Chapter 56: CH 56

As if there was something terrifying behind him, his adrenaline was bursting to the max. Chen Miao Ping had never run so fast before, so fast that his shadow never touched the ground. His heart never stopped pumping in fear, up until he ran straight to the entrance of Chang Guo Gong’s estate and saw the two guards in front.

Chen Miao Ping leaned against the lion statue in front of the door, chest heaving and out of breath. Seeing him like this, the two guards asked, 

“Gu-Ye, are you okay?”

Chen Miao Ping waved his hand in the air and was about to say something when his eyes caught something in his peripheral vision. It was that “ghost” coming up from right behind him. But this time, there were actual human beings beside him, so he wasn’t as afraid anymore. 

When that thing was closer, Chen Miao Ping realized that it was actually a man with a proper human face and that their hair was just in disarray. He was limping as well, which could only contribute to the frightening picture he created in the dark of the night.

Wang Yu had not recognized Chen Miao Ping. As he headed towards the Chief Surveillance Bureau, he had asked around and learned that Chen Miao Ping would usually walk down this road when he got off work. When he saw Chen Miao Ping in his official’s outfit, his heart hadn’t been too sure, and he was just going up to ask. 

But who could expect that the other man would start running out of his sight and wouldn’t even stop even after he yelled after him. And to finally see him now, standing there in front of his eyes, Wang Yu started to tear up and knelt on the ground with a clear and audible “bam”, 

“Are you City Warden Inspector Chen Da-Ren?!”

Chen Miao Ping grabbed onto the feet of the lion statue, hiding the majority of his body behind it. He popped his head out of the lion’s ass when he heard that and asked, 

“This official is the City Warden Inspector. What business do you have with me?”

“I beg for Da-Ren to save our lives!” 

Wang Yu was moving frantically in a strange way but he bowed his head hard against the ground a few times, telling Chen Miao Ping everything that just happened at Chun Xiao House, 

“Xue Yi’s personality is unyielding, and she will not succumb to the requests of that prince. Before she left her room, she had this insignificant citizen go find Da-ren for help. Please, I beg for Da-Ren with his generosity and graciousness to lend a hand!”

Ye Lu Jin Qi was someone who surrounded himself with servants and guards in the front and the back before going anywhere. Add on that Li Qin Wang and it was very evident that pitting Chen Miao Ping against this type of opponent, with his position as a tiny, tiny warden inspector, might just be a one-sided difficulty. 

Beyond that, one must consider that he could be breaking the non-aggression pact between the two countries, and to speak of the most unfortunate fate, he may receive punishment from the Emperor from this rising issue.

Chen Miao Ping, as a City Warden Inspector, was the overseer of everything related to the citizens’ affairs within this city. So there was nothing wrong with Wang Yu coming to find him, but that wasn’t the problem. 

The problem was that there seemed to be no law which stated that forcing an entertainment lady to accompany her guests was wrong. There was no possible nor logical reason to use to stop that from happening.

This Wang Yu knew as well, and seeing Chen Miao Ping not speak, his face turned ashen and his body slumped in defeat. He hugged the stone stairs in front of the Chang Guo Gong estate as he said quietly, 

“……Apologies for causing trouble for Da-Ren.”

The moment he said that, he suddenly slapped himself hard. He stood up and then ran off, stumbling back the way he came.

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This ranked position was really not that easy of a position to be in. Not a lot of money and not any less work.

Chen Miao Ping could only feel his neck getting heavier and heavier, aching in pain. He took off the official hat on his head and patted it lightly twice. He sighed and then went to find Xie Yu Zhi in Qu Feng Courtyard.

The imperial guards were only looking after the security of the capital, and the most that they would do is catch those who wander in the middle of the night after the curfew chime has been rung. Today, however, they seemed to be riding out on their horses, rumbling the ground with their numbers and speed, causing many to be alarmed by the vibrations.

Some of the commoners who had not gone to sleep yet opened their windows to see and they could see many, many guards holding torches lit with fire heading straight to Ping Kang Road. Every one of them was running, clanging in their armor, and the sight was thunderous and terrifying enough that they all immediately closed the window and hid in a corner.

Xie Yu Zhi didn’t continue that analogy, and instead went to pinch his nose, saying, 

“You are Zhu Bajie.”

The Emperor took in everything under his eyes and immediately passed decrees in response. First he sent a letter to the king of the Liao Empire, to let him call back the fifth prince and the rest immediately, and then he ordered for the Grand Military Commissioner Sun Tong to hand over his military tally2. 

After that was passed down, he gathered up sixteen armies to guard the Imperial City, which made everyone start fearing in their hearts that something ominous was coming.

But this did not affect Chen Miao Ping much in his daily activities. After all, he was not a centerpiece on the chessboard, and perhaps he had been overworking too much as after that night, he had come back home sick.

A weak chick has now become a sickly weak chick. He was burning up with a fever, unable to move out of bed, and even had to request for a leave from the Chief Surveillance Bureau.

Notes:

*1 Zhu Bajie piggybacking his wife: Zhu Bajie, some of you may already know who he is (or perhaps by the name Pigsy) but he is the pig monster from a very famous story you may also have heard of “Monkey King: Journey to the West”. He’s a lazy character, who likes to eat and also is a pervert. But in this case, this specific phrase is a reference to the story (although apparently it was from the television series rather than the novel itself) and it speaks of him being very happy when he gets a wife and he is piggybacking his “wife” (which piggybacking to cross over the door is also a custom of the wedding night) and he’s so happy that he can have a wife despite all his terrible habits and ugly appearance, but then it turns out that his wife was a fake and was a mushroom in disguise.

the monkey mushroom or 猴头 (left) and Pigsy, Zhu Bajie or 豬八戒 (right, which should be from the 1986 television series)

This specific phrase is used very commonly to say that it has been useless despite all the efforts you put in (all the hard work you did was all for naught) (which of course, not exactly what Chen Miao Ping is implicating, but of the above mentioned part).

*2 military tally: a specific small statue that is either made of copper, jade, wood or stone and is in the shape of a tiger. It’s made up of 2 parts where usually the right side is held by the emperor, and the left side is held by an appointed military commander. Only when both pieces are together can the commander be able to utilize the military/armies.

military tally/兵符

Another quick note about the lion statues, there are usually two in front of the main entrance of an estate and they protect the estate from bad spirits and other things (kind of like those new year paintings on the doors)

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