Chapter 82: A Truce

The incident with Fan Quan seemed like a complete victory for Lu Desheng, but it actually brewed a crisis. Yan Hua wasn’t wrong when he yelled at Lu Desheng, as he was indeed suppressing new talents, excluding those who disagreed with him, and acting domineeringly.

Furthermore, Fan Quan came from the Academy and still held the status of a student. Lu Desheng was obstructing his future, which was akin to killing his parents. His actions would undoubtedly cause resentment among many scholars who graduated from the academy.

If Lu Desheng were to encounter trouble in the future, public opinion would turn against him, and his actions would become another indictment against him.

This was why, after failing in his “promotion” plan, he still pushed forward with his second plan. Regardless of the outcome for Fan Quan, it could be used to their advantage by the Xie family.

It could be said that Lu Desheng was slowly walking towards the abyss. How would Lu Songli break this situation?

Xie Zhan was right; she, of course, saw the dangers lurking beneath her father’s feet.

There’s a saying, “Learn martial arts and literature, and offer them to the Emperor.” The Hongsheng Wine House had built this platform, and Zhang Yong had organized this debate competition. It was an excellent way for scholars to gain fame and then smoothly enter officialdom.

Her father had cut off Fan Quan’s path to officialdom, leading to a situation where, in this competition hosted by a great scholar and attended by the Emperor himself, not a single scholar stood out and successfully entered officialdom. This had a terrible impact, offending scholars across the land.

While her father had no ill intentions, it was a fact that he had cut off the upward mobility of scholars. The path to cross social classes was blocked, which touched the scales of scholars across the land. Fortunately, although the debate competition was short, its influence was limited to Chang’an City and surrounding counties. Otherwise, once the news spread, her father would be criticized and ridiculed by scholars across the land.

This was actually easy to solve. They just had to select two or three outstanding scholars from those who participated in the competition and grant them official positions. This would demonstrate that her father was only targeting Fan Quan and not trying to block the path to officialdom for scholars.

However, the Emperor might not listen to her father. He indulged her father’s little schemes, but this indulgence had limits. He would never allow her father to reach so far.

And the other officials present, while they couldn’t do anything to her father, that was because he was the one attacking, and he was also good at defending. Plus, he had the Emperor’s protection.

If her father were to lead the charge, it would be different. For example, if he were to recommend one or two scholars for official positions, they would surely mess things up.

Therefore, she could only find another way to eliminate the negative impact this incident had on her father.

She had already started working on this, and, barring any unexpected circumstances, results would be visible soon. She would definitely not let her father suffer. However, there was no need for Xie Zhan to know about this.

Xie Zhan’s inquisitive gaze remained fixed on Lu Songli. Unfortunately, he couldn’t see through her, but he had a hunch that she wouldn’t be helpless.

Thus, he made a decision, “Lu Songli, let’s call a truce?”

Wow, he finally called her by her proper name, Lu Songli, instead of A Li. This was rare. Was this respect? It seemed like she had finally made him listen to her with her actions.

He noticed Xie Zhan was staring at her intently, waiting for her answer.

Lu Songli replied, “Our Lu family and the Qin family will not provoke trouble.”

But if trouble comes knocking, we won’t be afraid of it. Lu Songli didn’t say this part out loud. However, Xie Zhan was a smart man and naturally understood her unspoken words.

Xie Zhan’s dark eyes stared deeply into hers. The Qin family? She was placing the Qin family under her wing with those words?

Qin Sheng, who was walking from the corner, stopped in his tracks.

“Alright, I understand. I will keep them in check. We officially call a truce?” A faint smile appeared on Xie Zhan’s lips.

Lu Songli thought for a moment and readily agreed, “Okay, a truce from this moment forward.” After all, she had already dug all the pits she needed to, and now she just had to wait for others to help her fill them. She didn’t need to do it herself, so she wouldn’t be breaking the agreement. Cough, actually, this agreement only bound gentlemen, not her. She believed that the same applied to Xie Zhan. But whatever he said, she would believe him. After all, their smiles on the stage didn’t hinder their fights behind the scenes.

After speaking, Lu Songli no longer looked at him, but turned to look behind him, the frost between her eyebrows and eyes dissipated.

Xie Zhan also turned to look in the direction she was looking, and happened to see Qin Sheng walking towards them, his young figure weakened but tall, his long legs taking large strides towards them from the backlight, in the shadows, his face seemed to be carved by a divine knife, highlighting his distinct features.

Then he turned back and saw Lu Songli’s undisguised admiration for beauty in her eyes, a look of confusion, did she used to look at him with such eyes before? After thinking for a moment, he realized that his impression was actually quite vague.

Xie Zhan bid farewell to Lu Songli, “So it’s settled, shall I leave first?”

Lu Songli ignored him.

Xie Zhan turned and left, his back facing Lu Songli, and he happened to face Qin Sheng, their eyes meeting, as if sparks were flying.

As they passed each other, Qin Sheng and Xie Zhan did not give way to each other, and their shoulders and arms collided, Xie Zhan was pushed back two steps by his force before stopping his retreat.

Qin Sheng’s figure did not budge at all, he glanced at the other person, a hint of disdain in his eyes, hmph, unstable footing, weakling!

Lu Songli looked at his childish side, a smile in her eyes.

“Why didn’t you go back to the box?” Qin Sheng’s positioning was strategic, where he stood, between Xie Zhan and Lu Songli, his taller figure completely blocked Lu Songli, so Xie Zhan couldn’t see even a strand of her hair.

“I’m waiting for Mingzhi.”

“I’ll wait with you.”

“Sure.”

Xie Zhan’s eyes turned cold, he flicked his sleeve, glanced at them one last time, and then left.

“Nice to meet you again, Lu Songli.”

His father had been impatient before, wanting to completely eliminate Lu Desheng. Ultimately, it was because they underestimated the Lu family, not taking them seriously from the bottom of their hearts.

But he wouldn’t, in fact, the Lu family was not on the same level as their Xie family or Zhao family, their Xie family was powerful. The Lu family had a shallow foundation, every time they made a move, it was a gamble, the Lu family couldn’t afford to lose more than the Xie family. As long as their Xie family played steadily, the possibility of their Xie family being the ultimate winner was greater than the Lu family.

As Xie Zhan left, Lu Mingzhi returned, “Second Sister—”

Lu Songli saw his empty hands and nodded, “Did you deliver the things?”

“Of course, it was not difficult.”

The three of them returned to the Qin family’s box, Qin Heng and Qin Sanlang had been accompanying Madam Jiang.

Seeing Lu Songli and the others return, they sat for a while, during which Lu Songli had Lu Mingzhi recount what had just happened, so that the Qin brothers also knew what had happened.

Her performance made Qin Heng nod secretly.

Qin Sanlang secretly thought, truly clever, worthy of being a little fox.

Qin Sheng sat next to Lu Songli, listening attentively, particularly adept at capturing certain names and fragments.

Lu Mingzhi took a quarter of an hour to finish his story. After he finished, everyone prepared to leave. After all, they had been out for quite a while and were planning to go back.

“Aunt, if you have time, you can bring sixth sister-in-law and Mingzhi to our house for a visit. The Qin family welcomes you anytime.” Qin Heng said as he was leaving.

Madam Jiang nodded, “I will, if I have time.”

“A Sheng, see your aunt and the others off.” Qin Heng instructed his younger brother.

His older brother was truly good to his younger brother, finding every opportunity to create chances for him to interact with his future sister-in-law. Qin Sanlang patted his younger brother on the shoulder, everything was unspoken.