Hearing this, the guards had no choice but to let go and explained, "But Your Ladyship, this person has a humble background. We don't know who he is. Just look at his shifty eyes... Oops, we were just interrogating him."
You're the one with shifty eyes! He's so cute! Su Qingwen glared at the guard who had spoken. "I've already said to let him go. Leave it to me! Don't you guards have your regular patrols? Who am I? I'm Concubine Xian! I'll help you interrogate this person. You can leave now."
Su Qingwen waved her hand in a grand manner, indicating that she would take over and urging them to leave quickly.
"This..."
"You're looking down on me."
"No, no, no. We wouldn't dare, Your Ladyship. We'll take our leave now." With that, the guards left hesitantly.
After they were out of sight, Su Qingwen walked up to the young guard and stared at him with a lecherous look in her eyes.
"Don't worry. They've left. You're safe now. No one will bully you anymore. Hehe, but since I just saved you, according to the traditional saying, you should repay your savior by marrying them, right?"
With a sly look on her face, she patted his shoulder. "From now on, you're mine. I hereby appoint you as the first personal attendant of Concubine Xian. You're my little minion from now on. Don't worry. Your boss will protect you!"
The young guard stared at her blankly, not knowing what to say for a moment. Suddenly, he came to his senses, knelt on the ground, and said, "Thank you, Concubine Xian, for saving my life!"
Su Qingwen clapped her hands in satisfaction and helped him up. "By the way, I haven't asked your name yet. I'm Su Qingwen. You can just call me boss from now on!" She said as she patted her chest.
"I... My name is Ning Yunqing." The young guard stood up.
"Okay, Xiao Qing!" Su Qingwen responded immediately.
Ning Yunqing: It feels like something's not right, but I can't put my finger on it... After a long while, the shy young guard stammered, "Your Ladyship... Your subordinate thinks... you shouldn't be called boss... Your subordinate is a bit older than you..."
Su Qingwen put her hands on her hips and retorted, "Impossible. You look only seventeen or eighteen years old..."
Ning Yunqing replied in a low voice, "Your subordinate is twenty - seven years old this year..."
Su Qingwen, who was only twenty - four, froze and forced a smile. "Really... You do look well - preserved... Hehe..."
Oh my god. I thought he was a young puppy, but it turns out he's already twenty - seven. Do men these days put on masks and go to spas every day? Can't they give some face to this old single woman who only knows how to play games and has a rough life?
To cover up her embarrassment, she patted his shoulder. "Come on. Since you're following me, I'll take you to have some fun. I'm bored here too, but now that there's one more person, we can play together!"
What should they play? She scratched her chin, deep in thought.
"I've got it! Come on, let's go find some mulberry paper and make some playing cards!" A light bulb went off in Su Qingwen's head. "Then we'll find a little maid, and we can play Landlord together!"
Ning Yunqing stammered in response, "Yes, Your Ladyship."
"Don't call me Your Ladyship! Call me boss!"
"Yes... Yes, Your Ladyship."
Su Qingwen sighed and rubbed her forehead.
Then Su Qingwen made the playing cards eagerly, but found that she couldn't find a single little maid to play cards with her. All the little maids ran away like scared rabbits as soon as they heard about playing Landlord.
Life is so lonely.
What she didn't know was that the little maids were privately discussing whether Concubine Xian was trying to recruit people to form a self - defense army to resist the gentry.
But could this stop Su Qingwen?
She said: If I can't find one, I'll catch one. If bribery doesn't work, I'll use coercion!
So she took Ning Yunqing to set up traps all over the imperial garden. Every day, they got their faces covered in dirt. Finally, they set up a complex trap to catch the maids.
Su Qingwen, with some grass leaves in her hair, crouched in the grass, waiting for her prey. She had set up bells on the traps so that they would ring as soon as someone fell in. But she waited all day. It was almost dark, and no one had stepped into the trap.
Su Qingwen was furious. "Do you all walk on air?"
Ning Yunqing could only whisper a reminder, "Your Ladyship, we made too much noise when we dug the traps during the day... The maids aren't blind."
Su Qingwen hung her head. "Oh, I see. Let's call it a day."
But just then, the bells rang loudly. Someone had fallen in!
Su Qingwen's eyes lit up. She grabbed Ning Yunqing and ran. They crouched beside the trap that had made the noise and shouted into it, "Listen, the person inside. Agree to play Landlord with us, or I'll let the guards pee in here!"
It was pitch - black inside the trap, and they couldn't see anything. But a clear, angry voice came from inside, "You! How dare you! If you dare to pee in here, I'll make you empty the chamber pots!"
Su Qingwen said triumphantly, "Oh~ So you're not going to agree? Ning Yunqing, take off your pants!" Ning Yunqing grabbed his pants as if he would rather die than do it.
"Stop! Let's talk it out. I'm not an unreasonable person." The voice inside gradually became less overbearing.
"Then agree to play Landlord with us." Su Qingwen pressed her advantage.
"What's that? Are you going to fight?" The voice inside asked in confusion.
"What fight? It's a game, okay! We're going to play something like leaf cards. It takes three people." Su Qingwen explained. Oops, she had forgotten that no one knew about the game of Landlord.
"Play a game? You should have said so earlier. Pull me up. I'm so bored." The voice inside replied.
"Okay!" Su Qingwen immediately threw a rope down and, together with Ning Yunqing, pulled the person out.
The unlucky person who had fallen into the trap was a young girl in a pink palace dress. Her clothes and shoes were covered in dirt. Her hair was in a mess, and her hairpins were scattered. Her cute and pretty face was also dirty. She wrinkled her nose, patted the dirt off her body, and sized up the two culprits.
"Good for you. You've done such a heartless thing to Princess Lingxi, the smartest and cutest princess in the dynasty!"
The pink - dressed girl started to settle the score and loudly accused them.
Oh, it's a princess. We've really hit the jackpot. Su Qingwen scratched her nose. "Well, we didn't expect it to be a princess. We just wanted to catch a little maid. Instead, we caught a little princess. Hehe." Su Qingwen flattered.
As for Ning Yunqing, he had already stared at the little princess in a daze, with the thought "The princess is so cute..." playing on a loop in his mind.
Princess Lingxi crossed her arms and said, "Humph, I'm magnanimous and won't hold grudges against you. We've kind of gotten to know each other through this. My name is Hua Xue'er. Where's this Landlord you're talking about? Let's go quickly. I can't wait anymore! Let's go to my place!"
"Sis, you're so straightforward. I'm Concubine Xian, Su Qingwen. This idiot is my attendant, Ning Yunqing. Let's go and have some fun. Hahaha."
Putting her left arm around Hua Xue'er and her right arm around Ning Yunqing, she laughed boldly and walked slowly towards the brightly - lit palace that the princess had pointed out.