To drink wine, or to eat shit, that is the question.
Gongsun Li's toast gave Atobe a signal that there might not be poison in the wine.
Of course, eating shit on the spot was just something he said to himself, and he hadn't made a bet with anyone. If Feng Bujue were around when he said that, he'd probably be half full by now.
"Uh... then I shall accept respectfully..." Atobe hesitated, just as he was about to reach out and take the wine cup, when suddenly, a quick shadow flashed by, and the cup of wine that Gongsun Li was offering disappeared in an instant.
And there was one more person in the room.
"Hmm... just smelling the aroma, one knows it's good wine." The speaker was a young man in his twenties, with a slender figure, delicate features, dressed in a brown shirt and close-fitting attire, a jade belt around his waist, and black boots on his feet. At this moment, he was holding a half-opened paper fan in his hand, and the wine cup was steadily resting on the fan surface, not a drop spilled.
"Hmph... I was wondering who it was, it turns out it's you, the ill-mannered Tang family young master." Shi Yanran recognized the person and immediately sent a mocking remark.
"Hey~ I, Tang Shize, am not ill-mannered, just difficult to teach." Tang Shize replied with a smile, "You can say whatever you want about me, I don't care, but don't beat around the bush and say that my family only knows how to give birth but doesn't know how to raise children. If my father hears that, you'll be in trouble."
"What, are you trying to scare people with your father?" Shi Yanran said, "The mere Tang Clan compared to my Myriad Radiance Pavilion..."
"Alright." Gongsun Li immediately stopped Shi Yanran. He really wanted to kill this woman; this Pavilion Mistress was such a troublemaker. They were already busy enough with the affairs of this broken sword teahouse, and she wanted to say some ill-considered words out of momentary anger. Could the Tang Clan be offended casually?
"Young Master Tang." Gongsun Li said to Tang Shize in a humble yet assertive manner, "I invited this young hero Jin to drink, why did you step forward to snatch the cup?"
"Hehe..." Tang Shize smiled, "I just happened to be passing by the door and smelled the aroma of the wine, and I couldn't help myself."
Although everything has a cause, his reason was obviously nonsense...
In fact, this Tang Shize was simply looking for trouble. And he wasn't looking for Gongsun Li or Shi Yanran, his target was young master Atobe.
Want to ask why? Simply put, it was because of Murong Ying.
Specifically... this Tang family young master Tang Shize, known in the martial world as "Swift Hands Plucking Flowers," had admired that Fairy Beyond the Clouds for many years. Don't be fooled by this kid's rogue appearance and a nickname that can easily be mistaken for a flower thief, he is actually a very shy person when it comes to emotions.
This young master Tang should be considered to truly love Murong Ying. Originally, they were well-matched in terms of social status and age. As long as he could successfully strike up a conversation, the chances of success would be quite high. But Tang Shize, who was usually eloquent, would become mute in front of Murong Ying, not only unable to speak smoothly but also suddenly losing his mind.
Thus, after a disastrous tentative confession five years ago, Tang Shize was given the divine skill "Moved to tears but refused." The impact of this event has not completely disappeared to this day...
Today was another day that Tang Shize, like a stalker, paid attention to Murong Ying. Of course, he was only watching her from afar and wouldn't do anything despicable like peeping.
What happened next, everyone knows. Tang Shize saw young master Atobe enter Murong Ying's room and only came out after an entire afternoon.
If young master Tang had eavesdropped at the door, the misunderstanding wouldn't have existed, but he wasn't the kind of person to do that, so he started to speculate wildly...
In the end, he came to the conclusion that the people of the Broken Sword Teahouse were too arrogant! You can be kings and dominate the entire martial world, but you absolutely cannot hit on my Murong sister! I'm going to fight you!
Therefore, there was the scene just now.
Tang Shize was naturally not "just passing by" the door; he had been circling around the vicinity countless times.
After Gongsun Li and Shi Yanran entered the room, Atobe didn't bolt the door, mainly because he was afraid that these two NPCs would attack him, so he left a way out, only leaving the door ajar. He didn't expect this to make it easier for Tang Shize to break in.
Young master Tang came in this time, not for anything else, just to embarrass Atobe. He didn't care what the relationship was between Myriad Radiance Pavilion and the Broken Sword Teahouse; anyway, from the current situation, they were offering you good wine, so he would interfere.
This kind of behavior of snatching something from someone's lips is a blatant provocation. In the martial world, if one person does something similar to another, then there is no doubt that they want to exchange a few moves.
At this moment, Tang Shize was still holding the fan level, only saying that the wine was good, but not drinking it. To put it bluntly, he was waiting for Atobe to come forward and snatch it, to practice with him.
But Atobe's reaction shocked Tang Shize on the spot.
"Oh!" Atobe's eyes lit up and said, "Good!" He actually smiled involuntarily, truly "involuntarily," from the bottom of his heart, "Please, please, please... don't be polite, consider this cup as my toast to you."
In his opinion, this guy was simply rushing in to test the poison for free...
Tang Shize's feeling at this moment was like going to great lengths to slap someone in the face, only to find that he had helped the other person kill a mosquito.
"Heh..." Shi Yanran sneered with ill intentions. A woman's intuition had already told her something, and the three words "Murong Ying" quickly appeared in her mind. She knew where young master Atobe had gone in the afternoon, and she had also heard about Tang Shize's thoughts about the Fairy Beyond the Clouds. Therefore, she quickly understood what was happening in front of her...
"Young Master Tang, look at young hero Jin's magnanimity." Shi Yanran mocked, "And then look at your virtue, any woman would know who to choose." This woman's words were indeed poisonous, directly hitting the other person's sore spot as soon as she opened her mouth.
"Hmph!" Tang Shize had been suppressing a fire in his heart, and being poked like this immediately made it flare up, "Surname Jin! I want to have a showdown with you!" Before the words were finished, he waved the paper fan in his hand, and the wine cup fell to the ground in response. A cup of "forgetting grievances" was so ironically spilled all over the ground.
Truly, old hatreds had not been forgotten, and new hatreds were born.
For some reason, as soon as young master Tang smashed the cup, Gongsun Li and Shi Yanran instinctively jumped back, as if the sound of the cup breaking was like the bell on the boxing ring, was this announcing the start of the first round?
"Hey! Big brother, what are you doing..." Atobe felt inexplicably confused, instantly turning from joy to shock, thinking: Is this guy a lunatic? He seemed quite happy when he was snatching the wine to drink, but when I let him drink it, he flipped out instead. Is this the legendary tsundere attribute?
Faster than words can tell, the wind from the fan arrived first, the edge of the fan arrived later; the wind from the fan concealed poison, the edge of the fan stored strength; one was illusory and one was real, one was hidden and one was obvious.
Atobe was caught off guard and was already in a position where he could not avoid it...