Will Of Heaven

二十

A man was sitting on the settee beside the window with two women, one woman each in his arms. They fed him dates and grapes, poured him wine as they fluttered their eyelashes at him, the man's hands would accidentally brush their chest and legs. The women didn't mind as they flirtatiously laughed at his behavior.

"Are you sure this isn't the pleasure house instead?" I whispered again, Jia Xu glanced at the place where I'm looking, shrugging his shoulders "That's normal. The gambling house has a lot of guests coming from nobles, wealthy merchants, and influential people alike, they love going here. The host naturally has to accommodate them to keep them going here"

Jia Xu and that man abruptly made eye contact, the former made a cour​te​ous smile, and the latter nodded in acknowledgment. "That's General Sun Renshu's second-in-command, Hong Hui"

"Second-in-command? Aren't they waiting for Imperial's father's edict to return?" if Hong Hui is here, there's a chance General Sun is also here in the capital. It can't be that his second-in-command is here just to fool around with tender grass and flowers.

"It's the army that needs his majesty's edict to return, not the generals themselves. General Sun can come here but without the escort of his army as long as he got permission from his majesty to return. As for why did he return early? I don't know either, it seems to be kept a secret. I haven't heard of Hong Hui being in the capital as well. They must have an important business here" They could be spying or investigating something or someone in this place.

For someone who has worked years in the army for Conquest, they sure are diligent in their work. Working right after marching from the Northern border to the capital.

We walked upstairs and were greeted by loud voices. No, they weren't greeting us, they were shouting to win their gamble. I have no idea shouting can help in winning except working up your energy to waste.

It was the first time I saw nobles act like men on the street. Shouting and moving unscrupulously. Under their refined covers were men of greed and animalistic desires.

There are few women as well but none of them were from notable clan figures. Perhaps they were concubines brought by the men here or workers in this gambling house.

One particular table is playing ¹Liubo and was densely surrounded by the crowd. It turns out that both of the players were from aristocratic clans. One of them even used to be a candidate for my prince consort. They were gambling at an inconceivable stake. One where high-ranking officials have to work for a year before getting that kind of amount.

Jia Xu was explaining to me the rules of the board games but I can't properly understand him with all these noises. In the gambling house, they also have a courtyard for cockfighting and dogfighting that can be seen outside the window on this floor. I can tell that side was even noisier, I can hear their voices from here despite the noise on this floor too.

I shook my head at Jia Xu, there's no use explaining it to me. He stopped and nodded in understanding.

"You stay here for a while," he said in a louder voice, my head whipped back at him "I'm coming with you" There's no way I'll stay here without him, having no guards is a lot of risk already. A lot of nobles were also present.

His lips tugged up and I knew he was going to tease me again "Relax princess. You can be clingy to me all you want but I don't want to frighten you" he pointed at the courtyard where guests were clamoring. "What they're playing is bloody. Don't worry, I'll be leaving my servants here" A pair of men and women bowed behind me. I didn't know they were his servants. I thought they were just watching the gambling to entertain themselves like us. They weren't with us when we walked here, it can possibly be his servants were arranged ahead of time.

At this juncture, his teasings were ignored "Didn't you say I have to take a risk to make my life exciting? And I have to learn troublesome things?" my voice turned a bit louder as well so he can hear me. He sighed helplessly "Alright, follow me"

Once we were in the courtyard, I grimaced at the bloody sight. Feeling a bit of pity in my heart. I know even people are subjected to this, it usually happened in disguise and not a rampant gambling house, nobles also hosted such things in their homes so they could avoid inspections.

I sat there for about half an hour in observation before I couldn't bear all the noises.

Standing up, I looked at Jia Xu to start complaining to him. "Such barbaric acts should be banned and--" My heart sank in nervousness when I saw his empty seat. Did he leave me here just like that?

Looking around, I saw his servants that were watching me. I walked up to them and said in a trembling voice unable to contain my rage "Where is your useless master?"

"Answering her highness, he was called by Young Master Wang Jian a while ago" Their heads lowered in reply. "He seems to put great importance on this Wang lad than me" Their heads bowed even lower at my remark.

Suddenly, loud noises erupted inside the gambling house. And here I thought it couldn't get any more noisier. There are sounds of clashing weapons and breaking things. Soon, chaos occurred.



1. Liubo which literally means "six sticks" was commonly played by two players. Each player had six game pieces with which one was making moves on a square wooden board with inscribed symmetrical patterns. The six sticks were used in order to determine which move to be made and had the same function as dice.

Regular updates are difficult for me. I have full units, college f*cks me up.

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