Jiapingguan Chronicle

Chapter 2617 An unexpected gain
Upon entering the drill ground, before even reaching the command platform, we heard a noisy commotion coming from above.

Everyone was curious. Who would dare to make a fuss in such a place? They stopped and looked up, and saw Yan Bo and Qin Zheng holding Bai Meng, who looked helpless, and talking to her.

It's unclear what misunderstanding occurred before, but Yan Bo's expression was very agitated, and his voice was a little loud, with others trying to persuade him.

Shen Haolin, Shen Cha, and Xue Ruitian exchanged glances, sighed in unison, and shook their heads helplessly.

"What are they doing now?" Xue Ruitian beckoned to the soldiers standing guard to the side, and when they ran over, he asked, "Do you know what's all the commotion up there?"

"Reporting to the Commander-in-Chief, Vice Commander-in-Chief, and General, Lord Yan wanted to go to the arena, but the Grand Commander refused, so..."

How long have they been arguing?

"It didn't last long, they only exchanged about a dozen sentences!"

"Okay, get back to work!"

Xue Ruitian watched the soldiers run back to continue guarding, then turned to look at Shen Haolin, Shen Cha, Jin Miaomiao, and Ying Wu, and helplessly shrugged.

"Isn't this all part of what we expected? They definitely came here wanting to perform, but with this weather..." He shook his head slightly, "it's going to be difficult for Xiaobai too. Let's go, let's go up!"

“Okay!” Shen Cha nodded and followed Shen Haolin and Xue Ruitian toward the command platform. “If we really can’t persuade them, let them try. We’ll go with them.”

"We can't let up on this for now. We should try to persuade them if we can, but if all else fails, then we can talk about staying with them." Xue Ruitian gently shook his head. "People, as they get older, do tend to be more willful, don't they?"

“Old man, you can’t just confront him directly, you have to coax him.” Shen Haolin looked at Xue Ruitian, who had a bitter and resentful look on his face, chuckled, and said, “Aren’t you good at dealing with old men? It’s your turn to step in.”

"I knew it! Fine, leave it to me!"

As the group talked, they went up to the command platform. The two sides facing off on the platform heard the voices and looked in the direction from which they saw Shen Haolin, Shen Cha and others appear in their line of sight.

"Haolin? Xiaocha? Xiaotian? It's snowing here, what are you doing here?"

Although that's what she said, Bai Meng breathed a sigh of relief when she saw them arrive. Finally, someone who could keep these old men in check had come.

"It's so rare for it to snow at this time of year, so I came to check on the state of the arena."

Shen Haolin led Shen Cha, Xue Ruitian, and a few others to Master Jiang, Uncle Yan, and Qin Zheng, bowed respectfully, and then nodded to Xia Chen, who was sitting leisurely to the side.

Yan Bo, who was originally quite arrogant in front of Bai Meng, instantly lost half his arrogance upon seeing these people appear.

"You... why are you here?"

"Uncle Yan, what's with that expression?" Shen Cha raised an eyebrow at Uncle Yan. "Are you happy to see us, or unhappy to see us?" "Happy? How could I not be happy?" Uncle Yan took a step back, pushing Qin Zheng forward slightly, and said, "Well, you two chat!"

Seeing him like this, Qin Zheng couldn't help but shake his head and said, "Alright, don't stand there, sit down!"

Shen Cha pulled Shen Haolin to sit down next to Master Jiang, following Qin Zheng and Uncle Yan. She poured them tea and said with a smile, "Why did you suddenly decide to come watch the arena? Today should be their last match; tomorrow it'll be our turn."

"Your turn isn't until tomorrow?"

“Yes!” Shen Cha nodded. “Could it be that they thought we would be performing today, so they came?”

"That's true." Yan Bo nodded, then looked at Qin Zheng. "Or am I mistaken?"

“I told you it would be tomorrow, but you insisted it was today.”

"You want to compete with us?"

"It's not that I wanted to compete with you, nor did I necessarily want to go up on this stage. It's just that I haven't seen you for several days, and your master and Xiaofeng missed you, so they dragged me over to see what you've been up to. But you weren't at the main camp or the Duke's mansion. They said you might be at the arena, but you weren't there either. I asked Xiaobai, but he didn't know either. Anyway, since we were already here, we thought we'd give it a try. Before we could even get to the bottom of things, you two arrived!" Master Jiang looked at Shen Haolin and Shen Cha. "Hmm, you look good. You seem busy, but you're taking good care of yourselves, eating and sleeping as usual, right?"

"Fourth Grandfather, when have we ever been stingy with ourselves? Don't worry!" Shen Cha smiled. "We won't let ourselves get sick during such an important time, don't worry!"

"That's good!" Fourth Master Jiang nodded. "Where did you go just now? I couldn't find you anywhere."

"They went to interrogate that Boss Luan and found out some things, but I don't know if they're true or false."

"The one surnamed Luan?" Fourth Master Jiang raised an eyebrow, glanced at Uncle Yan and Qin Zheng beside him, sighed, and said, "What did you get out of him? He actually agreed to talk, it seems he's figured things out after these assassination attempts."

"Indeed, it wasn't just the assassination attempt. He also fell seriously ill afterward and completely figured things out." Shen Cha smiled and briefly recounted the whole process and what Boss Luan had told her. She looked at Fourth Master Jiang and said, "His relationship with the Empress Dowager... is it really that simple? Just mutual respect?"

“That’s true. The Empress Dowager doesn’t have any close contact with any men, not even my brother, or the eunuchs in her palace. She keeps a certain distance from them.” Master Jiang sighed. He looked at Uncle Yan and Qin Zheng, thought for a moment, patted them, and said, “Could you please excuse us for a moment? There are some things that are not convenient to say in front of you.”

"Understood." Yan Bo and Qin Zheng weren't interested in the Empress Dowager's affairs, and they knew that what Master Jiang was about to say touched on some of the Empress Dowager's privacy. They nodded to the three of them and said, "Let's find someone else to play with."

Seeing that Uncle Yan and Qin Zheng were harassing Bai Meng and Xue Ruitian again, Master Jiang breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Shen Haolin and Shen Cha in front of him.

"Fourth Grandfather?"

“As you know, my relationship with her wasn’t so strained before. She was still willing to talk to me about some things,” Master Jiang sighed. “So, I know some things about her, and I understand why she doesn’t want to have any contact with men, even eunuchs. Have you asked Mianbai? Although the Empress Dowager dotes on him and admires him, she still keeps her distance when she sees him.”

“Mianbai doesn’t know what kind of relationship the Empress Dowager and Master Falian have, so she’s never mentioned it.” Shen Cha gently shook her head. “For Fourth Grandfather to say something like that, the Empress Dowager must have experienced something bad when she was young, right?”

"What you can think of is what I'm going to say." Master Jiang looked at Shen Haolin and saw him nod to show that he understood. He continued, "And the one who left this shadow on her was her elder."