NOVEL NEXT chapter 5
Chapter 5: Thinking of the Moon
Qin Ji always felt that his family’s guard had some psychological issues.
So when interacting with his guard, Qin Ji always felt that the other party was somewhat dangerous at times. Of course, this danger wasn’t the kind that would chop him up, but a different kind of danger.
“Let’s talk business,” realizing he might not be able to outtalk his guard, Qin Ji wisely chose to change the topic, “This time, His Majesty gave me a slight warning, but it’s not a big problem. We are still safe for now.”
“You don’t need to tell me, a guard, about this. I don’t understand these things anyway.”
“You need to learn a bit. You can’t just think about killing people all the time. Even if you came from a demonic sect, you’re still from a cultivation sect, not an assassin group. Why are you always thinking about killing people?” Qin Ji glanced at Ling Yan discontentedly, “Did you read the books I gave you?”
“Ah, those books were for reading?”
“What else would books be for?”
“I thought they were for starting a fire. I’ve already used a few as firewood…”
“…”
Qin Ji was speechless, then he heavily knocked on Ling Yan’s head.
“Ouch! It hurts!”
“Honestly, did you really burn them?”
“I didn’t, I didn’t. How could I casually burn your collection, young master,” Ling Yan finally showed a flattering smile, “They’re all well kept.”
“So you still haven’t read them.”
Qin Ji also felt powerless towards her, but after thinking about it carefully, not everyone is cut out for studying. For a girl who had no complete childhood and learned martial arts through oral transmission, learning to write and socialize was already a big improvement. It was unreasonable to expect her to sit there reading books all day.
“Young master, my talent does not lie in studying. Of course, if you need me to, I can do it.”
“Forget it, I won’t force you. But at least read some easy-to-understand history and biography books—just treat them as stories.” After Qin Ji finished speaking, he finally brought up the main topic, “By the way, did you contact the King of Dingbei as I asked?”
The King of Dingbei was the emperor’s elder brother. As the emperor’s brother, the King of Dingbei, after realizing that he was not cut out to be an emperor, gave up the idea of competing for the throne and decided to be a good person. His actions earned him some favor from Xia Yuxiao—the King of Dingbei was not good at governing the country, but he was not bad in martial virtues. He was capable of managing a few cities and had once fought alongside the late emperor. Therefore, Xia Yuxiao granted him several cities in the north of the empire, bestowing him the title of King of Dingbei, allowing him to live a happy life as a prince.
“I contacted him, and the King of Dingbei replied quite politely.”
“What did he say? Let me see.”
“No need to look, I remember it clearly,” Ling Yan cleared her throat, then clasped her hands behind her back, closed her eyes, and assumed the posture of a great poet, “He said, ‘Duke An Guo’s kind invitation, I wish to accept, but the northern affairs are busy, and I cannot spare the time. His Majesty is now eager for talent, and you can recruit talents for His Majesty.'”
Qin Ji nodded.
He said a lot, but in essence, it was just two words: not coming.
The King of Dingbei had his reasons for not coming. The northern region indeed had many affairs. Although he only had a few cities, he was the emperor’s closest relative in the north and could manage the entire northern frontier to some extent. At this time, Qin Ji wanted to solve the empire’s internal military problems by inviting him over. From Qin Ji’s perspective, there was no problem, but from the King of Dingbei’s perspective, it was not a good thing.
The King of Dingbei had his own private army (within the limits allowed by the emperor), and Qin Ji? The emperor wanted to get rid of him as soon as possible. As the emperor’s brother, with an army, coming back to cooperate with Qin Ji, what would that be? If the emperor saw it, wouldn’t he invite him for tea?
“Forget it, if he doesn’t come, he doesn’t come. Anyway, the empire’s internal army indeed needs to be reformed.”
While Qin Ji was speaking, the carriage had already arrived at his An Guo Duke’s mansion.
Ling Yan helped him off the carriage, and then the two of them walked straight into the gate.
The personnel inside the An Guo Duke’s mansion were slightly more than other imperial officials—about thirty more highly skilled masters.
Don’t misunderstand, he didn’t want to be a treacherous minister secretly raising soldiers. These masters were originally raised by the previous An Guo Duke. Now he couldn’t just send them back to where they came from, so he kept them.
On one hand, he couldn’t guarantee that the emperor wouldn’t send someone to secretly kill him in a fit of anger, so keeping these forces was also to protect his own safety; on the other hand, these masters were hired and trained with a lot of money. Since they had to listen to him anyway, if he really got along well with the emperor in the future, these people might be very useful.
Besides these masters, there were about a dozen male and female servants in the entire An Guo Duke’s mansion. As for his relatives… now the An Guo Duke’s mansion only had one sister left.
“How is Siyue today?”
Facing the old butler with white hair who came to greet him, Qin Ji’s first question was about his sister’s condition.
“Young master, don’t worry, the young lady is as usual today, but…”
“But what?”
“The young lady occasionally still talks nonsense. After you left this morning, she kept mumbling about wanting a ‘digital tablet’,” the old butler, who was already a bit aged, said helplessly, “Young master, the young lady’s condition…”
“Ah, it’s okay. It seems her condition is still not very good, but at least she is quiet today.”
Qin Ji twitched his mouth, then quickly walked towards the study.
“When will the young lady’s illness be cured? Even the imperial physicians from the palace have been invited…” Ling Yan’s tone unexpectedly showed a trace of pity.
“Alright, Ling Yan, go help me tidy up my room first. I will be working there later. I need to talk to Siyue.”
“Okay.”
Qin Ji walked into the study.
At this moment, in the corner of the study, a little girl was sitting cross-legged.
The girl was wearing a light white shirt imported from a western country, with long silver hair draped over her back. She was angrily painting on expensive xuan paper with a brush in her hand. Her petite figure made one want to hold her in their arms.
But looking at her gritted teeth…
Hmm, still very cute.
“Si Yue, drawing again?”
“Yes,” Qin Siyue scratched her silver hair, “This damn era doesn’t even have a digital tablet. I have to use a brush to draw erotic pictures. My hands are going numb!”