Chapter 21: The Willing Bites the Hook

The brief encounter with Chen Shian, that notorious playboy, didn’t affect Su Chen and Ruo Ximeng’s festive mood in the slightest.

Under the watchful gazes of the Chen family’s many retainers, Su Chen swaggered off with Ruo Ximeng, completely unfazed.

None of the retainers dared to step forward or say a word.

Despite the fact that their young master spent his days loafing around, indulging in pleasure, and chasing women, among them all, he was undoubtedly the strongest in terms of martial ability.

Now that even he had been defeated in a single move by that young girl, what chance did the rest of them have? Charging forward would be nothing short of suicide.

“Master, where are we going now?”

Ruo Ximeng’s voice was soft and cheerful as she followed closely behind Su Chen.

“Let’s go to the Jinling River and catch some koi,” Su Chen replied after a moment of thought.

The Jinling River flowed like a smooth satin ribbon, cutting across the imperial capital.

It was one of the most beautiful landmarks of the Dayan Empire’s capital city.

‘System, why are you so quiet today? This isn’t like you. Are you depressed or something?’

As he led Ruo Ximeng toward the Jinling River, Su Chen teased the Imperial Tutor System in his mind.

[Depressed, my ass! I’m trying to repair myself! Repair! Do you even understand what that means?]

The system sounded a little resentful.

It had been broken by Su Chen’s reckless behavior, and many of its key functions were now missing.

At this rate, it was going to end up as the most useless system ever created.

‘So, did you manage to fix anything?’

Su Chen suddenly seemed a bit hopeful.

While he hadn’t found much personal use for the system lately, it still proved somewhat helpful when it came to teaching Ruo Ximeng.

‘Of course not!’

The system’s avatar rolled its eyes at him.

If it were that easy to repair, it would’ve already been done by now.

‘Why would it still be broken?’

‘Then at least talk more. A system that doesn’t talk will eventually fall into depression. Don’t you know that?’

Su Chen said this with complete confidence, though he honestly had no idea if the system even had emotions like depression.

[Host! Stop spouting nonsense!]

‘You may be able to fool others, but do you think you can fool me?’

The system’s avatar gave him a scornful look.

[Heh…]

Su Chen chuckled but didn’t continue arguing.

This thing had a short memory when it came to pain—it had already forgotten how many times he’d tricked it.

Letting out a soft laugh, Su Chen took Ruo Ximeng to the banks of the Jinling River.

By now, a large crowd had already gathered, all here to catch koi and pray for good fortune.

Catching koi at the Jinling River didn’t involve fishing rods or nets.

Instead, people would take a handful of bait in their hands.

If a koi liked them and was willing to bring them good luck, it would swim over and rest in their palm.

Everyone by the river was doing the same.

But despite the vibrant schools of koi darting back and forth through the water, not a single one had approached a visitor’s hand.

This method relied entirely on the koi’s willingness—it was clearly not an easy way to succeed.

Watching this peculiar and poetic fishing ritual, Su Chen let out a helpless smile.

‘Can this “whoever the fish likes” method really work?’

“Master, let’s try catching some koi too!”

Ruo Ximeng said excitedly, clearly thrilled by the idea.

“Alright, let’s feed the koi too.”

Su Chen deliberately said “feed,” not “catch.”

Clearly, in his opinion, this whole “the fish will come willingly” method was completely unreliable!

***

After buying some bait, Su Chen casually placed his hand into the clear, transparent waters of the Jinling River.

As expected, the koi just swam lazily in the distance, showing no signs of being “willing to take the bait.”

At that moment, Ruo Ximeng also scooped up a handful of bait and lowered her hand into the water.

Suddenly, something unbelievable happened!

All those koi that had been swimming around aimlessly in the distance, as if bored out of their minds, were now quickly attracted over.

These beautiful, vibrantly colored koi didn’t hesitate at all.

One by one, they began gathering around Ruo Ximeng.

Such a stunning sight instantly drew gasps of amazement from the crowd by the river.

Many of them stared at Ruo Ximeng in shock.

Every year, they came to the Jinling River to feed koi and pray for good fortune.

Some had been lucky enough to attract a koi before, but a scene like this—never before.

‘What the…?’

Su Chen was dumbfounded.

‘Was this actually working?’

This was blatant favoritism! He and Ruo Ximeng were using the exact same bait!

‘Was it the size of the bait? Or was his hand position all wrong?’

It didn’t make sense!

Su Chen was completely baffled.

Meanwhile, two especially beautiful and rare phoenix koi had already swum right into Ruo Ximeng’s hand.

“Hiss—”

At that moment, the surrounding crowd all gasped in unison.

‘What kind of incredible luck was this?’ Two phoenix koi actually chose to go with Ruo Ximeng!

“Oh ho!”

Just then, Su Chen suddenly felt something nudge his hand underwater.

He looked over and saw a rare black-and-white patterned koi settle into his palm.

As the crowd looked on with envy, Ruo Ximeng had gained two phoenix koi, and Su Chen had also received one extraordinarily rare koi.

At Ruo Ximeng’s residence, there was a dried-up lotus pond.

Now, with these three auspicious koi, they could clean it out and raise them there.

***

“The Chen Family Patriarch is arriving!”

A sharp-voiced announcement rang out in the distance, and the crowd immediately stirred in chaos.

“Make way!”

“Clear the path!”

“Are you blind? The Chen family is handling business—get out of the way if you don’t want to lose your eyes!”

The Chen family’s guards were loud and overbearing, shouting aggressively as they pushed people aside.

Dressed in an embroidered robe, with jade ornaments at his waist and a soft golden belt, a member of the Chen clan strolled forward, spinning two jade balls in his hands and looking coldly at Ruo Ximeng and Su Chen.

Elsewhere, Chen Jingting might not dare make waves, but in the capital of the Great Yan Empire—his turf—no one had ever dared provoke the Chen family like this.

The Chen family was one of the four great aristocratic clans of the empire’s capital.

Outside of the imperial family and a handful of extremely noble bloodlines, who would dare not show the Chen family due respect?

Now, with just one glance, Chen Jingting was completely reassured.

Su Chen and Ruo Ximeng were not on the short list of people the Chen family absolutely could not afford to offend.

Since the two of them had injured his eldest son, then today, Chen Jingting would make them regret ever being born.

“You two—how do you want to die?”

Even in broad daylight, under the nose of the emperor himself, Chen Jingting remained arrogant and threatening.

“Uh… are you always this bold?” Su Chen looked genuinely surprised.

In all his life, this was the first time someone had asked him how he wanted to die.

“Hmph! Still putting on an act? Today, I swear, I’ll make you both regret ever coming into this world!”

Chen Jingting was completely unfazed by Su Chen’s reaction.

To him, Su Chen wasn’t even worth taking seriously.