Post by Li Wang on Aug 2, 2011 4:11:36 GMT
Rain and steam filled the sky around Jiang Ling the night Li Xian and his small entourage of guards approached the gates of Jiang Ling. It was a hot night, but it was also a dark one, made all the more treacherous by the water running off the road. A man could easily miss a step and slip, but Li Xian noticed none of it from the safety of his carriage.
Xian was the son of Li Wang, the current prefect of Gui Ying, who also happened to currently be away fighting the war against Wei. Li Xian had been left a team of advisors from Jian Ye to help him govern the district while Wang was away, but for some reason none of them had been willing to investigate into reports of a bandit army having been assembled in the district. Convinced that they were in on whatever scheme Lu Xun was covering, Xian had been left no choice but to confide in someone who’d not been to Jian Ye recently. Lu Fei, a civil official currently in his fathers employ, fit the bill perfectly, and it took only a single meeting to enlist his help. Lu Fei had been tasked with overseeing the investigation of the district for evidence of the bandits, whilst his own son, Dun, had been dispatched to Jian Ye to inform Xian’s father of the discrepancy.
Xian and Fei knew there would be nothing around Gui Ying, but still they had to look, so Xian had waited until Fei finished his inspection of the district before planning this trip. With the first discrepancy of Lu Xun’s report confirmed, the next step was to find out what else the man had lied about, and the first place to look would be Jiang Ling, the domain of Taishi Ci, the man who’d raised Sun Liao from the age of 8. If anybody would be willing to help Xian root out a conspiracy, it would be him...
”Hey! Kid! We’re almost at the gate! Get ready to be searched; I want to get out of this fucking rain!
Xian was quickly roused from his trance as one of his guards yelled at him. Under normal circumstances, Xian would have had the man flogged for an outburst like that, but he knew that it was raining cats and dogs out there, so he would let it slide... well, not completely.
”When we get inside, we can get to an inn and you can try to find a tavern maid for you to fuck, assuming any woman will go near a man who smells like cow shit and looks like the inside of it’s ass, but until then save your worrying; there’s nowhere in this carriage to hide anything.
This elicited a round of laughter from the other half dozen guards; the one who’d complained had been bitching about the rain nonstop since it started a few hours ago. If Xian hadn’t snapped, someone else would have, and with much more vivid imagery than the 13 year old Xian, though they’d be hard pressed to use more colorful vocabulary.
I just want to get out of this fucking rain... The guard muttered as his companions continued to laugh right up to the gate, though Xian himself did not join in. Instead, he worried about how to keep a certain letter concealed. He'd never done this before, and did not wish to resort to sticking it up his sleeve if at all possible. It was hot outside, so Xian had laid his outer robe out on the seat opposite him. His inner robes' sleeves were tight on the growing boy (he was due to get a new wardrobe within the month), and Xian feared that the outline of the message would be clearly visible.
Well, I suppose there's no choice... Xian muttered to himself as he donned his outer robe, then took care to secure the letter in his sleeve. Hopefully, the guards would not strip search him at the gate.
Alright, Xian, we're at the gate. I'm going to go ask them to open the gate now.
This the captain of his guard, a grizzled veteran of about 50. He took Grumpy with him to the gatehouse to ask that they be allowed to enter and escorted to the palace.
Xian was the son of Li Wang, the current prefect of Gui Ying, who also happened to currently be away fighting the war against Wei. Li Xian had been left a team of advisors from Jian Ye to help him govern the district while Wang was away, but for some reason none of them had been willing to investigate into reports of a bandit army having been assembled in the district. Convinced that they were in on whatever scheme Lu Xun was covering, Xian had been left no choice but to confide in someone who’d not been to Jian Ye recently. Lu Fei, a civil official currently in his fathers employ, fit the bill perfectly, and it took only a single meeting to enlist his help. Lu Fei had been tasked with overseeing the investigation of the district for evidence of the bandits, whilst his own son, Dun, had been dispatched to Jian Ye to inform Xian’s father of the discrepancy.
Xian and Fei knew there would be nothing around Gui Ying, but still they had to look, so Xian had waited until Fei finished his inspection of the district before planning this trip. With the first discrepancy of Lu Xun’s report confirmed, the next step was to find out what else the man had lied about, and the first place to look would be Jiang Ling, the domain of Taishi Ci, the man who’d raised Sun Liao from the age of 8. If anybody would be willing to help Xian root out a conspiracy, it would be him...
”Hey! Kid! We’re almost at the gate! Get ready to be searched; I want to get out of this fucking rain!
Xian was quickly roused from his trance as one of his guards yelled at him. Under normal circumstances, Xian would have had the man flogged for an outburst like that, but he knew that it was raining cats and dogs out there, so he would let it slide... well, not completely.
”When we get inside, we can get to an inn and you can try to find a tavern maid for you to fuck, assuming any woman will go near a man who smells like cow shit and looks like the inside of it’s ass, but until then save your worrying; there’s nowhere in this carriage to hide anything.
This elicited a round of laughter from the other half dozen guards; the one who’d complained had been bitching about the rain nonstop since it started a few hours ago. If Xian hadn’t snapped, someone else would have, and with much more vivid imagery than the 13 year old Xian, though they’d be hard pressed to use more colorful vocabulary.
I just want to get out of this fucking rain... The guard muttered as his companions continued to laugh right up to the gate, though Xian himself did not join in. Instead, he worried about how to keep a certain letter concealed. He'd never done this before, and did not wish to resort to sticking it up his sleeve if at all possible. It was hot outside, so Xian had laid his outer robe out on the seat opposite him. His inner robes' sleeves were tight on the growing boy (he was due to get a new wardrobe within the month), and Xian feared that the outline of the message would be clearly visible.
Well, I suppose there's no choice... Xian muttered to himself as he donned his outer robe, then took care to secure the letter in his sleeve. Hopefully, the guards would not strip search him at the gate.
Alright, Xian, we're at the gate. I'm going to go ask them to open the gate now.
This the captain of his guard, a grizzled veteran of about 50. He took Grumpy with him to the gatehouse to ask that they be allowed to enter and escorted to the palace.
