Warring States Survival Guide-Chapter 172 - 117: She Wants to Mock Them Severely! _2

Ah Qian and Ah Yu never expected that she wouldn’t even be afraid of the old man anymore, that she’d really dare to open fire. And at this close range—even though, the moment they saw her finger move on the trigger, they dove aside in opposite directions—it was still too late to avoid the smoke bursting out in an instant. Both of them got choked and started coughing like crazy, their faces blackened even as they rolled further away, ears ringing nonstop, lying there dizzy and disoriented.

Ah Man burst out laughing, waving for the Lang Faction brats to grab those two, all the while hurriedly reloading. This time she was using live rounds in the Early Union Bottle—no more just a mouthful of powder for show—while barking, "Don’t resist, and don’t even dream of running. Or I’ll break your legs! You know I always do what I say!"

"Bullshit! ’Do what you say’?! You still haven’t paid us back what you owe! You’ve been promising for centuries, but we haven’t seen a single coin!" Ah Qian was still indignant, but felt dizzy as people surrounded them. Even though they trained in the Yin Technique, there was no way to escape under circumstances like this, so they had to obediently hand over their weapons and got tied up tight.

Of course, the main reason was that Ah Man had always been reckless, acting on a whim and daring to do anything when the mood struck. Now that she was loading live bullets for real, there was a real chance she’d actually shoot. Neither of them wanted to bet their lives against Ah Man’s aim.

"That measly 161 coins? You two must be hopeless to remember that little bit for so long!" Ah Man was no longer the broke Ah Man of before. She reached into her blouse to fish out a silver ingot, wanting to toss it at Ah Qian’s head to show off her wealth—let her see just how rich the great Ah Man was. But after hesitating a second, she figured that was too much, so she stuck it back in her clothes and just snapped at the Lang Faction, "Gag them both and throw them on the ox cart, we’re moving on!"

She loaded Ah Qian and Ah Yu into the cart and hauled them off, but didn’t hurry straight back to Wanjin. First she dealt with business at Atsuta Port, then picked up a batch of pre-ordered roughcloth tofu cakes. Only then did she pile them in with the tofu cakes and roughcloth, cart them home, and have people carry them to her own room. While she was at it, she had someone call Ah Qing over too.

When Ah Qing came in, she saw Ah Qian and Ah Yu roped up like silkworms on the floor, their mouths stuffed so tight they were squirming like maggots, desperately trying to sit up but failing miserably. She just shot Ah Man a cool glance, and seeing no objection, walked over to undo their ropes and even lifted the two of them to their feet.

Ah Qian, as soon as she sat up, spat the rag out of her mouth and cursed over and over, looking up ready to call Ah Man a total beast—treating her own people this way, is this for real? But then she caught sight of Ah Qing, froze, and started uncertainly, "You’re the big beast—wait, no, you’re Ah Qing?"

Ah Qing had changed a lot too—grown a whole head taller than before, figure now looking slenderer than ever, but her complexion much rosier, obviously eating well these days, just all height, no weight. She wasn’t dressed like a boy anymore either; the little tuft on top of her head was gone, her hair grown longer (though only halfway, so she’d just tied it into a ponytail with a headscarf).

Her clothes had changed too. Though still only a plain, patternless short-sleeved kimono and barefoot—not flashy like Ah Man in her bright, loud colors and even daring silk belts—you could still tell the fabric was sharp and smooth, high-quality stuff. Wouldn’t come cheap if sold outside either.

She also had a beautiful, streamlined tachi slanted at her hip—a high-end weapon she’d never had before.

For a moment, Ah Qian didn’t dare believe it was really Ah Qing. The way she looked now, you could call her a noble lady Wu and people would probably buy it. Ah Qing just tossed her a cool glance, went over and sat beside Ah Man, not bothering to argue over the whole beast thing—colder and quieter as ever, as usual.

Ah Qian finally tore her eyes away, thought about Ah Man’s bossy swagger the whole journey back, and couldn’t help getting teary-eyed. "You still say you’re not lackeys—you’re both obviously working for someone! The old man would never approve of this!"

Ah Qing raised her eyes at her, then let her eyelids drop again, still not interested in arguing. This time, Ah Man also didn’t get mad, just scoffed, "How could we be anyone’s dogs, seriously? Go look in the mirror—you two are the ones acting like lapdogs."

She wasn’t stupid. Whatever Harano ate, she and Ah Qing ate the same. Whatever Harano wore, they wore too. Harano’s stuff was their stuff. When did dogs ever get treated that way? Especially since Harano was now paralyzed and on the verge of dying, yet even with his last breath he never tried to drag her and Ah Qing down with him—instead, he told them to save themselves, and still remembered to tell them about his "inheritance."

That is absolutely not how you treat lapdogs—that’s how you treat close friends. Only then would you still think of them when facing death square in the face.

When it comes to life and death, people’s real character turns up—there’s no faking it.

If it weren’t like that, she never would’ve gritted her teeth and risked her life for a friend—"If you’ll treat me as a friend, then I can’t betray that loyalty"—deliberately drawing off the pursuers so Harano could survive one more day. Otherwise, she’d have dragged Ah Qing off in a mad dash and never once looked back. At most, she’d light some incense for Harano on holidays, call it done.

By contrast, back when they were part of the Life-saving Style, running all over as scouts for noble Daimyos—broke, exhausted, barely scraping up leftovers to eat—that was the real lapdog life.

Ah Qian didn’t own a mirror—couldn’t afford one—so for a while she was speechless. Looking around the room, she saw a suit of fine steel armor in one corner, a peach-shaped steel helmet perched on top. Ah Man’s Iron Cannon lay tossed beside it, along with a wakizashi, a tachi, and a fine steel axe—all the good stuff—they’d never dared even dream of such luxury gear before. Fully decked out, you could easily live a few extra lives.

So she just went even quieter, thinking maybe Ah Man wasn’t wrong—this didn’t feel like being a lackey at all. If that’s what being a lapdog was—the life was just too damned good, better than the master’s.

Ah Man, seeing her finally quiet down, let it go and didn’t bother to kick her a couple more times. She was just about to ask why they’d drifted into this neighborhood and what they were up to, but looking at them both, all listless and hunched, probably starving all day and suffering for it, she just called to Ah Qing, "Hey, they’re old acquaintances, after all—go get some food and feed these little beasts. Make it good, don’t be stingy."

Riches unshown to the hometown are like a fine robe worn at night. Now she was living well under Harano, but had never gotten to show off back home—if she could show off a little in front of old acquaintances, that’d do.

Yep, those two little beasts would look embarrassing enough wolfing down food soon. She’d mock them hard, gross them out even harder—because that was the shallow, venomous Ah Man she was!