Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 29: The Young Lady of the Zuo Family

‘Zuo Shuijing… she really is from the Zuo family.’ Ou Yang didn’t reply. In his previous life, he’d seen countless beautiful women online—playful, cute, coldly elegant, noble, natural, and artificial “goddesses” of every kind flooded the vast internet. So his first impression of the girl before him was simply: ‘What a pretty young lady.’ That was all. Ou Yang even took the time to observe the burly man standing beside Zuo Shuijing. He was clearly a Yi—with a round face, narrow eyes, a thin, long handlebar mustache on his upper lip, bow legs, and short, thick limbs that looked incredibly powerful. His dog-fur hat hid his head, but he didn’t appear to have long hair. Surprisingly, he also wore an iron armor plaque hanging from his waist! This was an extremely rare commoner’s armor plaque. The border settlement villages along the Empire’s frontier could be divided into three categories based on their nature: public villages administered by the imperial government; semi-private, semi-public imperial estates (such as Ou Yang’s Pai Jia Village); and private villages belonging to various noble families, wealthy clans, or merchant houses (SF Express, for instance, had its own private village). Regardless of their nature, all villages have the same tax rate, fall under the jurisdiction of the garrison, and the official rank of the Plaque-Armor Officer is the same. Pai Jia Villages of different natures may even be commanded by the same Thousand-Man Headquarters (Wang Hongguang’s village is a privately owned Pai Jia Village). The only difference lies in who is responsible for the day-to-day management and the primary revenue of the Pai Jia Village. For a commoner to hold the rank of Pai Jia, it could only be in a privately owned Pai Jia Village. After serving as a slave to a major clan for a long time and earning their deep trust—yet without being elevated to commoner status—the clan would sometimes appoint such a commoner to the position of Pai Jia to manage their own frontier settlement village as a reward (commoners were not permitted to reside in such villages; otherwise, a commoner governing commoners would constitute a breach of the social hierarchy). For clans with this kind of influence, elevating someone to commoner status is actually quite easy, because politically speaking, as citizens, officers who have reached the Pai Jia rank have the authority to recognize the merits of the commoners and slaves under their command (for example, Ou Yang easily elevated Heheli to commoner status). But major clans have their own family rules. Accumulating the merits required both for becoming a “Pai Jia” officer and for being promoted to commoner status might not be any easier than for a state-owned slave. Clearly, this person’s choice was to become a “Pai Jia” first, as that would provide more opportunities to earn merits; if he were to be promoted to commoner first, the merits required for that promotion would not be something the Zuo family could simply grant. Still, having chosen a government post, he was, after all, little more than a high-ranking slave militia captain—and he remained subordinate to a full-fledged “Pai Jia.” In many ways, he was even worse off than an ordinary commoner—for instance, regarding the ownership of slaves and the education of his children. “Zuo Jia Nu,” Song Wenmu, standing nearby, snorted coldly. “What?” Ou Yang didn’t understand the meaning of the term. “His name is Zuo Jia Nu,” Song Wenmu whispered. “He used to be the captain of the household guards for Zuo Yunyi’s family. Only last year was he assigned as the village head of a Zuo family village. A barbarian—not even a commoner—and yet he dares to sit on equal footing with us, the noble scions of Huaxia.” Only then did Ou Yang recall that the Song Wenmu family wielded considerable influence; it was just that his branch served as civil officials, and with the main family based far away in Zhe Province in the southeast, their influence in the northwest wasn’t as strong. Among the three genuine village chiefs present, although Ou Yang found the young lady truly beautiful, his own broad experience meant he wasn’t particularly impressed. Liu Chenyong kept his head bowed the entire time. He had once served as a regular soldier under Zuo Yunyi’s command; rumor had it that the Zuo family was now helping him secure a position as a company commander, and even his wife had been matched by the Zuo family—he’d married the daughter of a manager at SF Express. He harbored a deep sense of gratitude toward the Zuo family, so upon seeing this young lady of the Zuo household, he merely bowed his head in respect, showing no intention of staring. Song Wenmu, on the other hand, came from a family of civil officials. Although he also found the young lady beautiful and charming, he had always considered himself a scholar and naturally could not be so forward with such a lady. Besides, his prejudice against Zuo Jia Nu was far stronger than his admiration for her beauty. Only Huang Junxian seemed to be captivated by Zuo Shuijing. Paying no heed to the fact that, among those present, his status was actually the lowest, he rushed to step forward and answer the beauty’s question. “Miss Shuijing, we have indeed come from Anxi Garrison. We have indeed rendered some minor service, and we are currently awaiting the Secretary’s review…” The boy’s face was plastered with a cringingly cheesy grin, reminding Ou Yang of the comical expressions of a self-important teenager from his past life when he encountered the girl he had a crush on. The regular army’s accompanying auditor said nothing, merely nodding to Zuo Shuijing. The young beauty widened her clear eyes dramatically, covered her mouth, and exclaimed, “Wow~~~! I’ve heard from my uncles that the so-called ‘pseudo-prince’ of the Oak Empire is quite formidable~~~” Her voice was melodious and pleasant, tinged with a hint of a seductive tremor. Huang Junxian seemed on the verge of melting away in the girl’s sweet voice. He straightened his back like a little rooster and patted his chest, declaring, “Those Di beasts are no match for us sons of China!” “Can I take a look at the lion’s head? I’ve never seen a lion before~~~” The girl’s face was lit up by two little dimples, and her smile grew sweeter and sweeter. “Well…” The girl’s request made the young man—who had practically fallen for her at first sight—hesitate. He felt that Zuo Shuijing, a beautiful young girl still in the bloom of youth, would be a poor match for a dead man’s head, so he said, “That head is filthy and stinks, and its face is hideously grotesque. I’m afraid it might frighten you, young lady, so perhaps you shouldn’t look at it.” Zuo Shuijing pouted, and her previously joyful and excited expression visibly fell. Huang Junxian was at a loss. He could slaughter the Di and Qiang tribes without a second thought and often abused female slaves, but he was completely powerless against this beautiful young lady from a prominent family. Only then did he remember that he hadn’t come alone—and that he wasn’t even the leader of his own group. The young man glanced around with a pleading look, hoping that the few armored guards who had remained silent since exchanging greetings would come to his aid. Ou Yang glanced at the girl’s mount. Hanging from the left side of the gleaming silver saddle was a standard-issue flintlock musket of the Imperial Regular Cavalry. There was no hunting bow, nor the small-caliber hunting rifles used by Imperial nobles for leisurely fox and rabbit hunts. He then looked at the entourage behind her: a few bare horses without saddles carried a small amount of game laid across their backs—mostly deer, with only a single wild boar. A young woman hunting around Military Might City with a military lance—Ou Yang had no idea how her family had raised her, but she certainly wasn’t some delicate, pampered young lady. “It wouldn’t hurt to let Miss Zuo take a look,” Ou Yang finally decided. “Thank you, thank you, my lords,” the young beauty exclaimed, her eyes lighting up. She skipped over to the sled loaded with severed heads. The Yiren soldier in plate armor who had been following close behind stepped forward and lifted the canvas covering the sled, revealing the gruesome orc heads inside. The head of that prince of the Oak Empire lay on top; its mouth was wide open, with traces of blood still clinging to its fangs, looking as hideous as a demon. “Wow~~~” Sure enough, the girl wasn’t scared at all; she simply exclaimed, “Did you behead him, sir?” The beautiful girl’s eyes, as she looked at Huang Junxian, were now filled with admiration. But this question made the young man feel incredibly awkward—the lion wasn’t his achievement. Song Wenmu, who had always had a bit of a rift with Huang Qianzong, pointed at Ou Yang and laughed, “This so-called ‘Prince’ of Shengdi was personally slain by Ou Pai-jia.” “So it was Lord Ou~~~ How impressive~~~” Ou Yang was almost blinded by her starry-eyed gaze filled with adoration; the smile directed at him actually had a certain anime-like quality to it. ‘Holy crap, have I been transported into a shōjo manga?’ Ou Yang thought self-deprecatingly. ‘This female lead is indeed quite nice, but unfortunately, the four staples of time-travel farming stories—steel smelting, cannons, glass, and liquor—already exist in this world. I’ll have to start from the bottom; I won’t be able to become a domineering CEO.’ Ou Yang bowed again: “You flatter me, young lady. It was merely a stroke of luck on my part.” Huang Junxian, who had been instantly ignored by the beauty, wore a bitter expression, looking as if he’d just been dumped; his whole demeanor grew gloomy. Liu Chenyong felt he should help the poor boy, but he also realized that the gap in status between Huang Junxian and the young woman was vast; such a hopeless infatuation was unlikely to end well. So he simply interrupted the young beauty as she continued to express her admiration for Ou Yang: “Miss, the heads we presented have already been inspected. We still need to report to the Commander-in-Chief’s office today.” “The Commander’s office? Are you going to see Uncle Nineteen?” Zuo Shuijing was so excited she nearly jumped up. “That’s perfect! I’m going there too. Shall we go into town together?” Liu Chenyong shook his head with a wry smile. It was a good thing that the young lady from the Zuo family had a favorable impression of Ou Yang, who held the same rank as him—Thousand-Captain. But whether it was Ou Yang or Huang Junxian, both had been allotted Di slave women; Ou Yang, in particular, had even been given a mother-daughter pair. Who knew how this fresh-faced, refined young lady would view such matters? If the Zuo family were to mistakenly assume that these coarse, vulgar men were setting their sights on their daughter, things would get very awkward. Ou Yang, however, had no such reservations. First of all, he hadn’t actually touched Toya or her mother, so he didn’t see anything wrong with his behavior. Secondly, he didn’t mistake a minor girl’s momentary admiration for romantic love; having lived two lifetimes, Ou Yang never believed in love at first sight. Besides, the Zuo family was already at the very top of the gift-giving list; gaining their favor at this point should be considered a smooth success. So, Ou Yang made the decision on behalf of his entire party. “Better to comply than to refuse.”