Chapter 15 The number one scholar’s father is a charlatan who always wins in gambling!
Zhao Lin, the third son of the Duke of Weiguo, looked at Li Jingyuan in confusion. Who is this person? He came over and started scolding the person he admired. How bold of him!
Zhao Lin glanced at Si Yuan, who seemed to be too lazy to pay attention to this old-fashioned man who was full of righteous words. In order to show his goodwill to Si Yuan, he took the initiative to stand up and face Li Jingyuan: "Who is this gentleman?"
Li Jingyuan finally looked Zhao Lin in the eye. In his mind, Li Siyuan was just a useless dandy. Li Siyuan's cronies were all of the same kind. He never looked down on these people.
But he claimed to be a gentleman who understood etiquette. Since Li Siyuan's friends took the initiative to greet him, he still had to respond. So Li Jingyuan responded seriously: "I am Li Jingyuan, Li Siyuan's fourth brother..."
Zhao Lin matched Li Jingyuan himself with the family members related to the Li family he had investigated. It turned out that he was Li Jingyuan, the only one in the Li family who had studied well and passed the imperial examination to become an official.
However, for a son of a Duke's family like Zhao Lin, officials below the fifth rank were not worthy of his attention. It would be impossible for a second-class Jinshi to be promoted to the fifth rank or above without special help and opportunities, and within ten years.
The status of Jinshi is rare, with only two or three hundred scholars in the country passing the examination, which is like a thousand troops crossing a single-plank bridge.
But it is not difficult to say either, because there is a batch of Jinshi every three years, and there are only so many official positions in the court. There are already a large number of Jinshi who are still waiting for positions, and there are also a large number of low-ranking officials. Generally speaking, Jinshi who are low-ranking officials are not qualified to get in front of him, the third son of the Duke's Mansion.
Therefore, Li Jingyuan's identity did not make Zhao Lin look at him differently. He bowed to Li Jingyuan and said calmly: "Duke Wei's Mansion, Zhao Lin."
Li Jingyuan was stunned for a moment. He was eager to climb up the social ladder. He was born in the Jingyuan Marquis' Mansion, so how could he not know what the identity of Zhao Lin from the Weiguo Duke's Mansion meant?
The third son of the Duke of Weiguo! This is a noble person that the Jingyuan Marquis’s Mansion needs to tiptoe to barely reach!
How come she appeared next to Li Siyuan and was talking and laughing with him?
Just now, when Li Jingyuan scolded Si Yuan, he was very loud, which attracted the attention of other guests, because he wanted to use Si Yuan's behavior of discussing gambling with his friends at his mother's birthday party to highlight his image as a noble gentleman, and to enhance his reputation by stepping on his brother Li Siyuan.
As for whether he would offend his stepmother and eldest brother... Li Jingyuan felt that as long as his father didn't care, it would be fine, since his stepmother and eldest brother didn't like him anyway.
With so many guests of extraordinary status here at this time, when else would he take the opportunity to gain some good reputation?
After determining that the benefits of this action outweighed the disadvantages, Li Jingyuan acted without hesitation.
But what he never expected was that the people he implicated were not Li Siyuan's cronies, but the third son of the Duke of Weiguo's Mansion.
This third son, who is said to be very promising, is obviously someone who cannot get along with a playboy like Li Siyuan. Why would he get together with Li Siyuan to talk about gambling? Could it be that Li Siyuan had led the third son of the Duke of Weiguo's mansion astray?
Thinking of this possibility, Li Jingyuan's eyes lit up, and he persuaded Zhao Lin earnestly: "Third Master Zhao, I have heard of your reputation a long time ago. You are of noble birth and talented. You should serve the country and be loyal to His Majesty. Don't be led astray by my third brother. Gambling is not a good thing..."
Zhao Lin was a little confused as he watched Li Jingyuan using the attitude of an elder to persuade him not to be led astray by Si Yuan. He was almost amused by the anger: "Li Jingyuan, if people don't know, they would think you are the elder brother of the third son of the Li family. There is an order of seniority. It's not good for you, a half brother, to make up stories about your legitimate brother, isn't it?" He deliberately pointed out the difference in status between Si Yuan and Li Jingyuan, making people think that the words Li Jingyuan said just now that were unfavorable to Si Yuan were all caused by the discord between legitimate and illegitimate children.
"Besides, Mr. Li San is a friendly and amiable person, worth making friends with. As for gambling, what gambling? I was just making a bet with Mr. Li San as a friend, just a joke. How can it be worthy of you, Li Jingyuan, blaming us here?" Zhao Lin did not give Li Jingyuan any face. While he was arguing with Li Jingyuan, he observed Si Yuan's reaction out of the corner of his eye.
After all, he quarreled with Li Jingyuan in front of so many guests, not really to teach Li Jingyuan a lesson. His real purpose was to show his goodwill to Si Yuan, so naturally he had to pay attention to the reaction of the person he wanted to show his goodwill to.
Si Yuan, the center of the conflict, had already picked up the wine glass and started drinking leisurely, with his other hand around his son's back, as if he was standing by and watching the show.
When Si Yuan noticed that Zhao Lin was secretly observing his reaction, he gave Zhao Lin an encouraging smile. Zhao Lin immediately responded to Li Jingyuan with more passion, as if he had been injected with chicken blood, and labeled Li Jingyuan as a despicable villain who had ill intentions and deliberately stepped on his brother's reputation to get to the top.
Although Li Jingyuan did so, he could only do it and not say it. His face was completely stripped off by Zhao Lin.
Li Jingyuan stood there with a pale face. Zhao Lin was someone he couldn't afford to offend, so he could only argue for himself feebly: "Mr. Zhao San misunderstood. I didn't mean any harm. I just heard my third brother talking about winning a bet with Mr. Zhao San. I didn't want my mother's birthday party to be affected, so I spoke out to stop them..."
Zhao Lin listened to Li Jingyuan portraying himself as a filial son who cared about his stepmother's birthday party, which made Si Yuan, the stepson, look like an unfilial son who didn't care about his biological mother's birthday party. He certainly couldn't let Si Yuan take the blame, so he sneered, "Mr. Li San and I were just joking and making a bet. Isn't it okay to make a joke or a bet between friends?"
Li Jingyuan reluctantly explained: "I didn't hear it clearly, I misunderstood..."
Zhao Lin refused to let it go. "Besides, you said you were worried about the old lady's birthday party being affected. Even if you misunderstood that we were talking about gambling, you should have warned us privately to avoid affecting the birthday party instead of deliberately scolding your brother so loudly and making things worse. I don't think you care about your stepmother's birthday party at all."
The guests who were watching the show nodded in agreement subconsciously. After all, which family wouldn’t hide their scandals from outsiders? How could Li Jingyuan be like this? At his stepmother's birthday party with so many guests present, he loudly scolded his own brother and made a big deal out of it.
If the third son of the Zhao family had not come forward to explain, the guests present would have thought that Li Siyuan was a playboy who was addicted to gambling and did not forget to gamble with his friends even at his own mother's birthday party. With just a few words, Li Jingyuan completely ruined the reputation of his elder brother.
Disputes between legitimate and illegitimate children in wealthy families were not uncommon, so the guests present could easily think that this was a conspiracy by the illegitimate son against the legitimate son, and then naturally imagined that Li Siyuan's previous reputation as a playboy might also be Li Jingyuan's calculation. After all, if you look closely, Li Siyuan neither robbed women nor visited brothels. He was just not good at studying and liked to have fun. But every family has children who are not good at studying and like to play, so how did he become a playboy?
So when Si Yuan was still unaware of it, the original owner Li Si Yuan's reputation was cleared.
Li Jingyuan failed to gain the advantage and was forced to retreat step by step by Zhao Lin. He looked extremely unhappy.
In the end, it was Li Chengyuan, the owner of the Jingyuan Marquis's Mansion, who came to smooth things over: "It's a misunderstanding, it's all a misunderstanding! Third Master Zhao, my fourth brother has become pedantic due to his education, so he did something so inappropriate. In fact, the relationship between the two brothers is quite good..."
Li Chengyuan wanted to give an example to prove that his third brother and fourth brother had a good relationship, but he racked his brains and couldn't think of any example to prove it, so he could only laugh awkwardly.
Li Jingyuan said as if he had grasped a life-saving straw: "Big brother is right, I have a good relationship with the third brother, so I didn't think too much and spoke directly from my heart. If it was someone else with whom I didn't have a good relationship, I wouldn't say anything. Today, the third brother invited our family to stay at his house for a few days, right, third brother?"
Li Jingyuan winked at Si Yuan in various ways.
Si Yuan didn't want to cooperate with him in covering up the lie, and what benefit would it bring to him? Help Li Jingyuan restore his reputation? Is he the kind of person who repays evil with kindness?
Zhao Lin worked so hard to help him tear down Li Jingyuan, but he turned around and helped Li Jingyuan cover up his lies. Wouldn't that make Zhao Lin the bad guy in vain?
Si Yuan would never do such a thing as crossing a river and then destroying the bridge. Moreover, as he looked at the progress bar that was moving forward a little bit, he would not let Li Jingyuan go so easily for the sake of the mission.
Si Yuan waved his hand nonchalantly and said, "My fourth brother and I have never gotten along since we were young, so you don't have to force yourself to be on good terms with me. As for inviting your family of three to my house, it's only because my precious son wants to play with your son, so I invited you reluctantly. Otherwise, who would want to invite you?"
Li Jingyuan stood there with an extremely embarrassed look on his face.
Li Chengyuan also glared at Si Yuan. This younger brother actually didn't give him any face at all.
Although Li Chengyuan also disliked Li Jingyuan for snatching away the resources that should have belonged to him, the eldest son, everything was for the entire Jingyuan Marquis's Mansion. He couldn't write two Li characters with one stroke. No matter how dissatisfied he was with Li Jingyuan, they were still a member of the Li family. Even if he broke his arm, he could only hide it in his sleeve.
Li Chengyuan forced himself to explain for Li Jingyuan, "It's inevitable that there are some bumps between brothers. They didn't have a good relationship before, but later they separated and had children. The children got along well, so their relationship naturally eased and became better. My third brother is just hard on the outside but soft on the inside. He wants to reconcile with the fourth brother but he doesn't let him off with his words. Otherwise, why would he invite the fourth brother to his home as a guest..."
This explanation actually makes sense, but the guests could see that Li Chengyuan was trying hard to save face.
Li Jingyuan nodded repeatedly. He didn't care whether others believed it or not. As long as he could put on a decent fig leaf, it would be fine.
Si Yuan glanced at the still confused little Chang Qing, sneered, and stopped sabotaging him.
Seeing this, Zhao Lin did not continue to make things difficult for him. He said with a smile, "Really?" Then he sat back and ignored Li Jingyuan.
Li Jingyuan stood there awkwardly, because the seat where Zhao Lin was sitting was actually his seat. Now that Zhao Lin sat back down, he didn't dare to ask Zhao Lin to give up his seat.
Seeing that Zhao Lin was finally willing to let Li Jingyuan go, Li Chengyuan dared not ask Zhao Lin to give up his seat. He pulled Li Jingyuan away and arranged a position for him far away from Si Yuan and Zhao Lin.
But the location where Si Yuan and Zhao Lin were located was the front, the center and the most conspicuous location. It was far away from them and naturally remote.
Li Jingyuan sat down with Tan and Li Changwen. Looking at the low-ranking officials or illegitimate sons of noble families around them, his face turned pale.
How can he make connections while sitting around these people?
At this time, Li Jingyuan completely forgot that he was also a low-ranking official and a bastard son of a noble family.
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