Chapter 149: Utterly Disgusted

So he was only ever playing to win! The Prefect understood the situation instantly. To stake something that belonged to someone else... truly worthy of a Minister's son.

The Prefect paused to collect his thoughts, then asked, "Whose property is that horse ranch, precisely?"

"My Lord, the horse ranch naturally belongs to the Imperial Household," Tang Renxian played his final trump card directly. At this point, there was no longer any need for concealment.

As he spoke, he kept glancing at Shen Shi and the others, cursing inwardly: A bunch of bumpkins! Even now you don't dare reveal your identities or pull strings—you simply can't afford to lose.

"What? The Imperial Household's?"

The hand stroking the Prefect's beard gave a violent twitch, snapping a strand right off.

Yet Tang Renxian's words hurt far worse than his broken beard!

"You... you people..." The Prefect pointed a trembling finger at them, sweeping across each one in turn. "You've lost your minds, using the Imperial horse ranch to place a wager!"

This case was turning out far beyond his worst expectations.

People always talked about courting disaster, but these fools had outdone themselves, marching straight into a catastrophe of epic proportions.

"Let's just pretend this whole affair was nothing more than drunken foolishness, a mere prank. This official has never held court today, and none of you were ever here."

The Prefect took a step back.

His intention was to offend neither party.

"What? That horse ranch belongs to the Imperial Court?"

Tang Renxian's revelation sent a shockwave through the crowd as well. The members of the Shen family all regarded him as utterly despicable; the stakes weren't even his to gamble away in the first place!

"Yuejiao, you heard him. Do you still consider a man like this a suitable match?" Shen Yue'e seized the opportunity to correct her younger sister's romantic ideals.

Shen Yuejiao wore an expression as though she had just swallowed something foul. The Young Master Tang of her imagination was supposed to be nothing like this!

"Yuejiao, my dear, this rouge is from the Western Regions, a gift for you..."

"Yuejiao, this is Sichuan brocade, you can have a few new dresses made from it."

"..."

This was the Young Master Tang of her dreams—a poet of extraordinary talent, born to a family where his father served as a Minister. More importantly, he treated her with utmost care, endlessly showering her with gifts.

In Shen Yuejiao's mind, the Tang Estate was a household of high officials and immense wealth, possessing an endless stream of silver. Yet today, that horse ranch wasn't his! Not his! Not his at all!

Would Tang Renxian allow his reputation to be utterly ruined in a single stroke?

How could that possibly happen. Stepping forward, Tang Renxian first bowed respectfully to the Prefect, then spoke with graceful poise: "As the Book of Songs says, 'Under the wide heaven, there is no land that is not the king's; to the borders of the land, there are none who are not the king's subjects.' Everything we possess rightfully belongs to the Imperial Household in the first place. The horse ranch is no exception."

"Well said!" Tang Renxian's friends cheered in applause.

They didn't care that Tang Renxian was spouting sheer nonsense. What they cared about—or rather, what they were applauding—was his quick wit.

Indeed, a scholar demonstrating such nimble resourcefulness under pressure; surely that was worth a round of applause?

The logic of scholars was something only they could comprehend. Much like the phrase "You have your spiked club, I have my crown," there would always be someone to cheer and lick their boots, elevating the absurdity to the lofty spiritual height of fearless defiance.

Time and again, they pushed the boundaries of shamelessness to new depths. Cao Jinhua was boiling with rage; she had no idea how to refute such nonsense, and she desperately wanted to strike someone.

"Master Shen, what should we do?" Cao Jinhua asked anxiously. When a person has no sense of shame, they are invincible, and when an educated scholar has no shame, they are truly unstoppable.

Shen Shi smiled faintly and said, "This is simple. We simply refuse to follow his rhythm, that's all."

Cao Jinhua froze. Why was it that she understood every single word he uttered, yet when strung together, she had no earthly idea what he was talking about?

Shen Shi stepped forward and bowed. "My Lord, he has already conceded defeat. Does that mean the horse ranch we won now belongs to us?"

No matter how eloquently Tang Renxian spun his tales, Shen Shi clung doggedly to a single point—the horse ranch they had won.

What good was it if the other party's words sounded ever so pretty?

"That's right, My Lord, the horse ranch we won!" Cao Jinhua snapped to her senses, thinking to herself: *So this is what playing your own rhythm means! A brilliant strategy indeed.* No matter how much he babbled, the horse ranch remained theirs.

"What? You still expect to take the horse ranch?"

The Prefect stared in blank astonishment. Although Tang Renxian had just put on a display of verbal acrobatics by quoting the classics about the king's lands, that was merely a cheap tactic of shifting concepts. The horse ranch wouldn't magically become his just because of a few glib words; it remained the property of the Crown.

That fact had never changed.

Merely by reciting a sycophantic slogan, the horse ranch was supposed to become his?

What colossal nerve!

The Prefect was certain that Cao Jinhua understood this as well.

Yet, knowing this full well, Cao Jinhua was still demanding it. This was clearly putting him in an impossible position.

He was merely a Prefect, a man who could afford to offend none of the higher officials. Now that the matter involved the Emperor himself, what could he possibly do? Could he actually rule that an Imperial horse ranch belonged to someone else?

Tang Renxian didn't have the gall to claim such a thing, nor did the Prefect. His face darkened instantly.

At that moment, Cao Jinhua spoke up again, "My Lord, we have a written contract."

"What? There is a written contract as well?!"

The Prefect was nearly thrown off balance by this revelation. Today's proceedings were already absurd enough.

One side was the son of a Minister, using the Emperor's horse ranch as a gambling stake. The other side was the Imperial Uncle's estate.

Merely attempting to mediate between them was difficult enough, but good grief, there was actually black and white evidence in writing!

"Bring the contract forward at once!"

You people really have nothing better to do than to toy with me, is that it? Fine! Let's play then, we'll all play together!

The Prefect ordered the contract to be presented. As he gazed upon the black ink on white paper, his teeth ached—Tang Renxian had genuinely used the Emperor's horse ranch as a wager.

"You lot decide among yourselves, then. How would you have me judge this case?"

With this contract in evidence, he could afford to offend neither party. What other choice did he have? Even though he was an official and they were civilians, today's affair was, as he had thought earlier, simply humoring them in a game.

Yes, a game.

Wasn't this all just a game? The horse ranch didn't belong to Tang Renxian, yet the Imperial Uncle's estate had somehow won it from him.

If either party were replaced, this case wouldn't even require a trial. He could either side with Tang Renxian and have those insolent commoners who dared covet the Emperor's horse ranch driven out with heavy staves;

Or he could side with Cao Jinhua, lock up the fraudulent swindlers, and confiscate their family assets to cover the gambling debt.

How simple that would be.

Yet the problem was their respective identities. What could a lowly Prefect like him possibly do?

Beat the Imperial Uncle's representatives with heavy staves? Heh...

Send bailiffs to confiscate the Minister's residence? Heh, heh, heh...

He could only pray that both sides knew when to yield and were willing to reach a settlement; otherwise, he was in for a mountain of endless misery.

The Prefect's reaction served as a wake-up call for Tang Renxian. He had assumed Zhao Zhen and his companions were merely rustic bumpkins from the countryside whom he could manipulate at will.

Yet the Prefect's attitude signaled to him that his opponents possessed extraordinary standing—at least someone who did not cower before his own family's influence.

After a moment of thought, Tang Renxian laughed heartily and said, "My Lord, this has all been a misunderstanding, a mere joke. In fact, this student once gambled with the heavens and earth themselves, and managed to lose the very cosmos to someone else. Alas! My luck at gambling is truly atrocious!"

What utter bullshit!

Why was this fellow merely a second-generation official? With such a complete absence of morals and bottom lines, he ought to work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or perhaps some strategic deception agency.

"Oh, heavens!" The Prefect snapped yet another strand of his beard.

Such a shameless wretch—this official has a phrase on the tip of his tongue, though I wonder if it is appropriate to utter it.

Even the Prefect, serving as the impartial mediator, felt such an irrepressible urge, let alone the others.

"Yuejiao, I hope you see his true character clearly now." For Shen Ancai to claim he was educating his cousin was an understatement; he was so utterly disgusted he felt like vomiting. If he didn't vent the words weighing on his chest, he feared he might suffocate on the spot.

If not for his status as a scholar, he would have loved to curse aloud in the streets. This was beyond revolting.