On the other side, Huangfu Jingchen smiled faintly, sipping his drink. Although he lacked experience in the Jianghu, his family trusted him enough to allow him to travel alone from the Capital City back to Yunzhou, so he of course had his capabilities.
In fact, he hadn't seen Xia Wenjin make any unusual moves, but his keen sense of smell alerted him that Xia Wenjin was up to something, and he immediately played along with the scheme.
At Qiwu Building in Jinzhou, if Xia Wenjin had used poison, he would have detected it immediately, but unfortunately, he was inebriated and thus got caught in the trap.
Recalling Xia Wenjin's departing expressions of surprise, shock, discomfort, regret, and unwillingness, it truly felt satisfying.
Xia Wenjin had already been gone for quite a while, but Huangfu Jingchen wasn't in a hurry. After all, a laxative doesn't work instantly and requires multiple trips to the lavatory.
After waiting a bit longer and still not seeing Xia Wenjin, Huangfu Jingchen felt something was amiss. She caused the trouble herself, it should have affected her by now, shouldn't she come to dispel his suspicions, at least pretend to act in front of him, waiting for another opportunity?
Or did she use too much, and is still facing the consequences?
Thinking of this, Huangfu Jingchen called out, "Waiter!"
Outside the private room, the waiter hurriedly leaned in, "How may I assist you, sir?"
Huangfu Jingchen asked, "Is my companion still downstairs?"
The waiter dutifully responded, "I'll go and check!"
Shortly after, the waiter returned, saying, "Sir, that young gentleman said he felt unwell and went to the clinic, leaving a quarter of an hour ago!"
To the clinic?
Looks like the dose was indeed substantial.
Huangfu Jingchen revealed a mocking smile, it felt good to use someone's own method against them. He stood up and said, "Waiter, the bill, please!"
"Certainly, it's four taels and seven qian of silver!"
The meal was less than five taels of silver? Huangfu Jingchen felt it was quite cheap. He reached for his silver.
Even though an outfit was only pawned for ten taels, it seemed he could manage for a few days.
However, his hand reached in but couldn't take anything out, and his expression changed.
The waiter patiently waited, but seeing him not hand over the silver for a long time, guessed something had changed, tentatively asking, "Sir, sir?"
The place where the silver was left was now empty, leaving Huangfu Jingchen both infuriated and frustrated, that rascal had tricked him again.
Who else but Xia Wenjin could have taken his silver?
No wonder he used the excuse of going to the clinic not to return, it was just an escape plan.
At this moment, Huangfu Jingchen found himself penniless once more.
Four taels of silver isn't much, but for him now, it was indeed out of reach.
The waiter sounded somewhat suspicious: "Could it be that the sir didn't bring any silver?"
Huangfu Jingchen coughed once and said, "I do have the silver, but it's with my friend who rushed off to see the doctor and forgot to give it to me!" This explanation seemed rather weak. Huangfu Jingchen himself felt it was hard to believe.
The waiter's eyes changed instantly, his tone turned sharp: "Are you joking, sir? How could such a coincidence happen? Are you carrying absolutely nothing?"
Huangfu Jingchen said, "I'll go find him!"
The waiter quickly blocked him, his expression turning harsh, "Sir, are you taking us for fools? The young gentleman left, and you plan to leave too, if neither of you return, whom should we get the silver from?"
Given Huangfu Jingchen's status, when had he ever been doubted like this? It was both embarrassing and infuriating, he blushed and said, "I... why wouldn't I come back?"
"That's hard to say! Sir dresses decently, yet acts so unscrupulously." Initially suspicious, now outright contemptuous, the waiter turned and shouted, "Someone is trying to dine and dash!"
With this shout, over a dozen strong men rushed up the stairs, surrounding Huangfu Jingchen.
Huangfu Jingchen hastily said, "I'm not, I'm just temporarily without silver..."
But this weak explanation was quickly drowned out by the aggressive voices.
Many angry and disdainful eyes fell on him, and those raised clubs were coming his way.
Huangfu Jingchen felt he had never been this embarrassed in his life, no, once before, two days ago, when the innkeeper kicked him out, he was equally embarrassed.
And the only two times in his life he was embarrassed were all because of that rascal called Xia Wenjin. At this moment, Huangfu Jingchen's resentment towards Xia Wenjin reached an unprecedented height.
Next time they meet, he must disregard his status and throw that rascal into prison.
But for now, he had to resolve the current predicament.
Given Huangfu Jingchen's status, he really didn't want this matter to escalate, yet it seemed impossible for it to end peacefully now. Huangfu Jingchen sighed, delaying any longer would mean more people seeing him as the "dine and dash" guy, which would be even more embarrassing.
Anyway, he had no money.
A crowd blocked the entrance tightly, so Huangfu Jingchen scanned his surroundings, dashed to the window, and swiftly leapt out through the open window.
The people in the restaurant were initially surprised, they only wanted to give him a beating, not cause any fatalities. When they rushed to the window and looked down, they saw Huangfu Jingchen unharmed, easily landing on the ground and vanishing into the crowd around the corner.
The restaurant folks were furious, shouting about calling the authorities and preparing to organize a pursuit.
At this moment, though Huangfu Jingchen had escaped, he felt no pride or relief, only full of regret and anger.
"Xia Wenjin," he gritted his teeth saying that name, even nearly grinding his teeth to bits.
Someone like him, a distinguished young man, lacked for nothing, least of all his dignity, yet here he was, twice now due to empty pockets, kicked out, and both times it was Xia Wenjin who swiped his silver.
Yang'an Town was now within the borders of Jiazhou, which was off the path from where Huangfu Jingchen planned to go, Yunzhou. But, filled with fury, Huangfu Jingchen wasn't willing to let Xia Wenjin go. How could there be such a despicable boy repeatedly humiliating him? If he let him off now, who knows how many others he'd trouble. More importantly, he couldn't swallow this grievance.
Driven by the thought of ridding the people of harm, Huangfu Jingchen decided not to return to Yunzhou for the time being.
Diverting from his route, and having already dispatched Yan Nan, his guard, away, left him with no one to rely on. To track Xia Wenjin, Huangfu Jingchen could only do it himself.
After leaving the Daffodil Restaurant, Xia Wenjin headed northeast.
Her direction seemed to lead to Fengshan County, or perhaps to Jiazhou City further away? Or maybe it was just in this direction. The promise to return the silver in three days was merely a stalling tactic, that rascal full of deceit, from now on not even a single punctuation mark from her can be trusted!