Chapter 260: Chapter 259: Daring to Dream, Daring to Act

After an uneventful night, as dawn broke, the guards of the Qi Family began their work quietly.

Someone rode a horse nearby to buy food, and also to scout the way.

Someone went to fetch water, prepared hot water, and waited for their masters to wake up for washing.

Others set up pots, taking rice, flour, meat, and eggs bought from a nearby village at high prices by their companions, ready to prepare a hearty breakfast.

At the break of dawn, Qin Yao called Liu Ji out to work, while she went back to catch up on sleep.

Liu Ji, holding his pot, looked at the orderly busy crowd across from him, regretting that he woke up too late. Otherwise, he could have helped fetch water and shown his face in front of the scholars.

But it was still fine now; without the excuse of fetching water, there were many other opportunities.

So, when Ding Shi and Liu Li woke up from their sleep, they found Liu Ji had somehow set his pot next to the Qi Family’s cooking utensils.

While making breakfast for his own people, he was chatting heartily with the Qi Family’s guard responsible for cooking.

Finally, he found an opportunity.

Inside the tent, they heard Gongliang Liao’s urgent call: “Someone, come!”

The guards were either on the carriage, cooking, feeding horses, or fetching water. The nearest cooking guard heard the call twice but no response, so he quickly got up and was about to go inside.

Liu Ji suddenly stood up, pressed him down, and stuffed a wooden spoon back in his hand, saying seriously:

“Brother Shi Tou, cooking meat porridge requires careful attention to the heat, and you must not stop stirring, or the taste won’t be right.”

“Didn’t you say that the master is particular about food? If the first bowl of porridge in the morning isn’t good, it will spoil the master’s mood!”

Shi Tou tried to withdraw his hand, but he couldn’t pull it free, and he anxiously said, “Mr. Ji, the master is calling, I need to go in to serve…”

Before Shi Tou could finish, Liu Ji raised his hand. “I understand, I understand, I’ll go. Don’t worry, I know how to serve people!”

As he finished speaking, he already ran to the tent entrance, and before Shi Tou could stop him, he slipped inside.

Thinking of the master’s temperament, Shi Tou’s heart sank, fearing the master would be angry, so he quickly pulled over a subordinate to have him continue stirring the porridge, and hurried over.

But unexpectedly, when he lifted the curtain, he didn’t see the anticipated rage; he only saw Liu Ji holding a cloak in a corner of the tent.

The master, with limited movement, was sitting on a specially-made chair behind the cloak, using the chamber pot.

The room had an indescribable odor, which Shi Tou found hard to bear, so he held his breath.

In contrast, Liu Ji seemed nonchalant and even signaled him with his eyes: See, I’m serving just fine? Go about your business, using the chamber pot doesn’t need two people.

In the past, the house servants and guards in charge of serving would prepare red dates to stuff the master’s nose, and scatter spices in the chamber pot to mask odors, avoiding embarrassment.

Shi Tou truly didn’t expect Liu Ji to just put the master onto the chamber pot like that.

But more surprisingly, the master didn’t fly into a rage.

The smell was indeed unpleasant, and Shi Tou signaled Liu Ji with his eyes to serve more attentively, quietly retreating.

The previous servant serving the master had just been dismissed, and several others that followed were unsatisfactory. Was Liu Ji so reckless that he wasn’t scolded?

Shi Tou couldn’t understand, so he went to report to his own master, Qi Xian.

Qi Xian had just awoken, and Shi Tou, while helping him dress and wash, kept an eye on the commotion in the neighboring tent.

Liu Ji, looking as if nothing happened, carried the chamber pot out, first smiling sheepishly at them, then went to empty the chamber pot, cleaned it, and returned it to the tent.

Qi Xian witnessed the whole process and was taken aback.

Was cleaning the chamber pot something to be happy about?

Suspiciously glancing at his teacher’s tent, Qi Xian softly asked, “The master isn’t angry?”

Shi Tou was also perplexed, having seen the master’s past temper. Because of his crippled legs, he was especially irritable and would immediately berate anyone for the slightest misstep.

“Does this Liu Ji really have something special about him?” Shi Tou murmured in confusion.

But what was special about him?

It was just about being “timely.”

People have urgent needs, and who can wait for your red dates and spices when they’re about to burst?

But ultimately, he was someone with face to uphold, and such a private matter wasn’t something he could easily speak of.

“Master, where shall I put the chamber pot?” Liu Ji, carrying the cleaned chamber pot into the tent, asked in a perfectly natural tone.

The old man, who was being dressed by other guards, gave him a cold glance, and naturally, other guards took the chamber pot from Liu Ji’s hands and placed it properly.

“You are Liu Ji?” Gongliang Liao asked, though his tone was affirmative.

He had inquired with Qi Xian about what had happened the previous night and knew it was Liu Ji who had asked his wife, skilled in martial arts, to come to their rescue.

Liu Ji did not expect the scholar to know his name, and with a small thrill, he hurried closer, standing before Gongliang Liao and responded with a smile:

“Yes, I, Liu Ji, greet the master!”

Qi Xian opened the curtain and walked into the tent, inadvertently overhearing Liu Ji’s “master,” and looked incredulously at Liu Ji, displeased, reminding him:

“Liu Ji, you can’t call him ’master’ casually.”

“No! I didn’t call casually.” Liu Ji was quite sober. He looked up at the old man sitting before him, sipping porridge, and somewhat embarrassed, asked: “Master, are you still taking students? What do you think of me?”

Outside the tent, Ding Shi and Liu Li, who were about to greet the scholar, were suddenly startled by Liu Ji’s voice, staggering in surprise!

The two exchanged quick glances; how did Liu Ji dare? They hadn’t even dared to imagine what it felt like to be a disciple of a scholar!

Inside the tent, Liu Ji wasn’t aware of the situation outside, though Qi Xian’s shock at the moment had nothing to say about being unrelated to the two outside; it was exactly the same.

Qi Xian glared at Liu Ji angrily: How dare you think?

Liu Ji thought to himself, I do dare to think, not only do I dare to think, but I also dare to act!

How many times can one have a chance to turn their life around?

A scholar was sent right beside him, a chance rarer than Qin Yao suddenly transforming into a gentle and virtuous person and never hitting him again.

Even if the scholar looked down on him, he must fight for himself, to not waste such a meticulously arranged opportunity by heaven!

Seeing Gongliang Liao only focused on his porridge without responding, Liu Ji thickened his face, stepped forward, and grabbed the scholar’s sleeve, calling softly: “Master?”

Qi Xian felt ominous, quickly stepping forward with anger: “Daring Liu Ji, if you continue to offend my teacher, don’t blame me for not appreciating the favor you did yesterday, having someone beat you out!”

Beat?

Liu Ji was least afraid of this.

Seeing Shi Tou and other guards eager to move, he raised his chin toward the opposite direction, “Do you not know about my wife’s martial arts? I advise you not to challenge her. The last one who did so has already been reincarnated as a new person.”

His words indeed intimidated Shi Tou and the others; outsiders might not see it, but they, being insiders, couldn’t be unclear.

Miss Qin’s martial skills were such, that even if all of them went together, they wouldn’t be enough to fill the gap between her teeth.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep