Seventy-two, faint gentle warmth

  Watching the young people scatter and return to their respective homes, Zhu Yuanzhang pretended to return to his own small courtyard, walked a few steps, then suddenly flashed into the small forest by the side of the road, and then ran quickly for a few steps, catching up with the nine young people from Xigou Village.

  "Huh? Zhu Ba Ge, do you have something else to say?" These nine young people were somewhat surprised. How could they just part ways and Zhu Ba Ge come find them again? From their understanding of Zhu Ba Ge, he must have an important task for them to complete.

  Zhu Yuanzhang smiled slightly and said to them: "I came to find you, there is something that can only be entrusted to you to do, because among all people, I trust you the most."

  "What? We are the ones that Zhu Ba Ge trusts the most?" The nine young people suddenly became excited, for them to be trusted by Zhu Ba Ge was truly a delightful thing, they couldn't help but feel a little moved, their eyes becoming slightly moist.

  Zhu Yuanzhang pointed to the small valley where the glazed tiles were buried and said in a low voice, "The glazed tiles are buried there, which is somewhat unsafe. Among us thirty-five people, if someone has greedy thoughts and sneaks back alone when we're not around to secretly dig up the glazed tiles, that would be very bad."

  Nine young men were relatively simple and hot-blooded, they hadn't thought of this matter before, but after Zhu Yuanzhang said it, they suddenly remembered and immediately said: "Right! If someone really did such a thing, that would be betraying everyone, not being brothers."

  "That's right!" Zhu Yuanzhang said in a low voice: "The person who did such a thing will betray us brothers sooner or later, so I hope you nine people can take turns to monitor that small mountain valley. If anyone comes back when we are not around and wants to dig away the glazed tile..."

  Zhu Yuanzhang deliberately paused and didn't speak, but instead intentionally released a faint aura of killing intent to guide their thoughts. The nine young men were guided by his aura and coldly snorted: "That's easy, this kind of person who betrays his brothers doesn't deserve to live in the world. We'll kill him... He likes glazed tiles, huh? Let's bury his corpse next to the glazed tiles, let him be comfortable."

  "Alright, I'm leaving this matter to you." Zhu Yuanzhang patted each of the nine young men on the shoulder: "You are indeed my most trusted brothers..."

  Having received his praise, the nine young men felt an indescribable comfort from their toes to the top of their heads. They made another round of vows to die for Zhu Ba Ge and left two young men to watch over the small valley, while the remaining seven hastily returned to Xigou Village.

  Looking at their excited figures, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but sigh in his heart: people with simple minds are really easy to use. Just say a sentence "You are my most trusted brothers" and they will do things for you wholeheartedly. What a cheap deal is this?

  Actually, entrusting the matter to these nine people is still not safe. If there were another nine loyal subordinates, he would say the same thing to them and have them monitor these nine people... However, for now, he doesn't have that many trustworthy subordinates, so it's a gradual process.

  Zhu Yuanzhang walked back to the Ma family's side house with a relaxed pace. By this time, daylight had already broken through, and the long and short workers of the Ma family were also getting up one after another, preparing to go down to the fields. The side house was bustling with people coming and going. Zhu Yuanzhang pretended to be the first to get up and stood at the gate of the courtyard, greeting everyone.

  After everyone went to work, he walked back to the independent courtyard of the steward, pushed open the door, and planned to lie down for a while. He hadn't slept all night, and tonight he had to go kill someone again. He needed to rest well and recover his physical strength.

  Unexpectedly, as he pushed open the door and entered, he found someone sitting in his living room. It was Xiaoye, the little maid, who was lying on the table in Zhu Yuanzhang's living room, snoring away. Upon hearing Zhu Yuanzhang enter, Xiaoye suddenly woke up with a start, lifted her sleepy eyes, scanned the doorway and exclaimed: "Zhu Ba Ge, you're finally back!"

  Then she saw the sunlight shining through the doorway, bright and clear, obviously morning, and couldn't help but exclaim: "Ah? Oh no! It's daytime! We're doomed!"

  Zhu Yuanzhang saw her expression, and his heart suddenly went "thud": Oh no! This little maid must have slept in my room for a night? Then she knows I didn't come back all night. Once the news of Wei Zhongxian's ancestral temple being demolished comes out, people with ulterior motives will only need to think about these two things together and they'll connect me to the person who demolished the temple... This is really troublesome! I dislike women, it seems I was right, women are nothing but trouble.

  Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly became angry: "What are you doing crawling around in my house?"

  "That... last night, I came to find you, wanted to take your measurements, make a new set of clothes... waited for you for a long time but didn't see you come back, so I accidentally... fell asleep." Akira saw Zhu Yuanchang's expression was not good, and scared, stuttered out a string of words. After finishing speaking, before Zhu Yuanchang could scold her, she actually started crying first: "This is the end... I actually slept in your house for a whole night, now even jumping into the Yellow River can't wash it clean... waaah... it's all over..."

  In this day and age, a woman's reputation is extremely important. If an unmarried young woman spends the whole night in a young man's house, even if nothing happened, her life would be ruined. Rumors and gossip would be enough to kill her more than a hundred times. Moreover, she wasn't exactly known for being a virtuous woman to begin with. During Zheng Yuanfu's rebellion last time, she was stripped of her clothes by bandits and almost suffered humiliation, which had already spread far and wide. This made her the subject of whispers and pointing fingers all the time. If this incident at Zhu Yuanzhang's house were to get out, it would truly be impossible for her to live on.

  So she didn't wait for Zhu Yuanzhang to scold her, she started crying first, and even forgot to ask why Zhu Yuanzhang hadn't come home overnight.

  Seeing her like this, Zhu Yuanzhang's annoyance dissipated somewhat, turning into a mixture of laughter and tears: "Miss Autumn Leaf, don't rush to cry, was anyone seen you coming to my room last night?"

  "It's as if... no one has ever seen it..."

  "That's alright, as long as you don't go telling others that you spent a night in my place, who would know?"

  "Huh? That's right! As long as I don't say anything, who will know?" Akira was overjoyed and turned from crying to laughing: "Great, I won't be stabbed in the back now."

  Zhu Yuanzhang let out a sigh of relief, thinking to himself: As long as you don't mention that you came here, there's no way for others to say I was out all night. It seems this matter can still be glossed over.

  "Then I... will leave first!" Akira forgot even the fact that she came to take Zhu Yuanchang's measurements for a custom-made garment, and stood up with the intention of running outside.

  Zhu Yuanzhang sighed softly: "Foolish woman, don't rush to go out, it's still early in the Qing dynasty. If you leave my house and are seen by others, people will guess that you spent a night in my house without needing to say anything. Wait until noon to go out, this way you can say you came in the morning."

  "Oh, I see!" Akira was flustered for a moment, and it took her a while to calm down and gather her thoughts before she finally understood what Zhu Yuanchang had said.

  Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head again, lamenting that this woman's brain was too stupid. However, he thought carefully and felt that such a foolish woman had her advantages - she didn't have the heart to harm people, nor did she have the ability to harm others, let alone any ambition.

  Looking back at the Ming dynasty, there have been several instances of women with great ambitions getting involved in politics. One was Empress Sun during the Zhengtong era, another was Empress Li and Concubine Zheng during the Wanli era, and then there was Consort Ke during the Tianqi era... All of them had more or less of an impact on the direction of the imperial court. The shortcoming of these women was that they were too "intelligent", so intelligent that they went to interfere with state affairs, resulting in a mess of national and family matters.

  Zhu Yuanzhang also met Empress Dowager Cixi of the Qing Dynasty when he was in the realm of wandering souls. This woman was even more ruthless in her interference with state affairs, and the country was messed up by her. She was also a "smart" woman who had reached the level of "stupidity".

  Compared with these "clever" women, perhaps a woman like Akira is more like a woman.

  He went back to his bedroom, took off his clothes, rolled into bed and casually instructed: "I'm going to take a nap, you stay in the living room until noon before leaving."

  "Hmm!" Hearing the sound of someone changing clothes in the inner room, Akane didn't dare move a muscle in the living room.

  After a long time, she called out in a low voice to the inner room: "Zhu Ba Ge, are you asleep? I'm so bored being alone in the living room, can we talk for a bit?"

  The bedroom was quiet, Zhu Yuanzhang had been tired for a whole night and had already entered the land of dreams. In fact, no matter how tired he was, Zhu Yuanzhang's sleep would not be very deep, just a little bit of malice or killing intent could wake him up from his dream, this was a skill he had cultivated throughout his life to protect himself.

  But Akane had no ill intentions towards him at all, so her gentle voice wouldn't wake him from his deep sleep.

  Qiu Ye quietly pushed open the bedroom door curtain, stood in front of Zhu Yuanzhang's bed, and gazed silently at his sleeping face, which was full of masculine beauty.

  This is a man with perseverance, broad-mindedness and means. His heroic bearing when he repelled the government troops in Zhang Fu's mansion in Cheng City made countless young girls who were just awakening to love feel the pangs of longing on sleepless nights. She knew deeply that this man was more outstanding than all the people she had met before... And she, was only an extremely ordinary little maid, would such a man be moved by her, an ordinary woman like her?

  Alas, I'm probably not good enough for him! Being able to wash his clothes for a lifetime is already the greatest happiness she could hope for. Akira couldn't help but secretly shed tears.

  In the afternoon, Zhu Yuanzhang woke up from his sleep, feeling refreshed and invigorated. The fatigue of not having slept all night had been driven away from his body. He sat up and found that he was alone in the room, as Autumn Leaf had left at noon.

  The tea on the table had gone cold, but the flowers in the vase had been replaced with fresh wildflowers, a few delicate pink ones. A basin of water was also placed beside the table, presumably for him to wash his face after waking up. Zhu Yuanzhang leaned over and suddenly saw his reflection in the water... Hmm? On his left cheek, there seemed to be a red mark... It was the imprint of lips... He couldn't help but wipe his cheek with his hand, and a faint warmth lingered around him, refusing to dissipate!