Volume 4: Gathering of Sages Chapter 662: No Fight, No Acquaintance
When he heard the sound of fighting, Zhang Chen was only a few steps away from the second floor, and hurriedly stepped faster. However, when he finally stepped onto the second floor, he saw Ah Liu fighting with someone in the space between the tables and chairs. Although his martial arts skills were ordinary and far inferior to Zhu Ying, he had practiced for a while, and he could tell at a glance that the two of them were both skilled in small grappling techniques.
As for the overly technical question of who had the upper hand, he couldn't tell at all!
Anyway, when he was dazzled, he saw Ah Liu twisting his arm and pushing a pretty girl to the ground without any mercy. He looked so focused as if he was facing an assassin! Even though his scalp was tingling, he was afraid to act rashly because of his impression of Ah Liu's reliability. He didn't say anything to stop him until a fragrant breeze blew from behind him. It turned out that Zhu Ying had arrived.
"A Liu, what are you doing!"
Hearing Zhu Ying's voice, Ah Liu did not let go, but said lightly: "She was peeping at us upstairs just now, and she was hostile!" Judging from his feelings at the time, there might be some hidden weapon or something facing them at that time!
Zhang Chen, who was just confused, suddenly felt a chill in his heart. Without thinking, he stepped forward and stood in front of Zhu Ying, and then asked with a vigilant look on his face: "A Liu, did you see it or how did you find out? What hostility? Is she an assassin, or is there an axeman ambushing upstairs?" Well, at the critical moment, he might as well make a joke to divert the topic!
Zhu Ying saw a cold and beautiful girl sitting at the table in the corner, who was already showing a hint of anger. Although she had just sighed, she couldn't help but sigh again, and then said unhappily: "A Liu, that is Miss Ye's bodyguard. He seems to be from the Cangzhou Shunhe Escort Agency. It is said that he is a good slingshot shooter."
"You said that the person was hostile. Maybe it was because the girl was playing with a slingshot through the window just now. She didn't really hit you with a marble... Can you be a manly person who is kind to women?"
When she said the last sentence, the eldest lady had already thought of the last time she met Ye. Because she was dressed like a pervert, the little girl didn't see it... Well, in the end, she used the power of the majority to overpower the minority, and the two girls Zhanjin and Liuyin took action and successfully took down the little girl who liked to play with slingshots. She did have a few moves with Ye.
But she didn't think there was anything wrong with her getting to know someone without fighting. Instead, she thought Ah Liu was just a wooden-headed person. Ah Shou was worried that he would be lonely for the rest of his life, because he didn't distinguish right from wrong and attacked the girl first. She was not worrying for nothing!
Ah Liu frowned and looked around, confirming once again that there were only the master and servant in this huge place, and there were no other people hiding. Then, after a slight hesitation... or to be more precise, under Zhu Ying's glare, he slowly let go of the little girl in his hand.
Although he himself was not very old, in his opinion, the little girl of thirteen or fourteen years old could indeed be classified as a minor. Especially after he let her go, she staggered and turned around hurriedly, first glaring at him with a red face, and then she was about to cry, which made him even more headache.
So girls are troublesome, and so are the maids from the Duke of Zhao's mansion who went shopping with him. They are not as straightforward and frank as the eldest lady, and they always say things that make him confused. The same is true for this little girl who was quite methodical during the fight just now. I thought she would be different, but she was ready to cry as soon as she was frustrated...
Zhu Ying saw the little girl with a red hairband glaring at Ah Liu. She had been glared at like that before and felt that this scene was familiar. So she could only cough and try to smooth things over as if she had no other choice.
"Miss Ye, Ah Liu has always been perceptive, and coupled with his suspicion, he was inevitably a bit reckless when he acted. However, in the final analysis, it was Miss Cao's fault just now. Who allowed you to spy on us upstairs?"
The little girl whom Zhu Ying called Miss Cao stabbed Ah Liu hard in the eyes again and said angrily: "I'm just helping Miss Ye to see who you brought with you, Miss Zhu!" I was just aiming at people with the slingshot for fun!
"Birds of a feather flock together. The people I, Zhu Ying, befriend are certainly not the kind of drunkards who just sit around doing nothing. Look, this is Zhang Chen, the eldest son of the Duke of Qin. Back then, he hid his identity and went to Xingtai to help Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu. He pretended to be the confidant of the second prince, and after a high-priced operation, he tricked those greedy local gentry into making them bleed, and even tricked the eldest prince into it."
Zhu Ying introduced Zhang Chen calmly, and then calmly pointed to Ah Liu and said, "As for Ah Liu, he is also very famous in the capital. But that's not important. Back then, when he was in Cangzhou, he seemed to have competed with Cao Wu, the head escort of your Shunhe Escort Agency. As for the result, I am very curious, but unfortunately he refused to tell me."
Ah Liu immediately glanced at Zhu Ying in surprise. When had he ever competed with Cao Wu?
Although Cao Wu is indeed a well-known leader among the escorts in Cangzhou, and is indeed the most influential person in the local martial arts world, he is not one of those martial artists who seek fame all the time. Why would he fight with Cao Wu for no reason? Is he just too idle to do anything?
However, he had heard from the eldest lady that Cao Wu once wanted to join the Zhu family of the Duke of Zhao's mansion... and he was quite servile in front of the young master, especially after the incident of the escort ship was finally settled, he even wanted to worship the young master.
However, in Cao Qingqing's opinion, Ah Liu's very human expression was like someone blaming Zhu Ying for revealing his secrets. She was an orphan adopted by Shunhe Escort Agency and grew up in the agency. Although she wanted to be a female escort and practiced martial arts very diligently since she was a child, she was still far away from the chief escort, Cao Wuye, who was also the person she admired the most.
If she knew that the stiff-faced boy in front of her had fought with Master Cao Wu, she would never dare to attack him! Even her unique slingshot skills were learned because Master Cao Wu saw her being so angry when she was a child that she used a small slingshot and stones to teach the boys of the escort families. So he casually asked a retired escort in Cangzhou to teach her!
Seeing that the little girl opponent of Ah Liu became silent in an instant after hearing what Zhu Ying said, as if she was frightened by Ah Liu's reputation, Zhang Chen, who was completely overshadowed by others, glanced at Zhu Ying with some resentment, but he didn't dare to force Zhu Ying to correct her mistake, so he could only bow his hands with some displeasure.
"My name is Zhang Chen, nice to meet Miss Ye."
Although his identity as the only son of Duke Qin was definitely the most eye-catching identity in front of ordinary ladies from wealthy families, and because he had often encountered certain rich girls since he was a child, he had performed the old-fashioned scenes such as dropping things countless times, fake falls, reciting poems, being sad... He had experienced countless scenes. So after introducing himself, Zhang Chen seemed relaxed, but in fact he was very attentive to the other party's reaction.
But he was greatly disappointed - because she was indeed not like an ordinary girl, who seemed to have no reaction but was actually cunning and secretive. This Miss Ye simply looked at him twice, returned the greeting, and then her eyes fell on Zhu Ying.
That’s right, even Ah Liu, who had just had a fight with a little girl, didn’t get any special treatment from her!
"Miss Zhu, I have already met the person you asked me to meet. Can I leave now?"
Zhu Ying was slightly stunned, and then burst out laughing. Although she had been successful in matchmaking several times before, this kind of thing is supposed to be a matter of mutual consent. Seeing that Ye was obviously not interested in Zhang Chen, what was there to force? She immediately glanced at Zhang Chen, and seeing that he was holding back and not showing any disappointment, she smiled at him.
"Well, Miss Ye, please do as you please. By the way, I have invited several girls to be female teachers in the girls' school before, and they all agreed. If you are willing, you might as well give it a try. Don't rush to refuse. I think it is not suitable for you to teach other things, but you can definitely be competent if you teach people a few martial arts. Some girls in this world are not weak and can be bullied, but they can't beat men, so learning a few tricks is definitely a good idea."
Today's meeting ended before it even began. Although Zhang Chen felt empty inside, the other party was far from having a distinct personality like Zhu Ying, who made him unforgettable the first time they met. Therefore, he couldn't really say that he was ashamed or angry.
But he was too proud to look at the other person for too long, as he didn't want people to think he was determined to win. Upon hearing what Zhu Ying said, although he couldn't help but shed tears of sympathy for the future husbands of those female students, he was more worried about another thing.
"Yingying, you have quietly hired all the teachers. Won't Princess Yongping be resentful? After all, she is the one who actually presides over the girls' school, right?"
"If she objects to my approach, she can raise it. If she has a better idea, it's not that I can't listen to her, but if she objects just for the sake of objecting, then I'm sorry. I, Zhu Ying, have my own persistence." Zhu Ying didn't care that both the master and servant of the Ye family were outsiders, and said calmly, "She could host the Yuehua Tower literary gathering before, and now of course she can go and invite people in person."
"I had previously insisted on letting her take charge because I felt I had no interest in this matter, but now I've figured it out. I'm free anyway, and I don't have to go there every day. I can just go over and inspect it, and then solve some problems within my ability, and make a small contribution to changing the circumstances of women all over the world. I can still do it."
At this point, Zhu Ying smiled. That smile was like the most beautiful peony among all the flowers blooming instantly, so moving that it was so enchanting that people dared not even look directly at it.
"Besides, Shou agrees!"
"I see. It's good that you figured it out!" Zhang Chen breathed a sigh of relief, and then said with a look of approval, "I also think that books on women's virtues like 'Female Commandments' keep teaching women to be submissive and virtuous. That's why girls in this world are either too cunning or wooden, carved out of a template. What's the point of that!"
At this point, Zhang Chen said with great joy: "I just hope that in the future, women's education will be able to flourish! If there are more women who are as capable as men, or more talented women who are famous for writing books like "Legislation for Women"... it would be great if someone like Xie Daoyun dared to fight with thieves with knives. Even if she is a girl from an ordinary family..."
"Those who are tenacious and able to support their families, those who are self-reliant and better than men in a certain field of knowledge and skill, those who are brave enough to resist some tyrannical and unreasonable elders... Anyway, I think that women who are only virtuous are like the smiling Buddhas in the temples, whose smiles are the same. They are really pitiful."
As Zhang Chen spoke incessantly to this point, he thought of his mother, whom he always thought was virtuous. Then he thought of his father, who had recently changed his character and wanted to be a good father. He suddenly felt that he seemed to have missed something. As a wife, she should always have the courage to remind her husband of his mistakes. But suddenly he heard a faint voice.
"With your request, Master Zhang, I'll just live alone for the rest of my life."
Seeing that it was Ah Liu who was making fun of him, Zhang Chen was immediately furious and felt like doing evil… However, his anger was extinguished by that cold gaze , and he could only utter a rather weak counterattack: “What do you know, you ignorant boy!”
"So I only ask her to be better than me." Ah Liu blinked innocently, pretending not to see Zhang Chen's vomiting blood expression.
The girl who can beat you probably hasn't been born yet. Aren't your requirements several times higher than mine? Zhang Chen stared at Ah Liu, feeling like a scholar meeting a soldier, unable to explain himself. But then he heard a cold but pleasant voice: "I didn't expect that Master Zhang is indeed like what Miss Zhu said, and he is different from ordinary people!"
Huh? Zhang Chen looked in the direction of the voice in surprise, only to see Miss Ye nodding slightly at him. Although her expression was still cold, she was obviously a little softer. But he was angry at the moment, and was about to say that what I said just now was not to please you, but he didn't expect that she looked at Zhu Ying again.
"I agreed to teach you martial arts as Miss Zhu said. I used to think that I was just practicing martial arts to strengthen my body, but after the thief stopped my car and tried to do something bad, I understood. Men should be strong, and so should women! Not everyone can help you all the time. Sometimes, you have to rely on yourself. God helps those who help themselves!"
"But how difficult is it to help yourself? At least my father and grandfather were officials, so I could ask the female escorts from Shunhe Escort Agency to teach me martial arts. If something goes wrong, I can also ask Qingqing to protect me. But what about the weaker women in the world? I don't ask everyone to be good at martial arts, but as long as they can have a little bit of self-protection in the face of danger, then maybe they can change their fate!"
"Such as if you would rather drown than be rescued by a man, if someone touches your arm, you will chop it off to show your determination, if someone sees your true face, it is a great shame... If women's schools can send these things to the eighteenth level of hell, then it will be a blessing for all women in the world!"
After saying this, the cold and beautiful girl looked thoughtfully at Zhang Chen, who nodded repeatedly in agreement, and Ah Liu, who looked a little dazed, and suddenly invited her, "Miss Zhu, it's still early today, and tea and food are not important. Can I invite you to visit the capital with me?"
