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Lan Jue lifted his chin slightly. “You’re so confident?”
“Regardless of whether I am or not, you are still the lord of a principality, your foundation will not be shaken with just this kind of gossip,” Chu Xiang replied. “What we need to worry about is the purpose of this incident. Was it a coincidence or will there be a follow-up?”
“Then what if they smear the lord? If they get false evidence–”
“Since it’s false, we have ways to prove the truth,” he said. There was a smile in his eyes like a spring breeze blowing through willows, as if he was only talking about a casual outing.
Before Yang Feng could say anything, Lan Jue had already raised a hand to stop him and, turning to Chu Xiang, he asked with a curious smile, “What solution do you have?”
“Your Majesty need only leave it to me,” Chu Xiang grinned.
* * *
Chu Xiang wasn’t in a hurry after this conversation. He had always dared to think wildly — even if he only had a guess, he could still grasp it keenly. With the addition of the slow pace of life in this era, he really didn’t feel rushed.
Now there were two possibilities: first, that this matter was targeting Lan Jue, as a result of Eastern Tang people making trouble; and second, that the assassin was just bad at cleaning up and the disaster only coincidentally fell on Lan Jue’s head.
As for whether Lan Jue trusted him, Chu Xiang didn’t care too much. Lan Jue hadn’t yet handed over his hidden manpower to him, showing that he was leaving room to protect himself. Gaining the trust of his future monarch was a non-issue to Chu Xiang — as time went by and enough days passed, sincerity would naturally show itself.
He and Chu Hexing had been here for just a few days and the little girl had already put on weight. Although Lan Jue was ridiculed as a backwater lord, none of the people in the post house dared to neglect him; even a lowly maid like Chu Hexing received treatment far better than an ordinary person would have. She now wore a pink dress, had her hair in twin buns, and used freshly bloomed flowers as accessories.
Chu Xiang rubbed her head. “From now on you should pay attention to your words and deeds, don’t always curse, you should also be friendlier with others, and stop acting like you want to fight people all the time…” Remembering what Yang Feng told him about what happened the previous evening, he warned her, “Like that commander of the Iron-Clad Guards, you might not be able to beat him even if you did your best. At times like that you have to understand a truth, which is that you must be able to bend and stretch, you can’t always go tit-for-tat.”
Chu Hexing bared her little white teeth in a grin. “Okay gege, I know.”
“Also, you can’t be so casual with Lord Lan,” he said seriously.
“Oh…” Chu Hexing felt aggrieved.
Feeling himself softening, Chu Xiang resumed rubbing her head. “Because he is someone deserving of respect.”
“Don’t be tricked!” Chu Hexing stubbornly warned him. “A lot of nobles say one thing but do another! I think that lord treats gege really weirdly!”
“Does he?” Chu Xiang chuckled. He had done nothing of note in this world — apart from composing or reciting poems, he only listened to some gossip about nobles. The Lord of Western Tang was infamous in aristocratic circles. Despite being a small territory, its leader had ample military achievements, so Chu Xiang felt that he had an adequate grasp on Lan Jue’s character.
The most famous event must be the Battle of Shaqiu Pass eight years prior. At the time, foreign tribes were restless and invaded Dongzhou, and smoke rose all over the border regions. If the outlanders could not be repelled, everything would collapse like a thousand-mile embankment and their civilization would lose much of its foundation. However the central government was unable to dispatch troops to suppress the invasion and had to ask the lords of its vassal states to do so instead. Of them, the first to reach the front lines was unexpectedly the Western Tang Army, who had rushed all the way from far away Jinzhou.
The young lord then became famous in a single battle. From then on, although the capital’s nobles all said he wasn’t one of them, or wasn’t educated enough, none of them dared to truly offend him.
He chatted with Chu Hexing for a while longer before asking the key question. “Little Xing, can you tell your brother about your parents, and why they sold you to a brothel?”
* * *
The imperial capital Tianyan was the most enchanting flower in the land. She bloomed atop blood and bones and her roots reached the deepest abyss; this place was the pinnacle of power and the eye of the storm in troubled times. Even as the vassal states ripped each other apart around her, those within Tianyan could still sing and dance to their heart’s content.
Every spring, what the capital’s nobles talked about the most was the selection of the Peony. In the major dancehalls and brothels, they would use flowers to vote for the most beautiful person of that spring — it wasn’t necessarily a woman, sometimes a brothel’s catamite was far more beautiful than any noble young miss.
Tianyan’s most famous brothel was Jingshan Court, but this year’s Peony was from Chunjiang Pavilion instead. On a flower-lined platform high above, a handsome beauty in men’s clothing was playing a guqin. The music drifted through the air, high yet clear, towards the dignitaries and scholars in the audience who were listening intently, but who knew if they could hear its real meaning.
“The woman on the stage is this year’s Peony, she’s called Bai Mo. The lady who went to my house to buy me said she was Mo-niang’s maid, and that it was Mo-niang who took a fancy to me,” Chu Hexing said quietly as she pulled Chu Xiang to mix into the outer edges of the crowd.
It was popular for women to crossdress as male this year, which had begun with this Madam Bai Mo. This fashion trend had even spread to the aristocratic circles, causing many young ladies to wear men’s clothing, but no matter how they tossed about, none of them could compare to a prostitute.
Chu Xiang nodded, then asked Chu Hexing to go back to the post house.
“Gege, why can’t I go! I have to go with you, what if you meet another bad person?”
Chu Xiang, laughing in surprise, looked at the girl who only came up to his chest. “Even if I do meet a bad person, you’re so tiny, how can you help?”
“Why can’t I, if it’s a fight I definitely can do it!” she retorted indignantly.
“Then can you help me protect Lord Lan?” Chu Xiang asked. “People want to hurt him, not me. The ones after me didn’t succeed, so they won’t do anything for now. Plus, I’m his person now, so killing me is to openly offend him. If you protect him well, it’s the same as protecting me.”
This explanation was half true and half false but Chu Hexing had no way of determining this, so she nodded obediently. “Okay, I won’t leave him for half a step!”
Sorry, Lan Jue! Chu Xiang said silently.
Visiting brothels. In the past, many of Chu Xiang’s colleagues had loved transmigration stories, and they had once discussed that if they did transmigrate, the one place they had to go to was the brothel!
At the time, Chu Xiang had even mocked them: “You’re all people who graduated from Starfleet Academy’s modern philosophy class, can you have some dignity!”
Now he was the one going to a brothel.
Chunjiang Pavilion was built on the banks of a river. Its many gazebos which seemed to float on the water and were connected by bridges had no walls and were instead surrounded by sheer curtains. A graceful beauty sat behind each curtain, each doing a variety of activities — playing guqin, playing weiqi, reading, painting, and more. Chu Xiang felt that if they were comparing cultural literacy, these talents from the brothel would be far superior to Lord Lan, and if they disregarded four-dimensional space-time battle tactics, they would also be superior to him.
It was a pity that they were born at the wrong time.
If it were during the interstellar era, they could pull out any random one and, with their many versatile skills, it would be more surprising if they didn’t become an inheritor of China’s intangible cultural heritage, or at least become a celebrity popular throughout half the universe. However, in these dark years, they could only be someone else’s plaything and let destiny take its course.
Chu Xiang sighed, then casually tossed a pouch of money over and randomly selected a lady.
The brothel’s madam, seeing that he was both handsome and generous, immediately winked wildly and let a Peony-level courtesan attend him instead of the low-class lady he chose.
Lower class courtesans could rarely receive any good guests, they were either people who suddenly came into a windfall of money or someone with strange habits. Not everyone could see a real Peony — often, chasing a Peony was even harder than chasing a noble young miss, involving both gifts and comparing skills with competitors. Madam Mo herself only played guqin for guests in return for their money and never exchanged a word.
“Who did Madam Mo receive tonight?” Chu Xiang couldn’t help but ask.
The girl attending him was slightly disappointed, but still smiled sweetly. “Madam doesn’t have a guest tonight, she’s performing every day this week. Young Master, this slave isn’t bad either, I won’t disappoint you. If you only look at Madam Mo, I’m going to be jealous.”
“Okay okay okay,” Chu Xiang said, picking up his wine cup, “then I’ll leave it to you.”
Chu Xiang, who had sneaked into a brothel, acted like a philanderer and wasn’t shy at all. He even hugged the Peony as he drank wine, and was hardly the type to raise suspicion here — after all, for someone from the culture of the 28th century, this level of physical contact was nothing. During several battles that Chu Xiang had experienced, time was very limited. Every chance to shower was truly a race against time, there was no time at all to distinguish between genders. He had even helped Team Leader Shao Yun clean her mechanical spine without feeling an ounce of anything untoward.
It was a pity that the courtesan didn’t think so. In the space of just a few sentences, this handsome young man had already touched her heartstrings. Although he gently turned her down when she wanted to take him into her inner chambers, he was extremely generous with his money. The beauty was just regretful that they couldn’t have a spring night together.
He’s still thinking about Madam Mo. The rejected courtesan gritted her teeth resentfully.
Chu Xiang hadn’t drank alcohol for a long time, so the reason for his hasty departure was… he miscalculated his alcohol tolerance. The Starfleet prohibited the consumption of alcohol, even if someone wanted to drink, they couldn’t do it openly. As a result, he was so tipsy that the corners of his eyes were tinged red and he even winked at Yang Feng when he opened the post house’s door for him.
He raised a finger to his lips. “Shh, don’t tell His Majesty… the girl who I was drinking with today really isn’t as pretty as him.”
Yang Feng petrified, because behind Chu Xiang, Lan Jue had his arms crossed, eyebrows raised, and thoughts inscrutable.
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