Chapter 54: The Fierce and Mighty Princesses of Qin

  "A secret cannot be hidden forever. The previous year, the Princess of Heyang found out about this and brought people to capture that concubine and beat her to death. Unexpectedly, the son-in-law was a sentimental person, he actually hugged the concubine's corpse and cried loudly, then went up the mountain to become a monk."

  Qin Lei slapped his case and said: "If it's a hanging suicide, there should be a large white float."

  The little fatty smiled with his eyes open, nodded and said: "Heroes see things similarly. Let's drink a big cup of white wine." The two raised their cups and clinked them together. After drinking several cups, Qin Lei indeed found that the little fatty's complexion had improved a lot, it seemed this kid wasn't bragging after all.

  The little fatty ate a mouthful of vegetables, swallowed it down with a sip of wine, and continued: "In this way, Princess Heyang would be widowed, and she wouldn't have the face to live in the Duke of Su's mansion. Your Majesty felt indebted to his daughter, so he gave her the private residence he had when he was the Prince, and from then on, Princess Heyang occupied the mountain alone, living a carefree life."

  Qin Lei nodded and said: "So that's how it is, then what does this have to do with these women?"

  Xiao Pangzi said: "Princess Heyang has been living alone since she became more and more resentful of men, plus she liked to dance with knives and guns since childhood. Don't look at me like that, how do I know what your father taught you? So in the palace, a group called Mulan Society was established, claiming that women are not inferior to men. Even hired a martial arts instructor to teach martial arts."

  Qin Lei didn't expect this sister to have a gang background, and groaned: "How many people joined?"

  Xiao Pangzi said with a sullen face: "At first, everyone was excited and many officials' daughters from the capital participated. Even my sister joined in for a while."

  "This club is very strict, ordinary rich girls can't take this kind of hardship. That's why many have quit one after another. But my sister is a stubborn one, she only couldn't hold on until this spring." Little fatty said with a pleased face.

  Qin Lei smiled and asked: "Do you know how many people are left in that club of over a hundred now?" The little fatty stretched out his chubby fingers and shouted: "Five!"

  "Besides my sister, there are these four today." Qin Lei said with a sudden realization.

  "Right," said Xiao Pangzi with a laugh. "These four women, who claim to be the 'Four Heroines of Kyoto', are always causing trouble and calling themselves champions of justice. But relying on their noble status and the protection of the Second Princess, no one in the city dares to provoke them. Gradually, they have become arrogant, thinking that the city cannot accommodate these few 'mother dragons' anymore. Recently, with the war at the front, these female bandits are again envying the Xian Ning princess of the previous dynasty and want to form a 'Maiden Army' to go to Hangu Pass to offer their services."

  Qin Lei sneered: "If we go, wouldn't it be a good thing?"

  "Those women, if they want to go, just let them go. But no, they have to drag others along. This morning, they summoned my sister to the Princess of Heyang's residence and forced her to sign some sort of enlistment papers. My sister had long since given up on such things, how could she agree? And yet those shrews beat her half to death, now she's still lying in the residence... Alas." Xiao Pangzi looked utterly miserable, as if his heart was aching with sorrow.

  Qin Lei knew that this was just a small fat man's words, and couldn't be true, but he also roughly understood the ins and outs of the matter. Suddenly enlightened, he asked in a low voice: "Is it because among these four women, there is someone whose status is more noble than Wen Ruo Tong? That's why you brought me here to back you up?" He realized that at the time, even if he hadn't mentioned Wanli Tower, the little fat man would have taken him there anyway. This kid was clearly heading straight for Wanli Tower.

  Xiao Pangzi lost his voice and said, "How did you know?" He indeed thought as Qin Lei did, although he was not afraid of offending the princess, but it would still bring some trouble to his family, so once he recognized Qin Lei, he had the intention of taking him down.

  Qin Lei closed his eyes and said, "Wen San broke my identity, his sister was still trembling with fear, but the woman behind me actually dared to sneak up on me. Tell me, who is she?" He suddenly opened his eyes, glaring at Xiao Pangzi, his voice still calm.

  Xiao Pangzi hesitantly said: "It's not anyone, just something..."

  "What?" Qin Lei pressed for an answer.

  "Princess..."

  There are four princesses in the Great Qin today. The eldest princess is married to Nan Chu, the second princess is Heyang, and the fourth princess is said to be ill and cannot leave the palace. Only Shanyang Princess, the younger sister of the Crown Prince and born to the same mother as Heyang Princess, remains.

  Qin Lei recalled the woman holding the Emei dagger, her urgent and irritable expression, as if she wanted to slap someone's face, and that resentful gaze. He couldn't help but feel secretly pleased. Originally, he was still regretting not being able to hit a delicate beauty, but now his wish had finally come true, it was truly refreshing. The only drawback was that at the time of the fight, he didn't know about it, which affected his senses.

  But his face was gloomy and silent, without a word.

  The little fatty indeed thought he was angry, stood up and bowed deeply to apologize: "Brother, I had no choice but to shoot the arrow at that time. Besides, if I wasn't feeling guilty in my heart, could I have suffered such injuries? I swear to heaven, there will be no next time." His attitude was extremely sincere.

  Qin Lei raised his eyelids and hummed: "Don't make it a habit."

  The little fatty was overjoyed, bowing and scraping, and was deeply grateful.

  The two men drank some more wine, and it wasn't until the sun was low in the west that they got up to leave. When it came time to pay the bill, Little Fatty rushed to settle the account, afraid that Qin Lei would try to grab the check from him, and kept Qin Lei at a distance from the cashier's desk, chuckling as he said: "Next time brother will treat, next time brother will treat."

  Qin Lei didn't decline either, and stared at him for half a day. Seeing that he had paid the bill, he smiled and said: "Actually, I don't have a single cent on me."

  The little fatty's smile suddenly fell, and he said helplessly: "Okay, let's call it even."

  Qin Lei patted his chest and chuckled: "You're not bad, I, Qin Lei, acknowledge you as a friend." After saying that, he didn't care about him anymore and turned to leave.

  The little fatty was stunned for a while, then came back to his senses, pouting and saying: "Who cares." After finishing speaking, he quickly followed behind Qin Lei's buttocks, loudly shouting: "Brother, brother, tonight I'll take you to play at the Jade Belt River!"

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  Qin Lei ultimately did not go to the Jade Belt River, but instead made an appointment with Xiao Pangzi to visit the Jade Belt River next time, and then sat on a brand new horse-drawn carriage back to the East Palace.

  Back at the Book Fragrance Pavilion, it was already late afternoon. The new palace maid trembled as she helped Qin Lei take off his usual clothes and change into casual attire. Then, with a bow, she hastily retreated.

  Qin Lei couldn't help but laugh wryly. In less than eight days since he moved into the Shuxiang Pavilion, one of the palace maids assigned to him had hanged herself, and two others were missing. This casualty rate was too high even for the hazardous occupation of being a palace maid. As a result, his image in the hearts of the palace maids had quickly fallen from that of a white knight to a man-eating devil king. The remaining few who served him in the house were also on edge, fearing that one day they would be next to fall victim to misfortune.

  Qin Lei stood at the door, gazing out at a flock of birds flying erratically in the sunset. Higher up in the sky, an eagle was circling. Qin Lei muttered to himself, "Hurry and escape, the farther the better, or else not one of you will survive."

  The palace maids standing on both sides shivered simultaneously and exchanged terrified glances.

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  (Extended content, haha)

  Dinner was eaten by Qin Lei himself, the Crown Prince returned very late at night. As soon as he came back, he called Qin Lei to the study, dismissed his attendants and sat behind the desk, glaring at Qin Lei in anger.

  Qin Lei knew that retribution had arrived and didn't rush forward. Instead, he went ahead to serve tea to the prince, saying: "Second Brother has been busy all day, it's tiring, have some tea."

  The crown prince had wanted to scold him severely, but seeing his languid appearance, he knew it would be pointless. He took the teacup and heavily put it back on the desk, spilling tea water and wetting the few large characters that had just been written: "Endure with patience".

  Qin Lei looked at the ink-stained words and said gloomily, "Brother can scold if he wants to, it's all my fault for getting sick."

  The crown prince saw his wronged expression and was so angry that he burst out laughing: "Old Five, Old Five, when I first saw you, you pretended to be a humble gentleman, and even made Second Brother very happy. In just a few days, the fox's tail has been exposed. You are not as good as your third brother or fourth brother combined."

  Qin Lei exclaimed in surprise: "I have such a high standard?"

  The crown prince hummed: "Just arrived on the first day, and already bullied a palace maid. On the second day, a palace maid hanged herself. After a few days, two more palace maids went missing. Today, they even fought in the street, and ran to the Wanli Building to cause trouble. The most hateful thing is that they actually hit women. And not just one or two, but four...

  The crown prince's words were left unspoken. Qin Lei hastily added: "And he even hit Third Sister."

  The crown prince shook his head, laughing: "No, no, this is great, wonderful, it's just what second brother needed to lift his spirits! Hahaha..." As he spoke, he didn't get angry, but instead became more and more delighted, finally bursting into loud laughter.

  Qin Lei did not expect that the crown prince would have such deep resentment towards Princess Shanyang. However, he knew that he could no longer let the crown prince lose his composure, so he reluctantly asked: "Then what else have I done wrong?"

  The crown prince stood up, wiping away the tears of laughter, and said breathlessly: "I was going to scold you for befriending foxes and dogs, but when I thought of Empress Rong's flustered appearance this afternoon, I didn't have any energy left."

  Qin Lei was silent.

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  Hehe, that's it, 1000 votes have been sent over.

  Whispering softly, 1100 votes plus one more... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  I'll say it again in a weak tone, little brother has really worked hard to think of this, so please give me a few votes to comfort my withered heart.

  ;