Yun Qian Yu walks on unhurriedly.
“You don’t seem to be worried at all,” states Ji Shu Liu as he looks at the throngs of people making their way to Yun Residence.
“They have exerted so much effort and such a long period of time to plot this, I should give them a little chance to play out their act, no,” says Yun Qian Yu, her eyes falling on a roadside pastry stall near them.
The smell of freshly made pastries wafts through the air. Yun Qian Yu inhales deeply, “Although they do not smell as good as Hong Su’s, they are still not pretty bad.”
She turns around and walks to the stall.
Ji Shu Liu looks at the throngs of people; she truly is not anxious ah.
The stall do not offer many varieties of pastries, only around 5 to 6 kinds. Just, they are baked on the spot, which ought to make them taste really good. After eyeing the selections, Yun Qian Yu picks three different types of pastries for herself.
Chen Xiang pays for the purchase and takes the paper bag containing the desserts.
Only then does Yun Qian Yu turns around to return to Yun Residence.
By then, the residence is already surrounded by a large crowd.
A man’s voice booms over the crowd, “The owner of Yun Valley is now our kingdom’s princess! That means that Yun Valley now belongs to the kingdom! Since you opened a medical academy, why won’t you accept patients?”
Another person agrees with him, “Right! Since the academy is established in Jing Zhou, it is only right for you lot to start treating our illnesses!”
“True! Besides, what is the point of opening a medical academy if you will refuse patients? What are you acting arrogant for?”
The First Elder stands by the doorway, looking at the crowd in displeasure.
Ying Yu is standing near him, pointing at the rules while explaining it to the crowd, but no one is listening to her.
The cold-faced and white-robed Yun Guards flank the entrance, daring anyone to enter. No one has the guts to approach them.
Yun Qian Yu frowns as she looks at the crowd blocking the way. She tips the tip of her foot and flies up and above the crowd. She lands smoothly by the entrance.
“Greeting the Mistress of Yun Valley,” the First Elder, Ying Yu and the two guards immediately greets her.
“All of you may rise,” Yun Qian Yu waves a hand, signalling them to stand up.
By now, Chen Xiang and Yu Nuo have also landed beside Yun Qian Yu.
Now that the people realized that the owner of the valley is there, all of them becomes quiet, staring at her while waiting to see what she will do next.
“The Magistrate is here!” a voice announces.
The crowd immediately gives way, forming a path for the Magistrate to pass through.
The Magistrate hastily runs over and quickly kneels when he sees Yun Qian Yu, “This official, Zhang Huan Shan greets Princess Hu Guo!”
Yun Qian Yu slowly turns around to face him, “Since Official Zhang is here, let’s watch the fuss that the common people of Jing Zhou are kicking.”
The moment she turns around, everyone inhales deeply. Did a celestial just descend from the sky?
That blue dress, that fluttering blue robe.
The edge of her robe flutters around her knees, while the ribbons that she used to tie her hair dances in the breeze. Her face is like a moon; she has a pair of arched willow-like eyebrows, a clever nose and a pair of full lips. Her skin is soft and fair and her eyes, her best features, are clear like spring water.
“Please cease your anger, Your Highness! This official will catch all those troublemakers!” the Magistrate is so scared that he is shaking. He does not have the guts to even get up.
“What do you mean, Official Zhang? Are you implying that I, this princess, will oppress and bully the common people?” Yun Qian Yu raises her eyebrows. Her voice is very good to the hearing, but her tone is very icy.
“This official does not mean it like that,” replies Official Zhang hastily, sweat filling his forehead.
“Never mind. Just watch from the sideline,” Yun Qian Yu waves him off impatiently.
Zhang Huan Shan stands up and quickly runs to the sideline.
Yun Qian Yu sweeps her eyes over the crowd before fixing her eyes on the middle aged man from earlier, and then at the unconscious patient who is lying on a make-shift stretcher next to him.
“Are you from Jing Zhou?” asks Yun Qian Yu, asking something completely unrelated to the pressing situation.
“Of course!” says the man softly.
“What is your name? I believe Official Zhang can check if you truly comes from the city,” she glances at Zhang Huan Shan.
Zhang Huan Shan agrees with her, turning to his assistant before saying, “Tell someone to bring the city’s family registrar over.”
The middle aged man quickly says, “Why? Do I have to come from Jing Zhou in order to seek medical help in Jing Zhou?”
“Why did you lie, claiming to come from Jing Zhou?” Yun Qian Yu walks to the stone steps in front of the entrance gate.
“Stop changing the topic, I am here to seek medical help. You already saw a patient, lying unconscious on the floor and you didn’t even do anything to help. How are you worthy of being the kingdom’s princess?” the man points at the patient lying on the ground.
Yun Qian Yu glances at him, “Are you literate?”
“Of course!” says the man, confused as to why she is asking as such.
“Then can you read what is written there?” Yun Qian Yu points at the board listing the rules of the academy outside the residence.
The man chokes a little, “Didn’t you practically sell off your Yun Valley to the kingdom to get your princess title? Since you are our princess, it is only right for Yun Valley to start serving the common people! It is your responsibility to take care of us.”
“Who told you that I sold Yun Valley to the kingdom? Who told you that Yun Valley belongs to the kingdom? Your Highness Xian Wang, isn’t it time for you to come forward and act as a witness?” Yun Qian Yu smiles.
Gong Sang Mo who has been standing behind the crowd immediately teleports to Yun Qian Yu, a warm smile on his face. He takes out the pendant hanging from his belt and shows it to the crowd, “This is this king’s medallion. You can check it, Official Zhang, lest people accuse this king of being an impostor.”
Zhang Huan Shan immediately kneels in front of him, “Greeting Xian Wang!”
When the crowd sees their Magistrate kneeling on the ground, they now know for sure that the man in front of them is indeed Xian Wang, the very Xian Wang whom they admire very much. They immediately kneel.
When the middle-aged man realized that he is the only one left standing in the crowd, he immediately follows the others and kneels.
Gong Sang Mo stands with one hand behind him, his face amiable and warm. Nobody amongst the crowd manages to sense just how happy he is at the moment.
He signals them to get up, in which they do.
“Three years ago, the Retired Emperor happened upon the owner of Yun Valley and immediately took a liking on her, likening her as his own granddaughter. She was the one who saved him when he was poisoned. The Retired Emperor is not healthy and has to entrust the Emperor to the owner of the Yun Valley, trusting her to guide him until he is old and wise enough to rule by himself. When His Majesty received the owner’s consent, he gave her the title Princess Hu Guo and even bestowed her the Shang Fang Sword. Out of affection for her imperial brother, Princess Hu Guo abandoned her carefree life and travelled to the capital to aid the Emperor. Her identity as the owner of the Yun Valley is completely separated from her identity as Princess Hu Guo. She did not sell Yun Valley in exchange of the title, this king can the witness to that,” explains Gong Sang Mo.
The crowd begins murmuring amongst themselves.
Ji Shu Liu suddenly appears next to Gong Sang Mo as well. He takes out his medallion, “That part, this king can also serve as a witness.”
Yun Qian Yu glances as him, secretly saying: What are you to play witness for? You weren’t even there, only Sang Mo was.
Now that things aren’t going his way, the middle-aged man sends his two friends (both of whom are helping him lift the patient) a look. They slowly retreats to the back, intending to slip away. Unfortunately, the crowd are pushing forward in order to get a good look of the outstanding Xian Wang, leaving them no room to run off to.
Yun Qian Yu walks towards them and stops in front of the patient. She puts a foot on the stretcher, stopping the men from lifting the patient away. The stretcher stops moving right away despite how hard the two men are trying to lift it. What a powerful girl. The men let go of the stretcher and retreats to the sideline, not daring to do anything more.
“This is the patient that you brought over?” asks Yun Qian Yu calmly.
“Yes,” grits the middle-aged man.
“You are not from Jing Zhou, which means that you carried him here from far away. He is in a coma too, perhaps he is already dead,” mumbles Yun Qian Yu.
Hearing that, the middle-aged man daps his non-existant tears with his sleeve, “My pitiful brother!”
The crowd begins sighing at them in pity.
“Huh, where did that snake come from! It looks poisonous too!” claims Yun Qian Yu in shock.
The middle-aged man follows the direction in which Yun Qian Yu is looking at. He cannot see any snake at all.
Someone in the crowd suddenly quips in, “I saw it too!”
“Yes, me too! Look, it’s really a snake! A really poisonous one from the look of it!”
The corner of Yun Qian Yu’s lips twitches. These must be the people that San Qiu has already planted to play along with her.
The crowd begins moving backwards, “Where? Where?”
“Over there! Near the stretcher. Damn, it’s moving towards the patient’s face!” says Feng Ran.
Yun Qian Yu only needs to say one sentence, and these people already finished the play for her. She gathers her inner power and shapes them like a slithering snake, brushing it against the patient’s neck.
“Argh, a snake!” the patient suddenly jumps up and hastily checks his neck and body.
The crowd stares at him, before slowly grasping the situation.
One of the person that San Qiu planted quickly says, “You are not sick at all, are you? You are just pretending!”
The crowd are angry now, “How despicable! How could you conspire against Princess Hu Guo?”
“What could his motive be?”
“…………….”
The middle-aged man who did not spot any snake finally understands Yun Qian Yu’s motive when his accomplice ruined their plan. The said accomplice is now standing frozen on the sideline, completely overwhelmed.
He is very quick-witted and quickly smiles obsequieously, “We were just planning to test Princess Hu Guo’s medical ability. We meant no harm! You are indeed extraordinary!”
“Door-in-the-face technique?” asks Yun Qian Yu coldly.
(TN: The door-in-the-face technique is a compliance method commonly studied in social psychology. The persuader attempts to convince the respondent to comply by making a large request that the respondent will most likely turn down, much like a metaphorical slamming of a door in the persuader’s face.
Copied and pasted from Wikipedia!)
That awkward smile on that man’s face turns rigid.
“Do you know what the consequences of offending the owner of Yun Valley will be?”
Yun Qian Yu’s clear voice is very scary to the man’s ears.
Pretty much everybody knows what happened to the last man who offended the owner of Yun Valley.
“I am not from Nan Lou Kingdom! You have no authority to punish me!” he retreats one step in fear.
“Oh, so you are a spy from another kingdom?” asks Yun Qian Yu leisurely.
“Hit him! Kill him!” the crowd that feels used are beyond furious! Another kingdom actually dares to use them against their own kingdom’s princess!
“Yes, kill him! That wretched spy!”
The man who got deceived in the restaurant earlier is particularly angry.
That middle-aged man and his accomplice huddle together, trying to avoid the things that are being thrown their way.
“Feng Ran, what will we do to someone who challenged Yun Valley?”
Yun Qian Yu slowly lifts her foot from the make-shift stretcher and returns to the board by the entrance.
Feng Ran smiles demonically, “We give them a life worse than death.”
“Ah!” the two men are really scared. They want to run away, but there is no escape route considering that they are being surrounded by so many people at the moment.
Feng Ran lifts his right hand and a little snake slithers out of his sleeve. It wrap itself around his wrist before spitting out venom.
“Are you afraid of snakes?” Feng Ran asks the one who pretended to be sick.
That man shudders, not even daring to look at the snake on Feng Ran’s hand.
The crowd suddenly becomes quiet as well. They slowly move backwards.
Feng Ran sneers, “Both of you are the biggest death seeking idiots that I have ever seen.”
The moment he says that, the snake jumps from Feng Ran’s wrist towards that man. In front of everyone, the snake bites him in the neck, before jumping back to Feng Ran’s wrist like an obedient child.
Everyone else shudders, as though they are the one who just got bitten.
The man who got bitten touches his neck in fear before screaming in pain.
His screams only last for a couple seconds. After that, no voice can come out of his throat. The place that got bitten has turned black, spreading very fast like vines.
After a while, he collapses on the ground, twitching.
Feng Ran waves a hand and a Yun Guard immediately appears near him, taking that person away. This place is filled with the common populace of the city. Yun Qian Yu only wants to warn them. Shedding too much blood will only work against her.
The middle-aged man now has nothing to say. His accomplice’s ending is probably better than what he will get.
He wants to bite his tongue to commit suicide, but Feng Ran naturally will not give him the opportunity to do that. Feng Ran hits him in one spot, rendering him immobile. Then, another Yun Guard appears and takes him away.
Yun Qian Yu slowly turns to the crowd before saying, “The reason we opened an academy here is because this is the Yun Clan’s ancestral hometown. My grandfather left Jing Zhou to give way to Shi Hai, who only turned out to be incapable and ungrateful. We have left Jing Zhou for decades, and I, Yun Qian Yu, would like to restore a little bit of Jing Zhou’s glory. That’s why we opened this academy, to help locals who couldn’t afford to study medicine. But in the end…..”
The crowd lowers their head in shame.
“While I was busy trying to protect Nan Lou Kingdom, what were all of you doing?” asks Yun Qian Yu.
The crowd becomes even quieter.
“All of you fell into another kingdom’s bait and tried to turn Yun Valley into your slaves!” her voice becomes powerful and sorrowful.
“Perhaps my decision has been wrong from the start. If so, I should correct it!” after she says that, Zhang Huan Shan kneels on the ground.
