Housekeeper of the Hundred Blossom Palace

“Li Yong, is that person in a pub?”

“It’s not like I can pinpoint his exact whereabouts, but I have a general idea.”

Li Yong readily confirmed Yui Mei’s speculations when she tried to probe. He ruminated on which alley they would start their attack.

‘Why a pub?’

Yui  Mei thought he would be frequenting a store that sold armour in the Outer City if he was part of the Imperial Guards, so she was taken aback when told that he might be in a bar.

However, now that she thought about it, Yang did describe him as a “drunkard”.

Did that mean it wasn’t a condescending statement, and that he was really a boozer?

“Yui Mei, be more alert and look around for a drunk person. We’re looking for a short, stocky, bearded, grim looking fellow.”

Yui Mei scanned her surroundings under Li Yong’s direction.

‘Wait, so it’s decided that we’re searching for a boozer?’

Yui Mei was astounded, and she couldn’t help but think ‘Just how much of an alcoholic is he?’ as the two of them walked along the street, checking out every single pub they saw on their way. 

She discovered that even the commoners drank good booze here, as expected of a capital city. The liquor available in the borderland was mostly watered down to the point that the level of fermentation was low. On the contrary, they could already smell the aroma of booze wafting from the pubs just by passing through.

Moreover, there were a lot of bars due to the large population of people living here.

Still, it was too early for dinner, and although the pubs were open, it wasn’t the time for drunkards to be loitering around the place.

The only drunk people at this point should be the ones who spend the whole day drinking, but they didn’t find any of them brazenly wandering in the streets. After looking around for a while —

“…he is here.”

The sun was already setting by the time Li Yong declared that he found the person they were looking for after peeking into a bar in the third alley that they scoured.

“Welcome.”

“…Excuse us.”

“Please excuse us for the bother.”

Li Yong and Yui Mei responded when the barkeeper greeted them as they entered the pub, then they headed towards the innermost seat.

There was a drunkard sprawled on the table.

He was exactly like how Li Yong described him — a middle-aged, “short, stocky, bearded, grim looking fellow” with a red face and reeking of alcohol.

“Lord Ming, please wake up, Lord Ming!”

“Ugh…..”

Li Yong tapped his shoulder several times while calling his name. The man — Ming groaned.

‘Hmm?’

A few doubts crossed Yui Mei’s mind as she stared at Ming, but she decided to set those thoughts aside. He was lying down on his face, so she turned his head to the side for fear that he might get suffocated before going to the barkeeper to ask for some water.

She then placed the cup beside the half-asleep Ming.

“Hello, excuse me, I’d like to have a word with you!”

Thoughts of ‘this is impossible’ crossed Yui Mei’s mind as she tried to wake him up by patting his back.

“That person will not wake up just by doing that.”

The barkeeper called out to Yui Mei and Li Yong, implying that ‘they’re just wasting their time’.

“He always sleeps through the night just like that until the gates close and he can no longer go home.”

The pub owner looked exasperated as he sighed.

In that case, then Ming must have spent the whole day either drinking or sleeping, then.

‘Heh, so she is right, he really is a boozer.’

Yui Mei now understood why Yang was concerned about Ming.

“Sorry for all the trouble.”

Li Yong bowed his head towards the barkeeper.

True enough, a guest staying until morning would be a huge nuisance to the bar.

They wouldn’t be able to close the bar after all.

No, they might just throw him out in front of the street when it was closing time.

However, that in itself would already require a great deal of effort.

Yui Mei and Li Yong didn’t have the luxury to wait until he naturally woke up.

“What will we do?”

“We can’t leave this as is. We won’t be able to properly talk in this case. It can’t be helped, we just have to carry him home.”

Li Yong concluded.

And so, Li Yong decided to pay for Ming’s booze money first, but apparently, he already paid in advance.

It was probably Ming’s consideration, because he knew he would forget to pay after drinking.

‘Oh, so in that aspect, he’s admirable, huh.’

Maybe there was a deeper reason why he was drinking, and not just because he loved booze.

In any case, Yui Mei tried to ease his drunkenness. She pinched his nose, and when he woke up in pain, she made him drink the water on the table by saying “Let’s drink some more, here you go, this is wine.” She repeated that several times.

“…Yui Mei, you’re great at dealing with drunkards, huh.”

“You think so?”

Yui Mei nonchalantly replied to Li Yong’s admiring words.

She had been working as a nurse in a highly stressful workplace in her previous world. Back then, she also occasionally experienced drinking with a colleague who would overindulge in alcohol as a means to vent out all that stress.

All her coworkers admired her skill of making her colleague drink water, even though that person clutched the bottle of alcohol tightly without any intention of letting go.

They left the pub, and Li Yong carried the man on his shoulders as they headed towards the Inner City. The man had a house there, apparently.

‘Inner City, huh….’

Actually, it was the first time that Yui Mei would set foot in the Inner City.

They were going there because they would bring this drunkard home, but Yui Mei couldn’t help but feel a little excited as she followed behind Li Yong.

Hi everyone, Hanazakura here, thanks for reading, I’m grateful to you guys! Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Housekeeper of the Hundred Blossom Palace schedule of release is every Mon, Wed and Fri. 

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