Xuanqing Guard

Chapter 249: Chapter 249: Thoughts

After finishing the meal and chatting for a while longer, Shen Hao bid farewell and left.

Just as Shen Hao left, a dignified woman in her fifties came out from the main hall. Surprisingly, there was also a faint wave of True Qi on her, albeit weak.

"Master, has he left?"

"Yes, he’s gone."

The woman poured tea for Tang Qingyuan, then sat to the side and said, "I just peeked at him twice through the crack in the back door. He’s quite handsome, with an aura about him, and carries himself well. At such a young age, he’s already a Senior Sixth Grade Hundred Households Officer. Back when you were his age, you were just a Small Banner Officer. I say, Master, this man really is an exceptional match. Why didn’t you bring up the matter I mentioned to you?"

"Why bring it up? To take advantage of him like the Feng Family did?" freēwēbηovel.c૦m

"How is that taking advantage? Is our Xiaoqing not a worthy match for him?" The woman curled her lips, clearly displeased with Tang Qingyuan’s words.

"My dear, you know that’s not what I meant. You heard what happened in the back, didn’t you? He outright rejected even a marriage alliance with the Feng Chengying family, left no room for negotiation. Do you really think Xiaoqing throwing herself at him would make him change his mind?"

"Just because he rejected the Feng Family doesn’t mean he’ll reject our Xiaoqing! You should have taken the opportunity to let Xiaoqing meet him—hmph, I just don’t believe that, with her looks, Xiaoqing couldn’t captivate him! Besides, matters of the heart are about fate, about first impressions. Didn’t I take a fancy to you at first sight back when you were down and out?"

Tang Qingyuan burst out laughing. He knew his wife too well: she loved to be a little temperamental at times, but she would be fine after some coaxing. So he reached out and pulled her into his arms, causing a burst of playful laughter and scolding from her.

"What do you think makes a good match? Someone like Shen Hao? You only look at appearances but know nothing about his nature. Our Xiaoqing can’t be handed over to someone like that."

"What do you mean by that?"

"You’ve only been in Fengri City for a short while, but you must have heard Shen Hao’s reputation out there, right? Do you know what people call him?"

"What do they call him?" The woman seldom went out and had heard the name Shen Hao plenty, but knew nothing of the rumors.

"Evil Star."

"Evil Star? That... doesn’t sound very pleasant." The woman didn’t quite get it. How could such a good-looking young man have such a murderous nickname? Her own husband had served as an official for decades and never got called anything like that.

"Unpleasant? Heh, who cares if it sounds pleasant? That’s a title Shen Hao built for himself, one life at a time—bloody and intimidating, no one dares take him lightly. You can imagine his character: calling him ruthless wouldn’t be an exaggeration at all.

So, best let someone else have a son-in-law like that; a humble family like ours can’t bear someone like him."

...

On the way back, Shen Hao mulled over what Tang Qingyuan had said at the banquet.

Shen Hao had a decent understanding of Tang Qingyuan: the type to look ahead and behind, with ideas but lacking decisiveness. He had some courage, but would rarely go all-in for anyone. So you could only believe about half of what he said.

The matter of the Feng Family using a marriage alliance and asking Tang Qingyuan to test his stance was definitely true. As for the purpose, Shen Hao only half agreed with his own analysis of Tang Qingyuan.

The Feng Family saw his potential and wanted to make a big bet on him in advance? That seemed unlikely. Because if the Feng Family really wanted to make the match, they wouldn’t have asked Tang Qingyuan—someone with whom they had past grievances—for help in this matter.

How close, really, was Tang Qingyuan to Shen Hao in public? Barely more than the fact they’d both lived in Li City. They had some personal friendship, but compared to Zhang Qian and Gan Lin, who were also on Jiang Cheng’s side and had deeper ties with Shen Hao, Tang Qingyuan was far behind. What’s more, Zhang and Gan were both military men—the Feng Family would have found it even easier to approach them, no?

The marriage proposal, coming from Tang Qingyuan, just felt awkward to Shen Hao.

Especially after Tang Qingyuan briefly explained his unresolved issues with the Feng Family, Shen Hao felt it was even more out of place.

Maybe the Feng Family guessed that Tang Qingyuan would sabotage things, and deliberately had him bring it up?

If that was the case, then what was the Feng Family playing at? Were they just using the pretext of a marriage alliance to express goodwill to Shen Hao? And if so, would there be other moves coming up?

Sitting in the carriage, Shen Hao thought this through and realized he’d already come up with quite a lot. He also noticed he was getting more and more calculating and dark-minded, always inclined to overanalyze everything.

He sighed inwardly: Life forges one’s nature.

Back home, Shen Hao put aside all these distracting thoughts. He had a habit of slurping up a bowl of hand-pulled noodles made by Xia Nu before starting his cultivation routine for the day. Over the past month, Shen Hao could clearly feel improvement coming rapidly, and guessed he’d break through within a few days.

Early the next morning, just as Shen Hao lifted a hot cup of tea in the Public Office, Wang Yiming hurried over to him.

"Sir, new developments from Tu Kui City!"

"Oh? Speak."

Accepting the Copper Rod from Wang Yiming, he told Wang to give him the short version while he quickly unfurled the Copper Rod and scanned its contents.

"Sir, yesterday afternoon the Households Commander Wu requested an Array Master from the Governor’s Office. The Array Master arrived and began compressing the large-scale Restriction Array outside ’Caiyuan Village.’ By mid-9 p.m. last night, it had been reduced to less than three li. But just then the Restriction changed again. While no one saw it coming, it suddenly expanded, instantly returning to its original twenty-li range. All following troops were caught inside before they could retreat."

"Bang!"

Shen Hao also saw the words at the end of the Copper Rod: Three hundred Thousand Households Station elite, two Pingshun City General Flag units, two newly recruited General Flag units from Tu Kui City—all trapped inside that Restriction.

What infuriated Shen Hao wasn’t the incident itself, but that such a major event had occurred the night before, and yet the Thousand Households Station had reported nothing at all. Not until morning did they send word via Copper Rod—and even that message was relayed by the only remaining Small Banner Officer from Tu Kui City’s Black Banner Battalion. freeωebnovēl.c૦m

What the hell was the intelligence unit at Thousand Households Station doing?

"What’s going on with this report? Why didn’t the Thousand Households Station send anything?"

"That I don’t know, sir. But I just went by the barracks—the Thousand Households’ Personal Soldiers have all been mobilized, reportedly under direct command of Households Commander Wu. So... I believe Commander Wu is deliberately suppressing the information."

Suppressing again?!

Twice in a row troops have gone missing, and this guy still wants to keep it quiet?! Is Wu Changhe treating the vast domain of Fengri City as his backyard? Deciding matters on a whim—this is utterly absurd.

"Notify that Small Banner Officer in Tu Kui City to continue holding position outside the Restriction, and to send hourly reports. Also, give orders to our Black Banner Battalion brothers in the Thousand Households Station to start preparing.

Also, draft a briefing to the Governor’s Office in my name and make it an urgent report."

Wang Yiming acknowledged and hurried off to carry out the tasks. In the Public Office, Shen Hao felt too restless to sit, pacing back and forth.

In less than half an hour, Wang Yiming had finished two urgent briefs and submitted them. Because they were marked urgent, and signed by Shen Hao himself, the messages reached the Governor’s Office swiftly without delay. By noon that day, Jiang Cheng’s handwritten reply was already in Shen Hao’s hand, and at the end of the reply was the signature and seal of Black Banner Battalion’s Thousand Households Officer, Xue Houxuan.

Joint signature?