Chapter 34 – Swept Up in the Moment

🙞❤︎🙜

“You seem frightened, my dear apprentices, as you should be! Your lives have been easy and sheltered until now. Today you have met the bane of all hard-working men and women, the vulture that swoops down to prey on every person who has ever earned an honest living, the one who is a plague on all honest folk who earn money through their blood, sweat, and tears, the dreaded… tax man!” I said, gesturing at Prince Baiyu.

The person who I had just given an awesome introduction to shook his head. “Thank you, but I don’t like the vulture comparison. I prefer to be described as ‘a tiger who is about to pounce,’ please.”

“Oh, my bad. I meant the tiger that pounces on every person who has ever earned an honest living!”

Fengying shook her head at our shenanigans and ushered the kids out. I tried to lead Prince Baiyu to a chair, but he said, “I’d rather go outside. I’ve been worried about whether or not someone has been sweeping the path.”

What? He wanted to play at being a sweeper again?

“Are you sure? I thought you might be tired because I heard you’ve been working hard,” I said.

“I don’t want to sit down because I’ve only been sitting down in meetings all this time,” said Prince Baiyu.

“I see.”

We walked out, trailed by Fengying and the maids who stood behind me as I took out a chair from my inventory and set it down under a tree, the better to watch as Prince Baiyu took off his robe again, leaving his upper body bare, and started sweeping the path around the house clean of leaves and dirt.

We were all used to it by now, but that didn’t make it any less thrilling.

“Hey, stop staring at him,” I said. “This display is for me.”

Fengying and the girls just ignored me as they continued to ogle Prince Baiyu’s amazing physique.

“Have you noticed that he lingers on the parts of the path that’s nearest to the lady?” whispered Yinuo to Fengying. “And he finishes sweeping the parts of the path that are out of sight really quickly.”

“Silly girl,” said Fengying. “Don’t you know the Prince is a wind element type? He could blow the leaves away in a second if he wanted.”

“But then I wouldn’t be able to see this sight,” I said. “Now go away. You’ve looked enough.”

This time, they allowed me to shoo them away. I placed a chair beside mine for Prince Baiyu to use later and I continued to enjoy the view.

When he had finally had enough of sweeping, he placed the sacks full of leaves near the gate and asked me to walk with him. I chose a winding path through the forest that was shaded by trees. Though it was late afternoon, the day was still hot, enlivened only by a warm breeze.

“You really don’t want to sit down, huh?” I said.

“You have no idea,” he said. “This is the worst season for me. There are so many budget meetings with old people who treat me like I’m still a child, and never listen to me or notice me unless something’s wrong. Then it’s ‘our young lord should do this’ and ‘our young lord should do that’ to make me do all the dirty work.”

“Like what?”

“Like raising taxes on certain territories or enforcing penalties,” he said.

“Poor you,” I said. “But it’s not really as bad as demon hunting season, right? I mean, at least you don’t suffer from qi overload during the budget meetings.”

“Thanks to you, I haven’t gotten qi overload again,” he said.

“I’m glad my potions worked,” I said.

“They did, but it was more than that. I burned qi by flying over here every few days to leave my kills at your doorstep,” said Prince Baiyu.

“That was you? I assumed you had sent one of your retainers to deliver the meat,” I said.

“No, I did it all myself,” he said.

“Smart! You must’ve used up a lot of qi. How far away is the Southern border from my farm?”

“Five hours’ worth of flying,” he said.

“Feel free to continue using me as an excuse to avoid qi overload. Didn’t people think it was weird that you had to deliver meat to a farmer?”

“Hasn’t anyone told you?”

“Told me what?” I asked.

Prince Baiyu gave me a sidelong look from under his long eyelashes. He didn’t answer my question, and we walked on in silence for a few minutes more until he asked me a question about the farm. I talked about the farm, and he complained about his work for another hour until it was time for us to return for dinner.

“What’s this then?” I asked when we got back to the house and I saw that the staff had worked miracles in our absence. Two tables had been set up with formal table settings with white tablecloths, pristine white plates, gleaming silverware, and sparkling stemware. The napkins had been folded into precise shapes and there were two intricate floral centerpieces.

“This way, please,” said Fengying as she guided us to the farther table that had two seats but only one table setting on it.

Lari, Kharli, and Mo were already seated at the other table, dressed in their finest robes and with miserable expressions on their faces, as though they were about to witness their own execution.

I leaned closer to Fengying and said, “They look terrified. Should I dismiss them?”

I was starting to feel a little bad for forcing them to dine with Prince Baiyu and I. Maybe they really weren’t ready. The people in the Western lands normally ate with chopsticks, but this time Deming had prepared a Central-style feast, which meant that they had to use unfamiliar utensils like a knife and fork.

Fengying barely gave them a glance and just said, “It’s fine.”

Yinuo immediately served the first course when I sat down.

“Central cuisine?” asked Prince Baiyu. “Do you prefer that?”

“I like everything as long as it’s delicious!” I said.

Back on Earth, I had traveled to dozens of different countries with my parents, who were both badly affected by wanderlust. That meant that my palate was quite developed compared to other people my age. In this world, the central continent was the continent ruled by humans. They were much more technologically advanced compared to the Westerlands. They were in the midst of an Industrial Revolution while the clans were still stuck in feudal economies.

As a consequence of the Central continent’s scientific development, Central cuisine was considered more modern compared to the other regions’ cuisines. Deming was quite proficient in it, and I guess he wanted to show off in front of the Prince.

Dinner went well except for one minor incident where Lari dropped a piece of fruit on his lap and tried to hide his mistake by flicking it away, only for it to land on Mo’s arm, who promptly threw it back at him. Prince Baiyu and I pretended not to notice their youthful hijinks.

“You’re not going to take anything, not even water?” I asked Prince Baiyu.

“It’s customary,” he said.

“But you drink water?” I had read many fantasy stories where cultivators didn’t need to eat or drink after they had achieved a certain cultivation level, but I had never expected to see this in action in real life.

Prince Baiyu nodded. “Yes, but not like humans. I can go for days without eating or drinking anything.”

“Huh, you gorge yourself during hunting season and don’t eat a lot otherwise?” I asked.

“There’s more than one hunting season, yes,” he said.

We kept our conversation on neutral topics such as food and the weather until we finished the meal. Then Prince Baiyu requested another walk.

“Unless you’re too tired, of course,” he said.

“Not at all. In fact, why don’t you accompany me on a longer walk?” I said. “There’s a certain night-blooming flower that I would like to find.”

I checked the text of my current quest again.

[Curing Infertility:

Help the God Beast Clans with their fertility problem. Find five Dusk Dandelions.]

“I would love to accompany you wherever you want to go,” he said.

“Thank you,” I said. “I’ll be just a moment. I need to change my clothes.”

LinMeili

• Prince Baiyu works a lot for a prince, but I just want to make it clear that he doesn't literally go around collecting taxes himself. Violet's "awesome introduction" is just metaphorical. Prince Baiyu's clan is the one responsible for ruling the Westerlands, so they are the ones who are responsible for taxes.
• If you've ever worked, then you know the pain of paying taxes.😭😭😭
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