Yun Chang POV

I don’t think I’m particularly old. My body is st.u.r.dy and I don’t get sick easily. Though it’s strange for me to say this, but I don’t think I’ll have difficulties bearing children as well.

But for some reason, I’m starting to see things.

Could they be letting us pa.s.s just like that? No, that’s far too easy.

“Yun Chang! Don’t daze out now.”

Eh?

Wen Yuan’s words pulled me back to reality and I looked ahead and saw a man with a goatee wearing plate and hundreds, maybe thousands, of troops behind him.

Th, this is!

“Blade girl, we haven’t attacked them yet, but now they’re going to come for us right off the bat.” Lady Zhurong said as she narrowed her eyes in dissatisfaction.

I completely forgot about this possibility, but now that I think about it, this does make sense.

“No, we can’t be sure of that yet.” Though I said that, I was still very worried about the possibility, and hurriedly spoke to Wen Yuan, “Get ready for combat, but don’t forget that protecting the carriage is of paramount importance.”

As I said so, I looked at Lu Bu, who looked like she had just awoken and was currently supporting her face with one hand and rubbing her eyes with the other.

The soldiers we had brought along looked terribly exhausted as they hadn’t had a chance to rest for a while now.

“What do we do? Should I call the Nanman troops out?” Lady Zhurong spoke to me on behalf of Meng Huo who was almost frozen by now.

“Un…”

This is really bad… Our troops morale is low, and if they charge at us, we need the Nanman troops to help us. But if we do that, then our road ahead will become more complicated.

“May I ask! Is it General Guan Yu?!”

My thoughts were still in turmoil but reality didn’t give me any leeway to consider my options as the goatee man had already advanced to not more than 100 paces away and yelled out to me.

At this, I could only give a reply.

“I am indeed Guan Yu Guan Yun Chang.” I saluted as I said so to appear as respectful as I could.

The man continued to advance. He looked like a warrior general and had horizontal eyebrows with a small scar on his face. His plate armour wasn’t customised and was merely a set of plain plate armour issued to rank and file soldiers.

Instead of plain, it would be more appropriate to call it austere.

“So it’s Lord Guan Yu huh!” After confirming my ident.i.ty, he actually smiled and saluted me, “I’ve been awaiting everyone for a while now. Please come in, let us rest before we speak any further.”

If what I saw before was a delusion, then what is this?

We dismounted and followed the goatee man as we slowly stepped into Luoyang city, our destination being the Administrator residence.

We haven’t explained anything at all, but we have allowed in already. This is far beyond what I would expect a reasonable Administrator would do.

Could they be hatching a plot behind this…

Wen Yuan signalled this to me with her eyes. I too felt the same way but there wasn’t much to suspect about since they allowed us all to enter.

“May I ask how I should address the Administrator?”

“I am the Administrator of Luoyang, Han Fu. I am a lowly official and not worth remembering.” He looks proper and speaks humbly. There are no signs which raise suspicion in me.

(TL: Reminder that this is another Han Fu, unrelated to the previous Han Fu in volume 1-2.)

Instead of suspecting him, I was more preoccupied with my shock at Luoyang’s development.

I’d seen Luoyang city before and after it was burned down, and now that I’ve had a good look at it, it seems like it’s been mostly retored to how it was before. The only thing it lacked was the vibrancy it had before, but this would probably come back as life got more stable and prosperous.

“This is it, we’re here.”

Before we knew it, it seems like we’ve reached our destination. We looked in the direction where he pointed– And only saw a row of ordinary residences.

W, were these the official mansions?

“Ah, I’ll be honest, we’ve devoted almost all of our resources into revitalising Luoyang so we could only afford to build such housing for ourselves.” As he said so, he flashed a plain smile.

“It is hard enough to find an official like Lord Han Fu who works hard for the people. I, Yun Chang, truly respect you for this and your thriftiness!” I lowered my head as I said so, in a show of respect which I had for the man.

“Something doesn’t feel right.” Just then, Wen Yuan spoke up as she frowned and looked about with suspicion, “Compared to his broken and old plate armour on the outside, the clothing he is wearing on the inside is a bit too luxurious and intricate…”

Too luxurious?

I looked at Han Fu when I heard what Wen Yuan said and found that that was indeed the case. At first glance, his inner clothing didn’t seem like much, but when you took a closer look, you could see that there was a coloured embroidered pattern on it. This was clearly not something that could be procured cheaply.

“Everyone,” Just as I was beginning to get suspicious, Han Fu interrupted my thoughts, “Let us go in first before we discuss the matter of crossing the Pa.s.s.”