Chapter 34: Officially Certified, Battle Record Verifiable, Beating Drums to Muster Troops (Seeking Monthly Votes)

That evening, Pei Shaoqing played host, booking out Qunfang Yuan to treat his colleagues from the Hundred-Household Office; after all, he had to let his brothers know that even if he couldn't make them line up like General Yuwen did, they could still drink fish soup by following his lead.

Naturally, he had no interest in the common, mediocre beauties of a brothel, so once he was wined and dined, he returned home first.

It was late when he arrived home, and as soon as he entered the room, he saw Xie Qingwu, already washed and changed, leaning against the low couch in a layer of light gauze reading a book; that was her bed now, too.

The soft candlelight seemed to trace a graceful curve along her exquisite figure; the light gauze shrouded her, and though it revealed no spring scenery, the plump, rounded contours it strained against were already exceptionally alluring, and a pair of beautiful legs wrapped in white Ice Silkworm Silk were long and shapely, her toes swaying gently.

Whether she was willing or not, their relationship had become much more intimate since the last time the divine artifact had been dampened and slipped, and she had become more casual with her attire as well.

After all, on such a hot day, if one still wore three layers inside and three layers outside while sleeping, it would be truly unbearable.

The fishy smell would almost be stifled out.

"Why are you always reading?" Pei Shaoqing, reeking of alcohol, closed the door and asked with a burp.

Xie Qingwu turned a page with a soft rustle and replied without lifting her head: "Because there are many things I do not know, and many things I do not understand or recognize, yet I am full of curiosity about this world, but I cannot go and see them one by one, so I can only catch a glimpse of the whole through what is recorded in books."

"In that case, you must have read a lot of books, then?" Pei Shaoqing walked over to her side and sat down.

The smell of alcohol on him made Xie Qingwu wrinkle her nose in disgust, and she said quite proudly: "While I dare not say I know the astronomy above, I dare say I know the..."

"Paralysis of the lower limbs below?" Pei Shaoqing teased.

Xie Qingwu's face darkened and she didn't want to pay him any mind, turning her back to him before adding the second half of the sentence, "I know the geography below."

"Where did the cat go again?" Pei Shaoqing felt that Li Jiangjun had been seriously derelict in its duties lately and prepared to dock its salary.

Xie Qingwu replied casually: "Your Great General is likely busy establishing your Cat Battalion; for the sake of your royal ambitions, it naturally cannot attend to a mere woman."

"Royal ambitions weigh far less in my heart than my wife; this cat cannot distinguish between what is important and what is not, so I will instruct it to prioritize accompanying you." Pei Shaoqing hugged her.

He had held Ye Hanshuang for a while at the Hundred-Household Office that afternoon.

It had left him feeling somewhat restless.

"Don't touch me." Xie Qingwu struggled and hurriedly changed the subject, "How do you plan to deal with Wan Guifei?"

"My wife truly thinks highly of me; setting aside the gap in power and strength, this distance alone limits my ability to act. At the current stage, it is nothing more than meeting moves with moves." Pei Shaoqing shook his head helplessly.

The distance from Tongzhou to the Capital protected him.

But it also restricted him.

Seeing that his hands weren't wandering, Xie Qingwu let him hold her and suggested in a low voice: "Next time, you can obtain evidence of her trying to harm you and seek help from your father. The bond between father and son is thicker than water; he will not ignore it. If he truly didn't care about you, he wouldn't have arranged for you to go far away to Tongzhou."

If this matter was never resolved, there was no guarantee that Wan Guifei wouldn't implicate her when she took revenge on Pei Shaoqing.

Besides, she really wanted to return to the Capital!

"How can my wife be so naive?" Pei Shaoqing did not hold out hope for this, and as he hugged her slender waist and felt the softness of her lower abdomen, he leaned his head against her jade-like back and said:

"Arranging for me to come to Tongzhou shows that even this last bit of father-son affection has been exhausted. Do you think he couldn't foresee that Wan Guifei would definitely retaliate? If he truly cared that much about me, the best arrangement would have been to let me join the army.

Instead of sending me off to Tongzhou with only five guards by my side, not even a single expert capable of standing alone. As long as Wan Guifei doesn't kill me openly and slap the Marquis Mansion in the face, he likely won't intervene. After all, he still has an outstanding and obedient eldest son."

This was something he had only just realized recently; trying to awaken the Weiyuan Marquis's fatherly love was simply too difficult.

"So that is how it is." Xie Qingwu murmured.

At the same time, she felt cold toward this father-in-law, as it was clear the other party didn't care much about the life or death of her, his daughter-in-law, either.

Pei Shaoqing kissed her on the face, "That is why, my good wife, we are truly in a relationship where we depend on each other for survival—we prosper together and we suffer together. Aside from ourselves, not that many people care whether we live or die."

Xie Qingwu's face turned pale and livid, her embroidered fists clenched tightly, and she gritted her teeth: "We must return to the Capital, and we must return alive and in glory."

"I will try my best." Pei Shaoqing couldn't help but ask out of curiosity: "Besides beating Wan Guifei's nephew to death, what else did he do to make his own father give up on him?"

"He stole and sold family property, buying the jade horse bestowed by the Emperor; he attempted to assault his sister-in-law; and he teased the Chang Gongzhu while drunk at a palace banquet. Even the Emperor said he was too unruly." Xie Qingwu said expressionlessly.

Officially certified, battle record verifiable.

Pei Shaoqing: "............"

The Weiyuan Marquis still wasn't ruthless enough; if it were him, this rebellious son would never have been able to cause so much trouble.

Because he would have been beaten to death long ago.

"There's no hope for my own father, what about my father-in-law's side?" Pei Shaoqing changed his line of thinking.

Xie Qingwu rolled her eyes gloomily, "Do you think that if my family could oppose Wan Guifei, they would have married me off to that notorious scoundrel?"

"My wife need not worry; Wan Guifei won't dare to be too blatant. As long as my strength in Tongzhou grows, at the very least, I can ensure we are safe here." Pei Shaoqing took Xie Qingwu's soft hand.

Xie Qingwu turned her head to look at him.

Their eyes met, and for a moment, it was somewhat ambiguous.

Just at this moment, the sound of a window opening rang out.

Both of them turned their heads to look at the same time.

Li Jiangjun jumped in with a nimble figure.

"Your subject pays respects to the Lord."

It came at a damn good time! If this cat hadn't ruined it, he could have at least kissed her lips given the atmosphere.

Pei Shaoqing let go of Xie Qingwu's hand with a dark face and scolded the rebellious subject, "Li Jiangjun, I told you to follow the Madam; why have you been derelict in your duties time and again? I am going to dock your salary!"

"Don't, my Lord, your subject is wronged..." Li Jiangjun was about to cry and make a scene; it stuck its butt up and was just about to kowtow to beg for mercy when it suddenly realized something, raised its head, and looked at Pei Shaoqing, "Your subject doesn't seem to have ever received a salary!"

It stood up instantly and straightened its back.

How can you dock something that never existed?

"Is that so?" Pei Shaoqing was startled, "Then I shall fine your salary—a fine of one hundred taels of gold. You are to pay it in full within three days, otherwise, there will be a 10% late fee every day."

Paying to work.

Advanced experience from certain enterprises.

The company's profits all depend on employee fines.

"Ah!" Li Jiangjun's straightened back instantly bent again, and it said with tears in its eyes: "My Lord, you cannot be a muddled ruler! Your subject went to manage the establishment of the Cat Battalion. Now that there are small results, you can beat the drums and muster the troops at the drill ground at any time, waiting for you to inspect them!"

"So fast?" Pei Shaoqing became interested and immediately got off the soft couch, "Lead the way quickly."

"Your subject obeys the decree!"

……………………………

The moon was dark and the wind was high; the quiet night was soundless.

"My Lord, this way."

Li Jiangjun led Pei Shaoqing into a dilapidated residence in the north corner of Tongzhou City, where a few stray cats were wandering inside, and an old leather drum, brought from who knows where, sat in the weed-choked courtyard.

"Meow!" "Meow!"

The stray cats called incessantly upon seeing Li Jiangjun.

"Shut up, all of you, a bunch of idiots." Li Jiangjun scolded irritably, then remembered that most of its kind could not understand human speech, so it began to meow as well.

The crowd of stray cats gradually quieted down.

Pei Shaoqing asked with great interest, "Can these cats fully understand the meaning you are trying to convey?"

"More or less." Hearing this, Li Jiangjun answered with a wandering gaze, then gave a light leap onto the stone mill where the leather drum was placed, grabbed two sticks wrapped in rags, stood up on its hind legs, and began to strike the drum surface.

"Boom! Boom-boom-boom-boom!"

The rumbling drum sounds carried very far in the darkness.

Pei Shaoqing was startled; he had not expected it to be a literal case of beating a drum to gather troops, and it was too late to stop it, so he hurriedly ordered Ye Hanshuang to stand guard outside and drive away anyone attracted to the scene by claiming the Jing'an Guard was conducting official business.

A cat's hearing far exceeds that of a human; soon, stray cats in the city that were catching mice or house cats that were sleeping began to run out one after another, gathering toward the abandoned residence.

When the drum sounds stopped, the originally desolate courtyard was already filled with hundreds of cats of various colors, all of which sat quietly, looking at Li Jiangjun.

"My Lord! Look quickly at your subject's great army! With such an elite and powerful force, why worry that your grand cause will not succeed?"

The fat cat on the stone mill stood with its hands on its hips, full of high spirits.

At a glance, the dense crowd of hundreds of cats was indeed quite shocking. "Very good, Li Jiangjun, your salary will not be docked; keep up the good work and have your subordinates keep an eye on all suspicious persons in the city for me."

"Many thanks, My Lord!" Li Jiangjun was overjoyed.

"Meow!" Just at this moment, a Sanhua cat in the group called out, then stepped forward, jumped to Li Jiangjun's side, and after a series of purrs, meowed repeatedly.

Pei Shaoqing asked, "What is it saying?"

"My Lord, your subject's beloved consort says it discovered a suspicious fellow today," Li Jiangjun replied.

Very well, you still dare to say you have no heart for usurpation!

You even dare to call your female cat a beloved consort.

Damn it, I'm being led astray by this dead cat. Pei Shaoqing said, "Li Jiangjun, let it lead you; you go and keep watch, then come back and report the situation to me."

Cats are, after all, just cats; they can communicate among their own kind, but they cannot understand human speech, so the effectiveness of the reconnaissance was greatly reduced. If only these cats had opened their spiritual wisdom, could speak human language, and were at his disposal, how good that would be.

Seeking monthly votes! Seeking follow-up reads; like the previous book, I need to be restrained in the early stages, and I will let loose once it is published.

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(End of this chapter)