When the Cannon Fodder Meets the Love-Brained Female Supporting Character - Episode 19

After finishing her prayers at the temple, Jiang Nan escorted Xiao Ran back.

Xiao Ran stepped out of the carriage, lowering her eyes. “Thank you, Sister Jiang, for bringing me back. I’ll take my leave now.”

Jiang Nan leaned back with her eyes closed, fingers idly tracing the newly acquired prayer beads, the faint scent of sandalwood lingering around her. She didn’t spare Xiao Ran a single glance.

Xiao Ran dared to look up at her for a moment, then bowed silently and left.

A’Tuo fanned Jiang Nan and remarked, “I thought you’d make the young mistress walk all the way back from Qingxin Temple on her own.”

Jiang Nan shot her a glance. “Many people saw her board the Jiang family carriage. If I’d made her walk back, how many would mock the Jiang family for lacking magnanimity?”

Xiao Ran, not yet far away, paused mid-step upon hearing this.

A’Tuo fell silent. “This servant spoke out of turn.”

Jiang Huai had waited in the manor for nearly an hour, but Xiao Ran never arrived. Upon questioning the maids in the front hall, he learned she had already come only for the osmanthus cakes she brought to be intercepted by Jiang Nan. By now, Xiao Ran must have returned home.

Jiang Huai clenched his teacup, nearly smashing it to the ground.

This had been his perfect excuse!!! That woman Jiang Nan, hogging resources without using them!!

Jiang Nan nibbled on the osmanthus cakes. Though delicious, her mood remained sour. Jiang Huai had manipulated those girls, filling them with fear, utterly despicable.

Even if Xiao Ran didn’t come to the manor, Jiang Huai still wouldn’t leave her alone.

Perhaps only by confining him indoors would he behave.

Lost in thought, Jiang Nan resentfully stuffed two or three more cakes into her mouth, letting the sweet osmanthus flavor overwhelm her senses.

The next day.

Jiang Huai took a nasty fall in the courtyard, his face bruised and swollen, his leg slashed by a deep cut. Forced to cancel his plans, he retreated to his room to recuperate.

Furious, Jiang Huai had been supposed to meet the young lady of the Wang family today. But how could he go out looking like this?

He summoned his servant. “Have you found out why there was a thin thread there?”

He had been walking toward the courtyard gate when a sharp pain shot through his leg. Looking down, he saw nothing. As he tried to move forward, the pain intensified, and only under the sunlight did he faintly discern a thin, glinting thread stretched taut.

Jiang Huai attempted to step back, but somehow, a rock appeared beneath his heel. Losing his balance, he fell backward only to spot another sharp stone where his head would land. His heart chilled, and he barely managed to twist his body, landing face-first. By the time he got up, his face was swollen beyond recognition.

The servant wore a strange expression. “When I went back with a few men to check, the thread was already gone.”

“Gone?” Jiang Huai’s tone darkened. “What about the rocks? Those two sharp rocks!! What were the courtyard cleaners doing??”

The servant looked even more puzzled. “Young Master, those rocks weren’t from our courtyard. They didn’t look like they came from the nearby Yantang either.”

Jiang Huai was speechless.

This was too bizarre!!

Someone had definitely targeted him!

Of course, someone had and that someone was Jiang Nan.

Jiang Nan lounged in her chair, waiting for good news, grapes in one hand and a fan in the other.

Since Jiang Huai’s legs were too unpredictable, she decided to make them more manageable.

She had purchased the finest Suzhou embroidery thread and ordered her hidden guards to tie it tightly between two ginkgo trees outside his courtyard. Jiang Huai always walked briskly—a little faster, and the thread would ensure he limped for days.

There were also those two stones, naturally arranged by Jiang Nan, though she hadn’t expected the effect to be this good.

Just thinking about Jiang Huai’s pig-like face made her so happy she could eat three bowls of rice.

While Jiang Huai was back in his room waiting for the physician, she had another hidden guard cut one end of the thin thread tied to the ginkgo tree, while the other end was pulled back by another guard.

Let Jiang Huai investigate it himself slowly.

Jiang Nan was in high spirits all morning, and her mood only improved further when she arrived at the Hidden Fragrance Teahouse.

The teahouse had recently launched a tea-sharing event. For example, if two people came together, they’d get a 10% discount and could sample different teas.

With this new promotion, the Hidden Fragrance Teahouse was packed to the brim.

Next door, Wei Ming’s authentic tea shop had opened a new floor, but only a handful of people would go there when Hidden Fragrance had no seats left and they didn’t want to wait. Some even asked if they could bring Hidden Fragrance’s tea to his shop to drink.

For Wei Ming, this was nothing short of a humiliating insult!!!

His expression darkened on the spot, and he immediately kicked the person out.

In just one day, Wei Ming’s smile had transferred from his face to those of Jiang Nan and Wei Su.

Wei Ming was fuming, especially after catching Jiang Nan’s ambiguous smirk, his fragile self-esteem shattered into pieces.

He decided to teach Jiang Nan a lesson!

________________________________________

The next day.

A hidden guard who had been keeping tabs on Wei Ming reported to Jiang Nan that he had struck a deal with a group of local thugs.

Jiang Nan knew right away that this deal was targeting her teahouse. Early that morning, she went to the Hidden Fragrance Teahouse to watch the show.

Before long, a disheveled middle-aged man swaggered in and ordered the cheapest tea available.

When the tea arrived, he glanced around furtively, as if about to pull something out from his robe only to find a burly man staring at him unblinkingly from the side.

The middle-aged man faltered. Pretending to take a sip, he suddenly clutched his stomach and cried out in pain.

“Ah! I drank your tea, and now my stomach is killing me!!”

He shouted so loudly that everyone in the first-floor hall turned to look.

The man quickly added, “Listen, everyone, don’t drink their tea, it’s bad! Owwww!”

Fang Rui, who had been observing him from the second floor the whole time, couldn’t help but laugh. “Hey! You dropped ten taels of silver!!!”

The man immediately bent down to search for it, forgetting all about his “pain” and stomach-clutching act.

After all, he really did have ten taels given to him by Wei Ming the day before.

After searching for a while, the man finally realized he’d been tricked.

Under the disdainful and mocking gazes of the surrounding customers, he coughed loudly and said, “Hmm, seems like it doesn’t hurt as much now. Maybe I just needed to use the latrine. I’ll be right back. Don’t let anyone take my seat, waiter!”

With that, he fled under the crowd’s exasperated stares.

About fifteen minutes later, the man returned. He made a show of touching the tea, took a sip, frowned, and loudly declared, “This pot isn’t fragrant at all. I want to order a new one.”

No one paid him any attention. Some even muttered under their breaths—things like, “For a ten-copper pot of the cheapest tea, it’s already a miracle it has any flavor at all. What more do you expect?”

When the waiter came over, the man scanned the menu, swallowed hard, patted the silver in his pocket, and reluctantly ordered a fifty-copper pot instead.

The tea arrived. It was Tieguanyin, its color quite clear. The middle-aged man lifted the lid of the teapot and peered inside, spotting a dark, clumpy mass. His face lit up with joy.

Suppressing his delight, he raised his head again, now wearing an expression of utter fury.

The middle-aged man slapped the table with a sharp smack, once more drawing everyone’s attention.

He pointed angrily at the teapot. “Is this the fifty-wen tea you serve? There’s a cockroach in here!!!! Call your proprietress over at once!”

The crowd exchanged uneasy glances.

Jiang Nan stepped forward, arms crossed, her voice icy. “I’m right here. No need to call.”

The middle-aged man sneered. “Good! Madam Proprietress, there’s a cockroach in your tea!! Luckily, I was smart enough to check inside the pot, or I’d surely be poisoned by now. How do you plan to compensate me??”

Jiang Nan remained unfazed. She glanced at the burly man assigned to keep watch nearby, who shook his head helplessly.

The middle-aged man grew even angrier. “What? Are you suggesting I tampered with it? I’ve got better things to do! Regardless, I demand an explanation today! Otherwise, I’ll come here every day and make a scene until you shut down!”

A faint smile curled Jiang Nan’s lips. “Our establishment absolutely does not have cockroaches.”

Seeing her stubborn denial, the middle-aged man pulled a younger man over. “You take a look. Isn’t there something black floating in there???”

The young man squinted. Through the gently rippling tea, he spotted a dark, murky lump at the bottom, unmistakably resembling a dead cockroach.

Startled by the size of the black mass, he nodded. “There really is something down there! And it’s huge!”

The crowd gasped in shock, hurriedly lifting their own teapot lids to check for impurities.

Just then, a man strolled leisurely into the Hidden Fragrance Teahouse from outside, his tone dripping with mockery. “Well, well. So even the illustrious Hidden Fragrance Teahouse is this filthy, cheating us common folk.”

The newcomer was none other than Wei Ming.

The onlookers immediately erupted into chatter.

“Boss, how do you explain this?”

“We’ve been drinking tea here for so long and there are cockroaches in it? This can’t be the first time, can it?”

“I’m so disappointed. I thought I’d found my perfect teahouse, but it turns out to be like this.”

“Compensate us! Pay up!”

Wei Ming’s grin stretched ear to ear. “See, this is why women shouldn’t run teahouses. They don’t take the business seriously. Who’d dare drink here? As a fellow teahouse owner, I’m truly heartbroken. Don’t you all agree?”

“Exactly! We’re never coming back!”

“Ugh, just thinking about drinking cockroach-infested water makes me sick.”

“I ordered the same Tieguanyin as this guy. I drank cockroach water too! Pay up!”

The commotion drew patrons from the second and third floors, who leaned over the railings to see what was happening.

Jiang Nan waited until everyone had their say before speaking. “Please, everyone, calm down for a moment. I’ll give you an explanation. But the truth isn’t what you think.”

Her words gradually quieted the bustling hall.

Wei Ming scoffed. “Proprietress Jiang, are you denying there’s a cockroach in your teahouse?”

“Of course there is,” Jiang Nan replied, her gaze sweeping over Wei Ming and the middle-aged man, a faint smile playing on her lips. “Just not in my teapot.”

Both Wei Ming and the middle-aged man caught her implication, their faces darkening.

Wei Ming sneered. “Proprietress Jiang, now isn’t the time to flaunt your silver tongue.”

Jiang Nan asked the middle-aged man, “How can you be so sure there’s a cockroach in my teapot?”

Seeing how calmly Jiang Nan countered his accusation, the middle-aged man faltered, his gaze flickering as he looked away.

Was it not a cockroach?

No—if not a cockroach, then what? He had personally instructed his lackey to put it in there.

Wei Ming frowned. “Even now, you still want to deny it? If it’s not a cockroach, then what is it?”

The middle-aged man and the younger man from earlier chimed in, “Exactly! Just admit it already.”

Jiang Nan signaled Fang Rui to step forward and pour out the tea from the pot.

Fang Rui complied, deliberately pouring the tea slowly, allowing the black object inside to become increasingly visible.

Wei Ming watched Jiang Nan with a smug smile, already plotting how to force her to shut down her shop and lure her customers to his own teahouse.

The tea was fully poured out.

Fang Rui then brought over a small bowl and tipped the contents into it.

A crisp clink rang out. The sound of something hard striking porcelain, sharp and clear.

What fell out was a black pearl.