Chapter 60

Chapter 60

Eunuch Yu limped away on his slightly plump body, baring his teeth in pain with every step.

Jiang Yunsui watched him go, so absorbed that she even forgot her own foot hurt. She kept stretching her little neck to stare after him.

It was only when Ji Yan’an tapped her on the forehead that she snapped back to herself.

“Ow.”

Her poor, disaster-prone little foot.

Ji Yan’an took off her shoe to examine it. Fortunately, it had only been stepped on.

More than that, her legs had gone weak from holding the horse stance earlier.

“Why did he have to get so fat!”

Shen Qingzhu: “…”

Seeing that there really was nothing seriously wrong, Ji Yan’an called her stupid.

“If you were going to slack off, couldn’t you at least find a better place? Lying across the road like that-were you afraid no one would notice you?”

Jiang Yunsui looked aggrieved. “But my legs were weak. I couldn’t walk.”

She muttered under her breath, “It’s all your fault anyway.”

Ji Yan’an laughed. “Your stamina is far too poor. Starting tomorrow, you will get up early and run three laps around the courtyard for me.”

Jiang Yunsui’s eyes instantly went round.

“No.”

“Am I the master here, or are you?”

Jiang Yunsui: “…” He was bullying a mushroom too much!

Little Mushroom sulked by herself for a while, then picked up a stick and started poking at the ground.

Ji Yan’an: Such ambition.

When it was time to eat, she ran faster than anyone and ate more happily than anyone.

On today’s table was also the dish Jiang Yunsui had asked for: chicken stewed with termite mushrooms.

They had been eating quite a lot of mushrooms lately.

After dinner, Ji Yan’an forced a certain Little Mushroom to learn her characters.

Jiang Yunsui sat on a little stool with her small face drooping, utterly unwilling.

They had even arranged a small desk especially for her. On the desk lay an introductory copy of the Thousand Character Classic, and her teacher was Nanshu.

At that moment, Nanshu was on the verge of breaking down.

“‘Dew congeals into frost.’ How are the characters for ‘dew’ and ‘frost’ the same? How?”

Jiang Yunsui bit her finger, furrowed her little brows, and carefully examined them for a while.

“They do seem… a little different.”

Nanshu said, “They are obviously very different. The bottom part of ‘dew’ is ‘road,’ as in the road you walk on. The bottom part of ‘frost’ is ‘mutual,’ as in mutuality.”

Jiang Yunsui’s little face went blank, her eyes clear and foolish. “What are all those things you’re talking about?”

Nanshu wanted to cough up blood.

“You…”

Ji Yan’an glanced over in a free moment and gave a blunt judgment. “Rotten wood cannot be carved.”

Good thing he was not the one teaching her, or he might have angered himself into a relapse.

Jiang Yunsui: I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you. He definitely isn’t talking about me.

Nanshu refused to believe it. He rolled up his sleeves and went back into battle.

“Come on. First, read after me. You are going to memorize this Thousand Character Classic!”

The last few words were practically roared.

Jiang Yunsui shrank her neck down, feeling as if Nanshu’s eyes were about to strangle her to death.

The more she studied, the dizzier she became. Jiang Yunsui wept inwardly. Why was being human so exhausting? She did not want to be human at all anymore. QAQ

She could not memorize it!

Just as Jiang Yunsui was about to collapse, her sharp ears caught someone reporting to Ji Yan’an that those human traffickers had made their move.

She immediately stood up and, with quick little steps, pattered over to Ji Yan’an.

“I want to go. Hurry and take me.”

She truly could not stay here another second.

This was too torturous for a Little Mushroom like her.

Ji Yan’an looked at her as she tipped up her little face, her bright eyes shining with urgency.

The corners of his mouth lifted in a smile, and his fingers showed no mercy as they pinched her soft cheek.

“That head of yours-why can’t any knowledge fit inside it?”

It was clearly such a pretty head.

Jiang Yunsui touched her own head, then said with perfect seriousness, “Maybe because it’s too smooth.”
Ji Yan’an arched a brow. “What kind of explanation is that?”

Jiang Yunsui sighed in distress. “The knowledge goes into my head and then whoosh, slides right out. What am I supposed to do about it?”

“Pfft…”

Everyone present was amused by her way of putting it.

“All right. Let’s go.”

Jiang Yunsui instantly perked up. Her eyes, which had been dulled by the torment of studying, immediately filled with light.

The droopy Little Mushroom was radiant again.

When it was time to get into the carriage, she did not even need anyone to lift her. She huffed and puffed her way up all by herself.

The carriage left Ji Mansion without drawing attention and went all the way to the eastern gate of Beizhen City.

The moment the carriage stopped, Jiang Yunsui could not wait to poke her head out the window.

Ji Yan’an sat to the side and lifted the curtain slightly with his fan. His cool, clear eyes looked toward the city gate.

A group of people draped in ragged clothing had been locked in wooden cages like livestock.

Their faces were sallow, and they were so thin they were all skin and bones. They had already been starved until they had no strength left, so naturally they would not rebel.

None of those people had the features of someone from the Central Plains.

“Go ask which tribe those people are from.”

Ji Yan’an had only just arrived here, and it was only recently that he had taken control of Beizhen City. His position was not yet entirely stable.

Naturally, he was not very clear on what had been happening among the grassland tribes.

Toward the middle and rear of the line of grassland slaves, there were people lying inside identical wooden cage carts. They wore clothing similar to the grassland slaves, and some were covered by clothes or pieces of ragged cloth.

If one did not look closely, it would be easy to mistake the people in those cages for grassland slaves as well.

With the information Jiang Yunsui had brought and Ji Yan’an’s arrangements, the guard at the city gate launched the encirclement the instant the traffickers approached and entered the trap.

The leader of the traffickers sensed something was wrong at once.

But by the time he tried to resist, it was already too late.

He had just drawn his saber when the head escort’s blade came down on his neck. In an instant, his head hit the ground.

“Seize them all.”

The city gate descended into chaos. Some traffickers tried to use the confusion to flee, but they had long since been marked. Some were shot dead on the spot, while others did not get far before being captured and dragged back.

The head escort opened the traffickers’ cage and lifted the ragged cloth, revealing several unconscious children and women.

When the panicked crowd saw their faces, there was nothing left to misunderstand.

“Damn them, those are human traffickers!”

Human traffickers were rats in the street no matter where they went.

Once the people realized who they were, they stopped panicking. Some even helped the city gate guard arrest them.

Others went so far as to punch and kick the traffickers.

“These beasts deserve to die!”

“Pah! People like you shouldn’t even be alive!”

The slave owners transporting the grassland slaves were caught up in it as well and took quite a beating.

“Ow, ow! I’m not! I’m not a human trafficker!”

In the end, it was only after the City Guard intervened that the people’s emotions gradually calmed.

“Take everyone away for now, including these slaves.”

Then they left amid the thunderous applause of the people of Beizhen City.

Inside the carriage, Jiang Yunsui clapped with all her might.

“Ji Yan’an, Ji Yan’an, did you see? All those bad people got caught!”

She happily shared what she had seen with Ji Yan’an.

Ji Yan’an pressed down on her overly lively head.

“I’m not blind.”

“Hehehe… Ji Yan’an, you’re amazing.”

Ji Yan’an raised an eyebrow at her.

Jiang Yunsui bobbed her head from side to side. “You arranged all of that. So many people listen to you. You really are an incredible human.”