Su Jingyang was really hit by Rong Ci's words. Within three days, he took his ghostly talisman scripts and ran to the box to find Rong Ci and Rong Hua to share ideas.

Rong Ci flipped through the manuscript paper written by Su Jingyang. The more he looked at it, the harder he could look directly at it. His voice was full of disgust: "The scratching of the chicken in your yard is easier to recognize than your handwriting."

Su Jingyang admits this. His handwriting with a pen was already unsightly enough, let alone with a brush. He resignedly said to Rong Ci: "You can just look at the content, do you think my method's feasible?"

Rong Ci didn't say anything after reading it. Rong Hua looked at it with him, her expression always tense. Su Jingyang puts his hands on the table, his eyes were bright and he expectantly asked: "Murong, what do you think? Give me your word."

Rong Hua looked at Su Jingyang and asked: "Your story's based on Ah-Li's affairs?"

Rong Hua had always been protecting Ling Li. When the Liu parents came to make trouble that day, she would've gone to kill them if Ling Li hadn't stopped her.

Su Jingyang nodded vigorously, "Yeah! I want to hire a troupe for this, they will rehearse the story, set up a stage for the play, and perform it for ten and a half days. I don't believe that this town will be safe from a storm after that."

Su Jingyang's script was based on the outline of Ling Li's past, but some changes have been made, and the part about Ah-Xuan's father and the part about Ling Li's disclosure to the robbers have been omitted.

The main point was that the man owed a gambling debt, crying and begging for his lover to sell his heirloom to help repay the debt, and then cheating all the money his lover earned. But soon this man regretted, he was afraid of being entangled by his lover, so he obeyed his parents' plan and deliberately deceived his lover to die in the name of love with him. But in fact, he just wanted to poison his lover to death. Unexpectedly, the man mistook the wine glasses under the chaos. He drank the poisoned wine and the lover drank the normal wine, surviving only by chance. But the lover still suffered from misunderstandings and insults of the world, the man's parent was framed for murder and almost died.

Rong Ci pondered for a moment and said: "This sort of thing can cater to everyone's taste. Although your method has many flaws, I think it's feasible."

Su Jingyang didn't intend to use a play to change everyone's point of view, he just wanted to at least reduce the number of people who inexplicably hated Ling Li. He had actually been harbouring the idea for quite a while now but hadn't had time to implement it, he was torn upon whether this idea was good or bad and didn't dare to make a decision. Now, the worst has already happened, Su Jingyang strengthened his self-confidence.

Rong Hua tilted the corners of her mouth and looked at Su Jingyang with some evil ideas looming in her beautiful eyes, she said slowly: "Jingyang, in fact, I can help add a little colour to your play."

Su Jingyang got support and immediately hired a small theatre troupe, letting them adapt a wonderful drama based on the given script, and went to go watch the rehearsal every day. After the rehearsals were successful, the play called "Poisoned Wine¹" was set up in town for free.

In ancient times, there's no TV or mobile phone, watching theatres was a popular pastime, but it was usually only something the people with money or nobles who hire the theatre troupe to perform at home could enjoy. There had never been a free one before.

How can anyone be willing to miss out on such a good thing? "Poisoned Wine" was acted out for a total of ten days, and with Liang Lu's help, the venue was filled with people. None of the people in this town were stupid, and they have already linked this play with Ling Li's affairs from back then. What's more, in the play, the name for the scumbag was Liu Yue. And the parents of Liu Yue were named after Liu Yue's parents.

——This was naturally the credit of the evil god Rong Hua. Those two old people cried under Rong Hua's whip until they called their mothers. They had long admitted that Liu Yue's plan to deceive Ling Li was facilitated with them, Rong Hua personally took them to the stage every day without costumes. They tremblingly performed with ugly faces on stage, before they could finish the last show, they directly fainted on the stage.

Because of this play, the past events of that year were once again dug up. There were believers and unbelievers, naturally, there are people who doubt Ah-Xuan's origins and the purpose of the play. As a firm supporter of Ling Li, Rong Hua dragged Rong Ci to wander around for several days, guiding the direction of public opinion whenever she saw someone having discussions. Of course, there were also people who shame Ling Li and use it to promote some extreme views. For those kinds of people, Rong Hua either puts them in a sack to beat them up, hang them on the bridge with a rope for a day and night, or feed them muting medicine that made them unable to speak for several days. If those who had been beaten dared to talk nonsense afterwards, Rong Hua would use a heavier hand and let them shut up for a few more days. The results were almost immediate and fewer people were running around yelling nonsense.

Su Jingyang didn't know about any of this, he only attributed it to his script having a huge effect. It could be seen from the slow recovery of Lin Ji pavilion's business. Although it still wasn't as good as before, Su Jingyang was already very satisfied, the melancholy in Ling Li's eyes had dissipated a lot.

Su Jingyang became busy for a while. After finishing work for that day, he wanted to sleep early but he was dragged into a dream. Su Jingyang felt like he was going to die in pain. Fortunately, that person only did it twice before letting him go. Su Jingyang returned to bed and fell asleep on the quilt without opening his eyes.

After waking up, Su Jingyang found that the energy progress bar had become 2.5%!

Su Jingyang was dumbfounded, he clearly remembered that the positive energy he intermittently got from Ling Li was already 3%, how could it suddenly drop ? !

The system came out and coldly said: "Do you think only you can collect energy? If I have more energy, the proportion of your completion will naturally decrease. Do you really think you can beat me?"

Su Jingyang pursed his lips, his chest was heaving up and down, he told himself not to get mad, don't get mad, don't get mad. In the end, he couldn't hold back, he slapped the bed and said viciously: "I can fight you, just wait and I'll make you die like a dog²!!!"

Making peace with the system was simply as difficult as going to heaven!

Su Jingyang got up and found that Rong Ci was already teaching Ah-Xuan to practice with wooden swords in the yard. He yawned and washed with his messy hair, Rong Ci looked back at him when he heard the movements and closed his eyes when he saw him gargle. Then, he said: "Slouching so early in the morning, what did you do last night?"

Su Jingyang spit out the mouthwash and wiped the drops of water on his mouth, he raised his eyes and looked at him, humming, "I dreamed of you last night; I fought with you and beat you to death."

Rong Ci shook his head and said: "You can only dream about it in dreamland."

Su Jingyang was about to scoop cold water to wash his face, Ling Li brought a basin of hot water from the kitchen and came in a hurry to take away the water scoop in his hand. Su Jingyang smiled at him and washed his face with hot water, Ling Li had always treated him with such consideration.

Su Jingyang asked while washing, "Ali, what do you stew, it's so fragrant."

Ling Li said softly: "Chicken soup."

Su Jingyang hadn't gotten rid of the haze in his mind and stared at the table. It took a long time for him to change from staring at the soup in the bowl to rushing to the chicken coop to look for the chicken that loved to climb over the wall; he couldn't find it! There were only three left out of the original five. The cage hadn't been opened yet, it couldn't have flown away by itself.

Su Jingyang ran into the house again in a single breath. Rong Ci saw him panicking, and, as if he knew why, said unhurriedly: "It's been cooked to soup, what else are you looking for." Su Jingyang couldn't believe it, his eyes widened and Rong Ci said again: "Oh, I gave Ling Li money and bought this chicken for him to stew."

Ling Li stopped talking, Su Jingyang angrily said to Rong Ci, "You... you ruthless man! It loved you so much and desperately sought you every day, how could you bear it!?" It sounded funny, although Su Jingyang chased it every day and often scolded it for cheating, it had still accompanied him for a while. He had already developed some reluctance, now that he found out it had been stewed, he couldn't help feeling a little sad.

It followed Rong Ci every day, whether a chicken could love or not, it couldn't be denied that Rong Ci was the only one who could enter its eyes.

Rong Ci tapped the soup bowl with his chopsticks and motioned to him: "See you, that's how you'll end up if you fall in love with me; miserable!" Seeing that Su Jingyang was fuming, Ling Li finally couldn't stand it anymore, and said to him: "Ah-Yi lied to you, he bought the chicken but kept it next door."

Su Jingyang was taken aback, he glanced at Rong Ci with a suspicious look in his eyes and was answered with a mysterious smile. Ling Li said helplessly: "You should believe me, the one stewed today is another one."

After breakfast, Rong Ci went home. Su Jingyang was cleaned the yard with a big broom while it was still early. Suddenly, his ears picked up a slightly loud voice from the next door, "Come on, Yangyang, Yangyang, come over for dinner. Yangyang, hurry up, come and eat, there's still a lot more here."

Su Jingyang frowned, intuitionally feeling that things weren't so simple, he dropped the broom and climbed the ladder, lying on the wall to investigate.

He almost fainted with anger after finding out what it was about. It was Rong Ci feeding that cheating chicken!

"Hey! What's wrong with you, why would you name a chicken that?!!!"

Rong Ci dusted off his hands after spreading the remaining rice, he turned his head to look at him and said with a smile: "What's wrong with the name? I'm quite happy with it."

Su Jingyang snorted and said unhappily: "Then you aren't allowed to call it Yangyang. If you ever kill and eat it then, it'll be unlucky."

"But it seems to like it very much, it came over as soon as I called it." Rong Ci turned his head and shouted: "Yangyang."

The chicken ran over with joy and Su Jingyang's brows twitched fiercely. He was about to get down the ladder when Rong Ci called him. "I'm going to take Ah-Xuan back to Rongcheng tonight, I won't be back the next seven days. You go feed this chicken for me."

Boss Su Jingyang was unwilling, "Why? Why should I?"

Rong Ci said: "I'm just telling you, if Yangyang starves to death, it would be unlucky. You come here to feed it every day, I'll give you the key." As he said this, he walked a few steps closer and threw something towards him. Su Jingyang subconsciously stretched out his hand to catch it, only to find that it was an ingot of silver. Su Jingyang's originally frowning face immediately turned to a smile.

Su Jingyang proactively stretched out his hand towards him: "Alright, give me the key and I'll help you feed the chicken."

Rong Ci threw the key to him and sincerely told him, "Then carefully take care of my Yangyang, ah."

Su Jingyang collected the keys and silver and made an ok gesture, he thought that he might not understand and said: "Don't worry, I'll take good care of it."

Rong Ci saw his strangely serious face and chuckled lightly, it wasn't his usual ridiculing sneer, but a truly gentle and youthful smile, with picturesquely bent brows that were dazzlingly beautiful.

Su Jingyang asked strangely: "What are you laughing at?"

Rong Ci covered his mouth and said with a serious face: "It's nothing, I was just thinking, maybe... you won't need to go to my house to feed."

What Rong Ci said was quite correct, after Rong Ci left with Ah-Xuan that night, the chicken ran back and drilled into the chicken coop by itself. Su Jingyang tried to throw it next door, but after a while, it ran back. After several tries, Su Jingyang couldn't help but point at it and curse: "So cheap, really unbelievable, why are you always cheating!"

On the fifth day of Rong Ci's departure, snow greeted the town. When Su Jingyang set out to deliver the fruit wine at Liang Lu's house, there was already a thin layer of snow on the ground. When he left after drinking a cup of hot tea, the ground was already hard to walk on.

Su Jingyang's nose was red from the cold, and he walked quickly towards Lin Ji pavilion. He never expected that he would meet someone who'll cause him a terrible headache halfway. He watched the river where Hao Jiasheng and old lady Hao were arguing from a distance, thinking that it'd be better to go around it. Every time he meets with this family, he always feels like something bad would happen.

But God seemed to be against him, he was about to turn around when he noticed that Hao Jiasheng seemed to be annoyed by something, and, fueled with impulsive anger, pushed old lady Hao hard. Before the old lady Hao fell into the water, she subconsciously grabbed a handful of his clothes.

As a result, both the grandparent and grandchild fell into the water! ! !

There was no movement after the two hard flops. Obviously, the water was extremely cold. Su Jingyang brain numbed, he was more willing to save 10,000 strangers than these two, but after shouting a few times that someone had fallen into the water the few passer-bys passed by as indifferently as the cold wind and didn't even give him a glance.

Su Jingyang gritted his teeth and cursed, saying that it was two lives in the end. No matter how much he hated those two people, he wouldn't be able to get this past his conscience. Su Jingyang ran over and jumped into the icy river, trying hard to rescue the two.

When Su Jingyang came up, he was completely out of strength and his whole body was icy and damp. He lied down on the hard ground, breathing unevenly, an official came to inspect and then sent them to a hospital.

When Su Jingyang went back to Lin Ji pavilion, although he had already dried and changed, he still couldn't stop trembling because of the cold. Ling Li's eyes were all red, he tended to the fire and moved over a chair for Su Jingyang to sit on to get closer to the fire, he also boiled some ginger soup for him to drink as well.

Su Jingyang went home that night, he thought that grandma Hao wouldn't bother him anymore because he had saved their lives.

But he really underestimated the shamelessness of the old lady, the next day an officer came to ask Su Jingyang for interrogation. It turned out that Hao Jiasheng was dying, the old lady Hao told him that Su Jingyang had a grudge against her and wanted to murder the grandmother and grandson.

Su Jingyang furiously confronted old lady Hao: "Damn it- I was the one who saved you two, but you turned black to white! Do you still have a conscience!?"

Old lady Hao said viciously, "If you didn't push us down, then why did you save us? Isn't it because you have a guilty conscience?!"

Su Jingyang's lungs were about to explode, he should've let this kind of people drown that time!

The old lady insisted on making him lose money and wanted compensation of at least one hundred taels of silver. After Liang Lu came, he told Su Jingyang that Hao Jiasheng was in a bad condition, and the old lady Hao probably wanted to blackmail him a sum of money to treat her grandson. The whole incident was also strange. The old and the young fell into the water at the same time yet the old one didn't seem to be too affected, instead, the young one was dying.

Su Jingyang naturally refused to admit this lie. Liang Lu told Su Jingyang that he shouldn't be afraid, the officials would just ask ordinary questions and would let him go back after asking. Su Jingyang wasn't afraid of this, he was just afraid of Ling Li worrying about him. When he was fetched by the officer before, Ling Li followed behind. Now it was snowing fiercely outside, Su Jingyang was afraid that Ling Li would be uncomfortable outside waiting in the cold.

Because there was still a set of procedures for questioning and procedures, Su Jingyang begged Liang Lu to go out and see if Ling Li was fine outside, but before Liang Lu could get out, one of his subordinates ran in to pass on the news.

Because they were close together, Su Jingyang naturally heard it. The words he said were: "Master, that Hao Jiasheng, he's dead."

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Notes:

1- Orig is 毒酒計.

2- Die without dignity.

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