Zan Jin was nowhere to be seen. Within the white screens, there were only Yuan Cheng and the two women kneeling at her side, yet Mo Zi felt very at ease. Even if there were raging waves outside, as long as this person was here, not half a drop of water would touch her.
“Who else did you invite?” Three mats, two occupied—Mo Zi asked.
“Since waiting is boring anyway, why don’t you guess?” Yuan Cheng drank little wine and ate few snacks. The spectacle of eating mooncakes one after another on Mid-Autumn Day would not be repeated.
“Jin Yin.” She needed almost no thought—it came out immediately.
Clap, clap, clap—three claps. Yuan Cheng curved his eyes. “Is Mo-gege too good at guessing riddles, or do you keep that person too much in your heart?”
“Didn’t the three of us become sworn siblings? Big brother and little brother are both here—how could the middle one be absent?” Although the process of that sworn brotherhood remained a mystery to this day, regardless, the three of them wouldn’t joke about such matters based on their personalities. They could deny it with their mouths, treat it lightly in attitude, but in their hearts, they could trust each other. If Quan Tomb was one of Yuan Cheng’s secrets, then if she could know about it, Jin Yin could too. Therefore, she was this certain.
“Your guess is quite good, but the chances are eight or nine out of ten he won’t be able to come.” Yuan Cheng glanced at that empty mat, his expression hiding something again.
“Yuan Cheng, you… didn’t properly tell him the specific location, did you?” Mo Zi suddenly saw through it.
“I did—the same as I told you: West Mountain, listening to spring water. However, he’s not as clever as you, so I guess he might not be able to find the place. He’s also someone who particularly thinks himself clever, so who knows, he might climb to even higher mountains.” If he didn’t invite him, nominally it would be just him and Mo Zi—a man and woman alone. If he invited him but that fool couldn’t figure it out, he could just look at the peach-blossom face that pleased him. Wonderful.
No matter how clever Mo Zi was, she didn’t know this was what he was thinking, but said: “In the future when you invite people, you really should speak clearly. ‘West Mountain, listening to spring water’—anyone who saw that note would think it was some famous scenic spot.”
“Those with fate will encounter it.” Yuan Cheng didn’t listen.
Mo Zi helplessly shook her head.
The lovesickness beans swayed on their branches, laughing so hard they bent over.
“Mo Zi, I want to give you a token of my regard. Is that alright?” Yuan Cheng was quite satisfied with the empty seat and turned his gaze back to Mo Zi. Playing against her was still endlessly enjoyable!
Mo Zi blinked several times, clearly a bit surprised. “Didn’t you already send a return gift? Speaking of which, I almost forgot to thank you. Thanks to you, I earned a large sum.”
“How much?” Yuan Cheng really wanted to know what sort of amount she considered a large sum.
“Three thousand taels.” Mo Zi got a bit excited mentioning this. “A celebration barge for the Empress Dowager’s birthday from the palace—they provide ship diagrams and lumber, only need to deliver the initial vessel by the deadline, don’t even need to spend a penny of Hongyu’s money on paint. It’s literally like having pie fall from the sky.”
Three thousand taels is a large sum? Yuan Cheng said: “Seeing how happy you are, I wasn’t going to say this. The Ministry of Finance allocated four thousand five hundred taels to the Bureau of Imperial Manufacturing for that ship, but by the time it got to you, it was only three thousand taels. Which eunuch came to your Hongyu?” Though not in a position of power, he knew clearly what he should know.
“Eh? You’re saying Eunuch Lian Gui embezzled fifteen hundred taels?” A third—that ruthless? Mo Zi first stared wide-eyed, then very quickly her eyes returned to normal size, after which she narrowed them with a smile. “I got the big portion. I’m not complaining.”
Yuan Cheng’s dark eyes brightened slightly, silently praising her forbearance.
“But isn’t the Ministry of Finance being reckless? Giving so much silver for a barge used for acrobatics.” They could cast it in gold.
“The Empress Dowager’s seventieth birthday cannot be slighted. Moreover, if it were an official shipyard, they would indeed need to give this price. Currently the waterway situation is tense, warfare could break out at any moment, so all official shipyards put warships as first priority—even the Empress Dowager’s birthday is the same. Other ships have to wait. Those that can’t wait can only turn to civilian shipyards. The Ministry of Finance allocating silver to the palace would rather give more than less—after all, offending people around the Emperor brings no benefits. Those eunuchs—if they have the ability, they skim oil; if not, they drink clear soup. No one says much about it. It’s all established custom and rules.” Yuan Cheng liked watching these small greeds and thoughts expand. For someone like him urgently trying to accomplish something, he must drill through loopholes. The more loopholes, the more room to maneuver.
“Such customary rules—who knows how much disaster they’ll cause.” Mo Zi sighed lightly. “Anyway, you’ve already given a return gift. You don’t need to send anything more.” A token of regard indeed! She already felt quite awkward when bribing him—now when it was his turn to give her a token of regard, she felt incomparably awkward.
“One is a return gift, one is a token of regard—how can they be lumped together? You rather underestimate me.” Yuan Cheng wasn’t awkward at all—he was quite looking forward to it. Looking forward to her reaction when she received his first “token of regard.”
No, how would she dare underestimate him? More like fearing he had some ulterior motive.
But she had long learned to accept fate and asked cautiously: “What is it?”
Yuan Cheng showed her two fingers. “Two—”
“Two what?” This time it wasn’t his fault for only saying half—she was anxious to know.
“…” Yuan Cheng’s fingers pointed right. “People.”
“Eh? Mm? Ah?” Three consecutive interjections expressing incomprehension. “What things?”
“Not things—people. Two people.” Yuan Cheng smiled very warmly at this moment. “Give them to you to keep for fun.”
“Give them to me to keep for fun?” This person said people, not small animals. Mo Zi rolled her eyes and waved her hand in refusal. “Don’t. I can’t even support myself.”
Yuan Cheng’s smile suddenly turned cold, his voice also cold. “Weren’t you taught that ‘if the master doesn’t want you, your lives are useless’? What should you do now?”
Mo Zi was still flying in confusion when she heard two sounds of metal scraping, close by her ears. Instinctively thinking her neck would suffer again, she jolted alert. Looking left and right, she was shocked into stuttering.
“You… what are you… doing?”
The two women who had been kneeling at her sides each held a dagger, points against their own hearts. Two pairs of pitch-black eyes looked at her as they said in unison: “Please accept us, Miss!”
“Yuan Cheng!” Mo Zi couldn’t help shouting loudly.
Yuan Cheng propped his chin on his curled hand, not looking anxious at all. He smiled gently at Mo Zi again. “If you don’t accept them, they’re abandoned. Keep them to waste rice?”
“You, this person—” Their friendship was still quite good—she couldn’t curse him as cold-blooded.
“It has nothing to do with me.” Yuan Cheng tapped the table with his index finger. “It’s the training requirements they received since childhood. I merely heard there was such a rule and wanted to see if they would truly seek death to demonstrate their determination. Now it seems it’s true. Anyway, the decision is in your hands. I won’t interfere. Since it’s my token of regard, I can’t take it back. If you don’t want them, I don’t want them either. Whether they live or die, I don’t care.”
“Yuan Cheng—” Mo Zi looked left and right. Those two daggers seemed pointed at her own heart, making it hard to breathe. “This is called irresponsible.” Fine, she wouldn’t curse him as cold-blooded, but still wanted to condemn him slightly.
“Why should I be responsible for two death warriors? Since they’ve accepted the task, they should be responsible for themselves. If they can follow you, perhaps they can live a bit longer. If they can’t follow you, they’ll die now—only blame their bad luck.” Yuan Cheng raised his eyebrows, completely without reflection.
In this situation, not accepting them meant she was being irresponsible. She completely believed that if she said the word “no,” there would immediately be two more corpses beside her, spattering her skirt with fresh blood.
“I can accept you two, as long as you change this habit of drawing knives on yourselves at the drop of a hat from now on. I don’t want death warriors either. I don’t have the ability to hit people I don’t like, but sometimes when I’m angry, you can go up and punch them a few times or kick them. Usually, you can help everyone at the shipyard cook meals and such.” Just follow then. Anyway, her shipyard had plenty of people—two more wouldn’t make a difference.
“Don’t want death warriors? Cook meals?” As soon as Yuan Cheng spoke these words, the two daggers that were about to be lowered returned to their original positions.
Mo Zi glared at Yuan Cheng. After a long while, she only sighed. “Yuan Cheng, not accepting won’t work, accepting also won’t work—what exactly do you want me to do? Didn’t you say it was a token of regard? If I accept, don’t interfere with what I have them do.”
“You’re wrong.” Yuan Cheng’s eloquence never lost to Mo Zi’s. “My token of regard is giving you two people. The people are death warriors, so they must be used as death warriors. You having them cook meals doesn’t count as my token of regard. These two—one understands medicine and poisons, with silver needles can make people live or die as desired by striking pressure points. The other has a swift sword and swift movements, one sword one life, and with light-body technique can easily take you in and out of any place.”
“But I already have Zan Jin. Haven’t you seen his martial skills? Aside from that Yi Dan by your side, he hasn’t lost to anyone.” Moreover, she could absolutely entrust her life to Zan Jin’s protection.
“But Zan Jin is male. With your current identity, he can’t follow you into Prince Jing’s mansion. To coordinate your comings and goings also requires advance messaging. But these two can hide in any corner of the prince’s mansion and be ready to follow your orders at any time. They don’t need to, nor can they do other things, because they only have one task—you. This is the use of death warriors. They’re also easy to keep—when it’s time to eat, they’ll find food themselves in rotation, same with sleeping. If you’re bored, you can chat with them. Though they won’t have their own opinions, echoing you shouldn’t be too big a problem.” Yuan Cheng wouldn’t give up until he achieved his goal.
Listening to this, it sounded more convenient than keeping dogs. Mo Zi hurriedly called a halt. “But I have absolutely no use for people like this!” Death warriors should follow people like Yuan Cheng, because he wasn’t upstanding enough in his conduct and many people wanted his life. Hmph!
“You need them.” Yuan Cheng continued tapping the table.
“I don’t need them!” She couldn’t worry about those two daggers anymore—what she had to fight for was her own principles.
“You’ve needed them since you encountered the Great Qiu spies at Wangqiu Pavilion.” Perhaps even earlier, but at that time he didn’t yet know who she was.
“Eh? You know about that? Who told you?” She slapped her head, startling the two women. “It must have been Zan Jin. Just like Bai Liang and Qian Liang, they all have blind worship syndrome for you, this big young master.”
“Regardless of who told me, the fact is you’ll very soon have trouble.” Yuan Cheng withdrew his hand from tapping the table, his five fingers clenching. “You know very clearly in your heart, don’t you—Song… Mo Zi?”
Mo Zi immediately sat bolt upright.
Wind blew, disheveling her hair, strands tangling and twining around each other, but her eyes were so bright, catching only sunlight in their depths, golden rays shooting out, fearless—
Today’s second update, also yesterday’s make-up update.