"Nothing will happen!" One of the scholars said. "This is only a simple matter so why would The Emperor care about it?"
"Brother ah~ if it"s that simple... why should you care and want to stop the wedding ah~?" Yao Ying asked, making the crowd"s opinion swayed once more. "Doesn"t it mean you are looking trouble for yourself?"
"True ah~"
"They have been talking about this matter on a few different spots every day..."
"Do they have another purpose?"
"It becomes so fishy..."
"Yes ah... it"s weird!"
The crowd started to talk among themselves and they became suspicious of the scholars" motive. They were in deep discussion and it was quite loud. The scholars were able to hear what they said clearly. One of the scholars who was a bit hotheaded yelled, "We are scholars! Why do we have another purpose except for our kingdom"s wellbeing?" He talked with a righteous manner arrogantly.
Yao Ying looked at them doubtfully, "All of you are scholars, but all of you... really don"t know what would happen if the people stop the wedding by force?"
The crowd was quite agitated because they were indeed planning to sabotage the wedding and even planned to throw eggs, vegetables, and whatnot to the entourage because of their anger. They already decided to this because of the scholars" subtle persuasion. The way they looked at the scholars started to change. Their trust became distrust in a heartbeat.
Yao Ying looked up in surprise and asked, "I heard from my teacher. If you offend another kingdom"s royal family --- including the princess, wouldn"t it akin to declare war? I don"t think my teacher would lie to me about such an important matter..."
The crowd"s face became pale and unsightly.
"War?!"
"Then, why those scholars suggested us to attack the wedding entourage?!"
"Do they want to harm us?!"
"Why don"t they stop it themselves?"
"Yes ah~ if they really want to stop the wedding, they should do it carefully. Why they kept bragging for the past few days?"
The louder the crowd"s voice, the paler the scholars" face were. They knew that they were at a disadvantage. The crowd started to get out of hand with their accusations. The public opinion had changed the tide and it made them started to feel scared. The man in front of them was very clever and was able to find their loopholes easily. His words and questions seemed to be innocent but he was able to corner them.
Who was this man?!
One of them quickly refuted, trying to change the tide once again, "It"s not that serious. Why do you want to scare these people?" However, his excuse was too weak.
Yao Ying asked while tilting his head to the side, "Not that serious? But brothers... let me ask a question... What will The Emperor or the royalty do, if the common people are rude to them? We don"t need to think far ahead like throwing things to them, for example, accidentally b.u.mp on them..."
The crowd shuddered in fear. Why didn"t they think that far ahead?! Even though the other party wasn"t their favorite but they were still a part of the Han Kingdom"s royal blood. If they asked for the Shu Emperor for responsibility, the punishment would certainly fell on their bodies and they couldn"t even refute because it was their own wrongdoing. Even if they had ten lives, they wouldn"t be able to survive the calamity!!
b.u.mping on the royalty could lead them to be killed if they met cruel royal blood! So what more if they were throwing things at the princess? Beheaded?! They started to scold themselves inwardly for their stupidity.
If the Shu Emperor refused to give responsibility, then the next step would definitely be war! They were really thankful to the handsome man that had opened their eyes and they didn"t hesitate to show it to Yao Ying. They wholeheartedly murmured their gratefulness at the same time and their gaze to those bunch of scholars turned into disgust and disdain.
"What should we do about those scholars?"
"They are trying to get us into trouble!"
"Yes, they want to borrow our hands to do the bad deed!"
"Yes ah~ I bet they will hide when the time comes!"
"Not all scholars can be trusted!"
There were more and angrier words from the ma.s.s. The scholars couldn"t say anything more and they ashamedly ran away from the teahouse. However, their embarra.s.sment became doubled when the owner stopped them and asked them to pay for their tea and pastries. They wanted to find a hole and hide inside. The sooner they vanished from this crowded street, the better.
They were afraid that the crowd would turn their anger at them and make them pay by beating them. They were all scholars without any martial arts skills, they wouldn"t be able to hold up if they were beaten by those many people. It might get them killed. Their safety was the most important thing!
At first, they thought that this was an easy job and accept it without thinking twice. They only needed to instigate the foolish common people to create a riot when the wedding entourage stopped by and they would get a lot of benefits. Who knew that the appearance of this seemingly innocent man was able to ruin their hard work for a few days?
Even though they felt unwilling, but what else could they do? They could only run with tails between their legs. They glared at Yao Ying who still blinked at them innocently and pretended that he didn"t understand what went wrong.
Yao Ying smirked smugly when the scholars were gone. He cupped his hands and said to the crowd, "This one didn"t do anything. I"m just asking out of curiosity. There"s no need to thank this one."
His humbleness made the crowd praise him. Yao Ying felt that he had done enough and judging from the crowd that had dispersed, it seemed like the news about their dialogue would spread at Lin Zhou in a heartbeat because everyone was afraid to be implicated. He wouldn"t worry that someone would be able to instigate the commoners once again, after all, the fear of offending the royal blood had been ingrained in their mind.
Yao Ying leisurely went back to his own table and sat down calmly. "It"s easy..." He said smugly to Lin Jian and the latter rolled his eyes in response.
"Husband! You are the best!" Yao Ling happily gave him two thumbs up. Such a complicated matter was easily solved by Yao Ying with only a few words. He indeed had a way with words.
Xiao Fang also watched Yao Ying with starry eyes, showing her admiration without restraint. "Ying-ge! You are the best!!I can"t believe you are able to tame them with a few questions!" She chatted animatedly while moving her hand around.
Seeing Xiao Fang kept praising Yao Ying, Lin Jian scowled. Somehow, it didn"t sit well with him, but he also knew that Yao Ying was the best at solving this problem. If he"s the one who solved the problem, he would use brute forces... subtly, of course, and the scholars would end up black and blue after he was done with them.
Lin Jian was known for preferring to use his fist rather than his brain.
When they started to talk merrily with each other, a man around forties came up to them and greeted them politely. "Dear customer, I"m Qing Hui -- this teahouse"s owner. I"ve heard all the commotion just now and learned about Young Master"s smartness in handling the rebellious scholars. I"d like to thank you for that and all of your expenses in my teahouse will be free."
They were taken aback. It was only a small matter and it attracted the teahouse"s owner"s attention... For what? They didn"t think that the scholars did anything to harm the teahouse. That"s why they felt surprised by this man"s sudden appearance.
"No need... no need... we eat and drink a lot, it will be better if we pay," Yao Ying quickly stood up and cupped his hands, refusing the old man"s offer. How could they take advantage of him?
The old man laughed. "It"s okay. I won"t go bankrupt just because giving free meals to my benefactor."
"Err... benefactor?" Yao Ying asked in confusion.