Zu An felt his scalp begin to tingle, and he quickly pushed Qiu Honglei away. “Honglei, why do you have to joke around like that? The most important thing right now is to figure out how to get out of this.”

The Left Guard General’s only son had been crippled. Such a thing would undoubtedly cause a huge uproar.

Qiu Honglei knew that this matter would be nothing but trouble, so she didn’t continue to mess around. “I’ve already made sure that the young masters of the Qin clan are both asleep. They won’t awaken for quite some time.”

No wonder neither of them rushed over, despite all the noise. He initially thought that they had been too busy with their own girls to worry about other things.

Chu Chuyan frowned. She was clearly puzzled as to how this woman could make her cousins fall asleep. After all, they were also outstanding among their peers.

However, none of that was important right now. She looked at Cheng Gang. “Just say that I was the one who did it,” she said. “No matter how formidable the Left Guard General is, he can’t do anything to our Chu clan.”

The Chu clan was a dukedom that had been passed down for generations. They were a great power in Brightmoon city, and had their own army. They had no need to fear the Left Guard General.

Zu An was still weighing the pros and cons of this when Qiu Honglei said with a sneer, “There have always been rumors that Chu First Miss was exceptionally intelligent, but that doesn’t seem to be the case to me.”

Chu Chuyan’s expression chilled a few degrees. “Speak properly if you have something to say. Stop talking in circles.”

“Has Chu First Miss forgotten what sort of place this is?” said Qiu Honglei. “This is the government brothel! If news that Cheng Gang was crippled by you in the government brothel got out, wouldn’t your reputation be ruined?”

Chu Chuyan’s face paled. It dawned on her that, if they made such a thing public, all sorts of rumors would begin to fly about. Anyone who didn’t know better would subconsciously believe that she had been humiliated by Cheng Gang in a government brothel, and that she had lashed out in anger.

“Thank you for the reminder,” she said grudgingly. Despite their differences, she was still grateful for Qiu Honglei for pointing this out.

Qiu Honglei laughed delicately. “There’s no need to thank me. I just didn’t want Ah Zu to be left broken-hearted.”

Chu Chuyan ground her teeth in irritation. Her opinion of this woman had changed slightly, but she did not expect this vixen to still be so annoying.

Zu An pondered over the matter for a while. “Let’s just say that it was Youzhao who did this. He is a ‘man’ after all, so we don’t need to fear any wild rumors. Besides, given his status in the Qin clan, they will surely shield him from any repercussions, so Cheng Xiong won’t be able to exact revenge.”

There was one other reason why he suggested this. This would create a rift between Cheng Xiong and the Qin clan, or at the very least, put some distance between them. That way, once something happened to Cheng Xiong, the Qin clan would be less anxious to help out.

Chu Chuyan was slightly uncertain, but she knew just how serious this matter was, and she wasn’t about to let Zu An provoke the Cheng clan on his own and make an enemy out of such a massive clan. Especially since he’d helped her little sister in the first place. She nodded. “Okay.”

Having found out the truth, Chu Youzhao hated Cheng Gang bitterly, and naturally had no objections to this.

...

They ironed out some of the details, and only went their separate ways late into the night. They each had their own tasks to take care of.

Zu An noticed that Chu Chuyan had wanted to bring up something else several times, but hesitated each time. He mopped away the cold sweat on his brow. Thank goodness the issue of Cheng Gang had diverted their attention. If not, the two women would have brought about Armageddon. 

He had to be more careful from now on. Having a girl hanging off each arm did feel amazing, but he absolutely could not let them bump into each other!

Once he returned to the imperial palace, he summoned the silver-token and bronze-token envoys that Zhuxie Chixin had temporarily assigned him, and gave them various orders.

…

The next morning, the same piece of news was being discussed all over the capital city. If there had been Twitter in this world, this news would have been the number-one trending issue.

The previous night, the Left Guard General’s only son, Cheng Gang, had been crippled in the government brothel!

The Left Guard General was a high-ranking general. Not only was he in charge of the imperial guards within the palace, his position was also a vital one. Cheng Gang was one of the most outstanding men of his generation within the capital. When someone like that was crippled, how could it not cause an uproar?

Everyone assumed that the Left Guard General would erupt in fury and viciously cut down the one responsible. After all, Cheng Gang was his only son, and he usually doted on him. Whoever cut short his bloodline in such a manner was sure to incur his full wrath.

Surprisingly, though, Cheng Xiong maintained his silence, and did not go on a rampage.

The officials within the imperial court sensed that something was amiss, and they all began to look into this matter privately.

Within this world, no walls were soundproof. Soon enough, they discovered that Cheng Gang hadn’t gone to the government brothel alone. He had gone with the young masters of the Qin clan.

“Could the young masters of the Qin clan have done this?”

“It’s a brothel we’re talking about. They probably got into a fight over a girl.”

“No wonder Cheng Xiong doesn’t dare exact revenge. The Qin clan is far stronger than the Cheng clan. In the past, Cheng Xiong was even Elder Qin’s subordinate.”

…

These officials believed that they had found out the truth, but soon afterwards, explosive news came out. It turned out that Cheng Gang had been driven sex-crazy, and had actually gone after the young master of the Chu clan! In the end, it was this young master Chu that crippled him.

“Cheng Gang actually likes men?”

“Didn’t I mention before that Cheng Xiong kept staring at my butt? It seems their entire family is like this.”

“Tsk, why don’t you take a look in the mirror once in a while? The Chu young master is extremely good-looking! No wonder Cheng Gang couldn’t control himself.”

“Heh, Chu First Miss is a publicly-acknowledged goddess, and her younger brother is also so ‘outstanding’. If someone could snag both of these siblings, wouldn’t they be living in heaven everyday?”

…

Chu Youzhao never expected that she would become famous in this way. In the past, only the young masters within the capital knew of her natural attractiveness. Now, everyone in the capital was curious as to what she looked like. They were curious as to who could make Cheng Gang lose his senses and go after a man.

To a certain degree, her ‘attractiveness’, as mentioned in the rumors about her, even surpassed that of her big sister.

“It’s all that stupid brother-in-law’s fault! How am I supposed to even go out from now on?!” Chu Youzhao said, stamping her feet in annoyance. She was so embarrassed by these rumors that the house was about to fall to ruin from all her stomping.

Chu Chuyan resisted her urge to laugh and said, “It’s your fault for going to that sort of place. It’s not somewhere you should be. If your brother-in-law hadn’t saved you, you’d be in a far more terrible situation right now.”

Chu Youzhao’s face turned red. “You’re right, but… How am I supposed to meet anyone in the future…”

She had really suffered a social death!

Even Murong Qinghe had looked at her strangely. She couldn’t hold it in anymore. “Ah!!! This is so annoying!”

She jumped into bed and pulled the covers over herself, as though hiding in there was the only way to avoid her embarrassment.

Chu Chuyan couldn’t help but laugh when she saw her rolled up in her bed. She looked out of the window, curious as to what Zu An was going to do from now on.

It didn’t take long for her to find out.

Once the imperial court learned of this matter, they dispatched the city lord to oversee the case. After all, given the special status of the victim, the matter demanded a proper explanation.

The city lord was put in a really tough spot. On one side was the only son of the Left Guard General, while on the other was the heir of three state dukes. What was he supposed to do? He was also extremely helpless.

However, he was someone who had survived in a place like the capital, which was filled with powerful players, by being flexible. He quickly thought of something.

If he couldn’t afford to offend either the Qin clan or the Chu clan, then could he do something about the government brothel?

As such, he ordered his constables to capture the courtesan queen and all the other girls involved, intending to pin the blame on them. That way, he could bring some closure to this case, and leave a way out for both sides.

As for the girls from the government brothel, their innocence or guilt did not matter to these higher officials.

Having to serve in the government brothel was already pitiful enough. It might even be doing them a favor by sending them on their way earlier, so that they could reincarnate and live properly in their next lives.

Unfortunately, even though this plan seemed sound, there was an unexpected development.

When the constables arrived, the courtesan queen Leng Shuangyue was nowhere to be found. Even the girls who had served in that residence were gone.

Even more strange was the fact that many items within the residence had been deliberately destroyed, as though they were trying to hide some secrets.

The constables immediately put their full focus on the case, and eventually found a lead in the form of a half-burnt letter. Presumably, the ones who fled had been in too much of a hurry, and did not have time to verify that everything had been destroyed.

When they examined the contents, they discovered that these people seemed to be related to the assassins who had attacked the palace a few days ago. They quickly reported this to the city lord.

The city lord immediately realized that he had a huge case on his hands, and quickly reported his findings to the imperial court.

The entire court was riled up when they learned of this. The emperor was furious, and ordered the Embroidered Envoy to investigate this matter fully.