Chapter 15 – Extortion  

“Are you questioning me? How the hell would I know how he poisoned me? As for what poison it was, honestly you should ask your baby boy. What the hell do I know about it? The only thing I know is that I am a heavy drinker with a hollow leg, and that night I got fxxking drunk after just three shots.” Ye Xiao said viciously, “I spent the whole night sleeping. What could I be if I wasn’t poisoned?!”

“Urh...” Wang Da-Nian couldn’t believe him and said, “If you had been poisoned like you said, it should not have been this easy for you to recover, right? And now you are here, all fine and healthy. It means you were not poisoned. Right?”

When Wang Xiao-Nian saw his father, he thought his savior had come. When he saw that his father totally lost his usual vigour, acting weird and arguing powerlessly, he seriously felt disappointed.

How could he realize that Wang Da-Nian was seriously shocked.

Wang Da-Nain was arguing with his mouth, but feeling different in his mind, “Who on earth cured him? Who was it? That should be incurable. How could it be cured? Who on earth knows how to deal with such powerful poison? This is so bloody weird...”

“I did get poisoned anyway! I got drunk only for three shots. That’s the evidence. Lan Lang-Lang was there. He is the witness. There are both evidence and witness. How dare you disavow it?” Ye Xiao didn’t want to be reasonable at all, “I was poisoned and I want your explanation! Otherwise, let’s find someone to check my body. Ok, I will send for a royal doctor to check my body carefully. Let’s see how you continue feigning. Humph...”

“That is surely unnecessary.” Wang Da-Nian was scared. He thought, “Although I don’t know who cured this bastard’s poison, which was supposed to be fxxking incurable. It may remain inside his body and if it is found out, I will go to hell... Ye Nan-Tian will definitely come and wipe my family out. This foppish bastard came here only to get some advantages. I think it will be fine if I give him some money and send him away.”

“Hahahahaha...” Wang Da-Nian made the decision and laughed, “I see. Lord Ye drank too much that night...”

“Who says I drank too much?” Ye Xiao was angry, “I was obviously poisoned!”

“Fine... Fine... Let’s say you were poisoned.” Wang Da-Nian simpered, “Ok then, what ‘explanation’ would you like, lord Ye?”

Ye Xiao was surprised and turned to Lan Lang-Lang, “What do we want?”

Lan Lang-Lang was surprised too and couldn’t find anything to say. He rolled his eyes and swallowed, before sneakily kicking Zuo Wu Ji’s foot.

Zuo Wu-Ji was rolling his eyes, trying to think of something he wanted, but failed. Ye Xiao suddenly frowned and murmured like he realized something, “Oh right... wasn’t there this six-hundred years old... hmm... what was it... hmm...”

“Blood ginseng!” Zuo Wu-Ji suddenly remembered what they’d been discussing before coming here. He shouted excitingly, “Give the blood ginseng to Ye Xiao as compensation, otherwise we won’t let you get away from this!”

“Exactly! You will not get away this time! Lord Ye was badly weakened because of your poison. He won’t recover unless he gets something nutritional!” Lan Lang-Lang was delighted and shouted spiritedly.

“This is totally unfair!” Wang Xiao-Nian got really angry and his face turned red. He yelled, “You bastards! You actually want to extort our ginseng! You must be crazy! You are making a huge mistake bastards! I am going to...”

His mouth was covered by his father before he finished speaking.

“You are gonna do what?” Ye Xiao sneered, “You tried to kill me but failed and got caught. Now you want to deny your guilt. What? Do you even want to kill us all to cover your sin?! Wang Xiao-Nian, how dare you? You actually want to murder us! Are you trying to be a rebel?”

Lan Lang-Lang and Zuo Wu-Ji went along with him, “Wang Xiao-Nian, are you trying to be a rebel? We are witnesses!”

Wang Xiao-Nian breathed heavily, “You... You bastards...” He could hardly utter a word.

“Blood ginseng it is then!” Wang Da-Nian agreed immediately, “Since you, the three lords, want it, I can only submit and agree with your terms, but you must promise me one thing...”

He was sad and angry, and he quavered, “I am only a low-position guard. I wouldn’t dare to argue with you three lords... But from this point onwards, please forget about this issue with the poison... I can bear it this time. It is nothing but spending some money to avert trouble. However... you should know that everyone has a temper and even a rabbit will bite if it is pissed...”

“Dad!!!” Wang Xiao-Nian had shock covering his face, as he stared at his father with wide open eyes.

He wouldn’t imagine that his strong father had actually submitted to the three foppish lords.

“Shut up!” Wang Da-Nian shouted angrily.

“A rabbit will bite... A rabbit... Hahahaha....” Lan Lang-Lang laughed and rubbed his favus infested head. On the opposite side Wang Da-Nian and his son turned red in their faces. They looked so angry, almost as if they wanted to swallow somebody.

“Of course.” Ye Xiao pushed Lan Lang-Lang aside and said, “A wise man should not tease the weak. He who leaves some leeway, will always make new friends. We are not unprincipled...”

Everyone felt sick about what Ye Xiao had said, including Lan Lang-Lang and Zuo Wu-Ji. Their faces distorted and it looked like they were about to puke a mouthful of blood.

Ye Xiao had extorted a six hundred years old ginseng by making trouble out of nothing and arguing irrationally... if that wasn’t the pinnacle of being unprincipled, then who in this world could possible be considered unprincipled?.

“... Don’t worry about it. If your baby boy didn’t flaunt that he had a six hundred years old ginseng and that he would use it to boost his cultivation and beat us up... and most importantly, if he hadn’t poisoned me... as a noble-minded, knightly, gentle and brave gentleman, why would I make trouble for him? I usually will not even look at small fries like your son. And none of us three are interested in rabbits...” Ye Xiao talked like he was a sage with a lofty attitude...

“I see.” Wang Da-Nian heard what Ye Xiao said and felt a slight sensation of relief forming in his stomach. He turned to his son and shouted, “Rascal! You were going about flaunting my riches! You truly are a black sheep! When will you finally let me be free of worries...”

“...” Wang Xiao-Nian opened his mouth but couldn’t say a word. He felt that his blood had accumulated at his throat and he had great difficulty to keep it in his mouth and not spray it around the room.

“Go get the ginseng and give it to lord Ye.” Wang Da-Nian sighed. He felt unwilling to give this rascal the ginseng. but he felt like he had no other choice, so he told his son to go fetch it.

“Dad!!!” Wang Xiao-Nian shouted bitterly. But, when he saw Wang Da-Nian’s face turning green, he didn’t dare to disobey and walked to his room completely depressed. It looked like his soul had departed early from his body, leaving it to walk this earth soulless.

“Lord Ye!” Wang Da-Nian took a deep breath, “Shall we get all of this over with already?”

Ye Xiao smiled, “Sure. Absolutely. I am a tolerant man after all. I won’t bother with your stupid son anymore!”

Wang Da-Nian felt relief, “Lord Ye, a man who can not be trusted is an unwelcome guest to any party. I hope you will keep your promise... But if you don’t... I might not be able to stand your behavior anymore.”

“Haha, of course I will keep my promise. What am I? An honest man.” Ye Xiao said disdainfully and thought, “Keep my promise to you? In your dreams! Pooh...”

Wang Xiao-Nian was returning from his room, moving extremely slowly, hoping a miracle to fly down from the heavens and save his precious ginseng. He was holding a small box as he walked through the door. Ye Xiao shouted, “Quick! Bring me my ginseng! Don’t dawdle! It is mine no matter how much you dawdle!”

“Dad... I really didn’t poison him...” Wang Xiao-Nian looked at his father sincerely. He was trying to make his last effort to keep the ginseng. The blood ginseng was a crucial steppingstone on his long path of cultivation.

Wang Xiao-Nian still didn’t understand why his father would give up such a valuable treasure and hand it over to the good for nothing foppish lord Ye. He, of course, couldn’t know what his father was thinking. So he had no clue that there was nothing he could do to change the current chain of events.

Wang Da-Nian sighed and thought, “You silly boy. If it wasn’t for what I’ve done and the fact lord Ye is standing right here in front of me, how would I ever let them take our blood ginseng with such ease? They were only standing here making trouble out of nothing...”

“Give it to lord Ye, son. Let’s admit our misfortune.” Wang Da-Nian waved his hand and said hopelessly. He was thinking, “I can’t afford it to be stubborn right now anyway. The poison... even it has really been cured... I know it will still need at least an entire year for it to completely leave his system. Ye Xiao is acting especially lively. That most likely means that he has a detoxifying expert helping him. Maybe Ye Xiao is a little bit muddleheaded, but that detoxifying expert behind him must have known what has happened. If I don’t give up now, I will only be putting a curse onto myself. I might even put the curse on my family or even on my entire bloodline. I will just let this bastard have this little advantage... I may have lost a simple blood ginseng, but now I’ve learned that Ye Xiao has actually survived the poison. It is not all bad!”

Ye Xiao rushed forward and quickly grabbed the blood ginseng. He laughed and turned around to face Lan Lang-Lang and Zuo Wu-Ji, “Let’s go!”

The three foppish lords were leaving full of vigor and feeling completely refreshed.

“Ye Xiao, I will never leave your side!” Wang Xiao-Nian shouted while trying to catch up.

“Hahahaha... We will have a lot of time ahead of us to play these games! I am not afraid of rabbits, let alone biting rabbits!” Ye Xiao’s voice was coming from far down the street. They had already made quite a distance from the Wang family house.

“Dad, Ye Xiao was obviously not poisoned! They were obviously here to extort us! They were only here to take the blood ginseng!” Wang Xiao-Nian felt like heaven was playing a trick on him and asked his father sadly, “Why did you...”

“Shut up!” Wang Da-Nian’s face twitched and his eyes turned vicious. He breathed heavily and was about to say something but he stopped. Then he just said, “Stay at home. Don’t leave the house. I need to go somewhere.”

Then he turned around and hurriedly left.

At the same time, Ye Xiao was holding the blood ginseng with one hand and waving with the other, “Let’s go back to my place, let’s celebrate this victory with some drinks! My treat!!”

Zuo Wu-Ji and Lan Lang-Lang were totally impressed, “Lord Ye, you have really extorted the ginseng! We could have never expected Wang Da-Nian to be such a pussy...”

Ye Xiao’s mouth twitched upon hearing these words. He was thinking, “It is not because Wang Da-Nian is a pussy... Instead... it is because the departed lord Ye has sacrificed his life for this blood ginseng... I was just the lucky one to take it in his name...”