Lin Xiao was still eyeing the one called Bai Ruohan and he couldn’t dispel the suspicion in his heart. The man’s built was very familiar. ‘And that voice… I am very sure that I have heard of that voice recently!’ Lin Xiao thought to himself. But he just couldn’t place it where he heard the voice.
“Xiao-er, are you nervous?” Long Yinlian asked. Though blind, he had lived with Lin Xiao for a good two years. They live together, eat together and Lin Xiao would occasionally sleep with him along with his other three sons. Lin Xiao’s mannerism, he understood it well. Right now, he could sense that his disciple is feeling troubled.
“Shizun, don’t you think that person call Bai Ruohan sounds familiar?” Lin Xiao asked. He knew that compared to him, Long Yinlian would be more sensitive to sounds. Maybe it was just a slightly similar voice, and he was mistaken.
“En. You are right. We know who that person is. But Xiao-er, since he hid his identity then there must be a reason. Let’s pretend that we don’t know and play along,” Long Yinlian informed Lin Xiao.
Upon hearing his master’s answer, Lin Xiao tried to run through his memories once more. He tried to remember the people he met these past few days, narrowing them to only males. One by one, the image of people he met came to his mind, from Xia Yuanfeng’s family, the members of the White Swan, the officials in the Imperial Court Hall then finally, the people he met in the Imperial Palace.
One by one, the voices of the people he met sounded in his mind until he reached the voice of a certain person. Finally realizing the identity of the man called ‘Bai Ruohan’, Lin Xiao felt his body became stiff. ‘What Bai Ruohan?! That’s the Emperor! Why is he outside playing pretend?’ Lin Xiao thought as he then tugged his master’s sleeve.
“Shizun…” he called out in a very soft voice. He glanced around to make sure that no one is nearby, and that Xia Yushen is still playing with the duan jian not too far away from them. “Shizun, that man is the emperor?”
“En.”
Long Yinlian’s confirmation only made him even more nervous. Lin Xiao carefully eyed the figure of the emperor before shifting on his seat. “Shizun, do you know why he came outside?”
Long Yinlian did not answer. If he was being honest to himself, he also didn’t understand. If the emperor was still a prince, it is normal for them to be out and about to see how their citizen’s living condition. But as emperor, the risks of assassination are high and if the assassination was a success, then the country would be in turmoil. The only thing that Long Yinlian could think of is how the emperor is interested in Lin Xiao.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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“Doesn’t the emperor have those shadow guards around? I think even now, there are about four of them,” Lin Xiao replied.
‘There are six, but two of them has been following us. Since Xiao-er was unable to sense them, does that mean the skills of the shadow guards assigned to us are higher than the one currently accompanying the emperor?’
At first, Long Yinlian wanted to agree to join the ‘tour’ if they were invited because of the two shadow guards that has been following them. Six shadow guards are better than four. Now after finding out the two with them are more skilled, Long Yinlian was even more determined to follow. What he said before was his true thought. The emperor’s safety is the safety of the country. The more people there are to protect the emperor, the better.
Meanwhile, the ‘three’ Bai family member and Sun Chengmei are still in discussion. The Imperial city is big, so they definitely couldn’t tour the whole city in one day. So they would have to first know what it is that the emperor, posed as Bai Ruohan, would like to see.
“I heard from Minghai, the city is divided into the outer district, middle district, inner district and finally the Imperial Palace. I have no interest in going to the palace, nor am I interested in the inner and middle district. The lifestyle there doesn’t represent the state of the country. So let us go to the outer district,” Qin Yijun said.
“The outer district…?” Sun Chengmei clearly turned anxious at Qin Yijun’s word. She turned to Bai Chenyi, who only nodded his head. She frowned, but could only inwardly sigh.
The outer district, as the name says it, is the first district you go through as you enter the city wall. The people who live there, are just simple citizens. No big family lives there, and no merchant dared to stay there. It was said that most of the trouble that were reported to the guards, came from the outer district.
‘Maybe the emperor is aware of the recent problem that plagued the outer district and wished to see if it were true?’ Sun Chengmei thought. If it is as she assumed, then she is more than happy to be of help to the emperor.
“Speaking of which, what were you doing prior to this?” Qin Yijun asked Sun Chengmei after their small talk.
“Ah, right, I forgot!” Sun Chengmei quickly turned to Long Yinlian. “Master Long, the price for the duan jian is 170 silver coins.”
Suddenly being addressed, Long Yinlian was a bit shocked but quickly recovered. He was about to reach out to his pouch when Qin Yijun placed one gold coin on the table.
“The duan jian is for the young boy, right? I saw how he handled the blade earlier. He is very talented. Let me pay for this in appreciation of such a young talent,” Qin Yijun said out loud.
Long Yinlian froze in his action. He contemplated whether to accept the emperor’s gesture or not. He wondered if he rejects it, would it be considered not giving the emperor some face?
Thinking of it this way, Long Yinlian felt that he should accept. But before he could say anything, it was Lin Xiao who spoke up.
“Lin Xiao thank Lord Bai for his kind gesture on behalf of Shizun. But we cannot accept this. This duan jian is a gift from Shizun to my Shidi. We can’t simply let someone else pay for a gift meant for that purpose,” Lin Xiao said to Qin Yijun.
His words made sense, and if it was a normal person, they would retract their offer to pay for them. Unfortunately, this is the emperor that he is dealing with. And in the face of his beloved, the emperor appeared to have a wall as thick as the fort’s wall that separates the border of Qin Empire and Zhu Empire.
“Alright. Then, you can pay for the duan jian. How about taking this money as payment for accompanying me touring the outer district?”
Lin Xiao: …
‘Why did I feel like… I’m being treated like those people from the pleasure house? Pay a sum of money for a time of company?’ Lin Xiao was just about to get angry when he heard Qin Yijun’s next sentence.
“I heard that you beat Meng Chen. I thought that maybe I can hire you as a temporary bodyguard for a day. How about it?”
Author’s note:
Hello again, everyone! Just want to make a small announcement that I have a Halloween project up in tapas. Here is a summary of it:
Shen Jiayi is an avid horror game fan despite him being unable to stand them. It is his guilty pleasure. In order to help him go through the horror games, he usually does live streams. Over the years, he had garnered quite a lot of loyal fans. One day, one of his top fans and fan club manager suggested that he do a video blog on one of the abandoned hotel with some fans as a way to get to know each other. And this is the start where everything goes wrong.
The video blog recording should’ve only taken five days at most. One day, Shen Jiayi woke up in a different place, and his memories of the past few days were blank. As he opened the door to the hallway, he noticed the eerie atmosphere almost immediately. Walking few steps, he then realized the door from before had disappeared.
As he continued to explore, he suddenly sensed a hint of danger behind him. When he turned back, he saw a tall figure covered in dark mists. Based from the height alone, Shen Jiayi knew that it was not human. At the foot of the figure, lay a bloodied mess of a corpse which then further triggered Shen Jiayi’s warning bell.
He ran to escape, but as he entered a room, he suddenly found himself to have entered the NightMire and a system was bound to him. According to the system, he was already dead, and how he died? He himself didn’t know. To find out, he had to participate in game worlds where his survival rate will be graded and points will be awarded. Depending on how many points he gain, he will be sent back to his world moments before his death.
Faced with a choice of eternal death or a chance to survive, Shen Jiayi decided to try his chance. But he soon regret his choices as he ended up experiencing death after death with each world he visited.
There are only 3 chapters so far, but if you are interested, you can head over here or search for RE:CYCLE in tapas.
And yes, it is BL.
Thanks for the chapter.
Thanks for the chapter! The Halloween project seems interesting!
I’m really looking forward to the “tour”. Thanks for the chapter!
Ah finally caught up i said it many times in comments and i’ll say it again author thank u sooo much for writing this novel i love this work of ur very much hope u complete this work of urs 🥰😘