chapter 4

“Miss, the workers went on strike, they are gathering in front of our house. The door is crowded with people.”

Murong Yun Shu was playing chess with her left and right hand to kill time. Her hand shook, a black piece had fallen into a trap. Checkmate, the white piece had won!

Murong Yun Shu sighed lightly, originally she intended to make the game a draw.

“Miss!” Lu’er was so anxious that her head was practically burning with smoke, she stomped her feet and said: “Miss, you really are the emperor who is not worried, but his eunuchs are worried to death!”

Is that how you use that idiom? Murong Yun Shu stared her in disagreement, and she said seriously: “Even if I become the empress, you can’t become my eunuch.”

“…….” Lu’er was speechless.

“I never imagined that Yun Shu would have such a big ambition as this.” A deep man’s voice passed through from the end of the corridor that connected to the hall.

“Cousin brother!” Murong Yun Shu was surprised, she abandoned the chess board and ran towards the owner of the voice, she excitedly stood three inches in front of him: “Brother, what are you doing here?”

Hua Ling Tian spoiled Murong Yun Shu by gently rubbing her head with a smile: “Little dummy, with such a big event happening to you. Of course I must come.”

“But the empress dowager……”

As Murong Yun Shu mentioned empress dowager, Hua Ling Tian’s face turned dark and coldly said: “She can’t control this matter!’ Hua Liang Tian said coldly.

Murong Yun Shu knew that Hua Ling Tian did not want her to mention the empress dowager, so she changed the subject: “Is there anything new in the capital? I haven’t been there for four years, I missed it.”

“Not much has changed, why don’t you see it for yourself?” Hua Ling Tian showed her a gentle smile, cherishing her with both his hands: “The reason I visited you this time is that I intended to take you to the palace.”

Even the calm Murong Yun Shu was stunned by the word “palace”, she hastily drew her hands from his and took a few steps back: “Why, why would you want to take me to the palace?”

“Since uncle has passed away and Mingjian Manor has broken the betrothal, of course I will be taking care of you.” As Hua Ling Tian mentioned Mingjian Manor, his eyes seemingly flashed a few strands of cold light.

“Do you mean, you want to take me back to the palace to……take care of me?” Murong Yun Shu felt a little dizzy, she hoped the matter wasn’t going the way she thought it was going.

“Yes.” Hua Ling Tian once again held Murong Yun Shu’s hand tightly, his eyes were so sincere, as if he were dead serious: “Although I can’t give you the status of crown princess for now, but you must believe me, once I have become the emperor, I will surely make you my Empress, the only Empress.”

Murong Yun Shu, faced with such romantic words, started to feel dizzier. Her heart was filled with an unknown stream, she couldn’t distinguish whether she felt moved to tears or felt touched in the heart. But one thing was for sure, she really liked him, relied on him, and was being taken care of by him. However, is this enough of a reason for her to marry him?

Murong Yun Shu wasn’t an affectionate person, last time when she was betrothed to Fang Hong Fei, she never took a deep look as to whether her feelings toward Hua Ling Tian was only the sentiment of siblings, and now……she still couldn’t figure it out.

As Murong Yun Shu pondered for some time, she finally talked softly: “I’m sorry, brother, I can’t follow you to the palace.”

Hua Ling Tian obviously did not expect that she would reject him so quickly, he was stunned for half a second and it took him a bit to recover: “You don’t have to reply so fast……”

“I can’t.” Murong Yun Shu looked as though she were scared that she would regret her decision, she hastily said: “I can’t follow you to the palace, because… I have a betrothed”

“Hasn’t the betrothal been broken already?”

“It was broken, but I have new betrothed now.”

Hua Ling Tian’s face had gone colder, he deeply asked: “Don’t tell me the rumor was true? Did you really accept the marriage offer from Mojiao Sect’s sect leader?”

Murong Yun Shu was shocked that he knew she had a betrothal with the Mojiao sect, but she suddenly thought it wasn’t strange since lately even her little sneeze would pass on as a rumor in every street. A betrothal would be an especially important matter. Since he came to Jin Ling province, it wasn’t weird for him to get to know about the betrothal.

“I declined his marriage offer” She corrected: “But I sent people to offer him marriage.”

“What?!” Hua Ling Tian was so shocked that his chin almost fell down. He knew his cousin sister was a unique person in talking and doing things. If he didn’t already know about her personality, he wouldn’t have been able to understand her logic, but this time it was way too absurd.

“Fang Hong Fei agreed to marry into Murong Sect in the past.”

“Do you mean if someone wants to marry you, then he has to marry into Murong Sect?”

“Yes.” Murong Yun Shu nodded her head: “The eldest daughter will not marry to any household. That was the tradition of Murong House.”

“You are not someone who follows tradition.” Hua Ling Tian doesn’t believe the reason that Murong Yun Shu decided to get betrothed to Mojiao Sect’s sect leader was only that the opposite side agreed to marry into Murong House.

“Which is why I can’t follow you to the palace.”

Although it’s a full circle of speaking chicken with someone speaking duck, Hua Ling Tian seemed to understand the real meaning behind those words.

Hua Ling Tian pondered for some time, suddenly he asked: “What if I don’t want to be a crown prince anymore?”

Murong Yun Shu was shocked, but later she calmly said: “It would be great if you don’t want to be a crown prince anymore, however do not say the matter was because of me. The responsibility is too big, I can’t bear the weight of it.”

Hua Ling Tian smiled bitterly, Murong Yun Shu didn’t want to bear the infamy of being with him, and he couldn’t give up the kingdom to be with her. He and her were destined to be big brother and little sister. “One day, if you change your mind, the big eastern palace door will always be open to welcome you.”

Murong Yun Shu frowned her eyebrows: “What about the backdoor?”

“……No backdoor.”

“Then I won’t be entering the eastern palace.”

“…….” Hua Ling Tian felt like his head had rolled onto the ground, she really couldn’t read the atmosphere.

Murong Yun Shu didn’t know why Hua Ling Tian looked devastated, she blinked her eyes and pointed to the chess board not far away and she said: “Do you want to play chess?”

Hua Ling Tian put his hand on his forehead: “Allow me to remind you, Murong Courtyard House will soon burst with crowded people.” She really should take a look, the scene was so huge that even he himself was impressed. He must say, a kingdom with big houses really had a lot of people.

Murong Yun Shu did not have any reaction, her eyebrows moved up and said: “Don’t worry, the walls are solid, it won’t fall easily.”

Hua Ling Tian was so speechless that he couldn’t say anything to refute her, he ignored her complacency and said: “I heard they were coming for the salary.”

“Hmm.” Murong Yun Shu lightly answered, she looked up to observe the sky.

“Uncle has just passed away for a month, how is it possible that the overdue salary rolled so big till this extent?”

Murong Yun Shu continued looking at the sky, her voice was so soft like it was unreal: “My father must have predicted his departure, so he exchanged his silver taels for paper money to become the richest man in the underworld.”

“Have you looked for where the silver taels have been spent?”

“I’ve only left Yama’s confession.” *Yama: King of Hell

“Looks like you’re almost finished with the investigation. Do you need my help?”

“No.” Murong Yun Shu shook her head lightly, suddenly she saw her butler run quickly towards her with an expression of a ‘dazed zombie’, there was still some distance between them but the butler started to shout: “Miss, bad news!”

Murong Yun Shu nodded her head to indicate she heard his words, she waited for the butler to walk closer, then she asked slowly: “Did the workers start to snatch things?”

“No.”

“Then what are you being so hasty for?”

The butler wiped his sweat with his sleeve: “Outside…… There are weird people outside.”

“Weirder than you?”

“Not weirder than me……Weirder than me……No…… I’m not weird……” The butler lifted his sleeve up again, trying to hide his whining expression.

“You still say you’re not weird.” Murong Yun Shu lightly stared at him, and slowly walked out to the hall.

Lu’er hurried to follow Murong Yun Shu and asked: “To be honest, miss, do you already have a plan in your heart?”

“Perhaps.”

“What’s the plan?” Lu’er face was happy, finally she does not need to worry about sleeping in the streets.

“Go with the flow.”

“…….” This plan really fit Murong Yun Shu’s style.

When Murong Yun Shu arrived at the hall, she saw two long lines of armed men with red clothes standing from the house all the way until the streets, to the point one couldn’t even see the end of the line. Those workers who went on strike had stepped back to the corner to watch the drama. When the host appeared, the scene started to heat up with sounds.

“Murong Sect, our salary is overdue, providence will not forgive, heaven will not tolerate……”

Not sure if it was because Murong Yun Shu had seen a lot of weird things lately, she realized she had become calmer than ever, she quietly stared at the long lines of red clothed men, then her sight aimed at the workers who dared to shout but dared not to act rashly and said: “The slogan doesn’t rhyme, all of you go back and think of a slogan that rhymes then come again.”

Suddenly, the whole scene had gone to silence. All of the workers opened their mouths wide into a duck egg shape.

Does Miss Murong’s brain have problems?

Then their salary…….doesn’t that mean they don’t have a hope of receiving it anymore?!

Soon, “Murong Sect, our salary is overdue, providence will not forgive, heaven will not tolerate……” the voices were as loud as thunder.

Murong Yun Shu did not hide nor argue with them, she stood at the door with patience listening to them shouting, until they felt bored and stopped shouting, she opened her mouth once again: “Whenever you think of a rhyming slogan, is whenever I’ll pay the salary.”

Once again, the scene had gone silent.

“Cough cough…….” Hua Ling Tian couldn’t bear to watch it anymore, he took her place instead and said: “Everyone go home first, come back after three days to receive your money.”

“Do you think we are dumb?! Who knows whether you’ll pay us after three days?”

“I guarantee- “Hua Ling Tian wanted to talk, but was interrupted by another sound.

“We the Mojiao Sect guaran- “ ‘tee’- before the word could be finished, all the workers had become thin air, some of them ran and crawled to make themselves disappear from the scene.

Hua Liang Tian was shocked by the sudden change, he was surprised at how Mo Jiao sect’s reputation could ‘persuade’ people so easily.

Murong Yun Shu moved her eyebrows, she turned around to face the people who had talked just now and asked: “All of you are…….?”

“Betrothal gifts.”

“……These betrothal gifts are too……unusual.”

“Our leader said, our Mojiao marriage mustn’t be casual, we need to prepare ten miles of red betrothal gifts.”

Do ten miles of red betrothal gifts really mean ten miles of men in red clothes? Murong Yun Shu was flabbergasted and said: “Actually, I prefer real gold and silver more.” The whole universe should have known she, Murong Yun Shu was lacking money!

“From here revolving the streets until the city door, each person is 1-meter-tall, there are 10 thousands people, together there are 10 miles.” East Guardian was proud of himself and smiled: “These people are the few of the best masters in Mojiao, their value exceeds ten million!”

“That’s right, they can help you make big money.” South Guardian chimed in.

Murong Yun Shu pondered a while, she asked seriously: “You said their value exceeds ten million, do you mean by gold or silver?”

“…….”

“Don’t tell me you meant ten million copper coins?”

“……”

“Butler.” Murong Yun Shu faced the butler standing beside her and asked: “Where is the slave market in Jin Ling Province?”

“Uhh……” The butler lifted his sleeve up again, serving such an unusual mistress, he felt he didn’t have the face to meet people anymore, even when he died he felt he didn’’t have the face to meet a ghost!

“You can send them to the capital to sell, it has a higher demand.” Hua Ling Tian ignored the red shirted men’s murderous eyes staring at him, he interrupted the butler and said.

“Is that so?” Murong Yun Shu pouted her lips as if she was thinking of something, after some time she asked: “Where in the capital can I sell them all atonce? Selling them in a few batch is too troublesome.”

Hua Ling Tian’s mouth went up, his face showed a weird smile like an executioner: “The palace.”

As soon as his words came out, those men who were armed with a sword had drawn their them out, those men who were armed with hammers lifted their hammers up. They stared at Hua Ling Tian in sync as if they wanted to kill him.