Chapter 236: Rushing To Die, Volunteering Oneself
The crying young man was spanked by his father, who yelled in grievance, “I still want you to continue the family line! Don’t make a fool of yourself, still not rolling back home for your father?!”
There was also a poor family member with his son holding his thigh and his wife grabbing his arm. “My husband, are you really going to leave us? The gu people in Moran Hall will definitely die, once you go, wouldn’t we be… sob sob sob…”
His son also wailed, “Daddy, don’t go ah—”
“Chunxiang, my mother will take care of you. I’m useless and can’t support you, if I can become a gu person, State Master will give us one hundred taels of silver. You won’t have to worry about food and clothing anymore!”
Several of these life-and-death scenes played out.
Nan Xun didn’t know that she was born cold-blooded. She was used to seeing these kinds of scenes, and apart from some slight sympathy, she felt no extra emotions.
This group of people made five long rows, each with nearly sixty people. Counting them, there were no less than three hundred people rushing to be gu people.
This was more than what Nan Xun thought.
Although Nan Xun smelled sour and her clothes were in tatters to the point that she could almost overwhelm a beggar, the Imperial City’s common people still had good character. Though secretly looking in disgust and standing far away from her, they didn’t beat or curse her.
The loose and oversized clothing concealed Nan Xun’s exquisite body, adding a really rancid smell. No one would give her a second glance, and so Nan Xun was able to conceal her gender.
Everyone waited from morning to noon before a group of five disciples from Moran Hall finally came.
All five of them wore short white robes and looked pretty and young.
However, Nan Xun knew that some of them were probably the same age as her grandparents.
As for the state teacher, he might be… an ancestor.
When everyone saw the group of disciples coming over, they all showed admiration. Some of them even felt timid and bowed their heads, not daring to look at them out of fear that they would be disrespectful.
The five Moran Hall’s disciples each stood in front of one line and began selecting candidates for gu people.
The selection was much faster than Nan Xun had expected. They swept their eyes across the candidates and directly selected five strong men from the lines of people.
Nan Xun looked on helplessly at the other party who didn’t even glance at her for a mere second…
“Alright, everyone can disperse,” the one who seemed to be the highest in seniority said lightly to everyone.
Some of the people who weren’t selected showed disappointment, and some let out a sigh of relief, but there was no one who acted like Nan Xun. She ran directly to those disciples and shouted, “Brother, please choose me, don’t just look at my skinny appearance, even a hundred poisons can’t invade my body, I’m absolutely the best candidate to become a gu person! If you don’t believe it, you can let a venomous snake bite me!”
The people that hadn’t completely dispersed couldn’t help but reveal an expression of watching a good show.
Whatever the Moran Hall’s disciples said was what should be done. You just accepted it obediently, but he still dared to question them? Tsk, this sour and dirty boy won’t bleed to death on the spot right?
The disciple who had just selected gu people glanced at her briefly. “Boasting shamelessly, where would there be someone born with poison resistance under the heaven?”
Nan Xun’s eyes moved, and she immediately changed her words. “I don’t know if I’m immune to poisons or not, but when I was a child cutting wood in the mountain, the snakes I encountered all avoided and didn’t bite me!”
Nan Xun’s expression was sincere, as if she would take out her little heart to show them.
The other disciple standing nearby suddenly chuckled twice. “Second brother, since this little brother has so easily recommended himself, you might as well give it a try, see if snakes really won’t bite him.”
The man that was called “second brother” squinted at him and said, “Lord said to minimize disturbances, do you want to make the Lord angry?” [T/N: second brother means second senior brother, not because they’re related by blood]
Upon hearing this, the man suddenly became a mute. The other disciples were even more indifferent, showing no interest in Nan Xun.
These disciples directly regarded Nan Xun as air and led the few chosen gu people away.
Nan Xun felt anger rising from her heart. “I have endured humiliation for so many years, and now that I’m offering myself to die, they’re not accepting me! Little Eight, you say, isn’t that so annoying?”
Little Eight asked in puzzlement, “What humiliation did you endure?”
Nan Xun, “I was reduced to a courtesan in a brothel, do you still dare to say that I haven’t endured humiliation?”
Little Eight humphed. “I don’t know who ate tasty food and strong drinks all day long, who could eat eight whole roasted chickens a day! This grandpa has seen rice buckets before, but never one like you.”
Nan Xun, “…it’s because of the body, don’t blame me ah.”
Little Eight, “Excuses, you were already a foodie originally, this grandpa only indirectly helped you achieve your aim.”
Nan Xun felt that it was useless to be calculating with a beast. After standing in the same place for a while, she quickly followed the group of people in front.
“Hey, brothers, please accept me as a gu person ah. I’m hardworking and capable, not afraid of hardship, and also, poisonous snake really don’t bite me ah—”
The group of people in front didn’t kill her, so Nan Xun just followed them until they arrived outside of the palace.
Nan Xun thought that no matter how powerful Moran Hall was, it would still be located on the most prosperous street outside the palace. Never would she have thought that it would be built directly inside the palace!
Moreover, each disciple of Moran Hall had a token that allowed them to enter and leave the palace freely.
The privilege given by the king was really too great.
Nan Xun was naturally stopped from going any further.
Seeing that the group of people were about to enter the palace gate, Nan Xun became anxious and yelled again to recommend herself.
One disciple in front couldn’t bear it anymore. He walked straight over, picked up Nan Xun’s front lapel, and dragged her inside. “Boy, this is you courting your own death. When the time comes, there’s no use even if you wail and beg to the heavens.”
Faint wicked interest flashed in the man’s eyes. Who knew what he thought of, but the gaze he directed at Nan Xun was as if he was looking at a dead object.
Nan Xun suddenly shuddered.
This dead man must be thinking of how to play with her to death.
“Shiqi, if Lord knows that you have recruited a useless person back, I won’t beg for leniency for you,” Second Brother reminded him coldly.
[T/N: he was referring him with number, shiqi was seventeen, Gong Shiqi means Gong Seventeen (taken from their master’s name Gong Moran), but to avoid awkwardness in translation later on, I will choose to refer to his name as Shiqi]
Gong Shiqi humphed. “Lord hasn’t blamed me yet. You just heard that this kid doesn’t want anything else and isn’t afraid of death. It’s the same as picking up a volunteer for free.”
Nan Xun went all the way inside Nanyun Kingdom’s imperial palace, and then followed the group of gu people into a beautiful and imposing building—Moran Hall.
In fact, it was more appropriate to call it Moran Palace, but perhaps because that name was taboo for the state teacher, it was changed to Moran Hall.
Moran Hall came with an ultra-luxurious compound. The main hall was as lavish and extravagant as an emperor’s sleeping quarters; furthermore, there were ten rooms on both sides of the hall. If each disciple of Moran Hall lived in one room, there would still be two left empty.
Nan Xun smiled confidently. “I think one of these two rooms will be mine.”
Little Eight, “Continue to be so confident, there’s nothing wrong with it!”
TL NOTE:
I made a mistake of posting 2 chapters altogether last chapter, this is just me fixing it （；へ：）
PR: ScallopedPotato