Chapter 130: From now on, I've got your back.

Despite grieving the two hundred taels of fine silver, Murong Fu was far more consumed by anxiety over the whereabouts of the legendary heirloom night-pearl.

If he truly failed to locate the heirloom pearl, Murong Fu felt his standing would become precarious in the extreme.

Standing to the side, Murong Bai cast a complex gaze at the leisurely Fang Xu, his mind drifting to various thoughts.

Glancing back at the frantic, desperate searching of Murong Fu before him, a slight, knowing smile played at the corners of Murong Bai's mouth.

His choice had indeed been correct. Looking at the pathetic state of Murong Fu right before his eyes, did that not speak volumes about the reality of the situation?!

"Damn it! Damn it! Which one in the world is it?!" Murong Fu muttered frantically, tearing through the items. Right now, no one could fathom the turmoil raging within Murong Fu's mind.

"I'll take this one!" Murong Fu snatched up a doll that looked somewhat similar to the rest and tossed the words at Fang Xu, who couldn't even be bothered to lift his head this time.

With just a slight nod from Fang Xu, Murong Fu impatiently tore the doll in his hands to absolute pieces.

Yet the outcome left Murong Fu with a vacant, glazed expression; his entire body began to tremble uncontrollably.

"How is this possible! How can this be!" The whites of Murong Fu's eyes were now faintly bloodshot, resembling a reckless gambler who had lost his entire fortune.

"Impossible! It has to be among these! Get out of my way, all of you!" Murong Fu roared at the guards who stepped forward to block him, and his own guards immediately rushed up in response.

Clearly, both sides were on high alert, while Fang Xu remained completely at ease, leisurely sipping from his teacup.

"Fang Xu! This young master wants all of these dolls! Are you going to hand them over or not?!" Murong Fu bellowed in a low, furious voice, making it abundantly clear that he had reached his breaking point.

Yet so what if he had?! Did he seriously think Fang Xu would cower before him?

That was blatantly impossible. Had he possessed any fear of Murong Fu, he would never have chosen to provoke him in the first place.

"What kind of talk is that from Young Master Murong? If Young Master Murong wishes to have them, naturally I can let you have them. I only wonder if Young Master Murong still has that much silver on hand?!" Fang Xu stood up, stretched his limbs, and asked with a smile.

"Bring out all the money!" Murong Fu roared at his attendants behind him, but the servants only stared back at him with awkward, troubled expressions.

"Bring the money out! Do I need to repeat myself to this young master again?!" Murong Fu demanded angrily of his retinue, causing the complexions of his servants to turn utterly ashen.

"Young Master... Young Master... there isn't much money left. We only have a few dozen taels of loose silver remaining..." the servant replied, casting an embarrassed look at Murong Fu. After all, carrying over two hundred taels on one's person already constituted a heavy sum.

Who in their right mind would wander around carrying hundreds of taels of silver? Did they enjoy dragging around dead weight?!

"Useless! A pack of good-for-nothings! Fang Xu! I'll ask you one last time! Are you giving them to me or not?!" Murong Fu roared, glaring furiously at Fang Xu as he pressed for an answer.

"Heh, and what if I don't? Do you honestly dare to lay a hand on him?!" Before Fang Xu could reply, an air of disdainful laughter drifted down from the second floor.

At the sound of those words, the expressions of both Fang Xu and Murong Fu shifted slightly.

Fang Xu's face carried a hint of awkwardness; after all, he had intended to handle the matter entirely on his own, never anticipating such an intervention.

As for Murong Fu, his countenance twisted into something far more ferocious as he locked a deadly glare onto the second-floor stairwell.

Standing at the second-floor exit were Zhuge Jun and Shangguan Lian—two figures Murong Fu wished never to lay eyes upon, though he hadn't the faintest idea when they had arrived.

The one who had just spoken was naturally Zhuge Jun, who looked down at Murong Fu with an amused, playful gaze.

"There's no need to glare at me like that. I was simply curious what you intended to do to my brother," Zhuge Jun asked, feigning innocent curiosity as he stared at Murong Fu, leaving the latter completely speechless.

It felt as though he had swallowed a fly—utterly nauseating. The moment Murong Fu caught sight of Zhuge Jun and Shangguan Lian, he knew deep down that he could no longer use brute force or coercion against Fang Xu.

"Zhuge Jun! Do you seriously intend to meddle in this?! Or are you genuinely prepared to incur the wrath of the Murong clan?!" Murong Fu demanded, his face contorted in a bitter struggle.

"Oh? Is that so? Then I truly must apologize, because from this moment on, Fang Xu is under my protection!" Zhuge Jun declared with a smile, pointing directly at Fang Xu, a gesture that stunned both Fang Xu and Murong Fu alike.

Yet one thing was certain: Zhuge Jun was dead serious when he spoke those words, prompting Shangguan Lian to gaze at him with a curious expression.

"Fine! Very well! You win, Zhuge Jun! Fang Xu, name your price!" Realizing he had exhausted every other option save for pure financial resolution, Murong Fu conceded.

"It's quite simple. Seeing as you don't have much money left anyway, I'll give you a special discount: five hundred taels of fine silver! However, the payment won't go to me; it goes to Zhuge Jun," Fang Xu said, smiling broadly at Zhuge Jun.

"This young master doesn't have that kind of money right now!" Though he loathed admitting it, Murong Fu's entire remaining fortune truly fell short of five hundred taels of silver.

"No problem at all. Old Gu!" Fang Xu signaled to Gu Bei standing nearby, and Gu Bei immediately brought out a pre-prepared set of brush, ink, paper, and inkstone.

"All you need to do is sign your name and press your thumbprint right here, and this entire pile of dolls is yours. What do you think, Young Master Murong?" Fang Xu asked with a grin, leaving Murong Fu with absolute zero alternatives.

He had no choice but to accept Fang Xu's terms. Written clearly in black and white was the stipulation that the five hundred taels owed by Murong Fu was owed not to Fang Xu, but to Zhuge Jun—a calculated arrangement Fang Xu had concocted from the very beginning.

Despite a million bitter reluctuances tearing at his heart, Murong Fu ultimately pressed his thumbprint and signed the document; otherwise, there was simply no escaping this predicament today.

Watching Murong Fu complete the signature and thumbprint, Fang Xu smilingly handed the paper over to Zhuge Jun, earning a fleeting look of bemused curiosity from the latter.

"What is it? Did you expect to cover for me without getting a little reward in return?" Fang Xu teased playfully. Even so, Zhuge Jun chose to accept the paper.

After all, five hundred taels of fine silver was by no means a trivial sum, even to Zhuge Jun.

He was simply baffled as to why Fang Xu could be so generous as to gift such a substantial windfall directly to him.

Could it truly be, as Fang Xu claimed, merely because of those words he had spoken earlier?!

If that were genuinely the case, his words had practically been worth their weight in gold! Zhuge Jun shook his head with a wry, bittersweet smile. Yet, aside from Murong Fu, another person was clearly dissatisfied with the arrangement.

Standing right beside Zhuge Jun, Shangguan Lian puffed out her cheeks in a pout, making her displeasure with Fang Xu's decision to hand the entire five hundred taels over to Zhuge Jun abundantly clear.