Chapter 136: The Joint Tribunal

Seated at his place, Qiu Chuji looked at the refined gunpowder product in his palm, a slight curve forming at the corner of his mouth.

He seemed to be eagerly anticipating what Fang Xu would say upon seeing it later. At this moment, Qiu Chuji resembled a child longing for encouragement.

Zhuge Jun and Shangguan Lian both cast complex gazes at Qiu Chuji, especially when they caught the smiling expression on his face.

Deep inside, Shangguan Lian treated Qiu Chuji as a formidable rival. Fortunately, however, Qiu Chuji was still a maiden at this moment.

This was the only thing that allowed Shangguan Lian and Zhuge Jun to breathe a sigh of relief, though Zhuge Jun couldn't help but wonder why he was sighing in relief?!

Furthermore, Zhuge Jun found it rather strange that he was lingering here right now?!

Yet if he were to make himself leave, Zhuge Jun felt a lingering reluctance. What a truly complicated shift in emotions this was?!

Just as the three of them were locked in a mutual standoff, Fang Xu returned to the inn accompanied by Old Wu and Gu Bei.

However, the moment Fang Xu stepped into the inn, the surrounding guards frantically signaled to him with their eyes, trying to convey the severity of the current situation.

Regrettably, Fang Xu completely failed to notice the guards' glances.

After all, from Fang Xu's own perspective, he had been deep in thought about his upcoming plans the entire way back.

How could he possibly spare the mental bandwidth to notice such things? But the instant Old Wu and Gu Bei stepped into the inn, the atmosphere felt somewhat wrong.

Especially when Old Wu and Gu Bei saw Zhuge Jun, Shangguan Lian, and Qiu Chuji sitting around the square table, they couldn't help but exchange a glance.

Only then did they finally understand why the surrounding guards had tried so hard to warn Fang Xu.

Could it be that Fang Xu still hadn't noticed anything at this point?! That was clearly impossible.

With a curious look in his eyes, Fang Xu gazed at the three figures seated at the table, wondering why all three of them were sitting here together?!

Sometimes, one truly had to marvel at how fair heaven could be.

When bestowing brilliance and talent upon a person, it also stripped away their superiority in emotional intelligence—the so-called complementary nature of things.

This ultimately resulted in Fang Xu's emotional intelligence not being particularly high; otherwise, he wouldn't have uttered the words he was about to say.

"It's pouring rain outside, aren't you cold sitting out here?!" Fang Xu asked, taking off his straw raincoat while muttering in confusion to himself.

Hearing Fang Xu's remark, everyone present was dumbfounded. Old Wu and Gu Bei, in particular, simply could not believe their ears.

After all, Fang Xu, whom they had admired just moments ago, now seemed as though his intelligence had utterly plummeted.

Yet Old Wu and Gu Bei quickly recovered their composure; after all, no one was perfect, and it was only natural that Fang Xu was clueless about matters of romance between men and women.

However! No matter how clueless one was about romance, no matter how dense a person might be, shouldn't they at least be able to read the atmosphere?!

Yet right now, Fang Xu couldn't even read the room.

As soon as these words left his mouth, the atmosphere—which had just begun to thaw slightly—instantly plummeted to absolute zero, even sending a chill through the bodies of Old Wu and Gu Bei.

"Hiss~! Why did it suddenly get so cold?!" Fang Xu muttered to himself after feeling a slight chill.

Just as Fang Xu intended to turn and ask Old Wu and Gu Bei behind him, he discovered that both of them had slipped away to a safe distance long ago.

Naturally, Old Wu and Gu Bei weren't fools, were they? The chill radiating from the three individuals right before them was something anyone could feel, wasn't it?!

"Eh?! Why are you all looking at me like that?!" Fang Xu asked, looking somewhat puzzled at the three people glaring at him. It was truly impossible to tell whether Fang Xu was genuinely clueless or just pretending to be!

"Sit down for me!"

"Sit down over here!" the three of them commanded in a synchronized chorus of slapping the table. Instinctfully, Fang Xu obediently settled into the empty seat at the square table.

His face was plastered with an expression of absolute innocence, even though Fang Xu himself had no idea why any of this was happening?!

Why had he instinctively chosen to sit down? And why were these three—Zhuge Jun and the others—so furious right now?!

"Well... actually, I can explain..." Realizing something, Fang Xu awkwardly rubbed the tip of his nose as he looked at the three of them.

"Who is she?!"

"Who are they?!" Zhuge Jun and Shangguan Lian pointed at Qiu Chuji, while Qiu Chuji pointed back at Zhuge Jun and Shangguan Lian, asking in unison with uncanny coordination.

"This... um... Old Wu? Old Gu?! Where are you guys?!" Fang Xu grew somewhat awkward, for he truly was ill-equipped to handle this kind of situation.

Subconsciously, he hoped Gu Bei and Old Wu would step in to mediate, but when Fang Xu glanced toward the spot where Gu Bei and Old Wu had previously been standing...

There was not a trace of Old Wu and Gu Bei to be found anywhere! This instantly left Fang Xu dumbfounded. The speed at which they had vanished truly commanded his admiration!

"Ahem, let me go find Old Wu and Old Gu!" Fang Xu smiled as he stood up, intending to use the excuse of searching for them to escape the scene.

Yet the moment Fang Xu stood up, Zhuge Jun, Shangguan Lian, and Qiu Chuji simultaneously rose in perfect unison, causing the polite smile on Fang Xu's face to twitch uncontrollably.

"Uh... pretend I didn't say anything." In the end, Fang Xu had no choice but to obediently sit back down in his seat, keeping his head lowered in inexplicable guilt, not daring to meet the gazes of the three people before him.

Yet the eyes of all three remained locked onto him with eerie synchronization. Had he not known better, Fang Xu would never have believed they hadn't planned this in advance.

Ordinarily, letting Fang Xu explain would have been no big deal at all, but for some inexplicable reason, under the collective pressure of these three,

Fang Xu suddenly felt as though any explanation he offered now would merely look like a cover-up, and that the cover-up would expose the hidden truth.

Around the tiny square table, an atmosphere reminiscent of an imperial court tribunal began to emanate.

Even though Fang Xu had done nothing to weigh on his conscience, he couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilty panic.

As for the surrounding guards, they had quietly slipped away from the main hall at some point, leaving only Fang Xu behind with the three opposing figures of Zhuge Jun, Shangguan Lian, and Qiu Chuji.

The awkward atmosphere returned in full force. Fang Xu possessed none of the calm and collected demeanor he had shown earlier when dealing with Murong Bai and Zhang He.

Right now, Fang Xu felt as though he were sitting on pins and needles. Had he not been utterly subdued by the imposing aura radiating from the three individuals before him, he might not have been this distressed.

What piqued Fang Xu's curiosity, however, was why these three were even in conflict in the first place?!

If it were solely about personal friction with him, Shangguan Lian made sense, but Qiu Chuji and Zhuge Jun were both clearly men?! Could it be that they harbored some unusual thoughts toward him as well?!

Fang Xu wisely kept these thoughts confined to his own mind. If he dared to voice them aloud, he truly wondered if the three people before him would pin him to the floor and thrash him mercilessly!