Chapter 950: Chapter 948: It’s Not Up to You
Xing Bin really couldn’t say what exactly the thief had stolen, especially in front of Duke An, he simply couldn’t speak.
This skillful thief sneaked into the mansion only to steal the inner garments of his father and his father’s concubine. What kind of situation is this? And for what reason?
Those who don’t understand the situation might come up with some bizarre speculations upon hearing such things.
The most crucial thing is that even his father, the person involved, couldn’t understand what happened, couldn’t explain it at all, so how could they stop others from making random guesses?
While he was hesitating, Duke An looked at him expectantly, but then someone outside the crowd shouted, "Hey, hey! Wake up! What happened? Can he still be saved? Someone, come and take a look!"
The shout came from the gatekeeper of Duke An’s Mansion. Around the gate of the Duke’s Mansion, besides the masters of both families, there were also guards and warriors with real weapons, and he was tasked with the gatekeeping duty. So, the gatekeeper didn’t dare to move forward and only looked around from the steps outside the door.
With this observation, he really noticed a person lying at the corner outside the crowd. The gatekeeper instructed a lad next to him to guard the gate while he went over to check.
Seeing the person who wasn’t moving, he carefully pushed a little but saw no response, causing the gatekeeper to cry out in surprise.
This cry immediately attracted the attention of the people, and Duke An instructed his men, "Take a couple of people over to have a look."
Then he turned to Xing Bin and said, "We need to clarify that this man has nothing to do with our Duke An’s Mansion. If he’s dead, people from Xing Mansion will have to go explain it carefully to the capital’s yamen."
As the saying goes a thousand years later, at this moment, a myriad of grass-mud horses galloped through Xing Bin’s mind. His father instructed him not to make this matter public and to quietly capture the person.
But with the current situation, how could he handle it quietly?
Not only was Duke An keeping a close watch, but it might also result in a fatal accident. If this went to the capital’s yamen, even if it was just a formality, he would need to explain the matter to the relevant personnel at the yamen and record the case.
He looked towards his own Protector, intending to ask a question, but then saw the unnoticeable black-clad man move and throw that bunch of items in his hand towards Duke An’s face. At the same time, the black-clad man dashed towards the outer edge along with the Duke’s Mansion’s guards.
Duke An took a step back, shouting, "What is that?" His guard beside him had already rushed forward and caught the item in his hand.
Xing Bin shouted, "Grab it back quickly." Xing Mansion’s Protector also rushed forward, but how could they be in time?
The black-clad man took advantage of the confusion to strike, delivering kicks and punches, kicking away two approaching people, breaking an opening, and darted out.
The middle-aged guard from Duke An’s Mansion shouted and cursed, pointing at a few people to give chase. The Protectors from Grand Tutor Xing’s Mansion also split off a few to follow.
The city patrol soldiers watching the scene realized there was indeed a lawbreaker involved, so they quickly joined in the pursuit.
Meanwhile, the few garments thrown by the black-clad man were caught by the Duke’s Mansion’s guard. Fortunately, the guard did not check them, but stood back with a nod from Duke An.
After this came the uninspiring wrangle, with Xing Bin claiming the few items belonged to Xing Mansion and firmly demanding their return. But Duke An, upholding a conscientious and responsible attitude, would not return anything since Xing Bin couldn’t provide detailed information about the items.
Xing Bin also knew that with the items in Duke An’s possession, if Duke An was unwilling to let the matter rest, concealing it would be impossible in such a situation.
Detailed information and such, Xing Bin simply wouldn’t know the embroidered patterns on his father’s beloved concubine’s inner garments. Unable to provide details, Duke An naturally wouldn’t return them.
After the guards chasing the black-clad man returned to report, Duke An invited Xing Bin into Duke An’s Mansion, continuing the lengthy wrangle from earlier.
......
Duke An didn’t attend court that day. Xing Yuyue, with a dark face, replaced his son to haggle with Duke An.
With Duke An’s cunning, it took almost no effort for him to corner Xing Yuyue into admitting that the package contained inner garments belonging to Xing Yuyue and his concubine.
Although he had known what those items were before, hearing Xing Yuyue admit it himself almost made Duke An laugh until he gasped for air.
Xing Yuyue, staring at Duke An who wasn’t bothering to hide anything, was nearly infuriated to the point of fainting.
He glared fiercely at Duke An, inwardly hoping that the heavens would open their eyes and let that old man surnamed Ye stop breathing and laugh himself to death.
Should that happen, he would certainly send an especially grand funeral ceremony!
Duke An finished laughing, but he didn’t intend to return the items. Instead, he said directly: "I can’t just give them back to you. It’s truly not easy to have something so unpresentable fall into my hands. Even though you have aimed at me in everything, riding over me and flaunting your authority for decades, I am not one with such a small-minded heart like you. Thus, I will never mention tonight’s event to others, but you must give me some hush money, so I have a reason to keep silent for you."
Xing Yuyue was even angrier: "Stop spouting nonsense, when did I ever flaunt my authority over you?" As a civil official, he had already been quite aggrieved enough, historically one of the few civil officials who couldn’t outfight a military general. In the end, being turned the tables on by Duke An was utterly preposterous!
Seeing Duke An’s face filled with lines yet not fully collected from the openness of his laughter, Xing Yuyue was even more furious: "That was stolen by a thief from my mansion, you should rightly return it to me. It’s nothing important, why are you asking for hush money?"
"You plan to act shamelessly now, don’t you," Duke An’s expression turned stern, "since a thief entered the Grand Tutor’s Mansion, go report it then. I will have someone send the stolen goods to the Capital Prefecture’s yamen. Who do you think I am, to engage in private exchanges of stolen property with you?"
Xing Yuyue stared at Duke An, this shameless old thing, who was unwilling to exchange the stolen goods in private, but was willing to use them to blackmail him.
The situation was more powerful than the person, swallowing one breath after another, Xing Yuyue, filled with bitterness, asked, "What do you want?"
Duke An didn’t hesitate: "That rare military book from the previous dynasty collected by you."
With a "bang," Xing Yuyue slammed the table and laughed coldly: "Good for you, Duke An, daring to collude with thieves, extorting a first-grade official of the court! My mansion’s protector just said, multiple times, if not for the Duke’s Mansion’s guards slipping, the thief would have had it. So, it was you colluding with the thief, assisting him during the night curfew, helping him climb over the capital’s walls! I will go and accuse you!"
Duke An didn’t care at all, looking at the brightening sky outside the window, he calmly said: "Go ahead, if it weren’t for my discerning insight into your tricks, you would have just said that those garments were belonging to a mischievous younger generation in your mansion. If I say, this was also the act of a junior, wouldn’t it be more believable than your clumsy excuse?"
Xing Yuyue, disregarding decorum, accusing his own granddaughter indiscriminately in the imperial palace hall of her conduct. His granddaughter, known for not being willing to suffer losses, could have hired a Jianghu person to steal a few pieces of old garments to reveal him as a hypocritical pretender, completely reasonable.
This matter, no matter how much it’s talk of the town, is merely child’s play at heart.
But for Xing Yuyue, it’s a great shame.
"As for assisting the thief, that’s not up to you to decide. During the fight, the black-clad man’s mask fell off, and those present saw his face, along with the stature of the person assisting, feel free to draw and investigate whether it’s someone from our Duke’s Mansion."
Saying this, Duke An scoffed: "The Grand Tutor indeed differs from brutes like our Ye Tang, at such an age, you can still enjoy the blessing of beautiful women."