The pockmarked face looked down from his superior height. Although his face wasn’t covered in menacing flesh like the other several men, making him look fierce and evil, his thin and tall body standing there, combined with a face full of resentment, truly had a somewhat frightening air.
Madam Cui frowned and was about to scold aloud, but was pulled back by Cui Yingshu.
“Don’t worry, this little girl never does anything she’s not confident about. Since she’s made up her mind, forget these mere greenwood bandits. I reckon even if they were Imperial Guards, she’d still have to strip off a layer of their skin first.”
Madam Cui indeed had never seen Song Chuyi suffer a loss. Hearing this, she suppressed her inner anger and reluctantly stood to the side with a cold face. But seeing Song Chuyi’s composed appearance, she still felt somewhat uneasy. She turned her head and quietly whispered to Cui Yingshu, “How is it that after going to Qingzhou, she seems somewhat different again?”
The different Song Chuyi didn’t speak. She opened her two beautiful large eyes and stared fixedly at the pockmarked face. Although she was a head shorter, somehow her imposing manner didn’t show the slightest hint of cowardice.
As they stared at each other, it was the pockmarked face who surrendered first. He rolled his eyeballs and ran over to beg Cui Shaoting for help, “My lord, please don’t let a little child toy with us. Whatever the matter is, you can just give orders directly, can’t you?!”
Cui Shaoting, with his hands behind his back, glanced at Song Chuyi. Seeing her staring at the person like a clay bodhisattva statue, he couldn’t help but shudder himself—if one opened their eyes in the middle of the night to see such a person staring at you, it would be strange if you weren’t scared half to death.
“You only need to follow my orders from now on.” Song Chuyi finally turned her eyes away. Now she was no longer staring at just the pockmarked face alone. Her gaze swept over this group of people once, then finally settled on Cui Shaoting. “As long as you help me with my tasks, your families—my uncle will also keep them with me to help you look after them. Uncle, isn’t that right?”
The named Cui Shaoting turned his head back to look at Cui Yingshu. Seeing Cui Yingshu had no particular response, he turned back and resignedly coughed a few times and nodded.
Yu Shi couldn’t help but grip Madam Cui’s hand tightly and quietly said in her ear, “How truly strange. How did little Yi know that my husband had arrested all these people’s parents and family members, which is why they’re willing to obey orders?”
Madam Cui sighed. For a girl to be this clever might not necessarily be a good thing.
The pockmarked face looked at Song Chuyi again in shock—her hair combed into an exquisite double bun, wearing a peach-red standing-collar short jacket, covered with an outer garment of gauze like colorful clouds that couldn’t be described by any particular name, with a plain white embroidered skirt below. Her entire person was exactly like a little fairy untouched by mortal concerns.
Such a delicate little girl actually wanted him to obey her orders?
He concealed the loss of composure on his face, looked at Cui Shaoting with some hesitation, and shouted rather impolitely, “Fine! Since the lord has spoken, what could we be unwilling about? Just tell us what you want us to do!”
Song Chuyi waited until they had all finished their rambling complaints before smiling without changing expression, “For now, you should finish killing the sheep first. When you’ve completed your work, someone will take you to where you should go. At that time, I’ll tell you what exactly I need you to do.”
When one is under someone’s eaves, one must bow one’s head.
The pockmarked face and the others weren’t afraid of Song Chuyi, this little girl. No matter how terrifying, wasn’t she still just a little girl? Without power or influence in her hands, she couldn’t do anything to them. What they feared was Cui Shaoting—this person was famously cunning and didn’t play by conventional rules. When he was in Fujian, he had thoroughly dealt with all the mountain bandits and brigands in their entire county. He now held their wives and children, even their fathers and mothers, in his grasp. Since this lord now wanted them to serve a little girl who hadn’t even grown all her hair yet, then they would go.
As soon as Madam Cui left the room, she pulled Song Chuyi’s hand and frowned, “Tell me honestly, what exactly do you need these people to help you do?”
Song Chuyi also gripped her hand in return. Seeing both uncles had pricked up their ears, she thought for a moment and said, “Recently it seems someone has been targeting me. I have no people under me, so it’s difficult to investigate.”
Cui Yingshu immediately sobered his expression, “Do you know who it is? Did you provoke them in Qingzhou?”
Song Chuyi shook her head, somewhat wanting to sigh, “I estimate it’s not from Qingzhou. They’ve been watching me for quite a while. It’s somewhat thorny, but not difficult to handle. I already have my own way of dealing with it.”
Seeing she clearly didn’t want to say more, Madam Cui and Yu Shi exchanged glances, both unable to help feeling worried.
It was still Cui Shaoting who looked at Song Chuyi thoughtfully—returning from Qingzhou this time, he’d heard that young masters from two households had accompanied her. One was the son of Guo Huaiying, the other was the heir of Marquis Jinxiang, Han Zhi.
Song Chuyi had previously been quite admiring of the Guo family, so by that appearance, this Young Master Guo surely wouldn’t need Song Chuyi to use these fierce and evil-looking mountain bandits to deal with him. That left the other one, Han Zhi?
Both being from military families, he and Han Zhi’s father, Marquis Jinxiang Han Zhengqing, had always been somewhat at odds—he himself was a martial zhuangyuan by examination, properly required to write policy essays too, whereas Han Zhengqing relied on hereditary title to serve as commander-in-chief at Datong.
Previously, one in the south and one in the north, they could maintain no conflict, but now that he had been promoted to Vice Minister of War concurrently serving as Commander-in-Chief of the Three Borders, he was Han Zhengqing’s direct superior.
This Han Zhengqing had long been making small moves in private—
“If there’s really something wrong, don’t try to handle it alone.” Cui Yingshu frowned and interrupted Cui Shaoting’s distraction, earnestly instructing Song Chuyi, “These people are difficult to control. Don’t end up being burdened by them instead. That would truly be too unworthy.”
Madam Cui and Yu Shi both quickly chimed in, “Don’t end up picking up sesame seeds while losing watermelons. That would be even worse.”
On the contrary, Cui Shaoting felt he had grasped a bit of the situation. He pulled Song Chuyi aside and quietly asked her, “Since you returned from Qingzhou it’s been less than two days total. In such a short time, who could you have offended? It must be someone who followed you all the way back from Qingzhou. The Guo family one doesn’t need consideration, so that leaves the heir of Marquis Jinxiang?”
Song Chuyi neither nodded nor shook her head. Instead, she pestered him with questions about the pockmarked face and the others, “Uncle, rather than spending time asking me these things, you might as well teach me how to firmly hold these people in my grasp. You tell them to charge into battle and they’re willing—if I learned these skills, would you still worry in the future that I couldn’t deal with those who covet my things?”
Cui Shaoting reached out and tapped her on the head, unable to help laughing, “You’ve already grasped their vital points, yet you come to me for methods? Little girl, not very old, but your methods are quite varied and numerous.”