Villain Lady

Wei Liuying talked more to Manager Xin before she walked out. This time, she headed to the restaurant that she had just bought a few days prior. Without the gang creating trouble, the restaurant's business was thriving. 

Looking from outside, the small restaurant was bustling with people. There were a lot of customers walking to the restaurant and talked about how good it was inside. They were all giving positive review regarding the restaurant.

"Young Master Liu," Manager Xia quickly greeted her with a broad smile.

Wei Liuying smiled back. "The restaurant seems to be bustling with customers now."

"It's all thanks to Young Master Liu for eliminating the gang. Not only this restaurant, several others who used to be pressured are now happy," Manager Xia said while rubbing his hand. He had never expected that the business would be so good like this.

"That's good. Don't forget to keep the money."

"I understand," Manager Xia answered readily. He felt that Wei Liuying's arrangement for him to bury the money on the back courtyard of the restaurant every six months sound weird. However, since she was the one who asked, he would do it.

Maybe the money can grow to be a tree?

He highly doubted it, though.

"Now, I'm only a customer here. I want to order a bow of chicken noodle," Wei Liuying said with a smile.

"Right away, Young Master Liu."

Wei Liuying headed to the empty table and watched the people around her. Looking at their happy expression and how the servants conducted themselves, she was satisfied. This was nothing more than a small store, but it was more than enough for her to get some side income.

In case of emergency, she would be able to have enough money aside from the one that she had from selling the books.

"Young Master Xie, are you sure that you want to eat in this kind of place?"

The voice from the side made Wei Liuying turned her head. She was stunned when she saw Wei Yijun and Xie Jing walked to the restaurant. This place was located quite far from the center, including the academy.

Eh wait, there was no class today.

But the young masters usually would not waste their time to roam around the street like this. They would be beaten up by their fathers if they dared to waste their time for any unnecessary.

"I'm bored," Xie Jing replied with a harsh tone.

"Young Master Xie, this is nothing more than a small restaurant," the servant was still trying hard to make Xie Jing change his mind.

"You're just in bad mood because of the recent incidents, right?" Wei Yijun added from the side. His tone was still as innocent as usual, but there was also a hint of tiredness from his voice. 

Xie Jing snorted. "Anyway, this small restaurant is bustling, so it's a good place for us to rest today."

"I don't have any opinion."

The two of them picked the seat near Wei Liuying. The servants were still trying to persuade them, but the two young masters didn't listen. They purposely picked this place so that they could stay away from the tense atmosphere back in their residence. No one was in the mood to study when there was still large scale searching for the missing officials.

One of them was found in his family members' house not long ago and executed in place. The family members were also executed because they helped criminals like the official to escape.

Wei Family was not out of suspicion list yet because Wei Lu hadn't been found. 

Even with Prince Ji Shu's protection, they couldn't avoid getting checked by the guards when those came. Of course, there was nothing that they found but they nearly found out that Wei Liuying disappeared. Wei Hong had to come up with some believable story to make sure that they would not try to check inside the quarter.

Thankfully, it would be incredibly impolite for soldiers to barge into an unmarried young lady's quarter. And with a servant posing as sickly Wei Liuying, they managed to bypass this disaster.

Wei Hong had to be thankful that Prince Ji Shu was helping him, though. Without the prince and Wei Xiao Hua, he would have been exposed for having a missing daughter and might have his reputation went to drain.

"How long will this last?" Xie Jing asked in annoyance after making his order.

"I believe that it'll end soon. Besides, your brother has been very active in trying to help out the search."

Xie Jing sneered. "Since His Highness the Fourth Prince didn't manage to get the result so quickly, His Highness the Crown Prince is also tasked to search for the missing officials. There are still six of them missing."

Six…

Wei Liuying knew that there were a lot of officials got involved, but she didn't count back when she was releasing them from the prison. It might have been 10 or 12 since she was not totally sure. She only knew that she needed to make diversion in order to make sure that they would not focus on her.

Who would have thought that the number of missing officials would turn out to be so many?

"The food is here."

"It looks good," Wei Yijun commented and started to eat. He did pick this place randomly, but he didn't expect that it was truly as good as what people said. It seemed that there were also good places at the outer layer of the capital city.

Xie Jing nodded. He still wanted to roam around the city after this, so he had no other choice but to continue eating. His stomach has been protesting since he didn't give enough nutrients lately. He went out of his residence early in the morning to avoid getting lectured by his father again.

"What's your plan after this?"

"Just walk around the city and try to find some amusement," Xie Jing replied. "If necessary, I don't mind going to brothel."

Pfft!

*cough* *cough*

Xie Jing was perplexed when he heard that there were two different reactions. He turned his head to the side and noticed that there was a young boy sitting on the table by the side. The young boy was wearing ordinary civilian clothing, but there was the Imperial Family mark on his sleeve. It was usually used by the servants of the Imperial Family and from the way it looked like, it was from the Third Prince?

While Xie Jing was confused, Wei Yijun also turned to look at Wei Liuying. His eyes landed on her sleeve then to her face. She was wearing the same makeup as before to make sure that no one will mistook her as Wei Hong Zheng.

"Pardon us, Strategist Liu," Wei Yijun said while cupping his hand. "We have showed an unsightly view from the young masters here."

"There's no need to worry," Wei Liuying replied while lowering her tone to make her sound more masculine. "Also, I'm not an official strategist, yet. At best, I can only be called as Strategist Yang's apprentice."

Wei Yijun smiled. "Strategist Apprentice Liu."

By this time, Xie Jing had realized who Wei Liuying was. Just yesterday, Prince Ji Sheng introduced a young boy during Princess Ji Xiaoli's birthday celebration. The surname of the boy was Liu, and he would be the second military strategist by Prince Ji Sheng.

From the way he looked like, many thought that Prince Ji Sheng was picking up another young stranger again. After all, Prince Ji Sheng had picked several young and talented people to be by his side over his time on the north. The only problem was the fact that most of them were commoners.

"First Young Master Wei." Wei Liuying cupped her hands too in order to greet them. "Second Young Master Xie."

"I'm flattered that Strategist Apprentice Liu knew us," Xie Jing said while forcing a smile out.

"Your name has been spread in the capital city for some time." Wei Liuying said and stood up. "I don't want to take too much of your time, Second Young Master Xie and First Young Master Wei. However, I think that you should care for your health more because you're both are still young."

Xie Jing's face turned bright red. He was only 16 years old, which meant that he was still far cry from being an adult. If he went to brothel at this age, wouldn't he just start destroying his own health and future?

By this time, he was sure that Wei Liuying must have heard what he had just said. 

Agh!

Xie Jing felt so embarrassed.

Wei Yijun patted his friend's shoulder. "We'll just continue to walk around the city. I'm sure that things will change in the court soon."

"Well, in our current position, there's nothing that we can do."

"True." Wei Yijun held a bitter smile. He wanted to show his support to the second prince, but the time was not right. The second prince has been under suspicion because of the incident not long ago. In addition, he wouldn't be able to provide any support whatsoever with his current ability.

He was nothing more than a little young master with no real power.

While the two young masters were still in their heated discussion, Wei Liuying walked out of the restaurant. She glanced back inside as her lips curled up. Wei Yijun and Xie Jing didn't seem to be so bad. Even though they were immature, they were able to see things clearly too.

Their conversation was a bit funny, though. 

At this time, Wei Liuying had completely forgotten that she was more than two years younger compared to the two of them.