Chapter 167: Chapter 110: I Am an Imperial Relative, a Legitimate Imperial Grandson, My Fate Is Dazzling, and the Nation’s Fortune Protects My Body.

Lu Yuan ran over again.

Under Aunt Zhao’s somewhat quizzical gaze, Lu Yuan cupped her chin, tilted up her sexy, mature face, and kissed her.

He savored her tongue for a moment before pulling away with a wicked grin, leaving under her shy yet reproachful gaze.

...

In the afternoon, Lu Yuan was in the front courtyard’s training grounds, teaching Gu Gaoxu Techniques.

It wasn’t just Gu Gaoxu, though.

There were many other Travelers as well.

After all, the Travelers who had been away from Taiping City had all returned.

The Zhao Family estate was large, so a good number of them were staying in the communal sleeping quarters there.

The rest were in the factory dormitories.

Since none of them had much to do, they naturally came over to learn as well, making the place quite lively.

...

「At night. In the woods by the reservoir in Changliu Village.」

"Elder, this person is powerful. They also have an old artifact."

"Judging by their Technique, they must be a shaman from outside the pass."

"I reckon we won’t be able to take her down anytime soon."

"I was afraid things might get out of hand, so I came back to report to you first."

Two-Legged Sheep said, looking at Su Liyan’s mother.

Hearing Two-Legged Sheep’s words, Su Liyan’s mother frowned in thought.

’From outside the pass...’

’Did you find out which of the great families they serve? Fox, Weasel, Hedgehog, Snake, or...’

The white-faced monkey at her side spoke up immediately:

"It’s the Fox!"

"When that broad channeled the immortal, her face turned deathly pale. She’s definitely serving a Fox Immortal!"

Listening to the Travelers around her chiming in one after another, Su Liyan’s mother blinked, deep in thought.

Once, she had known all the powerful shamans from outside the pass.

But that was a long time ago.

She had been married and living in Taiping City for over twenty years now.

She really wasn’t familiar with the situation outside the pass anymore.

...

「The next day, at noon.」

All three thousand copies of the newspaper sold out.

Yesterday’s headline, the story of Lu Yuan and Aunt Zhao, had caused a massive stir in Taiping City.

After all, the "Black Widow of Taiping City" was an incredibly famous moniker.

Her story had been a hot topic for the past twenty years, one that never grew old.

Whenever people had a moment to spare, they would gather and gossip about it.

And now, it was being discussed right out in the open.

The buzz around the topic was skyrocketing.

A very peculiar sight could be seen in Taiping City today.

Literate and illiterate alike, everyone was clutching a newspaper and reading. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Those who could read, read it directly, then explained it to the people beside them.

Those who couldn’t read simply folded over the bottom-right corner of the paper.

On the reverse side, in the bottom-left corner, was a phonetic chart.

When they encountered a character they didn’t recognize, they would use the chart to sound it out.

In this way, they could make sense of it.

Today’s headline was a continuation of yesterday’s story.

Yesterday’s article was the hook.

It laid out the situation between Aunt Zhao and Lu Yuan.

Today’s article was meant to delve into Aunt Zhao’s past.

What everyone was most curious about was the story of how Aunt Zhao had killed the entire Liu Family on her wedding night.

Of course, they couldn’t just say that in the paper.

Otherwise...

...it would be a direct admission of guilt.

But they could start from the beginning.

It would start by saying that while everyone knew Aunt Zhao as the Black Widow, they didn’t know she was once a pure, innocent young woman.

It would detail her persecution by the Liu Family.

How they caused her family’s ruin and death.

The story was true, to begin with, and then with a little bit of... creative writing... no...

It’s called ’artistic license.’

They would just have to make Aunt Zhao’s story a little more tragic.

A little more pitiful.

In any case, the story they concocted was so tragic even Aunt Zhao herself couldn’t stand to read it.

Today, everyone in the family was home.

No one went out.

Aunt Zhao stared at the front-page headline, completely dumbfounded.

"I... I don’t think my life was quite *this* tragic, was it?"

"This makes me sound so pathetic. Some of this stuff never even happened..."

Lu Yuan, standing nearby, just waved his hand.

"Don’t worry about it. Whether it happened before or not, it has now."

After speaking, Lu Yuan looked to his sweet wife beside him.

"Liyan, get some paper and a pen. I’ll dictate tomorrow’s headline, and you can write it."

Su Liyan nodded eagerly and went to get them.

Just then, a voice called out from outside:

"Brother Lu, Brother Lu!"

Gu Gaoxu arrived like clockwork every day after lunch.

Lu Yuan was already used to it and called out immediately:

"Come in."

Before Lu Yuan could even finish, Gu Gaoxu had already entered.

Upon entering, Gu Gaoxu was very polite, cupping his fist in greeting to each of the three women in the room and wishing them a good afternoon.

The three women of the house immediately returned the greeting.

’Everyone knew that this young man, who was always trailing after their man, was none other than the second son of the current King Yan. His status was incredibly noble. They had no idea how the two had met, but the king’s second son was exceptionally respectful toward their man.’

After greeting everyone, Gu Gaoxu immediately blurted out:

"The Liu Family are such bastards! Making our sister-in-law suffer so much back then... They deserve to die!"

Gu Gaoxu’s seemingly random outburst actually reflected the thoughts of everyone else in Taiping City.

Ever since today’s paper had been released, practically everyone who read it cursed the Liu Family as they did.

Not a single person held back.

Few people still remembered the details of what had happened back then, especially something from twenty years ago.

Now, people essentially believed whatever the newspaper said.

To be fair, the Liu Family really had been a bunch of bastards back in the day.

They had bullied plenty of people in Taiping City.

This lent the newspaper’s story a great deal of credibility.

After reading today’s paper, no one was calling the Black Widow of Taiping City cruel and vicious anymore.

Instead, everyone was saying that Zhao Qiao’Er was a pitiful woman.

Targeted by the Liu Family for her beauty, her own family had been destroyed.

With this new perspective, when people thought back on Aunt Zhao’s past actions—killing her husband’s entire family on their wedding night—they no longer found Zhao Qiao’Er to be cruel and vicious.

They just felt that what she did was truly satisfying!

The three women in the room were taken aback by Gu Gaoxu’s sudden remark.

They were stunned for a moment.

Very quickly, the three women seemed to understand why they had started this whole newspaper business to deal with the Liu Family.

Before, they couldn’t understand what this had to do with dealing with the Liu Family.

But now, they were all starting to see the method to the madness.

It was like an epiphany; they finally understood the plan.

Lu Yuan, however, just raised an eyebrow at Gu Gaoxu.

"Why are you here again? Didn’t I teach you a few techniques yesterday? Have you mastered them already?"

As the two got to know each other better, Lu Yuan’s caution around Gu Gaoxu had faded.

It was mainly because they were close in age, with Gu Gaoxu being just three years his junior.

He felt like a little brother to him.

Plus, as they grew closer, they started talking to each other without any sense of formality.

Gu Gaoxu, however, didn’t mind Lu Yuan’s casual tone in the slightest.

’This is how it should be. If Lu Yuan acted like everyone else, it’d be incredibly dull.’

Gu Gaoxu grinned.

"I’ve pretty much got them down."

"But these Techniques are useless if I just practice them by myself."

"I figured I’d come today and practice with the Travelers here."

"Just like we did yesterday."

You can’t master this stuff by training in isolation. You need to spar and exchange pointers.

In response, Lu Yuan just raised an eyebrow.

"Not today. Go home and practice on your own. Everyone’s busy today."

Hearing this, Gu Gaoxu’s eyebrows shot up in confusion.

"Why not?"

"What’s going on?"

Lu Yuan raised a brow at him.

"We’re hunting a Traveler tonight. Everyone’s resting up, so no one has time for you."

Hunting a Traveler?

Gu Gaoxu froze for half a second before his face lit up with excitement.

"Is it that Da Xingzi, the one that caused trouble at the estate?!"

"You found him?!"

"I’m going too!!"

Gu Gaoxu had never seen a Traveler before. He’d only ever heard stories.

But Lu Yuan immediately waved him off.

"No way. If anything happened to you, my entire family would be done for."

In response to Lu Yuan, Gu Gaoxu just cocked an eyebrow.

"You’ve got to be kidding!"

"You think I’d just get in the way?"

"I’m there to help!"

"Why would anything happen to me?"

"I’m royalty, a Legitimate Imperial Grandson! My destiny is glorious, and I’m protected by the fortune of the nation itself."

"Even if I let that Da Xingzi try to attack me, it wouldn’t be able to lay a finger on me!"

"I could kill it just by spitting on it!"