Chapter 97: The Vast Sky Reveals The Albatross
“Name your price. I want this man.”
Zhang Min was a very decisive female agent. After Yun Ce introduced Peng Zeng’s special traits, she quickly grasped the key point. As long as she sent a person like Peng Zeng to Panxing Tower, the assessment she had been unable to pass would surely pass easily.
Moreover, this time for safety and to avoid accidents, she planned to trade with Yun Ce rather than leverage favors for coercion.
Yun Ce smiled and said, “I’ve saved him twice, yet he still refuses to follow me. Better to sell him for some money to make good jewelry for E Ji.”
As soon as Yun Ce finished speaking, Zhang Min immediately replied, “Twenty gold ingots. That’s the maximum amount of money and grain I can access.”
Yun Ce said satisfied, “Deal.”
Zhang Min rubbed her hands, staring at Peng Zeng like she was gazing at a peerless handsome man, and said, “I want to see with my own eyes how he recovers.”
Yun Ce burst into loud laughter. “Naturally. You can take care of him these next few days.”
Zhang Min said delighted, “Naturally.”
Peng Zeng’s mouth twitched as he tried to speak, when he saw half a soft sword slide out from Zhang Min’s sleeve. Though it was a soft sword, just seeing the flashing cold gleam, Peng Zeng had no doubt about its sharpness.
1 Zhang Min swung her hand, and the soft sword sliced from head to crotch, cutting open the tightly wrapped Yi Tree Cloth. Even as Peng Zeng’s robust male features were exposed before her eyes, Zhang Min showed no avoidance and even reached out to examine Peng Zeng’s various wounds.
1 “This knife wound is two inches and three tenths deep, nearly reaching the heart meridian, with heavy bleeding. An ordinary person without treatment could only survive the time it takes to burn one incense stick.
1 This knife wound is three inches and four tenths deep, the blade entered the abdomen, severing intestines was inevitable, yet now there’s no sign of intestinal rupture danger. Tsk tsk, what a sturdy body.
1 This knife wound here…”
1 Yun Ce watched as Zhang Min checked the wounds one by one. Sometimes to inspect clearly, Zhang Min even cut the suture thread Doggy had applied. In a moment, Peng Zeng’s wounds, which had been healing pleasantly, were messed up again by her.
1 “I’m a conscientious seller. When selling you goods, I can’t just mention the benefits without the flaws. Let me tell you, this man has one ability no one else has: he can take something that started well and ruin it completely at the most critical moment.”
1 Zhang Min wiped the blood from her hands with a handkerchief and said contentedly, “No problem. Extraordinary people must have extraordinary ways.”
1 The two conversed very pleasantly. From start to finish, neither Yun Ce nor Zhang Min asked Peng Zeng’s opinion—or rather, they had no intention of asking.
1 Zhang Min stayed by Peng Zeng and refused to leave, while Yun Ce went to comfort E Ji.
1 Entering the room, he saw E Ji holding the milk dog in a daze, so he sat beside her and smiled. “Still sulking because you didn’t kill Zhang Min?”
2 E Ji shook her head and said, “I couldn’t kill Zhang Min. Even if Young Master hadn’t pulled her away, I would have retreated.”
2 “The usual E Ji is always straightforward. Even with worries, she never keeps them in her heart. What’s wrong today?”
2 E Ji leaned her head on Yun Ce’s shoulder and said, “A long, long time ago, my mother told me something: the more a man gives a woman, the more it means that man is going to leave her.”
2 Hearing this, Yun Ce pulled out the deposit Zhang Min had just given him from his sleeve—a pure red-gold gold ingot—and placed it in E Ji’s hand. “Want it?”
2 Seeing the gold, E Ji gripped it tightly. Then a tear slid from the corner of her eye, soon followed by more teardrops. She hugged the gold ingot, tossed aside the milk dog, and clutched Yun Ce’s arm with both hands. “I want the gold Young Master gives me, and I don’t want Young Master to leave me.”
2 Yun Ce gently stroked her hair and said, “You’re the luckiest woman in the world. You deserve to enjoy what you should have: enduring wealth, loving husband and wife, thriving descendants, and a long life of a hundred years.”
2 E Ji showed a bitter smile, looked up at Yun Ce, and said, “Remove the long life of a hundred years. I’ll take the first three, even if just for one day.”
2 Yun Ce patted E Ji’s cheek and said, “Be bolder. Since we’re together, why not be greedier? Want everything, and want the best of everything.”
2 E Ji smiled and said, “Good.”
2 Ever since Zhang Min arrived at the Royal Hunting Ground, Yun Ce had completely lost contact with news from Chuyun City. Yesterday, Old Cao sent the former Black Armored Army centurion Cheng Xiang, who rode a Thunder Smoke Beast to Chuyun City.
3 He returned in the afternoon, looking dejected upon return. Sitting side by side on the threshold cracking shelled beans were Yun Ce, E Ji, and Zhang Min, who all saw his downcast expression.
3 Zhang Min turned to Yun Ce and said, “Let’s make a bet.”
3 Yun Ce shook his head. “Your sources are clearer than mine. I won’t take that bet.”
3 E Ji spat out two bean shell pieces disdainfully and said, “Like his parents just died.”
3 Zhang Min laughed. “Might be worse than his parents dying. When I left, the city was already a complete mess. Often, you couldn’t even tell who was attacking you.
3 Rebels fight soldiers, renegades fight soldiers, sometimes they fight rebels too. The wealthy families in the city banded together to fight soldiers, but more often they had to fight rebels, renegades coveting their wealth, and the thugs and rogues in the city.
3 In short, in the city now, as soon as you see someone, just swing your knife and chop them. That’s the right move.
3 That Cheng fellow, to curry favor with those people, specially escorted their families to the Royal Hunting Ground to escape danger, yet left his own family in the city to be killed. Isn’t that hilarious?”
3 Yun Ce laughed along. “Gains and losses make a good life. This guy could have scaled the walls to save his family but didn’t, which shows family is something he sees as sacrificable.”
3 Zhang Min nodded. “When Zhou Chengming selected Black Armored Cavalry, the criteria were extremely strict. For him to become a centurion, he must have been among the best. A lame leg isn’t a severe injury for a cavalryman. The reason Zhou Chengming expelled him must involve other matters.”
4 Perhaps it was the wind of the Royal Hunting Ground, or the white clouds drifting from Gaoliang Mountain, or maybe the aroma of food from home. They covered the deadly poison emanating from Chuyun City two hundred li away. This place was like another world, unrelated to all unpleasant things.
4 The next day, Old Cheng rode the Thunder Smoke Beast to Chuyun City again. This time he carried wall-climbing grappling hooks. While Yun Ce still felt guilty for his misjudgment, before afternoon, Old Cheng returned. The grappling hook was still hanging on the saddle, just as when he left.
4 However, this time Old Cheng seemed very relaxed upon return, as if a huge weight had been lifted from his heart. Perhaps his family had all died.
4 The only good news was that Peng Zeng’s wounds were healing incredibly fast—much faster than the last time Yun Ce saved him, nearly a third faster.
4 Zhang Min sent out carrier pigeons at a rate of one per day. On the third day, she received six carrier pigeons. With each silk brocade she opened, the corners of Zhang Min’s mouth curved up a bit more. After fully reading all six silk brocades, she slapped Yun Ce’s shoulder hard and said, “If you go to Chang’an later and have no food or place to stay, come rely on me. I’ll help you.”
4 “When do we leave?”
4 “Tomorrow. Tomorrow afternoon, a giant albatross will come to take us. Have your wife watch the Bird King then, so it doesn’t conflict with the albatross.”
4 Yun Ce understood albatross as a type of song, but after hearing Zhang Min, it should be a means of transport. From the name, it probably flies.
4 “What’s an albatross?”
4 Zhang Min pointed to the large bird she rode in on.
5 “Ten times bigger than it. That’s the Bird King.”
5 Yun Ce gazed thoughtfully at Zhang Min’s large bird and said, “Are albatrosses easy to catch?”
5 Zhang Min looked at Yun Ce and chuckled. “Don’t dream. These birds, from the day they first fly, only land when laying eggs. The female dies right after laying, the male hatches the eggs without eating or drinking and then dies too. Their chicks, from the day they break the shell, must quickly leave the high cliff nests and fall downward. If they learn to fly during the fall, they live. If not, they smash to death.
5 Ordinary albatrosses are like that. For a Bird King albatross, if you’re born with one, you have it; if not, you don’t.
5 Panxing Tower’s albatross Bird King was inherited, not caught by us. There’s only one in the entire Great Han. If not for picking up this extraordinary person Peng Zeng this time, with my authority, even mixing for another hundred years, I’d have no right to use an albatross.”
5 Seeing Yun Ce’s gaze fall on the large bird again, Zhang Min said vigilantly, “Don’t even think about it. Privately owning one of those is a crime punishable by exterminating nine clans.”
5 Yun Ce was now extremely curious about the albatross Zhang Min mentioned. The large bird was rare but within Yun Ce’s understanding. The albatross baffled him; he couldn’t imagine how big that bird would be.
5 In five days, Peng Zeng’s severe wounds had healed about seventy or eighty percent. This all happened right under Zhang Min’s eyes, seeming like a miracle to her. What Zhang Min envied most was that this guy had taken eighteen knife wounds, yet now, aside from a red mark on his skin, there were no scars.
5 With Zhang Min accompanying him, Peng Zeng left the recovery room. His first words upon seeing Yun Ce were to ask about Hu Po’s whereabouts.
5 Yun Ce said he didn’t know, but given the current chaos outside, an old woman carrying money and grain might dodge bandits, but in the wilds overrun by doggies, she probably wouldn’t survive long.
6 “I originally wanted to provide for her in old age. She shouldn’t have harmed me, and in the end, she harmed herself.”
6 Yun Ce snorted a laugh. “You’ve never made the right choice. The one time you finally stuck to something, you got wounded so badly.
6 Hopefully, this path I chose for you will be easier to walk.”
6 Peng Zeng shook his head; the light had gone from his eyes. Like Yun Ce, he looked up at a patch of dark clouds appearing on the horizon. The dark clouds didn’t stay at high altitude but descended rapidly. When the albatross’s wings glided over the Royal Hunting Ground sky, the milk dog in E Ji’s arms suddenly lifted its head, baring its teeth at the sky.
