Chapter 228
Chapter 228
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 228
>Chapter Title: Beauty
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> “Oh?”
The other person’s words slightly focused Li Huowang’s wandering attention.
>
> “Why do you say that? I’ve heard before that Liang Province is the most prosperous place. Other places are suffering from droughts, but the people of Liang never go hungry.”
>
> “Everyone says Liang is great, but those who’ve never been there don’t know that they don’t treat people like people at all!”
>
> After Wu Yue finished speaking excitedly, she seemed to recall some unpleasant memories and painfully covered her mouth, dry-heaving.
>
> “Hm?”
The other person’s words furrowed Li Huowang’s brow. This description didn’t match what Bai Lingmiao had said at all. In her mouth, her hometown was a paradise free of any worries.
>
> Li Huowang shot a glance at Bai Lingmiao, who was sitting beside Xiaoman. She quickly set down the horn cup she’d been holding with both hands and walked over.
>
> Grasping Bai Lingmiao’s hand, Li Huowang turned to the woman beside him and asked,
> “Madam, could you elaborate?”
>
> Wu Yue lowered the hand covering her mouth and glanced at Bai Lingmiao, who had drawn near. In the end, she just shook her head.
>
> “I was thoughtless. We shouldn’t talk about this during a meal, or you won’t be able to eat. Benefactor, if you really want to know, we can talk tomorrow.”
>
> With that, she turned and left, leaving the two baffled.
>
> “Miaomiao, did you live comfortably in Liang Province? Did anyone bully your family? What’s the local government like?”
Li Huowang asked Bai Lingmiao.
>
> For the place where they were most likely to settle down in the future, Li Huowang actually knew very little about Liang Province.
>
> He only knew that Liang was vast and the strongest among these countries. That was it.
>
> If he really planned to spend his life settled there with Bai Lingmiao, this wouldn’t do.
>
> “I lived very well! No one dared bully us! We have a big family—the village head is my grandfather. In our village, all the other uncles and aunts treated me wonderfully, and my cousins always yielded to me too.”
>
> “Stuff like what Gouwa and Xiaoman said—being looked down on and shunned for your looks—didn’t exist there at all!”
>
> “You’ve only been to one Niu Xin Village? What about other parts of Liang Province? Have you ever been anywhere else?”
Li Huowang stroked his chin and asked again.
>
> “I don’t know. I’ve never been to other places.”
Bai Lingmiao’s words made Li Huowang pay a bit more mind to what Baolu’s mother had just said.
>
> He was truly curious what she wanted to say.
>
> At that moment, Li Huowang spotted Sun Baolu in the distance, completely drunk. He stood, walked over to him, and led him out of the tent again.
>
> He couldn’t wait until tomorrow. Li Huowang planned to ask Sun Baolu first. As her son, he should know something about his mother’s affairs.
>
> “No more drinking. Sober up. I have questions for you—about your mother.”
Li Huowang said to Sun Baolu, who was slumped groggily against a water bucket.
>
> “Drink! More drinking!”
The giggling Sun Baolu raised his empty wine cup and jabbed it toward Li Huowang’s chest.
>
> “Tch.”
Li Huowang reached back for his sword, gripped the hilt, and drew it slightly. In an instant, the surging killing intent made Sun Baolu tremble uncontrollably, his dazed eyes rapidly filling with extreme terror.
>
> “Clang!”
The sword blade slid back into its sheath. Li Huowang snatched the empty cup from his hand, scooped up a cup of cold water from the bucket beside them, and splashed it right in his face.
> “Sober now?”
>
> The panting Sun Baolu trembled as he wiped the water droplets from his face, nodding vigorously.
> “Sober! Sober!”
>
> “Your mother’s from Liang Province? What’s she told you about it?”
>
> Hearing this, Sun Baolu’s expression grew odd.
> “Senior Brother Li, what’s wrong? We were eating just fine—why suddenly ask about this?”
>
> There was no need to hide such things, so Li Huowang told him everything his mother had just said, along with his own concerns.
>
> “If Liang Province really is as bad as your mother says, then the rest of us need to think about settling somewhere else.”
>
> Face flushed red, Sun Baolu tilted his head up toward the full moon in the sky.
> “Senior Brother Li, can I not say?”
>
> Li Huowang grew annoyed.
> “Does your family have this many secrets? Can’t say this, can’t say that—anyone would think you’re the emperor’s bastard son.”
>
> Hearing this, Sun Baolu gritted his teeth hard.
> “Fine! You saved my life and took me home. Since you want to know, I’ll tell you. What do you think of my mother’s looks?”
>
> “Hm?”
Li Huowang didn’t understand where this was going. What did it have to do with the question he’d just asked?
>
> “My mother’s beautiful, right? Back when she was a fresh young girl of fourteen, she was even prettier than now—absolutely drop-dead gorgeous, a real sink-fish topple-goose beauty!”
>
> “That’s not the sort of thing a son should say about his mother. Better watch it in front of an outsider like me.”
Li Huowang reminded him. Sun Baolu didn’t look fully sober yet.
>
> “Senior Brother Li, so with my mother being so beautiful, what do you think she did back in Liang Province?”
Sun Baolu looked at Li Huowang with a bitter smile.
>
> Hearing this, Li Huowang’s heart sank. He didn’t respond to the question, waiting for the other to continue.
>
> “My mother was just fourteen when they dressed her up all clean and pretty, and hired her out to some manor as beauty paper.”
Sun Baolu’s voice trembled as he uttered a term Li Huowang couldn’t comprehend.
>
> “What’s beauty paper?”
>
> “My mother used her body to wipe other people’s asses clean! That’s what beauty paper is!!”
Sun Baolu spat the words out through gritted teeth.
>
> In that instant, the shocked Li Huowang suddenly understood why his mother had dry-heaved earlier when speaking of Liang Province, and why she’d said they didn’t treat people like people there.
>
> What he’d imagined before—becoming a concubine or a whore—still treated one as human. But a beauty that pretty? In the eyes of some in Liang Province, her only value was as ass-wipe.
>
> “You think that’s disgusting enough? Wrong! That’s just the start! Ever heard of a beauty pot? The people of Liang have all sorts of twisted games!”
>
> Sun Baolu walked off, leaving Li Huowang standing alone in the chilly open air.
>
> After hearing Sun Baolu’s story, he felt some regret, followed instinctively by disgust toward such a place.
>
> Compared to them, even the nuns of Anci Nunnery seemed pristine.
>
> But once the disgust faded, deep helplessness showed on Li Huowang’s face.
>
> He should’ve realized it long ago—in this utterly mad world, there was no such thing as a paradise. It was just a matter of slightly better or far worse.
>
> “What was the point of traveling over a thousand miles? Should’ve just taken over Clear Wind Temple back then.”
>
> But that thought was just a passing fancy. After all, he still had to consider the others wanting to go home.
>
> “Senior Brother Li? What’s wrong?”
Bai Lingmiao poked her head out from the tent, worried. She feared he was having another episode.
>
> “Nothing. Coming in now.”
>
> The revelry inside the tent continued, but looking at the table full of delicacies, Li Huowang had no appetite left.
>
> (End of chapter)