Vol 8 Chapter 19 (2/2)

Perhaps I have a genuine interest in ancient architecture. When I return to the future, I’ll study architecture in university then.

“Alright. I can’t sleep anyway so I’ll accompany my lord.” Chen Dao was the first to reply in the affirmative.

“I’m not going.” Chen Gong said as she yawned, “I got sleepy after chatting with Imperial Uncle from before. It’s not too late yet so I’ll go and catch some more sleep.”

I doubt that’s the case though. She probably got sleepy after she was able to be at ease after sharing with me everything she’d been thinking about today.

As I looked at Chen Gong’s back, I still felt that nagging feeling that something was different about her. Only after staring for a long while did I realise that she wasn’t wearing her platform shoes, and so she was quite a bit shorter than she usually was.

Of course, I won’t say this out loud. If I do, I’ll have to suffer some jibes again.

“Alright, we’ll just do it with the 2 of us then.” I left aside the topic of Chen Gong’s height and spoke to Chen Dao.

“Honoured to accompany you.” Chen Dao was the same as usual; and as usual, it made me feel weird.

Though I expected the streets to be spa.r.s.e, I didn’t expect them to be this empty. Maa, if you think about it, it does make sense. It’s still dark out and martial law is in place so it would be difficult to find a shop, stall or restaurant that would be open late in the night.

The only thing we could do was swagger down the streets, since the only pedestrians are slightly earlier farmers and horse or ox drawn carriages which transported water.

“My lord, do you think that Jiangxia city has any local specialties?”

“Local specialties?”

“Yes, General Zhao Yun specially instructed me to remember to bring back any local specialties when we left.”

I see…

“Jiangxia’s local specialties huh, we can ask Huang– Un, we can ask Gan Ning when we see her again.”

Since Jiangxia is near the river, its local specialties ought to be seafood fished from the river. But given the era, there might be other things such as white jade pendants.

But… I didn’t think that Chen Dao would be really beautiful when she lets down her hair.

I intentionally slowed down my pace and shot glances at Chen Dao as naturally as I could.

Chen Dao’s usual ponytail made her seem a little neurotic, and gave an impression that she was a very rigid person. When she let her hair down, she was just a beautiful girl.

On the other hand, Zhou Cang ought to tie her hair back into a ponytail. She can’t go into battle and lose her hair to stray movements of her own blade after all.

“Un? My lord.”

“Un un? What’s the matter, Chen Dao?” When I heard Chen Dao call out to me, I immediately s.h.i.+fted my gaze away from her and to the moon.

“My lord, look at that person up ahead. Could she be Administrator Huang Zu?”

Eh?

I s.h.i.+fted my gaze to where Chen Dao was pointing at and saw a girl with a long fringe and a plate skirt knocking on the doors of someone’s house.

That girl wasn’t someone else, she was definitely Huang Zu. It’s way too easy to recognise her.

But what is Huang Zu doing here at this time?

When she knocked, everyone from the surrounding houses came out and about 30-40 ordinary citizens crowded around Huang Zu.

“Let’s go.”

“Ah, my lord?”

I was a little curious and sped up and blended into the crowd before listening in closely on what Huang Zu had to say.

“Everyone, I seek your understanding on emergency imposition of martial law due to recent incursions by enemy troops. If you have any issues or difficulties, you can raise it with me and I will note it down.” Huang Zu yelled out amongst the crowd in her usual thuggish, unruly tone.

“Lord Administrator, may I ask if the enemy will breach the city? I heard their troops are many, will we be able to hold out?”

“Of course we can. I, Huang Zu, have defended this city since I was 12. I’m now 20, and have defended this city for 8 years now, and the city has become one with me. As long as I don’t die, the city will never fall. But there are a lot of things we need when preparing our defences so I humbly seek everyone’s help for supplies when the time comes.”

When Huang Zu finished, she bent down and bowed deeply in a sincere show of appreciation and apology. As I looked at this scene before me, I even suspected for moment that this girl might be Huang Zu’s sister and not Huang Zu herself.

“Looks like Huang Zu is a good person huh.”

“Un, she would be even better if she can be a little friendlier to us.”

Chen Dao smiled and raised her eyebrows when she heard my reply, “It’s not actually all that weird. Some generals are better at interacting eith ordinary citizens than other generals. There aren’t that many like my lord who can interact well with both.”

“You don’t need to be so sensitive about me.”

I felt a little embarra.s.sed at receiving such praise.

“No, I was just speaking the truth.” She said very seriously, to the point where I couldn’t figure out where the joke began and where the truth ended. Perhaps she is serious about everything.

As I looked at Huang Zu in the crowd, I felt that Chen Dao’s words make sense, and felt that Huang Zu might be a benevolent and compa.s.sionate Administrator.

Except that she’s a little weird most times, and isn’t too good at social interactions.

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