The Time Traveling Anchor and Her Eight Hundred Fence-Sitters

He Shiyi took Zhao Mianmian out and went straight to Lan Kwai Fong.

Lan Kwai Fong is located on Xieyu Street. It is a teahouse-like place with three floors.

It doesn't look big from the outside, but it's very spacious once you go inside.

Especially the wing rooms along the river on the east side, which were made into suites.

When you are not busy, you can open the door to let in air and light. Once guests need it, they can just close the door to isolate the noise, truly taking into account both openness and privacy.

Lan Kwai Fong is very lively today, with the lobby packed with people.

Zhao Mianmian had short calves and couldn’t see inside, so she had to grab the hem of He Shiyi’s clothes to avoid getting lost.

She didn't know why He Shiyi risked being beaten to run to Lan Kwai Fong. She only knew that after He Shiyi dragged her around for a while, they stopped in a corner.

"Didn't we agree to meet at 15:30? Why are you so late?"

The man who spoke was tall and thin. He wore a cross-collar shirt with a lotus pattern, a plain silk double-breasted coat on the outside, a green jade hair crown on his head, and a belt hook of the same color on his waist. As soon as he saw He Shiyi, he came up to him and complained hurriedly.

"Oh, this is because something happened and I was delayed!"

He Shiyi wiped the sweat from his head and explained ambiguously to Ji Ruanping.

Ji Ruanping was the second son of Ji Geng, the Minister of Zongzheng Temple. He was of similar age to He Shiyi, and they studied together at Xunshan Academy. In addition, the two families also had contacts with each other on weekdays, so the two often ate, drank, played, fought cocks, and walked the dog together.

"What could possibly happen to you? Didn't your mother go out of town with the old lady to burn incense early in the morning? Could it be possible that...???"

Ji Ruanping thought He Shiyi was making excuses for his lateness, so he snorted coldly and slapped him on the shoulder.

Although Ji Ruanping is a skinny guy, he was forced to practice martial arts by his family since he was a child. He slapped He Shiyi so hard that he screamed and quickly dodged to the side.

As soon as He Shiyi dodged, Zhao Mianmian was revealed who was following behind him.

Zhao Mianmian was wearing a light yellow double-breasted skirt today with a ribbon of the same color. With her soft and tender chubby face, she looked like a New Year picture doll that had walked down from the wall.

Especially after he followed He Shiyi and ran for most of the street without even a sip of water, Zhao Mianmian's big black grape eyes were filled with grievances, and she couldn't even shed tears, which instantly froze Ji Ruanping on the spot.

Ji Ruanping was stunned for a long time before he came back to his senses. He looked at He Shiyi deeply and raised his eyebrows:

"Hey, where did you find this little follower? He looks really good, why haven't you mentioned him before?"

While Ji Ruanping was teasing He Shiyi, he attacked Zhao Mianmian.

Just as the hand was about to reach Zhao Mianmian's face, it was suddenly knocked away by He Shiyi.

"Just talk, why do you need to use your hands?"

He Shiyi's tone was slightly cold, and he seemed a little unhappy. Ji Ruanping didn't take it seriously and continued to tease him:

"Tsk, you can't even touch me? Could it be that your mother found a child bride for you?!"

"What child bride? This is me..."

He Shiyi didn't have time to explain Zhao Mianmian's identity because a sudden booing broke out in the crowd, causing Ji Ruanping's face to change drastically and he suddenly became nervous.

"Oh no! I forgot about Wu You!!"

"Wu You?? What happened to Wu You?? What's going on??"

The two of them were talking as they squeezed into the crowd. Zhao Mianmian quickly raised her foot and followed closely.

"It was the juggler hired by Lan Kwai Fong. I don't know what trick he performed, but Wu You was so fascinated that he had to take the money and go up to compete with him."

"Look, you've already lost ten games in a row before you came here, and you haven't won once. If you keep losing, I'm afraid you'll be able to kill a Minghe Tower!"

The Wu You mentioned by Ji Ruanping is the late son of Wu Zhang, the Marquis of Chengyi, and a well-known playboy in the capital.

Wu Zhang was a man of little education, but he was very good at making money. In the first half of his life, he accumulated enough wealth to rival a country, which he could not spend enough. So he wanted to earn a rich and idle job in the second half of his life to bring honor to his family.

Some people say that Wu Zhang paid 400,000 taels of silver to buy his current title of Earl, and that "Earl of Chengyi" was not originally called Earl of Chengyi. The reason why the title was changed was that the late emperor saw that he was full of sincerity and was so happy that he issued an edict to grant him the title.

No matter how Wu Zhang got the title of Marquis Chengyi, it is an indisputable fact that the Wu family is rich.

As Wu Zhang's late-born son and the only heir in the Wu family for three generations, Wu You was treated like a treasure since childhood and had everything he wanted.

Of course, Wu Zhang was able to gain a foothold in the capital city because he had his own set of rules in dealing with people.

Wu You was influenced by his family since he was a child and learned some of the true skills. Although he was a playboy, he never provoked anyone he could not afford to offend.

According to Wu Zhang, the "people you cannot afford to offend" are two people with the surnames Xiao and Liang.

Those with the surname Xiao are from the current empress dowager’s family, represented by the powerful tutor Xiao Haizhou.

"Liang", as the national surname of Tianying, represents the royal relatives who are deeply rooted in power.

He Shiyi was confused: "No, no?! Didn't you say that Lan Kwai Fong invited a juggler from Beidi and wanted to watch a magic show? How did you bring up the issue of winning or losing?"

Ji Ruanping couldn't say a word clearly, he directly pulled He Shiyi to the center of the crowd, pointed at Wu You who was furious and lost and said: "Here, take a look for yourself!"

In the middle of the lobby of Lan Kwai Fong is a stage, which is more than a foot higher than the surrounding areas.

The artist from Beidi placed a table on the stage, spread a ten-foot-long black cloth, and set up a competition arena in public.

In fact, the arena did not exist at the beginning. It was just that the young master of the Wu family saw the Beidi artists performing some quick magic tricks and was curious for a moment. Relying on his expertise in eating, drinking and having fun, he volunteered to go on stage to compete with the Beidi artists.

The content of the competition is also very simple. The Beidi artist randomly puts the red yuan in his hand into three small bowls on the table, and the contestant guesses the position of the red yuan.

If the guess is correct, the contestant wins. If the guess is wrong, the Northern Di artist wins.

The prize is the bounty that both parties bet on the ring, which has now accumulated to six hundred taels.

Unfortunately, the three hundred taels of silver that Wu You brought with him when he went out had all gone into the pocket of the Beidi artist, and he had tried thirteen times since he went on stage.

Thirteen times, all lost, no wins.

"My dear young master, we agreed before that you would accept the loss if you failed in the bet. You didn't guess the red dollar this time, so you have to pay us back the banknotes you bet on!"

A northern Di man dressed in strange clothes raised his voice and shouted in front of everyone.

The voice contained some sarcasm and disdain, which made Wu You on the verge of getting angry.

For Wu You, losing money was no big deal, it was only three hundred taels, he could just go home and get more money. But the feeling of being suppressed by others was very uncomfortable.

The ones who oppressed him most were the Northern Di people.

It feels like struggling in a quagmire. You can clearly see the shore, but you sink deeper and deeper. In the end, you can only sink deeper and deeper to the bottom of the quagmire until you die completely.

Wu You didn't believe it and tried again with a gloomy face.

What he pledged to the other party this time was the gold-inlaid white jade hanging from his waist. It was not very big, but it had some background.

Of course, as expected, Wu You failed to guess Hong Yuan and lost the gold-inlaid white jade.

Wu You took a deep breath and calmed down. He regained his sanity and decided to stop in time.

However, as soon as he showed his intention to retreat, the Northern Di man immediately started to look strange and sarcastic.

"I'm not bragging. My senior brother's technique is the Floating Cloud Hand, which was passed down from our ancestors. Even Beidi has no one who can decipher it. How could it fail in your Tianying?"