Chapter 223: The Little Loli Sefiyeh

In a room where faint light seeped through, Zhang Zhao lay on a large bed, then stretched out a hand — his fingers suddenly touched an extremely soft mound of flesh.

His nose caught a pleasant floral fragrance, but that soft mound suddenly began trembling uncontrollably.

Zhang Zhao turned his head to look. A pair of gray-brown eyes were watching him, the message in them complex, though fear seemed to make up the greater part.

Zhang Zhao drew a long breath and, with tremendous willpower, got up.

This woman was probably a palace maid in the Alka Forbidden City, or one of Nasr II's consorts.

But Zhang Zhao had not touched her last night. If not for the thought that this woman would surely suffer misfortune once driven out, he would not even have let her stay in the room.

It was not that Great King Zhang was about to ascend on the spot and become a sage; rather, he simply could not manage the swagger of men like Ma Yaozi and Dunzhu, who pulled up their trousers and refused to acknowledge anyone.

He certainly would not stay long here in Bukhara, and there was no need to bring several women back with him.

Right now Zhang Zhao already had four in Shule alone, and back in Dunhuang there were still Cao Yanxi and Lady Cao Sanniang waiting. No matter how one put it, Cao Yanxi was his principal wife — before she had even entered the household, bringing back a pile of women would not be proper.

A whole roast lamb, with sweet-and-sour sauce and a dip of onions and some kind of bean paste — the breakfast of a ruler of a nation was just this plain and unadorned. Who needed steamed buns, fried dough sticks, and soy milk? Bring out the whole roast lamb directly.

He had only taken two bites when the new Emir Hamid came in, followed by a little girl wrapped in a headscarf and face veil.

The girl looked slender, flat in front and flat behind, so Zhang Zhao did not bother paying any more attention to her appearance.

Behind Hamid and this little girl followed Dunzhu and Ma Shacai.

These two ferocious-looking simpletons had nearly driven Emir Hamid to collapse last night.

When Hamid slept in bed, one of these two would always be sitting beside him; even when he washed up, someone was sure to be watching.

"Haven't had breakfast? Sit down and eat some, or it'll go to waste!" Zhang Zhao paid no attention to Hamid and the little girl, instead calling over Ma Shacai and Dunzhu.

Yesterday he had been handling matters until late into the night and had forgotten to tell these two not to watch Hamid so closely.

Ma Shacai and Dunzhu did not decline either. The two of them sat down carelessly and joined Zhang Zhao in eating.

This was one of the few habits Great King Zhang had brought from later times and still persisted in — he did not like having people specially attending him while he ate, and among those close to him, he did not draw the line between high and low so clearly.

When Zhang Zhao called Ma Shacai and Dunzhu to eat together, the little girl's large, blinking eyes revealed a look of astonishment.

Unless her father Nasr II gave special instructions, he never allowed the queen or his children to eat with him.

When Ma Shacai and Dunzhu actually sat down without the slightest refusal and started eating, the astonishment in the little girl's eyes could barely be contained.

She looked at Dunzhu and the other man, then at Zhang Zhao — clearly this was beyond her understanding.

"If His Highness the Emir and this beautiful lady do not mind, please sit down and have a little as well!"

After two more bites, Zhang Zhao still felt something was off, so he simply extended the invitation to Hamid and his companion too.

Hamid had not wanted to sit down and eat. Like his father Nasr II, unless it was someone he regarded highly, there was absolutely no chance of sharing a table with him. But now — he had no right to say no.

The little girl, however, swallowed twice, then sat down without the slightest courtesy, and moved very quickly, wolfing her food down.

Uh! Such a little loli, yet she ate with the ferocity of a rabid dog — Zhang Zhao could not help turning his attention to her.

With a startled "Eh?", Zhang Zhao removed the veil from the little loli's face.

Because with this one look, he suddenly discovered that this was a rather beautiful little loli!

Flaxen hair, bright eyes and white teeth. A straight nose bridge, and small lips that were rosy and glistening with a sheen of moisture.

She clearly looked to be of East Iranian Aryan blood, yet her features were entirely in line with Eastern aesthetic tastes.

Unlike Cao Yanmian's Western-style Aryan beauty, this little loli was a typical case of Western lineage with an Eastern face. 1

Among the Aryans of the west, she counted as a beauty, though not of the nation-toppling level, but to Chinese eyes she was lovelier than a celestial maiden — the famous Russian lolis of later times were the classic example of this type.

"Are you very hungry?" Zhang Zhao could not help asking.

He looked the little loli's figure up and down. There was a slight hint of curves, but nothing more than that — yet given her current appetite, there was no way she could have grown such a figure.

"It's all because of you!" The little loli took a lamb rib and poked it in the sweet-and-sour dipping bowl made with honey and fruit sauce. Her glistening little mouth pouted, and her voice tinkled like spring water dripping — part grievance, part haughty charm.

"Because of me?" Zhang Zhao truly did not understand why.

A little farther away, Hamid's pale face betrayed a trace of unease, terrified that the little loli might provoke Zhang Zhao.

The little loli probably sensed too that the Alka Forbidden City was no longer the Alka Forbidden City where everyone above and below doted on her.

She lowered her head somewhat flustered, and a few glistening teardrops pattered from her face onto the tabletop. Yet although she was clearly cowed, her mouth, out of habit, still did not stop.

"The Great Khan drove all the men out of the castle yesterday. Your guards are everywhere, and the women are too afraid to even step outside. Everyone could only wait in hunger for a whole day!"

Zhang Zhao laughed in spite of himself. He had not thought of that, nor had he intended to starve the several hundred women in the Alka Forbidden City to death — what a waste that would be!

"Go tell Guo Tiance not to be so overly cautious. I am not so fragile as to be harmed by a few women!"

Zhang Zhao kicked the calf of Dunzhu, who was wolfing down food beside him. This simpleton — in the time Zhang Zhao had been speaking, he had nearly eaten half a sheep.

Dunzhu tilted his head back and drained a large bowl of wine, grabbed a big lamb leg, nodded, and got up to leave.

"Sefiyeh thanks the Great Khan for his mercy!" The little loli, her hands still greasy, elegantly wiped the oil from her fingers, then lifted the hem of her skirt with both hands and curtsied to Zhang Zhao like a spotless ragdoll cat.

"Great Khan, this is my youngest sister Sefiyeh. She has been clever and well-mannered since childhood, though her temperament is somewhat willful!"

Hamid put on the air of an elder brother acting as a father, introducing Sefiyeh to Zhang Zhao with a smile. But a flash of disgust darted across Sefiyeh's face, then vanished just as quickly.

"Hamid, my friend!" Zhang Zhao called Hamid's name warmly, even calling him "my friend."

Just as Hamid was overjoyed, Zhang Zhao pointed at Sefiyeh and asked him very seriously.

"This little sister — do you still want her?"

Yes, before this divine-grade little loli, Great King Zhang's resolution from last night — not to get involved with pointless women, and not to bring back too many women, lest he anger Cao Yanxi, whom he had not yet met — vanished completely. Now wasn't that miraculous?

No joke — a Russian-loli-type little loli of this caliber, even if her chest was a bit small and her little bottom not so pert, could not be let go!

Moreover, Zhang Zhao had given it some thought. The Samanid Persian state was at the turning point from prosperity to decline.

In the original history, although Hamid lacked the courage to launch a rebellion, he also did not lose his life.

At the Eid al-Fitr festival, Nasr II smoothly threw this son of his, who had been obedient from beginning to end, into the cold palace.

But within a few years, the turmoil caused by Nasr II's conversion to Shi'ism and the political unrest in the country grew even fiercer, ultimately leading the powerful elites of Bukhara to collectively oppose Nasr II, because they were all adherents of the orthodox school.

In 937, the imperial guard commander Farid and the religious power-holder, the imam Gurgan, led a coup and directly imprisoned Nasr II.

After these routine factions forced Nasr II from the throne, they immediately raised Hamid from the cold palace to the position of Emir, becoming Nuh I.

Hamid came to the throne under such conditions, and with a personality that was somewhat weak and gloomy by nature, he simply could not control the situation.

Revolts by the military aristocracy within the country rose one after another, and the military power of the ghulams gradually shifted into the hands of the Turkic peoples who served as slaves.

From then on, the Samanid dynasty entered a mode of headlong decline, and today, Zhang Zhao's catalysis and arrival merely caused these things to happen ahead of time.

Zhang Zhao keenly sensed that he was once again standing at a turning point, a turning point at which this rotten dynasty could be taken.

But unfortunately, his own conditions did not permit him to do anything further.

He had originally wanted to become the father-khan of the Samanid dynasty, but the reality was that the Samanid dynasty already had a father.

This father was the Abbasid dynasty, the Black-Robed Tazi.

Because the ruler of the Samanid dynasty was, in practical terms, not a king, but a governor with considerable independence appointed by the Abbasid dynasty.

Therefore the ruler of the Samanid dynasty was neither king nor sultan, but Emir.

Of course, by this time the Abbasid dynasty was even more politically corrupt than the Samanid dynasty, and its strength was far less than before, but he was still the Caliph of the Islamic world.

There would be no problem with Zhang Zhao storming Bukhara and plundering it; the Islamic states would probably all laugh at the Samanid dynasty's misfortune.

But if Zhang Zhao wanted to entrench himself in Bukhara and become the father-khan of the Samanid dynasty, that would not do; it would absolutely lead to intervention by the Islamic world.

Unless he was willing to stay here and become a believer, and then thoroughly defeat these fellows a few times, while at the same time guarding against the resistance of the many discontented nobles within the country — after all, Samanid Persia was merely corrupt and declining, not finished.

So the best course was to take sufficient benefits and then get out.

But... Zhang Zhao always felt dissatisfied. Such a good opportunity, and he had only gotten some money; he always felt something was missing.

And so, after Princess Safiya appeared before him, Zhang Zhao had a plan.

Such a beautiful little loli princess — he absolutely had to get his hands on her. At the same time, if he and Princess Safiya could produce offspring in the future, that would be equivalent to obtaining a weak claim on Samanid Persia.

When he returned east to the Central Plains and revived the Divine Land, he could send his own son back.

At that time, Samanid Persia would be utterly decayed and aflame with war, and a son of destiny — bearing the titles of grandson of the Emperor of the Taohuashi Empire, son of the Khan of Khans, the Gur Khan, and grandson of Nasr II — would suddenly appear with a hundred thousand troops. Could the master of this land then be anyone else?

Hm! If I can't be Hamid's father-khan, I'll reluctantly settle for being his brother-in-law! Great King Zhang thought gleefully.

His seed-sowing strategy, his genius design to have his sons rule the Eurasian continent, had advanced another step. In the future, enfeoffed princes should not be enfeoffed within the country at all — send them all out to rule barbarians as lords of the Xia.

"Great Khan, Your Majesty! Safiya is willing to go with you, but may I make one request?"

Princess Safiya raised her small face, covered in tears, and knelt on the precious carpeted floor as she entreated Zhang Zhao.

Hamid's face immediately darkened. He knew what Safiya was going to do — she was surely going to take his sister Panthea and his mother Aisha away with her.

In truth, the betrayal of his own maternal aunt had wounded Hamid deeply, but he had not yet reached the point of laying hands on his aunt and sisters.

Safiya's obvious distrust carved another great wound across Hamid's heart.

"Speak! In general, I will grant whatever you ask!"

Zhang Zhao glanced at Hamid and readily agreed. Whatever made this newly promoted Emir unhappy was surely of no harm to himself.

"Safiya begs the Great Khan to allow me to take my mother Aisha and my sister Panthea away with me."

Sure enough, the little loli's request was exactly what Hamid had guessed, because Safiya, having witnessed the cruelty of court struggles, truly did not dare gamble on an Emir's rare mercy.

"Granted!" Zhang Zhao nodded and agreed. Panthea — that was the name of a famous beauty in Persian legend! It was said she was so devastatingly beautiful that she had to keep her face veiled all year round.

Anyone who dared to bear this name must also be an extraordinarily beautiful woman. Such a sister-in-law could certainly be taken along. If Princess Safiya failed to bear a son, she could serve as a backup.

As for Queen Aisha, uh! Her age was probably not small; his uncle the Son of Heaven probably would not like her.

Then forget it. On this return to Shule, he would not bring a beauty back for his uncle; presumably he would not care for one anyway.

Right! It must be so!

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