Chapter 49: Seriously, are the two of you absolute idiots?

Two months passed.

Qingshui Town welcomed its first snowfall of the year.

"Splendid!"

Inside the Hundred Flavors Pavilion, Manager Niu clacked away on his abacus and laughed, "Just how many days has it been? The profits are already catching up to the past several years combined! Once our inn is built, our profits will more than double!"

The two courtyards adjacent to the Hundred Flavors Pavilion had already been bought by Gu Changqing at a high price.

This style of doing things was identical to Cheng An's.

Either do not do it at all, or do it to the absolute best!

With a somewhat absent-minded gaze, Cheng An looked outside and muttered casually, "The land in the town isn't cheap, is it?"

"It certainly isn't cheap..."

Manager Niu laughed smugly, "Yet does our Gu family lack that bit of money? Even without the grain business, we still have enough to buy a few courtyards."

Indeed!

With the Gu family's heritage spanning decades, they naturally lacked no money.

Yet why wouldn't the master just speak up?

Cheng An sighed.

As long as Du Xiu was willing to utter a word, given Gu Changqing's personality, he would undoubtedly help.

It was merely a courtyard after all.

Even just the past two months of revenue from the shop would be enough!

Alas...

A burst of shouting interrupted Cheng An's train of thought.

He raised his eyes to look.

Two burly, rough-hewn men were pointing at a plate of stir-fried meat and cursing, "Damn it! Is this supposed to be shredded pork or shredded maggots? Where is the manager? Get your ass out here!"

Manager Niu hurried out from behind the counter.

"What is the meaning of this? What are you shouting for?"

"Take a look for yourselves!"

On the plate, two pale, squirming maggots were writhing about.

Manager Niu frowned in disgust and said, "Are you guests deliberately coming here to pick a fight? This dish was just served, how could there possibly be live maggots in it?"

"What?"

The burly man immediately flew into a rage.

With a ferocious expression, he yelled, "Damn it, the dish was stir-fried by your Hundred Flavors Pavilion, and the maggots were fished right out of your food. Are you bastards trying to deny it?"

The momentum of the two was imposing.

They looked fully ready to smash up the shop at the slightest disagreement!

"The dish is indeed from our shop."

Cheng An stepped forward, pushing Manager Niu aside as he said, "However, these two maggots are definitely not from our shop. If you don't believe me, why don't you ask them yourselves?"

"Hahahahaha!"

The diners burst into loud laughter.

Someone chuckled in a low voice, "Don't let this little fellow's age fool you, his tongue is truly venomous! Besides, this is clearly just someone looking for trouble!"

In a piping-hot plate of food, two live maggots suddenly appeared?

Who the hell would believe that unless they were an absolute fool!

The problem, however, was...

When people clearly intended to use force, what could you possibly do about it?

"Damn it!"

"You little punk, tired of living, are you?"

One of the burly men grabbed Cheng An by the collar, hoisting him up into mid-air.

Manager Niu trembled with fright and hurriedly stepped forward, shouting, "What do you think you're doing? If anyone dares to harm Young Master Cheng, the Gu family will never let this rest!"

Cheng An must not come to any harm!

At the very least, he must not meet with trouble inside the Hundred Flavors Pavilion...

Otherwise, the head of the family would certainly not spare him!

Yet Cheng An allowed himself to be dangled without putting up any struggle. "Want to resort to violence? In broad daylight, do you really think you can escape? Can you guarantee that no one here recognizes the two of you?"

Knowing full well that this was a Gu family enterprise, they still came to pick a fight.

This was unmistakably an act of vengeance by an enemy!

The burly man hesitated for a moment.

The other one spoke with fierce menace, "Hah! Since I dared to come, why would I fear your revenge? What does the Gu family amount to? Serving such disgusting food deserves to have this place smashed to pieces!"

"You're not afraid of the Gu family, but are you afraid of the officials?"

"Ha!"

The burly man almost choked with laughter.

He stared grimly at Cheng An suspended in his grip. "You think the magistrate's office is run by your family, where you can summon them whenever you please?"

"Ah..."

"So foolish! Incurably foolish!"

Cheng An shook his head and sighed.

His arrogant and punchable tone made people simply want to curse.

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

The burly man violently raised his hand in a slap.

Determined to teach this sharp-tongued little brat a harsh lesson!

Yet he heard Cheng An continue unhurriedly: "I am the youngest scholar-candidate in Yaozhou, and the reward silver was personally delivered to my home by Registrar Liu himself. Are you certain you want to lay a hand on me?"

"..."

The raised hand froze in mid-air.

The burly man stared wide-eyed at Cheng An.

Cheng An, however, shook his head with an expression of feigned pity, sighing, "I originally didn't wish to show off, seeing as it's nothing major, but you are far too foolish... So foolish that I couldn't help but tell you the truth."

"What do you mean?"

The burly man instinctively loosened his grip.

Yet Cheng An made no move to break free, saying calmly, "The person who sent you here must have known this was a Gu family property, right? Since they knew that, they surely knew about me as well."

"You little..."

The other burly man was just about to curse, but was checked back by a warning glare from his companion.

Damn it!

Didn't you hear this little brat say he was acquainted with Registrar Liu?

He might not care about 'the youngest scholar-candidate', but Liu Qi, the registrar of Qingshui Town, was a supreme existence across three neighboring villages!

Be they ordinary commoners or local ruffians,

who would ever dare to fight against the official authorities?

"Then the two of you tell me..."

Cheng An glanced at the pair and said with a faint smile, "If you were to resort to violence today, who would end up in misfortune? And why would the person who sent you here still instruct you to do this, knowing full well you would meet with misfortune?"

"This..."

A flicker of pristine confusion crossed the burly man's eyes.

Then he let go and set Cheng An down.

Cheng An's smile grew wider as he continued, "Tell me, are the two of you utter fools? The kind of incurably stupid dolts who have maggots writhing inside their brains?"

"Dammit!"

The latter burly man felt his blood rush to his head from the insult.

He swung a vicious backhand slap...

Crack!

Cheng An didn't budge an inch.

Instead, the burly man who threw the punch was sent reeling by a blow from his own companion: "You idiot, haven't you figured it out yet? The two of us have been played for fools by that bastard surnamed Dong!"

By this point...

Everyone in the room knew who the mastermind behind the scenes was!

The man who had taken the blow stood frozen in place for a long while before angrily shouting, "Damn it, this isn't right, Big Brother! How could you just believe his words?"

"What's wrong with his words?"

The first burly man cursed with utter contempt, "I've understood everything, why don't you get it? That Dong Dakang knew perfectly well this kid had connections with Registrar Liu, yet he still sent the two of us to pick a fight. Isn't that deliberately setting us up to take the fall?"

He spoke in a very loud voice,

believing that this was the way to prove his own reasoning!

Yet his companion remained entirely unswayed, shaking his head and saying, "Then how do you know Dong Dakang set us up? He even paid us money, why would he want to trap us?"

"You fool!"

"You're the fool!"

His companion finally snapped. Clutching his swollen left cheek, he shouted with uncontainable fury, "Wu Ji, I've tolerated you for a long time! If you've got the guts, try calling me that again!"

"Guo Jing, what did you say?"

The atmosphere between the two grew increasingly volatile.

Yet Cheng An was dumbfounded.

He stared straight at the pair and blurted out, "You two..."

"Shut up!"

Guo Jing glared back at him before turning his gaze back to Wu Ji. "Damn it! I've truly had enough. How on earth did I ever end up worshiping an idiot like you as my big brother?"

"Who are you calling an idiot?"

Sensing a brawl was about to break out,

"Hey, hey, hey!"

Cheng An stepped right between them to separate the pair, speaking with annoyance, "If you want to fight, go outside to do it! The shop is still trying to run a business here!"

"Outside it is, then!"

Wu Ji spun around and stalked toward the entrance.

Before stepping out, he didn't forget to throw a glare back at Guo Jing. "If you've got any spine, follow me outside. If I don't beat the living daylights out of you, I'll no longer be known as the 'Little White Dragon of Qingshui'!"

"Damn it! As if I'd be afraid of you?"

Guo Jing followed him out.

Thud!

Whack!

Bang...

The two began brawling fiercely right outside the shop.

Meanwhile, the diners inside, along with Cheng An and Manager Niu, were completely frozen in blank astonishment.

"These two fellows..."

"Are we certain they're genuinely stupid?"

Manager Niu turned his head to look at Cheng An.

Cheng An nodded blankly. "They must be. Look at that Wu Ji, he's putting so much effort into it! He genuinely wants to beat the living daylights out of Guo Jing."

"Indeed!"

"They certainly don't look like they're faking it."

A voice drifted over from the kitchen area.

The chubby head chef held a wok spatula in one hand and a soup ladle in the other, watching the spectacle with keen relish.

Smack!

Manager Niu rolled his eyes and delivered a swift knock to the chef's head. "You're treating this like a theater play? Have the guests' dishes been cooked yet? Dammit, is there a single person in this shop who isn't a fool?"