Chapter 683: Even Someone Like You?
Translator: Pika
“Oh?” The madam inside was only a bit surprised, but she didn’t continue asking about this. It was as if nothing in the outside world was that interesting to her.
However, the other party did help her after all, so she didn’t plan to just leave right now.
The driver with the missing tooth had served her for many years, so he naturally guessed at her intentions. As such, he leaned against the carriage door in a relaxed manner as if he was watching a show.
A look of contempt flashed past the young noble’s eyes when he heard what Zu An said. However, he still cupped his hands and played along. “Forgive me for having clumsy eyes, I really do not know who your respected self is.”
Zu An said, “I’m not really anyone special, though I am a baron his majesty personally chose. I’m also the eastern palace’s crown prince secretary, but that’s not that big of a deal. Since we are all officials, then why don’t we just leave the matter at that?”
The main reason he said this was because he wanted to find out whether this really was a coincidence or if these people were targeting him. Normally speaking, if it was a coincidence, then once they learned of his status, then they should feel some reservations.
Phoenix Baron and crown prince’s secretary, these weren’t identities that were that special. However, one was bestowed by the emperor, while the other was an official who worked closely with the future emperor. Any normal person wouldn’t want to trouble him any further.
“Hm?” A voice of surprise sounded from the carriage. A crack was opened up in the curtains, and some elegant fingers could vaguely be made out. It was easy to imagine just how beautiful the person inside was just from her fingertips.
The driver with the missing tooth was surprised. The madam never showed much interest in anything. What happened to her today?
The young noble chuckled. “A crown prince secretary? Furthermore a baron? You’re quite the big official, aren’t ya? I’m so scared!”
The other horsemen also roared with laughter. All of them began to mock him.
“Just a trivial petty official dares boast about his identity here?”
“I fear that it is just a country bumpkin. If a boulder fell out of the sky and hit somewhere in the capital, eight out of ten of them will probably be higher rank than him.”
“That’s what I’m saying. Even many of us here are higher ranked than a trifling crown prince secretary.”
…
Even though the crown prince’s secretary worked close to the crown prince, his rank wasn’t very high. Their words weren’t wrong.
However, this position couldn’t really be evaluated based on its rank, because he worked with the crown prince. They often became high-ranking officials in the future. It was just like how many leaders of the past world had secretaries, and even though their statuses weren’t high, who dared to offend any big shot’s secretary?
Zu An looked calmly at these people. He already had a rough idea of what was happening. These people indeed came to target him, and they definitely did not belong to the crown prince’s faction. Otherwise, they had to at least show him some courtesy.
This meant that this could only be someone from King Qi’s faction. No wonder that startled horse situation was so strange. This was something that these fellas set up deliberately!
The young noble waved his hand, indicating for everyone to quiet down. Then, he said to Zu An, “I wonder what column and row this sir stands at in the throne room?”
During the court sessions, only those of higher ranks had the qualifications to stand near the emperor.
Officials who were ranked lower could only wait outside the throne room and line up in succession. Unless it was a special circumstance, they couldn’t meet with the emperor at all. They could only occasionally see what happened in the throne room from a distance.
Those of even lower rank would be even further away and near the palace entrance. They wouldn’t be able to see a thing and could only see the roof of the grand throne room.
That was why the position one stood in could be used to distinguish a difference in rank and preference.
Zu An said indifferently, “I do not need to attend the court sessions.”
That young noble roared with laughter. “So this sir doesn’t even have the qualifications to participate in the court sessions!”
He immediately put away his smile, and then spat on the ground. “You still dare to claim that you’re an official like me? Even someone like you?”
Those horsemen all cooperated with their young master. They mocked Zu An one after another.
“Fucking noisy!” Zu An harrumphed and used his Hundredwarble ability. An invisible sound wave spread out. Those horsemen felt a pain in their heads. Many of them momentarily couldn’t even speak what they wanted to say.
Some with lower cultivation levels even fell off their horses in sorry states.
Zu An didn’t use all of his strength, or else these horsemen might become idiots on the spot.
As an elite, cream of the crop keyboard warrior, he knew that revealing all of your trump cards right from the start wasn’t a good choice.
The surrounding civilians began to flee when they saw that both sides began to clash. Soon afterwards, this entire place became empty.
That young master narrowed his eyes. “I was wondering why you were so confident. Turns out you had some cultivation on you. What a pity that it is just six ranks. You dare behave like that in the capital with just that?”
The strength this person displayed matched the intelligence. It was stated that it was around the five or sixth rank of cultivation, but his real fighting strength was higher, equivalent to the peak of sixth rank, perhaps even touching upon the seventh rank.
However, even if he was seventh rank, so what? He was still an ant in this young noble’s eyes.
Zu An looked at him with an ambiguous smile. “Then I wonder which great official your respected self is? At the very least, you can allow me to die knowing what happened, right?”
The young noble harrumphed. He raised his chin proudly, his nose pointing at the sky.
Things like self-introductions wasn’t something he would ever drop low enough to do. The horseman next to him understood and said, “Open your damn eyes and take a look. This one is King Qi’s heir, a Reserve Diary Officer? Is he someone a trivial official like you dares to provoke? Do you know what kind of crime offending a higher official is?!”
Even though the title Reserve Diary Officer didn’t sound like anything amazing, this wasn’t the same officer as the army rank of later generations. This was a true high ranking general.
The imperial palace had the vanguard, rear, left, right, cavalry, and guerilla warfare armies. Apart from this, each of the four directions of the capital city had an army, the east, west, north, and south armies.
These troops were there to ensure the safety of the imperial palace and the capital city.
Meanwhile, the capital city outskirts had six great high ranking officers, each in control of their own army: the garrisoned rider, infantry, monster rider, eternal river, roaring fire, and reserve armies. These were the empire’s central field army, the elites among elites.
Every single high ranking officer grasped a sixth of this army’s power. They all had at least eight ranks of cultivation, so it was easy to imagine how high this position was.
Zu An was shocked. No wonder! Now that he had just offended King Qi, the elder can’t make a move out of consideration for his status, so the juniors set out.
Looks like this trap was set up to have him killed. A military horse was slaughtered and he went against a higher official, this was an incredibly dangerous situation. Even if the higher ups looked into this matter, they would have enough reasons to justify their actions.
From how smooth everything went, this was probably not their first time doing this.
An urgent voice sounded from the side. “Young master, my brother-in-law has just arrived at the capital city and doesn’t know many of the rules! He didn’t offend you on purpose, so please let him go out of behalf for the Qin and Chu clans!”
A young man whose features were even prettier than a girl’s walked out. This was precisely Chu Youzhao.
There was another fierce, leopard-like beauty with tanned skin next to her. Who else could this be but Murong Qinghe?
Chu Youzhao and Murong Qinghe were only out to have some fun. They both rushed over to see what was happening over on this side out of curiosity, as they were both the curious sort. However, this drama they planned to watch ended up involving them too.
She quickly rushed out to ease the situation when she saw that it was Zu An.
“So it was young master Chu and lady Murong.” King Qi’s heir Zhao Zhi nodded slightly in greeting. The ones behind these two were all core members of King Qi’s faction, so he didn’t dare treat them with contempt. “From what young master Chu is saying, this one must be that famous Chu clan’s drafted son-in-law, Zu An, right? Back then, when Chu First Miss chose some random rascal off the streets as her husband, many young masters in the capital were sighing with disappointment. I thought that with Chu First Miss’ sight, the drafted husband might have something special about him.”
“But now that I meet him again, I can only say that Chu First Miss’ eye for men really isn’t that great.”
Chu Youzhao was upset. However, she needed this person to let Zu An go, so she could only forcefully suppress her rage. “My brother-in-law is a newcomer. If he has offended the young master in any way, I will apologize in his place.”
Zu An said indifferently, “Youzhao, come back over here. Why do I need you to apologize for me? It’s more like it if he apologizes to me.”