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Martial law was imposed upon the capital. Every street and alley was filled with guards, while specialised elite palace guards were stationed at each city gate. Wanted posters for the assassins were plastered all over the walls — however, no one knew what the assassin who stole the sword Longque looked like. All the assassins had died on the spot, not because they didn’t want to keep a few alive, but because they all committed suicide. For expert assassins such as them, there were countless ways for them to kill others and themselves.
Meanwhile, the ordinary people of the city were indifferent to this, because this wasn’t the first time assassins operated within the capital and it had always been a matter for noblemen.
Chu Xiang stayed at the inn after sneaking away from the Spring Banquet. It was fortunate that something happened at the banquet that day, otherwise, he would’ve had to compose poetry and he really couldn’t do it.
In troubled times, elegance was no more than pretentiousness.
The atmosphere outside the window was the same as before with street vendors hawking their goods, one could hardly see any tension due to the situation. Chu Xiang sat at the table in silence, experiencing a rare moment of peace — the fleet usually spent a long time in space between each time they anchored on a planet, so it was very rare for him to see the real blue sky. In addition, even when he was on vacation, his communicator was always nearby and ready to receive orders. Now that he had nothing to do, he truly felt a little disconcerted.
As a captain, it was impossible for him to become a ‘luminary’ who clung to the powerful and wrote vulgar poems, and it was extremely unlikely for him to transmigrate back. The universe contained countless opportunities, but the ability to turn back time only belonged to higher dimensions — if there were any higher dimensional beings.
He finished his tea. Space only had nutrient solution, so the crude tea tasted quite good to him. Chu Xiang wanted to go downstairs to ask for another pot. This was the trouble caused by insufficient technology, there was no method of wireless communication.
Upon opening the door, he was surprised to find a waiter standing outside.
“Hey, I thought you’d be running out of tea by now, so I brought some more,” the waiter smiled honestly.
Service in ancient inns were so good, comparable to five-star hotels?
Chu Xiang calmly received the teapot and poured it into a cup. Shaking the slightly turbid crude tea, he smiled indifferently.
“You–”
Before the waiter could finish, Chu Xiang tossed the cup’s contents in his face, threw away the teapot, then turned and rushed downstairs.
Not two steps away, he heard pained howls behind him — there was so much poison in the tea, it couldn’t have been comfortable to be splashed in the eyes with it. Chu Xiang cursed in his heart, What kind of era is this, can’t they be a bit more careful with their poisons? They couldn’t even make it odourless or tasteless, yet they still dared to use so much in a single dose.
This disturbance hadn’t been quiet in the least. Halfway through Chu Xiang’s sprint downstairs, he realised that the many guests eating and drinking down there couldn’t be innocent — several ‘diners’ had their chopsticks raised but didn’t pick anything up for a long time, no matter how he looked at it, they seemed to be part of the assassins.
Chu Xiang felt a little exasperated. He saw through these crappy third-rate assassins so easily that he knew at a glance they were no match for the elites who were at the Spring Banquet, but then he thought that it was good that they weren’t elites, otherwise, with his physique that wheezed for breath after running just two steps…
He couldn’t go downstairs. When he checked in, Chu Xiang had taken the time to scout the entire inn — without an AI to scan it, he had to do it himself manually. This was one of his professional habits, as before he became a spaceship captain, Chu Xiang was part of the special forces and frequently performed stealth missions. Thus at this critical moment, he quickly determined that he couldn’t go through the front hall, and it wasn’t impossible for there to be someone guarding the back door, so he might as well… He climbed out of a window located between the first and second floors and barely managed to land, unscathed, on a pile of sacks.
Panting a few times, Chu Xiang couldn’t help but feel aggrieved. Who was it who wanted to kill him even at a tense time like this?
The window faced the street, where there were Iron-Clad Guards.
At the Spring Banquet, Chu Xiang had heard the story of him ‘jumping into the lake’ because he lost to someone called Han Feng in a poetry contest. In matters of life and death, Chu Xiang would never despise life; moreover, he clearly remembered whether he had been thrown or jumped himself, he would never get this wrong.
He had been targeted for a long time. And it wasn’t as if there was no reason to target him: the Grand Princess had personally appointed Tianyan’s Four Young Masters. These four young celebrities, not even mentioning their status, would receive a stipend from the Grand Princess’ estate every month. Besides, what did people want fame for? Wasn’t it just to have a good career, glory, and wealth?
Among the Four Young Masters– Chu Xiang sneered at the vulgar name which was just like something you’d find in a TV drama, like various combinations of Four Major XX, Six Big XX, or Eight Greatest XX and so on. Thankfully his 28th century colleagues would never know this period of his black history! He knew that among these four people, he was the easiest to dispose of. The other three all had some reputation within the capital, only he came from elsewhere.
Then the question became, who wanted to get rid of him.
Was it Han Feng who competed with him?
He should wait and see. It might be, but if it was him, wouldn’t it be a bit too stupid? If he replaced him immediately after the murder, even fools would know he did it, so it was very likely that Han Feng was also a pawn.
In troubled times, the only things more chaotic than the world were human hearts.
The entire bustling capital city Tianyan was filled with killers hired by different forces. Each force hid its own agents, because everyone wanted a piece of the delicious cake that was about to be served. In the eyes of those with power, this was the prize for playing the game.
The Iron-Clad Guards were still pursuing the assassins, but gradually, more were dispatched to hunt down civil servants. Some ambitious people had long been dissatisfied with the government and intended to start an uprising, however they had been unable to do anything due to the steel blades held by the Iron-Clad Guards.
Chu Xiang deliberately chose a route with Iron-Clad Guards for his flight from the inn. Although there were fewer assassination methods now compared to during the 28th century, he didn’t have many options for defence either, so it would be better to let the assassins and Iron-Clad Guards consume each other.
The assassins inside the inn probably didn’t expect that a weak scholar would suddenly develop such strong battle instincts. They hadn’t deployed any manpower on the street, letting Chu Xiang easily escape the predicament.
As he walked aimlessly, he heard a commotion in front of him. Chu Xiang originally wanted to avoid it, but then he found that he recognised the person at the center of the commotion.
It was a brothel, where a tall, strongly built1五大三粗: lit. five big and three thick, the five big being big hands, big feet, big ears, broad shoulders, fat hips; and the three thick being thick waist, thick legs, thick neck. woman was dragging a skinny girl inside. Passing guards only looked coldly on as the girl screamed without pause.
The thin yet stubborn little girl was Erni.
“You damned little brat, I’ve birthed you and raised you but now you don’t want to repay me, can’t you think about your brother or I your mother more?” the woman roared.
Erni’s feet were stuck to the ground like nails as she shook her head and shouted crazily, “Not going, I’m not going! Why don’t you sell yourself!”
“Little bitch, you’re looking for a beating!”
The brothel owner also stood aside, chatting and laughing at this farce. “This girl ran away five times in three days, if you hadn’t found her and brought her back, I would’ve thought you wanted to run with our money!”
“No no,” the woman smiled sincerely, “definitely not.”
At this moment, someone shouted, “Stop!”
Just as the brothel owner was about to tell them to mind their own business, they saw two people walk out from the crowd. The first one was very eye-catching, with a face even prettier than the flowers in the brothel.
The people on the street didn’t recognise him, but the Iron-Clad Guards all understood his identity very well. Although the Lord of Western Tang Lan Jue wasn’t a nobleman of the capital, it was impossible for them to be unable to recognise important figures, so a guard who had previously done nothing but watch hurriedly greeted him. “Lord Tang, please don’t mind it, it’s just a small thing, just a brothel catching an escaped prostitute.”
“It seems the girl herself isn’t willing,” Yang Feng commented.
“My good sir,” the brothel madam said flatteringly, “this is the girl’s fate, her family has already taken my money, how can it be her turn to decide? It’d be terrible if an untrained wild girl ruins your mood, why don’t you two come in–”
Lan Jue didn’t even give her a glance while Yang Feng glared at her, and the madam retreated.
The madam could take out the deed of sale, so even the Lord of Western Tang couldn’t deny the contractual agreement. The old madam might be a bit scared if it were a nobleman from the capital standing in front of her, but this was the lord of a foreign fief, he would be out of the capital and unable to reach her in just a few days. She had nothing to be afraid of.
Lan Jue looked at the mess of a girl. “Can I buy her?” Then he asked Erni, “Are you willing to come with me?”
The girl looked warily at the crowd of people, like a little wolf confronting hunters.
“This… This might…” the old madam stuttered.
“You can’t be afraid that My Lord doesn’t have the money?”
“No no no…” she reluctantly smiled. “If she joins our pavilion, she would be prosperous and wealthy in the future, she might not be willing to–”
The madam’s words were cut off yet again. This time, it was a relatively frail young scholar who walked out from the crowd, but the difference was that as soon as the wolf-like girl saw him, she immediately became a smug little kitten with its tail raised.
Erni made a sound of recognition and suppressed the words ‘Evil Star’ back into her throat, without shouting it out in front of everyone.
“I like this child too, and I know her, she would definitely be willing to come with me. So, can you allow me?” Chu Xiang asked.
He completely skipped the madam to ask Lan Jue, as the madam also knew that the girl couldn’t be kept.
Before Lan Jue could say anything, Erni had already scrambled behind Chu Xiang to clutch at his sleeves tightly, as if refusing to let go even if she died.
Seeing this scene, Lan Jue nodded. “Yes.”
Human life had never been valuable in the capital city. A girl of flowering age was sold for only fifteen jade coins, even cheaper than the clothes Chu Xiang wore. When Lan Jue saw that he decisively took the girl, he threw out the money first and walked away. Chu Xiang wanted to call out to him, but he walked too quickly and neither did the Iron-Clad Guards intervene, leaving only the sighing madam.
A moment of impulse bought him a girl. Chu Xiang led her a few streets away, and only began to feel uncomfortable when he was buying clothes for her.
“Why were you sold to somewhere like that?” he asked.
Erni, carefully holding her new clothes, said nonchalantly, “My parents want my brother to get married, the brothel people came to our door and convinced them.”
The brothel people went to her family? Chu Xiang took a look at Erni. This girl wasn’t ugly, but… she wasn’t so beautiful that people would trample their doorway for her hand in marriage…
“Evil Star! Will I go with you from now on?”
Chu Xiang wanted to say, You’re free, you can go anywhere, but looking at her hopeful expression, he changed it to a nod.
Chu Xiang: “How old are you?”
“Fourteen!”
Fourteen, but judging from her stature, he wouldn’t have been surprised if she told him she was a malnourished ten year old. Chu Xiang couldn’t help but rub her head — fourteen, what a good age, at this age, for girls of the 28th century, their biggest worry was that their homework was a little hard.
But for people in troubled times, life wasn’t for oneself to decide.
“Why didn’t you go with that person who’s obviously a noble?”
Erni blinked. “No one who’s got any money are good things, no way I’d believe he saved me out of the goodness of his heart, who knows if he wants to do something! They heat their houses so much that they open their windows in winter, but down in the lower city we don’t even have the money to buy coal, so many people freeze to death… oh, Evil Star, I’m not talking about you, you’re an exception, you’re the Evil Star!”
“Don’t,” Chu Xiang chuckled, “Why do you keep calling me Evil Star? If you want to follow me in the future, you’ll have to change what you call me.”
The girl thought seriously for a long time. “People say that when the evil star is up in the sky, it’s a star called Yinghuo. Should I call you Yinghuo?”2An archaic term for the planet Mars
Chu Xiang thought helplessly, I’m not Mars! Although I was stationed at the Mars base for a while…
“Call me brother,” he said.
Author:
The Grand Princess is the imperial sister! The combination is the unreliable emperor who does nothing and his idiot little sister who keeps a harem!!!
…
By the way, like Lan Jue says: Other people’s love tokens are all vulgar, but I’m different, I gave a little sister!
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- 1五大三粗: lit. five big and three thick, the five big being big hands, big feet, big ears, broad shoulders, fat hips; and the three thick being thick waist, thick legs, thick neck.
- 2An archaic term for the planet Mars
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