Yun Chang POV

I was actually a merchant in the past, and I sold dates and meat with my father, and had even managed a stall before. Business was decent and we got by since people had to eat even if the world was in chaos. I’d heard that cases where merchants were murdered and robbed were increasing but thanks to my good luck, I’ve never met with such incidents before.

But here I am now, being robbed.

“How is it, is there anything good?”

At this time, Liao Hua and I were tied to a tree while the woman called Chen Gong had some female thieves search us in the hopes of finding some valuables, with Liao Hua being the one searched first.

“Only 1 whetstone and 2 books.” The female soldier reported with disappointment on her thin face. She was clearly expecting more.

“Wu…” Liao Hua closed her mouth and sighed unhappily. She frowned slightly but didn’t say anything.

“I didn’t think you carried a whetstone along with you.”

“It’s just my hobby. I feel very uncomfortable when I see blunt blades.”

Such a hobby exists…

“Alright. Then when my glaive becomes rusty, I’ll leave it to you.” That saves me a good deal of trouble, and Liao Hua’s techniques should be excellent.

Liao Hua gave me a look that said ‘what are you talking about at this time’, and twisted her arms but the ropes were tied well and weren’t the sort that could be easily struggled out of.

I’d tried it before already but though the ropes weren’t thick, they were tied tightly, and the coils weren’t many so they dug into the flesh, which made it hurt when you tried to struggle, making it difficult to put in strength.

“Don’t bother. It’s unsightly of you lot to even think about escaping under these circ.u.mstances.” Chen Gong said as she sat on a stool in front of us with her arms folded across her chest. It was dark now but I could see a look of disgust on Chen Gong’s face.

The traps from before were probably designed by her. But there’s no point in looking so pleased about your victory at us…

“Umm, I think you are having a misunderstanding. We’re not with those people from before.”

“What? You’re still trying to quibble your way out of this?” Chen Gong said, “Alright, let’s say you’re not 1 of them, how do you even know that they belong to an organisation? And why are you here?”

“After we crossed the Yellow River, we set up camp by the sh.o.r.e. We came to investigate what happened after we heard some commotion.”

“Hahaha, what a coincidence. Those thieves seemed to have come from across the Yellow River as well, and they came to our village town to steal provisions.”

Steal provisions… Looks like these people are the villagers huh.

“We have not stolen any provisions.” Liao Hua said in a low voice.

“I’ll decide whether you have stolen them or not.” She gestured with her right hand as she said so and summoned another female soldier, “You, go and search that green robed woman.”

Green robed woman, that name is a little hurting.

“U, umm, I apologise for this.” The female soldier came forward and bowed.

Her hair was tied back in twintails, while she wore a set of short robes made from coa.r.s.e cloth. You could tell from 1 look that this person was very poor. When she came up to me, she didn’t know where to search first and her big beautiful eyes wavered about.

“It’s fine, go ahead and search.” I’m not afraid of being searched since I actually had nothing on me and the results of the search could prove my innocence anyway.

The female soldier withdrew a bit at first, but she soon began to search me carefully.

“Why are you showing pity to these thieves…” Chen Gong was displeased at this but she didn’t say any further and took out a fan and began fanning herself.

“May I ask if your village is up ahead?”

“Didn’t you come and steal provisions just 2 days ago?”

“Does your village have an abundance of resources?”

“Abundance?” She scoffed at my words, “If we had abundance, we could have given you provisions.”

I’m in a precarious situation now but now that I think about it, it makes sense. What I cannot accept is this Chen Gong’s att.i.tude.

“I understand, it’s not easy being refugees like you lot. But the village town doesn’t have the ability to support you lot. These are troubled times so there will always be those who die from hunger. All I can do is to ensure that the citizens of my jurisdiction don’t starve.” Chen Gong stood up as she said so with a cold look on her face.

If you think about it from the perspective of the citizens and her, Chen Gong might be a good official after all.

“As long as I ensure that the citizens lf this village town live well, I’ll have a chance to be promoted when the state Governor comes and inspect the village town!”

… I retract what I thought before.

“So you’re just infatuated with officialdom huh.” Liao Hua hadn’t spoken till now, and now that she did, she went straight for the jugular.

“And so what if I am?” Chen Gong’s face became stormy and she bent forward but controlled her emotions and began pacing about, “Using martial strength to gain power is 1 way, it is simple but crude. Rising through the system as an official takes skill and knowledge. Wouldn’t it be nice if I were to leave my name in history by gaining power this way?”

A breeze blew in from the sea and sent the smell of waves and salt into my nose. It pa.s.sed by me and blew through the forest, making the leaves rustle. The wind’s strength wavered and strengthened and made Chen Gong’s clothes billow out behind her. The flags which several soldiers behind her held also floated up. Looks like the fog will be lifted soon.

Chen Gong stood unmoving, with her hands spread out in front of her and an upright look on her unlike before. Several soldiers nearby nodded at what she said but most just stood there like wooden blocks. In my heart, I felt that this Chen Gong person didn’t deserve to be left forgotten in a small corner of the world like this. This person was rather irritating but she had ambition and a path she sought to follow. From how things look, she also has the capability to follow through with it.

“There is nothing valuable to be found on this woman.” That female soldier from before seemed to have reached a conclusion, and she stood up to give her report. It feels like she’s slightly livelier than before.

“Is that so? Alright, get back in line.” Chen Gong didn’t say any further and dismissed her.

“In that case, we’ll lock them up for the time being. Looking at them, they’re probably some mid-ranking officers so they’ll be good chips to bargain with your leader later.”

When she finished, the 2 female soldiers who had searched us before came up and loosened our bindings.

We look like mid-ranking officials huh… Leaving aside me, Liao Hua was a city Registrar so she should have been seen as a second-in-command at least.

“General Guan.”

“No, not yet.”

When the ropes slackened, Liao Hua called out to me softly. I know she thinks that we should swiftly escape from here but we are heavily surrounded so even if the troops here are not strong, it will be difficult for us to escape.

In any case, we hadn’t actually done any wrongdoing and should not have been a part of this to begin with. Now that we have, we shouldn’t kill these village militia.

The way forward was to go with the flow and patiently wait. All we can do now is hope that Lu Bu realises that something happened and thinks of way to save us.

“I understand.”

I don’t know if she actually understands what I mean but she nodded so I’ll take it as if she understands.

“A wise choice.” Chen Gong slapped her knees and stood up when she saw us cooperating and didn’t look at us anymore as she walked through the soldiers and led the way back.

“Though I understand where General Guan is coming from, should we really not escape now?” Liao Hua repeated herself as she stood up, as this was the last chance after all.

But I was adamant on this.

“Un, it’s just a misunderstanding. If we escape, then that misunderstanding will become real.” I said as I nodded to rea.s.sure Liao Hua, “We’ll look out for any opportunities. It looks like there’s more to this conflict as well.”

Chen Gong and her people called them locusts, not thieves, so those people only stole provisions. It also felt like those people were fundamentally different from thieves as they were a little too organised.

The wind got stronger, and the cold became ever more piercing as our clothes were still wet. I’d thought that the journey to Dong commandery and Runan wouldn’t be long but who knew that this would happen.

Looks like it really is as Liao Hua said. It is our fate to have met with this.