Chapter 137:
Extra 2
The Strange Amnesiac Adventures of His Highness the Crown Prince (Part Three)
XIE LIAN’S EYES widened, his face a picture of disbelief.
“What’s wrong?” asked San Lang.
As if Xie Lian could utter a word. The deception, the mortification and frustration of being toyed with… His feelings of betrayal mixed with the hot blood rushing to his head.
He slapped the table and ground each word through his teeth. “So…it…was…you!”
The table couldn’t withstand his strike and splintered to pieces. Thankfully there was no one else on the second floor, otherwise they’d be sent scurrying in fright. Xie Lian had no weapons with him, so he struck out with his palm once more. Nonetheless, San Lang stayed in his seat and merely tilted his head to avoid the attack. The strike landed on the wall behind him instead, and debris crumbled down upon impact.
San Lang remained in place with his arms crossed. He looked up, lightly raising the curtain of his lashes. “Daozhang, what is the meaning of this?”
Xie Lian’s face was burning; he couldn’t imagine how red it’d gotten. He cracked the knuckles of his other hand and hissed, his voice filled with fury, “You…stop pretending. You know exactly…what you did to me.”
San Lang raised his gaze further. “Most unfortunate, but I really don’t know what I’ve done to make you so angry, Daozhang. Please enlighten me?”
“…”
This man dared to make him say it out loud while acting so innocent? How could he possibly say it? How could he talk about that in broad daylight?! Xie Lian had never encountered anyone like this before, and he was so angry that his whole body shook from his shoulders to deep inside his heart.
He spat an incoherent string of rebukes as his face grew redder and redder, “Silence! You… I-I’ll beat you to death, you shameless…perverted…dishonorable…you…”
San Lang sighed. “Daozhang, I never expected you to respond to my heartfelt sincerity this way. How am I shameless, perverted, and/or dishonorable?”
Xie Lian finally managed to regain himself somewhat. “Don’t you dare try to deceive me again! That red string on your hand proves that you’re that…that…”
“Oh?” Unflustered, San Lang raised his hand. “You mean this? Is there something wrong with this red string?”
The sight of the string in question felt like a stab. “I saw it,” Xie Lian said. “At that time, your…hand had a red string just like that…”
“What time?” San Lang asked.
“…”
At that moment, Xie Lian really wanted to beat the guy dead—asking him over and over like that, how absolutely abominable! But for some reason, no matter how angry he was, he couldn’t attack him. And he wasn’t being restrained by anything other than his own body!
Just then, several people ran up the stairs, their feet thumping on the floorboards.
“Dear customers, what are you doing?! Don’t randomly smash things!”
Xie Lian turned his head to exclaim, “It’s dangerous here! Go—”
Yet when he saw them, he was stunned again.
These people were all wearing red strings on their hands!
“What’s with all the red strings?” Xie Lian blurted.
“Red string?” one of them replied. “This red string’s just a red string; what’s so special about it? It’s nothing, quack—uh, it’s nothing, y’know.”
Now Xie Lian was confused—was tying a red string around one’s finger a normal fashion trend in these parts? He turned back to San Lang.
As if he’d seen what he was thinking, San Lang said, “You guessed right, Daozhang. It’s a local custom to tie a red string around one’s finger. If you don’t believe me, look at the crowd on the street below.”
Xie Lian’s eyes traveled downward, and sure enough, many of the people in the flowing crowd had red string tied around a finger. There were even some who had tied multiple knots.
“What custom is this?” he asked.
San Lang smiled. “Well, it’s related to Hua Cheng, now that we’re on the topic.”
“Huh?”
“He and his beloved have both tied red strings to their fingers, and many people have followed suit in the hope of finding their future spouse or as a symbol of love.”
Xie Lian was stunned to learn about this. “So you’re saying that…Hua Cheng is a formidable character? He’s so impressive that people are obsessed with imitating him…?”
“Well, whether he’s formidable depends on who you compare him to,” San Lang said. “By the way, Daozhang, you seem to have dropped something. May I pick it up?”
Xie Lian finally realized that he’d made another blunder, and his temper quickly dispersed. He had been maintaining an attacking stance, but now he quickly relaxed it.
“So sorry, San Lang, I was honestly… I’m really sorry. I got ahead of myself and misunderstood you again…”
San Lang had remained relaxed the entire time. He bent to pick something off the floor. “It’s fine. Daozhang, did you drop this?”
What he’d fumbled out of the mess on the floor was a single piece of gold foil—it had probably slipped out of Xie Lian’s sleeve when he attacked earlier. Xie Lian was just about to answer when San Lang brought the foil close and squinted at it.
“Hmm? This gold foil looks rather familiar.”
Then, he unhurriedly took something from a pouch at his waist—another piece of gold foil.
Two matching pieces of gold foil!
“So it was yours?” Xie Lian blurted.
“Mmm, I certainly did drop some money, which was why I went back to look for it…” replied San Lang.
Terrified he was going to misunderstand, Xie Lian said hastily, “San Lang, let me explain…”
“No need to be nervous,” San Lang said. “Of course I’ll listen to your explanation, Daozhang.”
Xie Lian breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s like this,” he began. “I picked that gold foil up on the road earlier. I wanted to wait for the rightful owner to come back so I could return it, but I waited for over two hours and no one came. And I was just so…”