'What a hypocritical, cunning liar.'
'He changes his expression faster than one can flip a page.'
Jiang Yu casually lowered his gaze, intending to savor the man's discomfort. To his surprise, he found himself looking into a pair of clear pools that seemed to hold the stars themselves.
The pools rippled faintly, and the starlight within seemed to dance, as if the stars were lazily squinting. Deeper still, they were like brilliant Luminous Pearls, casting a radiant light that illuminated the very bottom of those profound depths.
Jiang Yu was momentarily stunned.
'Could a scammer this audacious really have such exquisite... eyes?'
The owner of those eyes suddenly spoke. "Emperor, to be perfectly honest, I have elders to care for and children to feed at home. My entire family, all eighty of them, depend on me alone for survival. If you kill me, Emperor, my death itself is of little consequence..."
"I'm just afraid that with no one to support them, my family's life will become even more difficult, which in turn might tarnish Your Majesty's reputation..."
How sanctimonious.
So self-righteous.
Jiang Yu let out a cold sneer.
"And you expect me to believe that?"
Shen Lang was speechless. "..."
Seeing this, Jiang Yu grew even more disdainful. He even began to wonder if that moment of shock he'd felt had just been a hallucination.
"How about this, Emperor..." Shen Lang began. "Look, you've already wasted so much time on me. If you really wanted me dead, you would've done it long ago, not sat here chatting with me... Aren't you tired, Your Majesty? How about you untie me, and I can give you a back rub?"
Jiang Yu stared at him coldly, neither speaking nor moving.
'If I believe another word out of this scammer's mouth, I'm a complete idiot!'
Shen Lang, his mouth dry from all the talking, pressed on, "My grandmother was a master at giving massages. I learned all her techniques. I guarantee you'll feel completely relaxed!"
Jiang Yu wanted to see what other tricks he had up his sleeve, so he prompted, "What else?"
"I'm also an expert flatterer. My skills are top-notch. Would you like a demonstration?"
Jiang Yu mentally rolled his eyes. 'I must be losing my mind to be wasting so much time on someone like this.'
"What else?"
Shen Lang froze, then started to stammer. His face turned bright red, and for a long moment, he couldn't squeeze out a single word.
"Spit it out."
Shen Lang squirmed awkwardly and said shyly, "Actually, I can also... I can also... warm your bed."
Jiang Yu choked, nearly unable to catch his breath.
"What... What did you just say?"
In Jiang Yu's eyes, Shen Lang was nothing more than a hideously ugly, rough-looking man with a full beard.
For him to suddenly act all coy and affected while saying something like that was enough to shatter Jiang Yu's entire perception of reality.
As if trying to make things even more chaotic, Shen Lang patiently repeated himself. "I... can also warm your bed."
Jiang Yu was utterly speechless.
Whether from rage or revulsion, he couldn't tell.
"Someone!"
Eunuch Zhang walked in with his back bowed. "Your Majesty?"
"Drag him out!"
The words "beat him to death" were on the tip of his tongue, but after a moment's thought, he swallowed them back.
"...Just let him go!"
'Bickering with a scammer like this is truly beneath an emperor.'
'Besides, I was only scammed out of a fifty-tael silver note. What's the big deal? And if what this liar said is true, if the 'pillar of support' for his family of eighty is gone, they'll all have to be supported by the government.'
'And how does the government support people?'
'With my money, that's how!'
Jiang Yu figured it out.
'It wasn't worth losing a watermelon over a sesame seed. That would be an unwise move.'
And just like that, Shen Lang was released.
Honestly, being trussed up like that had made his entire body ache. The ropes were so tight, it felt like his bones had been squeezed out of alignment.
He trudged back to the Chen Prince Mansion and climbed over the wall, taking the same route as before.
What she didn't know was that two Shadow Guards had been secretly tracking her every move since she left the Imperial Palace, watching the entire process of her climbing over the wall...