Newly Appointed Official. Second Torch to Bear.
"You're a real piece of work. I'm amazed that you brought an outsider in to shit on our Liu Shan Men."
As soon as the constable who said that finished, another one immediately followed up, "He's an outsider to begin with. He's been here for three months, yet he hasn't even clocked up one month worth of work hours. How is he not an outsider?"
"Exactly," ridiculed another constable, "He was playing 'nowhere to be seen' when we went to show up the Qilin Guards at their place. He was nowhere in sight when we were guarding the city doors, eithers. Now he's soon-to-be Fuma, so of course he's an outsider to us lowly constables."
'Geez, how salty. You must've drunk seven jugs of salt water consecutively.'
'How much do you people hate me to still resent me for going to guard another door on my own back then?!'
"What are you talking about?" Second brother scratched the back of his head, "How do you all sound as if you're a group of housewives? Your husband die?"
Second Brother managed to infuriate several constables with that. They immediately began a verbal assault on him. He didn't resort to bullying them with his martial skills. Instead, he took on three of them by himself with his Zhuge Liang level verbal onslaught. However, I was relieved when they turned their attention to Second Brother, since I was, at least, free of them standing around me shouting in my face.
Thus, I escaped the catastrophe. I immediately shot Liu Yuan a glare and quietly said, "I have no time to mess around with you lot. Hurry up and take them away."
Liu Yuan slowly had a sip of tea as though he was relishing the flavour. With a smile, he replied, "The meeting has just started. How can you leave so soon? Moreover, I can't convince them to leave. I just gave them a reminder. They voluntarily came here."
"Voluntarily? As if I have such a serious grudge with you lot."
"You still don't get it? It appears that you've had your way for too long that you won't know your place if I don't give you a reminder."
He amplified my anger. I coldly snorted, "I'm afraid it'll be you who regrets it if I don't give you a reminder."
As he had his last sip, Liu Yuan smugly responded, "This Young Master is upright and has never slacked on his duties nor does he have any rough patches with his colleagues. Remind me of what?"
I smugly replied, "That pot of tea has been sitting there for three days. The smooth texture you mentioned is probably the result of the tea leaves going bad."
"Pffft!!!"
Liu Yuan sprayed an entire mouthful of tea onto the face of Zha Pi, who was red in the face as he put on the performance of his life, causing the aroused toad to calm down a little.
I seized the opportunity to grab Liu Yuan by the collar, swung him over and pressed him onto the table. The moment his face slammed onto the table, a loud sound was heard. He started to see stars after his head hit the table.
I've got many things to attend to. I don't have time to be wasting on these trivial matters.
The people around exclaimed upon seeing me take action, so I angrily yelled at them, "Attention!"
I made the people around freeze and stop their bickering. I moulded up energy then scanned them. All of them began a silent war with me.
"Since this is a meeting, where are you manners? What's with all this rambling?" I threw Liu Yuan aside as if I was throwing away a rag doll. Then, I wore on a solemn expression, "I have no grudges against you. Do you have some sort of unforgiveable grudge against me? Have I seriously offended you in some way?"
They lowered their heads in silence. They didn't say anything. Even if they did have something to say, they wouldn't be able to say a word given the amount of energy I emitted from my eyes onto them.
"Everyone here works for Liu Shan Men and the Imperial Court. You two department heads, is there something that can't be resolved with discussions for you to resort to such repulsive means?"
The uncle in charge of the armoury didn't expect me to have such a firm stance. He panicked, "Wh-What are you saying?'
"Must I explicate it?'
I pointed at them as I addressed them one by one, "How long has the internal department required more clothing? How many months and days has it been? You only realised that you needed more clothes when it's nearly the New Year? What have you been doing all this time? All of our colleagues have bought more clothes out of their own pockets, and only now do you feel that it's cold? Is your skin too thick or what?"
"And you, the armoury needs more broadswords? How many constables do we have in total? There are enough for a team of one hundred. What are you stocking up so many broadswords for? Are you thinking of revolting?"
"You, the one who complained about the food tasting bad, I always see you with a big appetite. Why do you eat so much when it tastes so bad?"
"You, the one who wanted to tear the wall down. You can tear the wall down tonight, and I'll collect your corpse tomorrow!"
"And you! Zha Pi! What in the world are you here for?"
Zha Pi got kicked away by Second Brother, so he looked at me with pitiful teary eyes, "Master Ming! You tricked me! Didn't you say that I could transfer to a legitimate constable post? Why am I still a gardener?"
'Huh? I said that? Sir Sui needs you in his flower garden, though.'
I contemplated it then replied in a serious tone, "Report in tomorrow, then. However, you have to continue helping out Sir Sui. Don't let it the flowers wither."
Zha Pi wanted to cry, but had no tears. He probably didn't want to work under Sir Sui. Sir Sui was originally a scholar and one that's very graceful. Other than his habit of occasionally touching people's butts, he's good guy.
I addressed the people present one by one. The officials found themselves to be in the wrong, and therefore didn't debate it with me. Life at Liu Shan Men is, in fact, very orderly. Boss may have a personality where she doesn't concern herself with trivial things, but she has her own ways of being meticulous, nonetheless. Hence, she was able to create order at the office. However, once she approves of their requests, things become a mess. By the looks of things, Liu Shan Men is probably going to become a pot of porridge.
As he watched me address them one by one and even order Zha Pi around, a constable snickered, "Heh, what are you acting as if you're a hot shot for? Don't go thinking that you can shit on us just because Vice-Captain treasures you."
I froze after I heard what he said. It wasn't the content of what he said that troubled me, but that they had begun to question Boss Shen's judgment and credibility mere days after her departure.
He was a man with an aggressive appearance. He wasn't short. He was almost as tall as Tang Ye. His name is Luo Huaian. It was him who was making the sarcastically ridiculing me before.
He usually doesn't speak to me. According to my memory, he's one of the constables that took part in the recruitment exams at the same time that I did. I don't think his martial skills were poor. He does have quite the prestigious name among the new constable recruits. At some point in time, he formed his own team without me being aware. Nobody else spoke; he, alone, was the only one who dared to express discontent for me.
Luo Huaian revealed a look indicating that he wasn't afraid of authority. He snickered, "Others may be afraid of you, but I'm not. What have you done besides threatening people?"
He had the guts to make harsh remarks; one, because he's physically strong and has decent skills; two, it's probably his personality coming out.
There's no enmity between him and I nor do we have any rough patches between us.
'He probably just doesn't accept me as his new superior, which would explain why he joined them here to specifically give me grief.'
Glossary
*Zhuge Liang - Considered the genius strategist during the Three Kingdoms Era. Served Shu.
