Beware Of Chicken-Novel

It had been one thing for the Lord Magistrate to hear about a raid on slavers in Grass Sea City. To him, it had been a distant problem. He had approved of the actions of the man who had led the charge; slavery was a distasteful practise. But he hadn’t really thought much of what had happened, as Grass Sea City was on the complete opposite end of the province.

“He was already in Grass Sea City when you met him?” his wife, Lady Wu, asked. Her voice was perfectly calm and polite, but everyone could see the tension in her shoulders and movements.

The two cultivators sitting before them nodded. Not that long ago he would have been sweating through the back of his robe in their presence; yet here he was having tea and listening to a report from them about his son.

How strange his own life had gotten, to where he broke bread with cultivators and people who could kill him before he could even blink treated him with deference.

“Yes!” Rou Tigu answered, without any guile. “Sergeant Han said he had been Special Inspector for eight months! When we arrived he had already been investigating the slavery ring for stime, and his arm was bandaged from where he had been hit by an arrow. He was quite apologetic; he said if he had his father’s skill he could have cut all of them out of the air, and knowing who his father is now, it makes sense!”

“He got caught infiltrating a noble’s mansion—he was running away and took the arrow meant for his companion, Miss Lao of Underbridge!” Tigu reported promptly.

The Lord Magistrate paused. Well, if he was already escaping then that was fine, he supposed. He shouldn’t have been infiltrating a noble’s mansion in the first place, granted, but he was retreating. And he took the arrow for a woman? Well, that was another thing he couldn’t truly be angry about. After all, he was the one who had taught his son to protect those he loved. How could he be angry that his son had followed his instructions?

“Oh? Yes, she helps him every day! Miss Xinlai does as well! Xinlai is all prickly, but she was the one who saved his life from the nobles. She follows him around, pretending not to care, but her eyes are always upon him!” Tigu informed them.

“Indeed. Shui Xinlai, Young Mistress of the White Water Sect. He was instrumental in recovering her mother’s stolen guzheng, when the artisan who crafted it was robbed,” Miss Cai explained.

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That brought both of them up short.

…he likely would have been more worried a few years ago.

The Lord Magistrate could only gape. Lady Wu’s tea poured out of her cup and onto the floor.

==================================

Several hours later, both he and his wife were staring up at the ceiling of their bedroom, contemplating the tale they had been told.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Their son had gone to Pale Moon Lake City a year before Jin had arrived. Being away from hfor multiple years, and learning the ways of the capital of the province, would be a benefit for a young man yearning for ssort of independence. The letters would have sufficed; it was at minimum two and a half months of a round trip to go from Pale Moon Lake City to back home—if he stayed for a month and if the weather was bad, that could be up to half a year away from his studies.

He wished for his son to have a good life. Though he and Bao were good, there was no replacement for seeing and experiencing the capital of the province. The Lord Magistrate’s surnwas a fairly common one; and he had burned one of the few favours he had left in the capital to make it seem like his son had been from Needle Ridge rather than Verdant Hill.

He had set up his son for success the best he could.

The only question was…

“Why did he not tell us?” his wife asked, her voice small and hurt. The Lord Magistrate’s hand found hers and squeezed. A flash of irritation surged behind his brow. Just what was that brat of his thinking, worrying his mother so?!

Yet he forced himself to think about things. He knew his boy. He had always been polite and dutiful and he disliked troubling them, even though he never was a bother—

“He thinks he is protecting us. He does not want to drag us into open conflict with the Wu Clan, because he knows that we would do all that we could for him,” the Lord Magistrate said with a sigh.

His wife’s grip tightened on his hand… before she too sighed heavily. “Such a foolish child,” she scolded without heat. “And… who are we to complain, when we have not given him the entire truth of the matter either? We said I was getting better, and made allusions to our new students… but… our son likely still sees us how he left us. An aging man loved in a small town and a woman made of glass, who couldn’t walk sdays because the shakes were too severe. How could we have helped him without hurting ourselves?”

The Lord Magistrate nodded. Though their son had been told his mother had mostly recovered from her ailments…his son probably didn’t truly realise what that meant. To him, his mother had always been fragile; the Lord Magistrate still remembered the expression on his son’s face the first the had seen his mother fall over and start shaking, foaming at the mouth. The look of horror and anguish as his mother suffered without him being able to help.

Somebody had found out about his connection to them, informed the Wu Clan, and then they decided to ‘gift’ his son with a poison chalice.

The last three Special Inspectors had been assassinated. The position had been empty since before his son’s birth.

And in the end, if they were threatening his son… then he might have to.

“Dearest? What shall we do about your family?” the Lord Magistrate asked his wife. Whatever she decided would be his course. And if it was to escalate things and ask his student for help, so be it.

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“I see,” he managed.

She brought her lips low to hiss into his ear.

“Yes, Mistress,” the Lord Magistrate’s mouth moved before he was fully conscious of it. The sadistic, burning gaze of his wife mellowed for a moment, and then she giggled.

The Wu Clan were sof the few who still used courtesy names, as ‘befitting of their noble heritage.’ Of course, it made things confusing, and doubly so when his wife’s mother had chosen one singularly inappropriate—or she thought she was being ‘intimidating.’

But that said a lot about the Wu Clan.

Still, it did make the roleplay quite exciting.

“What about the Auditor?” the Lord Magistrate asked for a moment.

“I wouldn’t dream of taking away your toy, my dear. I have a bet with Bao on how long he’ll last before he goes insane.”

The Lord Magistrate couldn’t help but laugh.

“How long are you betting? I’ll do my best to make sure you win.”