This Is What a Villain Is Like

"Patriarch Su, I recall you saying your daughter was abducted by a veiled Fairy. That Fairy also left a Token, which must make her Lin Fan’s accomplice. I wonder, what did the Token she left behind look like?"

"Perhaps with that Token, we might be able to determine Lin Fan’s background."

City Lord Wang Anming suddenly looked toward Su Changkong, a sharp glint in his eyes as he spoke up and asked.

He was desperate to perform well for Jiang Lan, wishing he could capture the culprit on the spot to secure his current position.

He had clearly seen at the Snow Moon Pavilion today that the Su Family’s eldest daughter, Su Qinghan, was getting rather close to Jiang Lan.

And rumor had it that Jiang Lan was a notorious womanizer.

’Su Changkong even brought his younger daughter tonight. Could his intentions be any more obvious? It’s a pity my own daughter is already married and nowhere near as beautiful as the Su sisters. Otherwise, I would have tried to pull some strings myself.’

Hearing this, Su Changkong did not hesitate. He immediately rose, cupped his hands, and said, "I was just about to report this very matter to Young Master Jiang..."

As he spoke, he took out a jade hairpin from within his robes. It had a few tassels that resembled heads of grain dangling from the end, and its design was very simple.

Beside Zhao Tianhe, Zhao Dieyi, who was drinking wine instead of tea, gave a slight pout when she saw this.

’If that mysterious woman who abducted Su Qingyao was really Lin Fan’s accomplice, why would she leave behind any evidence? This so-called Token was probably just something she picked up from a random street stall. It’s bound to be useless.’

"This Token does indeed look like a woman’s personal belonging. However, I have no cultivation base myself, so I doubt I could find anything of note. Why don’t you take a look for me, Elder Zhao?"

Jiang Lan set down his golden goblet and looked toward Zhao Tianhe, asking with an intrigued smile.

Zhao Tianhe paused, slightly taken aback. His thoughts were actually quite similar to Zhao Dieyi’s, but since Jiang Lan had put it that way, he couldn’t very well refuse.

So, he took the jade hairpin from Su Changkong and began to inspect it, enveloping it with his Confucian Energy.

Zhao Tianhe had no desire to irrevocably offend Jiang Lan. Earlier in the day, at the Snow Moon Pavilion, he had already explained to Jiang Lan why he had previously helped Lin Fan, adding that he had no idea the man would be audacious enough to try to assassinate him.

Had he known, he certainly wouldn’t have allowed a scoundrel like Lin Fan to act so recklessly.

Jiang Lan had been very reasonable at the time, stating that out of consideration for his past "friendship" with Zhao Dieyi, he would not pursue the matter. This earned him a series of eye-rolls from Zhao Dieyi, who thought, ’Friendship? Who’d be friends with a scumbag like him?’

Zhao Tianhe had naturally breathed a sigh of relief. As for the Master’s Order, seeing that Jiang Lan showed no intention of returning it, he was of course too embarrassed to ask for it back.

"This seems to be an ordinary jade hairpin, the kind you can find at any street-side stall. It isn’t a Token, nor does it have any residual fluctuations of Magical Power. Patriarch Su was likely deceived by the veiled woman..."

Zhao Tianhe did not inspect it for long before confirming it was just a common jade hairpin, not any sort of Token.

As a renowned Great Scholar of his generation, his words naturally carried great credibility.

Many of the guests were not surprised. Even Wang Anming, who had brought the matter up, could only sigh and let it go. He had only been clutching at straws, after all.

Only Su Qingyao looked somewhat dejected.

She had truly believed that her innate talent was exceptional, which was why the mysterious veiled Fairy had taken a fancy to her. But in the end, those words had been a lie, and even the Token was a fake.

’Was Brother-in-law Lin Fan really working with that veiled Fairy? Had he been deceiving me all this time?’

"Qingyao, your talent is no worse than mine. You’re just too fond of games..."

Su Qinghan said with a soft smile, as if she knew exactly what her sister was thinking.

"I’ll definitely catch up to you soon, Sister."

Su Qingyao immediately bobbed her head like a chick pecking at grain, her face full of earnestness as she made her promise.

Su Qinghan smiled and patted her on the head.

’As for what happened today, the only thing that mattered to her was that Su Qingyao was unharmed.’

’As for Lin Fan, she would let things take their course. She certainly wasn’t foolish enough to expose Jiang Lan’s machinations...’

After everything that had happened today, Su Qinghan could no longer see Jiang Lan as some useless, second-generation scion.

"Miss Qingyao, do you happen to remember the face of the mysterious woman who abducted you at the time?"

From the seat of honor, Jiang Lan’s unhurried voice suddenly rang out.

"Ah..."

Hearing this, Su Qingyao immediately raised her clear eyes to look at him, seemingly frozen in place.

In truth, from the moment she first saw Jiang Lan, she had found it impossible to connect the man before her—so transcendent, handsome, and noble—with the notoriously dissolute scion of the Great Xia.

’No matter how she looked at him, all the rumors just seemed like slander.’

"Qingyao, Young Master Jiang is asking you a question."

Seeing his daughter just standing there like a block of wood, Su Changkong felt a headache coming on and quickly reminded her in a hushed voice.

"Oh, oh..."

"The mysterious woman who abducted me was wearing a veil, so I couldn’t see her face. But I have a feeling she was as beautiful as my sister, and..." Su Qingyao stammered, snapping back to her senses and trying her best to recall the details.

A faint smile played on Jiang Lan’s lips. "And what?"

"And... she smelled really, really nice..." Su Qingyao replied instinctively.

Upon hearing this, Su Changkong looked utterly exasperated. ’What kind of an answer is that?’

’Why is there such a vast difference between my two daughters?’

’One is so rational and intelligent that she puts even him, her father, on edge. The other, however, is so impossibly dense it’s as if she were born without a brain.’

Many at the banquet couldn’t help but shake their heads. Though the Su Family’s second daughter was pure and beautiful, she sometimes seemed to be... not the brightest.

This was no secret in Yu Yi City, which was why the Su Mansion rarely let her go out alone, afraid she would be easily deceived.

Jiang Lan, however, simply gave a noncommittal smile in response.

’She really did smell quite nice.’

"Miss Qingyao, are you by any chance betrothed?" he suddenly asked.

As soon as he said this, everyone at the banquet froze.

Zhao Dieyi was the first to react. Her bright eyes fixed on Jiang Lan as she let out a cold snort, audible only to herself. ’Some things never change,’ she thought.

Su Qinghan instinctively tightened her grip on her teacup. She squeezed so hard that faint blue veins surfaced on the back of her pale, porcelain-like hand.

’Why? It was clearly over. He had already achieved his goal. Why was he still doing this?’

’She knew that while Jiang Lan appeared to be asking Su Qingyao, his words were, in fact, a threat directed at her.’

’Given her personality, she could never allow the pure and kind-hearted Su Qingyao to fall into a fiery pit like this.’

"Young Master Jiang, I’m not sure I understand your meaning," Su Changkong said cautiously, his expression shifting slightly.

He was, in fact, incredibly nervous, but there was also a complex, hard-to-define emotion mixed in... Jiang Lan was the one and only son of the Prime Minister, and it was no exaggeration to say that the current Prime Minister’s power was so immense he could blot out the sky with a single hand.