Xuanqing Guard

Chapter 298: Chapter 298: Accident

Shen Hao isn’t the type of upright gentleman who can remain unmoved by temptation—in the end, he’s just an ordinary man, with the same desires as everyone else. Especially when it comes to someone like Lian Xiang, warm and soft as jade in his arms.

The tightly wrapped, thin dress, that arousing fragrance, and the way her waist would twist, sometimes deliberately, sometimes not—all of it was just adding fuel to the fire.

At first, Shen Hao pretended to be calm—one hand on the table, one hand below, chatting and boasting with Zhang Qian and Gan Lin as usual, occasionally lifting his cup for a drink. But little by little, the hand on the table disappeared, and instead there was a mysterious commotion under Lian Xiang’s shawl as she sat on his lap.

The fire in the brazier was blazing, and the six of them at the table had completely lost interest in eating or drinking. They were paired up, practically glued together.

After that, Zhang Qian and Gan Lin couldn’t hold back anymore—they picked up the songstresses in their arms, kicked open the door of the private room, and went off to "rest." Their boisterous laughter only made Shen Hao, left behind in the room, even more stiff with tension.

"I haven’t reached the age to leave the pavilion yet, Lord Shen, you’ll have to—mmph..."

The next morning, Shen Hao slowly pulled his numb arms out from under the bodies beside him. After catching his breath, he rolled over and sat up in bed.

Two women lay sprawled messily, still sound asleep and visibly exhausted.

While washing up, Shen Hao couldn’t help but recall last night. He’d definitely been fired up, but in the end he hadn’t managed to take Lian Xiang. He’d certainly gotten plenty of cheap advantage, but it was just short of actually taking her. In the end, he had the madam send in two other "firefighting" girls. Luckily, the songstresses at Hong’en Hall were all top-notch—even if none were quite as bewitching as Lian Xiang, they were still excellent. Only after several rounds did he finally fall into a deep sleep.

He hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but looking back now, Shen Hao found the whole thing a bit odd. Especially when he was about to get things done with Lian Xiang—she slipped away. He actually didn’t manage to hold onto her.

A slight smirk appeared at the corner of his mouth—there was clearly more to this than met the eye. A mere songstress had managed to slip out of his hands? "Took advantage while I was distracted" just didn’t cover it. That sort of skill surely wasn’t something a charm-wielding songstress should have, right?

And Lian Xiang had clearly been the one to seduce him all night. At first, Shen Hao thought this Green Waist Songstress was drawn to him because of his talent, but now he no longer dared to jump to conclusions.

Leaving Hong’en Hall, he found a nearby oil tea stall, ordered a big bowl, and with a meat patty, called it breakfast. As for Zhang Qian and Gan Lin—word was they’d both left after midnight, not staying the night. Their families kept them on a short leash, unlike him, a solitary man with no one to answer to.

Just as Shen Hao stepped out the door, in fact, back in the private courtyard behind Hong’en Hall, Lian Xiang already knew he was gone. She hadn’t slept well all night—her whole body felt hot. After sleeping a bit, she had to get up and stand by the window for some fresh air to cool down.

Originally, she’d just meant to give that bastard surnamed Shen a little taste, enough to get him hooked. Tricks like playing it hot and cold—Lian Xiang had mastered them long ago and rarely slipped up. But last night was an exception.

She herself was moved. For the very first time. It was as if that bastard had some inexplicable pull that made her lose control.

It was almost embarrassing to think of—like a hunter being pecked in the eye by the bird she was hunting. If not for a final sliver of clarity, holding her back at the last moment, she might really have given herself away to that bastard last night. The thought made her body flush again, her pretty face burning red.

"He was so worked up at the time, he couldn’t have noticed I used a body technique to slip away, right? No way!" During her sleeplessness in the second half of the night, Lian Xiang worried she might have slipped up, but the whole thing had been a blur. She still felt sure Shen Hao wasn’t that sharp.

After a good while of tangled thoughts, Lian Xiang started pondering in her heart—how should she act next time they meet?

...

After breakfast, Shen Hao went to the Public Office and quickly got down to work.

It was nearly year-end—the time for bureaucratic evaluation. Especially this year: in Fengri City, the winds of change were blowing, with all manner of big and small events one after another. Everyone in the Black Banner Battalion had to sort out everything they’d done this past year, file detailed reports up the chain, and at last it would all land on Shen Hao’s desk for the final evaluation.

Of course, the same went for Shen Hao. He had to report everything he’d done for the year in writing, which would then form the basis of his own evaluation at the Governor’s Office.

These evaluations meant everything to a member of the system—they were the key to promotion and pay raises alike.

Excellent, satisfactory, or poor. If you got a "satisfactory," you were safe. An "excellent" would add to your record and get a fat year-end bonus. If you were rated "poor," it meant you’d screwed up badly—most of your year-end pay would be docked and there’d be a black mark on your record, torpedoing any hope of promotion.

As for Shen Hao this year, there were only a handful of things he could actually write: the Jingxi operation, the epidemic cover-up case, discovering the Special Land, and more recently, the Sword Emperor’s Tomb—just those four. Of course, he’d done plenty else, but those couldn’t be put into an official report.

The real highlight was the Black Water Plan, but as that was still under wraps, it would have to keep hiding in the darkness.

Still, just those four things were more than enough to make Shen Hao’s annual report shine. Getting an "excellent" was in the bag.

Shen Hao felt calm, but not everyone did. Take Wang Jian, for instance.

Wang Jian only got his Senior Seventh Grade title last month, but there’s no way he could include the credit for his promotion in his report, right? He didn’t even know what to write—nine out of ten things he’d done couldn’t see the light of day. How was he supposed to fill out his report? Was he doomed to get a "poor" rating?

So while reporting the latest intel on the Xu Family Sisters, he shamelessly brought it up—said he didn’t really know how to write a report, hoped Shen Hao could give him a few pointers.

"Get lost! What, it’s your first day on the job? Don’t know how to write an evaluation report? If you can’t write it, don’t bother—pack your bags and go back to Li City. I’ll find someone who can write to do the job," Shen Hao laughed and cursed. Of course he saw through Wang Jian’s little scheme.

"Come on, milord. I really don’t have anything I can put down, you know full well everything I’ve been doing recently is unspeakable."

"You know how to make up stories, don’t you? Don’t you still have that Patrol Flag assignment? You spend your days patrolling in the open and in secret—just cobble something together and I’ll give you a ’satisfactory.’ Happy?"

"Hehe, milord, think I could get an ’excellent’?"

"In your dreams. An ’excellent’ gets audited. You think your made-up stories would hold up? If your cover gets blown, that’s already the least of it—ruin the Black Water Plan and how many heads do you think you have to lose?"

Wang Jian shrank his neck and gave an awkward laugh, not daring to press further about it.

Shen Hao changed the subject, waved the intelligence slip in his hand and smiled. "Didn’t expect Bai Changqing to bite so soon. Looks like that old bastard really has his heart in it this time."