Chapter 109: Zhu Xia

Wei Xu left right away without wasting any time. In this regard, Chen Chao admired him.

It was like how he fought, he would just fight.

After the scholar left, the constables from the Left Guard finally arrived. They rushed towards the old man in the alley, only to find that he had already died. They looked at each other in confusion.

Song Lian walked into the alley. This commander of the Left Guard had a pale complexion and his official robe was slightly damaged, making it clear that he did not have an easy time. After seeing Chen Chao, he breathed a sigh of relief and said bluntly, "I almost thought I'd have to burn paper money for you."

Chen Chao snorted with a fake smile, "If Your Excellency hadn't pulled this lowly official in to join the fun, I'm afraid I wouldn't have been in danger several times today."

Song Lian laughed heartily and patted him on the shoulder. "Thanks to you, without you, the Left Guard would have lost face today."

Chen Chao clasped his hands and said with a smile, "As the deputy commander of the Left Guard, this is my duty. Please don't try to reward me, Your Excellency"

Song Lian was taken aback and asked doubtfully, "When did I say I wanted to reward you?"

Seeing his expression, Chen Chao shook his head: what a miser!

He let out a sigh and changed the subject, talking about what happened before. Finally, he pointed to the girl standing by the side quietly and said, "I still have to take her to the academy. Is there anything else you need, Your Excellency?"

Song Lian lamented, "The disciple of the academy dean is truly extraordinary, he has already stepped into Nepenthe Realm at this young age, truly amazing, I... ... Wait, what did you say? The saintess..?!"

His voice cut off abruptly. Only then, did he notice that there was a girl not far from Chen Chao. Song Lian pulled Chen Chao over and scolded in a low voice, "Why do you still dare to keep her by your side? Don't you know that she's a hot potato?"

When Chen Chao heard this, he asked rather puzzledly, "Your Excellency, when we first met, I thought you were a man with both wisdom and strength. But now, it seems like Your Excellency only has strength left?"

Song Lian asked, "Are you saying that I have no wisdom?"

"No, I'm saying that you're dumb, Your Excellency."

Chen Chao glanced at the quiet girl standing beside them and said solemnly, "Putting aside whether or not the Divine Capital is already safe now, even if it's not, you cannot let anyone take her away too, Your Excellency. Our Left Guard has received the imperial edict to protect her and escort her to the lodging arranged by the Ministry of Rites. Now, she happened to be attacked on the way there, where does the responsibility lie? Is it not on our Left Guard?"

"Our Left Guard has already lost face. If in the end, it still isn't our Left Guard's people safely escorting her to her lodging, this lowly official can guarantee that during tomorrow's imperial court meeting, Your Excellency will definitely be punished severely. As for whether it will be the Lord Warden or His Majesty who punishes you, it will be hard to say."

Actually, Song Lian was not stupid at all. When dealing with the matter with the woman before, he seemed a bit foolish because he did not really understand the affairs between men and women in the first place. Now, he seemed a bit slow because this matter was just too huge and he had not come to his senses yet.

After hearing what Chen Chao said, Song Lian praised, "Indeed, that's right. If something happens to this young lady while under the escort of our Left Guard, even if she is rescued by Mr. Wei, our Left Guard will still be held responsible for negligence too. But now that you have been tasked with escorting the saintess back to the academy, how can our Left Guard be held liable for negligence?"

"Besides, you killed many people who intended to harm the saintess prior to this. Isn't that also the credit of my Left Guard?"

Seeing that Song Lian had wised up, Chen Chao quickly praised him, "Your Excellency is wise!"

Song Lian then became worried again and said, "The Divine Capital isn't safe at present, why don't I go with you?"

Chen Chao thought about it and shook his head, "Mr. Wei said that the Divine Capital is very safe now."

After hearing that it was Wei Xu's opinion, Song Lian did not insist any further. He just patted Chen Chao's shoulder again and said, "Then I'll have to trouble you to take her to the academy. Be careful on the way, make sure not to let anything else happen."

......

......

Walking out of the alley side by side with the young girl, Chen Chao took a glance at the Divine Capital that was gradually turning dark. Then, he sincerely thanked her, "Thank you."

If the young girl had not taken the initiative to ask Chen Chao to escort her, the Left Guard would have definitely been charged with negligence.

Chen Chao did not care much about this sort of thing, but other officials in the Left Guard might not be so indifferent.

The young girl smiled at him and said, "Commander Chen saved me first. I'm just repaying the favor. There's no problem, right?"

When she spoke, her two dimples were very obvious. Chen Chao could not help but feel a sense of brightness when looking at her.

It was really like the middle of summer.

"My name is Zhu Xia."

The young girl said with a smile, "Zhu, as in the Zhu in vermilion. Xia, as in summer."

Chen Chao was silent for a while and said, "Chen Chao?"

The young girl burst out laughing and said happily, "I know your name. I heard that you beat He Yi at the imperial banquet before I came, so I also wanted to meet you when I came to the Divine Capital."

Without waiting for Chen Chao to speak, the girl spoke rapidly: "He Yi's sect, Verdant Cloud Temple, has a grudge against our Myriad Heaven Palace. I've been wanting to beat him up for a long time!"

Chen Chao interjected, "Isn't it difficult?"

Zhu Xia nodded and said, "I need to cultivate for a few more years. Otherwise, I really can't beat him."

Her meaning was clear, full of confidence, and also very proud. But Chen Chao did not see any problems with it because the girl in front of him was also a genius on the Latent Dragon List in the first place. But, because her cultivation realm was too low, her ranking was rather low.

"When I didn't meet you, I'd always been wondering what kind of person you were. I didn't expect that after seeing you today, you actually turned out to be such a person! Very good!"

Zhu Xia said, "You were really quick when you were fighting."

Chen Chao frowned and said, "Can you put it another way?"

"You don't like it? Okay, I'll stop saying it then."

Zhu Xia shut her mouth, pouting a little unhappily. Her two dimples became more apparent. Chen Chao could not help but want to reach out and pinch her cheek. But he quickly restrained himself and changed the subject, asking, "Did you come to the Divine Capital to participate in the Myriad Willow Convention's literary exam?"

Zhu Xia nodded and said seriously, "I heard that a very talented girl emerged from the academy. Just nice, she's participating in the literary exam too. I want to see if I am smarter than her. By the way, is that person your friend?"

Chen Chao nodded and said, "Yes, she is my friend."

Zhu Xia suddenly had a glint in her eyes and asked very eagerly, "Then am I also your friend from now on?"

Chen Chao was taken aback by her question. Frowning, he asked probingly, "The way you are, it's very easy for people to think that you have no friends."

When this was mentioned, Zhu Xia became a little sad, and she said softly, "I have no friends on the mountain. We should be able to become friends, right? You saved me and I saved you too, can't we be friends like this?"

Chen Chao thought for a moment and said seriously, "It really does seem like we have a life-and-death friendship."

When this was brought up, Chen Chao suddenly asked, "You said before that you didn't have any life-saving measures, so why did you produce a talisman in the end?"

Ever since he rescued this girl, he had been asking her if there were any life-saving measures that she had not used yet, but she said that she had nothing.

Zhu Xia's face turned red. As a matter of fact, she was lying about it, but she quickly said, "I only had that talisman left. If I had taken it out earlier, what would we have done when that old bastard appeared?"

Hearing the term "old bastard," Chen Chao smiled and thought for a moment, saying, "Putting it like this, that makes sense too."

"Right? I didn't lie to you, I did it for our own good."

Zhu Xia was a little joyful. Suddenly, she pointed to a small stall on the street and asked, "What's that?"

Chen Chao took a look and saw that it was a stall selling Dough Drop and Vegetable Soup.

"Dough Drop and Vegetable Soup."

"What's Dough Drop and Vegetable Soup?"

"Dough Drop and Vegetable Soup is Dough Drop and Vegetable Soup."

"Have you never eaten it before?"

"Ah? How did you know?"

"Then let's have a bowl?"

"But I don't have money."

"I'll treat you."

"Yay, you're treating me to Dough Drop and Vegetable Soup, does that mean that we're friends?"

"Mhm, I guess so."

......

......

Sitting at the not-so-clean wooden table, two bowls of steaming hot Dough Drop and Vegetable Soup were served. But Chen Chao did not reach for his chopsticks, he just looked at the girl in front of him.

Zhu Xia was rather excited and picked up the chili jar next to her and poured the whole jar of chili oil into her soup.

The Dough Drop and Vegetable Soup instantly became extremely bright.

The stall owner was a middle-aged man. Seeing this scene, his expression became rather ugly.

Chen Chao was also a little shocked, "Aren't you scared of spicy food?"

The young girl said naturally, "My name is Zhu Xia, of course I'm not afraid of spicy food!"

Chen Chao could not stifle his laughter, what kind of statement was that?

In Chinese customs, you burn paper money for the dead to spend in the underworld.