TGP Chapter 40.2: Gambling House

“If you’re going to hit me, then hit me. Why did you have to slap me?!”


The carriage quickly arrived at the entrance of the Fortune Gathering Hall. When the two got out of the carriage, they saw that the guard that had gone to borrow an entry token was already waiting at the door. That person came over with the token and handed it over to Pei Wenxuan. Pei Wenxuan gave a slight nod and took it, then he went inside the Fortune Gathering Hall with Li Rong.

The two didn’t want to draw too much attention, so they had the guards wait at the door and headed inside the Fortune Gathering Hall together. There was a doorkeeper standing at the doors of the Fortune Gathering Hall. As soon as they reached the doors, the man loudly shouted: “The doors of the Fortune Gathering Hall open to the east. Come one come all, those with money and those without. Are the two of you distinguished guests, those with money or those without?”

Pei Wenxuan heard this prompt for a codeword and handed over the entry token at once, smiling as he said: “With money.”

The doorkeeper accepted the token and carefully studied it a dozen times, he turned his head and said: “Welcome distinguished guests, right this way—”

As soon as the doorkeeper had spoken, a middle-aged man came out from inside and invited Li Rong and Pei Wenxuan to come in. That person gave the two of them an introduction of the Fortune Gathering Hall, and the two absentmindedly listened. Upon reaching the main hall, Pei Wenxuan nodded and said: “No need to worry about us. We’ll play on our own for a bit.”

The middle-aged man smiled and expressed his acknowledgement, then he turned away and left.

The two of them walked around in the crowd. This place was bustling with excitement, people coming and going, men and women alike, they all seemed rather excited.

Pei Wenxuan was afraid that people would bump into Li Rong, so he had no choice but to put his arm around Li Rong to shield her from others and clear the way for her. He shielded her with one arm and moved forward while saying: “I’m just doing this to help you out, don’t think too much of it.”

Li Rong cast Pei Wenxuan an indifferent glance: “People tend to say don’t think too much of it when they themselves have given it more thought than others.”

Pei Wenxuan: “…”

There was certainly some truth to it.

After the two of them made a round, Li Rong’s heart gradually eased up. She couldn’t help but confidently say a few more words on the matter: “I said it, how could A-ya come to this sort of place? Pei daren…”

Before she could finish her sentence, the two vaguely heard a familiar voice coming from the crowd, excitedly shouting: “Big! Big! Big!”

In the split second that this voice registered, Li Rong felt as if there was a sudden clap of thunder, and she had been struck by lightning. When the two of them looked back, they vaguely saw a figure in the crowd bearing a striking resemblance to Shangguan Ya, leaning over the gambling table and desperately knocking on the table with the word “Big.” Those eyes were fixated on an upturned cup that was about to be lifted and revealed, her eyes seemed to shine brightly.

However, that person was wearing men’s clothing, and she could not clearly make out their face either. For some time, Li Rong could not be certain if she had heard it wrong or…

Before she could react, the cup was lifted at that table. In the midst of the sound of cheers and sighs, that short girl shouted, “Thank you for the win, thank you for the win,” collecting the money in front of her as she spoke.

It was only when she was halfway through with collecting the money that she seemed to realize something. She straightened up and said a few words to the person beside her before walking over to a small side door.

Li Rong immediately reacted and said: “Go after her.”

She must find out whether this person is ultimately Shangguan Ya or not.

If it wasn’t Shangguan Ya, then good, but if it was Shangguan Ya… 

Then in the previous life, wouldn’t that mean Shangguan Ya had fooled her for a lifetime with false pretenses?!

Li Rong’s heart was full of shock. She hurriedly chased after the girl in the direction that she ran off in, and Pei Wenxuan quickly followed after her, squeezing through the crowd.

The other person was quite clever. She obviously realized that Li Rong had caught up with her, so she picked up her pace and madly dashed all the way outside.

Li Rong disregarded her image and all etiquette for a moment, chasing after the girl in front of her and urging Pei Wenxuan as she ran: “Catch up with her! It’s just a girl, you can’t even outrun her?!”

Pei Wenxuan had no choice. He was somewhat reluctant to give chase, but Li Rong was going to do so, so he could only run faster to chase after the girl.

Shangguan Ya, who was running up ahead, realized that Pei Wenxuan was closing in. She knew that she would definitely be caught if things continued like this, so she suddenly turned around and eyed her surroundings, then she brought her hand up and propped it on a windowsill and jumped through that narrow round window.

This window was too small for Pei Wenxuan to fit through, so he froze in place for a moment. Li Rong saw it from a distance and swore in a low voice: “What is she, a monkey spirit?!”

Having said that, Li Rong ran straight past Pei Wenxuan, lifted herself up a little awkwardly and jumped through the round window.

Pei Wenxuan’s eyes widened as if he had seen a ghost. He immediately heard Li Rong loudly saying: “Make a detour and run after her, you idiot!”

Pei Wenxuan finally snapped out of it and realized that Li Rong would not give up on pursuing Shangguan Ya. He had no choice but to look around a bit for a different path to take and hastily ran past the connecting corridor to the next yard, continuing to chase after the two of them.

Li Rong chased after Shangguan Ya all the way. Although there was some distance between her and Shangguan Ya, and she couldn’t catch up to her at all, she was very persistent and focused on the pursuit. As long as Li Rong caught a glimpse of her shadow, she would be able to catch up, and this kind of game can go on.

In order to shake her off, Shangguan Ya rushed into a small pavilion in the rear courtyard meant for resting. Li Rong also hurried to follow inside after seeing that. When Pei Wenxuan reached the rear courtyard, he happened to see the two girls running upstairs one after another. He thought it over for a moment, then he decisively ran across the ground floor of the pavilion. Shangguan Ya couldn’t keep running upstairs forever. She certainly had to find a way out upstairs and run out of the Fortune Gathering Hall.

Shangguan Ya certainly had such thoughts. As soon as she went upstairs, she started to find her way around, trying to find a way out from the second floor. There was a window on the second floor of this building that was relatively low to the ground. After jumping down from there, she would climb a tree, climb over a wall, and she could get out of the Fortune Gathering Hall. As long as she doesn’t get caught, she still has a way to talk her way out of it!

Although she didn’t know why the Prince Consort brought a woman that was most likely Princess Ping Le to chase after her, she could not be caught here, Shangguan Ya at least knew that much.

Shangguan Ya had come up with a good plan, but Li Rong was still relentlessly chasing after her. She hastily shook Li Rong off again and ran straight for the window. She was planning to slowly climb down from there, but before she could reach the window, she heard Li Rong screaming: “Shangguan Ya, you stop right there for me!”

Startled, Shangguan Ya lost her footing out and trembled all over, causing her to fall directly from the window.

The scarf that she used to tie her hair back had already come loose. When she fell, it caught onto a protruding branch nearby, and her jet black hair was scattered in an instant.

Shangguan Ya let out a soft cry of surprise “ah,” the weightlessness making her panic.

At that very moment, a young man who had his eyes closed as he leaned against the tree and rested, opened his eyes and saw a young man falling from the sky. The young man subconsciously reached out a hand and instinctively brought her into his arms. 

With the summertime sun shining on them, the young man brought about a shining aura of his own. The young man had a handsome face and righteous expression as he smiled softly: “I was originally going to rest here for a bit, yet a beautiful woman has unexpectedly fallen from the sky.”

Shangguan Ya reacted in an instant, “pa” and gave that person a slap, then leapt out of the young man’s arms. She turned away, wanting to run.

The young man was stunned, but he immediately realized what was happening and grabbed her hand, not letting go.

Shangguan Ya angrily shouted: “Let go!”

The young man slightly smiled and just said: “Hiding from someone? Let me help you.”

Shangguan Ya blankly stared for a moment. He quickly ushered her over to a haystack off to the side, then a straw basket directly fell over her head.

Just as the young man finished covering the straw basket, Li Rong ran over to the window and saw the young man standing below at a glance.

She was slightly taken aback for a moment. Soon after, she asked in a voice of astonishment: “Eldest Young Master Su?”

Su Ronghua turned around with a smile, but he was a little startled to see Li Rong. He quickly swept his gaze over the straw basket beside him, then he quickly looked away and asked with a smile: “What is Your Highness doing here?”

“Did you happen to see a girl in men’s clothing?”

“I saw,” Su Ronghua pointed in the direction out of the courtyard with his fan, “Already ran off though.”

Li Rong pursed her lips. She looked at the distance between the window to the ground before decisively saying: “Perhaps the Eldest Young Master can lend a hand with something?”

“Please say so, Your Highness.”

“I’m going to jump down now, you can catch me.”

Su Ronghua was stunned. After a few moments, he reacted and said: “Oh, alright.”

With that said, Su Ronghua stretched out his hand. Li Rong picked up her skirt and stepped onto the window sill, but before she could move, she heard a sudden shout from Pei Wenxuan off to the side: “Li Rong!”

Li Rong was so frightened that she froze up and fell down at once. Before Su Ronghua had the time to move to catch her, he saw someone madly rushing over and taking Li Rong, who had suddenly fallen, into his arms.

Pei Wenxuan came too quickly and with too much urgency that Li Rong was still dumbly staring and not moving.

He was obviously angry from the looks of it. Li Rong blankly stared at Pei Wenxuan as she laid in his arms, baffled by his anger.

Pei Wenxuan didn’t say anything as he put her down and only asked: “Are you alright?”

“No…” Li Rong was rarely faced with such an expression and felt a little guilty for a while: “It’s nothing.”

Pei Wenxuan nodded and didn’t say much more to her. Su Ronghua still didn’t know what had happened. As he stood behind Pei Wenxuan, he smiled and said: “That girl just now…”

Before he could finish what he was saying, Pei Wenxuan turned around and singlehandedly delivered a slap, a strike from the palm of the hand that slapped Su Ronghua into a daze.

Su Ronghua covered his face in shock and turned back to look at Pei Wenxuan as he asked: “Why did you hit me?”

After a moment, he thought of another matter: “If you’re going to hit me, then hit me. Why did you have to slap me?!”

The anger came as a long delayed reaction, Su Ronghua raised his voice and roared: “Are you a woman?!”


The author has something to say:

【Mini Theater 1】

Su Ronghua: “If you’re going to hit me, then hit me. Why did you have to slap me?!”

Pei Wenxuan: “Because I’m Pei Wenxuan.”

【Mini Theater 2】

Su Ronghua: “This is one of my first appearances, not even a thousand words in, and I’ve already been slapped twice. May I ask the author what my role is supposed to be? A sandbag?”

Author: “Not a sandbag, but a close relative of it.”

Su Ronghua: “Dare to ask what is a close relative of the sandbag?”

Author: “Sand sculpture.”[1]


[1] Sand sculpture — something random and silly; the words for sand sculpture is a homophone to slang “silly dick,” people say sand sculpture because sounds more sophisticated~


I’ve been trying out scheduled releases to match the countdown, but I just realized I forgot to link to the actual chapter on the site before going to bed yesterday… I still need to work on that T-T


2021-12-05T22:00:00

  days

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until

TGP Chapter 41: Plucked Flower


4 thoughts on “TGP Chapter 40.2: Gambling House

  1. Hahahahaha so Pei WX is trying to cover that Ya’s slap (and vent some jelly at the thought that he was gonna catch n hold his Rong’er 😉🤢) Maybe Eldest Su will become the love interest distraction they need for the family to accept Ya not marrying Chuan’er🤔

    Thanks for the chapter

    Like

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