Lian Erye in the Red Mansion

Chapter 67 The Third Prince

Under the main corridor, the fourth prince approached a young man, bowed, and said, "Third brother."

The young man nodded and asked with a smile, "Although today's gathering is to unveil your newly built martial arts arena, not all members of the royal family are fond of martial arts. Besides, you yourself said that today is a poetry and wine gathering; how can there be only wine and no poetry?"

The fourth prince said with little interest, "Third brother knows me. This matter of composing poetry will be entirely handled by third brother. I will cooperate fully."

Knowing his younger brother's predicament, the young man nodded and said "okay," then had the competition on stage stopped and encouraged everyone to start exchanging ideas through literature...

Jia Lian watched as the crowd gathered at the front, and knew that the person leading them was the most prestigious prince in the entire Great Wei, second only to the Crown Prince.

It is said that he is the only person who could potentially threaten the crown prince's position.

Even so, Jia Lian did not intend to approach her rashly.

Before you have the capital, rashly approaching someone who is far above you will only make you look foolish and you won't gain any benefits.

Therefore, he only drank with Zhang and Feng in private, and occasionally met with a few other members of the Xun family in public.

Zhang Su originally intended to participate in the literary gathering, but seeing that Jia Lian and Feng Ziying were not very interested, he did not go. Instead, he acted as an introducer for Jia Lian and Feng Ziying, introducing them to some well-behaved members of the royal family. Time passed quite quickly.

Meanwhile, the Fourth Prince finally managed to shake off his Third Brother's gaze and break free from the crowd. He immediately spotted the person he was looking for and hurriedly ran over.

"Jinyan, why didn't you send someone to tell me you were here? Quick, my third brother asked me to compose a poem. You need to quickly make one up for me. It doesn't have to be great, just something that will do..."

As the fourth prince spoke, he tried to pull Zhang Su to the small room.

Zhang Su looked at Jia Lian and the others somewhat embarrassedly, and explained with a lack of confidence, "Well, as His Highness's study companion, it's only natural for me to help His Highness polish his writings..."

It was quite common, everyone understood, and they all smiled and indicated that they should go ahead.

At this moment, the Fourth Prince was no longer in a hurry. He looked up at the people in front of him, his gaze immediately fixed on Jia Lian, and casually said, "What a pretty boy! How did you get those marks on your face? Were you a prostitute, and someone scratched them on you while they were fighting over you?"

Today is the Fourth Prince's private meeting. Apart from the unwelcome guest, the Prince Duan's heir, everyone else was invited by him.

He even knew Feng Ziying, but he didn't know Jia Lian. More importantly, Jia Lian was seven feet tall and had a dignified appearance, making him hard to miss in a crowd.

Upon hearing the Fourth Prince's words, Feng Ziying and the others wore expressions that suggested they wanted to laugh but couldn't. Only Zhang Su quickly gestured to the Fourth Prince and explained, "This is my cousin Jia Lian, the grandson of the Duke of Rongguo. I brought him here today to pay a visit to Your Highness."

The Fourth Prince had only said it casually and meant no harm. Upon hearing this, he replied, "Oh, you're Jin Yan's cousin. My apologies..."

He was about to pull Zhang Su to help him cheat again when he suddenly remembered something and turned back: "What did you say your name was?"

Jia Lian wasn't angry at the Fourth Prince's impolite words. After all, he had a general idea of ​​the Fourth Prince's personality from his actions on the stage earlier. Losing a cockfight and then going down to fight someone else's cock... well, how to put it, that's rather unconventional.

Upon hearing this, he cupped his hands and said, "My name is Jia Lian, and I greet Your Highness the Fourth Prince."

"Jia Lian? You're Jia Lian?!"

Faced with the four emperors' question, not only Jia Lian himself, but everyone else was puzzled.

But then the Fourth Prince's breathing became heavy, and he said in a very unfriendly tone, "It's like searching high and low without finding it—you're Jia Lian, you son of a bitch!!"

This was clearly not an unintentional mistake. Jia Lian frowned. "May I ask, have I offended Your Highness in any way?"

Jia Lian knew very well that this was definitely his first time meeting the Fourth Prince.

"Enough talk, take this!"

Without saying a word, the fourth prince kicked Jia Lian.

Jia Lian remained calm, moved aside, and was about to grab the Fourth Prince's ankle when he kicked out. However, he saw that the Fourth Prince was also quite agile. After missing his first strike, he immediately withdrew his leg and switched to a punch.

Seeing this, Jia Lian decided to subdue this Zhang Tao No. 2 first.

In exchange for taking a punch to the chest, he bound the Fourth Prince's arms behind his back.

The fourth prince struggled a couple of times, but could barely move, and immediately roared, "Let me go...!"

Before anyone else could react, the Fourth Prince had already attacked Jia Lian several times. To their astonishment, Jia Lian had actually tied the Fourth Prince up, and immediately shouted, "How dare you! Release the Fourth Prince!!"

Zhang Su also quickly came over to persuade him.

Jia Lian then took the opportunity to release the little thing.

The Fourth Prince seemed to have quite a backbone; he didn't continue his tirade. Instead, he twisted his hand, looking at Jia Lian with a threatening expression, and praised, "Well, it seems you're not a pushover after all; you've got some skills! I was careless just now. How about we go up on stage and have a little match?"

Jia Lian wanted to laugh. Why were all these fifteen or sixteen-year-old boys so irritable? Zhang Tao was, and this Fourth Prince was even more so.

"I would not dare to offend Your Highness."

"Nonsense, you don't dare? You already tied my hands and used your leg to pin me down so I couldn't move. You're obviously a trained fighter. Why are you chickening out now? Don't worry, I'm not a petty person. If you hurt me, that's your skill. I won't hold a grudge." The Fourth Prince glared at him menacingly, looking like he wouldn't be satisfied until he got his revenge.

Jia Lian thought to himself that there was some truth to this. After all, if it were anyone else, they would have been furious and embarrassed after being restrained by him with his arms outstretched. They would not have had any intention of asking him to go on stage to compete.

It wouldn't be a problem to agree to that.

He didn't know what he had done to offend the Fourth Prince, but it didn't seem to be any deep-seated hatred. Perfect, he could use him to make a public appearance.

"Hahaha, this is hilarious! Our dignified Fourth Prince was actually defeated by a member of an outsider's family. It's absolutely laughable."

The heir of Prince Duan suddenly appeared out of nowhere and happened to see Jia Lian subduing the fourth prince. He immediately walked over laughing, looking delighted.

"Are you itching for a beating again? I just disciplined you last time, and you've already forgotten how painful it was?"

Upon hearing the Fourth Prince bring up the old topic again, and recalling the punches he had taken to the face, the Prince Duan's smile vanished. His face darkened as he said, "If I hadn't gone easy on you, do you think you could have beaten me?"

"Then I don't need your help this time, I'll go up and have a match right now!"

The Fourth Prince has already put aside his grudges with Jia Lian.

The Prince Duan hesitated. Although he usually didn't take the Fourth Prince seriously, he was too lazy to fight him.

If this kid is accidentally hurt, even if the emperor doesn't punish him, his father can still hang him up and give him a good beating.

Why bother?

So he laughed and said, "Everything is about first come, first served. Didn't you want to compete with him? After you've competed with him, then we'll compete."

Jia Lian didn't want to embarrass the Fourth Prince and have two grudges added to his position later, so he cupped his hands and said, "My status is lowly, how dare I presume to speak before Your Highness and the Heir Apparent? Please go first, I am willing to wait."

After saying that, Jia Lian took two steps back, leaving the center area to just the two of them.

The Fourth Prince was no longer in a difficult position. He raised an eyebrow and said to the Prince Duan's heir, "So, if you're going to chicken out, just say so. Stop making excuses!"

Now the Prince of Duan was in a difficult position. He was annoyed by Jia Lian's ungratefulness, which had put him in such an awkward situation, and he also realized that Jia Lian was the same Black General who had mocked him at the gate earlier.

Therefore, he angrily asked, "Who are you, and how dare you be so disrespectful to the Fourth Prince?"

Someone close to him, who was familiar with the Rongguo Mansion, whispered in his ear about Jia Lian's identity.

The Prince Duan's heir didn't remember anything else, but when he heard the words "son of the First-Class Divine Might General," he suddenly laughed.

The Fourth Prince seemed to truly loathe this Prince Duan's heir. Seeing his disgusting smile, he spat and cursed, "What the hell are you laughing at!"

People at the time were not unaware of these extremely vulgar words, but most of them, considering their status and dignity, would never utter them in ordinary times.

Hearing the Fourth Prince openly and without restraint scolding the Prince of Duan's heir, he not only didn't find it vulgar, but actually wanted to laugh.

Seeing the extremely gloomy expression on the Prince Duan's face, none of them wanted to get involved, so they all held back.

Prince Duan cursed the Fourth Prince's mother in his heart, but suppressed his anger on his face and instead smiled and said, "If I remember correctly, what was the name of the big yellow chicken that the Fourth Prince used to raise? That's right, it was called 'Divine Might General'!"

Why do I hear that someone on the field has a father who is also called General Shenwei?

I find it strange that a person and a chicken can have the same name.

Tell me, isn't it funny? Hahaha…

The fourth prince had brought disaster upon his own general because of his careless choice of name, and he was filled with remorse.

Upon hearing the Prince of Duan's words, he realized that Jia Lian's father might indeed hold this title!

Although he was never afraid of others holding a grudge, he did not want to be provoked by the Prince of Duan's heir for no reason, and for a moment he did not know how to respond.