Chapter 26: A Bit of a Wild Approach

Chapter 26: A Bit of a Wild Card

Little K's pixel screen displayed a long string of ellipses and garbled code, clearly dumbfounded by Xiao Yan's unexpected adjective.

"Host, I haven't even said anything yet!" Little K finally ran normally again, starting to screech. "Do you even remember the mission? What do you think you're doing?!"

Xiao Yan ignored the system's protests, his gaze fixed on Liu Qingci.

"This is exactly what the task asks for!"

Little K was losing it: "What counts as this? You're punishing the wrong guy!!!"

Xiao Yan: "Look at the task description: 'Punishment: slap until they cough up blood.' I ordered Liu Qingci to beat Xu Ming until he spat blood. What's wrong with that?"

Little K: "(╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻"

It couldn't handle this! It just couldn't!

"Host! Is this how you game the system???"

"How is this gaming the system?" Xiao Yan frowned, slightly disapproving, and argued with conviction, "The task requirements were just a few sentences. I carefully analyzed their meaning before taking action. I'm a professional, OK?"

Gaming the system?

No, he called it... creative problem-solving.

Little K completely fried its circuits, leaving only a stunned round face letting off little smoke puffs on the screen.

Flawless, no room for rebuttal.

Xiao Yan pressed on: "Isn't it a relief to see that bastard get what he deserves?"

Little K answered truthfully: "Well... it does feel pretty damn good to watch."

Xu Ming was a vile and treacherous character who repeatedly set up Liu Qingci in the storyline, utterly revolting.

In the original novel, Xu Ming wasn't dealt with until after Prince Yu's downfall, when the main lead Xiao Jing cleaned house.

Little K's program whirred for a moment, analyzing:

Now... hmm...

It just got handled a bit early. No big deal.

In the middle of the hall, Liu Qingci had already delivered the third and fourth slaps.

Each time he raised his hand, each time it came down, the movements weren't particularly skilled or forceful—even a bit erratic from emotion—but the palm wrapped in silk padding landed squarely on Xu Ming's face each time.

The padding reduced the impact, but made the pain more drawn-out and intense. Xu Ming's cheeks rapidly swelled, and blood and saliva were already seeping around the edges of the gag.

Liu Qingci's breathing grew heavier, his eyes rimmed red—whether from effort or other emotions, it was unclear.

The guests who had originally gathered to watch Liu Qingci's embarrassment were now dead silent.

"Slap!"

Another crisp sound.

Xu Ming couldn't take it anymore. His head lolled to the side, and he passed out cold, a trickle of blood oozing from his nose and mouth.

Liu Qingci's raised arm froze in midair, his chest heaving violently.

He looked at Xu Ming, unconscious on the ground, then down at his own trembling hand wrapped in cloth. A flicker of bewilderment passed through his eyes, like he'd just snapped out of an intense dream.

"Enough." Xiao Yan's indifferent voice broke the silence. "Looks like that's about it."

Fu'an immediately gestured for two guards to come forward and drag the unconscious Xu Ming away.

Only then did Xiao Yan turn his gaze back to Liu Qingci, still standing in place, and crooked a finger at him.

"Come here."

Liu Qingci turned dazedly and walked back to Xiao Yan, his steps unsteady.

The originally white silk padding wrapped around his hand was now stained with traces of blood at the edges.

Xiao Yan reached out, undid the knot and unwound the fabric from his hand.

His movements weren't exactly gentle, almost careless, but Liu Qingci just quietly let him do it.

Once the fabric was removed, underneath, his palm was completely unharmed, just a little red.

Xiao Yan gave it a look, apparently satisfied, and casually tossed the bloodstained cloth to Fu'an.

"The hand is fine." He stated it as a fact, then raised his eyes to look at Liu Qingci's still slightly dazed face, his tone slipping back into its usual lazy drawl: "You've got some nerve."

Liu Qingci's eyelashes fluttered, and he said softly, "You gave me permission, Your Highness."

"Mm." Xiao Yan gave a noncommittal hum, leaned back against the armrest, and scanned the crowd below, their faces a mix of emotions, as if the whole disturbance had just been a minor aside at the banquet.

"What are you all standing around for?" He picked up his refilled cup, a faint smile playing at the corner of his mouth. "Continue."

The banquet ended.

Chen Huai'an slipped out from an inconspicuous corner, keeping to the back of the crowd, doing his best to go unnoticed.

"Brother Huai'an." A friend leaned in, his expression like he'd swallowed a live fish; he choked for a moment before getting the words out, "Our Brother Qingci... has a bit of a wild side."

He was referring to the matter of Liu Qingci personally beating someone until they spat blood.

"Wild is an understatement." Another person stared blankly, murmuring, "The key is how perfectly His Highness Prince Yu set him up as the straight man... He handed over the cloth with such an air, I thought he was going to bandage the wound, but it turns out he was worried about Qingci's hands hurting?"

The thought alone made him shiver, it was so absurd.

Chen Huai'an wiped his face, trying to make sense of this mess: "So, Brother Qingci didn't let us rescue him because... well... it seems he can handle it for now? Or does he have other plans?"

After seeing today's events, left their would-be rescue squad feeling conflicted.

"Well." The first classmate sighed in defeat, "Looks like we were making fools of ourselves. Qingci has more of a plan than we do."

They were like people who had been gearing up for a heroic rescue, only to find the guy himself had taken down the thug and had reached some kind of unspoken understanding with the biggest villain by his side.

"We didn't come here for nothing today." Chen Huai'an sighed, a tone that was both helpless and amused. "At least we saw that Prince Yu's not as simple when it comes to Brother Qingci as we thought, and Qingci's situation probably isn't as bad as we imagined."

"Then from now on..." someone asked.

Chen Huai'an glanced in the direction Liu Qingci had walked off with Prince Yu, and finally said with relief, "From now on, if Brother Qingci needs us, we'll give it our all to help. But if he doesn't say anything... let's not stick our noses in."

He paused, then added with a subtle sense of relief, like having dodged a bullet, "After all, with His Highness Prince Yu's unpredictable temperament, our rash actions might not save him, but only make things worse for Qingci and get ourselves tangled up too."

The several people strongly agreed and nodded one after another.

---

Just after Xiao Yan returned to Prince Yu's residence, he received a message from the palace that the emperor was summoning him.

The banquet was crowded and full of gossip, so the incident quickly reached the emperor's ears.

Presumably, the emperor summoned him for this very matter.

Xiao Yan glanced at the over-the-top bandaging on his wound, then called for the imperial physician: "Take this off and re-bandage it more discreetly."