Calamity Messenger-Chapter 50 - 39: An Interesting Woman (Part 2)

"There must, of course, be punishment."

Jie Yuan Shao pointed to the forest outside the tent: "As everyone knows, the longer you endure in Mansu Forest Land, the higher your personal and overall scores. According to the rules of Mansu Forest Land, each person can stay inside for a maximum of six periods a day, and can enter up to three days."

"That being the case, why not require the Qian Family’s guards to endure eighteen periods over three days in Mansu Forest Land, imposing a whipping punishment for each day they exit early? For every period less, they would receive five lashes. If she can’t do it, the whip will naturally fall on her; if she can, then the rewards will be shared by all upon settlement, benefiting everyone."

She looked around, "Does anyone have any objections to this arrangement?"

Qian Gongyu immediately said, "The Qian Family has no objections!"

Luo Weijin twitched his mouth but still said, "The Luo Family has no objections."

This farce finally came to an end here, as Luo Weijin left the tent directly without looking back, obviously too ashamed to stay with a mouth full of blood. Qian Gongyu also wanted to leave, but was blocked by someone she couldn’t afford to offend.

"Excuse me," Shang Xinlei stood in front of them politely, "I have something to ask your guard... Can I ask, is your saber a token?"

"Yes."

"Ah!?"

Qian Gongyu looked shocked at ’Jiang Shi,’ then at the latter’s White Iron Straight Saber. Since ’Jiang Shi’ hadn’t shown the powers of a messenger all along, Qian Gongyu naturally didn’t think she was one, and naturally thought that a non-messenger couldn’t possibly own a token—a fact in Liang Kingdom where quasi-messengers had to strive for chances like dogs to seize tokens. Who would have thought an ordinary person would possess one?

Shang Xinlei seemed to have seen through this early on and asked, "Can I have a look?"

"No."

Even through the screen, Yan Qing could see Qian Gongyu frantically winking. Her beautiful double eyelids blinked like Morse code, her expression seemingly saying ’Just agree to her, and I’ll do anything.’

By reason and emotion, Yan Qing should not refuse such a small request from Shang Xinlei. By emotion, Shang Xinlei had been the first to stand up for ’Jiang Shi’; by reason, Shang Xinlei had no reason to covet such a First-Turn Ordinary token as the White Iron Straight Saber.

Yet Yan Qing still had no intention of changing his mind.

For some reason, Yan Qing’s first impression of Shang Xinlei was very unpleasant, as if seeing a brat from a relative messing at his precious model display, with a strong premonition of ’she’s going to cause me trouble.’

Despite having never met before, with Shang Xinlei appearing as a good person, flawless from appearance to family to attitude, the dislike was still there. Yan Qing couldn’t say why, only attributing it to a compatibility issue—unexpectedly, even a beautiful girl could rub him the wrong way.

Despite being declined so bluntly, Shang Xinlei didn’t get angry but asked with interest, "Are you really a guard of the Qian Family? If you are worried about the trials in Mansu Forest Land, I can help you avoid the punishment. No matter how justified Jie Yuan Shao is, if our Shang family wishes to protect you, he couldn’t even harm a hair of yours, given you become one of us..."

"She is a guard of the Qian Family!" Qian Gongyu immediately blocked in front of ’Jiang Shi’, her face flushed, "She is a guard of mine, Qian Gongyu!"

Shang Xinlei looked at Qian Gongyu, appearing like a hen protecting her chicks, and chuckled, "Alright, alright, I’ve been impudent. After all, with such a beautiful and loyal guard, it’s hard not to love. I am Shang Xinlei, nice to meet you both."

"Qian Gongyu, she’s called Jiang Shi."

"Then see you both tomorrow. I hope you rest well and prepare for tomorrow’s trial in Mansu Forest Land." Shang Xinlei waved goodbye, then chuckled, "But my offer remains valid, Jiang Shi, you can find me at any time."

Facing this overt attempt to poach, even though the opponent was the Fourth Miss of the Shang Family, someone she could not afford to offend, Qian Gongyu still mustered the courage to... glared at her hard.

Even just glaring made her a little frightened, and she quickly pulled ’Jiang Shi’ back to her carriage.

...

...

Shang Xinlei returned to the second floor of her carriage—yes, as a part of the Red Gate Family, her family could ride in a sixteen-horse double-decker carriage, maintaining a luxurious moving palace even in the wilderness. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Sitting at her desk, she pulled out a sheet of rice paper and began sketching. Before long, she completed a simple drawing of the White Iron Straight Saber, then found a book titled "Sword Language" from her bookshelf, which recorded almost all knife-type tokens from ancient to modern times—though only listing those of the First to Third-Turn level.

After spending some time, Shang Xinlei quickly compared all the knife-type tokens’ appearances in the book, finding none similar to the White Iron Straight Saber. It could be concluded that the White Iron Straight Saber was a recently emerged token.

New tokens often imply new Secret Realms. If others investigated this far, they would undoubtedly be overjoyed, trying everything to learn the location of the new Secret Realm from the owner.

Unfortunately, Shang Xinlei wasn’t seeing the White Iron Straight Saber for the first time.

Jiang Shi of Mansu Forest Land.

An Wu of Chang’an An Guo Temple.

And ... Yellow Dog of the Thief’s House.

These individuals appeared across the land, seemingly having nothing in common, yet all possessed tokens from the same Secret Realm.

"Things... are starting to become interesting."

Shang Xinlei’s body trembled slightly, subconsciously biting her nails, though she still knew nothing, just knowing she ’didn’t know’ made her exhilarated to the point of trembling.

She felt herself standing before the veil of the world. Though she still couldn’t see behind it, she was starting to understand how to lift a corner of it.

"However, Jiang Shi’s attitude towards me is somewhat odd; could she have recognized me?"

Shang Xinlei opened her jewelry box and took out a pair of sunglasses. When she wore them, although nothing else concealed her face, her reflection in the mirror transformed into a different visage, bearing some resemblance to her but visibly determined to not be her.

Others from the Thief’s House believed she didn’t pay much heed to disguises with just casual sunglasses, but her disguise was actually more perfect than anyone else’s.

First-Turn Token · Mortal Sunglasses.

Though just a First-Turn token, it was acquired by her father from mistakenly entering a Secret Realm in his early years, and it was the only pair in the entire Liang Kingdom. The effect was very simple: to prevent anyone from recognizing the wearer.

Shang Xinlei had tested the power of the sunglasses several times, confident that others in the Thief’s House couldn’t identify her.

So Jiang Shi’s distaste for her was purely because Jiang Shi disliked her.

"To think someone would dislike me..." Shang Xinlei pushed open the window, glanced at the Qian Family’s carriage in the distance, "What an interesting woman."