Galloping A Thousand Miles - Long Heard Of
"You two… explain to me what happened while I was gone."
The two fearfully explained what took place for me to finally understand how Thousand Miles ended.
They were afraid of the contents in the container being too valuable, which would lead to my shifu flying off the handle. As such, they took matters into their own hands and improvised by submitting a porn book in its place. Owing to Jin Wangsun submitting the exact same item, the Emperor had no choice but to declare the second round a draw, thereby leading to the upcoming third round.
"Lord San Shen X Ximen Chuideng"… was a problem we martial brothers created for ourselves by being stupid when we were in the Western region. Somebody then turned into a reason to boldly carry out executions. As a result, the book became widespread throughout all seven nations in the Western region.
Second Brother was one of the original creators of the series, so it didn't surprise me that he had one.
'But Jin Wangsun… went all the way to Lizhe Kingdom to buy a boys love porno?Does he have some sort of disease?'
I gave Jin Wangsun a belittling gaze. Jin Wangsun, who the Emperor virtually tore apart with his gaze, immediately stared back, refusing to back down. Tone imposing, he cursed, "What are you looking at? Dog shit?!"
"…"
I had no response… What could I do but nod? Only then did Jin Wangsun realise he had a poor choice of words. Hence, he quickly tried to rectify his slip up. "Wh-Wh-Who you treating as dog shit?!"
"You?"
"Fuck you!!!"
Besides looking despondent, Jin Wangsun bared his fangs, though I didn't know who to. He was different to conceited Jin Wangsun back in the first round. I won the first round. We came to a draw in the second round. Thus, even if he was to win the third round, we'd reach a draw. For the meantime, I had yet to lose.
I shifted my gaze to the two princesses. Princess Hongzhuang sat alone. With nobody's attention on her, she buried her red face in the small book with "" on it.
'Oi, oi, oi! You bought a copy when we were in Bright Lane, didn't you?! You're a converted fan!'
Jingan, on the other hand, behaved differently. Jingan was surrounded by her relatives who offered her toasts one after another. Based on Princess Hongzhuang's character, she was definitely not good at handling those situations. Jingan, to the contrary, was adept and natural in those situations.
"Grand Princess, it has been a long time since you have been back in the capital. You should stay for some time before leaving. If you have time, you are most welcome to visit Imperial Princess' place anytime."
"Indeed, indeed. Your palace in Hangzhou may be large, but the capital is our true home at the end of the day. Come and visit me if you have time. With Fuma's exemplary martial prowess, he would not mind. It is nothing major."
Jingan calmly conversed while holding onto her drink. She wasn't very good at holding her liquor; two cups and she was out. When people made the occasional inquiry about Fuma Jingan, she would smile, and tell them that he was too busy and not in the capital. At the same time, she'd keep on glancing over to me with a tinge of bitterness.
'What?! What are you looking at?!I visited you just two days ago, woman! What are you resentful about?! Oh, is it because I didn't let you kill me? Is it because I escaped your death trap, and therefore trampled on your title as the Genius Princess?! I'm not even a life worth considering to you, am I?! Visiting you would just be giving you another chance to try and kill me! Why are you pretending that I was the one who cheated on his wife and eloped?!'
Noticing my interaction with Jingan, Jin Wangsun's suspicion started to arise. He seemed to suspect that we were somehow related. His frown was barely a suspicion. Actually, it was closer to desire to kill after confirmation. Jin Wangsun was aware of my identity as the master of Night Fortress. I wondered if he had picked up some other information, such as my identity as Fuma Jingan…
'Now I'm struggling to get my head around this. With Jingan's prudence, it's unlikely that she wouldn't share with Jin Wangsun information that could threaten me.'
While I was still contemplating to myself, the Emperor did a lap around to drink with the audience and soon showed subtle signs of drunkenness.
"All right now. I did think that we would have to go to the last round, Dazzling Talent, but I didn't think it would be in this preposterous fashion. Oh, well. Fuma candidates, come forward. I have an announcement to make."
The Emperor leaned back in his seat and waited for Jin Wangsun and me to come forward. The Emperor subtly frowned. "After the two rounds, Constable Ming currently has the upper hand, but we have yet to determine a victor. I intend to have the third round determine the victor. What do you two say?"
Jin Wangsun couldn't have asked for more. "Your subject strongly supports your decision. Thank you for your grace."
"How about you, Constable Ming?"
I considered it to myself for a brief moment then joined my hands to speak. "You are absolutely correct. Indeed, your subject is inferior to Brother Jin. Your subject merely got by in the previous two rounds thanks to his wits and prudence. It was shameful to mention it to begin with but thanks to your suggestion, your subject feels much better about it. As such, your subject would like to express his agreement with your suggestion."
Elated, the Emperor replied, "It is commendable for you to show such character. Very good!"
The reason I said what I said was because I sort of stood out during Shining Edges. To cover the reality that I stole the limelight, I needed to humble myself before the Emperor. As for the fuma selection itself, neither Jin Wangsun nor I knew what Dazzling Talent was, so it would be fair anyhow…
In any case, I had managed to take back Night Fortress, so I could give the naughty boy a lesson before throwing him back to his dad whenever I fancied. Worst came to worst, I could have him vanish into thin air for a few years, and Her Highness would be safe from his pompous self. I looked at Jin Wangsun and giggled with that idea in mind. I noticed that he was somewhat out of sorts. I took my gaze off him right before he was going to suggest I was looking at dog shit or something similarly filthy.
The Emperor raised his voice. "Ladies and gentlemen, the two previous rounds have concluded. We will now be beginning the third round, which is named Dazzling Talent. Dazzling Talent is something you wouldn't expect. It requires my two fuma candidates to unravel a mystery that has been on my mind for many years."
The majority of the audience comprised of the Emperor's relatives. As the Emperor's relatives, they were able to visit him multiple times per year, and therefore were very familiar with him. Given that he made such a solemn announcement, he was bound to follow it up with something else. When he mentioned he had something baffling him… their conclusion was that it had to pertain to matters outside of the palace or something in major in the imperial court if it was less important, for that was what commonly weighed on a monarch's mind.
"It seems that His Majesty does not want us to watch this," the audience concluded.
The audience, therefore, prepared themselves to miss out on the third round.
The Emperor said, "This matter ties in with the nation's well-being and cannot be shared. Even Hong'er and Jing'er are forbidden from hearing it. You need not worry, ladies and gentlemen, for you are all the people whom I trust most. However, owing to the complications that may arise, I cannot share it with even my children and Prime Minister Li Si. So I'd like to clarify that it is not that I don't trust you."
The audience replied, "We understand. Please rest assured, Your Majesty. You have always been impartial, and we trust you."
If not even the Princesses and prime minister were allowed to know, they had no business giving the Emperor attitude.
The Emperor immediately picked up again. "Please come with me fuma candidates. I need to have a word with you."
The Emperor rose and took off. All of the golden armour guards followed along. Jin Wangsun brought A Hu along, while I brought Tang Ye along.
The Emperor calmly said, "This relates to old news from over twenty years ago."
