Chapter 182

Sleeping soundly in the thatched hall, the sun outside rising later each day — this was probably the most comfortable sleep Zhang Zhao had had in months.

No nightmares, no one bursting in to disturb him, and two soft, tender mounds pressing against him from left and right — his whole body felt as if he were sleeping on clouds.

Zhang Zhao looked to his left. The little wildcat's face still bore traces of tears. She truly wasn't very pretty — that is, by the standards of a ruler's consort.

Before he transmigrated, a little wildcat like this could have scored seventy-five with a bit of makeup. If Zhang Zhao had wanted to chase her, he would have had to put in some real effort!

Especially that spirited air between her brows — it suited Zhang Zhao's taste perfectly. After studying her closely for over a minute, Zhang Zhao reached out to wipe the tear traces from the corner of the little wildcat's eye.

But the moment his hand moved, he noticed the eyelid of the seemingly sleeping little wildcat twitch slightly.

So she was only pretending to sleep. Zhang Zhao gave a wry smile and didn't expose her, turning instead to his right.

The woman with her back to him had bared snow-white shoulders, and she seemed to be genuinely deep asleep.

No wonder — a fledgling like the little wildcat could hardly withstand the battering. Only this battle-hardened mature woman had let Zhang Zhao enjoy himself to the fullest. The two of them had certainly worn themselves out last night.

At the thought, he couldn't resist gently lifting the brocade coverlet, and a round, snow-white body appeared in Zhang Zhao's line of sight.

He couldn't make out much in the way of curves, because this body, even just by looking, gave off a soft, sticky-sweet feeling — like a lump of cotton candy curled up there. Only that huge, full rear stood out strikingly.

"This is old turtle Li Guoshou's daughter-in-law!" Remembering what the little wildcat had said the night before, Zhang Zhao, just awake, suddenly felt ready again. Without any hesitation he slowly pressed over, and sure enough, she was soft, sticky, and exquisite.

Guo Wan'er squeezed her eyes shut. The panting sounds beside her made her face flush and her mind churn. She burrowed into the covers, but in the darkness, the creaking sounds and the rocking only became clearer.

"You... how can you do this? The sun is already high in the sky — this is open indecency in broad daylight!"

Huffing, the red-faced Guo Wan'er simply sat up. Covering her eyes, she scolded the two shameless wretches beside her, though her voice lacked conviction.

With a light effort from Zhang Zhao, a certain fair-skinned beauty of rich experience flipped over and came to rest on top of him — a Scythian beauty with pale skin, a supple figure, and a few strands of curly flaxen hair falling over her forehead.

"Young lord! This slave is called Ayiguli!" The Scythian beauty announced her name, then cast a provocative glance at the little wildcat beside them, who was covering her face.

"So shameless! So shameless!" Guo Wan'er could only keep covering her eyes and scolding loudly.

Zhang Zhao, still not fully satisfied, glanced to his left and happened to see a certain little wildcat sitting there with her lovely upper body exposed, covering her eyes and swaying. The decision he had just made to spare her was instantly thrown to the winds.

Lunch was sumptuous — a whole roast lamb, surrounded by fruits of every color, with four dipping sauces: sour, sweet, salty, and spicy.

The sesame flatbread was crisp and fragrant, the steamed buns soft and delicious, and the glass bottles of wine in every color only whetted the appetite further.

Several palace attendants waited on them as Zhang Zhao, Guo Wan'er, and Ayiguli ate at the long table.

The puffed-up little wildcat hadn't wanted to come, but her stomach was growling with hunger, so she had no choice but to brace herself and sit down beside Zhang Zhao.

After several large chunks of mutton, two steamed buns, and a big cup of grape wine, Zhang Zhao let out a comfortable groan. Then he looked over at Ayiguli, who was also eating heartily beside him, and seemed about to speak but hesitated.

"The young lord wants to ask where this slave's husband is, right? He died two years ago in a fight with the followers of the Heavenly Creed in the city of Ashibulai. This slave's father may love profit above all else, but he wouldn't go that far!"

Ayiguli winked at Zhang Zhao, then turned back to attacking the fatty lamb chops.

Zhang Zhao quietly breathed a sigh of relief. Last night and just now it had felt thrilling, but now that he'd entered sage mode, it didn't sit quite right with him.

Breaking up someone's family — whether before or after transmigrating, the Grand Commandery Duke Zhang would never stoop to such a thing.

And if this Li Guoshou really had sent his daughter-in-law to his bed with such utter lack of scruple, then he was either a ruthless hero or a treacherous schemer — someone who wanted something very big!

Fortunately, it wasn't the situation he'd imagined. Zhang Zhao wouldn't break up someone's family, but nourishing a pretty young widow long deprived of a man — that he was quite willing to do.

"Can the young lord help this slave find someone?" Ayiguli finished explaining, then looked at Zhang Zhao with big, watery eyes.

Zhang Zhao nodded. Finding a person wasn't much of a privileged request — he could grant it. And he had already roughly guessed who Ayiguli wanted to find.

"Northeast of Ashibulai there's a family that follows the Heavenly Creed. They have a beg named Alp — he's the one who killed my husband!"

Sure enough, just as Zhang Zhao had guessed, Ayiguli wanted to find the man who had killed her husband. But Zhang Zhao tilted his head and asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Ashibulai is barely over a hundred li from here and has always been under Balasagun's jurisdiction. If this Alp killed your husband, why doesn't Li Guoshou avenge his son?"

Ayiguli shook her head, hesitated a moment, then spoke. "He killed my husband in a duel, but that duel was absolutely unfair!"

So that was it. Zhang Zhao reached out and patted Ayiguli on the shoulder, agreeing without a second thought.

He didn't care about duels or not. Any good deed that could reduce the number of Heavenly Creed followers around Balasagun by one, he would gladly do.

"A trifling matter. Later this evening I'll have someone handle it!"

Zhang Zhao put heavy emphasis on the word "handle" — and this "handle" was meant physically.

Ayiguli was immediately overjoyed. She wiped her hands clean on the spot, lifted the hem of her skirt, and gave Zhang Zhao a grand bow.

According to steppe custom, a death caused by a duel could not be pursued. This Commandery Duke Zhang wasn't so hard to talk to after all!

"Vixen! Hmph! All she knows is flattering her way into favor and breaking the rules!" The little wildcat's thin lips pouted high. The way she looked at Ayiguli was like looking at a freshly minted Su Daji.

What a tsundere little girl! And with a bit of a willful streak, always liking to challenge authority.

Only now did Zhang Zhao realize that this little wildcat looked to be seventeen or eighteen — in later times, she'd just be starting university.

Even the little widow Ayiguli beside him was only twenty-one or twenty-two — in later times, she'd count as a tender young thing too.

"Fine, she's a vixen. Then how did you end up being sent in together with a vixen?"

Zhang Zhao now remembered — these two hadn't suddenly appeared in his bedroom. They'd been there since he was eating and bathing, only he hadn't paid attention at the time.

And they seemed to have followed right behind him into the bedroom. It was just that he'd been so exhausted last night that he hadn't noticed at all.

"Because I don't obey! Because they all hate me!" As the little wildcat spoke, her eyes began to redden.

As a girl who had just turned seventeen, with no mental preparation whatsoever, being sent like an object to a strange man had wounded her deeply.

What was worse, when they sent her over, her father, mother, and little brother hadn't shown the slightest sadness — every one of them had been positively gleeful.

"So how exactly did you not obey?" Zhang Zhao's interest was immediately piqued. Although the little wildcat hadn't said where she was from or what her surname was, Zhang Zhao knew who she was.

It was obvious. Here in Balasagun, someone who could speak Chinese fluently, knew phrases like "no open indecency in broad daylight" and "vixen," and had the face of a Han girl — there was no one else but a daughter of the Guo family.

The Guo family was different from Li Guoshou. They were an important part of the eastward return that Zhang Zhao truly intended to rely on as his inner circle, so he had to be more cautious.

Because if the Guo family wanted to use this method to draw closer to him, they wouldn't have been so careless — or rather, so demeaning — in sending this little wildcat over.

At the very least, an elder should have brought her to meet him first, and only after the proper rites of taking a concubine had been performed would she have been sent to Zhang Zhao's side. So he needed to first understand why the Guo family had done this.

"They wanted me to marry my third uncle. I refused. Father pressed me hard, so this slave said she'd taken a fancy to a Uyghur lad and was going to elope with him.

Father and Mother were ashamed that I'd disgraced them, and everyone else treated me as a laughingstock. A woman like that — what need was there to present her with proper rites?"

"The most important thing is to send me away soon, so I don't really end up eloping with a Uyghur lad."

Guo Wan'er took a deep breath and rattled off the reason in a rapid burst. Zhang Zhao's face instantly stiffened, turning rather grim.

A niece marrying her third uncle? What is the Guo family playing at? Imitating Vietnam's Tran dynasty? Even the Tran dynasty, with its wild self-contained intermarriage, was still a matter of centuries later! You people are starting this game already?

Guo Wan'er felt a little flustered under Zhang Zhao's gaze and hurriedly explained, "He's not my real third uncle. We're already beyond the five degrees of mourning kinship. He's called third uncle, but there's really no blood relation.

But... but by seniority, he's still my third uncle! This goes against ethics. How can it be like this?"

"Does your Guo family use this method to maintain the bloodline? Do you not marry outsiders?"

Zhang Zhao knew what Guo Wan'er was talking about now. When the Guo family left Shule in a fit of anger, they numbered fewer than seven hundred people. Now they had multiplied to a full three thousand.

And judging from their appearances, there were not many obvious foreign features. People like Guo Guangcheng who married a Uyghur woman were surely an extreme minority.

Then how did they maintain their clan, their reproduction, and their bloodline? Naturally, only through internal marriages. Cousin marriages, the kind that doubled kinship bonds, were certainly common, but marriages like this one, between people beyond the five degrees of mourning kinship, were probably not rare either.

This Guo Wan'er must have read quite a few books and was especially opposed to this kind of same-surname marriage. One could tell from her somewhat bookish way of speaking. But using the trick of eloping with a Uyghur lad was still a bit drastic!

"What else could I do? Though there are plenty who married foreign women, few marry foreign men.

Lord of the Commandery, are you truly going to lead our people east back to the Great Tang? Then take my younger brother with you too. I don't want him to end up like me in a few years.

I heard you've also found descendants of the other Five Surnames and Three Royal Houses. I wonder if they're in as awkward a position as this!"

Once she began talking, her guard dropped a little. Guo Wan'er looked at Zhang Zhao somewhat pitifully. After all, this was already her man. No matter how free-spirited she was, she could not escape the shackles of the age.

Besides, she had always hoped for a heaven-sent hero to dissolve this awkward and humiliating fate of hers. And now, wasn't this quite fitting?

"Are you willing to return east with me?" Zhang Zhao pulled Guo Wan'er to his side and asked.

"What the Lord of the Commandery really wants to ask is whether our Guo family would be willing, isn't it!" Guo Wan'er wrinkled her delicate little nose.

"There are both those willing and those unwilling. The older ones, like Third Great-Uncle Shen Shen and Dade, certainly won't be willing. The younger ones are still willing to take the risk. If the Lord of the Commandery trusts me, I can secretly sound things out for you!"

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