Chapter 281: A Great Wonder

Chapter 281: Chapter 281: A Great Wonder

With that furious roar, the unconscious Ji Liantang screamed and jolted awake.

His eyes bulged as he sluggishly scanned the faces before him, each wearing a different expression. Cold sweat instantly beaded on his forehead.

It was from the pain, but also from the fear.

That one blow from Ji Qingshan didn’t kill Ji Liantang, but it scared Aunt Kang half to death.

When she saw him raise the club to strike again, Aunt Kang threw herself in front of Ji Liantang, wailing.

"Husband! When you strike our son, you strike my heart! If you’re going to hit him, you might as well kill me first! If we have to die, let it be the two of us together! Then we won’t be such an eyesore to you!"

Ji Qingshan pointed a trembling finger at her, rendered speechless.

The rage that seized his heart left him even weaker.

He had put all his strength into that last blow, and now he felt dizzy to the point of blacking out. Stars burst in his vision, and everything around him began to spin.

He shook his head hard, and the vertigo finally subsided.

Leaning on the club, he walked slowly to the head of the room and sat down. Once his breathing had steadied, he questioned Ji Liantang.

"Ji Liantang, now that it’s come to this, what do you have to say for yourself?"

Ji Liantang hung his head in silence.

"Not a single thing to say?"

Ji Qingshan’s tone hardened as he pointed to each person in the room.

"To me, to your mother, to your brothers and sisters-in-law, to this family you’ve led on a wild goose chase... do you really not have a single word of explanation for any of us?"

His only answer was silence.

Ji Qingshan snatched the teapot from the table and hurled it at him!

"You heartless bastard! Has your conscience been eaten by a dog?!"

Aunt Kang clutched Ji Liantang tightly, and the teapot crashed hard against her back before rolling to the floor and shattering into pieces.

"Husband, please, spare our son! He must have been tricked! He’s always been so obedient, so timid! He doesn’t even dare look twice at a young woman on the street. How could he possibly go to a filthy place like that!"

"A doting mother spoils the child! A doting mother spoils the child!"

Ji Qingshan cursed under his breath, then rose to his feet to strike again.

Ji Liantang was terrified of another beating. Gritting his teeth, he rolled off the stretcher and fell to his knees on the ground, sobbing his heart out.

"Father! Mother! I’ve wronged you! But you can’t blame me! The temptations out there are just too great, and I wasn’t strong enough. I carelessly fell into someone’s trap and was led to... that place. I wasn’t trying to hide, I just didn’t have the face to see you. If my actions made you sick with anger, wouldn’t that make me an unfilial son...?"

And they say scholars are eloquent for a reason. With just a few choice words, he shifted all the blame onto others, painting himself as the innocent victim.

Unfortunately, while that excuse might have worked in the past, now that the beautiful dream had been shattered, no one was going to believe him so easily.

Except for Granny Kang.

"I knew it! I knew it was those wicked people outside! They can’t beat our son in the exams, so they’re afraid he’ll do better than them and come up with these dirty tricks to lead him astray! Our son is so naive and honest, of course he’d be taken advantage of!"

Ji Liantang nodded eagerly. "Yes, yes, that’s exactly it, Mother. I thought since we were all classmates, I didn’t need to be on my guard..."

"Which classmates was it? Was it those few who brought you back today? I knew they looked shifty-eyed, that they were no good! Was there anyone else? Was Song Jing involved?"

Granny Kang rattled on, but the real point was in her last question.

Ji Liantang had always looked down on Song Jing, thinking he was just lucky. But he had a little more sense than Granny Kang. The man was a Scholar now; you couldn’t just accuse him wildly.

When he shook his head, a look of disappointment crossed Granny Kang’s face.

’So Song Jing wasn’t involved after all?’

The Scholar title that had been within their grasp had gone to someone else before they could even enjoy it. Seeing the Meng Family’s prestige these past few days, Granny Kang had come to despise them.

She wished she could find some dirt on them, something to strip Song Jing of his Scholar title and give it back to her son.

’And why did my boy have to be so honest?’ she grumbled to herself. ’Even if it wasn’t true, couldn’t he just insist that it was?’

’That would give me a reason to go and raise hell with the village chief and Mrs. Meng.’

’Even if I couldn’t get the Scholar title back, at least I could make them bleed a little and pay some Silver!’

Ji Qingshan was still in a daze.

In truth, he had been clinging to a sliver of hope.

He had pressed his son only because he wanted to hear him deny it all, to say that it wasn’t true, that he had been framed.

His son was indeed crying injustice, but what kind of injustice was it?

The events were real—he had admitted it himself—and that admission shattered Ji Qingshan’s last shred of hope.

A heavy feeling clogged his chest, suffocating him. He no longer had the strength to beat or curse him.

"Oh, my son," he sighed, closing his eyes. "You’ve studied the Holy Books all these years... how could you do something so... so filthy!"

Seeing his father’s tone soften, Ji Liantang felt the storm had passed. His overblown pride began to resurface, and he even tried to defend himself.

"Father, I really was focused on my studies, I wanted to bring honor to our family. If that group hadn’t tricked me into going to... which drained all my energy, I would have secured the Scholar title for us long ago."

Mrs. Zhu, who had been observing from the side, could finally no longer hold her tongue.

"Well, isn’t that something. So people led you to that filthy place, but you don’t have legs? You couldn’t run? And even if you couldn’t run away, if you hadn’t unfastened your own belt, were the women in there going to force themselves on you?"

"Third Sister-in-law!" Ji Liantang’s face flushed crimson. "How can you speak so crudely? It’s indecent!"

Mrs. Zhu sneered. "However indecent I may be, at least I’m not the one visiting brothels!"

"You... I won’t speak with you! ’Only women and petty men are difficult to deal with!’"

Ji Liantang turned his head away and looked beseechingly at Ji Qingshan.

"Father, just trust me one more time. Give me two more years... no, one year. One year is all I need! I’ll prove myself to you..."

Ji Qingshan had no desire to hear any more of his grand ambitions. He cut him off with a wave of his hand. "Let me ask you this. Of the thirty taels I gave you, did you only give your teacher ten taels?"

Granny Kang had found a moment to tell him what had been said. Ji Liantang knew there was no way to deny it, so he could only nod.

Ji Qingshan pressed on. "Ten taels, and Mr. Tan was willing to pull strings to get you into the county school? Do you really take me for an old fool?"

That was the county school! Countless people were scrambling over each other trying to get in. You could throw tens, even hundreds of taels at it and not even make a ripple. If ten taels could open the gates to the county school, then the institution must be utterly worthless!

’To think I once believed Mr. Tan was doing it out of a sincere appreciation for talent. How ridiculous that seems now.’

"Tell the truth!" He slammed the end of his club on the ground. "I want the truth!"

Ji Liantang trembled and stammered, "B-Because... I... I have leverage on Mr. Tan."

What leverage?

’Well, when I went to Chunyi Building, I happened to run into my teacher completely disgracing himself. Does that count...?’

After his explanation, the room fell silent for a long time.

Until Mrs. Zhu snorted with laughter.

"Oh, good heavens! It’s not strange for a teacher and student to run into each other at the academy, but at a brothel? Now that’s a rare sight! What, did you two go whoring together?!"

"Third Sister-in-law!" Ji Liantang had reached his limit. "Would you stop saying ’brothel’ this and ’brothel’ that! It’s the Chunyi Building! It’s a place with class, not some seedy den like you’re imagining!"

Mrs. Zhu shot back sarcastically, "Oh, you’re the expert. I certainly don’t know as much as you. But no matter how much ’class’ it has, the women in there are still whores who’ve slept with a thousand men. Was one of them worth spending twenty taels to sleep with?"

In reality, it was far more than twenty taels.

Ji Liantang had first taken the thirty taels from the family, then asked for smaller amounts several more times. Once he was supposedly in the county school, his requests for money became even more frequent.

Granny Kang practically starved herself to give him the money.

But to ensure her son could eat and dress well and not be looked down upon at the county school, she gave it to him without a second thought, no matter how much it pained her.

The money from selling the pig, the money from the chickens and ducks... Since the New Year, the family hadn’t tasted meat in nearly half a year. They couldn’t even eat their own chicken and duck eggs; everything had to be saved and sold to give the money to Ji Liantang.

But Granny Kang didn’t dare mention any of this now, terrified of pouring oil on the fire.

In her heart, she could only curse the vixen who had seduced her son over and over again!𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚