Simply Trading

"That is the plan. Our job is to keep Ye Honghua and her girls from jumping the gun, and spoiling the surprise. I"ll send you out when they are ready, so your appearance will be a signal to Brother Lin that we are prepared, and he can start smearing their faces with mud."

Li Changhai chuckled as he considered that. "Ah! It seems so complex, the way that you two have arranged this. It is as though this whole thing is like a battle!"

"Of course! That is the whole point! A good face-smacking needs to be properly set up. And we need to corner them in such a way that they can only hold still and endure it, even if they see the slap coming! No matter how powerful you are, there is no way that one can escape something like this."

Then Qin Feng sighed, and gestured at the front of the house. Just before he started walking in the same direction, with the Ducal Prince in tow. "I would have gone for a smaller scale, more violent approach, to tell the truth. But Brother Lin had convinced me that there is a need to utterly humiliate the enemy, if they really dared to impersonate his family members. So you might say that he is the one behind it all."

"Oh? You sound as though you are a little upset about that?"

"Not really. But I do wish that I could be there now, listening to how he is slowly twisting their words, so that they would chip away at their own footing. By the time that the girls are ready, and he is ready to spring his little trap, they should have no hope of escaping what we have prepared for them.

"I just wish that I could hear how he sets that up. But I have to stay here, to look out for the Snow Swallow Palace girls. That is a little annoying, honestly."

The Second Ducal Prince shuddered when he heard that. Something that gave Qin Feng the impression that he had witnessed the outrageous fellow"s performance in the past. "Er ... I would be glad to help you hold the women back, if you really want to go listen."

But Qin Feng shook his head. "No. I think it would be easier for me to hold Ye Honghua back. You tend to be a little brusque, when it comes to women. Let us head over to the forecourt first. That was where we told the girls to a.s.semble."

"Wait a moment. What do you mean I tend to be a little brusque? What has this to do with women?"

Qin Feng turned back to see Li Changhai with a deeply furrowed brow, staring back at him with an expression that was between annoyance and puzzlement. Ordinarily, that looked like it would be enough to intimidate anyone that the Second Ducal Prince was talking to. But did Li Changhai really believe that he would be bothered by something like that?

"What? You don"t admit it? Don"t you know that you need to spend more time and effort with speaking to women than with men? Remember how the maids accompanying Yuan Qianlei avoided you if they had the chance? Why do you think they did that? It"s because they thought that you were irritated with them."

"What?! I wasn"t irritated with them? Who told them that?"

Qin Feng almost burst out laughing when he saw the state that Li Changhai was in. Was this Second Ducal Prince so thick that he didn"t see what was happening? "You hardly say a word to them under normal circ.u.mstances and your greetings are coldly polite. Curt even. Wouldn"t anyone think that you are upset with them? Besides, aren"t you forgetting that you are one of the most eligible bachelors back in the Shu Kingdom? Half of the women that you meet are ready to throw themselves at you!"

That was something that Yuan Qianlei had told him once. So Qin Feng simply regurgitated it at the Ducal Prince. After all, it made him sound so much more aware of such matters, didn"t it? How could he miss a chance like that? To show off to Li Changhai?

He didn"t have a ghost of a chance against Lin Liushui. Qin Feng knew that. But Li Changhai? He should be able to pull the wool over his eyes!

"You mean ... The women think that I am ... to short with them? When did they tell you that? How come I don"t know anything about it?"

Qin Feng laughed to himself as he shook his head. "No, no. They are not saying that you are impolite. They just feel that you are a little cold towards them. Remember how I was getting them to flirt with me? Well, they confided in me then, and said that you seem to be shunning them. Yuan Qianlei even asked me if I knew about your personal affairs! She wanted to know if you have been betrothed to anyone by the d.u.c.h.ess!"

"Betrothed?!"

"Oh, I wouldn"t worry about that. They tend to like to know about that sort of thing, those young women," Qin Feng a.s.sured him with a trace of pride. After all, this was something that he knew that the Second Ducal Prince didn"t. So shouldn"t he feel proud?

"Naturally, I told them that I didn"t know. But from what I have seen ... Say, the d.u.c.h.ess didn"t arrange any marriage for you, did she?"

Li Changhai gave him a strange look. "No. No, she didn"t. And she has encouraged me to ... see if there is anyone that I liked. But ... it is a little complicated."

"What do you mean?"

The Second Ducal Prince gave out a sigh. And shook his head at Qin Feng. "Honestly, I find this whole thing rather daunting. I had been expecting my parents to arrange some sort of marriage for me, you understand? To seal an alliance or something like that, you know? And you have already said it earlier, about how women would throw themselves at my feet, if I show the slightest interest.

"So I would have to be careful not to get myself involved with those who are not already allied with my father"s faction. And be wary of people who only wish to make use of their relationship with me, to get something that they are after."

"Ah! I can see that has made you reluctant to go after pretty girls then. But why not just avoid all of that altogether?"

Li Changhai scowled at him again. And his voice was a little strained when he asked, "What do you mean?"

Qin Feng chuckled and pointed a finger at the Snow Swallow Palace girls, who were finally walking briskly towards the two of them. Some of them were still fussing over their clothes, while Ye Honghua was pressing them to hurry.

"Why not just go the other way altogether, and pick a woman from the martial world? There are plenty of beautiful women from jianghu who would be attracted to a more martially inclined n.o.ble son. So you might be able to skip all the problems with regards to politics and such.

"Take the Snow Swallow Palace for example. Wouldn"t things be much easier for you, if you married a woman from that Sect?"

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