Chapter 134.1
Editor: Casey
In the courtyard, master and servant watched as the maidservant jogged over to ask the newcomer his name.
Shi Qing waited with bated breath.
He was now eighteen, but his appearance was only a little less boyish than it had been two years ago. Although he was a little taller, he still made people want to take him into their arms and cuddle with him.
And by ‘people’, I mean Jiang Bieyu.
On the other hand, Jiang Bieyu, who was already tall to begin with, had eaten well in the past two years and actually grew even taller. His experience clearing away the countless obstacles in Shi Qing’s path made him radiate a dark and foreboding aura.
The two of them were technically still master and servant, but when he’s by Shi Qing’s side, Jiang Bieyu resembled anything but.
Everyone in the manor was more or less afraid of him. Even Father Shi had spoken to his son a few times about the man, believing Jiang Bieyu to be an uncontrollable blade that would one day ‘injure its wielder’. He urged Shi Qing to quickly send the man away.
But the little master didn’t believe him. He continued to treat Jiang Bieyu as he always did, like he was raising a tamed wild beast.
Shi Qing’s confidence was clear for anyone to see.
He seemed sure that Jiang Bieyu would not betray him.
Jiang Bieyu thought the same.
But being unwilling to betray his little master didn’t mean he wasn’t angry.
He gazed steadily into Shi Qing’s eyes.
Those bright eyes that he was so familiar with still shone like glittering starlight. Shi Qing often looked at him with such eyes.
But now, those eyes lingered on the face of that fierce-looking servant.
He seemed to have forgotten all about Jiang Bieyu.
The man remained in his original position, his eyes slightly darkened. He opened his mouth: “I’ve never seen this person in the manor before.”
The little master seemed unable to tear his eyes away from that servant for even a moment as he casually replied, “Maybe he’s one of the new servants bought this time.”
Shi Qing recalled something. “Didn’t you say a while ago that the manor needed to buy more servants because so many were let go? Mother even came to my courtyard to ask me if I wanted some new maids.”
Jiang Bieyu raised his eyes slightly and also looked in the direction of the corridor. He pursed his lips, his voice hoa.r.s.e, “Unfortunately, that seems to be the case.”
He turned back to the little master and proposed:
“Since he’s quite tall, he has potential. Why not a.s.sign him under my command so I can train him well?”
“Under your command?”
A bit of disdain appeared in Shi Qing’s eyes as he glanced at the tall man beside him. “The men under your command are all trembling cowards. They aren’t valiant at all. What if the same thing happens to him if he’s brought under your command?”
Two years ago, when Shi Qing took over the Shi family business and showed the world how talented he was, Father Shi a.s.sembled a group of bodyguards for him from the st.u.r.diest manservants in the manor.
At that time, Shi Qing directly appointed Jiang Bieyu, who was not even given the surname Shi, to be the head bodyguard.
Many people were dissatisfied with this decision.
They didn’t dare to approach the little master directly. Instead, they tried to make things difficult for Jiang Bieyu so that this n.o.body would know his place and back off.
However, in the end, it only took Jiang Bieyu less than five days to make all of his adversaries admit defeat.
As for what exactly he did to accomplish this…well, no one would say. No one has ever dared to expose him in front of Shi Qing either.
In short, everyone in the manor knew that after those five days, the other bodyguards looked at their leader not with awe or admiration, but with fear in their eyes.
At first, they didn’t understand what there was to be afraid of. Jiang Bieyu was only fierce-looking, right? He was just one person in the end. Couldn’t the other bodyguards just gang up on him?
But after Jiang Bieyu personally tore that merchant who dared to covet Shi Qing apart, no one at the manor dared to ask any more questions.
No longer did anyone complain in secret about him being so favoured by Qing-er despite not being given the surname Shi.
Even just pa.s.sing by this man would cause cold sweat to drip down everyone’s backs.
And the little master was definitely unaware of any of this.
No one dared to bring up what Jiang Bieyu did in front of the little master.
If they offended this devil incarnate, who knew what gruesome end awaited them?
Although no one told Shi Qing what happened, he was always accompanied by Jiang Bieyu when he saw his other bodyguards. Naturally, he saw how those people behaved in front of the man.
Like mice that saw a cat, they didn’t even dare to breathe too loudly.
Not to mention being as fierce as lions, they were even more cowardly than turtles.
The little master grumbled to Jiang Bieyu afterwards, saying he didn’t know where the rumour that the Shi family bodyguards were all brave and fierce fighters had come from.
What he didn’t know was that these people were only turtles in front of Jiang Bieyu.
Jiang Bieyu didn’t deny it. He just calmly said:
“Since this person has only recently entered the manor, we can’t be certain of his loyalties. Bringing him under my command will allow me to vet him properly.”
He added, “Didn’t the Shi family reject King Zhou’s recruitment recently? It’s possible that they’ve sent people to investigate. It’s better to be careful.”
Shi Qing seemed very hesitant, but he eventually nodded.
As the Shi family’s net worth skyrocketed under his hand, Crane City was gradually unable to contain this Shi family’s little master’s ambitions.
After two years, the Shi family’s industries were present in almost all parts of the world.
The wealth and grain they had acc.u.mulated had naturally attracted the covetous attention of some.
Among these people, the self-proclaimed kings who vainly attempted to dominate the world were the most numerous.
After all, fighting a war costed money!
You need money to buy food, clothing, and weapons for your troops.
There was only so long willpower alone would suffice. Without a source of income eventually, no one could hold out forever.
Taking in a powerful force like the Shi family would be the best course of action.
But Shi Qing would have to be crazy to accept these ‘olive branches’.
If the Shi family dared to jump ship now, the big boss of Crane City would slaughter them without hesitation.
But refusing would also offend people.
Jiang Bieyu alone had stopped at least five waves of spies sent from other forces.
Now that he’s brought this up, no matter how much the little master liked this kind of features, he had to relent because his little life was at stake.
Jiang Bieyu wasn’t surprised by his choice in the slightest.
He only respectfully bowed his head slightly before walking with large strides towards that person.
The maidservant who had been sent to ask for his name was speaking softly to him. Then she happened to look up and see that the devil incarnate, Jiang Bieyu had arrived at some point. She immediately turned as white as a sheet and hastily stepped aside.
The man was tall and imposing. His light-coloured eyes emotionlessly glanced at the servant in front of him as he asked the steward:
“Who bought him into the manor?”
The current steward was the old steward’s son. He wasn’t as confident as his father due to his youthful inexperience. So when he heard Jiang Bieyu, who had a reputation for being brutal and skinning people alive, coldly address him like that, a tremor of fear ran down his spine.
“I-it was that Er Xi’s doing.”
Jiang Bieyu scowled. He glanced at that tall servant who was also pallid and afraid to meet his eyes again. “Send him to the bodyguard team.”
“Yes, I’ll send him there right away.”
The little master was still waiting, so Jiang Bieyu didn’t dawdle. He twisted to return to Shi Qing’s side.
But he gave that tall servant another icy look before he left.
Only then did the new servants on the veranda sneak a peek in Jiang Bieyu’s direction.
Across the white, snow-covered ground, the man radiating a stifling aura strode towards the little master waiting for him.
A faint smile seemed to appear on his cold, hard face as he reached out and straightened his cloak for the little master. Then the two of them left together.
It was only after they couldn’t see him anymore that everyone heaved a sigh of relief.
A particularly bold guy asked quietly, “Who was that?”
The steward was also relieved: “The head bodyguard. He’s also Qing-er’s personal servant.”
A servant???
The entire group couldn’t wrap their heads around it.
Were there servants who dressed like that and had an aura like that?
Not to mention even the steward seemed afraid to speak up in front of him.
That guy was a servant?!!
The steward coughed dryly a few times. “Silence. Didn’t I tell you you have to be quiet in our Shi family manor?”
“You.”
He pointed to the servant who was still shivering from Jiang Bieyu’s parting look of resentment. “I’ll take you to the bodyguard team later. You’ll be under his command from now on.”
The servant: “…Can I not go? This one thinks…he doesn’t like this one.”
The hairs on his arms were still standing up from the look Jiang Bieyu shot him.
The steward had a serious expression. “Nonsense. You must go.”
“B-but this one is afraid.”
“What’s there to be afraid of?” The steward confidently said, “Don’t worry, he doesn’t kill people from the Shi family. You’ll be fine as long as you’re still working here.”
Besides, the steward already promised Jiang Bieyu to take this person to him. If this guy didn’t go, he would be the one who needed to be scared.
The servant: “…He, he kills people??”
He doesn’t kill…people from the Shi family…
So you mean he might kill people who aren’t from the Shi family??
Seeing that the servant’s legs were trembling with fear, the steward realized how his words could’ve been misconstrued. He kindly explained.
“When the bodyguard team was first a.s.sembled not long ago, that person suggested to Qing-er that they should experience actual combat as practice. After that, he took them to clean out the nearby mountain bandits. So they only killed mountain bandits.”
Oh…mountain bandits, ah. That makes it a bit better.
There were quite a few mountain bandits around Crane City, and almost all of them have blood on their hands. The magistrate attempted to deal with them, but the cunning bandits evaded capture by hiding in the mountains every time.
Now that the world was in chaos, the magistrate was too busy to spare a large amount of manpower to deal with the bandits. They could only leave them be for now.
Now that he knew the people Jiang Bieyu killed were mountain bandits who killed and robbed people, the servant’s body relaxed a little.
The steward wasn’t finished yet. “There were also some a.s.sa.s.sins who wanted to a.s.sa.s.sinate Qing-er. If I recall correctly, there were 18 in total. Eight were delivered to the magistrate and the rest died by his hands because they refused to reveal who sent them.”
The servant: “……”
The steward: “There were also several merchants who sent people to a.s.sa.s.sinate Qing-er. The one that left the deepest impression on me was the one who was tied up in the street and skinned alive by him. The screams…”
The servant: “……”
The steward counted off on his fingers. “I think Jiang Bieyu was also the one who dealt with the people who had ill intentions towards Qing-er when he was outside handing out porridge. There were probably about a dozen of them? I wasn’t there myself, but I heard that they all died quite miserably.”
The steward didn’t know much about what happened. He just heard that Qing-er had taken a rest in the forest shade when he left to hand out porridge and met with some rude ruffians who also tried to make a move on him.
Jiang Bieyu heard the commotion from outside and went in straight away.
First, he carried the little master out.
Then he headed back by himself.
When he came out again, it was for others to go in and collect the bodies
Although those ruffians kind of deserved it, most people in that situation would have gone to the authorities for help or something.
But Jiang Bieyu just killed them all.
This evil way of dealing with problems made it no wonder that everyone at the manor was afraid of him.
But now that the steward was thinking about it, he wasn’t so afraid of Jiang Bieyu anymore.
He did what he did for Qing-er’s sake, after all.
Their master only had one heir, so of course they should look after him carefully.
In addition, Jiang Bieyu wasn’t completely unapproachable.
He added: “Although people say that your leader has taken many lives, you don’t need to be afraid because those people deserved it. Plus, he’s actually very considerate. He asked someone to gag that merchant at night so people nearby wouldn’t be disturbed by his screams. Thoughtful, right?”
The servant: “……”
The servant’s legs were already threatening to give out.
He wiped the sweat beading on his forehead with trepidation. “S-Steward, can I not go? Why don’t you send me to do something else? This one is willing to do anything, no matter how hard or tiresome it is.”
The steward: “You should think twice about that. There was once a person in the bodyguard team who wanted to leave no matter what. Your leader told him that if he wanted to leave, he had to fight him first. In the end, the man was beaten to his knees until he cried that he wanted to stay in the bodyguard team after all.”
The steward looked the servant up and down. He clicked his tongue and shook his head. “I don’t think you can beat him.”
The servant was on the verge of tears.
All he had done was sell himself and come to make a living at the Shi family to afford a wife.
Now he was going to be placed under the command of a person who took lives without even blinking.
He wanted to go home…
Wuwuwuwu…