Chapter 5
Chapter 5: Brother and Sister
Not good enough?
While Gu Yan Huan sank into self-pity, Gu Yan Qing kept his gentle smile. Only a brief, icy flash slipped through his eyes.
How could there be anyone in this world unworthy of his sister?
It was just Liu Cheng An. Just the Liu family.
Those great clans had been perched in high places for far too long. It was time to make them move.
The Liu family. The Chu family.
They had been on Gu Yan Qing’s list for a long time. But if his sister truly liked Liu Cheng An…
“This snow is getting heavier.” Gu Yan Qing set the thought aside and spoke in his usual calm tone. “I wonder whether Liu Cheng An’s convoy can make it back to the capital on time.”
He had received an urgent battle report days ago—Liu Cheng An would return in triumph today. He simply hadn’t bothered to care.
“Brother.” Gu Yan Huan looked at him, words tumbling out in a rush. “I want to go outside the city now. Will you come with me?”
She could have gone alone. Qing Yun Kingdom was open-minded; women could go out in public without hiding. But she had studied under Wu Ming, and that name—Anonymous, Nameless—still made her feel a little timid. If her brother went with her, it would be different. Safe. Certain.
“Now?” Gu Yan Qing lifted a brow. He hadn’t even eaten breakfast, but her anxious face softened him. He rose, reached out, and tapped the top of her head like a refined young master indulging a child.
“Let me change first,” he said, warm and unhurried. “Then we’ll go.”
“Thank you, Brother!” Gu Yan Huan practically bounced in place.
Gu Yan Qing smiled and walked out.
Gu Yan Huan spun around at once—and her cloak clipped the edge of the desk. A book slid off and thudded onto the floor.
“Oh!” She hurried to pick it up.
It was the Gazetteer of the Capital, the book Gu Yan Qing had been obsessed with lately. She flipped through it, puzzled. It was nothing but the terrain around the capital, a few plain maps, some simple drawings.
Hadn’t her brother memorized this years ago?
“My brother’s interests are getting stranger,” she muttered, then softened. “But… at least he has an interest.”
Gu Yan Qing lived for state affairs. Everything else might as well not exist.
His life looked dull to the point of pain.
In the capital’s Outer City, on Willow Spring Lane, the same white snow lay thick—and another pair of siblings moved through it in padded jackets.
Jiang Chao Sheng gripped a shovel and scraped at the courtyard, breath puffing out in loud little bursts as he worked.
Behind him, Jiang Jiang buried her small head in her hood and cheered with earnest enthusiasm.
“Brother, put your back into it! Over here—there’s still snow here!”
“I know, I know!” Jiang Chao Sheng shoveled harder, voice bright with ambition. “Give it a few days. When I place high, I’m hiring servants. Several of them!”
“I’m sincerely looking forward to that day,” Jiang Jiang said, nodding so hard her hood bobbed.
A person had to have dreams. Otherwise, what was the difference between you and a salted fish?
Passing the imperial exam? Getting a degree? Sure, that was nice.
Jiang Jiang wanted to be Qing Yun Kingdom’s number one female tycoon.
It was only a thought. Thinking wasn’t a crime.
“Brother Sheng Zi! Sister Jiang Jiang!” A shiny little bald head suddenly popped up over the Jiang family wall—so dark and round it looked like a potato at first glance.
Li Er Shan, their neighbor.
Like his older brother Li Da Shan, Li Er Shan was a warm-hearted boy who could never mind his own business for long.
The Li family ran an escort bureau. The brothers both knew martial arts. The Jiang and Li families had been neighbors for more than a decade, close enough to borrow salt without knocking. Jiang Chao Sheng’s martial arts had been taught since childhood by Li Er Shan’s father, Li Mang.
Li Mang was a formidable escort guard. His skills were the real thing.
Unfortunately, the original owner of Jiang Jiang’s body had been sickly and weak, unable to practice martial arts at all.
Sometimes, Jiang Jiang secretly wished she could learn a little—just enough to keep herself alive in a world that didn’t feel stable for people like her.