Chapter 1: Rain in Wei, Youngster in Wait

During the spring time of year thirteen, rain poured down upon a city

in the region of the Tang empire.

This city is the city of Wei located in the northwestern borderline of

the empire. Since the original purpose of the settlement was to

counter the invasion of barbarians from the Great Plain, the walls of

the fort have been reinforced to an extreme degree. As a result of

the enhancements, the walls protecting the city had a sturdy and

muddy external appearance.

When the wind started to blow during the dry seasons, the mud on

the walls will break off and swirl around in the air only to land on the

cheaply made military camps and on the soldiers themselves. The

mud invaded every part of the city painting the city brown from inside

out. When people went to sleep and shook their blankets, a mini-

sandstorm can form out of the dust.

It’s early spring and soldiers welcomed the rain cheerfully because it

would wash away all the dusts on the roof. More importantly, the

eyes of people seem to be cleansed by the long missing rain – At

least the eyes of Ma Shi Xiang are flashing under the rain.

As the highest rank officer in Wei City, Ma Shi Xiang’s current

attitude can be described as humble. Although he is unsatisfied

about the muddy foot prints on the luxurious carpets, he covered his

dissatisfaction up perfectly by acting surprised.

He bowed before an elderly dressed in a dirty robe. “ Well-

respected elder, although I’m not sure what other materials the nobleguest in the camp needs, I did prepare a hundred soldiers for escort

if she desperately wants to leave tomorrow.”

The elder smiled warmly and pointed at the shadows in the camp

while shaking his head to show no complains. Suddenly, a cold and

proud female voice came out of the camp. “There is no need, just

finish your own business.”

Ma Shi Xiang did not spent too much time to figure out the true

identity of the noble guest in the camp when their mass entered Wei

city this morning. He showed no sign of negative attitude or

complaints against her self-centered and harsh response.

The silence in the camp broke off when the guest suddenly spoke,

“The trip from Wei City to the capital has to go through Mount Min.

The roads in the mountain may collapse any minute due to this heavy

rain…… Get me a guide from the military so I can get through the

mountain safely.”

Ma Shi Xiang was stunned for a moment until he remembered a

hateful guy. He thought deeply for a few seconds and answered, “it

shall be done.”

Outside of the military camp, several military officers look at each

other with different facial expressions, some felt sorry, some felt

reluctant to let go, some felt rejoice while some felt surprised, but

none of them had expected that Ma Shi Xiang will actually choose

that person to serve as the noble’s guide.

“General, are you really ready to let him go that easily?” One officer

said surprisingly.

Wei Village is not big, even summing up all the officers and soldiers

the city won’t have more than three hundred soldiers. The military

camp far away from rich places sometimes seems more like a

bandit’s nest. The so called “general” is simply the lowest rank in the

army. However Ma Shi Xiang direct troops extremely strict, or we

can say this Wei Village “bandit” leader really liked others to call him

“general,” so even during daily conversation, his subordinates always addressed Ma Shi Xiang as general.

Ma Shi Xiang, wiped off the rain on his face, looks at the yellow

ponding near the military camp and took a deep breath.“We can’t

always keep him in a place that can’t support his talent. The

response of the recommendation letter had came on for more than

half of a year already. A bright future is ahead for that kid, and he

has to go to the Capital to take the test to get into a respectable

academy. Also, him going with the noble to the capital will bring him

favor when he go to the capital.”

“I doubt that noble will care…”The military officer answered

irritatedly.

The door behind opened and a pretty maid walked in, looked at Ma

Shi Xiang and the military officers “Let me see the guide.”

She did not hide her arrogance at all while facing the court’s general,

after all, she is the personal maid of the noble.

Prime Minister’s door guards, nobles’ maids, prince’s guests are the

most troublesome type of people to deal with. If you get close to

them, you will get complaints but if too far away, you will get trouble.

They are the most annoying to deal with. So naturally Ma Shi Xiang

really didn’t want to deal with these kind of people. He casually

talked for a bit and called one officer over to take this noble’s maid

to meet the kid.

When the rain had finally paused, the city of Wei was as clean as it

can be. Along the way, trees along the side started to show the

early signs of spring, yet the city is too small even though the

landscape is so beautiful. Not soon after, the officer already led the

maid to the destination, a shabby but lively room.

Hearing the noises from the room, the maid frowned slightly ‘Are

they really drinking wines in a military camp during the day?’ Wind

blew up the curtains, the sound inside suddenly got clear, as

expected, the people were playing the finger-guessing game(a

drinking game at feasts, kinda like rock paper scissor), but they are not playing the regular one — as the maid listened to the details

inside, a quick humiliation appeared on the maid’s pretty face, and

she secretly clenched up her fist.

“Let’s play a lustful finger guessing game, uh! Who is lustful? Uh, you

are lustful! Who is lustful? Uh, you are lustful! Who is lustful? Uh,

you are lustful!…. ”

The filthy sounds echoed back and forth and seem to never end,

actually, the game lasts for a really long time and there hasn’t been a

winner yet. The maid gets more and more angry as time passed.

She lifted the curtains and gave a furious look into the room, and

saw a kid at the first moment, who sat opposite to the desk.

That kid is about 15 or 16 year old, wearing a cotton-made jacket

that was commonly seen in the troop. His jacket was really dirty, his

hair was curled up, and a bit oily, but his face was really clean, which

makes his freckles really clear.

“Who is lustful? Uh, you are lustful!”

Completely different from the dirty words, the kid’s facial expression

is especially serious. Not only did he not look lustful, but also his

face suggested a sense of holiness. His right hand keeps playing this

finger guessing game, giving out his fist like the wind. It seems like

winning the game is more important than his life.

“I win!”

The long lasting game finally ended, the black hair kid waves his

right arm forcefully, declaring his victory, and smiled happily.

However, the kid’s opponent didn’t want to admit his loss, and

insisted that the kid changes his fist when he is yelling “Who is

lustful?”So the room becomes a mess as the people started to

argue. The audiences on the sides each had their own inclinations,

and no one is able to convince the others. At this time, someone

suddenly shouted out, “As usual, listen to Sang Sang!”

Everyone then puts his eyes toward a corner of the room, there was a 12 year old girl moving a bucket. She was really skinny, her

skin was dark, and she has a common face. The clothes she was

wearing seems to be way too big in comparison to her size, most

likely her master stole this clothes from somewhere. She was

moving a bucket that was probably heavier than her own weight, and

it’s obvious that she looked very tired.

The little maid whose name is “Sang Sang” puts down the bucket

and turns around, soldiers look at her nervously, they are just like the

gamblers waiting for the dealer to declare the result. Obviously,

people can tell that such situations happened more than once

already.

The little maid frowned as she looked at the kid, then looked

towards the angry soldier who sits opposite to the kid with a serious

expression, “At the 23rd turn, you gave out scissor, he gave out

rock, but you said ‘he is lustful,’ so you lost at that time already.”

The people all started to laugh, and spread out. That soldier scolded

as he pays the money, the kid accepted the money happily. He

taped the soldier’s shoulder to show honest console,

“Think optimistically, this entire Wei city…… no, this entire world,

who can win against me, Ning Que?”

The maid’s facial expression was filled with disappointment, so the

general who stood next to her was starting to worry as well. He

clinched the curtain with his fist, took a deep breath, and was about

to cough to warn Ning Que but the cold stare of the maid interpreted

his actions.

After stopping the general to warn the guy, the maid followed the

youngster and his servant out the camp to observe them carefully.

The general had no idea what the maid wanted to do, so he thought

it was an exotic habit of people from the upper class.

The youngster named Ning Que did not show any special routine on

his way home. He bought some food, chatted with the fat lady at the

maid was that the tiny servant following Ning Que was struggling to

carry a heavy water barrel while he showed no sign to help.

Even though the empire had a specific and strict social structure, the

culture was very simple and honest. Even in the capital, where

prosperity and immorality coexist, people could not just stand there

and see a little girl suffer without feeling sympathetic.

“They allowed servants in the military?” the beautiful maid asked the

general calmly, trying to suppress her anger.

The general scratched his head and answered,“There was a huge

drought and famine few years back, countless refugee poured into

the southern states and the border cities. There were dead bodies

everywhere on the sides of streets. I heard Ning Que dug Sang

Sang out of dead body piles and saved her. He was an orphan as

well. They lived and supported each other to this day.”

The general continued, “when he enlisted, his only request was to

bring the little girl into the Wei city,” he looked at the maid and

explained carefully, “we all know the rules of military does not allow

such situation, but their condition was quite special. It was hard to

push a little girl into her doom, so everyone just pretended……to

know nothing.”

After listening to the explanation, the maid started to feel better, but

after looking at Ning Que carrying the roast chicken around

cheerfully while the little servant struggled to move the water barrel,

her mood turned terrible again. “Is this living and supporting each

other? he clearly wanted to kill that little girl!”

Wei city truly was small, after a little while, the four man crew

arrived at a small house in the southern part of the city. There was a

tiny rock garden outside of the house, and around the garden there

was a simple fence where the maid and general were standing and

looked into the house.

The tiny maid pushed the water barrel next to a tank and stepped

onto a small wooden bench. She used all of her strength to pour the

tavern, and seemed to enjoy his life. The only thing that angered the water into the tank. Quickly, she started to wash the vegetable and

cleaned the rice. Waiting for the food to cook, she took a piece of

rag and started to wipe the desks, chairs, doors, and windows. Not

for long, steam rose from the stove and covered around her small

body.

Although it was raining last night, the water didn’t wash away the

dust on the windows, but rather left muddy watermarks on them.

These watermarks had been quickly erased by the wiping of Sang

Sang. The small house had suddenly became much brighter and

cleaner.

It was clear that she does these chores daily, her actions were swift

and experienced. It was easy to feel silly and sympathize for the girl

when she move around busily as sweat ran down her face.

Except the guy, Ning Que seemed to be lacking these two emotions.

He calmly sat on a bamboo chair with his left hand flipping through

an old book and his right hand holding a tree branch writing things on

the wet muddy floor. Sometimes when he started to ponder, he

throws the tree branch away and flipped his palm upward, and there

would be a cup of hot tea served right to him.

The soldier of Wei city got used to this frame for a while now, so

they didn’t see anything out of place. But the gaze of the noble guest

outside of the fence got colder and harsher by the moment.

Especially when she saw that the young maid had to check up on the

youngster and serve his needs while she did the hard chores, the

noble guest’s complexion frozen and was filled with hatred.

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