Seeing the Silly Shizun voluntarily hand over her weakness, Chen Qing was extremely satisfied.
Her original plan had been to bring this Silly Shizun along anyway, and now the Silly Shizun had even exposed a vulnerability herself. She had made a killing.
“Alright, that’s settled then. If you play any tricks once we’re there, just wait for your butt to get spanked swollen.”
Although Chen Qing’s words were a warning directed at her, they at least meant she had agreed to let her tag along and provide support.
With Chen Qing’s level of martial prowess, she wouldn’t be able to help much anyway. All she needed to do was hide nearby and quietly cheer a couple of times.
That way, she could effortlessly complete the System Task and claim the reward.
Once they had decided, the four of them left the inn and headed toward the local County Yamen.
The invitation letter asking Ye Qinglian to visit had just been a polite formality. The local government hadn’t actually expected Ye Qinglian to have the nerve to show up.
Since it was mere politeness, the letter hadn’t specified an address for hosting them.
But this minor hurdle couldn’t stump Su Mu and the others. If you won’t tell me the address, then I’ll just head straight for the government’s most obvious landmark: the County Yamen.
This approach would also catch the local officials off guard.
However, after asking around, Chen Qing and the others discovered that this small town didn’t have a County Yamen at all.
The only official presence seemed to be a team of soldiers maintaining public order.
Only then did Ye Qinglian realize that, prosperous as this small town was, it was merely at the town level.
Official institutions like the County Yamen only existed in cities.
So, if they wanted to reach the County Yamen, they’d have to head to a nearby city.
Though it was a bit of a hassle, the four split into two groups.
Chen Qing and Su Mu went to find a carriage to the nearby city, while Wu Ran and Ye Qinglian returned to the inn to check out.
They walked through the bustling, noisy streets and arrived at a livery stable.
The spacious livery stable was a clear sign of how prosperous commerce was in this small town.
After all, the saying “to get rich, build roads first” held true in any era. Booming trade depended on advanced transportation.
The livery stable was doing brisk business, but with customers coming right to the door, the boss had no reason to turn them away.
“Customer, heading out on a long journey? Or delivering goods? If it’s goods, I can connect you with a local escort agency—guaranteed no losses.”
The plump boss looked at Chen Qing expectantly.
Naturally, she hoped Chen Qing wanted to deliver goods; renting a carriage for that would net her more profit.
But Chen Qing’s response was sure to disappoint her.
“To neighboring Shuangguan City. A six-person carriage.”
“A six-person carriage it is, customer. Please wait while I fetch one.”
The boss grabbed a thick ledger and headed to the back of the livery stable.
While Chen Qing negotiated the rental with the boss, Su Mu’s curious eyes darted around, taking in the livery stable’s interior setup.
Su Mu had only ever read about livery stables in wuxia novels.
In truth, they were just places that bought up carriages and rented them out—nothing fancy.
What truly sparked Su Mu’s interest was the escort agency the boss had mentioned.
In her mind, these ancient guard teams always carried a dash of jianghu heroism.
The mere mention of the word conjured images of a band of ancient escorts, which struck her as pretty impressive.
“What are you staring at?”
Chen Qing spotted the Silly Shizun’s wide-eyed, country-bumpkin gaze and felt black lines creep across her forehead.
She could understand that look for something rare or luxurious, but an ordinary, beat-up livery stable?
Su Mu ignored the black lines on Chen Qing’s face and sidled up to her, asking curiously, “Are the escort agencies around here really powerful? Do they have experts who can nail a leaf on a tree from a hundred paces with a flying dart?”
Seeing the Silly Shizun’s innocent, curious expression, Chen Qing finally realized she wasn’t eyeing the livery stable itself, but the escort agency the boss had brought up.
The Silly Shizun’s idealized view of escort agencies was way off base, though. They were just groups of people with some martial skills banding together.
They scraped by escorting goods for the wealthy.
The so-called experts in an escort agency could only handle bandits who waved knives to scare people.
Faced with a truly powerful martial artist, an entire escort team would be wiped out in seconds.
Someone who could hit a leaf from a hundred paces away was only second-rate at best, but they could easily land a cushy guard job with a rich family—far better than slaving away delivering goods for an escort agency.
Seeing how naive the Silly Shizun was about the world, Chen Qing picked up a bamboo tag used for rain cover beside the horse stable and pinched it between her fingers.
She aimed at a horse stable a hundred paces away and flicked it with her finger.
A hole the size of the bamboo tag appeared on one of the distant stable’s pillars.
Su Mu swallowed hard at the sight of the tiny hole in the wooden pillar. If that bamboo tag had hit her, she’d have been finished.
While Su Mu was thoroughly intimidated by Chen Qing’s display, the livery stable boss emerged with a carriage.
“Customer, here’s your six-person carriage. I just fed the horse fresh fodder—plenty of energy.”
The boss said with a cheerful grin.
After a quick inspection confirmed everything was in order,
Chen Qing paid the rental fee. It wasn’t too bad; the real expense was the deposit held by the livery stable.
In this era, a carriage was like a small car—valuable enough that, to prevent renters from just absconding with it,
they had to leave a deposit. Chen Qing could reclaim it later at a livery stable in Shuangguan City.
Su Mu’s eyes nearly glued themselves to the pouch as Chen Qing pulled out over a dozen taels of silver.
This damn Villain was loaded, as expected.
And yet, despite all that money, she still pinched every copper coin from her. What a miser.
Spotting the Silly Shizun’s greedy little gaze, Chen Qing grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the livery stable.
Even as Chen Qing pulled her along, Su Mu’s eyes lingered on the boss pocketing the payment.
It wasn’t her money, but Su Mu still felt a pang of reluctance. Who knew—maybe some of those silvers had been swiped from her by the damn Villain.
After leaving the livery stable, Chen Qing and Su Mu reached the rendezvous point with Ye Qinglian and the others.
Ye Qinglian and Wu Ran were already waiting.
“Senior, I’ll handle the driving. Highness’s safety is in your hands.”
With that, Wu Ran glanced at the White Lotus Cultist, whom Su Mu had knocked out and captured.
As a White Lotus Cult follower, she undoubtedly knew far more about the cult than they did, so they were bringing her along.
She had surrendered, but her former sensitive status left Wu Ran deeply wary of her.
Su Mu, on the other hand, wasn’t particularly guarded around her. If the cultist had wanted to harm her, Su Mu wouldn’t be standing here safe and sound right now.
