The Empress’s Gigolo

The second floor of House Shuanhuai had always been a place where the descendants of many of the high ranking officials gathered in Lan City.

If a piece of brick was thrown in and hit two people, one of them would definitely be a descendant of at least a Rank 5 official, whereas the other would be related to at least a Rank 4 official.

However, at present, the entire place was very gloomy.

“I didn’t expect Sir Tu to actually lose two rounds in a row. I originally thought that a Cardinal Heaven expert would definitely win.” One of them heaved deep sighs.

“How much did you lose?”

The first man stretched out two fingers.

“200 taels of silver? Where did you get so much money from?”

“It’s 110 taels! Not only did I lose all my assets, I even lost the 100 taels that my friends pooled together.”

“Your total assets added up to ten taels?”

“Nonsense! At House Jingyu, you previously borrowed five taels from me. Otherwise, I would have 15 taels. Stop spouting nonsense and pay up!”

The noble sons from Great Xia and the Yun Nation would die laughing if they heard these people’s conversation. Let alone the descendants of the aristocratic families, even the sons of merchants rarely spent so little.

100 taels? This wasn’t even enough to pay for one of their drinking sessions at a brothel.

However, this was already a huge sum to the noble sons of the aboriginals! Most of them only received around ten taels for their monthly allowance, though those who were wealthier would get slightly more.

Even Tong Lan, a genius who attained the Kismet Heaven level before the age of ten and whose grandfather was a Rank 3 official, only received 30 taels of silver for her allowance.

During the last two contests, many of them had lost so much that their pockets were cleaner than their faces. Not only did they lose their entire month’s allowance, they even lost the entire savings of their younger siblings as well. At present, these people were already on the brink of gathering at the top of the clock tower.

Naturally, there were also people who weren’t affected by this.

For instance, Hong Xian, Bai Shihu, and Xi Yueya.

Although the students had won quite a bit, there were so many people who bet on Tu Hong that the bankers still made quite a windfall even after giving the students their winnings.

Liu Ruoyao was the only banker who didn’t look happy. Even though she received payouts as a banker, she had placed her bets on Tu Hong for both rounds and still ended up losing quite a bit.

Most importantly, Ren Baqian actually won both matches.

On top of losing money, her enemy actually gained fame. There was nothing else in this world that was more miserable than this.

Thump, thump, thump. A series of footsteps could be heard from the staircase, and it sounded like there were at least ten people.

“Hong Xian, we are here to collect our money.” Xu Peng lead the group up the stairs. He felt extremely delighted and burst out laughing after seeing how gloomy the entire second floor was.

Everyone groaned when they looked at him and the people behind him, all of whom were students from the Black Bamboo Academy.

“What’s the hurry? Never seen money before? Do you think I will shortchange you?” Liu Ruoyao lifted her head and made a harsh retort.

In any case, Ren Baqian and everyone from the Black Bamboo Academy were eyesores to her.

“Of course, I’m still waiting to place my bets for the next round. I’m not sure if you are still keen on taking bets!” Xu Peng was all smiles. He definitely made a windfall this time.

Plus, many of the students made huge sums of money from the 1:10 betting odds of the first round.

Many of the students from commoner families had also pooled together a sum of money to place their bets, which summed up to quite a sizeable amount.

Needless to say, most of the students were the descendants of officials. They received a much smaller monthly allowance compared to the others due to their lack of talent. However, ever since they started attending school, they didn’t have much time to spend money on drinking and entertainment. This allowed them to save up quite a bit.

Keeping aside a little each month, they managed to save up quite a large amount of money.

Many of the people on the second floor of House Shuanhuai felt infuriated after hearing what Xu Peng said. Everyone here had lost money, but in spite of that, this bunch of students still came and asked for their winnings. Most of them had an angry look on their face and thought of giving these students a beating.

However, more people came along to the second floor, which made those people exercise a little restraint, especially after seeing the last two people who appeared. Regardless, they still continued to glower at the students.

“Long time no see.” Shi Gan cupped his fists at everyone when he came up.

“Hmph!” Tong Lan lifted her head high and had no respect for anyone here.

“Little girl, what are you so arrogant about?” someone voiced out his discontent.

“Who are you calling little girl?” Tong Lan immediately gave him the side eye.

“This little girl definitely has a bad temper for someone her size,” the man groaned.

“Still a little taller than you!” Tong Lan’s voice could suddenly be heard from that person’s table. She dashed over to that table in a flash and stood on top of it before lifting her leg and stomping on his head.

The man placed his fists above his head like a cow’s horns, used one hand to shield himself from her foot, and struck his other fist at Tong Lan’s lower abdomen.

Tong Lan had quite a huge reputation, and everyone knew her as the genius of the Tong family. However, she was only 11 years old after all, and very few people had actually seen her fight. On the contrary, that man didn’t mind trying her out to see if she was indeed as strong as it was rumored.

“Stop!” Hong Xian appeared beside the table and stopped both of them.

Hong Xian’s palm intercepted Tong Lan’s foot. Tong Lan then did a backflip and landed on the floor as the table she stepped on earlier broke into pieces.

Hong Xian then fell back a few steps.

Tong Lan grinned the moment she landed on the floor and revealed her two small canine teeth. Next, she pointed at Hong Xian and asked, “What’s that on your head?”

Hong Xian was stunned and stretched out her hand to touch her hair. However, Tong Lan suddenly burst out at this moment. She stretched out both her hands like a fearsome beast opening its jaws. With her fingers acting like its fangs, she chomped at Hong Xian’s body.

“Tsk…” Even though Hong Xian reacted quickly, she couldn’t dodge this attack in time. Tong Lan managed to tear off a piece of fabric from her shoulder.

“What are you doing?” Hong Xian fell back a few steps and questioned in anger.

“I heard that you are pretty good, so I want to try you out!” Tong Lan responded excitedly before charging toward her.

“Tong Lan, we are here to settle matters!” Shi Gan appeared behind her and grabbed the back of her neck with one hand. Like a scorpion’s tail, she subsequently executed an overhead kick in the air and booted his hand away.

While Tong Lan got into a tangle with Shi Gan, Hong Xian managed to get into her fighting stance and said, “I have no intention of fighting with you. Don’t be overbearing.”

“Tong Lan!” Shi Gan yelled grudgingly.

“Forget it. I’m here to collect my pocket money. I’ll give you trouble next time.” Tong Lan pondered for a moment and gave Hong Xian an arrogant look.

Hong Xian shook her head and said to the burly man sitting in the corner, “Bai Shihu, get someone to settle it with them.”

Even though they didn’t manage to fight it out, everyone got to know that this girl Tong Lan was indeed someone who was difficult to deal with. She outrageously attacked the highly reputable Hong Xian, who was almost twice her age, when Hong Xian didn’t even provoke her.

It seemed like Lan City would probably have another prominent figure in the future.

“Are you guys still taking bets?” Xu Peng asked as he laughed.

He excitedly thought to himself that bringing Tong Lan was indeed the right choice.

Even though he was usually bullied by her, in front of people who weren’t from the school, the unreasonable girl Tong Lan still imposed more deterrence.

“Of course, 2 to 1 for Principal Ren, and 1 to 2 for Sir Tu,” the burly man in the corner answered straightforwardly.

“So low?” Xu Peng was surprised. It was 1 to 10 during the first competition and 1 to 1 during the second, but now it was only 2 to 1?

“Who doesn’t know about what happened in the north? Even though Sir Tu is a Cardinal Heaven expert, Principal Ren already won the last two rounds. Thus, the odds will naturally be lower,” the burly man explained unhurriedly.

“Calculate our winnings and bet all of it on the principal,” Xu Peng replied immediately.

Even though the odds were lower, gains were still gains! Who wouldn’t want free money?

“All of it?” Hong Xian asked.

“All of it!” Xu Peng replied firmly.

Looking pensive, Hong Xian exclaimed, “You guys are very confident!”