CH 18

Chapter 18: Finding a Backer

The punch was not light. Jiang Yan took a few steps back. When he turned around, he saw that it was the usually quiet Fu Zixian.

He shouted angrily, "How dare you hit me! I am betrothed to your sister, so I'm also your brother-in-law in name!"

Fu Zixian looked very angry. His handsome face turned red. With his fists clenched, he retorted, "I did hit you!"

Jiang Yan rolled up his sleeves. "Just a bastard. Who do you think you are?!"translate(d) by puretl . com / do not steal / re po/st

Fu Zixian raised his other fist, posing as if he was ready to fight.

Cheng Xin interjected solemnly, "Stop! Fights are not allowed in the academy. Do you dare not take the imperial decree seriously?!"

The Fifth Highness's words had more weight than Wen Yantong's words. As soon as these words came out, Jiang Yan's fist, which was about to touch Fu Zixian's face, stopped abruptly.

Unexpectedly, Fu Zixian didn't stop, and he punched Jiang Yan on the other side of his face, making him dizzy. He staggered two steps back and fell on his buttocks.

When the others saw Jiang Yan fall, they rushed over to help him, and then remained standing behind Jiang Yan.

With nobody to hold her and no crutches to support her, Wen Yantong's legs, which were sore and soft, finally gave out, so she slid down the tree trunk and fell to the ground.

After Jiang Yan was lifted up, he stammered with anger. "You- How dare you..."

Fu Zixian rolled his eyes and ignored him. He turned around and walked quickly to Wen Yantong's side to help her up slowly. "Are you alright? Are you injured?"translate(d) by puretl . com / do not steal / re po/st

Wen Yantong shook her head with lingering fears.

"It’s my fault. I promised the Third Sister to take good care of you, but I didn't pay attention and let Jiang Yan take advantage of you" Fu Zixian said guiltily.

Hearing Jiang Yan's name, Wen Yantong finally realized who the man that wanted to shoot her with an arrow was.

The Jiang family's status in the court was not low. Jiang Yan's father was the Minister of the Hu, and he had military power in his hand. Given his background, Jiang Yan was also an arrogant young master.

She remembered that Minister Jiang and Mu Yang's father were like water and oil, so in order to consolidate their power, the Jiang family proposed a marriage with the second daughter of the Fu Residence, who was very favored.

The mother of this second young lady was Prime Minister Fu's previous First Madam. Only after her death did Prime Minister Fu marry Fu Tanghuan's mother.

Wen Yantong felt warm when she saw Fu Zixian's concern for her. Unexpectedly, he would actually raise his fists for a request from Fu Tanghuan.

She forced a faint smile. "Thank you for caring about me so much. I'm fine."

Fu Zixian saw that there was indeed no trauma on her body, so he picked up the crutches on the ground and handed them to her.

While talking, Chi Jingxi and others had already approached. Although Jiang Yan was afraid of these three people, he still had to pretend to be tough. With redness on both sides of his face, he said, "His Royal Highness and Little Marquis are quite curious."translate(d) by puretl . com / do not steal / re po/st

Cheng Xin smiled kindly at him. "You're in good spirits. There are grass targets in the martial arts field, yet you still use people as targets here."

Jiang Yan knew that he was hiding a knife in his smile, so he didn't dare to relax his vigilance. "Wen Yantong and I often play around like this. What's the problem?"

Cheng Xin said, "What a unique way to play. Why don't we play two rounds, too?"

Jiang Yan quickly shut his mouth, pretending to be deaf.

Chi Jingxi's eyes turned to look at Wu Yutian. "Come here."

Wu Yutian lowered his head and did not dare to recognize this sentence.

Chi Jingxi snorted impatiently. "Pretending to be deaf in front of me? Do you still need someone to help you clear your ears?"

Wu Yutian was so frightened at the moment that he approached Chi Jingxi with small steps. When he got there, he showed his signature flattering smile.

As the saying goes, one wouldn’t raise their hands at a smiling person.

Little Marquis was silent as he kicked Wu Yutian to the ground. Holding on to his stomach, Wu Yutian screamed miserably.

Chi Jingxi usually wouldn’t only hit once or twice, and everyone knew that it's usually best to silently keep their head down. Otherwise, if the young master was unhappy with the constant cries, he would give a rough beating.

At this moment, Cheng Xin didn't say anything about the imperial decree. Instead, he gave Mu Yang a wink, signaling for him to pay attention to the situation and stop him when necessary.

Chi Jingxi took a few steps forward, raised his foot on his shoulder, and sneered, "You can really howl. It’s so loud that I want to pluck out your tongue."pure tl . com is the original tler / don’t re-post

Wu Yutian gritted his teeth and did not dare to make another sound.

Wen Yantong grabbed her crutches and looked at Chi Jingxi being a fierce school tyrant. At this time, she didn't feel he was a bad guy.

"My name Chi Jingxi runs quite smoothly out your mouth. You use it quite a lot in private?" Chi Jingxi asked slowly.

"No, I don't dare." Wu Yutian didn't know if he was frightened or in pain as sweat dripped down his face. "Little Marquis, I know I was wrong. I won't dare next time."

"You don’t dare?" Chi Jingxi put more pressure on his foot. His delicate eyebrows were stained with anger. "You know whose carriage I was in and where I went. What else are you afraid of? Could it be that you send someone to monitor me all day?"

Wu Yutian knew his excuse had run dry. Yes, even if it was not difficult to inquire about the Little Marquis' itinerary in the city, it was enough to talk about these things in private. However, if the main lord himself were to hear of it and casually charge someone of being a stalker, no one would be able to bear the consequences.

"I- I- I just wanted to get along with Little Marquis, so I went to inquire..." Wu Yutian shivered.

Chi Jingxi held his collar and lifted him up from the ground. He punched Wu Yutian in the face, making a dull sound.

He was beaten until his eyes blurred and couldn't stand straight. He rolled to the ground a few times, crying in a low voice.

"You, son of a bitch, look down on people who want to curry favor with me. Now you're spewing nonsense about wanting to get along with me? I think your bones are just itching for a beating!" Chi Jingxi wanted to hit him again, but Mu Yang took a step forward and stopped him.

"Okay. Okay, Brother Xi. He’s already bleeding. This should be enough." Mu Yang advised. "He's so skinny, hitting him would only hurt your hands."

His stature was not much different from Chi Jingxi, and he was very strong. After being held by him, Chi Jingxi couldn't break free for a while.

Wen Yantong looked at the furious Chi Jingxi and knew that this Little Marquis was not trying to stand up for her. Instead, he was irritated by Wu Yutian's contemptuous attitude of calling him Little Marquis respectfully when face to face but used his full name of Chi Jingxi behind his back.

Wu Yutian had a bleeding nose and was lying on the ground, looking half-dead, although he could be pretending.

Wen Yantong felt that he must be faking it.pure tl . com is the original tler / don’t re-post

Chi Jingxi said helplessly, "Ok I’m done. Let me go."

Only then did Mu Yang let him go and muttered, "A small piece of offal is not worth using your hands on... You should beat that surname Jiang."

Jiang Yan's eyes widened when he heard this, and he stared at Mu Yang angrily.

Chi Jingxi wiped a handful of blood droplets on his finger and raised his eyes to look at Jiang Yan.

Jiang Yan was only sixteen years old and was more than half a head shorter than them. In addition, he was terrified of Chi Jingxi, so he couldn't help cowering. Averting his gaze, he covered his face that had been punched twice and did not dare to speak.

He had been beaten by Chi Jingxi before, and his fists were much more fierce than Fu Zixian's. The beating made his gum hurt for days, and with his face swollen, he could only chew lightly during meals.

Chi Jingxi's mocking chuckle floated in the air, but Jiang Yan didn't dare to answer. There was no response at all.pure tl . com is the original tler / don’t re-post

He also realized that this matter was not simple. The Jiang family was a prominent family in Chaoge and held military power. In recent years, they have gradually become a thorn in the emperor's eyes. If Chi Jingxi and Cheng Xin reported to the emperor that he bullied his classmates in the academy, it would be exactly what the emperor wanted. He will definitely use this matter to suppress his father.

So it was best if he were to act like a weakling. Jiang Yan shook his head.

Just at this moment, the school bell rang from afar, and the stalemate was broken.

Cheng Xin said, "Let's go. Teacher Xu's class cannot be missed. Otherwise, he will hold us after class."

Chi Jingxi narrowed his sharp brows and followed Cheng Xin and Mu Yang. The three of them turned around and left.

Only after they had gone far enough did Wu Yutian dare to let out his voice. Jiang Yan touched his painful cheeks and inwardly was relieved. He was upset when he heard his scream and kicked Wu Yutian’s ass.

"What are you crying for?! Piece of trash!"

At this time, Wen Yantong had already arrived at the martial arts field. When she felt that the matter was almost over, she did not dare to continue to watch and quickly left with Fu Zixian.pure tl . com is the original tler / don’t re-post

After this adventure, she suddenly understood one thing.

In this academy, it was impossible for a commoner to protect themselves just by avoiding everything. Even if she doesn't look for trouble, trouble will come to her. There were powerful people everywhere. Since she herself was not welcomed and her status was humble, she was very likely to die if she was not careful.

Although Fu Tanghuan, Cheng Xiao, and Fu Zixian could help her, they cannot shelter her forever.

The only way to protect herself was to find a strong backer and hold their sturdy thigh, at least so that some scumbags dare not do anything to her.

Thinking like this, Wen Yantong looked up at Chi Jingxi, who was walking slowly from a distance.