Chapter 29: Bathroom Lord’s Promise(1)
Translator: Sissy That Walk
In the middle of June, Qi Sheng took the place of the Emperor to patrol Jiangbei Central Army Camp.

On the bank of Wan River, Qi Sheng, who wore a gold crown and a dark black suit with two narrow sleeves, embroidered with the image of dragon in golden threads, covering a fine steel gilt thin armor, boarded the ship of the Fuping navy with an impressive appearance in the spotlight.

Wearing a plain navy suit in grey and blue, I hid in the bilge of the ship, clinging to the window cracks to examine the situation outside as a thief.

What a difference!

Qi Sheng said that soldiers could not take women to ship, so I had to change the uniform and hid on the ship in advance.

In fact, what clothes to wear and how to get on the ship did not matter at all. Anyway, with my curving body shape, even if I put on the dragon robe, I would not like the Emperor. What really mattered was that it was Qi Sheng who asked me to make this trip to Jiangbei with him, but now he pretended to know nothing about it!

In this way, the official version of this story was: the Crown Prince took the place of the Emperor to patrol in the north, the Crown Princess Zhang shi went out of the Palace without permission, she cross-dressed and accompanied along the way, and she wasn’t spotted in the entourage by the Prince until when the troop arrived Taixing. The Prince was very angry and scolded Zhang shi severely. What’s done was done, so he had nothing to do but take Zhang shi with him.

Simply put, the Prince’s behavior had always been noble, while all the bad things were done by the Crown Princess Zhang shi.

Did he think that I was that stupid?

The moment Qi Sheng proposed it, I immediately rejected it.

However, Qi Sheng just squinted his eyes and said slowly, “Considering that Zhang shi had a reputation for being capricious, arrogant and self-centered, this thing was just to Zhang shi’s style. The Empress could be only too anxious to enjoy the show, worst case scenario was she made a posture of scolding you in few words. What are you afraid of now that you know I’m not going to look into it?”

Nonsense!

If it were like this, it would be a stain on the career of the Crown Princess. This was to be recorded into archives! Even if you said you won’t look into this at this moment, but what if you change your mind in the future? Who would reason things out with me?

‘No way!’

I quickly waved my hand, “Even if I wore the military uniform, no one would be fooled. What if someone wanted to check my body? Can I agree to let him look it up?”

Qi Sheng looked at me silently for a moment and said, “I will give you a personal warrant, is that ok?”

He said in this way because he had read my mind, but I was not afraid of him. I nodded and said with a smile, “If so, that would reassure me much better.”

Qi Sheng chuckled and said in a low voice, “You can’t take any maid with you, leave by yourself. In the evening, you have to get rid of Lv Li by some reason, I will send someone to pick you up, and arrange you to board the ship immediately.”

So, as soon as the night fell, I asked Lv Li to the Buddhist Hall in the Palace to read sutras for me over the night.

Lv Li asked me what I wanted to pray for, catching the eager attention from Lv Li, I told her, against my conscious, I wanted Qi Sheng would love me and stay with me forever.

After hearing this, Lv Li took a lot of incense and scrolls without hesitation and walked out the room in high spirits.

Before the Palace Gate was closed, I secretly slipped out of the Palace following a eunuch and boarded on a small boat in the Wan River. Then I transferred to Qi Sheng’s main ship.

I stayed in the bilge to wait for Qi Sheng until the middle of the night when he finally boarded.

The main ship’s cannon fire went off with dozens of booms. Then the boat slowly offshored and left for Taixing across the river.

Taixing, the biggest city of Jiangbei in Nanxia, was located at the north of Wan River and mutually dependent with Fuping, which was located at the south of Wan River. Across Suzhou and Xiangzhou, it was the throat pivot connecting the north and south, which made it a place of strategic importance for armies since ancient times.

Three years after Cheng Emperor united the country, Nanxia army immediately marched to the north after putting down the rebellion in Lingnan. They crossed over the Wan River from this spot and marched their way to north and went into Taixing, swept and quelled Yuzhou, later they were joined by Jiangbei Army commanded by General Mai who was conquering Northern Desert’s invasion army, forming two forces from north to south and finally regain the possession of Jiangbei.

Zhang shi’s grandfather Zhang Sheng, the great general guarding the country, stood out in this war. According to Lv Li, at that time, Zhang Sheng accepted the order from General Mai to storm the strategic station in the north part of Yuzhou, two thousand cavalry experienced several advances and retreats, and finally conquered it with only a few hundred survived. After that, no one in the army dared to despise the cripple Zhang Sheng.

Indeed, such a brave general was a disadvantaged man, which really blew everyone’s mind. I had seen several portraits of Zhang Sheng in Zhangs’ house. In the picture, he was very young and rode on the horse, like a handsome and vigorous general on the horse.

He proved again what the elder people usually said: the cripple loves riding horses, while the one who has buckteeth loves to use a fan.

While I was thinking about this, someone came in. I looked back and found that it was the little eunuch surnamed Li who took me out of the Palace. He had changed to the guard uniform.

Li first carefully made a salute to me, and handed over a set of a guard’s clothes, whispered: “Your Highness, the Crown Prince ordered you to dress like a guardsman and get off the boat with me when arriving at the Taixing pier. Don’t let other people see through your identity.”

‘Now I have no choice but to do the cross-dressing.’ With a white cloth wrapped my chest tightly, I carefully rolled the paper Qi Sheng gave me and staffed it into it.

After a short journey, we reached outside the Taixing city. Yang Yu, the guard of Taixing city, had led many officials waiting for a long time in the pier. In the sound of drumming, Qi Sheng was greeted by the people on the shore and rode into Taixing city.

Mixed in the crowd, I followed the guard Li to get off the ship, my stomach fluttering with butterflies. Suddenly I heard someone in the side road shouted in a surprise: “Your……! Why are you here?”

I looked up and saw Yang Yan was standing nearby. He was staring at me with astonishment.

I yelled at him with a smile, “Where is your mother?”

Yang Yan obviously choked, without a word, he lifted his feet and walked over to me.

Li, standing behind me, stepped close to me and said in a low voice, “Your Highness, don’t make trouble at this moment! I think we’d better avoid him right now, do not tangle with him.

I didn’t think much at that moment, just followed Li to walk into the crowd, taking advantage of the chaos to leave Yang Yan behind. Who knew that Yang Yan refused to let me go. He elbowed away the person who was in his way and ran after us, shouting, “Please wait a minute.”

Waited for you, my ass! I cursed in my heart, while I stepped faster. Li took me to make a big detour around the pier, and finally went back to the river bank. With only a step away from Yang Yan, Li simply took me to jump on a small fishing boat moored on the river. He hurriedly asked the fisherman on the boat to go: “Please hurry.”

The fisherman quickly untied the rope from the boat, and the boat floated down the river bank and was rowed a long way in a minute.

It was too late for Yang Yan to catch me. He stomped his feet on the bank of the river and waved to me continuously.

In great joy, I raised my arm and gave Yang Yan the finger.

Yang Yan was inspired, and waved hard.

There was wind on the river and the boat was moving very fast. After a while, Yang Yan did not catch up with me. I was finally relieved. Turning to look at Li, and asked him, “What shall we do next? Turn back, or find some other place to get off?”

Li replied, “I’m afraid it’s not safe to return to the pier. It would be better to disembark in a secluded place and then go to Taixing to meet the Crown Prince.”

Li spoke respectfully and discreetly, keeping a cool head.

I found it made perfect sense, and nodded: “You are really considerate, let’s do it.”

The fisherman was standing calmly at the back of the boat, turning a deaf ear to the conversation between Li and me.

A sudden thought came to me, which enlightened me. I felt a chill running down my spine. I forced my way to the bow, sat down, making a pretension of fanning and said, “What a hot day it is today.”

While saying this, i took off my boots, ignoring the astonished gleams from Li and the fisherman. The socks on my feet were also stripped off, and i looked up at Li, asked, “Well, don’t you feel hot?”

Li quickly turned away from his eyes and shook his head.

This action made me doubt my previous guess, if they wanted to claim my life, they shouldn’t have sent such a thin-skinned man. Was I too suspicious?

I was a little hesitant, should i jump or not? But this hesitation almost claimed my life. The man with such a thin face, acted very fast and ruthlessly. When I reacted to it, the knife point has come to my front. Fortunately, I was sitting on the side. Hardly did I think much about it, I turned over backwards promptly. Even if in this situation, I still felt a stabbing pain in my chest.

Immediately there was a red splash in the water. No way to survive but to swim towards the faraway place like a scalded cat holding a breath in my mouth. I could only hear Li shouting angrily on the boat, “Hurry up and get her body out! The Crown Prince’s warrant was still in her hand.”

I subconsciously pressed my chest, and made sure that the warrant was still there. Then I swam to the river bank at full split.

My summary was as follows:

First, you can’t judge a book by its cover. The killer may also be a pure man, who would be shy facing a woman;

Second, you can’t judge a book by its cover. As a woman, the big boobs really mattered.

Third, you can’t judge a book by its cover. Qi Sheng really sucked!

Thanks to the gentle flow of the river, where grew a large reeds on the bank and I could shelter in it. I used to read a lot of martial arts novels, afraid that Li on the ship was a martial arts master, who would send me a dart in my back or something. So I was determined to sneak in the reeds to make myself invisible.

After a long walk in the reeds, i jumped into the water again and swam carefully up against the river.

I was wondering after my attempted cover, he could not trace me back. However there was such a stupid person in this world that only knew to keep waiting in a fixed place. And I didn’t know whether he was favored by God or it was my destiny that the stupid man really encountered me.

I didn’t think myself clever. I only felt that God’s being really unfair to me!