Chapter 3: Love? And F*cking Freedom?

“What’s going on, what’s going on!”

Ding Suian, wearing only a pair of short boxer briefs, stood blocking the doorway with his arms crossed, yawning incessantly, his face showing the crankiness of someone whose sweet dreams had been disturbed.

After the incident this evening, Steward Hou was much more polite, but his words couldn’t hide his anxiety, “Squad Leader Ding, please don’t be offended. Someone just saw a woman who stole property and fled the family sneak into the West Courtyard. We need to search the area.”

The two courtyards making up the West Courtyard weren’t very large combined; you could see the end of them at a glance. Naturally, the person Steward Hou was looking for was not inside.

“Squad Leader Ding, we need to search these few rooms of yours as well.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Ding Suian, already displeased, looked even angrier, “Steward Hou, do you perhaps think we deliberately hid your family’s female relative?”

If a runaway had just fled into the courtyard and hidden without the Dragon Guard Army noticing, that possibility certainly existed, so searching the courtyard was understandable.

But for a runaway to sneak into a Soldier’s sleeping quarters without being discovered? That was completely impossible.

Unless they were intentionally hiding her.

Facing such an accusation, Squad Leader Ding, who had a ‘clear conscience,’ was extremely angry!

Honesty and trustworthiness were his moral bottom line!

“Squad Leader Ding, please don’t misunderstand—”

Steward Hou was about to explain when he was suddenly interrupted by the excited shouts of a servant next to a dog hole in the north wall, “Found her, found her! There are footprints here!”

Steward Hou’s attention was immediately diverted. He rushed over to the dog hole, snatched the lantern from the servant’s hand, and bent down to look. A string of small footprints stretched along the base of the wall all the way to the west wall.

The footprints left when climbing the west wall were even clearer. The wooden stake directly beneath the prints allowed Steward Hou to immediately confirm: The Princess Consort had climbed over the wall and escaped!

Judging by the freshness of the shoe prints, she hadn’t escaped long ago!

“Leave the Estate! Search to the west!”

The alley outside the west wall was guarded by Third Master Du’s men, yet a grown person escaped without being noticed. Steward Hou cursed his incompetent teammates under his breath while signaling the servants to follow him.

Turning around, he ran squarely into Ding Suian’s rock-hard chest.

Ding Suian was more than half a head taller than him, and the eyes looking down at him were filled with unconcealed indignation.

“Squad Leader Ding, Hou is working for the Prince Lanyangs Estate, and I was momentarily anxious. Squad Leader Ding, please don’t take it to heart.”

Steward Hou cupped his hands and offered an apologetic smile, his dry, pine-like face layering into wrinkles, crumpled like the skin of Young Master Ding’s testicles after a cold shower.

“Steward Hou! Publicly speaking, the fact that my Dragon Guard Army is outside the capital represents the dignity of the Imperial Court. If you bring people to search my courtyard, ignorant people might think Prince Lanyangs Estate is dissatisfied with the Imperial Court!”

“I wouldn’t dare, I wouldn’t dare! The Prince Lanyangs Estate has been loyal for three generations and is devoted to the Imperial Court. Squad Leader Ding, you exaggerate.” Steward Hou repeatedly bowed; he couldn’t afford to bear such a serious accusation.

Ding Suian’s serious expression softened slightly, but his tone became aggrieved, “Privately speaking, I am young, innocent, and unmarried. You slander me with your words, accusing me of hiding a woman. Doesn’t that ruin my reputation as a man! If word gets out, how can I live? If there is a next time, I won’t let it go!”

After a period of commotion, the noise gradually faded, and the West Courtyard returned to silence.

Ding Suian returned to his room, bolted the door shut, and said, “Come out, they’ve left.”

After a few moments of silence, a soaking wet head emerged from under the bed. It cautiously looked left and right, then listened intently for a moment. Only after confirming it was temporarily safe did Buttocks slowly crawl out.

The atmosphere in the room was slightly awkward.

While crawling through the dog hole earlier, her clothes had snagged, tearing a large rip in the bodice over Buttocks’ chest. If it weren’t for that accursed diamond-shaped dudou underneath barely holding things together, the luxurious headlights would have surely blinded Ding Suian’s dog eyes long ago.

If one were to plunge into that gentle ravine, who knows what kind of surging waves would arise.

Buttocks kept raising her hand to shield herself, but she couldn’t completely cover the exposed skin; a full hemisphere of white, smooth flesh peeked out from the side of the dudou near her ribs, brazenly showing off.

This added a few layers of unspeakable embarrassment and shame.

Buttocks glanced around, walked straight to the wardrobe, grabbed one of Ding Suian’s old outer shirts to hastily cover her exposed chest, and then picked up a slightly thicker long gown and handed it to Ding Suian, acting as familiar as if she were retrieving items from her own home.

To deceive Steward Hou, Ding Suian had stripped down to only his short boxer briefs. Now, alone, they were a solitary man with a bare chest and a woman with her jade bosom half-exposed.

The atmosphere was extremely delicate.

“I’m going to sleep now. Why are you giving me clothes?”

Ding Suian stated his case confidently, remaining motionless. Buttocks’ hand, holding the gown, froze in mid-air, her gaze shifting, unsure where to settle.

After a moment, she lifted her eyes and quickly scanned the room, noticing the leather armor on the clothes rack and the Great Wu standard Goose Feather Saber on the wall.

Having ascertained Ding Suian’s identity, Buttocks knew how to appeal to him.

She gently raised her fair hand, smoothed the loose hair sticking to her forehead and temples, and with light, unhurried lotus steps, walked to the only chair in the room and sat down properly.

With her shoulders straight and her chin slightly raised, she instantly regained some of the Princess Consort’s dignity amidst the turmoil.

However, her still trembling hand took three tries before she managed to loosely insert the jade hairpin into her bun.

This woman… why is she putting on airs for no reason?

Buttocks glanced at Ding Suian, then quickly looked away. Although the anxiety and fear in her eyes had not completely dissipated, she still tried her best to project a sense of composure, as if ‘everything was under control,’ before offering a new price in a seductive tone.

“Young Master, once the Imperial Decree arrives tomorrow, I will be safe. My maternal family is a major merchant clan north of the Jiang River; a mere ten thousand taels of silver is nothing to mention. You are a Martial Artist, and the Medicinal Pills you need for Cultivation in the future… I will cover all of them.”

Hiss~

Cover all of them?

You might as well just cover me too!

This world contains various Cultivation systems. As a Soldier, Ding Suian naturally Cultivated the Martial Artist Dao.

The three ways for a Martial Artist to Cultivate are: grinding through hardship, medicinal baths, and consuming Medicinal Pills.

Consuming Medicinal Pills is undoubtedly the fastest path, and naturally, the biggest drain on silver.

If you calculate thirty more years of Cultivation, consuming one Medicinal Pill every ten days, with one Medicinal Pill costing fifty taels, then—never mind, my math teacher died early, so I can’t calculate how much that is.

In short, it was a huge amount of silver—so much that he couldn’t earn it in this lifetime, let alone by working like an ox or a horse, but even by becoming a gigolo or a male prostitute!

“Thank you for the Princess Consort’s generosity! Protecting the Princess Consort is my duty!”

Ding Suian wore a look of utter loyalty.

However, since he was naked save for his short boxer briefs, this loyalty didn’t look entirely proper. An uninformed person might even think Young Master Ding was auditioning to be a male consort.

Buttocks still felt uneasy. After a few moments of silence, she tried to make conversation to bridge the gap, “Young Master, what is your name?”

“My surname is Ding, and my given name is Sui’an. And the Princess Consort?”

“…”

This Young Master had helped her, and his appearance was handsome, making it impossible to feel ill will toward him. Yet, the way he spoke and acted was repeatedly unexpected.

Who asks a woman directly for her personal name?

Moreover, the disparity in their statuses was enormous.

Then Buttocks reconsidered: her hope of survival rested entirely on him. It was just a name!

“My surname is Lin, and my given name is ‘Hansu’.”

“Hansu? Cold crispness resembling snow—a beautiful name. Your esteemed father must be a refined man.”

Discussing her personal name with a man made Lin Hansu very uncomfortable, so she quickly changed the subject, “Young Master Ding, since you know my identity, I am quite surprised that you are still willing to lend a hand.”

How should I explain this to you?

In his previous life, Ding Suian was born Under the Red Flag, and he harbored an extremely strong aversion to matters like ‘Live Burial.’

Helping Lin Hansu was less out of ‘goodness’ and more out of ‘disgust’ toward the Prince Lanyangs Estate, deliberately causing trouble to prevent them from getting what they wanted.

The motivation stemmed from an instant thought, but the deeper logic came from his Worldview.

He was merely practicing his own values.

Furthermore, his values now had the added benefit of silver and Medicinal Pills.

Ding Suian turned around, pulled back the quilt, and while making the bed with his back to Lin Hansu, he said, “Perhaps the silver promised by the Princess Consort moved this humble one’s heart. I haven’t married a wife yet, and in the future, how much money will I need for Three Wives, Four Concubines, and five mistresses? With the Princess Consort’s gift, I can struggle less for a few years, right?”

See how upright this Worldview is!

“…”

Such bluntness stunned Lin Hansu. She immediately adopted a tone like one uses to coax a child and said, “Once I pass this hurdle, I will help you find a beautiful and kind Young Lady to be your wife.”

“Haha, there’s no need for that. I prefer Free Love.”

“Love? Love?”

“Has the Princess Consort never been in love?”

“…”

Lin Hansu shook her head blankly.

Only then did she realize that she had intended to lead the conversation, but this Young Master had steered it off track again. What were they even talking about!

Love, and f*cking freedom?

“That’s a shame.”

Ding Suian turned back and smiled gently at Lin Hansu.

The Young Master’s eyes curved like a crescent moon, sincere and warm, as beautiful as a peach stream in March.

Lin Hansu couldn’t help but be momentarily distracted.

“Princess Consort, we are both good people, and good people don’t deceive good people. You won’t go back on your promise regarding the silver and Medicinal Pills, right?”