Chapter 179: On the Paths, Longing in Earnest (A White Silver Alliance from the Salty Fish Big Shot!)

"Miss Luofu!"

Zhao Ping watched her expression turn stern, yet he only grew more unable to restrain himself. He actually shifted aside on his own carriage, then patted the seat beside him. "Do you see how splendid my carriage is?"

"My lord's carriage is a treasure taken from the King's own storehouse," the Qin maiden Luofu answered plainly. "It is probably the most beautiful carriage in all of Handan..."

"So you actually recognize me?" Zhao Ping was even more delighted.

"My lord has commanded the King's personal guard for over half a year now. Who inside or outside Handan City does not know of you?"

"In that case," Zhao Ping could not help but straighten his robes and cap, then rose and made an inviting gesture from atop the carriage. "Then I will dispense with idle talk. May I invite Miss Luofu to ride with me? Spring meets summer, and hearts grow hazy — I shall take you into the city to see the splendor and majesty of the royal palace... How about it?"

A man and woman sharing a carriage, and going to the vicinity of the royal palace where this Zhao Ping resided — this was him unable to restrain himself any longer, ready to carry her back and consummate the affair!

And he was inviting her in public, preparing to do the deed in broad daylight!

So the moment these words were spoken, not only the Handan commoners laboring in the fields and lanes, and the traveling merchants and passersby who had stopped along the road to watch the excitement, but even the ceremonial guards and soldiers under Zhao Ping's own command all felt that their superior was far too shameless... Even if you are desperate for a woman, isn't this too desperate?!

If you truly fancy her, sending betrothal gifts or something would be fine — but inviting her on the spot to ride home with you, what is that supposed to be?!

Yet, all that said, unless some noble from the provincial seat suddenly came up from Wei Commandery to the south, who could possibly restrain this Prefect of the Gentlemen of the Palace?

The Chancellor of the Principality?

Yes, Chancellor Xiang Xu was said to be a celebrated scholar from Zhaoge in Henei, a renowned scholar of the highest order! But ever since this celebrated scholar took office, neither the gentry nor the commoners inside or outside the city had ever laid eyes on what the Chancellor looked like!

And so, nearly everyone felt worry and pity for this famous beauty from south of Handan City, yet were utterly powerless to do anything... Who could blame them? The man was a thousand-bushel Prefect of the Gentlemen of the Palace at such a young age, and had an immense patron besides! Some of the young lads around, at this moment, even felt their faces flush red, then shame and indignation made them want to flee the place!

"What is my lord saying?" The Qin maiden was flustered and pale when she first heard these words, but immediately rebuked him in shame and indignation. "My lord has been in our Handan for over half a year, and everyone inside and outside the city knows you have long had a wife..."

"So what?" Zhao Ping, standing on the carriage, naturally did not care, and even spoke with righteous conviction. "I do have a wife, but for a great man to have a flock of wives and concubines is entirely ordinary. As for you, Miss Luofu, though your clothing shows your family is no common household, since you are out picking mulberry leaves, you can hardly be a legitimate daughter of the Li clan, the Wei clan, or the Handan clan of Handan, can you? Oh, your surname is Qin, is it not? Then doesn't that make it even more fitting? Although I have not been in Handan long, I have never heard of any Qin clan with high status... That being the case, tell me yourself — for you to become the concubine of me, a thousand-bushel Prefect of the Gentlemen of the Palace, is that not a perfect match of status?! You must understand, my inviting you to ride with me is not out of disrespect for you; it is merely that I fear wasting time and find the trouble of making a trip to your home too bothersome..."

Qin Luofu nearly laughed from sheer fury... Yes, her family was only a third-rate clan in Handan, and for a thousand-bushel Prefect of the Gentlemen of the Palace to take her as a concubine did seem a match of status. But this scion of eunuchs before her eyes, in barely a year since arriving in Handan, had already taken seven or eight concubines. Never mind that he was a bridegroom every month — with such fickle affections for the new and disdain for the old, what unmarried woman would willingly give herself to him?

Her own family background was quite good, and her beauty was known throughout half the city. Would it not be better to find a good household and become a proper wife?

And yet, however repulsive this Prefect of the Gentlemen of the Palace before her was, it was just as he said... If he truly went to her home to seek her hand and made her a concubine, her parents, for the sake of the clan, would probably not dare to defy him, would they?!

At this thought, Luofu's heart was at once seething with indignation and flustered with panic.

"How about it?" Zhao Ping, seeing this, sneered without pause. Standing high on his carriage and looking down, he was just like a famed beast of Luoyang, a leopard cat toying with a mouse. "Does Miss Luofu have anything more to say?"

"I will not deceive my lord," Luofu set down the rattan basket of mulberry leaves, gritted her teeth, and bowed. "Luofu does indeed have something she has not made clear to my lord... This humble maiden already has a marriage contract; I am now promised as someone's wife!"

"It is fortunate you did not say you are already married," Zhao Ping still teased. "Wearing a woduo hairstyle and claiming to be a wife would be an outright lie... I only ask you, since you are promised as someone's wife, who is the man you are promised to? Speak his name, and I shall go find him and make him break the contract!"

A woman, once one lie leaves her lips, will naturally follow it with another. By this point, Luofu had instead cast aside her burdens and resolved to parry to the end:

"In reply to my lord, the man I am contracted to marry is not here. Moreover, he is away from home, and I fear my lord cannot find him for a time!"

Zhao Ping grew even more certain she was fabricating: "So he is a man from elsewhere, and has long been away from his hometown?"

"Yes!"

"Is he away on business or traveling to study?"

"He is away on official service!"

"On official service?" Zhao Ping watched the crowd gathering thicker around him, yet his original teasing intent did not cease in the slightest... He refused to believe that today he could not carry this Qin maiden, so beautiful and full of flavor, back with him! Not only would he carry her back, but he had also resolved on something else — he would publicly refute this Qin maiden until she was stripped clean, and use the Handan onlookers to spread his authority, so that the entire Principality of Zhao would understand that no one here could contend against him, Zhao Ping.

"It is indeed official service."

"Then I ask you," Zhao Ping, having formed his plan, grew even less hurried, merely continuing to question her at a leisurely pace. "How did he enter officialdom? And what is his career record now?"

"He..." Luofu naturally faltered for a moment, but soon recalled a story about a certain man that her father and the clan elders had discussed a few days earlier. Though she could not remember it fully, at this moment she could not care about anything else and could only seize upon it directly. "At fifteen, after binding up his hair, he went to the commandery to serve as a clerk."

"If he comes from a local gentry clan and has his heart set on an official career, naturally he would serve as a clerk after binding his hair... So, this man's background is not bad? And then?"

"Then at twenty, upon reaching adulthood, he was summoned to court by public carriage."

"Summoning is the proper path into officialdom — you have fabricated smoothly... Continue, what happened after he entered the court?"

"Luofu has not spoken falsehoods or fabrications... After entering the court, my husband was recommended as a Gentleman, and became a Gentleman of the Masters of Writing."

"Surprisingly, you haven't made a joke of it. Go on — after Gentleman of the Masters of Writing, what post should come next?"

"Naturally, to dwell in his own city, to be the chief official of a territory!"

"Perfectly said!" Through this exchange of questions and answers, seeing that the ignorant commoners around had actually been deceived by this woman into believing it was true, Zhao Ping nodded repeatedly, not growing impatient but instead laughing. "If a man's ability, background, and reputation have all reached a certain level, that is indeed how his career should go. It is just that such a man would be a rare talent, one a province might produce once in a decade, let alone a commandery. Moreover, the Gentlemen of the Masters of Writing in the court are all accounted for — for several years prior, I was in Luoyang attending upon my uncle, and I can mostly remember these extraordinary talents... So, Miss Luofu, let me be blunt with you. What is the surname and given name of this husband of yours to whom you are contracted in marriage? What is his native place? And what does he look like, what distinguishing features does he have, and how exactly did he promise to marry you? If he truly matches some talent in my mind who once passed through the Office of the Masters of Writing, I, Zhao Ping, will naturally retreat and keep my distance! But if he does not match, Miss Qin... I would like to see how you dare refuse to mount the carriage of me, the Prefect of the Gentlemen of the Palace of Zhao, today?!"

At the start, Zhao Ping's smile could be called as lovely as a flower, but by the time he finished speaking, this clansman of Zhao Zhong's expression had turned dark and uncertain, and his tone had become utterly harsh. He was just waiting for her lies to be exposed so he could take her by force!

Qin Luofu, questioned until she was at a loss for words, first pursed her lips and bit them, then her expression turned bewildered: "My husband... he should be fair-skinned, tall and broad in stature, and keep a very fine beard..."

Zhao Ping nearly burst out laughing — did the husbands in the hearts of all lovelorn maidens look exactly the same?

"One day, he will surely ride a white horse, leading hundreds and thousands of horsemen, set off with extraordinary majesty by the crowd around him, and then come from the east of Handan City, with the brightest morning sunlight at his back, to the building of my home southeast of the city to marry me." Qin Luofu seemed not to notice the mockery of the man on the carriage before her, and instead grew more and more absorbed as she spoke. "The precious sword at his waist must be a Windlass Sword, the kind worth a thousand gold pieces; and lastly, tied to the tail of his white horse must be the strands of hair I cut with my knife on the day we parted, and the bridle on the horse's head must be of gold — only then will it match my black hair and that white horse..."

On the paths outside Handan City, for a moment, not even a crow or sparrow made a sound. There was only an unmarried maiden endlessly embellishing the image of her "husband." Those around with any real sense or experience understood perfectly by now... The husband Qin Luofu spoke of simply did not exist; it was all wild talk meant to frighten the man away. And having reached this point, seeing that she could fabricate no further, she could only abandon herself to wildly imagining the image of the "husband" in her heart.

Of course, no one would disturb this Qin maiden, because the people around her, just like this unmarried maiden, understood very clearly in their hearts that this was probably her last chance to wildly imagine the most perfect marriage in her heart.

And yet, just as nearly everyone, carrying a sense of sorrow, was listening to this acknowledged beauty of southern Handan speak of all the things she had imagined in her lovelorn heart, no one noticed that Zhao Ping, who had been sitting on the carriage treating this woman with a mocking attitude all along, had at some unknown point begun to look increasingly uneasy.

Because one term that kept appearing in this woman's mouth had stirred an immense sense of crisis in Zhao Ping!

White horse!

This object that frequently surfaced in this woman's lovelorn heart was, in reality, the greatest distinguishing feature of a certain man! More importantly, Zhao Ping knew perfectly well that the man who truly had experience as a Gentleman of the Masters of Writing in the Office of the Masters of Writing, the man who had dragged Wang Fu's corpse through Copper Camel Street in Luoyang that day, the man who had entered the Office of the Masters of Writing alone to confront Cao Jie and had instead emerged victorious, the man who had gone to Liaodong and within a year destroyed a kingdom... If his calculations were not wrong, in a little while, that man would truly appear before his very eyes!

And he would indeed dwell in his own city — dwell in Handan City, the city behind Zhao Ping himself!

In such a situation, he still did not know to exercise some restraint, but instead continued to act without scruple?!

What had he been thinking before? How could he have been flattered by those clerks into believing that the man would give him, a relative, face? He had even been thinking just moments ago about establishing his authority in public, to shake the people of Handan... Yet, when that white-horse rider truly came from Liaodong after a while and learned of this affair, would he really give him face as those clerks had said?

That dripping "corpse" of Wang Fu — he had made a point of sneaking a look at it back then! Nor had he ever seen him give Wang Fu or Cao Jie any face, had he?!

"Your husband is actually such a man?" No one knew how much time had passed before Zhao Ping, with a sudden jolt, pulled himself free from his memories of Luoyang in days past.

And by now, the woman before him had actually finished speaking and was hanging her head in sorrow, clearly ready to let him do with her as he pleased.

"Yes." Between spring and summer, the sunlight was warm, yet Luofu shivered under his gaze. She could only bend down, pick up the rattan basket at her feet, then lift her head, vainly trying to preserve one last moment of dignity. "This is my, Qin Luofu's, husband!"

"I understand." Zhao Ping glanced at the rare, lithely figured, exquisitely beautiful young maiden before his carriage, then actually sat back down with a solemn air. "So he is actually such a man! I have been presumptuous. Farewell!"

The crowd was dumbstruck. Not to mention the trembling Qin maiden, even the attendant clerks and commandery soldiers under Zhao Ping's command were at a momentary loss.

"Did you not hear me?" Zhao Ping urged, forcefully suppressing the unease in his heart. "Turn the carriage around, return to the city!"

The clerks and attendants flustered about in chaos, hastily turning the ceremonial procession around on the narrow field path, while the surrounding villagers watched Luo Fu with wondrous gazes, as if this girl truly had a white-horse lord who had once served as a Gentleman of the Masters of Writing and dwelled in a city of his own. As for Qin Luofu herself, she stood there clutching her mulberry leaves at a complete loss... she had actually scared off that notorious lecher of Handan City?!

Just as the crowd stood dazed and uncertain, suddenly, over ten riders on white horses came galloping swiftly from the east, making everyone even more alarmed and bewildered.

"My lord sent me to ask, who dares to lay out ceremonial regalia upon the field paths without permission? Do you not know this tramples the green shoots?" The lead rider, young in years but sporting a full beard, faced Zhao Ping's black sash and bronze seal without the slightest fear, and actually drew his blade before the crowd. "I am asking you! Who are you, and what office do you now hold?!"

Zhao Ping, like everyone else, stood stunned for a long moment, but then suddenly leapt down from his carriage, ran several steps to stand before the other party, and bowed with clasped hands right there on the field path: "Zhao Ping, Prefect of the Gentlemen of the Household of Zhao, stands before you. May I venture to ask, am I in the presence of an envoy of the Marquis of Wulu Precinct?!"

At such a reception, Qian Zhao, who had just moments ago been brimming with aggressive momentum, now exchanged bewildered glances with the several volunteer followers behind him... Did their lord truly command such authority? Was this Prefect of the Gentlemen Zhao Ping not the foremost adversary in the state they had been discussing along the way? And now, at the mere mention of their lord's name, he was bowing his head to them, mere attendants?!

They had truly chosen the right man to follow!

But what neither Zhao Ping nor Qian Zhao could have imagined was that the "lord" whose presence alone had awed Handan before he even arrived, that "city-dweller" who, upon hearing the Prefect of the Gentlemen was south of the city, had merely sent a few volunteer followers to stir up trouble — at this very moment, he had suffered a solid, resounding fall at the State Chancellor's official residence within the city!

A truly solid, resounding fall!

——————I am the dividing line of Wang Fu hung upon the city wall, this thing most of all stirs longing————

"The Grand Ancestor of this dynasty possessed a beautiful countenance and majestic bearing. He further decreed that those to his left and right ride white horses. His manner was open and refreshing, his brilliance clear and lustrous, and thus from youth he was known far and wide for his romantic elegance. At fifteen, serving as a clerk in Liaoxi, the Grand Administrator gave him his daughter in marriage — she who would become Empress Zhao. At twenty, serving as a Gentleman in Luoyang, the Prefect of the Masters of Writing gave him a secondary daughter as concubine — she who would become Lady Feng. He also often drank with Cao Cao; Cao grew fond of a singing girl, summoned her forward, yet she instead nestled close to the Grand Ancestor — she who would become Lady Bian. By the time he was capped, enfeoffed as Marquis, and appointed to office, moving through Hebei, wherever he went to take up his post, women would tread upon his shadow just to gaze at him! To this day, in the customs of marriage, the Henan fashion calls it 'riding the dragon, a fine son-in-law'; the Hebei fashion calls him 'the White-Horse Lord'!" — Miscellaneous Records of the Scholarly Grove, Customs Chapter, by an Anonymous Author of Yan

PS: It's actually a White Silver Alliance... like a dream... Yet I have searched my entire person and found that besides this hundred-odd jin of flesh, I have nothing with which to repay the great patron Shouli Xianyu Kun... Of course, I jest... As everyone knows, I am a part-time writer. Ever since my last book, I have been shouting all day that even if you form an alliance, I still won't add extra chapters. It's not tsundere — I simply have no backlog, I write everything day by day, and can make no promises! However, a White Silver Alliance is truly a first for me. I can only say that I will take advantage of the weekend to write diligently and produce as many words as possible to repay this... After all, this is indeed a tremendous recognition and honor for a writer.

I had originally planned to release a large chapter later, but in the end decided to put out one chapter first to make my stance clear. After reading, everyone should go book a room with your wife and not delay the finest hours... and then it would be best if you forgot the promise of extra chapters.

(End of Chapter)