When Song Yinghuai emerged from the Xu Mansion, Xu Buyue called out to him from behind.
"Fourth Brother, perhaps you can't get into the Supreme Court, but I can," Xu Buyue said. "I'm going to visit my elder sister's close friend. Do you have any message for Lord Xiao?"
Song Yinghuai pondered for a moment.
The Supreme Court was under the influence of the Crown Prince. Although he wasn't without other means to send someone in with a message, it would obviously be easier for Xu Buyue.
He raised his hand, bent at the waist, and bowed to Xu Buyue. "Then I'll trouble the princess to convey a message to them. Ask them to retract their confession in the Supreme Court and deny stealing the silver."
Xu Buyue didn't ask for the reason but readily agreed. Then she smiled and said, "Look, I can help you. If I help you a few more times, maybe you'll like me."
Song Yinghuai was silent for a moment. After bowing again, he left without looking back.
The southern part of the capital was relatively quiet. All along the way were tall elm trees. Their lofty branches converged towards the middle of the street, forming a long and serene green canopy.
It was a pity that this tranquility was shattered by the commotion at Luoyanju.
Sheng Jiangli suddenly slashed at Song Yinghuai with a pair of crescent moonsabers. His strikes were fast and fierce, the blades whistling menacingly.
"Prince of Yan, are you crazy? Coming to my place to fight in broad daylight!"
Song Yinghuai didn't reply. He simply dashed through the flashes of the blades and kicked Sheng Jiangli right in the chest.
Sheng Jiangli gasped. He quickly retracted the sabers in front of his chest and crossed them to protect himself, blocking the powerful kick.
Even so, under the opponent's surging inner strength, he was forced to fly backward for three feet. He spun in the air a few times, the tips of his sabers scraping along the ground, leaving a long trail of sparks before he finally managed to stabilize his figure.
Blood surged in his chest, and a faint taste of blood slowly oozed out from the corner of his lips.
"General!" Suobude and the others were shocked. They tried to rush forward but were swept away by Song Yinghuai's palm wind and flew backwards one after another.
Sheng Jiangli used his sabers for support and knelt on one knee on the ground. His usually carefree face couldn't manage a smile at this moment.
He felt that Song Yinghuai was fighting like an ordinary hooligan in a street brawl, punching with full force and without any grace.
The next moment, Sheng Jiangli squinted his eyes and stood up again.
He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and showed a fierce look like a wolf. He sneered,
"Crazy! You really want to fight, right? Come on! I won't use my sabers, and you don't use that stupid Buddhist bead to sneak attack me! If you've got the guts, let's fight with our fists!"
Song Yinghuai snorted. "As you wish!"
Sheng Jiangli gritted his teeth. He tapped his foot on the ground, leaped into the air with the force, and punched Song Yinghuai right in the face!
There was no inner strength, no fancy moves.
It was simply a release of pent - up anger.
Song Yinghuai also dropped his inner strength and punched back. In an instant, the two were locked in a fierce fight.
They were like two wolves on the battlefield who had fought to the end, with no weapons and no inner strength, relying solely on their willpower and flesh and blood to fight.
Suobude and the others watched in stunned silence.
Were these two crazy?
One was the fierce tiger of the Great Ye, and the other was the lone wolf from beyond the pass.
They rolled around in a mess, punching and kicking each other without any pattern or dignity, purely like hooligans in a brawl.
The two were evenly matched in this close - range fight. Each punch was more fierce than the last, landing on each other's vital points in turn.
The dull sound of punches echoed in Luoyanju. After a long and entangled fight, just when everyone was on tenterhooks, they finally separated.
Sheng Jiangli staggered backward and suddenly flew through the air, crashing into the tree with the swing behind him. With a snap, the swing tilted.
The swing board fell onto the grass, and the frame stood alone among the branches.
Sheng Jiangli covered his chest, and his gaze fixed on Song Yinghuai was still fierce.
Song Yinghuai wasn't in a much better state at this moment. His chiseled face had been punched several times by Sheng Jiangli, and his cheeks were red. He didn't know how many kicks he had taken in places that couldn't be seen, and his chest also ached faintly.
But he gritted his teeth and swallowed the blood in his throat. He also stared at Sheng Jiangli fiercely.
Sheng Jiangli slowly straightened up with the support of the tree trunk. He turned his head and spat out a mouthful of blood foam. He sneered,
"Had enough of fighting? If not, let's continue."
But Song Yinghuai tightened his lips and said, "That's enough. Let's talk about business."
Sheng Jiangli looked at him angrily as he turned around and sat down on the stone bench in the garden as if no one else was around. He couldn't help but complain, "Crazy! Coming to my mansion and starting a fight out of the blue, and then stopping just as suddenly... What on earth do you want?"
Song Yinghuai waved Suobude and the others away and then said coldly, "As officials in the same court, you can't be unaware of what happened today."
Sheng Jiangli sat down on the stone bench opposite him, separated by a round stone table. He sneered, "Oh, so it's about that 200,000 taels of silver!"
"I can overlook the 200,000 taels of silver. I'm not short of this amount," Song Yinghuai said. "But you're the one who caused this trouble, and you must fix it."
Sheng Jiangli rubbed his aching mouth corner and resumed his carefree smile. "How was it my fault? I didn't steal your personal seal..."
Meeting Song Yinghuai's deathly stare, he laughed again. "I didn't say I wouldn't return it. I just hadn't had the chance to send it back to Sister Caiyu when you showed up..."
As he spoke, he took out the personal seal and threw it back.
Song Yinghuai caught the seal but wasn't willing to let it go just yet. "Because of the 200,000 - tael silver note you sent, Xiao Rencheng was implicated."
"Xiao Rencheng jumped into the trap out of love. I couldn't stop him!" Sheng Jiangli wasn't going to be tricked. "If he hadn't stepped forward at that time, the theft from Wen Zilong's private treasury wouldn't have been traced back to him."
Knowing that Song Yinghuai was trying to probe his relationship with the Lan family, he stubbornly refused to mention Lan Jinqin's name and pretended not to know her.
Song Yinghuai observed his expression.
He keenly sensed the anxiety beneath the calm surface.
Presumably, it wasn't his idea, nor the Crown Prince's. It was probably Caiyu's hasty attempt to send the money that had accidentally led to this.
Sheng Jiangli was still on the same side as the Lan family and hadn't deceived Caiyu.
Song Yinghuai smiled faintly. There was a threat in his cold eyes. "Caiyu secretly used the family head's personal seal to steal silver. It's a serious crime. Now I've confined her to the Prince of Yan's Mansion."
Sheng Jiangli's face changed drastically. He stared at Song Yinghuai in disbelief. "Hey! You were the one who gave her the personal seal..."
"So what?" Song Yinghuai interrupted him mercilessly. "As long as I don't admit it, she took the seal without permission!"
"Song Yinghuai, you despicable scoundrel!"
"Whether I'm despicable or not depends on General Sheng!" Song Yinghuai tapped his knuckles on the stone table rhythmically, each tap hitting Sheng Jiangli's heart. "General Sheng, you should take the blame for the 200,000 - tael silver note and get Xiao Rencheng out. Then Caiyu will be fine. Otherwise... As long as Xiao Rencheng remains in custody, Caiyu will stay in the Prince of Yan's Mansion and won't be allowed to step out even an inch!"
After Song Yinghuai left, Sheng Jiangli still sat there like a statue.
After a long time, when Suobude and the others came in again and surrounded him, they heard the grinding sound of his teeth. "General, what does the Prince of Yan want you to do?"
With a loud "bang"!
Sheng Jiangli slapped the stone table hard. He roared angrily, "Song Yinghuai, you dog! You're threatening me with Caiyu again! You're really something... You're really something..."
Before his words faded, the blood he had been holding back finally spurted out again.
It splashed on the silver - white stone table, looking like red plum blossoms, extremely eye - catching.
"General!" Suobude and the others were shocked. Just as they were about to rush forward, they didn't notice a petite figure squeezing through their armpits and rushing to support Sheng Jiangli first.
"What are you so angry about!" Qingqing muttered with red eyes. "You can't win, but you still fight!"
Sheng Jiangli glanced at the person who hadn't shown up for a few days. He didn't seem surprised at all. He just snorted. "How long have you been watching the show from the side?"