Dandere General and his Lord

22. Pest Control

The next morning, Cheng Qianye was practicing her calligraphy in the study.

She had never touched a calligraphy brush pen before she had crossed over, so she often found herself some time to practice writing with a calligraphy brush. However, she was still not very good at it.

Xiao Qiu stretched out her little paw to grind ink for her. There was a smudge of ink on her little white nose, which looked quite adorable.

“Take a look what do you think of your Master’s calligraphy?” Cheng Qianye asked as she drew some basic calligraphy strokes on the paper.

Xiao Qiu stared at it with her big, almond-shaped eyes for half a day before stretching out a stubby finger and pointing at a stroke on the paper. “You drew this stroke nicely, it’s all squiggly and wiggly, just like an earthworm.”

“Ahh!” She cried out. “Big Sister, why did you pinch me?”

Her older sister, Bi Yun’s face was flushed with embarrassment. She crouched and saluted Cheng Qianye, giving her the fragrant, freshly brewed cup of tea.

Cheng Qianye took a sip of the tea and smiled as she said, “Bi Yun, don’t restrict Xiao Qiu all the time. I like that she’s like this.”

Xiao Qiu was merely around 10 years old. Fair and tender, she was a pure and lively child.

Cheng Qianye could easily see through the facade people put up and see their inner emotions because of her gold finger. Everyday, as she watched the people around her cheating and deceiving others, it was hard for her to avoid feeling depressed.

So, she was most fond of this type of soul whose external appearance and inner thoughts coincided. 

At that moment, Mo Qiao Sheng walked into the study.

Pure and enchanting, he was her sapphire with a single-minded heart of loyalty.

“How’s your friend?” Cheng Qianye asked.

“The doctor says he has passed the most dangerous period.”

“Master.” Mo Qiao Sheng knelt in front of her. “Won’t you punish me?”

“Punish you?” Cheng Qianye raised her brows and stopped writing to look at him. “Why should I punish you?”

“I….”

“What do you feel guilty about?” Cheng Qianye couldn’t help reaching out her hand and touching his head. “You don’t think you have the qualifications to ask me for anything, even though he is a friend you value so much?”

Mo Qiao Sheng looked up at Cheng Qianye. Master was always able to see through his heart lay bare his innermost thoughts with one remark.

“Then, okay. Since you say it like this, then I’ll punish you. I’ll give you a severe punishment.”

Mo Qiao Sheng straightened his back and displayed a resolute look on his face.

Cheng Qianye pulled him to his feet and pressed him into her original position. “I’ll punish you to copy this book with me. We’ll each write one half of this copybook.”

She stuffed a pen into Mo Qiao Sheng’s hand and held the back of his hand with her soft palm.

“Can you? I’ll teach you to write.”

The Lord’s pretty white face hovered above his shoulder, almost touching him and seemed to emit a fragrance of orchids.

“Haha, I may not be able to write as well as you do.”

Mo Qiao Sheng suddenly felt an inexplicable emotion well up in his heart. Like a soft feather brushing back and forth against the most fragile part of his heart, he felt sour and ticklish, making his body shudder slightly.

He resolutely gave himself a mental slap.

What wild delusions are you indulging in right before your Master?”

“Qiao Sheng, do you think that I am a good lord?” Cheng Qianye held Mo Qiao Sheng’s hand which was writing characters onto the paper as she asked softly.

“In my heart, Master is the best lord in the entire world.” 

Cheng Qianye knew that he was telling the truth.

She looked at their hands that were joined together and the ink marks made on the paper under their guidance before slowly speaking.

“When I was younger, the school held interest classes, ah, it’s about learning extra skills. I wanted to learn chinese painting, but my mother told me that the guzheng is very charming and that she wished she could hear me playing it.”

“So Master abandoned what you were interested in to please Madame?”

“Correct. When Mother saw that I chose the guzheng, she was really happy as expected and praised me repeatedly.”

“I obtained my mother’s praise, but I had to give up what I liked.”

“My nature is like this. I frequently abandon my own interests and persistence in order to get the approval of others.”

Cheng Qianye released his hand and stopped writing. “I used to care about the opinions of Zhang Fu, Xiao Jin and those old ministers. I constantly gave up my own ideas in order to cater to them, hoping I could get their recognition.”

“But now, I have realized that I was wrong. To be a qualified lord, just being a good person is not enough.”

She looked at Qiao Sheng. “Qiao Sheng, although you are a slave, you must also have your own ideas. Have you ever thought about what kind of person you want to be?”

“Do you wish to serve me at my side, or do you wish to make great contributions on the battlefield?”

The emotions in Mo Qiao Sheng’s eyes surged gradually with great billows, “I wish to become the blade in Master’s hand. If Master wishes to expand your territory, I will attack the other cities and seize their territory. If Master wishes to rule all the land under the heavens, I will crusade against the world for you.” 

Cheng Qianye looked at the brilliantly sparkling sapphire before her eyes and reached out her hand to take his. “Okay, then follow me.”

The training ground was packed full of people. All the sergeants and generals who were ranked centurions and above, and all the magistrates along with the attendants and guards who served at the Lord’s side were all gathered there.

Everyone looked up at the young lord who was sitting up at the platform.

The news that the Lord had narrowly escaped being poisoned to death at the banquet the day before yesterday had already been spread widely amongst all the officers.

Now that so many people were gathered there in such a manner, it was most likely to give them a stern dressing down.

Some people with clandestine thoughts were jittery while some people waited to watch the spectacle with a sense of schadenfreude. The scene was gradually permeated with the sounds of hushed discussions from the crowd.

Cheng Qianye looked at the congregation calmly as she wrote and made marks on the book in her hand.

No one could see the vertical and horizontal lines forming a grid together in her book, each square corresponding with the number of people standing on the field.

Cheng Qianye put down her book and pulled Mo Qiao Sheng to her side. “Qiao Sheng, take a look. The horizontal lines represent rows and the vertical lines represent columns. Each square represents one person. You go and capture all the people I’ve crossed out and bring them over here.”

She added quietly in his ear, “The contents inside the book can’t be seen by others. After we’ve caught all of them, you go put it in the fire and burn it.”

Mo Qiao Sheng accepted his orders and went.

After a short while, Cheng Qianye faced more than 20 people who were kneeling in front of her.

These people looked at each other, their faces filled with perplexion.

Some of them were high-ranking officers within the army, some of them attendants who served at Cheng Qianye’s side. 

The only commonality between them being that regardless of what sort of expression they were displaying, in Cheng Qianye’s eyes, once these people looked at her, all of their auras were tinged with a ghastly malice.

Cheng Qianye sat up on the high platform and looked down at these people for a moment before asking, her voice loud and clear, “Who sent you all? What purpose do you have, lurking around me? What awful things have you done? And who are your accomplices?”

“Those who are honest may still have a chance to eke out a way of survival after you have been expelled from here. However, if you still insist on resisting stubbornly with your back against the wall, you will be beheaded immediately!”

Those twenty-something people all prostrated in succession, clamouring out injustice.

There was also a buzz of discussion among the crowd of spectators.

Cheng Qianye paid them no heed and pointed to the first man in the front row whose entire body was shrouded in a sinister black fog.

Two armoured soldiers stepped forward and dragged him away from the others.

The man was a purchasing manager with a simple and honest appearance. He kowtowed repeatedly as he cried out that he was wronged.

“This is your last chance to confess. If you don’t, there is only death awaiting you.” Cheng Qianye said coldly.

The man’s tears and snivel mingled together as he cried out, “My Lord, Xiaoren1 is an old man from your mother’s side and have served you and Madame for more than twenty years with loyalty and devotion. This time, Madame specially sent Xiaoren here along with the army to serve My Lord with your everyday life. My Lord mustn’t listen to the malicious slander of others, and wrong Xiaoren like this!”

Cheng Qianye lowered her lashes and waved her hand.

Two powerful soldiers dragged the man down from the high platform and towards the executioner who was waiting below the stage. Regardless of his wailing struggles, the executioner’s hands rose up and the blade fell down. A perfectly good head tumbled down to the ground in an instant. 

Everyone present abruptly fell silent.

Cheng Qianye glanced at the second person in the line.

The man’s whole body was quaking and shivering as a soldier dragged him away from the group of people. He lay limp on the ground and his teeth chattered as he said,

“Xiao, Xiaoren will confess. Xiaoren was originally from Marquis Yé’s2 side. Wan…. Madame Wan arranged for this one to come in and inquire about My Lord’s state of affairs here and deliver the news to her in secret.”

Cheng Qianye waved at Xiao Xiu. “Note it down. Check his residence and if he hasn’t committed any serious offences, cane him twenty times and banish him from here.”

The remaining people saw that their blood would splatter their feet if they didn’t confess and that they could really retain their lives if they did. They gingerly stepped forward in succession and began spilling the beans. 

Some of them were moles who had been arranged to spy on her by the other vassal states, some of them planted there by the aristocratic families of Jin Nation to scout out information.

Cheng Qianye punished them according to the severity of their crimes, not easily taking the lives of those who weren’t guilty of any terrible crimes.

A petty officer from the army was pushed forward and he knelt down and kowtowed. “Xiaoren will confess. Xiaoren was sent by Li Wenguang to lie low in the army. Xiaoren hasn’t done anything, My Lord, please forgive my sin. Xiaoren has an accomplice. It’s….”

He lifted up his head and glanced at the row of elite generals standing at the back. “Xiaoren’s accomplice is general Helan3 Zhen.”

The crowd immediately erupted into an uproar.

Helan Zhen flew into a rage and almost rushed forward. Yu Dunsu held him back and said, “Brother Helan, don’t be impulsive. My Lord has his own way of discernment.”

Helan Zhen’s face was flushed red and he prostrated, “My Lord possesses clear judgement. This person has always held a personal grudge against me and is using this occasion to vent his selfish anger. I have really been wrongfully accused.”

Cheng Qianye sized him up, not responding for a long time.

Helan Zhen’s heart was filled with anxiety. So many spies had been captured today, leaving everyone on tenterhooks. It was only natural if the Lord didn’t believe him.

He was from an aristocratic family. If he suffered from such an unredressed injustice and were to be driven out of the army, he would be left with nowhere to go.

~

1. (小人 – Xiaoren) – I, me / This humble man / This ordinary man / Villain, Base person [A humble way to refer to oneself / Used by a person of low social status when speaking to his betters.]
2. (爷 = Yé) A respectful form of addressing a man of higher position [Sir; Master; Lord]/respectful form of addressing an elder man. Literal translation father/grandpa/old gentleman. Basically an honorific such as “sama” in jp.
3. Umm… so it seems I made another mistake T_T I previously translated Helan Zhen as He Lanzhen but turns out his surname is actually Helan rather than just He. Soo Imma go back and fix that from previous chapters later on.