Chapter 24 Strategic Planning: Where you came from, you return to...
Fu Yun turned around and saw a woman in green standing at the corner, pointing at him excitedly, her gaze fixed on a teahouse on the right.
Fu Yun spotted Su Tan sitting in the teahouse, dressed in a dark blue brocade robe. She slammed her teacup back onto the table with a loud thud and angrily ordered, "Grab him."
Lu Zhisheng grabbed Fu Jun's forearm, panicking and frantic: "What do we do? What do we do? Miss Su isn't here, how are you going to get away?"
"It's alright." Fu Jun gently patted his arm. "Don't worry, I'll handle it."
He turned to face Su Tan, who was walking briskly towards him, his back against the wall, arms crossed, in a very relaxed state: "Does the patriarch need me for something?"
Su Tan was quite infuriated by his calm and collected demeanor and hissed, "How dare you! I am your elder. Is this the kind of attitude you should have when speaking to your elder?"
Fu Yun gave a sarcastic smile, walked up to Su Tan, and asked, word by word, "Oh? You still know you're my elder? Then have you done what an elder should do?"
“You…” Su Tan’s face was cold. She was about to speak harshly, but before she could finish a word, Fu Yun coldly interrupted her: “Where were you when I was on the verge of death and almost burned to a crisp? Where were you when I was seriously injured and had to flee in panic? If I hadn’t been lucky, would you still be here to question me so aggressively?”
Su Tan's eyes widened, quite shocked by Fu Yun's barrage of words: "I..."
Fu Jun didn't give her a chance to speak and continued his accusations without any politeness: "You keep saying you are my elder, so let me ask you, have you fulfilled your responsibilities as an elder? You can't even protect your own son, what right do you have to arrest me and take me back? Do you want me to go back and die?"
Su Tan trembled with anger. She never expected that after not seeing him for more than half a month, this brat's mouth had become so sharp and eloquent, leaving her unable to defend herself.
Unable to argue back, she felt both angry and resentful, and raised her arm as if to slap him.
Fu Yun's gaze sharpened, and she grabbed Su Tan's wrist with pinpoint accuracy, coldly mocking, "What? I hit a nerve, and now you want to resort to violence because you can't refute me?"
Su Tan's face turned ashen. She forcefully shook off Fu Jun's grip and raised her hand to slap him again. This time, Fu Jun did not reach out to block, but watched the slap fall with a cold gaze, a dark glint flashing in his eyes.
"Slap!" Five finger marks were clearly imprinted on his fair face. Due to the force of the slap, he uncontrollably slammed into the wall, and his head spun for a moment.
"Young Master Su!" Lu Zhisheng exclaimed in surprise, quickly checking the injuries on his face, and asked helplessly, "Are you alright?"
Fu Yun shook her head, and after relieving the dizziness of seeing stars, she waved her hand: "It's okay, I won't die."
After slapping Fu Yun, Su Tan's anger and frustration finally subsided a little. She raised her chin, slapped Fu Yun's face with her palm, and said with disdain, "So what if I hit you? You're just a bastard's son, yet you dare to talk back to me. Who gave you the guts to confront me? Your good-for-nothing father?"
Fu Yun grabbed Su Tan's wrist expressionlessly, pushed her hand away, straightened his collar, and said casually, "How he is is not something you can dismiss with a few words."
Su Tan snorted coldly, clearly not wanting to say anything more about Su Fuyun's father.
"Master, why waste so much time talking to him? Just arrest him and take him back." A voice came from the alley on the left.
Fu Yun looked up and saw that it was Su Man, whom she had seen when she saved Su Zi.
Su Tan glanced at Fu Yun with a disdainful tone: "Isn't he just a silver-tongued smooth talker? I'd like to see what kind of trouble he can stir up."
Upon hearing this, Su Man revealed a mocking smile, her face showing a look of anticipation.
Fu Yun straightened his clothes and calmly added, "As the saying goes, even a tiger won't eat its cubs. Your determination to capture me and take me back is nothing more than wanting to torture me, to do whatever you want with me, or to take my life directly."
He raised his head, looked directly into Su Tan's eyes, and said with a hint of sarcasm, "You think that by taking me back, you can explain to the Empress? You think that your precious daughter taking the blame for you can be wiped clean? Don't be naive. This is a crime of deceiving the Empress. The Empress's imperial might is not something a small merchant like you can easily offend. Can you guarantee that the Empress won't punish you?"
He changed the subject: "You can't guarantee that, right? Even if the Empress is merciful and doesn't execute your entire family, do you think she'll forgive and forget and let you continue to live here?"
Su Tan's expression changed, as if she was provoked by a certain remark, but she did not refute it.
Fu Yun gently touched her still slightly flushed cheeks, as if she were thinking unintentionally: "Oh, you might be planning to pin all the blame on me after I die, and then have no way to prove it, and everything will be fine."
These words changed Su Tan's expression, and she naturally straightened up, becoming somewhat wary.
Fu Yun smiled slightly, but the smile didn't reach her eyes, revealing a deep chill: "If this is your plan, have you thought about General Qian? What will she do? Will she use your second son to replace me in a marriage alliance? But don't forget, there is an agreement between her and me."
He paused for a moment, then deliberately said, word by word, "If I were her, and I found out that you were just going through the motions with this arranged marriage, I would not let it go easily, and I would not let you off so easily."
Su Tan remained silent for a long time. She no longer knew what words to use to describe her youngest son. How could this man, who had an extremely meticulous mind and remained calm in the face of danger, be the same weak, easily bullied, and inarticulate little brat?
She seemed to have never understood him at all; where did this wretched boy learn his silver tongue and cunning?
The air of authority he exuded was chilling.
No, we absolutely cannot let it continue like this, otherwise it will only become more and more difficult to control.
She stared at Fu Yun with a chilling gaze, gritting her teeth as she said, "You are my son, so you should obey my every command. You must do whatever I tell you to do, understand? If you dare to disobey me again, I will break your legs and make sure you can never leave this house again..."
"Whose leg are you going to break?"
A clear, sharp female voice came from the direction of the roof.
Su Tan's expression changed. She raised her chin and looked up, only to see a young woman in a black brocade robe standing on the roof, looking down at them.
Su Tan quickly took a few steps back and respectfully bowed, saying, "Greetings, General."
General Qian leaped into the air, moving with the agility of a swallow as he traversed the rooftops and eaves. In the blink of an eye, he landed steadily in front of Fu Yun and Su Tan.
Her gaze fell coldly on Su Tan's face, her tone hard: "You just said you wanted to break Su Xiaolangjun's legs?"
Su Tan quickly changed her previous arrogance and put on a smiling face: "General, you misunderstand. My son has been showing his face in public and causing trouble lately. I wanted to take him back, but he refused to go back with me no matter what. I had no choice but to resort to this tactic to scare him."
"Is that so?" General Qian glanced at the finger marks on Fu Yun's face and asked with a half-smile, "Then what about the five bloody finger marks on his face? Are you trying to tell me that he hit himself?"
Su Tan pursed her lips, cold sweat beading on her forehead: "I was a little excited just now, and I made a mistake..."
General Qian flicked his sleeves and shouted sternly, "How dare you! You dare to touch the husband I appointed?"
Su Tan froze, then quickly knelt down: "This humble woman knows her mistake, please punish me, General!"
General Qian's anger intensified: "Didn't I tell you to take good care of his health? Is this how you've been taking care of him?"
Su Tan lowered her head and hurriedly expressed her sincerity: "General, I really know I was wrong. I will treat him well in the future. Please forgive me this time."
General Qian stopped looking at Su Tan and instead focused his gaze on Fu Yun. His stern expression softened, and he asked, "Does your face still hurt?"
Fu Jun shook his head, not caring at all: "It's nothing, just a minor injury, I'll feel it again soon."
General Qian felt a pang of sympathy mixed with helplessness: "Why didn't you come to me when you were being bullied?"
Fu Yun waved his hand: "As a general of a country, you are busy with official duties. How could I trouble you with such a small matter?"
General Qian sighed: "Only when the people are prosperous can the country prosper. No matter how big or small the matter is, whether it is civil affairs, national affairs, or affairs of the world, they are all major national affairs."
As she spoke, she glanced at Su Tan, who dared not look up: "If I can't even protect the people around me, how can I talk about protecting the country?"
She glanced coldly at the servants of the Su family and said in a low voice, "Young Master Su, tell me, how do you want to punish them?"
Su Tan was furious. If she had known she would run into General Qian, she wouldn't have made her move outside.
Offending General Qian would truly be a losing proposition.
The servants trembled with fear, lest General Qian act rashly for the sake of his beloved.
Fu Yun waved her hand: "No need, let them all go back to their own homes and find their own mothers!"
General Qian: "..." What are you talking about?
Fu Yun realized that these words were somewhat ambiguous to the ancients, so he explained, "I'll let it go this time, as long as they don't cause me any trouble later, I can forgive and forget about it."
General Qian nodded, thinking to himself: This young master Su is broad-minded and indeed not like ordinary people.
She didn't insist and went along with his wishes: "Since that's the case, then let's do as you say!"
She coldly ordered, "You all heard that. I'll let you off this time, but if there's a next time, I won't let you off so easily."
Several servants responded in unison, "Yes, we all heard it. Thank you for your forgiveness, young master. We will never do it again."
General Qian said impatiently, "Alright, get out of here! Go back to where you came from."
"yes!"
Su Tan stood up, bowed, and then hurriedly left with his servants.
[President Fu's strategy was truly brilliant; he successfully turned the crisis into an opportunity.]
Fu Yun secretly breathed a sigh of relief: "It can be said that the timing, location, and people were all in harmony. If we hadn't found General Qian, I would have found another way to escape, but it wouldn't have been so easy to resolve."
[If it can be resolved, that's fine. No wonder Su Fuyun, a general's husband in the original novel, could form cliques, wield immense power, and become the biggest villain in the book. It's probably because General Qian liked him and unconditionally fulfilled his demands that he became so lawless.]
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