Chapter 76: A Balanced Development of Brains and Brawn
“His bedchambers?”
“Yes.”
Wei Wanlan repeated himself, certain it had to be the bedchambers.
The answer was unexpected, yet it made perfect sense. A place where someone could spend night after night without arousing too much suspicionāonce you thought it through, the only logical answer was the bedchambers. Bai Lianrong had actually been quite clear.
Fu Jun gave no reaction to the answer.
Wei Wanlan had hoped for some affirmation, and the lack of it was a little disappointing. Perhaps it was like an actor feeling let down when a brilliant performance receives no applause from the audience. He was always trying to catch a glimpse of some lively expression on Fu Junās cool, handsome face.
Even though the man was just a newly-acquainted partner, Wei Wanlan found himself inexplicably drawn to Fu Jun’s presence. It was strange, really.
“Fu Jun, wasn’t I brilliant?”
Just then, his body was lifted into the air.
Wei Wanlan felt a jolt of panic as his feet suddenly left the ground, the blood rushing to his head. The high walls and deep courtyards, which had once seemed insurmountable, were now beneath his feet. It was a peculiar sensation.
Fu Jun was scaling the wall in a way he couldn’t have imagined, carrying him as they flew.
It’s so high, it’s terrifying! T_T
Even higher than when we jumped from the Mianhua Pavilion! T_T
The tips of his toes brushed the tops of the trees. Wei Wanlan tightened his grip around Fu Junās neck, terrified of being hit by an arrow and ending up like that poor bird that had strayed into the Governor’s Office. He even hooked his legs tightly around Fu Jun.
Fu Junās body tensed.
As he buried his face in the crook of Fu Junās neck, Wei Wanlan quietly took a deep breath.
A pleasant scent filled his nostrils. It was fragrant, and the type of fragrance was so familiar, so comforting.
Just as the scent began to make his eyes well up, Wei Wanlan was already on solid ground.
They had landed inside the Luoyang Governor’s Office, within the high walls and deep courtyards that not even a bird could enter.
He opened his eyes wide, his doe-like gaze curiously taking in everything around him.
The woody fragrance in his nose gradually faded. He found that this place was completely different from what he had imagined.
This must be the front hall of the Governor’s Office, right?
The main doors to the official building were tightly shut. Though it was dark and inky black, the place didn’t lack a sense of solemn dignity. Two couplets in gold characters on a black background flanked the entrance, and the plaque in the center also gleamed with a golden light. Two large drums stood on either side of the main hall, adding to thečē© (sĆ¹mĆ¹ – solemn) atmosphere.
It didn’t feel corrupt and foul at all.
Wei Wanlan had originally thought a den of evil like Yuan Xizai’s would feel unsettling everywhere, with black smoke rising from the rooftops and “demonic energy” written all over the placeā¦ It seemed he’d been watching too many cartoons.
He tried to find some common ground with the others.
Wei Wanlan asked Fu Jun, “What do you think of the official area of the Luoyang Governor’s Office?”
“The front hall is where he receives imperial censors and assessing officials. He can’t let any cracks show here.”
Oh! That made sense.
How had he not thought of that? A local truly was a local. It seemed they still needed to find Yuan Xizai’s bedchambers to get into that “secret base.”
“Young Master!”
Suddenly, a voice called out from the darkness. It was low, and it made Wei Wanlan turn his head. “Valiant Warrior!”
Xiao Ji was a pure scholar; he definitely couldn’t fly into the Governor’s Office. Fu Jun had been right beside him, and he hadn’t seen him bring Xiao Ji in. So, to hear Xiao Ji’s voice was nothing short of a miracle to Wei Wanlan.
“How did you get in?”
Xiao Ji straightened his clothes, dusting them off and effortlessly maintaining his gentlemanly image in front of Wei Wanlan. His voice was gentle and confident.
“Martial artists have their methods, and scholars, of course, have their own ways of getting by. All roads lead to Rome, as they say. It’s not worth mentioning to outsiders.”
Alright. He didn’t want to say, but Wei Wanlan was still impressed.
He gave the Valiant Warrior a thumbs-up. “Brilliant! Beautifully done!”
Fu Jun, with his hands behind his back, walked ahead and said flatly, “Just crawled through a doggy door, what’s there to brag about.”
“Youā Young Master, I did not!”
“Grand households love to keep dogs. How could there not be one? Where did you get all that dirt on you?”
Some people just had a knack for ruining all of one’s expectations with a single sentence. These two were just so childish. Like, not a day over three years old.
The four-year-old little dove of peace, Wei Wanlan, dutifully played mediator. “Alright, as long as we all made it in, that’s what matters. Let’s hurry and find the ledgers.”
They followed the main path, bypassing the main hall of the office. Beyond the main hall were rooms for storing official documents, legal statutes, and the like, as well as quarters for the bailiffs, reception rooms, and storage rooms. They had already deduced that the public-facing front hall wouldn’t have any obvious signs of Yuan Xizai’s corruption.
The three of them quickened their pace, searching for the rear residence of the Governor’s Office, which was not open to the public.
Sure enough, as they drew closer to the rear residence, the internal security seemed to tighten.
A small, crescent-shaped gate connected the front hall to the rear courtyard. The gate was very small, creating a bottleneck where “one man could hold off ten thousand.”
From a distance, they could see several patrols of guards carrying lanterns, constantly circling the area around the crescent gate. One patrol even had a fierce dog on a thick iron chain, a large yellow hound panting heavily.
He wanted to get into the rear residence and thought of the classic diversion tactic he’d often seen on TV. But he was hesitant to suggest it.
“I wanted to discuss something with you, Fu Jun,” Wei Wanlan said, feeling a bit embarrassed because it would be somewhat dangerous for Fu Jun. “Could you find a hidden spot and start a fire to create a commotion and draw all the guards away?”
Fu Jun had no objections, only stating the facts. “But they will certainly leave a few guards at the crescent gate. Even if there aren’t many, we still won’t be able to get through.”
Xiao Mengshi replied, “I will risk my life to protect the Young Master’s safety.”
If it came down to a fight, Xiao Ji risking his life was the same as throwing it away. Back in Fenggu Village, when he confronted Xi Yan, he would have been a goner if he hadn’t produced the Su family’s military banner, which made Xi Yan let them go.
Wei Wanlan decided he should rely on the “Wise Ruler Development System.” If the system could have something like an assassination ring, then other offensive items that could achieve a lot with little effort shouldn’t be a problem, right? It was just that finding the right item would take some timeā¦ and a bit of luck.
In any case, they couldn’t delay here for too long.
“I’ll need about half a cup of tea’s time to prepare,” Wei Wanlan said. “Fu Jun, you can go ahead.”
Fu Jun grunted in agreement. A man of action and few words, he disappeared into the night. His retreating figure looked incredibly cool, though perhaps due to the lingering spring chill, the cool guy let out a sneeze.
“That darn Regent.”
[Login successful.]
Using a thicket of bushes for cover, Wei Wanlan saw the golden screen unfold before his eyes. He and Xiao Ji crouched behind it. His little dragon claws scrolled through the system interface, searching for something.
Xiao Mengshi dutifully stood guard for Wei Wanlan, completely unaware of what the young emperor was doing. However, he knew the young emperor had his own set of skills for turning danger into safety. The court scholar asked carefully, “Is there anything this servant can do to help, Young Master?”
“Help me explain a few words,” Wei Wanlan said, his doe-like eyes fixed on the screen.
“This servant is at your service.”
“White frost,” Wei Wanlan said. “But it doesn’t seem to be the autumn kind of white frost.”
Xiao Mengshi replied, “Thenā¦ it must be the deadly ‘white frost’?”
“Frost can be poisonous?”
“Arsenic. Arsenic is snow-white, so it’s also commonly called ‘white frost’.”
I see. I’ve learned something new. This item was useless. There was no opportunity to poison anyone.
“Then what is an ‘aconite iron dart’?”
“Aconite is wolfsbane, which is also highly poisonous,” Xiao Ji explained. “Young Master, if you have wolfsbane with you, please be careful not to touch it carelessly.”
“Oh, okay!”
The iron darts could be used for long-range attacks. But with their combined combat power of less than five, it wouldn’t matter how many guards were left; they’d be sitting ducks. Wei Wanlan could already picture them throwing the darts, getting caught red-handed by the guards, and both of them being in deep trouble.
āThis just goes to show how important a balanced development of brains and brawn is!
Take a certain big bad villain, for example. Not only was he skilled in martial arts, but he could also handle official memorials, having perfectly inherited the traits of his martial general father and talented scholar mother.
No, the little emperor fighting the evil dragon couldn’t admit defeat either.
Wei Wanlan continued to rummage through the system. As he scrolled down the screen, he saw an icon that looked like a short tube. The name displayed beneath it was written in characters he could mostly recognize.
He could read the name: “Datura Flower Blowgun.”
What on earth was a Datura Flower Blowgun?
“Datura flower is mandrake. It was once offered as tribute from the western regions of our Great Wei. Datura flower has an instantaneous anesthetic effect. The Imperial Medical Academy has it as well. It’s sometimes used for pain relief,” Xiao Ji said, proving to be a walking encyclopedia.
“As for the blowgun,” Xiao Ji explained, “it’s a type of hidden weapon. It’s very stealthy, silent, and doesn’t require much effort to use. Its range is about one to two zhangā¦ which is roughly the distance from us to those guards.”
Wei Wanlan’s doe-like eyes lit up. Well, well, well, isn’t this exactly what We were looking for!
“Look, there’s a fire in the front courtyard!”
His moment of joy was instantly interrupted. The guards outside the crescent gate were suddenly alarmed.
The flickering firelight danced in the guards’ eyes. Seeing the fire, their voices were filled with panic.
“It looks like the fire is in the Governor’s document roomāwhy would a fire start there for no reason?”
“A few of you stay here, the rest of you, come with me to check it out!”
“Let’s go!”
In front of the crescent gate, all the guards, men and dog alike, rushed towards the document room in the front courtyard.
Wei Wanlan let out a quiet sigh of relief, a slow smile spreading across his lips as he watched dozens of men dwindle down to just four guards.
Phew. That’s a lot fewer people to deal with.
Wei Wanlan took out the Datura Flower Blowgun.
Because of the close distance and the current commotion in the Governor’s Office, Wei Wanlan felt confident he could use it. Without hesitation, he fired a dart.
The dart flew in a straight line and lodged itself in one of the guard’s buttocks. The man clutched his rear and turned around.
Wei Wanlan squeezed his eyes shut and, not daring to delay, quickly aimed at the second guard and fired another dart. He heard the thwip of the dart piercing flesh. It must have been another hit.
Overjoyed, Wei Wanlan shot a third dart at the third guard. All three had hit their mark! Wei Wanlan suddenly felt like a little genius.
The datura flower darts sent the three guards spinning to the ground in a daze. By now, even the last remaining guard, no matter how slow, would have realized this was a diversion.
The last guard was about to shout. Wei Wanlan pressed on.
But the blowgun suddenly made a whistling sound, and the hair on the back of Wei Wanlan’s neck stood on end. He felt a chill on his neckāhe was out of darts.
The guard drew his sword and started towards him. His cover was blown; he had been discovered.
T_T T_T T_Tā
Suddenly, a dull thud echoed in the night.
Wei Wanlan peeked up from the bushes.
The guard who had drawn his sword rolled his eyes back and slowly collapsed to the ground.
Behind the guard, Xiao Mengshi’s figure appeared. Wei Wanlan had no idea when Xiao Ji had managed to sneak up behind the guard. Still panting heavily, the court scholar lowered the blunt object he had been holding with both hands.
It was a squareā¦ inkstone.
Wei Wanlan was stunned.
Carrying around brushes, ink, and fancy stationery was one thing, that was understandable. But Weā¦ have no idea why you would be carrying an inkstone with you!!!
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