Chapter 62: Cash on Delivery
When Chen Bai went upstairs, Qi Zheng happened to be standing in the corridor.
Why did the other man’s expression seem so unpleasant?
Chen Bai hurriedly straightened himself. It had been a long time since he had pretended to be Mountain Lord. He had to find the feeling again.
Watch him become the best actor.
He deliberately lowered his voice, deliberately imitating Mountain Lord’s manner, and said, “I didn’t expect that the first person I would see upon returning would be you.”
As for Qi Zheng, his pupils narrowed sharply.
It was Mountain Lord’s voice. Exactly the same as Mountain Lord’s!
Some things that had puzzled him before were like a sheet of paper suddenly pierced through.
No wonder… no wonder Chen Zixiu and Mountain Lord had never appeared in the same place at the same time. Now that he thought about it, was that not full of suspicious points? If Chen Zixiu really was Mountain Lord’s disciple, and Mountain Lord had taught at the academy for so long, with Qi Zheng almost never missing a single lesson, then as his student, how could Chen Zixiu never come to visit his master? How could he never appear in class?
And he had cooperated with Chen Zixiu so many times. With Mountain Lord and Chen Zixiu’s relationship, how was it possible that every time he met Chen Zixiu, he had never once seen Mountain Lord?
The reason behind all these doubts was simple. Because they were the same person. It was impossible for them to appear before him at the same time.
Before, he had wondered why a yao cared so much about Chen Zixiu, planning everything for him. Whether it was taking out potatoes to trade with him to spare Chen Zixiu from punishment, or the countless deals afterward—now that he looked back, every single matter had been for Chen Zixiu’s sake. It was even more attentive than a biological father.
Now everything made sense.
And back in Lu, the phone radar had also shown that Mountain Lord was in Lu at the time. Yet Qi Zheng had secretly investigated for so long and found not the slightest trace. The root cause was that Mountain Lord had been right beside him all along, only under another identity, staying by his side as Chen Zixiu. Where was he supposed to find Mountain Lord?
There was also the way Chen Zixiu and Mountain Lord took turns teaching the students, each time transitioning so smoothly it was as if there were no gap at all. One had to know that even when learning the same thing, each person’s understanding could never be exactly identical.
Before, he had only thought it strange that the yao gave Chen Zixiu private lessons far too frequently. Since Chen Zixiu used the identity of Mountain Lord’s founding disciple as cover, at most it had made him suspicious, but he had not thought too deeply about it.
Now that he thought about it, there had actually been suspicious points everywhere before. He had simply been blinded by one leaf and unable to see the truth.
Chen Bai was still wondering why Qi Zheng’s face had changed the moment he opened his mouth. What was going on?
Before Chen Bai could react, Qi Zheng reached out, dragged him away, and headed straight into the nearest room.
By the time Chen Bai reacted, Qi Zheng had already thrown him onto the bed, his entire body pressing down over him.
Chen Bai’s heart shuddered. What was he trying to do?
He… he had told Qi Zheng he did not like men. Besides, even if he did, Qi Zheng could not just force himself on him without asking a single question.
Good heavens, had Qi Zheng taken the wrong medicine today, or was he a beast in gentleman’s clothing, suddenly overcome by animal desire?
He knew it. With someone as repressed and sullen as Qi Zheng, who knew what kind of demon lived inside him? Look, the truth was exposed now.
Chen Bai kicked his legs furiously on either side of Qi Zheng’s body.
But in the next moment, Chen Bai’s whole body froze stiff, because Qi Zheng’s hand reached straight for the mask on his face.
Chen Bai’s pupils widened in terror, and both his hands flew up to cover the mask.
Qi Zheng’s eyes narrowed like a cat’s, full of dangerous air. “What? It’s not like I haven’t seen it before.”
Chen Bai swallowed. “I’m just afraid I’ll scare you. Can you imagine how terrifying it would be for a person’s body to have a cat’s head on it?”
Qi Zheng’s smile was cold. “Perfect. I happen to be quite bold. The stranger something is, the more curious I am.”
He exerted strength with his hand. Chen Bai used almost all the strength he had ever had just to hold the mask down. If it were pulled off, Chen Bai could not help trembling at the thought.
Qi Zheng looked at Chen Bai, who was making a “dying struggle.” Today, he had to get to the bottom of this.
He pinned down Chen Bai’s hands and feet, then pulled hard.
Chen Bai, who had still been kicking and clawing moments ago, suddenly went completely stiff.
He collapsed on the bed like a puddle of rotten mud.
It was over.
Good heavens, what was he supposed to do now?
Although Qi Zheng had already been mentally prepared, the moment the mask was pulled away and he saw Chen Zixiu’s face, he still became dazed.
When he was young, he had gone to Zhao as a hostage. He had no one to rely on, no family or friends by his side. So to protect himself, he had always sealed off his heart and refused to let anyone near.
Only coldness could keep him from getting hurt.
Some said he was a solitary star of calamity. Some said his moods were unpredictable. He accepted it, because his personality truly was like that.
But if someone said he had no friends, he would not agree. Because at the very least, he had one yao friend.
Truly. He did not know why, but he had been willing to tell everything in his heart to that stone slab. He had even broadcast himself planting potatoes to the yao every single night.
That would have been completely impossible before. If that was not friendship, then what was?
Sometimes, he had even secretly felt fortunate. What were Bo Ya and Zhong Ziqi compared to this? He had a friendship beyond description with a yao. Though sometimes, he also felt it was a little strange.
But the moment the mask was removed, that so-called friendship shattered all over the ground.
Everything had been fake. What yao? It was entirely Chen Zixiu directing and acting out the whole thing himself.
Poor him. Back then, because Chen Zixiu had said that the stone slab was his true body, Qi Zheng had secretly pinched the stone slab and even felt as if he had done something bad, so nervous inside he could hardly bear it.
Back then, he had even treated it as a small pleasure. Every time he saw Mountain Lord, he actually wanted to ask how his pinching had felt, but he had been too embarrassed to say it.
Thinking about it now, if that stone slab really had been the yao’s true body, and he had been putting it in his sleeve and touching it whenever he had nothing to do, could the yao have endured that?
No wonder Mountain Lord had never once come out to object.
Now that he thought about it, he had truly been stupid before.
At this moment, Chen Bai spoke like a salted fish. “Qi Zheng, don’t forget what you promised me when we formed our alliance. At the time, we agreed that no matter the outcome, you cannot blame me. No matter what, you must protect the Tingwei Estate’s wealth and honor for a lifetime.”
When they formed their alliance, Chen Bai had proposed this condition because he was afraid that after learning too many of Qi Zheng’s secrets, Qi Zheng would kill the donkey after it finished grinding the mill once he came to power.
Now there was no other choice. He had to use it to block for the moment.
Qi Zheng was stunned. “You even thought of this in advance?”
Chen Bai: “…”
Sob, sob. Even now, he still did not know how things had suddenly taken such a sharp turn downward. He had not even been given the slightest time to think.
He felt that Qi Zheng might even be capable of violating him first, then killing him afterward. He had to protect himself.
“Actually, think about it. Haven’t I treated you very well? I helped you develop your fief, helped you make plans, risked my life to help you fight against the other princes, and during war I even taught Gan Xin how to scout military intelligence for you…” Chen Bai began to coax him earnestly.
Qi Zheng’s eyes narrowed. “Those were all things Mountain Lord did.”
Chen Bai: “…”
This shameless bastard. Was he not Mountain Lord?
Qi Zheng was the one who had exposed his identity, but Qi Zheng was also the one refusing to admit to his face that they were the same person. What exactly did he want?
To be honest, Qi Zheng treated Mountain Lord and Chen Zixiu with two completely different attitudes, as if they were two separate people. Now, forcing him to merge the two into one was truly somewhat difficult.
Qi Zheng’s feelings were also extremely conflicted. Logically, if someone dared to deceive him like this, with his temper, he would have torn the person into pieces long ago.
But the person who deceived him was Mountain Lord. That was the only friendship he had acknowledged.
Precisely because he had invested in it, he valued it so much. And precisely because he had valued it so much, losing it made him so conflicted.
Chen Bai now had nothing left to fear, like a dead pig unafraid of boiling water. Since things had already reached this point, he coaxed him even more energetically. “Qi Zheng, think about it. You still need me to help you refine salt from your salt lake. If you do anything to me now, you’ll have nothing left.”
Profit, profit. If Qi Zheng were a normal person, he should know how to choose, right?
Yet for some reason, Qi Zheng knew perfectly well how important that salt lake was, but the more he listened to Chen Zixiu, the angrier he became.
It was as if everything between them could only be explained with the word “profit.”
Chen Bai was still thinking that he had explained things so clearly to Qi Zheng. Keeping him around would bring great benefits. He had deliberately downplayed the fact that he had used Mountain Lord’s identity to maneuver around in the past, trying to frame everything from before until now as a mutually beneficial relationship. As for those little side episodes, they could just pretend they did not exist.
But for some reason, Qi Zheng’s gaze became especially fierce.
Chen Bai shivered in fright. What was wrong now?
Just then, someone suddenly knocked on Chen Bai’s door.
To be honest, both of them froze.
Qi Zheng glanced at Chen Bai. “I’ll settle accounts with you later.”
When Qi Zheng left the room, Meng Huanchao, who was standing at the door with a food tray, nearly dropped it.
Qi Zheng’s current appearance was more than just disheveled.
Chen Bai had struggled too violently just now and had pulled his clothes into disorder. There were even a few scratch marks accidentally left on Qi Zheng’s face.
This was way too intense.
Meng Huanchao glanced at the room. This was indeed Grand Secretary Zhaoxue’s room, right?
He had truly heated up some food this time and brought it up. He had not expected to run into this.
If he had pushed open the door, he would have seen an even more “unbearable to look at” scene: Chen Bai lying there like a ruined cloth, like a dead fish.
Meng Huanchao was just about to say something, but Qi Zheng left with a dark face.
Meng Huanchao: “Why does the atmosphere feel so strange?”
Qi Zheng said he would settle accounts with Chen Bai later, but he did not get the chance, because Chen Bai ran away.
Chen Bai felt that going to Qi Zheng right now would not be much different from walking straight into gunfire.
He fled back to the Tingwei Estate as if escaping for his life. Along the way, he kept sighing. How awkward would it be to see Qi Zheng in the future? The key was that he still had to see him, because their cooperation still had a long road ahead.
At the gates of the Tingwei Estate, Chen Xiaobu was holding a squeaky rubber chicken in each hand, squeezing them whenever he saw someone and showing them off to an outrageous degree. He felt that he was now basically holding two night pearls.
Chen Bai’s forehead twitched. He was still the young master of the Tingwei Estate, after all. Was he not afraid of embarrassing himself?
As Chen Bai approached, he saw that Madam Ronghua and Chen Shouye were also there.
It looked as if someone had delivered goods, and they were checking them.
Chen Shouye was still muttering, “They really deliver straight to the door?”
Madam Ronghua replied irritably, “Bai’er is one of the owners of this express delivery business, yet how are you acting like you know nothing? You are one of the Nine Ministers, yet you care so little about people’s livelihood.”
Not to mention cash on delivery. Chen Shouye probably understood even less about that.
“I placed this order. I heard that the cured meat from the West Market shop is quite good this year, so I ordered some. Quickly check whether there is any substandard stuff mixed in. If there’s anything bad, don’t pay. Just reject the delivery.”
As it happened, tomorrow was Chen Xiaobu’s turn to bring food for the students at the academy, so she bought some. If she let Chen Xiaobu buy it himself, he would probably buy a whole basket of candied hawthorns for his classmates to eat as a meal, making others laugh at them for no reason.
Now, the noblewomen all paid attention to what the academy students ate. The Tingwei Estate did not need to outdo everyone in every single thing, but they could not muddle through and let people gossip either. So when it came to purchasing, she still had to handle it personally. However, this express delivery really was convenient. She could buy from all over the city, unlike before, when if there were no good goods nearby, she had to make do.
Chen Shouye found it rather novel. “Cash on delivery—aren’t they afraid someone will cheat them? What if someone places an order, the goods are delivered, and then they refuse to pay?”
After all, it was Chen Bai’s business, so he still had to show some concern.
Madam Ronghua rolled her eyes at Chen Shouye. “Let’s see who dares. Besides, if someone orders goods and then deliberately finds fault and refuses to accept them despite there being no problem, they’ll be… they’ll be what was it again…”
The courier beside them hurriedly added, “They’ll be put on our express delivery blacklist. From then on, no delivery point in Shangjing will accept that person’s orders.”
Madam Ronghua nodded. “Yes, that blacklist thing. People should keep their word, shouldn’t they?”
After saying that, she also chided Chen Shouye, “Shangjing has changed so much, yet you act as if you haven’t seen any of it.”
Chen Shouye thought to himself that he had no mood to care about Shangjing’s changes right now. The court alone was already troubling enough.
The King had not attended court day after day, and he did not allow anyone to visit. He would not even see the Three Dukes.
If this continued, Great Qian might not run into trouble because of the chaos among the states, but might fall into internal disorder first.
The panic at court right now was no joke. Officials were forming factions and clinging together.
Even someone like him, who did not form cliques, had no choice but to start making plans. Otherwise, once the power structure changed, even protecting oneself might become impossible.
At that moment, Chen Bai happened to walk over.
Madam Ronghua immediately called out happily, “Bai’er, you came back just in time. Quickly come and see how this cured meat is. Tomorrow, let Chen Xiaobu take it to his classmates as a side dish with rice. I don’t know whether it’s suitable or not. I also ordered quite a few other dishes. Come take a look at those too.”
Great. The whole family had come to inspect cured meat. Probably only Chen Xiaobu was heartless enough to keep showing off his squeaky rubber chickens.
Chen Bai sighed. In truth, he felt that for the academy students, as long as the food was nutritious, that was enough. There was no need to make it into a competition.
But nobles could never put aside that pride. Openly or secretly, they always wanted to compare in every possible aspect. Take Madam Ronghua for example. She was not actually someone who liked competing, but she also did not want to become a joke in others’ eyes. So here she was, personally inspecting cured meat that servants could have checked.
When Chen Bai returned to his own courtyard, he wrapped himself in his bedsheets with an expression of utter despair.
What was he supposed to do? He had run fast today and avoided Qi Zheng, but he would not be able to avoid him tomorrow.
Tomorrow, he had to enter the palace as Mountain Lord. Qi Zheng knew that. Would he not block the road and settle accounts with him?
“Forget it, forget it. Avoiding him for a moment is still avoiding him. At least I’m still useful now. Even if Qi Zheng’s lungs explode with anger, he’ll have to endure it.”
Qi Zheng was indeed nearly exploding with anger.
The man had just run away like that?
Before Qi Zheng had even had time to mourn his pitiful friendship, Chen Zixiu had actually left as if nothing had happened?
