Chu Dingjiang ruffled her hair. "Do your best."
"But why is the quota only a thousand people? Even two thousand wouldn't be too many!" An Jiu was happy but still a bit dissatisfied.
"Do you think they'd make a special exception just for Hexi County? Hua Rongtian doesn't have that much authority," Chu Dingjiang said with a faint smile. "The entire Hebei Circuit will likely have self-defense militias. A lower-tier county gets a thousand, a prominent county might get three thousand, and prefectural capitals even more. The total won't be small. Any more than that, and someone might use these militias to rebel."
These were all disaster-stricken war zones—the court couldn't grant special privileges to one county without causing uproar elsewhere.
"Fine. Even if it's just a thousand, my troops will definitely be the strongest thousand." An Jiu began pondering where to recruit more people.
"As long as you can support them, secretly recruiting extra won't hurt." Chu Dingjiang walked to the window and picked up a straw to tease his treasured eagle. Casually, he added, "I recruited a few on my way here. See if they're usable when you have time."
"Which ones?" An Jiu remembered the escort team had at least eighty or ninety people.
"All of them," Chu Dingjiang said.
An Jiu beamed. "Really! There's a saying that's absolutely true!"
Chu Dingjiang paused mid-motion, turning his head in preparation for her usual bluntness.
"An old man at home is like a treasure!"
Snap.
The straw was pecked in half by the eagle.
Chu Dingjiang chuckled and shook his head, continuing to tease the eagle with the remaining half. "Out of ten sentences you say, a hundred are unpleasant."
"How is it a hundred?" An Jiu asked.
"Your face is practically shouting unpleasant words." Sincerity often cut deeper than sarcasm, and An Jiu was the type who took everything seriously.
"Heh." An Jiu rubbed her nose, then suddenly remembered something else. "In a few days, we'll be moving outside the city to live in tents. I promised Wei Yuzhi I'd avoid him."
Chu Dingjiang smoothed the eagle's feathers. "It's good he came to terms with it. Avoid him then—we do owe him a life."
An Jiu looked up at his profile.
"Chu Dingjiang. Has your Internal Energy dropped again?" Ever since he appeared in Hexi County, she'd been able to sense his presence. It seemed he could no longer conceal his aura around her...
"Mn." Chu Dingjiang was used to her abrupt topic shifts and humored her. "Even if it's dropped a bit, it's more than enough."
An Jiu hesitated. "That may be so... but you won't keep losing it, will you?"
Sensing her worry, Chu Dingjiang set the eagle aside and pulled her into an embrace, murmuring reassurance. "When I chose to cultivate such an overbearing technique, I never imagined ending up like this. I'll keep falling from the Transformation Realm and have to break through again. Right now, I'm at a bottleneck."
He'd always planned everything in advance, but he'd never imagined one day falling for a woman—for her, willingly giving up the pinnacle of martial arts within his grasp.
An Jiu gasped. "You've already fallen from the Transformation Realm?!"
As the saying went, a starved camel was still bigger than a horse. Even at the same ninth rank, Chu Dingjiang's Inner Force was far denser and purer than ordinary ninth ranks. The boundary between Mental Strength and the Transformation Realm was vague, so An Jiu couldn't accurately gauge his rank.
An Jiu pushed him away. "What are the chances you'll recover to how you were before?"
"Staying at this stage longer has its benefits. I'm waiting for the right moment," Chu Dingjiang said."Nonsense." An Jiu couldn't tell whether his words were true or false, but her intuition told her it wasn't that simple. Since he wasn't willing to be honest, she didn't press further. "If it's gone, then so be it. Even if it disappears completely, I'm not afraid. I'll protect you."
"Alright." Chu Dingjiang smiled. "Then I'll trouble my wife."
The way he said "my wife" so smoothly, as if he'd been calling her that for a long time, made An Jiu's heart skip a beat.
It wasn't resistance, nor was it joy—it was nervousness. Just two simple words had the former cold-blooded assassin sweating in her palms from tension.
"Ha, ha." An Jiu forced a dry laugh, unsure how to respond.
The bright sunlight outlined Chu Dingjiang's sharp features as he gazed at her quietly, his eyes filled with a gentle warmth that dissolved all her awkwardness.
In his eyes, An Jiu seemed to see a peaceful present, a serene passage of time—a fleeting wish for this moment to last forever. Unconsciously, she smiled too.
"Go on with your work," Chu Dingjiang said softly.
"Mm." As if given an order, An Jiu darted out like a rabbit.
Chu Dingjiang walked to the desk to retrieve the ledger, intending to take stock of their belongings before moving out of the city the next day.
Just as he picked up the ledger, An Jiu rushed back in, her face flushed like an angry bull, threw herself at him, and planted a kiss on his cheek. Stiff-necked, she blurted out, "Husband."
Chu Dingjiang froze briefly, but before he could react, she had already dashed out again, as if someone were chasing her tail.
Watching her flustered retreat, he couldn't help but laugh, his expression bright as spring's return. Though half his face was hidden by his beard, nothing could mask his striking presence.
Perhaps it was time to start preparing for something else, he thought.
"Yo, what's the happy occasion? You're grinning like a fool!" Mo Sigui stepped inside just in time to catch Chu Dingjiang's rare smile.
Most of the time, Chu Dingjiang was like a deep, cold, and mysterious pool. Seeing him like this was a bit hard for Mo Sigui to process.
In too good a mood to mind, Chu Dingjiang simply said, "Sit."
Though his smile faded, his attitude toward Mo Sigui was a hundred times gentler than before.
Mo Sigui sat down warily. "Don't be like this—it's creeping me out. Feels like I'm about to get swindled."
Chu Dingjiang's expression cooled. "What do you want?"
Ah, that's more like it! Mo Sigui exhaled in relief, taking a puff from his pipe to steady himself before getting to the point. "I examined the corpse A Jiu brought back. I can't confirm if it's a mutation—it could also be some kind of Gu poison. But I searched the entire body and found no trace of Gu. Normally, when the host dies, the Gu either dies or goes dormant. I came to ask if you can think of any Gu poison that can be passed down through bloodlines."
"Isn't there a know-it-all in your circle?" Chu Dingjiang replied.
"Yuzhi doesn't know either," Mo Sigui said. "The more minds on it, the better chance we have of figuring it out."
"I'll think about it," Chu Dingjiang said.
Mo Sigui waved away the smoke and studied him closely. "You... what happened to you?"
Before, Chu Dingjiang's Protective Energy had been so dense it was hard to look directly at him. Now, that aura had noticeably weakened.
The Protective Energy flared around him briefly before dissipating again. Chu Dingjiang said flatly, "As you see. I'm trying to be more approachable."
"Hahaha." Mo Sigui's laugh was strained. "Good, good."
"Anything else?"Mo Sigui saw the look on his face that clearly said, "If you've got nothing important, scram!" and thought angrily, So much for being approachable!
"Speak."
Mo Sigui cleared his throat. "If you're free, could you go catch me two more people? Just grab anyone from the Liao Kingdom who's had their Internal Energy forcibly enhanced, and another assassin who's undergone poison mutation."
"Don't you already have one?"
"Well..." Mo Sigui shifted uncomfortably. "I accidentally broke that one."
"You're deranged."
Mo Sigui protested indignantly. "Hey! How can a mass murderer like you say something like that!"
"I never hack up corpses," Chu Dingjiang said. "Besides, why should I do you this favor?"
"Consider it me owing you a favor, alright?!" Mo Sigui said urgently. "Both types are hard to find."
"If they were easy to find, would I be coming to you?!" Mo Sigui thought for a moment, then held up three fingers. "Three favors owed."
Only then did Chu Dingjiang look satisfied. "Deal."
Mo Sigui asked, "Can you catch them soon?"
"Both types can be found in Xijin Prefecture," Chu Dingjiang said lazily, leaning against the table edge with one hand propping up his cheek. "Ning Yanli has been getting close to Yelü Jinglie lately. He has many assassins with forcibly enhanced Internal Energy under him, and the Secret Records of Crane Control are also in his possession. Those suffering from poison mutations will be summoned to Xijin Prefecture. I have the address of his secret residence there. If you change your mind and want to catch them yourself, I'll count it as you owing me one favor."
"Every single one of you is cunning as a fox," Mo Sigui said, already numb to it. "I don't like owing favors. But one is owed, two is owed—when you're covered in lice, you stop itching. When you're drowning in debt, you stop worrying. It's better if you just catch them for me ready-made."
Chu Dingjiang said, "I'll go in a few days."
"Why wait a few days?" Mo Sigui was intrigued, itching to get to the bottom of it.
"Getting our A Jiu settled is more important."
"Go ahead, I'll take care of it!"
Chu Dingjiang gave him a sidelong glance. "I don't trust you."
Mo Sigui slammed the table. "What's there not to trust?! It's just moving house! What's the big deal?!"
Chu Dingjiang flipped a page in his ledger and said without looking up, "Our A Jiu can't live the kind of messy life you lead."
"How is my life messy?! I'm carefree, I go with the flow!" Mo Sigui declared boldly.
Chu Dingjiang sat up straight, wrote a few characters in the ledger, and ignored him.
Mo Sigui found it dull and waved his hand. "Fine, go whenever you want. I'll find something else interesting to do in the meantime."
"Don't let the door hit you on the way out," Chu Dingjiang said without lifting his head.
"Humph!" Mo Sigui returned to his room, seething with anger.
Meanwhile, several carriages stopped outside the county office gates.
A servant stepped down from one and asked the old gatekeeper, "Elder, does the Mei family live here?"
Seeing the group's fine attire, the old man asked politely, "And your family is...?"
"My master is Old Madam Mei," the servant said.
Hearing they were from the Mei family, the gatekeeper became enthusiastic. "There are many of them, living in the western compound. They're all out working during the day and not at home, but Miss Shi Si is at the office."
The servant bowed. "Then may I trouble you to announce us?"
"No trouble at all," the old man said. "Wait here a moment."
With that, he turned back into the courtyard and went to the inner gate to speak with the gatekeeper there.The old maidservant quickly found An Jiu, "Young Lady Shi Si, your Old Madam has arrived and is waiting outside the main gate."
"Old Madam?" An Jiu was currently organizing the people Chu Dingjiang had brought when she heard this, and for a moment, she couldn't recall which Old Madam this referred to!
"Oh." An Jiu suddenly remembered. The Mei family had two Old Madams. On the day the Mei clan was annihilated, the Second Madam had fallen gravely ill and had been bedridden ever since. During their urgent journey to Hexi County to seek Mo Sigui's help with the poison mutation, it was inconvenient to bring her along, so they left only a few loyal servants to care for her, planning to make further arrangements once the situation improved. As for the Old Madam from the main branch, she had disappeared that same day—no body was found, and she had never reappeared. How could she suddenly show up now?
An Jiu turned to the newly assembled group and said, "I'll go take a look. You all carry on with your tasks for now." (To be continued...)
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