Liu Bei POV

Before I entered the residence, I made sure to inspect how I looked, and cleared my throat before spitting out my phlegm before I entered.

It’s now my 3rd time entering her residence. There wasn’t much nice that happened the previous 2 times. I had to deal with the awkward matter of the family seal in the 1st visit while I had to deal with an imperiled Bo Fu in the 2nd visit. The atmosphere was now rather light but I was still rather traumatised from my past experiences.

This can’t be helped. But it’s a good thing that the only matter at hand for my visit is good thing or I would be very unwilling to come here.

Bo Fu is awake. It’s good that she is. I repeated these words over and over inside my heart to calm my emotions down as I hastened my footsteps.

All of a sudden, that small but mature figure appeared in my mind, and I stopped walking as I feared that she would say that I was rude in some way or another.

“Who else is present in the residence today?” I better ask first to make sure I’m ready.

“Ah, all the retainers have already come here once. They cried and made a big fuss for a long while but I think they’ve just left.”

“Zhou Yu, Lu Su, Zhang Zhao and the rest?” I didn’t dare to address only Zhang Zhao as it would look like I was pinpointing her.

“Ah, they went to help me settle doc.u.ments.” As she said so, Sun Quan looked embarra.s.sed as she stuck her tongue out and scratched the back of her head, “To be honest, I’m not too good at settling doc.u.ments.”

“Haha, so am I.” I smiled at her as I replied and nodded.

“I haven’t been listening to Gong You during her lessons lately and all I know is where to write ‘Approved’.”

That’s what I said but honestly, I don’t even remember that sometimes.

“Heh~ So Imperial Uncle isn’t much better than me huh!” Sun Quan ignored my feelings and exclaimed as she spread her arms open.

“Wu…” For some reason, these words. .h.i.t me harder than it would have been from anyone else. I was just complementing you…

I turned away and feigned nonchalance as I looked about so that she couldn’t see my hurt expression.

“But no matter how hard I work, my teachers are never satisfied.”

“Un? Why is that?” I blurted out when I felt Sun Quan’s mood take a nosedive.

“My 3 teachers are all very weird, and the tasks they set me are very odd too.”

Why does it feel like everyone’s descriptions of the Eastern Wu generals and officials all make them sound very weird?

“What tasks have they given you?” I asked as I thought back to my own tasks.

For me, Zi Zhong and the rest have given a fair bit of odd tasks as well. Leaving aside what goes on during the lessons, what happens thereafter is quite inexplicable. They make me train up various skills such as making bamboo scrolls by hand, compiling case files etc. I have been made to train in so many skills that I’m not a master of any, but a jack of all. At the end of it all, they never told me what the purpose of training up those skills were.

“Un…” Sun Quan thought for a moment, “Drawing water, cutting wood, sewing, cleaning up–”

“Isn’t that just treating you as a servant?!” I exclaimed as I couldn’t continue listening.

“Eh? Really?”

“Of course.”

It was clear that she was unaware of it but she was being abused by her retainers. They’re clearly deceiving her too. Even though she can’t quite do her job well, it’s a little too much to lie to her that this is oart of her training.

And so, I decided to be clear about this.

“Does Zhang Zhao know?”

“She knows.”

“Does your elder sister know?”

“She does, and she supports it very much.”

Eh?

“Big sister said that, before one becomes a ruler, one must learn how it is like as an ordinary citizen and must do what ordinary citizens do.” Sun Quan repeated what her elder sister said. For some reason, I could feel that these were Bo Fu’s words.

From what experience I have, most rulers aren’t aware of wordly affairs. The first generation would conquer their territories and leave offspring who live very different lives from their subjects. If a ruler is to love his or her people, he or she cannot try to understand the sufferings of his or her people from the viewpoint of a ruler. But even if the ruler wants to, it can be difficult for the ruler to step off his or her throne and go to a well to draw water, whether or not he or she is willing to.

So they are raised like this from young huh… Now that I think about it, Bo Fu’s words make sense.

“Oh right, they also made me tend to a stove… That was really tiring…”

… They’re still a little too unreasonable about this.

I felt worried and sad at Sun Quan’s lifestyle and felt worried and relief at mine. Why I felt relief was obvious. As for worry, I was worried that everyone was being too lenient with me and I wouldn’t be able to be a proper lord for everyone.

As I thought so, I felt impressed at Sun Quan but I didn’t say this. All I did was check my clothing and throat over once more before I stepped into the main hall.

Inside, was Bo Fu.