HE With the Cold Male Protagonist C28

Chapter 28: Retreat to Advance, Forced Pressure

With less land, less silver at home, no face left, and even their people punished to reclaim barren wastelands where not a hair could grow!

“Wuu wuu, they even built a new house, bought farmland, bought estates, bought a mountain, bought a carriage, and are about to open a workshop. Even the village headman has been bribed by them, standing completely on their side! The second branch has utterly risen, we’ll have no good days ahead, they’re trying to drive us to death!”

Madam Li sobbed until she was out of breath, truly suffocated to the point of despair. In just a short time, she had grown a full circle thinner than when Jiang Yueming had last seen her. The bones of her face even protruded slightly, and with her mind trapped in misery, her whole appearance was ghastly—neither human nor ghost.

Thinking of his schoolmates in the prefectural city, with households full of servants and elegant mothers and sisters, Jiang Yueming suppressed his inner disgust. “What exactly is going on with Jiang Baiye? Tell me carefully, in detail.”

But Madam Li could say nothing meaningful. In her eyes, it was simply “striking dumb luck,” “possessed by some evil spirit,” “everyone’s brains must have been struck by lightning to listen to him.”

Impatient, Jiang Yueming turned to Jiang Linger.

“Cou—cousin…” Jiang Linger feared her elder brother, and quickly corrected herself, “Jiang Baiye has now become very powerful, very clever. Everyone listens to him, because not only did he himself prosper, but he plans to lead the whole village to prosper too. The people of Lijia Village and others now fear him, and, and also…”

The rest she dared not say. Jiang Yueming smiled at her, face calm. “You also think he is very powerful and very clever?”

Jiang Linger dared not nod. She did not understand why things had become like this. Weren’t they all one family once? When they had not yet split households, hadn’t things been fine?

“Perhaps… perhaps we should just let it be?” she whispered timidly.

Her second uncle and aunt seemed to harbor no further intent, yet her family refused to relent, making her deeply uneasy. Now, whenever she went out, people pointed at her, saying her family was small-minded, unable to tolerate others.

Jiang Yueming did not hear, and even if he had, he would not have cared. “So, all the abnormalities began only after the second branch moved next door to Lu Lizhi?”

Madam Li nodded again and again. “If only we hadn’t split the household, they would never have risen up like this…”

But Jiang Yueming thought instead—his original plan had been to make that thug Jiang Baiye live next door to Lu Lizhi, so that Lu Lizhi would live daily in unrest and fear, unable to focus on studying. Moreover, the men he had arranged could act under Jiang Baiye’s name, constantly harassing him and provoking trouble.

Lu Lizhi, of course, was not one to swallow his anger.

At that time, the two would inevitably fight, their days full of chaos. And he himself could simply reap the fisherman’s profit: reducing a rival’s threat while also dragging down the Jiang Baiye he so disliked.

But unexpectedly, every step had gone wrong. The man he had glimpsed in the prefectural city had indeed been Jiang Baiye, and he had actually joined hands with Lu Lizhi…

“What are we to do, Yueming? Every time I think of how the wasteland we struggled so bitterly to reclaim is being used to make the second branch wealthy, my heart…” Madam Li pounded her chest furiously, suffocating.

“Naturally, someone is behind him, plotting and advising, that’s why Jiang Baiye has such achievements now.” Jiang Yueming declared with certainty.

And that person—so intelligent and learned that even the dean of Qingsong Academy personally invited him, and even upon learning he favored men did not change his mind. Only under pressure did he unwillingly give up. Even an official from the prefectural learning hall valued him highly, willing to break rules and submit memorials to secure him qualification for the imperial exams…

Whenever Jiang Yueming thought of this, he felt that unless this dangerous threat was removed, his heart could not rest!

The two women waited anxiously for his response. Seeing him remain calm, they relaxed somewhat.

Jiang Yueming drew a deep breath. “Go quickly, fetch thorn branches. Then kill a chicken and bring some chicken blood.”

He did not take Jiang Baiye seriously at all. He even thought him a cowardly waste of a man, one so weak he could seduce another man, forever stupid and useless!

Thinking of how, in the past, Jiang Baiye had admired and revered him in every way, trusted him wholeheartedly, Jiang Yueming ground his teeth and hoisted the thorny rods onto his own back.

“Yueming!” Madam Li cried out in shock.

“Ling’er, call Grandfather back…” Jiang Yueming grimaced in pain, his face contorting, and placed this debt firmly upon the heads of Jiang Baiye and Lu Lizhi.

It did not take long before the whole of Qingshui Village was in an uproar. News spread that Jiang Yueming had returned from town, carrying thorns upon his back to atone before the second branch. Everyone’s feelings were complicated, tinged with pity.

After all, he was a tongsheng¹!

And their impression of him had always been good—unlike Student Lu, who was mute, cold, and aloof, rarely seen. Jiang Yueming would always politely greet whomever he met, raised from childhood to respect elders and care for the young, gentle and courteous.

Now grown, he was handsome and refined. Many village girls had long given him their hearts.

Hearing that he was suffering, one by one they turned pale and hurried over. His scholar’s robe was dyed red across the shoulder, blood soaking it. Though sweat streamed coldly from his forehead and temples, he gritted his teeth, bearing it as he trudged step by step toward Jiang Baiye’s house.

Along the way, villagers spoke with distress. “Yueming, this isn’t your fault, why, why suffer this?”

“Yes, it’s your grandfather who was confused, and your parents muddled as well. You’ve been studying hard at the academy, it isn’t your doing!”

Some even tried to help take the thorn rods from his back, but Jiang Yueming gently evaded, bowing with courtesy. “Second Uncle Luo, today Yueming truly wishes sincerely to apologize to Second Uncle, Second Aunt, and Cousin. Even though ties have already been severed…”

He hissed in pain, his face twitching. “Yueming still regards them as family.”

“To have caused them grievance, Yueming feels deeply sorry. Only by this act can I somewhat lessen my guilt.”

The villagers were moved. Some of the young girls’ eyes turned red and moist. This Jiang scholar was truly a deeply affectionate, responsible man!

Such a kind and noble person—why must he suffer this?

Wang Yujiao, dazed and shaken, bit her lip. Suddenly, she sprinted toward Jiang Baiye’s house. Since Yueming would not stop, then let Jiang Baiye come—let him come at once!

In her panic, Wang Yujiao even forgot the village head’s admonitions. She burst into Jiang Baiye’s courtyard, pushing the half-closed gate wide.

And there, beneath the glaring sun, a tall, broad figure was bent over repairing a corner of the yard, sweat running down a smooth, muscular, sensual back. Unlike Jiang Yueming’s gentle scholarly air, here was raw, robust manhood that caught her words in her throat.

Was this… the same gray, unremarkable Jiang Baiye she remembered?

Suddenly—

“Have you seen enough?”

Wang Yujiao’s face flushed crimson. She quickly turned away, just as Jiang Baiye casually slipped on his shirt, thinking it was the village head who had come looking for him.

“What is it?”

Wang Yujiao’s heart raced, about to speak, when outside came the noisy voices of the crowd, along with urgent shouts—

“Jiang Dazhu, are you home? Come out quickly!”

“There’s about to be a life lost here!”

Unperturbed, Jiang Baiye walked out. In the main hall, Jiang Dazhu, busy with carpentry, startled at the noise and hurried out too.

“What sin is this, Yueming, put that down at once!” The old Jiang patriarch had been called back by Jiang Linger, and upon seeing his long-unseen eldest grandson enduring the thorn punishment, his tears flowed freely, crying in utter misery.

An old man’s heartfelt sobs were pitiful to see. Even those who had disliked him recently felt a pang of sorrow.

Jiang Dazhu, in his bones still clinging to some familial ties, quickly stepped forward to support him. “Father, what are you doing? I don’t understand this at all!”

“Second Uncle, Yueming comes to atone to you!” Jiang Yueming, pale-faced and bloodied, was about to kneel. The crowd erupted.

But the patriarch, loving Yueming to his very bones, yanked him up and snatched away the thorns, trying to bear them on his own back.

“It was this old man’s fault. Let me bear it!”

The villagers could no longer bear it, rushing to stop him. Yet the old man, still unsatisfied, collapsed to his knees before Jiang Dazhu. Jiang Dazhu stumbled back in shock. “Father!”

In this era, filial piety was the supreme virtue. For the old patriarch to kneel like this—who remembered now his past misdeeds? All clamored for Jiang Dazhu to speak kindly.

Jiang Dazhu was utterly bewildered!

Some who had been excluded from the workshop whispered sourly, “Seeing how they’ve been acting lately, who knows if they did something to drive people to such extremes…”

Jiang Baiye had been too high-profile recently. It didn’t seem like he was one to let matters rest. At this moment, he merely watched them with a playful expression, entirely devoid of sentiment.

The crowd grew even more insistent, urging reconciliation, preaching “peace is precious,” “a scholar lowered himself to this,” “it had nothing to do with Yueming,” “spare when you can spare.”

It had to be admitted—Jiang Yueming truly knew how to manipulate public opinion, playing it like a fiddle. If he were in modern times, he would have been a public relations master.

Seeing through the falseness and malice under his cousin’s mask of sincerity and kindness, Jiang Baiye was astonished. “Cousin, did you strike your artery? Just two thorn rods and you bled this much?”

The crowd froze at once, curious, turning to look at Jiang Yueming’s back. The blood did indeed flow oddly.

By reason, thorn rods should have left scattered punctures, not a waterfall of blood soaking through robes.

Jiang Yueming stiffened, slowly raising his head toward him, seeming reluctant to speak. “Because I was already injured beforehand…”

As he spoke, he made to undress and show proof, but others immediately stopped him.

If he had been an ordinary peasant, perhaps it would have been nothing. But as a scholar, refined and proper, he could not behave so!

This only made the people pity him more. One by one, they turned to Jiang Baiye and his family, waiting for them to say, “It’s fine,” “We forgive you.”

In that way, the entire Jiang clan and first branch’s past misdeeds could be washed away, their reputation slowly restored. Because of this sympathy, people would subconsciously overlook right and wrong, treating Jiang Yueming with endless indulgence.

A masterful scheme indeed!

Jiang Dazhu could not see through it. He was nearly on the verge of relenting. Yet he clung to one line—everything was to be decided by Jiang Baiye.

And Jiang Baiye, under everyone’s expectant eyes, slowly curved his lips into a smile.

“Even if you beat me to death, I will never forgive.”

¹ Tongsheng (童生) – the lowest degree holder in the imperial examination system, essentially a licentiate student who has passed the local exam but not yet the xiucai level. Being a tongsheng still granted social respect, as it marked one as a true scholar in training.