Reborn Daughter: The Young Lady Wants to Make a Trouble

Han Dynasty Forbidden City

Yu Zhen sat solemnly in his private study, surrounded by neatly stacked documents. With each stroke of the brush on the parchment, the woody scent of black ink filled his nose. His writing was light and smooth, without any mistakes.

He sits in a spacious room whose walls are lined with circular bookshelves and panels containing small, meaningful works.

From the clay horse he carved as a child to the broken arrow he saved to commemorate his first perfect shot, everything was arranged just as he wanted it.

This room was famous for its tranquility. No one dared to make a noise here, not even his advisers and right-hand men.

The peaceful air is filled with the pleasant scent of eucalyptus, with a hint of orange peel.

However, outside the door to this peaceful paradise, things are different.

"You, you tell him, Tiantian." Hu Dengxiao whispered, his tone panicked and frightened. He didn't want to raise his voice and attract the attention of the ferocious beast outside the gate.

"No, come on," Lu Tianbi hissed as she pushed his hand away. He grabbed her out of pure fear.

"Our commander is the kind of man who kills messengers! Stop shooting the poor guy, the commander will kill him!"

"Really?" Lu Tianbi said sarcastically. "I didn't expect our prince to have such a bad temper!"

"Please, please, please, Tiantian, I'm so scared to be the one to tell him," Hu Dengxiao whispered angrily. He rubbed his palms, lowered his head, and made a desperate plea.

"You, you should tell him, Tiantian, he will treat you better!" Hu Dengxiao added, completely ignoring the fact that she would really hurt his eyes if he continued to call her by this terrible nickname.

Lu Tianbi shook his head firmly.

"Be a man!" she exasperated in her calm voice. "And you know, he has no prejudice against any gender! Not even during the female soldier training."

"If necessary, I will kneel down and beg you, Sweetie. Go tell him—"

"Don't you have the guts?!" Lu Tianbi growled. "Oh my God, I pity the person you're going to marry, because you--"

Hu Dengxiao puffed out his chest. "I have the biggest—"

"Go in!" Lu Tianbi angrily pushed the big and small dogs in front of him. He likes to show off his teeth and claws, but where are his bite marks?

Hu Dengxiao's shoulders trembled, and all hope disappeared from his eyes. "No, no, actually, I once had the misfortune of walking into the commander's bathroom stripping naked, and I think his suit was indeed bigger than mine—"

"If you make a pathetic attempt to say you're only the size of a pea—"

"I don't!" Hu Dengxiao gasped. "Do you want to see it? I swear to you, it's big and-"

"Yeah? But it doesn't seem to be the case now, does it?!" Lu Tianbi whispered, and she pushed his hand away. "What are you doing, do you want to take off your pants here--"

"You know what?" Hu Dengxiao shouted, knowing that he would lose the war of words. "Let's do rock, scissors, paper, and then we will know the answer!"

Lu Tianbi was irritated by this kid. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath through her nose, hoping to calm the anger in her heart. When she opened her eyes, Hu Dengxiao jumped in fright.

"Oh - one round," he stammered. "Come on, Sweetie, you know I can never beat you."

"You make it seem like there's a lion or something in the room," Lu Tianbi growled.

"This reminds me of something I heard that was both scary and funny." Hu Dengxiao said nervously. "The new soldiers were scared by our commander, so they made up this sentence to describe him."

"What is it?" Lu Tianbi asked, knowing that this was to calm his anger.

"If you see our commander beating a tiger, you'd better help the tiger."

Hearing this, Lu Tianbi chuckled. It was a sound mixed with ridicule and chuckles. But then she wiped the smile off her face. The recruits were right. The lion will lose.

Hu Dengxiao glanced at her and found that her face was not so red anymore.

"So..." he whispered in a childish voice. "One round?"

Lu Tianbi frowned. "Okay, one round." She stretched out her hand and said.

"Okay, rock, scissors, paper, shoot!" Hu Dengxiao shouted and threw the paper out, and she gave him a very beautiful middle finger.

"Hey-"

"This is my version of scissors, so get your ass in it and be a man!" Lu Tianbi argued. She didn't give him any time to retort or beg for a rematch. She violently sent her best friend out the door.

Hu Dengxiao stumbled through the door with an awkward smile. When he clasped his hands together, his eyes were wide open with fear.

"Uh, uh... Your Highness?" Hu Dengxiao addressed and bowed deeply. When everything was in a mess, he would rather lie on the ground, which was why he knelt in front of the prince, even though he did not intervene in all this.

Yu Zhen didn't take his eyes off the parchment. He continued to work.

"I, please don't kill me after I tell you this, please, Zhenzhen!" Hu Dengxiao's shoulders began to tremble as he spoke. He didn't dare to tell himself such terrible news. Even his tongue began to tremble with fear.

"What is it?" Yu Zhen said slowly. He paused reluctantly, not because of his stupid advisor, but because the ink had dried.

Normally, the task of grinding ink was left to someone that Yu Zhen favored, but since Xue Yue was not around, he did it himself. Sometimes, that person would patiently stay by his side and grind the ink.

Many times, Lu Tianbi did it for him, but she never waited by his side. Only when he needed her too, she would ground Mo, and then she would go to do another thing.

Of course, Yu Zhen could always request a servant, but he was unwilling to give false hope to a specific one.

Yu Zhen calmly pulled open the sleeves of his black robe embroidered with gold and silver. He picked up a small piece of volcanic rock that he had collected from not far from Hanjian.

But at this moment, Hu Dengxiao chose to deliver a shocking news.

"At the Hanjian border, a soldier heard the commotion but ignored it because the nearby town was having fun. Until he decided to ride through the forest on horseback... and discovered... something."

Hu Dengxiao nervously wiped the cold sweat oozing from his forehead. He was about to die young due to the pressure on his shoulders. He swallowed hard and looked at the rectangular grinder on the prince's fingers.

"Y-yeah, three-flipped," he gulped, "C-carriage."

Hu Dengxiao cleared his throat, hoping to calm his pounding heart. "And these carriages seemed to belong to a wealthy family, so the soldiers wanted to check if there were any survivors, in case it was one of our nobles, but..."

Yu Zhen wondered if Hu Dengxiao had eaten something that had caused him an allergic reaction. This would explain the strange stuttering. He continued to grind the ink calmly.

Hu Dengxiao bowed deeply, his forehead almost touching the floor. He instinctively moved to a position where he could protect himself. Moreover, he didn’t have to see the expression of pure anger on the commander’s face.

"It was discovered that these carriages actually belonged to..."

Hu Dengxiao closed his eyes tightly. He began to pray to the high heavens and every god and goddess he could recite in the few seconds he was still alive.

He took a shaky breath and cried inside. He was only two years younger than the commander. Hu Dengxiao was too young to die!

He stifled a sniff. He knew he should have written a will before he became a consultant, even though there was no one to inherit his wealth.

Maybe he could leave it to Lu Tianbi, but then again, the love of his life had led him to ruin. So, maybe it would be better to leave all the money to the commander, but then again, this man was going to kill him today.

No one left a will for Hu Dengxiao.

"Tell me quickly, which noble died?" Yu Zhen whispered patiently.

Yu Zhen was in a good mood today, especially since he had finished another stack of documents. Soon, he would have two full weeks of pure happiness with his beloved.

However, such a good mood would be ruined by the death of a noble. He held back a sigh. It would be too troublesome to inform the noble's family about the tragic death at the hands of bandits.

Yu Zhen had to decide whether to personally inform the noble family of this news based on the importance of the family.

Seeing that the ink suited his taste, Yu Zhen nodded with satisfaction. He was about to put down the inkstone when he was rudely interrupted by the consultant.

Hu Dengxiao whispered a last prayer and blurted out the unfortunate news.

"These carriages belong to the Wuyi royal family, and Princess Li will take one of them to Hanjian."

It took Yu Zhen less than a second to understand what his mentor meant. And in less than a second, everything collapsed.