Leave a comment

I lifted my hand and said:

“Scatter, go. There’s no need to panic about what happened today. If something bad happens, our city’s sir Moon will support you. Bring that wounded person to his home and continue doing what you’re supposed to be doing.”

Since the crisis has been solved, there naturally was someone who went to bring the wounded young man back to recuperate.

After the crowd dispersed, Moon silently clapped her hands behind me.

I turned my head to look and sure enough, he had a somewhat taunting smile on his face.

I forced a smile:

“Don’t laugh at me too, just count it as me not having eyes for people, alright?”

Moon responded:

“No, I think your actions just now made you seem very handsome. Especially when you stealthily placed the remaining gold coin on you into that young man’s pocket.”

“Ah, you saw that.”

I was a little surprised. When I tripped Little Five just now, I picked the young man off of him and slipped the last bit of my private stash into the young man’s pocket when I went to throw him into the crowd. Seeing how his leg was broken due to the carriage, I reckoned that the medical expense wasn’t going to be a small sum.

In any case, one gold coin isn’t that important in my eyes, so I may as well give him it to cover that expense.

Moon questioned:

“But, why did you use my name and not your own? Sir City Lord’s heroic rescue of a young man in distress would have been a deed to spread far and wide.”

I replied with a small smile:

“I once heard of a story about a King who could use magic, but only used it once in his lifetime. When other people asked him why he didn’t continue to use magic, he replied ‘Once is enough. I let my people know that I’m awe-inspiring so that they may feel at ease to work and do their thing. If I use it too much, they will instead become lax and expect their King to do everything for them.’”

Moon chuckled, but then he shook his head. He turned to look at the bloodstains on that ground that nobody had bothered to take care of and said:

“Li De. I’m not here to make life difficult for Hunter. As a matter of fact, the thing he’s done here today is something many others are doing. Bai Huang and I are both aware of it all, but we haven’t gone to manage them. In the past, Bai Huang would occasionally go save some stricken people, but she was, after all, illegally conferred a role, so many of the new nobility would privately discuss her. They would say ‘why is some chick from Yun Hai showing off her power in West-Resisting City.’ On top of that, Bai Huang wasn’t in the best mood during this period of time, so she wouldn’t thoroughly investigate these matters.”

Moon stopped for a moment, then continued:

“But those nobles still gave her face; whenever she was patrolling, each and every one of them would be well-behaved. Peaceful coexistence; what the eye doesn’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve over.”

I smirked as I remarked:

“They’re really secure in knowing that they have backing.”

Moon nodded and sympathetically said:

“Of course they’re secure in knowing they have backing. Take Hunter, for example. He’s reliable when it comes to working and is loyal and devoted to us. And the most important thing is that he has outstanding ability. He is reverent and respectful to us and treats West-Resisting City’s populace with an amicable manner. His only flaw is that he shows those foreigners no mercy. Would you say that he’s done anything wrong? Maybe, but can we just depose him of position and drive him home? No, we can’t. Those many years I’ve stayed in a brothel can be summed up to a sentence——humans are selfish, as long as they live in this world, there isn’t anyone who’ll stay innocent.”

Moon and I continued strolling the streets. From the skies came a fine blanket of drizzle, very small, tiny even, but he and I didn’t shield ourselves with the parasol.

The steamed bun selling shop was still running business as usual with the fragrance from its steamer baskets permeating the surrounding area. I felt my pocket only to find that there was not even a copper coin left, so I was forced to restrain my desire to ‘buy buy buy’. As Moon was walking shoulder to shoulder with me, she half-squinted as she looked at the rows of low-rise buildings with ash-gray walls and she said:

“Li De. The most critical problem in the current West-Resisting City already isn’t about changing their opinions, but rather the contradiction between population and the land they live on. This is also why I need Fang Thirteen to conquer Li Neng’s five cities as soon as possible. Even if I were to spend money like water, it’s impossible to grow land out of thin air.”

I asked in bafflement:

“Didn’t we officially launch a purchase restriction command? Why is there still the issue of land shortage? If I haven’t remembered wrongly, West-Resisting City is originally one with a large area but a sparse population, right?”

Moon smiled wryly as she spoke:

“Indeed. I’ve read your views on the land. You once explained that the collapse of many dynasties originate in land annexation and I deeply approve of this point. Therefore, during the time I had just begun managing West-Resisting City, I put some regulations in control as soon as possible. But the problem is, West-Resisting City needs to continuously stimulate consumption in order to shine with vitality. However, due to how primitive and backwards our marketplace is and how seriously lacking our entertainment industry is, those rising nobles have no place to spend their newfound wealth. Moreover, their backgrounds are all that of ordinary people, so they’re afraid of being truly poor. Apart from land, there isn’t any other commodity that suits them. Therefore, I’ve loosened the land purchase restriction command, but I still control it in a reasonable range.”

Moon took in a deep breath, then slowly released it with an indescribable fatigue on his face.

I could roughly understand his train of thought, so I whispered to confirm:

“You’re saying the population influx due to those three cities in the north……”

Moon nodded.

He said:

“I’m thinking of branching them off. I originally thought that they would have enough money and grain in their hands to at least safely get through the winter. But who could have expected that they were poor to the extreme of its definition. I had specially set aside some uncultivated lands and wastelands in West-Resisting City, as well as some ownerless lands that I hadn’t originally planned to distribute, all in order to respond to the migration of foreigners. But the problem is that these Sky Star City, Star-Commanding City, and Starless City people are honestly too poor. Poor to the point where they have no choice but to sell the land I distributed to them in order to exchange for some foodstuffs to get through the winter. As for the wealthy who bought the land, that’s of course those rising nobility. Therefore, I couldn’t avoid loosening the land purchase restriction command a little more. However, the problem now is, how will they survive next spring without any land to work on?”

As she spoke, he slapped her forehead in frustration, as if to blame himself for these mistakes.

I felt a bit guilty in my mind since, after all, I didn’t discuss the return of these three cities back to Fang Lita with Moon. If we calculate accounts, then his current situation is largely related to me. But apart from quarrelling with me once, Moon had never once mentioned the things that had occurred in this period of time. Instead, she had always been silently helping me sort out this terrible mess all by herself.

My heart warmed up, my delicate face reddened; I hurriedly opened the parasol in my hand and helped Moon hold it.

When Moon turned to face me, there was already a layer of drizzle caked on his face. The tips of her hair were moistened by sparkling droplets and her pair of alluring eyes squinted at me. Such a scene was unexpectedly somewhat attractive in my eyes. The corners of Moon’s mouth curled up into a smile as her hands lightly pinched my cheeks and he said:

“What? Now you know to care for me? Don’t worry, I already knew at an earlier time that West-Resisting City is a terrible mess, yet I still came with you. If everything here was already stable and steady, I wouldn’t come just to be a decoration on something already perfect. Now, the more you owe me, the happier I’ll feel at heart. Sooner or later in the future, I’ll·demand·what·you·owe me~.”

When he finished his words, he loosened his hands and exposed a small devilish smile.

I knew he was acting brave, so I held the parasol in one hand as I used the other hand to hold her hand. Thoughts bounced around in my mind before I said:

“When that time comes, I absolutely will not run away.”