Chapter 31: Bathroom Lord’s Promise (3)
Translator: Sissy That Walk
Yang Yan opened his mouth again and finally asked, “I just wonder why you call yourself ‘Lao zi’, which refers to a man in vulgar language. Why didn’t you call yourself ‘Lao Niang’, which refers to a woman?”

I was speechless.

Looking at Yang Yan’s eager eyes, I pondered over it, sat up with some efforts and said. “Don’t you think Lao zi is more imposing than Lao Niang?”

Yang Yan was surprised: “Really?”

I solemnly nodded: “If you don’t believe it, just try to shout for once. Then you will take on an imposing manner.”

Bathroom Lord, standing beside, suddenly burst into laughter, which enlightened Yang Yan. Yang Yan said angrily: “You make fun of me?”

“Well.” I raised my eyebrows in surprise: “Finally you got it!”

Yang Yan was stiffed, who seemed to turn the embarrassment into anger. Bathroom Lord inserted in: “Yang Yan, go out first. I have something to ask her.”

Yang Yan was extremely unwilling to leave, but dared not to go against his order. So he could only go out full of anger and pointed at me with index finger, glaring at me: “You just wait and see!”

For this kind of person, I wouldn’t bother to humiliate him in words, only disdained him by curling my lip, giving him the finger.

Yang Yan was about to open the door when he saw my finger, he stopped and turned back to explain to Bathroom Lord, “Lord Ninth, I want to ask her one more question.”

Bathroom Lord said nothing.

Yang Yan pointed at me and asked, “What do you mean by this gesture? When I saw you on the dock, you were also posing this. What do you mean?”

I suddenly felt that people in this time and space were truly innocent. They even didn’t understand such an easy gesture. Adjusting my facial expression, I replied earnestly, “It’s a greeting gesture.”

Yang Yan didn’t believe me apparently: “Greetings?”

I nodded, “Yes, for greetings. Have you ever heard of Zhu Geliang and Cao Cao, two famous figures in the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms?”

Yang Yan thought for a while and answered, “I heard that it was written by a poor scholar, who told the stories about wars between several countries. Are these two characters in it?”

You can’t be wrong! It must have been some time-travel pioneer who stole the works of predecessors to support his family. Since he knew it, everything could be explained.

I nodded and said in sad earnest: “You may not have read it, but I have read it. In the novel, Zhu Geliang and Cao Cao were heroes, who were admired by thousands of people.

Yang Yan listened to me and wondered: “Did they use this gesture to greet each other?”

I tried not to laugh, kept a straight face and said, “Oh, the story was not like that. The army adviser Zhu Geliang paid attention to etiquette. Although Cao Cao and he were enemies, he would pay tribute to his enemy before the war in every battlefield they encountered. It happened that Cao Cao was a filial man, so Zhu Geliang often gave regards to Cao Cao’s mother. You must know that on the battlefield, the two army commanders were far away from each other, even shouting may not be heard. So Zhu Geliang thought of such an idea, which was posing a greeting gesture to Cao Cao who was far away from his place. That’s all it meant. It made sense for him.”

I made up the story so fluently that I even didn’t make any pauses. The key to win was to be quick!

Until I finished the story, Yang Yan’s head was still in the clouds. He only asked with a little surprise: “Is there such a thing?”

Bathroom Lord, however, was a little impatient and said coldly: “Yang Yan, that’s enough! You go first. I want to talk to her.”

When Yang Yan saw Bathroom Lord became impatient, he dared not to utter one more word and left the room immediately.

I was the only one left in the cabin with Bathroom Lord. He did not speak, instead he sized me up. A sentence suddenly came out of my mind: A dog that bites does not bark!

No way! The more he was like such a dog the more should I be alert on him, so that he wouldn’t bite me without being noticed.

While thinking in this way, I suddenly heard Bathroom Lord asked, “On what condition will you tell the truth?”

I looked over my new yellow silk dress and asked: “Where is the personal warrant?”

He was silent for a second and replied, “It has been blurred by water. So I threw it away.”

I cursed Qi Sheng was too crafty in my heart that he must have been calculated this, that was why he gave me his personal warrant so generously.

Bathroom Lord lifted his robe to sit down at the table, asked again: “Tell me, what do you want?”

Jesus! What a tone! As if no matter what I demanded he could satisfy me. I asked him with a sneer, “What can you offer me?”

He silently looked at me for a moment, replied: “I can offer you safety and sufficient supply for provisions and clothing.”

I had thought he would promise me to be rich and noble, but never did I expect these words from him, which stunned me unconsciously. The simple eight characters were exactly what I was longing for.

He asked me: “How about it? Could it be enough to tell me the truth?”

I nodded. “Yes, but what is the token that guarantee your promise? Don’t tell me you’re also going to give me a warrant.”

Fucking the warrant! Being cheated once by this was totally enough. I wouldn’t believe Bathroom Lord even if he gave me a water-proof warrant!

He smiled and said,” Even if I have given you something, if I wanted to take it back, I would get it back again. You would trust me rather than trust the thing I give you.

I thought about it carefully. Then I looked into the man’s eyes and said, “Well, I believe you. I was indeed not Zhang shi.”

“I knew you weren’t Zhang shi from the first time I saw you,” He said with a smile. “What I really want to ask is,” he paused, leaning forward slightly, looked into my eyes and asked, “Who on earth are you?”

Gee! Hey, bro, didn’t you just want to tell if I was telling the truth or not by looking me in the eyes? Unfortunately, you have miscalculated. In my first 20 years, I made countless girlfriends, which taught me nothing but practicing how to lie.

I slightly opened my eyes, with my facial expression mixed with miserable feelings, and slowly replied: “I did not remember the things happened when I was a child. I only remembered that I had been raised by a human trader until the beginning of last year when a gentleman bought me, arranged me to receive education in one particular place for more than half a year, and then sent me to the Eastern Palace.”

After a moment’s silence, he asked, “What was the human trader’s family name?”

I was prepared for him to ask such questions, and then replied with a calm look: “He surnamed Si.”

He looked at me while thinking over something.

I thought about it for a while, then said, “You’d better send me over to Family Zhang to check whether I am the substitute or not. After all, Zhang shi’s own mother is still alive, who must know some marks left on her own daughter.”

He smiled, but said nothing.

It’s better not to say too much, because the more I said the more mistakes I would make. So I just kept my mouth shut.

A silence fell on the cabin, only the faint sound of river hitting the side of the ship could be heard. The ship rocked harder and harder, looking like there were waves on the river.

Seeing me looking at the window, he explained softly, “We are going to approach the Jiuqu Gorge in front, so the water is fiercer than before.

Suddenly I heard a burst of hurried footsteps outside the cabin, and then the door was pushed open by Yang Yan who stepped in a few steps and said, “Lord Ninth, the Fuping Marine ship stopped us in front.”

Under the lamplight, Bathroom Lord slightly raised his eyebrows, said to me: “They are looking for you.”

At that time, I was unable to understand what Qi Sheng’s plan was. The Crown Princess sneaked secretly out of the palace and showed up in the Lord Ninth private ship in the late night. Was this their plan to sabotage me by accusing me of having an affair and then bring someone to catch me in public? How much did Qi Sheng love to wear a fresh green hat, referring to his own wife cheated on himself? Putting a green hat on others was far from enough? Why would he love to have a try?

Did he have a similar hobby with Zhao wang staying in Sheng city?

I was a little confused and still in clouds after a moment. However, a thought occurred to me: at this moment, if the Bathroom Lord tied me firmly with a stone and then dropped me into the water in the dark, he would be completely innocent.

Thinking of this, I felt a little frightened, glancing at Bathroom Lord.

He was looking at me too, as if he had read my mind. “Since I have promised you, I will keep my promise.”

Then he got up and went out.

Yang Yan cast a worried look to me from the back and went out with him.

I sat on the bed and chewed Bathroom Lord’s words over and over again. In the end, I made up my mind that I could not believe him completely. I thought that I’d better go out and have a look rather than sitting here waiting for the final result, thus no matter what awaited me, I wouldn’t be in the dark.

After I made the decision, I simply sat up, and carefully put on the navy uniform hanging on the side. The uniform used to fit my figure, but now suddenly became a little tight on me. At first, I thought whether it was soaked to be shrunk in the water. Then I looked down on my chest and got it.

Because of the sword wound in the chest, the cloth on my breast had been cut off long ago, and the white ribbon was wrapped around the wound again. However, from the technique I could tell that she had never dressed as a man, because the tie was so unprofessional that it could not cover up the woman’s figure at all.

Scarcely did I have time to think about it, luckily my gender wouldn’t give the game away thanks to the darkness.

Convincing myself in this way, I snuck out of the cabin.

Several Fuping Marine warships were only dozens of meters away in the front of the ship. Unlike the gaily-painted ship, the warships were lighted with torches, as well as lanterns, which made the deck as bright as the day.

On the bow of the main ship stood the Crown Prince Qi Sheng whose facial expression was as cold as ice, wearing black armor, holding a sword in hand. What a mighty man! What a brave man! What a stupid man!

Jesus! This boy must have never commanded navy, for he was wearing such kind of armor on the ship? Was he afraid of not qualifying enough to be a weight? He just waited and saw, as long as i caught an opportunity, I would kick him hard in the river!

While Bathroom Lord stood in the prow, exchanging corny formalities with Qi Sheng, the warship slowly marching over. A heartrending shouting was heard from the prow of the warship approaching: “Your Highness!”