Chapter 282: Journey to Zhongnan (5)

But Seol Iri is not a carriage driver.

She’s not a driver just because she drives a carriage well, drivers basically know the roads well.

Anyway, Seol Iri who doesn’t know the geography just follows the road straight.

In the midst of pouring rain, it was a perfect situation to get stranded if something went wrong.

However, very fortunately, it’s not easy to get lost in the middle of Henan Province.

So driving along the road, taking the main road at forks, they came upon a small village called Bubukcheong.

Though it’s a humble neighborhood with just one lonely inn, that’s still something.

It’s incredibly fortunate it’s not a fortified rural clan village along a major road.

So they got a room, wiped their bodies with warm towels (hot baths are a convenience only provided in cities), and since there was no clothing shop in town, they bought dry clothes from a working maid with extra money.

After eating a hearty meal of ambiguous quality that could barely be called food, they lay down on not-so-soft beds, and wow. The fatigue just.

Thanks to the uncomfortable and smelly bed keeping them alert, they didn’t pass out as soon as they lay down.

But why am I so tired…?

This tired just from a little knife fight?

As Qing lay sprawled out with her strangely tired, drooping body, Seol Iri stood blankly looking down at Qing who had just her head sticking out from under the blanket on the bed.

“What are you doing? Aren’t you going to sleep?”

“I can’t sleep if someone else is here.”

Seol Iri’s pronunciation had improved tremendously, so she’d probably be all better tomorrow after sleeping warmly tonight.

Originally, masters, no intermediate practitioners, recover from head colds in a day.

Anyway, Seol Iri was refusing the last reason to keep her around, her duty as a bamboo wife.

“Hmm. Okay. Then let’s do this.”

“What?”

“From what I’ve seen, Miss Seol sleeps very well even with someone there. So well you wouldn’t know if someone carried you away.”

“No.”

“Okay. If Miss Seol can lie still and endure for just this ke (30 minutes), I’ll get you another room. But if you can’t endure and fall asleep? Then for lying, you have to sleep with me from now on no matter what. How about it?”

“I don’t want to.”

“If you don’t want to, sleep on the floor or something.”

“You’re petty.”

“Oh ho. Are you scared? You can’t even make a bet because you know you’ll lose. Can’t even endure one ke while making nasally sounds like ‘I can’t sleep if someone’s here.’”

At this, a vein popped on Seol Iri’s forehead.

“Fine.”

And she lay down on the bed.

Since it was just a rural inn with the bare minimum, even the bed was tiny.

Qing moved her body under the blanket, leaning against Seol Iri’s body and putting her arms and legs on top.

“Get off. It’s uncomfortable.”

“Then isn’t that advantageous for Miss Seol? Won’t you have a harder time falling asleep if someone’s there and it’s uncomfortable?”

“You don’t have to do this-“

“Oh ho. This is for fairness in my own way. I’m going to watch if you’re tensing your body to stay awake, pinching yourself, holding your breath and such. Now. One ke starts now.”

Lying in the warm blanket, holding the cool bamboo wife who was chilly from the aftereffects of ice arts or her constitution, it felt so peaceful and comfortable it seemed like this must be paradise.

And a little while later.

“…snore.”

As Qing gradually fell asleep, she heard the sound of snoring in her ear. Because of the head cold, cute snoring sounds went snore, hup, snooore regularly.

Well, she had a head cold, woke up after collapsing from drugs, and got rained on the whole time while driving the carriage.

No matter how sensitive she was saying she couldn’t sleep with someone there, how could she endure for a ke with this fatigue?

And for some reason, though she didn’t exert much effort, rampaging in the rain seemed to have drained more energy than expected.

Anyway, Qing was just as tired, so listening to that adorable snoring, she couldn’t resist as sleep poured over her…

After passing out from early evening, she had no sense of time after waking up.

Usually you can tell it’s morning or afternoon from the sunlight entering the room, but the room was pitch dark and if you focused you could hear the sound of that damn rain falling shaa.

Her head cold must have fully healed, as Seol Iri’s breathing no longer had wheezing or rasping.

Qing felt a bit regretful.

Hmm. The nasally voice was kind of cute too.

Hmm. But what’s left of Miss Seol if you take away the cuteness?

Isn’t she just a pretty non-driver?

Can’t I just tell Miss Seol to drive from now on instead of needing to find drivers?

She doesn’t say a word even when riding together anyway, so if I put her in the driver’s seat I could save a little money.

Hmm. Can I save money?

Or should I consider it costing money?

Qing had a lot of money, but now she has even more.

The driver bastard was planning to enjoy himself alone then get extra money to share the fun time with his friends.

Apparently he was going to ask for ten silver taels.

So fifteen guys basically had ten silver taels each.

Plus the separate money pouches they were carrying were quite substantial.

She was planning to get more money by disposing of the cheap weapons loaded in the carriage’s luggage compartment.

Calculating like that, Qing had cleaned up a pile of trash from the earth and earned a tidy sum in return.

It was income she couldn’t have gotten if she had made Seol Iri play the role of driver.

Anyway.

Hmm. It’s humid.

Since air conditioning devices haven’t been invented in the primitive ancient uncivilized Central Plains, ah, I miss you CA daxia…

Even if it’s not terribly hot when it rains, with that humidity, how cool can early July weather be?

Coming out of the room, she could finally tell she had woken up in the early morning.

“Ah. My lord. Are you awake?”

From early morning, the innkeeper’s daughter who was diligently wiping tables spoke to her.

My lord? It’s an address you’d only hear in the countryside.

“Oh my. What’s with all this rain?”

“I know. The elders said it’s like all the rain that didn’t fall during the very dry spring is coming at once.”

“Well, it was pretty dry.”

From leaving the Divine Maiden Sect until the end of the Murim Conference, while spring came early and passed, there were unusually few rainy days.

I think I heard something about the water level in Kaifeng’s Grand Canal being halved.

“Hmm. So, how long will it keep raining?”

“Hehe. How could I know heaven’s will, my lord?”

“I see…”

Weather forecasts aren’t widespread in the primitive uncivilized Central Plains either. Weather forecasting is such advanced technology in the first place.

Of course, weather forecasts are very important.

Thanks to this, there are weather forecast assistants in the Central Plains like geomancers, astronomers, and celestial analysts.

But their accuracy is almost at the level of saying “Ah it looked like it would rain” after it’s already raining.

You just have to get rained on when it rains, what else can you do?

Qing got to the main point.

“Please ask around for someone who can drive a carriage to Luoyang. I’ll pay one silver tael.”

Originally the journey from Mount Song’s Dengfeng County to Luoyang takes one day by carriage.

There was a fun incident along the way where she had fun and made money, so it took an extra day.

But since it wasn’t a trip with a set deadline, they left the countryside early at a leisurely pace, arriving in Luoyang around very late lunchtime.

And so, Luoyang!

Luoyang is one of the three great ancient capitals of the Central Plains… [omitted]. Anyway, it was a city she had visited before, and since she couldn’t properly sightsee outside because of the rain, she didn’t feel much excitement.

So she stopped by the stable to return the carriage.

“Hey. Don’t you manage your drivers? Will you really let them be no different from robber bastards like people say?”

“We’re sorry, so sorry…!”

“Is just saying sorry enough? This stable is finished. It was a den of rapists. I’m going to tell the whole world.”

“Oh no, that’s not true.”

Qing skillfully extracted appropriate compensation.

How could stables not know about drivers’ misconduct in the first place? But they didn’t particularly interfere in such personal matters.

If a driver succeeded in his side job there would be no rumors anyway, and if he failed they would blame it all on that guy and pay some consolation money.

Qing wasn’t being particularly vicious in extorting money as a bad customer, it was compensation that should naturally be received.

“Huhu.”

Qing’s clear voice overflowed with laughter. She seemed to be in a very good mood.

At times like this, a travel companion with universal sensibility and common sense should properly ask, “Why are you in such a good mood? Did something good happen?”

However, Seol Iri fell short in every aspect as a travel companion except for being equipped with coolness as a bamboo wife.

She’s a complete beggar without a single coin, and she’s not good for conversation either, her attitude isn’t affectionate.

No matter how you look at it, the one taking her along as a travel companion must be a living bodhisattva descended to the human world.

Even my sworn sister wasn’t this useless.

My sworn sister always hugs me, is busy trying to put food in my mouth before her own when we get food, carries luggage and even carries me when my legs hurt.

It’s rude to even compare her to my sworn sister who is overflowing with substance, even if they’re the same in being stupid!

My goodness, how can a being less than Gyeon Pohee exist in this world?

Why is such a worthless and useless human alive and breathing!

Qing sighed deeply looking at Seol Iri sitting at the table.

At this, the mysterious beauty with silver hair from martial arts side effects gave Qing a blank stare.

Her expressionless stare now substituted for asking why she was acting like that.

Aish. That face.

If it wasn’t for her face I would have abandoned her.

Just looking at her pretty appearance that melts your heart, she’s a hugging pillow with the function of moving on her own.

Then is she a huggy instead of a pillow?

Anyway, whatever. Bamboo wife.

In the end, Seol Iri failed to fulfill her proper duty as a companion by saying she looked like she was in a good mood, so the reason for Qing’s good mood fell forever into the depths of mystery…

She asked the server instead.

“Hey, server. The Black Shadow Association, there are some unorthodox faction guys who make trouble in Luoyang, right?”

That’s right.

They say a gentleman’s revenge is not late even after ten years. This was the spirit of the Central Plains that Central Plains people have had since ancient times.

Never forgetting grudges for thousands of years and ignoring kindness is the spirit of the great Middle Kingdom, the essence of the Central Plains itself.

It had only been three years since Qing made a humiliating withdrawal from Luoyang, so it was just the right time to finish the revenge she couldn’t complete then.

However.

“Ah. Those guys? They’re finished.”

“Huh? Why? Why are they finished?”

“I heard they messed with some high-ranking person from a martial arts clan.”

The server explained for twenty coins’ worth that Hebei Peng Clan and Hwangbo Clan martial artists raided their business and exposed their ugly crimes.

Thanks to this, other unorthodox factions in Luoyang immediately cut ties saying they knew nothing about it.

In the end, they were attacked by two of the Ten Great Clans, so they were completely destroyed without a single foundation stone left.

At this, the mission window flashed and displayed a window announcing the completion of a sudden mission.

For some reason, it felt like being mocked with “Too late, you idiot.”

No, why!

If it’s the Peng Clan and Hwangbo Clan that means it was Mountain and that little guy!

How dare they have fun without me!

I know how to exterminate clans too!

How much do they love it when I slice up bad guys!

Qing’s mood plummeted.

I trusted them…

It was the pain of being betrayed by trusted friends.

How could they have such fun without me.

If Peng Daesan and Hwangbo Uncheok heard this, they would lament with disbelief, their breath taken away.

They had mobilized clan martial artists considering future troubles and shed blood, Peng Daesan had stepped up to protect Qing.

Hwangbo Uncheok had just participated after hearing Qing’s words, burning with Little Supreme Justice’s unique meddling, no, chivalry.

Fortunately, Qing was able to quickly pull herself together.

They’re already finished so what can I do?

Goodbye, my Luoyang. My grudge.

But, hmm. Ah. Looks delicious.

Because the food started coming out.