slow Shang Ya Zi has not come yet. Fang Yuan has told the guards to let him in, expecting him to suspect Fang Yuan and come, to investigate or to persuade Fang Yuan to cover for him. Bai Ning Bing is really impressed that Fang Yuan exploited a loophole in the poison vow Gu, planned from two years ago. Fang Yuan says Shang Ya Zi is a petty man who will definitely take revenge, and that he did not act earlier because Shang Xin Ci had just arrived in Shang clan without a foundation. He adds that with Shang Ya Zi gone and Shang Xin Ci in, he and Bai Ning Bing both benefit. ch. 310
Shang Ya Zi arrives furious and demands to know whether Fang Yuan did this. Fang Yuan asks if he would be alive had he done it, reminding him they used the poison vow Gu together, and Shang Ya Zi’s anger subsides slightly. Then Fang Yuan says his companion Bai Ning Bing made the rumor, and Shang Ya Zi screams in intense rage that he will kill her. Bai Ning Bing stands and asks with strong disdain whether he really wants a fight to the death with her. She is rank three peak stage, has never lost on the battle stage and holds the purple thorn token. He does not attack, being rank three upper stage and no match for her, and Shang Yan Fei gave her the token personally. ch. 310
Shang Ya Zi accuses Fang Yuan of going back on his word and asks how she knew of their deal and whether he disabled the poison vow Gu. Fang Yuan explains that the vow barred telling an unknowing third party, but he told Bai Ning Bing before the vow was used, so she was a knowing third party. He did not let the rumor out himself. Shang Ya Zi missed the loophole for three reasons. He never expected Fang Yuan to tell Bai Ning Bing beforehand, and he started the vow himself while Fang Yuan, only looking unprepared, had predicted it long ago. Anxiety and the painful recitation also kept him from thinking properly. Knowing now is too late, and he screams that Fang Yuan is a shameless scoundrel and despicable scum who tricked and deceived him. ch. 310
