Tome of Troubled Times

Chapter 548: Lady Three's Story

The Six Harmonies Art truly lived up to its reputation as one of the premier cultivation arts, with a recovery rate that was second to none.

After meditating for several hours, Zhao Changhe had managed to recover about half of his true qi. He still was not in any condition to leave, but at least he could now access the items in his ring.

He exhaled deeply, opening his eyes to find the sky above illuminated by bright stars and the moon.

Night had fallen once again.

In front of him, the campfire crackled, and Lady Three squatted by the fire, roasting a large shrimp she had skewered. He had no idea when she had caught it.

Her graceful figure, wearing his shirt, looked particularly endearing—the sleeves were so long they covered her hands, with just her fingertips peeking out. Squatting there, roasting food, she gave off a surprisingly warm and homely feeling.

“Awake?” Lady Three spoke without looking up, seemingly sensing his gaze. “Hold on a moment, the shrimp will be ready soon.”

Zhao Changhe asked, “Don’t we still have some fish left?”

“I’m tired of just eating fish, alright?” Lady Three did not want to admit that the real reason she got shrimp was because she wanted to contribute in some way—to show that she was not just sitting idly by. She had deliberately gone to catch the shrimp, though the effort had caused her rib to ache terribly. n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Once the shrimp looked about done, she handed it over, her voice carrying a hint of anticipation. “You didn’t eat much of the fish earlier, so you must be hungry. Try this.”

Zhao Changhe took it and took a bite.

Surprisingly, even without seasoning, the taste was not bad at all.

Maybe that was just the nature of seafood. There were people who preferred it lightly boiled, savoring its natural flavor. If it was fresh enough, it did not need much else.

“Tastes great,” Zhao Changhe said, quickly finishing the shrimp and laughing. “Honestly, I think it’s better than the fish I cooked.”

Lady Three’s eyes curved in a satisfied smile. “Of course! You have no skill in cooking! Even roasting requires some technique!”

Seeing her so pleased with herself, Zhao Changhe found her irresistibly cute and chuckled. “Indeed, as someone who’s run inns, you must have some skills. Hey, speaking of which, Lady Innkeeper...”

“What?”

“I’ve eaten so much in your inns, but is this the first time you’ve personally cooked for me?”

Lady Three’s expression turned stern. “It’s not.”

Zhao Changhe raised an eyebrow in curiosity. “What else did you make?”

“The osmanthus wine you drank at Huangsha Market was personally... brewed by me.”

“...”

Lady Three changed the subject. “Hey, how’s your recovery going?”

“Well, I can take out things from my storage ring now...” Zhao Changhe took out a bottle of medicine, popped one pill for himself, and handed another to Lady Three. “This will help you regulate your internal injuries and should help you recover some true qi. Your meridians are in a mess, so it should also help with that.”

Lady Three took the pill, then looked at his ring with eager eyes as if waiting to see what other treasures he could pull out.

Zhao Changhe, amused, slowly pulled out a fresh set of clothes. “Here, you can change out of that fishy-smelling shirt now.”

Lady Three, satisfied, grabbed the clothes without hesitation. That’s more like it!

Zhao Changhe could not help but laugh. So changing clothes is more important than healing your injuries, huh? Women...

But in the next moment, his eyes widened in shock.

Without a hint of modesty, Lady Three casually removed the shirt right in front of him, revealing her body in all its glory. Her pale skin gleamed in the firelight before she swiftly covered herself with the new set of clothes.

Zhao Changhe instinctively gulped.

Lady Three glanced at him, her lips curving into a faint, amused smile. “Your medicine really is effective. My arms have recovered well. Most of the soreness is gone now, though I still need to avoid overexerting them. Even my ribs don’t hurt as much anymore. With that pill you just gave me to restore my meridians and true qi, I can already feel them recovering. It works quite well.”

Zhao Changhe blinked, stammering, “Uh, th-that’s good, right?”

Lady Three smiled mischievously. “It means you won’t be able to take advantage of me much longer.”

Her words seemed to be implying that, for now, he still could.

The air fell into an instinctive silence for a moment. The crackling of the campfire and the sound of waves breaking along the shore filled the silence, making the night feel even more serene.

Lady Three pulled her clothes tighter, sitting by the fire with her knees hugged to her chest, watching the flames flicker without a word.

Zhao Changhe could not shake the feeling that in this quiet, intimate atmosphere, with Lady Three being a mature woman rather than a shy girl, she probably would not resist if he made a move. After all, they were both adults.

But he held himself back, resisting the urge.

We’re not in that kind of relationship. Do I really need a casual one-night fling right now?

Besides, Lady Three is a far more complicated person than she appears. How can I be sure that I’m not just misunderstanding things? Strictly speaking, I barely know her despite how long we’ve known each other.

Turning his head, Zhao Changhe noticed that the lid of the jade box had collected enough water. He picked it up and handed it to Lady Three. “I’ve got us some water. Do you have a story you can tell?”

Lady Three looked at him, her expression a little odd. After a pause, she finally said, “You’ve got wine, don’t you?”

Zhao Changhe: “...”

Right, my true qi has recovered enough for me to take out the wine gourd.

He pulled out the gourd and handed it over. “Here.”

It’s from the Four Idols Cult anyway. Chichi won’t mind Lady Three using it, right?

Lady Three took the gourd without any hesitation, and to Zhao Changhe’s surprise, she did not lift it high in the typical fashion to drink. Instead, she brought her lips directly to the mouth of the gourd, taking a deep gulp.

Zhao Changhe instinctively reached out but then stopped himself.

Lady Three let out a satisfied sigh and looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “What’s with that look? Afraid my lips will dirty your precious gourd?”

Zhao Changhe was not sure how to respond, so he quietly drank his water, feeling an odd sense of discomfort.

The cool water was refreshing as it went down, and soon enough, Lady Three’s voice drifted over, soft and pensive. “My mother, years ago, was one of Ying Five’s bandit comrades. She was third in rank and quite a bit older than him.”

Zhao Changhe thought to himself, Here comes the story.

He had always assumed that Lady Three’s father was one of Ying Five’s old comrades, but it turned out that it was her mother.

Who said women couldn’t be part of a brotherhood?

“But my mother didn’t stay with Ying Five for long. She was originally from Jiangnan, and after some time, she struggled with being a mounted brigand in the Western Regions. As a woman, she faced a lot of inconveniences. After reaching the eighth or ninth layer of the Profound Gate, she decided to leave and return to Jiangnan to establish her own force.”

Zhao Changhe nodded. One could say Lady Three’s mother was not the most loyal when it came to sticking with the group, but it was understandable. Being a female bandit was not exactly easy. The number of people who had reached the Profound Mysteries was small, and those who reached the upper levels of the Profound Gate usually held significant local power. Returning to the prosperous Jiangnan to carve out a more comfortable life made much more sense than remaining a bandit in the rough west.

Lady Three continued, “At that time, Jiangnan was under the control of Dragon King Hai Pinglan. My mother returned home, and somehow, she ended up getting involved with him.”

Zhao Changhe’s eyebrow raised. “Your father is Hai Pinglan?”

“Yeah, but I took my mother’s surname,” replied Lady Three. “The reason the Four Idols Cult opposes Xia Longyuan is tied to the backgrounds of its members. Take your beloved Qing’er, for example. Her family served the previous dynasty, and Xia Longyuan has never fully trusted the Huangfu Clan. As for Xia Chichi, her mother was a princess of the previous dynasty, while she herself is a princess in the current one. Although Hai Pinglan never officially became king, he was a regional warlord in control of Jiangnan, so I’m something like the princess of a fallen kingdom.”

“A club of princesses, huh... What about Vermillion Bird? Is she a princess from some family too?”

Lady Three chuckled. “Not telling. Go ask her yourself.”

“...Fine. Back to your story. I noticed you call Hai Pinglan by name without much respect.”

Lady Three took another slow sip of wine, her eyes distant. “Hai Pinglan fled overseas with the remnants of his forces and became a pirate. He was badly injured at the time. Officially, he was the head of the pirates, but it was my mother, as the second-in-command, who truly handled the operations. I was just two or three years old at the time, and I grew up among pirates well into my teenage years. As a young girl on a pirate ship, I eventually grew up to be third-in-command, becoming the third leader.”

Zhao Changhe said, “I always thought that the three leaders were something like partners in crime... But it turns out that it’s been more of a family business all along.”

He thought to himself, That wild, untamed vibe you have must have come from growing up like that... but what happened to make you change so much later on?

“It’s because those titles were given by the pirates themselves. We never referred to ourselves that way. Someone even declared himself the Dragon King,” Lady Three said with a mocking smile. “After all, being a pirate isn’t a lifelong career. Once you settle down with a base and things become more stable, people start having families and bringing in their loved ones. My mother worked tirelessly, expanding the base and building defenses. Over time, the nearby islanders came to join us, and it grew into the beginnings of a small kingdom, which eventually became known as Penglai. People said the king of Penglai had the surname Yuan, but that was because of misinformation—they were relying on early, outdated reports.”

“I see,” Zhao Changhe nodded.

Lady Three continued, “It took more than ten years to build it up. I was already leading our forces for quite some time by then, while Hai Pinglan remained in a state of recovery from his injuries and did little. It wasn’t surprising that outsiders believed the king or ruler’s surname was Yuan, given how the information spread to the mainland and might have even been mixed up with similar-sounding characters. But in reality, at that point, we had not even officially established a nation.”

Zhao Changhe understood, “So once Hai Pinglan recovered from his injuries, he took over and established the kingdom?”

“Exactly. My mother had passed away by then, and the cause of her death was mysterious—I’ll explain it to you in more detail some other time. I didn’t know then if it was a murder, but some of the old comrades found it suspicious and helped me escape. We resumed our old ways, taking up piracy again. The bearded old man you saw, Hai Qianfan, was once Hai Pinglan’s most loyal head of security. He turned his back on Hai Pinglan after that event and pledged loyalty to me.”

Zhao Changhe gave Lady Three a strange look, thinking to himself, So you’re basically the Pirate King.

“To avoid drawing too much attention, they still call me the third leader, though it hardly matters,” Lady Three said with a small smile. “It wasn’t long before we were hunted down. Ironic, isn’t it? Back when my mother was a pirate, the seas were dotted with small nations, but none had the organization or ability to conduct large-scale suppression. But now, they’re capable of doing just that, and it’s coming from the very nation my mother had worked so hard to establish.”

Zhao Changhe: “...”

“After a few waves of attacks, we suffered heavy losses. I felt responsible, thinking that if I left, the crew could disband and go live peaceful lives on smaller islands or in other nations. So one night, I quietly slipped away to seek out the Mounted Brigand Brotherhood my mother always spoke of fondly.”

At this point in her story, Lady Three sighed. “When I got to the mainland, I had no idea how to find the Mounted Brigand Brotherhood right away. So I stayed in Jiangnan for a while, quietly searching. One day, I saw a woman wearing a vermillion bird mask fighting with the eldest daughter of the Tang Clan. To be honest, I thought they were both pretty lousy fighters at the time, so I stepped in and said, ‘Stop fighting. You two aren't going to kill each other like this...’”