Liu Bei POV

I should have expected this.

As I looked at Bo Fu who had a look of gleeful success on her face, I felt weak as I thought about how her prank riled us up so much.

“Lord Sun Ce, what are you…” Yun Chang hurriedly dismounted and walked over to Bo Fu with her horse. She probably dismounted as it felt that it would be disrespectful to question Bo Fu whilst she was still on a horse.

“I’m sorry Lord Guan Yu. Please rest easy, we did not bring our army.” Bo Fu understood what Yun Chang wanted to ask and immediately saluted her as a gesture to express her apology. After that, she clapped and several people appeared out of the shrubbery.

There are quite a few familiar faces.

“Xuan De, we meet again!”

“Everyone! It’s been a while!”

The 2 girls, a warrior with twin hookswords and a warrior with twin spears, that appeared before us struck up respectful poses.

“You both haven’t changed huh.” I said as I called out to the 2 of them, “– Lu Meng, Tais.h.i.+ Ci.”

A fair bit of time has pa.s.sed since we fought together against Yuan Shu. Lu Meng still had the same braided ponytail and she was wearing her sky blue clothing with a red armband as she did then. Apart from her hair which has grown out a little more, she seems almost the same as when I last saw her. Tais.h.i.+ Ci was also pretty much unchanged. She had the same kind smile on, and didn’t seem to have grown any taller, and still used her hands to support her twin spears hanging behind.

I didn’t think these 2 would be here to receive us as well.

“Oi, Gong Jin, the instigator behind all this shouldn’t be hiding anymore, come out now!”

“Eh? Lord Zhou Yu is here as well?”

“That’s right,” Just then, Zhou Yu came out into the open and covered her mouth with her fan, “I have to show face for Imperial Uncle after all.”

Zhou Yu gave me a slight smile as she bowed while a breeze lifted her veil. The short stuff still felt as domineering as always.

“Though you said that, this isn’t too friendly of us right… Ouch!” A rare male came out from behind Zhou Yu and got a vicious elbow blow from Zhou Yu just as he said a few words with a smile and fell to the ground.

“This is…”

“I’ll introduce you, this idiot is called Lu Su, no need to bother about him.”

“Lu Su?!”

Lu Su is actually a guy? This thought flashed in my head but after I thought about it, I realised this was actually normal. Looks like I completely accepted the logic of this world.

As I laughed bitterly at myself, Lu Su had gotten up and came over to me to greet me with a salute and bow, “Greetings Imperial Uncle. I am Lu Su Lu Zi Jing, and I joined after the battle with Yuan Shu. I look forward to getting to know you.”

“Ah ah, yes so do I.” I hurriedly replied. Because of how informal he was in demeanor, I forgot the rules of this era for a moment and extended my hand to shake his. Only when I saw a baffled expression on his face did I hurriedly retract my hand and salute him.

Saluting is an art, especially when meeting people for the first time. Yun Chang had said that it was normal to hold the salute for a longer time when meeting people for the first time and one could use this time to size up the other side and make a first judgement.

To me, I try not to size up women in detail as much as possible but since there was finally a man appearing, it should be fine for me to do so.

Lu Su wasn’t tall, and his clothing was simple. He had tied his hair back haphazardly into a short tail and he had a little stubble on him. All in all, he looked like a slovenly person. But when you think about it, his demeanor does fit my impression of Lu Su as a mild and amiable person. The feeling I get from him is very different from the mean-eyed Bo Fu and Zhou Yu, who is always thinking. To put it simply, he’s a lot more approachable.

Or should I say, as expected of Lu Su.

“Alright, you can get lost now.” Zhou Yu stepped forward in front of Lu Su and swatted him with her fan until he left my field of vision and summoned 2 people out, “The ones that need to be introduced are these 2. The one with dark skin is Ding Feng, and the one on the other side with a strange hat is Xu Sheng.”

“I’m Ding Feng Ding Cheng Yuan.”

“Xu Sheng Xu Wen Xiang.”

“Greetings…” I was getting a little tired of this, but I still had to go through with the pleasantries. And since she took the trouble to introduce me, I ought to make sure I remember them.

To be honest, I don’t have a strong impression of Eastern Wu. All that I can remember, apart from some of the more famous individuals, is that they have an uncountable number of named administrative officials and warrior generals. Whilst reading Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I would always skip the names whenever a mult.i.tude of them appeared. While I knew roughly who was appearing when, I really can’t name them.

I’m afraid I’ll probably get to know many of Eastern Wu’s leaders.

As for the 2 people in front of me, their looks are rather striking. Ding Feng was clearly someone who lived near the sea. Her hair was slightly bleached from being in the water for too long, and her dark skin was probably a strong tan. She looked like an unsmiling person on the surface, but from her half-closed eyes, she was probably just bored and irritated.

To her side, Xu Sheng had red eyes and wore her chainmail inside while wearing what seemed like a jacket with a hood on the outside. If she lowered her head, the hood could block her eyes. Unlike Ding Feng, or rather the opposite of Ding Feng, she looked like a genuinely unsmiling person. While she was greeting me, I noticed that her eyes kept wavering between me and Zhou Yu, as though she was checking to make sure that she was doing it correctly.

“My little sister recruited these 2. Strange-looking, aren’t they?” Bo Fu nonchalantly placed her arms on the shoulders of these 2 at which Ding Feng’s expression darkened. She looked like she wanted to shrug off Bo Fu’s arm but felt that it would be rude and stopped mid-action. Xu Sheng, however, didn’t move in the least.

“… No.” Bo Fu was clearly using the wrong adjectives here. At least use ‘special’.

But… Ding Feng and Xu Sheng huh, I’ll make sure to remember these 2.

“Alright! The short prank is over now!” Bo Fu nodded as she placed her hands on her hips and stretched her neck.

She then pointed below the cliffs, “Let’s head on down! Xuan De, I’ll show you our s.h.i.+ps!”

The s.h.i.+ps were really big. There was no question about it. Just 5 s.h.i.+ps were enough to carry all 5,000 of us.

When we saw the s.h.i.+ps, all of us had shocked and impressed looks on our faces. I don’t know what the 5,000 troops following behind feel but I can largely imagine how they would.

“The s.h.i.+p looks to be about 20 odd meters in height… How many can each s.h.i.+p carry?” Yun Chang said as she looked at the peak of the s.h.i.+p.

“This s.h.i.+p has 3 levels built in it. It can squeeze in 1,500 along with the required supplies.” Zhou Yu said with her fan in front of her mouth, probably to hide her proud smile.

“Do these 5 s.h.i.+ps have names?”

“No. We have about 30 or so of such s.h.i.+ps in Jiangdong so there’s no point naming them.”

That’s a lot…

“There’s nothing to be amazed about, everyone. Unlike the north, Jiangdong is close to many large bodies of water which can be very difficult to travel in without large boats. In fact, a boat is almost necessary to get to almost anywhere.”

Though Bo Fu had a look that seemed to be complaining about this inconvenience, all of us were still awestruck.

“We’ll be really proud when ‘Fei Yun’ and ‘Gai Hai’ are finished.”

(TL: I am unable to translate the s.h.i.+p names. Literally, it means 飛雲: flying cloud and 蓋海: cover[ing the] sea, so it’s likely that Fei Yun is a fast s.h.i.+p while Gai Hai is a goliath.)

Since they have names for those s.h.i.+ps, they should be pretty special.

When I looked at the s.h.i.+ps, I began to feel impressed at the various craftsmen of this era. Even though technology was so backward, they could accomplish such wondrous achievements that people from the future can’t even imagine or create. Perhaps the ancients are the more resourceful ones.

“Let’s board, everyone.” Bo Fu said as she gestured us to board the s.h.i.+ps, “I’ve prepared a banquet on board, as repentence for making everyone alarmed just now.”

Actually, I should have expected Bo Fu’s prank. The only one who could do such things despite having such a lofty status and position would be Bo Fu.

Even though her eyes are so vicious, she’s just like a kid. I thought, feeling a little sore at not being able to foresee what she did while sitting on the s.h.i.+p.

On the other hand, it seems like Bo Fu has taken big strides in improving her situation, as seen from her s.h.i.+ps and the reception.

Though they had tricked us, the reception and service we received was really grand. Looking at the requirements to feed all of us, it must cost quite a pretty penny for Bo Fu.

I and Bo Fu, as the feudal lords walked ahead of everyone. Due to the strong winds that rocked the planks, I began to s.h.i.+ver as I walked shakily.

“Xuan De doesn’t travel on boats often huh.” Bo Fu, who was beside me, very smoothly put one arm about me while linking arms with me. Her fringe seems to have grown longer and I couldn’t quite see her face.

“I’m fine, just a little shaky that’s all.”

“No, it’s okay.” Bo Fu continued immediately as her lips curled up, “Let me support you at least while you’re here.”