Why My Domineering Prince Regretted Filing for Divorce?-Chapter 715 - 555: Still the opponent, a notch higher in strategy!
The night was as calm as water.
A little sound of water was like a small stone cast into a tranquil lake, breaking the silence. Pei Xingyuan did a brief wash and had just sat down when Shang Ruyi poured a cup of hot tea and put it by his hand.
"Mr. Pei, have some tea first."
This was the upper room of an inn in West City Fengle Square, the room spacious, with just a lamp on the table but bright enough to clearly illuminate the smoke and fire marks on Pei Xingyuan’s face.
He picked up the tea cup aggrievedly and took a sip, looked down at his hand, and said, "I won’t become useless, will I?"
Shang Ruyi quickly replied, "You won’t."
Pei Xingyuan put down the tea cup and stretched his hand towards her: "But look—"
Even though she had already glanced earlier, taking a closer look, Shang Ruyi couldn’t help but gasp. Pei Xingyuan wasn’t completely untrained in martial arts, but not from a military general’s noble family, so his hands were fair and clean, fingers long and distinct, even his nails trimmed neatly. His hands weren’t as tender as a woman’s, yet had a kind of masculine beauty.
But because of the tussle at the fire scene earlier, there were blisters on his hands, and from the struggle with Jin Daji, several blisters had burst, skin peeled back revealing red fresh flesh inside, blood traces sliding down between the fingers, staining most of the palm.
There were similar injuries on the palm and wrist.
Shang Ruyi hurriedly said, "Don’t worry, Mr. Pei, the medicine will be here soon."
As soon as she spoke, the door was pushed open, and Shen Wuzheng entered with burn medicine and some bandages obtained from the shop downstairs, followed by Tushere carrying a basin of clean water.
Shen Wuzheng came over and sat down, saying, "Let’s clean the wound first, and then apply medicine and bandage."
Pei Xingyuan aggrievedly stretched out his hand, and Shen Wuzheng carefully took a towel, soaked it in water, and gently cleaned the dust and debris from the wound. Once the wound was clean, he applied ointment and then carefully bandaged it.
During this, Pei Xingyuan kept shouting, "Be gentle, it hurts so much."
Shen Wuzheng glanced at him and said irritably, "What are you complaining to me for, is it me who asked you to go?"
"...!"
Upon hearing this, Pei Xingyuan’s gaze flickered slightly.
From the beginning, they had devised this plan for Pei Xingyuan to sell overpriced medicine at Changle Square, just to lure out the opponent’s greed, and Jin Daji seemed to fall right into this plan. Through these days, Pei Xingyuan kept interacting with him, finally on the eighth day, deliberately offering diluted medicine soup to stir up trouble among Changle Square people, just to show it to the opponent.
This way, Jin Daji would fully believe he urgently needed to buy their medicine.
Only didn’t expect that Jin Daji’s "believe" was actually a bait to lure them in, and he even deliberately raised the price on the spot, offering a thousand taels, making Pei Xingyuan truly believe the other party was greedy, not acting on calculation.
And then, in that warehouse, he tried to kill Pei Xingyuan.
Previously, Shen Wuzheng had repeatedly warned them that the opponent was extremely skilled and might truly possess foreknowledge abilities. To win against him, they must think one step deeper than the opponent.
Yet now, it seemed the opponent had strategized each step, gaining the upper hand!
Pei Xingyuan almost paid with his life.
But he would not relent and thought for a moment before rightfully saying, "But you should have damned well persuaded me at that time!"
"..."
Shen Wuzheng glanced at him, too angry to speak, only lowered his head, and pulled the bandage tightly. Pei Xingyuan immediately cried out in pain, and was about to draw back his hand. Shen Wuzheng held his wrist, finished securing the bandage, and then let him go.
Pei Xingyuan looked at him with reddened eyes: "You, you have such a cruel heart."
Shen Wuzheng ignored him and just stood up to wash his hands in another water basin, while Shang Ruyi smiled and said, "Mr. Pei needs to be mindful these days, don’t carry heavy things, don’t let your hands get wet, and let the people below handle everything as much as possible."
Pei Xingyuan sighed deeply, raised his hands wrapped tightly: "Look what I can do now."
Shen Wuzheng washed his hands clean, slowly walked back and sat down, saying, "You shouldn’t go home tonight, stay here for the night."
"Of course,"
Pei Xingyuan said, looking up at the two of them, "Is it okay for you two to be out at this time?"
Shen Wuzheng said, "My family—it’s fine."
Looking at him, both of them chuckled, everyone knew that in the Shen Family, although there were two elders, all matters big and small were left to this son, so Shen Wuzheng going out at night, no one could control him.
Pei Xingyuan then looked at Shang Ruyi, seeing her gently smile, "I came out with Feng Chen through the side door, and my family didn’t notice."
She added, "Even if they know, it’s no problem."
After all, now that Jin Daji was dead, and those men in black captured, their conspiracy against Pei Xingyuan had been exposed, the news should be returning soon, so them going out late at night was a normal reaction to this matter.
Shen Wuzheng glanced at her slightly reddened eyes, sighed softly, and said, "You really shouldn’t have come out."
Shang Ruyi just smiled.
Pei Xingyuan snorted slightly and said, "What’s wrong with Ruyi caring for me?"
Despite saying this, as he turned to look at Shang Ruyi again, he also smiled and said, "However, you’ve been working at Changle Square these days and haven’t rested well, you should’ve avoided coming out tonight for our vigil."
Shang Ruyi said, "Mr. Pei, with you taking such risks, I find it impossible to rest easy even at home."
As she spoke, she lowered her head to look at Pei Xingyuan’s hand.
She said deeply, "Fortunately, it was a narrow escape."
A narrow escape—these four words signify the greatest luck for anyone who has faced a calamity, but only those who have experienced it understand that they come at a price. Although the ointment applied to the wound was cool and alleviated much of the pain, it was in that storeroom that Pei Xingyuan felt for the first time just how close he was to death.
If not for his quick thinking in the moment.
If not for his desperate struggle.
If not for Jin Daji’s undeniable greed...
They probably would have only recovered a charred corpse by now.
Pei Xingyuan also looked at his hand, with lingering fear, and said, "I hope this time, I can recoup my losses. I hate losing more than anything."
Hearing this, Shang Ruyi and Shen Wuzheng exchanged glances and couldn’t help but smile.
At this moment, a sound of footsteps came from downstairs. Although not particularly heavy, it was remarkably clear in such a silent environment. Everyone turned their heads immediately.
They saw the door open, and Yu Wenye, wrapped in a dark aura, walked in from the outside.
Shang Ruyi quickly stood up: "Feng Chen, you’re back."
Clad in black, he entered the room. The light hadn’t fully dispelled the gloom between his brows, and even the shadow behind him seemed to drag along the long darkness of night. As he walked in, a heavy pressure settled over everyone.
But upon seeing Shang Ruyi, his eyes softened immediately.
He said, "Hmm."
After speaking, he walked back with Shang Ruyi and sat down. Shen Wuzheng glanced at him but said nothing, while Pei Xingyuan couldn’t hold back any longer, immediately asking, "Over there, how was it?"
Yu Wenye didn’t answer him but looked at his hand: "Your hand—"
"It’s nothing, it’s nothing,"
Previously complaining endlessly, he now waved his hand as if completely unconcerned, and simply asked, "Did those people confess?"
Yu Wenye glanced at him and said, "Those people were hired by Jin Daji."
"Ah?"
Pei Xingyuan was stunned, and beside him, Shen Wuzheng had already furrowed his brow slightly, saying, "So, they don’t know who is behind Jin Daji?"
Yu Wenye nodded.
Pei Xingyuan frowned, finally recalling that during the fire, when he tried to use the thousand silver notes to lure Jin Daji into revealing the identity of the mastermind, those black-clad men showed no intention of intervening. Clearly, they only took orders from Jin Daji.
If they were that person’s subordinates, they would not have allowed Jin Daji to take such a risk.
Therefore, tracing this line through those black-clad men was impossible.
Pei Xingyuan thought for a moment, then immediately said, "What about that storeroom?"
Yu Wenye said, "It’s been investigated. That place is indeed a warehouse for the barbarians to store spices, but a while ago, they went back to the Western Regions to restock, so the warehouse was left with a clerk watching over it. Jin Daji found that clerk and rented it for two days. The clerk, greedy for money and thinking the owner wouldn’t know, rented the warehouse to Jin Daji."
"..."
"Unexpectedly, it led to tonight’s event."
Pei Xingyuan shook his head repeatedly.
Shang Ruyi remained silent for a long time before sighing softly, "Greed again."
After all, they baited Jin Daji knowing his greed, even now aware that he set up a trap to deceive Pei Xingyuan, greed ultimately led him to be tempted by the thousand silver notes, nearly perishing in the fire.
And the clerk at the spice shop rented out the warehouse, leading to this disaster due to greed.
It seems, once the heart is greedy, trouble begins.
Thinking this, Pei Xingyuan had no such reflections, and he furrowed his brow, deep in thought, for a long time before saying, "Jin Daji is already dead, those people know nothing, the storeroom, for now, holds no clues either."
"..."
"That means, tonight’s—"
As he said this, he looked up at the other three people in the room, only to realize they all shared a similarly grim expression, especially Yu Wenye, whose deep and stern eyes flashed with a trace of cold light.
In other words, tonight, their plan to lure out the mastermind had failed!
However—
