Chapter 49: Zhu the Tiger Seizes a Bride, Part 2 (Seizing Recommendation Tickets!)

This feudal society of the Great Ming really does corrupt people! In his previous life, Zhu Cilang liked to brag — that was actually an occupational hazard; in other respects he was basically a good man.

But now? Yesterday he had just killed a man! Today he was about to go seize a woman — and a sixteen-year-old maiden at that. In later times, that alone would be a capital offense.

But in the dark feudal society of the Great Ming, who would dare interfere with the Crown Prince killing and seizing people? Especially now that His Highness the Crown Prince had money and troops and was a Prince Regent holding real power! What did seizing a woman or two count for?

"By the way, honored father-in-law, where does your family live?"

His Highness the Crown Prince, leading two hundred stout braves from the Firearms Bureau that Embroidered Uniform Guard Commander Li Ruolian had mustered, and dragging Wu Xiang along, rode out of the Bei'an Gate — only then did he remember that he had no idea where Wu Xiang's family lived.

Wu Xiang did not know whether to laugh or cry. What sort of business was this? He was a grand Commissioner-in-Chief of the Left, yet here he was leading men to his own house to seize a woman — and his own daughter at that.

"Thousand Years, my daughter has trained in martial arts since childhood. I fear — I fear she will not be easy to seize. Perhaps..."

Fine — here was a father who, instead of worrying about the daughter about to be seized, was worrying on behalf of Zhu Cilang, the one doing the seizing.

His daughter was a tiger's daughter from a military family! She was tall and big, a standard Northeast lass, and what was more, she had grown up on the front lines at Ningyuan. She was not the sort of girl whose hands and feet went soft at the sight of a strong man...

"No fear!" Zhu Cilang pointed at Li Ruolian beside him. "Commander Li is with us. He was the top martial candidate of the first year of Chongzhen! The greatest martial artist under heaven!"

Li Ruolian also did not know whether to laugh or cry. So the greatest martial artist under heaven was just there to help you bully a young girl?

Wu Xiang turned his head and glanced at the broad-shouldered Li Ruolian, his eyes conveying "go easy on her"... Young Miss Wu was not afraid of Zhu Cilang. Although the Crown Prince was also quite tall, his frame was not sturdy enough and his strength was limited. But Li Ruolian was different — broad as a door plank, his strength could not be small. He must not damage his own daughter.

Li Ruolian hastily nodded, indicating that he would certainly not harm the future Imperial Noble Consort...

At this, Wu Xiang finally relaxed a little and led Zhu Cilang and the others toward the Fangjia Hutong where his family lived. Fangjia Hutong was in the Chongjiao Ward in the northern city, not far from the Imperial City. Wu Xiang's family was staying there temporarily, for they had only arrived in Beijing a little over a month ago and had not yet been assigned an earl's residence. Since the house they lived in was not a formal earl's mansion, its gates were not strictly guarded. The household retainers Wu Xiang had brought from home had all joined the Hard-Working Battalion. Thus only a few servants for odd jobs remained to watch the gate — how could they stop the menacing Crown Prince?

Today the gate was watched by two old servants, dim-eyed with age. They did not even notice Wu Xiang; they only saw Zhu Cilang charging into the lane with a great crowd of men, and hurried forward to block them.

"Who are you people? Do you know this is the Earl of Pingxi's residence?" one of the old men shouted loudly.

Zhu Cilang was also thick-skinned. He opened his mouth and said: "If this is the Earl of Pingxi's residence, then it's the right place. We have come to seize a beauty! You two old fellows, clear off at once!"

What? Seize a beauty?

The two old gatekeepers took one look at the intruders' formation and understood at once — some profligate young wastrel in the capital must have heard that the Earl of Pingxi's residence had a beauty, and so had grown the gall of a bear and the courage of a leopard and come to seize her.

The old men of the house of the long-legged famous general Wu Xiang naturally would not suffer a loss right before their eyes. The two old men knew they were no match, so they did not resist to the death; they turned and ran inside the main gate, their legs still nimble enough — they just forgot to close the gate.

Once inside, the two old men split into two routes. One went to the rear hall to report to Wu Xiang's wife, Lady Zu. The other old man hurried toward an exquisitely crafted little pavilion in the rear garden.

In the little pavilion at that moment were two women. One sat upright beside a writing desk, a brush in her hand, practicing calligraphy. This woman was not old — just sixteen, in the bloom of youth. Her emerald-green jacket and skirt set off a graceful figure. On her somewhat broad, fair face there now showed a smile she could not hide no matter how she tried.

Behind this sixteen-year-old girl stood a beauty in white.

No powder or paint, her bare face turned to the sky — yet beautiful enough to stir the heart.

Her bearing was that of a daughter of a distinguished family, yet within her coldness there was a special charm. Just standing there, she made one's heart flutter. The girl practicing calligraphy had some beauty of her own, but compared with her, her looks simply paled.

"Sanmei, don't be anxious. Take it slowly. Write more and it will improve." The beauty in white looked at the girl's somewhat dog-scrawled characters and said with a smile.

The girl she called Sanmei pouted her somewhat wide mouth. "I can never write it well. I wonder if he'll think me coarse and ignorant? Sister Yuanyuan, I've heard that the Crown Prince's consorts are all chosen from ten thousand, and they are also brought up in the palace for a time — every one of them beautiful as flowers, learned and proper. Is that true?"

Needless to say, the one called Sanmei was Wu Xiang's youngest daughter, Wu Sangui's little sister, Wu Sanmei.

And the "Sister Yuanyuan" teaching her to write was Chen Yuanyuan, one of the Eight Beauties of Qinhuai, and also Wu Sangui's favored concubine.

Chen Yuanyuan had originally been purchased by Tian Hongyu, the father of Noble Consort Tian, and brought to Beijing. In the fifth month of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, Wu Sangui had led troops into the capital to rally to the throne (at that time the Qing army had made its fifth detour through the passes), and at a banquet at Tian Hongyu's house he had taken a fancy to Chen Yuanyuan. So the imperial in-law Tian had given Chen Yuanyuan to Wu Sangui.

However, Chen Yuanyuan did not follow Wu Sangui back to the Ningyuan front. Instead she continued lodging at the imperial in-law Tian's residence. In the second month of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, after Wu Sangui's family entered the capital, she moved in with the Wu family. After spending some time with the Wu family, Chen Yuanyuan became close friends with the Wu family's youngest daughter, Sanmei.

And only the day before yesterday had Wu Sanmei learned that, by some stroke of luck, she had caught the Crown Prince's eye and was to enter the palace as a Cairen of the Crown Prince. She suddenly felt a little inferior, feeling she was no good at this and no good at that, with no talent at all — so how could she be a Cairen? So she had no choice but to cram at the last minute and invite Chen Yuanyuan to teach her the zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting.

Today, while she was practicing brush calligraphy under Chen Yuanyuan's instruction, a sound of footsteps came from the stairs, and then a plump old serving woman came running up, panting. Seeing that Chen Yuanyuan and Wu Sanmei were both there, she began shouting.

"This is terrible! Some lecher from the capital has come to our house to seize someone! He wants to seize a beauty!"

As soon as Wu Sanmei heard this, her pair of very lively big eyes turned toward the great beauty Chen Yuanyuan. Chen Yuanyuan was also nervous and frightened — she was exactly the sort of beauty lechers and wastrels delighted in! Needless to say, they must have come to seize her.

"Sanmei, what are we to do?" Chen Yuanyuan quickly appealed to Wu Sanmei for help.

"No fear!" Wu Sanmei abruptly stood up. She was tall — a full half a head taller than Chen Yuanyuan. Measured by later standards, she was at least one meter seventy-five, and with curves in all the right places... Although her face was a little broad and her mouth a little large, paired with her big eyes, high straight nose, and fair skin, she was still a great beauty.

But what the Ming dynasty favored were petite, clinging, multi-talented beauties — not a big-boned "athlete" type beauty like Wu Sanmei.

"Sister Yuanyuan, with me protecting you, no one will touch a single hair on your head." Wu Sanmei was not afraid of any lecher. At Ningyuan she had dealt daily with a bunch of men who killed without blinking. What were the lechers of the capital to her?

As she spoke, she took a treasured sword from the wall of the little pavilion, then pulled Chen Yuanyuan along and went downstairs.

Only after coming downstairs did Wu Sanmei realize something was wrong. This lecher had brought a great many people, and among them was a burly man wearing a flying-fish robe and carrying an embroidered-spring saber — clearly an expert at a glance!

But Sanmei was a tiger's daughter from a military family, and the future secondary consort of the Crown Prince. She was not afraid of the Embroidered Uniform Guard at all. At once her fine brows knitted, her chest thrust out, her slender hand gripped the sword hilt, and she placed herself bodily in front of Chen Yuanyuan.

"Who are you people, to dare seize someone at the Earl of Pingxi's residence! Do you know who my second brother is?"

"Oh? Tall and shapely, skin like snow, fine features too — a beauty!" Zhu Cilang was instantly captivated by Wu Sanmei, his eyes roving over her.

At this moment Wu Sanmei also saw that Zhu Cilang was that lecher. She too was taken aback, because Zhu Cilang was also good-looking, and about her age — a handsome young man... So how had he become a lecher who forcibly seized commoners' daughters?

Also, why was he looking at her with that lecherous gaze? Had he not come to seize Chen Yuanyuan?

(End of Chapter)