Chapter 46

The key thing here was that Yun Zhonghe was not only handsome; he was also devilish!

There was a kind of man where one look was all it took to see that he was no good.

With a second look, one would know that this man was an absolute scumbag, a plague, a thief, and that there was nothing pure and kind in his looks at all.

And Yun Zhonghe was this kind of man.

“You’re handsome, so why have you been pretending to be an old beggar for the past month or so?” Jing Zhongyue asked.

Yun Zhonghe said, “I have hidden my exquisitely magnificent beauty to allow you all to get used to my old beggar’s guise. And then, one fine day when I finally reveal my true appearance, my face will be like a sharp blade that pierces through your heart. And then suddenly, your heart will explode. That’s the way to achieve a more shocking effect. Take now, for instance. All of you are shocked, aren’t you? In fact, I should have held it in for a while longer. That way, the effect would have been even better.”

The moment this was said, Jing Zhongyue and Lady Cold Jade exchanged glances.

It was a mutual exchange of the mockery and ridicule they felt inwardly!

At least this exchange of looks felt very much like they were besties.

Really, the heavens had to be blind.

Such a handsome face was actually matched with such a frivolous and lowly soul.

What a pity!

Jing Zhongyue looked Yun Zhonghe up and down for a while, then said, “Lady Cold Jade, check his body.”

Lady Cold Jade was taken aback. This Yun Zhonghe was a man after all. Was it appropriate for her to check his body?

But her hesitation only lasted for a moment. Then, she walked up to Yun Zhonghe and examined every part of his body with both hands.

“Still considered healthy, but on the thin side and very weak.”

Yun Zhonghe said, “You can’t blame me for this. I was already overwhelmingly handsome by the time I was fourteen years old and was often cheated by beautiful women who lured me back home with them using silver, so it’s only normal for me to be weak.”

Suddenly… the few people standing around were, once again, rendered dumbfounded.

Didn’t men have a lot of pride and dignity? It was fine for someone to call them bad, but one could not say that they were impotent. They would fight that person to the death.

But Yun Zhonghe standing before them had actually directly admitted that he was weak?

Lady Cold Jade said, “Should we send someone to train him to become stronger?”

Jing Zhongyue said, “No need. It’s even better for him to be weak like this.”

Yun Zhonghe heard what she said and could not help but feel his heart lurch. What did Jing Zhongyue’s words mean?

Such beautiful men, being frail and delicate, were more capable of arousing people into taking pity on them and protecting them. Of course, there was also the desire to ravage them.

Jing Zhongyue said, “Yun Zhonghe, you go back first. But continue to maintain your previous appearance.”

Yun Zhonghe said, “Hide my exquisitely magnificent beauty again? And wait until the next time you need it to bloom again?”

Jing Zhongyue did not say anything. Instead, she picked up her book again. This was her way of telling Yun Zhonghe that he could take his leave.

Yun Zhonghe picked up a mirror and sighed, then he said, “Goodbye, beautiful man. Your handsomeness is just too powerful. It’s such overkill that it’s like a nuclear weapon. One look at it will cause the fall of a city, and a second look at it will cause the fall of a nation. This is why, the vast majority of the time, you have to stay hidden during the day. And when the time of need arrives, you can appear and wield your sword!”

Then, Yun Zhonghe simply went on to hold the mirror and walked out while staring at it.

And just then, Jing Wubian walked in and saw Yun Zhonghe.

Without a moment of delay, a murderous intent popped up in his mind.

“Sister Cold Jade, who is this man? Kill him. In this residence of the castellan, all men more handsome than me should die!”

Alas, it was no wonder Yun Zhonghe and Jing Wubian had clicked with each other. They were, without a doubt, soulmates of the same mind.

“Brother, I am AoTian,” Yun Zhonghe said.

Jing Wubian stared at Yun Zhonghe for a long time, and then, it was as though he was significantly hurt.

“From now on, I no longer see you as a brother. I’m going to break off ties with you.” Jing Wubian forcefully tore off his sleeve and left in a huff.

This was really too much. He clearly knew that Jing Wubian abhorred handsome men the most. How dare he actually be so handsome?

***

Upon returning to his own courtyard, Yun Zhonghe once again changed his look and made himself take on the appearance of that wild and unrestrained beggar. His head of fine hair was once again messed up to look like weeds.

Then, he retracted his smile, shut his eyes, and began to think.

Although Lord Feng Xingmie had not explicitly said anything earlier, Yun Zhonghe was almost certain that Sister Xu Antiing had definitely been arrested. But Anting Tavern should have been safe.

So how was he going to rescue her?

Definitely not by directly making an appearance to save her, as that would be dragging himself into hot water as well.

A newly appointed official from the residence of the castellan saving a young lady who played the guqin, and for no apparent reason. Was that not strange?

Moreover, this lady had contact with the secret agents of the Empire’s Order of Black Dragons.

While it might seem like Lady Cold Jade and Yun Zhonghe were on pretty good terms, the moment she suspected that Yun Zhonghe could be a member of the Great Ying Empire’s Order of Black Dragons, she would, without a doubt, arrest and send him to prison within the next minute. She would rather kill someone by mistake than ever let any suspect go.

Furthermore, there was still Chu Zhaoran keeping a close eye on him as well.

Chu Zhaoran had even had his suspicions that Yun Zhonghe was related to the Order of Black Dragons. Otherwise, he would not have sent his warriors to pretend to be warriors of the Order of Black Dragons and put on a show of wanting to kill Yun Zhonghe. That was just to test if Yun Zhonghe was there to blackmail them.

At that point, Yun Zhonghe carried far too light a weight in the residence of the castellan.

Once he was suspected of being a secret agent of the Order of Black Dragons, even Jing Wubian would not be able to protect him.

He would be formally sealed as an official that day. With an officially appointed title, it would be easier for him to do many things.

As for what official position Jing Zhongyue would bestow upon Yun Zhonghe?

He had a pretty good idea of what it was.

“Calm down, just wait quietly for dawn,” he thought. That would do!

***

Two hours later, it was dawn!

Without even knocking, two warriors directly barged their way into Yun Zhonghe’s little courtyard and said, “Come with us!”

Yun Zhonghe followed them.

This time, they did not bring him to some messy and unkempt place. Instead, they immediately brought him to the noblest place in the entire City of Torn Gust.

The true townhall for discussing official businesses, the center of the Valley of Torn Gust’s power.

This great hall was within the residence of the castellan, but Yun Zhonghe had never stepped foot there before. He had not even made it to the main entrance.

There were dozens of warriors standing guard there all the time. And, as if it was written on their faces, they gave off a warning that forbade idle people and dogs from entering. And before then, Yun Zhonghe was probably that dog.

“Wait outside,” said the warrior.

Yun Zhonghe simply stood outside quietly as he waited.

There was a meeting going on inside. Though it was not the daily court meeting, from the looks of it, it was something similar to that.

Jing Zhongyue was seated high up in the monarch’s throne. There were two rows of people standing in the middle of the hall. One row was comprised of civil officials, while the other consisted of military officials.

The ongoing discussion in the hall was very intense.

But it all revolved around one main topic, and that was the Fallen Leaves Territory!

Yun Zhonghe had been listening outside all this while, so he largely understood what was going on.

A few decades ago, in order to quell a rebellion, the Jing Clan had leased this big granary, the Fallen Leaves Territory, to a powerful lord next door, the Mo Clan of the City of Washed Jade.

Since then, the Valley of Torn Gust was no longer complete. There was never enough food to go around, and a considerable flaw had appeared in its strategic layout.

In short, losing the Fallen Leaves Territory meant that the Valley of Torn Gust had no future.

This was not just the loss of territory. Without the Fallen Leaves Territory, there would be no food. The livelihood of the Valley of Torn Gust was at the mercy of someone else.

The moment the Baronage Alliance picked up its weapons by forming a trade blockade, then it would be able to do whatever it wanted to with the Valley of Torn Gust.

At this point, if the Valley of Torn Gust were to show any intention of joining hands with the Great Ying Empire or the Southern Zhou Empire, then it would, without fail, become a public target for all and be besieged by the dozen or so lords of the Land of No King.

So even if it had to pay a great price or even cause the breakout of another war, the need to reclaim this huge granary, the Fallen Leaves Territory, was still huge.

But it was also not an easy feat to start a war, for their opponent was the Mo Clan of the City of Washed Jade. The Mo Clan had established deep relations in the Land of No King. If anyone wanted to start a war, then intelligence was required first. Diplomatic ties would come first.

The Fallen Leaves Territory spanned over an area of 1,500 square kilometers and had around 132,000 acres of fertile farmland. By doing some rough calculations, Yun Zhonghe could also estimate how much food could be produced each year.

All of a sudden, he, too, came to a conclusion. Even if 10,000 people had to die in the course of a war, so long as they could reclaim this Fallen Leaves Territory, then everything would be worthwhile.

In the previous years, even when the Valley of Torn Gust had lost the Fallen Leaves Territory, it could actually survive up until then. And even more, it was still expanding. Jing E was truly an outstanding man of his time, a hero of his generation.

And now, the fifty-year period was coming to an end. The lease was coming to an end soon.

The next thing to be done would be to invest all strategic resources of the Valley of Torn Gust into just one goal, reclaiming the Fallen Leaves Territory.

Once the Fallen Leaves Territory was recovered, the trade blockade that the Baronage Alliance imposed on the Valley of Torn Gust would fall apart.

***

An extremely intense discussion was going on in the hall.

The civil and military officials could not reach a common consensus.

The civil officials felt that political and diplomatic means should be used, or to put it even more bluntly, they meant to use means like money and joint marriages.

And the military officials also had very a very straightforward take, which was to fight it out!

If the Mo Clan were not willing to return the Fallen Leaves Territory, then they would launch an army to attack the City of Washed Jade and reclaim the Fallen Leaves Territory by force.

The atmosphere inside was also becoming more and more intense. Towards the end, both civil and military officials were pointing fingers and cursing at one another.

Yun Zhonghe waited outside for one hour, then two hours, then three hours!

He waited without moving at all. Even if he needed to take a leak, he had to hold it in.

Was this not particularly miserable? Not even qualified enough to enter the hall for a meeting?

What nonsense!

Inside the building, they were all big shots. Lady Cold Jade, who was in the hall, could only stand there without moving an inch. She did not even have the authority to speak her mind.

Jing Wubian was the young master of the residence of the castellan, but he did not even have the right to stand outside the hall.

After a full four hours passed, the argument inside finally ceased. It was already noon.

A scribe walked out and said to Yun Zhonghe, “Follow me in.”

Yun Zhonghe walked in, and suddenly, all eyes were directed towards him.

Then, he realized that Chu Zhaoran was already in the hall and stood in place like a very attractive star.

Upon seeing Yun Zhonghe enter, Chu Zhaoran politely cupped one hand in the other as a gesture of greeting and also nodded in acknowledgment of his presence.

Yun Zhonghe went to stand beside him.

The two men stood there—Chu Zhaoran, dressed in white, glowing with energy and vitality, bright and handsome.

The other was Yun AoTian, with hair like weeds and wearing a sack as clothing. His eyes were dull, and his expression was hideous. He was a living example of what a beggar looked like.

It felt like watching a wild balding pheasant standing next to a divine crane.

Jing Zhongyue said, “To better execute the following strategies, I have decided to establish an Embroidered Guard Division. This division will be solely responsible for all intelligence and diplomatic matters related to the reclamation of the Fallen Leaves Territory!”

“Was it actually going to be called the Embroidered Guard Division? Was this name too beautiful? Or was it that you, Jing Zhongyue, were too lazy? Can I, Yun Zhonghe, request for some overnight fees? No, wrong, it should be a naming fee!” Yun Zhonghe wondered.

But it could be seen from the discussion from earlier on.

The weight of this Embroidered Guard Division would surpass that of Black Blood Hall in the time to come, and it would become the most powerful armed intelligence force in the Valley of Torn Gust.

Its strategic priority was very high, and it would be fully responsible for the most important affairs of the Valley of Torn Gust.

“Chu Zhaoran!”

Chu Zhaoran bowed and said, “Your subordinate is here.”

Jing Zhongyue said, “I appoint you as commanding general of the Embroidered Guard Division. You will fully command the entire Embroidered Guard Division.”

“Yes!” Chu Zhaoran knelt down.

Jing Zhongyue went on to say, “Li Ruojun!”

Another middle-aged man stepped out, bowed, and said, “Your subordinate is here.”

Jing Zhongyue said, “I appoint you as left chiliarch of the Embroidered Guard Division.”

“Yes!” The middle-aged man knelt down and bowed.

Jing Zhongyue then said, “Li Ba!”

A warrior stepped out, bowed, and said, “Your subordinate is here.”

Jing Zhongyue said, “I appoint you as right chiliarch of the Embroidered Guard Division.”

“Yes!” Li Ba, who was bursting with valiance, knelt down.

“Wu Zheng!”

Another young male scribe knelt to pay his respects, and said, “Your student is here.”

Jing Zhongyue said, “I hereby appoint you as first official registrar of the Embroidered Guard Division.”

“Yes!” The young scribe, Wu Zheng, scrambled to his knees.

“Zhu Yiming!”

Another scribe stepped forward, bowed to salute, and said, “Your student is here.”

Jing Zhongyue said, “I hereby appoint you as second official registrar of the Embroidered Guard Division.”

“Yes!” Zhu, the scribe, went down on his knees with a single cry as a reply.

“Yun AoTian!” Jing Zhongyue said.

Yun Zhonghe stepped forward, knelt, and said, “That young man is here.”

Suddenly, all eyes fell on him.

Him, still a young man?

Where had this person come from? The beggar gang?

Jing Zhongyue said, “I hereby appoint you as third official registrar of the Embroidered Guard Division.”

***