Liu Bei POV

After being caught by my ‘teachers’, naturally I couldn’t continue roaming the streets of Shouchun. My unilateral holiday was greatly inflated by them and I received a thorough scolding that only ended after Yun Chang intervened on my behalf.

Thereafter were my usual lessons. How much actually went in is another matter altogether as I continued to think about Sun Quan whilst the lessons were ongoing.

I can still remember the bewildered innocent eyes Sun Quan looked at me with while I was taken away by Zi Long. When I thought of this, guilt filled my heart.

It was supposed to be just a prank, and I was planning on revealing myself at a suitable time but now that I wasn’t the one to reveal the truth, the prank has become a scam.

And it was this that has occupied my thoughts thus far. It was now late at night, but I continued to sit on my bed and think about this as I indulged in self-hatred without a care for food or drink.

What if the future alliances fail because Sun Quan hates me after what happened today? Would the outcome of future battles change because of this malicious prank of mine?

Even if they didn’t, just being hated by a girl alone is unbearable enough for me. I had no appet.i.te and sighed as I got up stiffly and made to exit the room.

The moon in Jiangdong seemed brighter, and larger, than the one in the north. Tonight should have been a formal meeting between Sun Quan and I, where we might appreciate the beauty of the moon as we engaged in discussions. But they have not sent anyone to receive me yet.

This made me anxious as it felt like the calm before the storm. Moreover, if anyone was to blame, it would definitely be me. Perhaps what I need to think about now is how I should kneel and beg for forgiveness.

“Argh!!!!!!” All of a sudden, a face that had the whites of its eyes showing appeared from below the handrails with very strange movements.

“Waa!” I was thoroughly frightened by that face, and shakily took several steps back and fell backwards as I tripped over the door ledge, even losing my sight temporarily.

I didn’t wait for my sight to recover, and used both hands to help myself up, and actually failed once, making an embarra.s.sing sight before I was able to get up.

“Ahahahahahahahahahaha–” And following that, there was a long, raucous laughter.

Wh, what is going on? Could it be that there are monsters in Jiangdong!

“Sister Jiang, stop fooling around.” A short figure crawled out of a corner in the room. Because of the shadow from the light of the candle, I couldn’t see what she looked like and could only hear her severe tone.

“Ahahaha, aiya…” Over here, the person who was mistaken as a female ghost revealed herself as she clambered over the handrails with deft movements.

She took a few steps forward and appeared in my field of vision. Before I could take a closer look, she stopped and bowed.

“I apologise for just now. I just wanted to have good relations with Imperial Uncle.”

How is this supposed to foster good relations, all you will do is make yourself be hated, I thought but didn’t say.

“Sister Jiang, you’ll only make yourself get hated.” The short figure said as she stepped out from behind the shadows. Looks like she felt the same way as I did.

By now, I was finally able to get a good look at these 2 which gave me a surprise, “Eh? Aren’t you both…”

The tall girl had tanned skin and was wearing a red square cloth on her head while she wore off-shoulder clothing with plate inlays. The short girl had a cross scar on the left side of her face and was wearing very odd clothing. I don’t know if it’s because it’s late at night, but she seemed tired as her eyes were half-closed and her head was tilted as though she was about to fall asleep.

Weren’t these 2 the ones Sun QuN was hiding from before?

“May I ask if there is a problem?” The short person asked with a look of puzzlement when she saw that I was about to say something.

“Ah, I got it. Did you happen to see us this afternoon?”

Wu…

“Is that true, Imperial Uncle Liu?”

“Your silence means consent.”

Wu… I wanted to give some excuse but I got overridden and exposed by that tall woman. Saying anything at this point would just be too shameless.

Even though she’s so big and loud, her intuition is quite keen huh.

“Really, why didn’t you say anything if you saw us.” The one called sister Jiang said as she scratched her head and sighed, “Do you know how difficult it was for us to find our lord?”

“Sister Jiang was just enjoying herself as we searched the streets and left all the work to me.” The short girl looked at the tall girl with a look of contempt before turning to me with a frown that made me tremble, “But this only makes thIngs difficult for us, Imperial Uncle. If our lord was kidnapped, we wouldn’t be able to deal with it.”

Her words were a little harsh but I can’t refute her point. Back then, in Sun Quan’s eyes, I was just a stranger. If I were someone with evil designs, then Sun Quan would be in danger.

No matter how you look at it, what I did was wrong. I feel like I always fail to consider enough things before taking action and I only recognise my mistakes after they are pointed out.

“But our lord got quite the shock when she heard that you were the one she was supposed to meet. Hehehe,” The tall one gave an evil laugh as she said so.

At her words, I felt my heartstrings tighten, “And how is she now? Is Sun Quan… Lord Sun Quan angry at me?”

“Anger huh… Doesn’t feel like it.” The short one was still tilting her head, and paused for a moment before continuing, “She’s still having her lessons after all.”

Eh? She’s still at her lessons?

“It’s already so late, shouldn’t she be resting now?”

“Our lord skipped all her lessons today so she can’t rest until she has compensated for what she missed today.”

“There was once when she even went at it for a day and night non-stop.” The tall one added.

Eh? I sighed inside, grateful at the benevolence of my own teachers, and also sorrowful for Sun Quan.

But really, was there really a need to go that far?

“Is Imperial Uncle thinking ‘do you really need to go that far?’ or something?”

You guessed it again. Good on you, tall girl. I silently gave her a thumbs up inside.

“That really can’t be helped. She’s our lord so she has to learn all there needs to be learnt.” The short girl said to me, with a sad look on her face.

When I heard this, I slowly closed my eyes. Indeed as she said, there is a lot to learn as a feudal lord. Unlike in the future where all you faced was pressure from trachers and parents, here you had to live up to the expectations of all the ordinary people under your jurisdiction. If you failed, it wouldn’t be something as simple as retaining. You could lose your life. For newbies like Sun Quan and I, there was a lot more to learn than we could even imagine.

But…

“Is that really okay?”

“… Imperial Uncle?”

My recurrent problem is back again, and my thoughts which I shouldn’t be verbalising are coming freely out of my mouth.

“I feel that, even if she is a feudal lord, Lord Sun Quan is only in her teens. Can’t you giver some time to play? It doesn’t need to be a lot, but wouldn’t it be nice to give Lord Sun Quan some time to let her do some things she likes?”

“But Lord Zhang Zhao and the rest have lofty expectations of her. Even if we wish to lighten the load of our lord, we have no authority to do so.”

That Zhang Zhao is no ordinary administrative official. This, I’m fully aware of. But to me, I hope that I can help others do what I’m not able to.

“I don’t know how much I can help with regards to Lord Zhang Zhao but I’m willing to try at least.”

“Un… I don’t recommend you to do so.”

“Go on, go on. Go and get scolded until kingdom come.”

The 2 of them looked at me with the conviction that I would fail.

Honestly, I’m not actually sure if I can even accomplish anything but this is all I can do for Sun Quan. Though I do hope that Sun Quan can forgive me for my prank if it does succeed.

“What was it that you wanted to say to me?” All of a sudden, a child’s voice came from behind me.