Chapter 6: Embroidered Uniform Guard Commander

The Embroidered Uniform Guard at the door said this only after watching Li Miao walk far away.

But with Li Miao's hearing, even if it were separated by two walls, he could hear it clearly.

He was used to it and didn't stop his pace, walking toward his office.

At this time, it was lunch time, and Li Miao walked inside, with people coming out of the offices on both sides in twos and threes to go out.

These people were wearing indigo official uniforms; suddenly seeing Li Miao in a loose long robe, they were stunned for a moment, and after seeing clearly who it was, they were happy and greeted him one after another.

"Thousand-Household." "Thousand-Household, eating?"

Li Miao nodded, constantly taking things out of the package tucked under his armpit, and handing them out one by one.

Those who received the items were also used to Li Miao; they weren't polite, thanked him with a smile, and went out together to find lunch.

Li Miao walked far away, and heard the voices coming from afar.

"To be an Embroidered Uniform Guard to the level of Thousand-Household Li, it's really the end."

"Absolutely the end; there is no one in our Yamen who lives a more comfortable life than Thousand-Household Li."

"Who says not? We go to work looking at the stars every day, and don't even dare to loosen our official uniform belts. He, heh, opens his chest, eats, and comes to work only after waking up at noon, and no one can control him."

"You say, can we ever live a life like this?"

"Who is worthy? Are you worthy or am I worthy?"

"That's not it; Thousand-Household Li is a twenty-year veteran of the Embroidered Uniform Guard; he has been a Thousand-Household for fifteen years! Not only is his seniority deep, but he is also the Commander's old subordinate, and his skills are great!"

"Four-Hour Thousand-Household, he only does work for four hours a day, and he gets the job done no matter what the job is! Even the Regional Commander has to coax him, we can't compare..."

Li Miao couldn't hear the words further down.

He walked slowly inside, greeting and handing out things, walked to the door of his office, and just finished handing out the things in his hand.

A person in the room was pacing anxiously; it was the young Embroidered Uniform Guard who had been by his side last night, named Wang Hai, who was a capable confidant under Li Miao.

Wang Hai saw Li Miao, and his face was happy. He walked over quickly, holding Li Miao's official uniform, and while putting it on him, he spoke.

"Thousand-Household, you're finally here!"

"The Commander didn't see you come back to report last night, and he smashed a whole set of stationery again; that inkstone is still embedded in the tree and can't be pried out! You hurry up and put on your clothes to see him, don't let him get so angry that he gets sick!"

He returned to the Yamen to report last night, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard Commander was furious when he didn't see Li Miao, scolded him severely, and let him wait in Li Miao's office. He told him to tell Li Miao to see him as soon as he arrived at the Yamen.

He waited from last night until now, anxious like an ant on a hot pan. Seeing Li Miao finally arrive, he was overjoyed.

Wang Hai turned around Li Miao, pulling his collar and sleeves, and skillfully put the Embroidered Uniform Guard's Thousand-Household's rigid official uniform on Li Miao, without delaying Li Miao's walking.

It wasn't just skillful technique; it also carried the ten-year-old mature soft-style martial arts foundation; otherwise, he couldn't put the Embroidered Uniform Guard Thousand-Household's rigid and cumbersome official uniform on a walking person so quickly and gently.

It looked like a maid's handiwork, but it actually carried the soft-style martial arts artistic conception of "picking leaves without shaking branches, picking flowers without bees noticing." If used in a life-and-death fight, it would be a sinister means of secretly injuring meridians and damaging skin and flesh, a method that ordinary experts couldn't use.

Li Miao replied: "He forced me to do it himself; I did the job for him in the middle of the night, and I didn't ask him for benefits, and he still has the nerve to lose his temper?"

Wang Hai didn't answer.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard is, after all, a secret service organization in the feudal era, with strict hierarchy from top to bottom. The Embroidered Uniform Guard's family discipline is even more severe. Who would dare to bargain in front of the Embroidered Uniform Guard Commander?

Only their Thousand-Household could make the Commander smash basins and bowls without being punished, and in the end, it was their subordinates who had to take the beating.

Now was not the time for nonsense; the most important thing was to get the lazy Thousand-Household Li to report to the Commander.

Li Miao looked outside and muttered: "It's lunch break now, right?" Saying this, he was about to sit in his seat.

Wang Hai thought it was bad.

As long as his Thousand-Household sat in that place, it would be at least an hour's nap.

If the Commander couldn't wait for him and came to the door, he would definitely be used as a warning to others again.

He hurriedly stepped forward, used his strength to kick secretly, and a small stone hit the chair leg, creating a crack. Then he stepped forward quickly, pretending to push the chair for Li Miao.

Crack.

Wang Hai himself used the strength of a thousand pounds to press the chair forward. The chair leg with the crack rubbed against the ground and immediately broke, tilting the whole thing to the ground.

"Oh! It was fine yesterday!" Wang Hai shouted in surprise, then said to Li Miao.

"Thousand-Household, I'll go to the treasury to get you a new one."

"There's no place to sit in the room now, why don't you go sit at the Commander's place for a while? He just happened to say he had something to find you for."

Li Miao looked at the sincere Wang Hai, looked at the broken chair, and shook his head: "Remember to change me into one that's comfortable to sit on."

After saying this, he took a yellowed piece of paper from under the paperweight on the desktop and tucked it into his bosom.

Only then did he walk with a square step and finally go toward the Commander's office.

Wang Hai let out a long breath, but saw Li Miao stick his head out from outside the door and say: "Hai'er, go to the treasury to get some silver and send it to my house for Si'er."

"Understood."

Seeing Wang Hai promise, Li Miao turned around and left.

Walking to the hall in the middle of the Embroidered Uniform Guard Yamen, it was the office of the Embroidered Uniform Guard Commander, Zhu Zai.

This hall was not big, only a few feet square. In the courtyard, a large tree as thick as a person's embrace had an inkstone embedded in the middle of the trunk, reaching a palm deep. The part smashed open by the inkstone was still flowing with some juice, clearly having been put in not long ago.

It must be what Wang Hai said, that Zhu Zai was furious when he didn't see Li Miao return to report last night and threw it out of the room.

The door was wide open, and the ground at the door was flat bluestone, but there were some broken porcelain shards and scattered tea leaves on it.

An Embroidered Uniform Guard wearing a bull-fighting suit was squatting on the ground, pulling those broken porcelain shards out of the bluestone.

Li Miao didn't see it and walked in directly.

Embroidered Uniform Guard Commander Zhu Zai was holding a bowl of rice, slowly picking up a pair of chopsticks of green vegetables, and was about to send it to his mouth.

Just as it reached his mouth, he raised his eyes and saw Li Miao walking in as if nothing had happened.

"Hmph!"

Zhu Zai shook his hand and threw the chopsticks in his hand over.

Swish!

That pair of chopsticks directly tore through the air, making a shrill scream, and went straight to Li Miao's face.

Zhu Zai liked to throw things when he was angry; everyone in the Embroidered Uniform Guard knew this, it was an old problem.

Strictly speaking, this wasn't much, but this person had very high Wu Gong, and when he threw things, he didn't know his own strength, which made many Embroidered Uniform Guard experts suffer.

When this pair of chopsticks flew over, it was virtual and real, one with overt strength and one with covert strength, one flying first and one arriving later, all with high-level hidden weapon techniques, clearly Zhu Zai was truly angry. It could be said that this pair of chopsticks was enough to kill a second-rate expert.

Of course, it was no threat to Li Miao.

Li Miao raised his hand, flicked it casually, and the pair of chopsticks deviated from their direction, inserting into the bluestone at the door with two "dang dang" sounds.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard in the bull-fighting suit at the door was pulling porcelain shards from the bluestone; he raised his eyes, and there was another pair of chopsticks on the stone slab.

He looked up into the room, sighed, and turned to pull the chopsticks again.

Li Miao walked into the room, found a chair to sit on casually, and looked lazily at the glaring Zhu Zai.

"Don't throw the bowl over, there's soup in the bowl. I'm wearing a flying fish suit now, if I get it dirty, it's deceiving the Emperor."

Li Miao leaned back in the chair and said with his hand supporting his face.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 7 =====