Chapter 86 -

Chapter 86: Chapter

Before the furious host could call for guards, the crowd shifted as a young man stepped gracefully into the main hall. He wore rich violet robes, carried a folded fan, and had an effortlessly grand aura that caught everyone’s attention instantly.

It was Xiao Jun, the Prime Minister’s son, top scholar, and secretive business partner of Yimei! The entire hall gasped in hushed whispers. Nobles had heard countless rumors about his brilliant mind and high standing, but he rarely made appearances at public banquets.

Xiuying’s heart skipped a beat despite the chaos. She had held a massive crush on Xiao Jun for months. Desperate to save face in front of the man of her dreams, she scrambled forward, bowing frantically to the Prime Minister’s wife.

"Young Master Xiao Jun! Madame! Please believe us!" Xiuying cried out, her voice trembling with embarrassment. "Someone must have switched our tea! We brought pure, expensive Cloud-Mist Tea, I swear it! Someone sabotaged us!"

The Prime Minister’s wife glared down at her with pure disdain, snapping her fan open. "What nonsense are you blabbering about?! Switched? Who on earth would care enough to switch your tea?!"

She scoffed loudly, letting every noble in the room hear her harsh words. "If your Second Branch is too poor to afford real Cloud-Mist Tea, then simply don’t bring any! I never asked you for a gift! To bring cheap, rotten swamp weeds to my daughter’s engagement and then make up wild lies... how utterly embarrassing!"

Loud snickers and cruel laughter erupted across the hall.

"How shameless!" a noble lady whispered behind her fan. "Trying to act rich and then blaming phantom thieves when caught!"

Standing nearby, Madame Chen and Madame Zhang hid their faces behind their sleeves, secretly laughing their hearts out at Madame Liu’s public disgrace. Madame Zhang whispered to Madame Zhao, "Look at them! They tried to show off and ended up looking like total beggars!"

Over on the other side of the room, Madame Bai stood calmly with Rulan and Meiling.

Meiling leaned closer to her mother, a satisfied smirk on her face. "Mother, look at Madame Liu and Xiuying. They tried so hard to steal the spotlight, and now they’ve made complete fools of themselves in front of the whole capital."

Rulan giggled softly, adjusting her hair pins. "Serves them right. They spend all day plotting against us, only to ruin their own reputation."

Madame Bai simply watched with a gentle, dignified smile, taking a small sip of her warm drink. "Let them reap what they sow."

Meanwhile, Xiao Jun’s sharp eyes flicked across the chaotic scene. He didn’t say a word to defend Xiuying, completely ignoring her desperate, pleading eyes.

So these are yimei’s pethetic in-laws.. how embarrassing. He thought as he went to take a seat beside his father.

Seeing Madame Liu and Xiuying crawling away in total humiliation, Madame Chen’s eyes gleamed with greedy ambition. She leaned over to An Yulan, nudging her arm hard.

"Now is your chance, Yulan!" Madame Chen whispered eagerly into her ear. "Madame Liu made a complete fool of herself, so the stage is wide open! Go present that priceless imperial jade hairpin to the Minister’s daughter right now! If you win her favor today, the Prime Minister’s family will support our family, and your husband’s future will be set!"

An Yulan swallowed her nervous panic and nodded. Madame Chen was right. This was her moment to shine and save the family’s honor.

Before stepping forward, An Yulan rushed over to Bai Kang, who was still awkwardly holding up her drunk husband. She grabbed Bai Kang’s arm and hissed, "Hold onto him! Do not let him move an inch, and do not let him cause any trouble while I am up there!"

"Yeah, yeah, don’t worry, sister-in-law!" Bai Kang laughed foolishly, slapping the slumping Wenjiang on the back.

Adjusting her fine silk robes, An Yulan took a deep breath, picked up the velvet-wrapped box, and walked gracefully toward the main table where the newly engaged couple sat. She bowed with perfect, exaggerated elegance before the Minister’s daughter.

"Lady Xiao," An Yulan said softly, her voice loud enough for the nearby crowd to hear. "The Bai family’s first Branch wishes to congratulate you on your grand engagement! To celebrate this joyful day, I have brought you a priceless, top-grade imperial green jade hairpin. It is a rare treasure passed down through noble hands!"

The surrounding crowd began to whisper again, leaning in to see.

"An imperial jade hairpin?" a noble lady murmured. "Now that sounds like a real gift!"

An Yulan smiled proudly as she opened the velvet box, revealing a smooth, shiny green hairpin resting on red silk. She lifted it up with two hands and offered it to the bride-to-be.

Now, Lady Xiao. the Minister’s daughter, was famous in the capital for her sharp eye for fine jewels. She didn’t just wear jewelry; she studied it.

Lady Xiao picked up the green hairpin, holding it up toward the golden lantern light. She turned it once, then twice, her eyebrows pulling together in immediate disappointment.

"Is this... a joke?" Lady Xiao asked, her voice cool and completely unimpressed.

An Yulan’s smile froze mid-air. "P-Pardon, Lady Xiao?"

"This isn’t imperial jade," Lady Xiao said plainly, holding the pin out with two fingers as if it were a dirty twig. "This is cheap, dyed glass. It isn’t even worth three copper coins."

A massive gasp echoed through the hall!

An Yulan’s face drained of every drop of color. "N-No! That is impossible! My family paid a fortune for this! It is pure, authentic jade! You... you must be mistaken!"

"Mistaken?" Lady Xiao chuckled, offended by the accusation. She turned toward the front table where Xiao Jun sat. "Brother, you are well-versed in rare antiques and precious stones. Would you care to verify this ’priceless treasure’ for the lady?"

The entire room went dead silent as Xiao Jun calmly stood up, his violet robes swaying. He walked over with a casual grace, took the green hairpin from Lady Xiao, and held it up to the light.

With a slight flick of his fan, Xiao Jun tapped the edge of his silver ring against the green hairpin.

Clack!

A dull, hollow sound echoed through the quiet room, not the clear, ringing chime of real stone, but the cheap clatter of fragile glass. To make matters worse, the heat from the nearby candle lit up the inside of the hairpin, clearly showing tiny air bubbles trapped inside the dyed green glass.

Xiao Jun let out a soft, amused laugh, dropping the hairpin back into the velvet box with a light toss.

"It is indeed cheap, colored glass," Xiao Jun announced smoothly, his clear voice carrying across the entire hall. "If you tap real jade, it rings like a bell. This merely sounds like an empty bottle. And real jade does not have air bubbles inside."

The hall erupted into wild laughter and chaotic gossip!

"Pfft! Cheap glass?!" a young lord burst out laughing.

"First swamp weeds for tea, and now fake glass for jade?!" another noble lady giggled loudly behind her sleeve. "The Bai family’s rival branches are absolute comedy today!"

"They brought street-vendor trinkets to a Minister’s banquet!" people pointed and sneered, whispering right in front of An Yulan’s face.

An Yulan stood frozen in the middle of the hall, her ears ringing, her face burning hotter than fire. Madame Chen backed away into the crowd, pretending she had nothing to do with the gift, while Madame Zhang shook her head in secondhand embarrassment.