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CKM SCANS GU FANG BU ZI SHANG VOLUME ONE CHAPTER ONE

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 Gu Fang Bu Zi Shang Volume One Chapter One

July, Gui Le.

The sun was scorching.

It was very hot. Four or five people were sitting under the shade of a tea restaurant. A man joined them.

"A cup of tea please." He reached into his bag and carefully took out some money and placed it on the table.

"Here, a cup of tea, to you cool down." The old man brought the tea and smiled at him, "it's a hot day, where are you
heading?"

"Yes, this demon of a day is indeed hot enough to toast one to death." After a few sips, he seemed slightly happier
and said, "I am delivering stock. These years, it's hard to have enough to eat because of the Dong Lin incident.
Luckily the young master of Jing Anwang is pushing that Bei-Something away. But, I still don't know when I can go
back."

"Yeah, the young master of Jing Anwang is amazing!"

"I know who you're talking about. It's the ruler of Dong Lin's brother. He's strong too."

The guest laughed, "strength isn't the point. When he met young master, he got bet back home, no?" He drained the
rest of his cup and placed some more money on the table. "Another cup please!"

Hearing that, the tea seller nodded. "I heard that he is really a proud Gui Le warrior. He has never lost any battle.”

Suddenly a voice interrupted, "you still talk about the young master of Jing Anwang? He's already been defeated."

This struck them like lightning. They stared at the newcomer in daze.

The tea seller broke the silence. "What are you saying? The young master of Jing Anwang..."

"Do you not know?" the newcomer sat down and started fanning himself. "I just came from the city. Apparently he
has escaped. At the moment, the new ruler has already commanded that Jing Anwang supporters must be captured.
Apparently the reward is pretty good too."

"But didn't he just return as a hero?"

"You’re stupid. When he returned, he tried to kill the ruler. Do you know how dangerous he is?" By now, he had
caught the attention of all the other guests.
“There must be some mistake,” someone guessed.

“Don’t listen to him,” others argued, “I don’t believe that the young master of Jing Anwang would break any law. He
is one of Gui Le’s most loyal officials. He won’t break the law.”
 Gu Fang Bu Zi Shang Volume One Chapter One

The guest saw the discontent. “Well, he has betrayed the main ruler’s trust and he really did attempt murder.”

“But…”

Arguing broke out. Suddenly, they heard a horse.

A carriage had arrived. The driver was a man with huge muscles. He threw down some money and yelled, “ye old
man! Gimme some tea!”

“Coming!”

“This day is too hot!”

“That’s right, that’s right. Feel free to cool down here. We’re discussing about the young master of Jing Anwang.”

“Tch. Me only interested in business, not some royalty or political creep.” He gulped down the rest of his cup and
brought out a huge water bag. “Fill that up, I’m gotta go now.”

The seller hurriedly filled the water bag and passed it over.

The man grabbed the bag, drank a little more and then drove the carriage away.

Inside the horse cart, Pingting finally opened one eye.

It was a humid day and sweat was dripping down her face. It took a while for her eye to adjust to the light. She sat
up. Her back was a little sore.

Where am I? Pingting looked around, trying to wake up.

Suddenly she remembered a scene full of fire.

“Pingting, wait outside the city. We’ll go in to save Father.”

“Then…Master, we’ll meet again on the cliff.”

She had remembered the promise and had gone to the cliff. But just then, she had blackened out…

“Ya awake?” the door opened and a man peered at her, “you shouldda have woken ages ago. Boss thought he’d killed
ya.”

Human trafficking?

Pingting studied them carefully.

 Gu Fang Bu Zi Shang Volume One Chapter One

When Master needs me, I get captured by human traffickers? How unlucky. Pingting had always lived in the quarters
of Jing Anwang and had been caught by traffickers the moment she had left them.

“Okay, I’m gonna ask ya somethin’.” The man sat inside the carriage and stared at Pingting. “If you dun’ tell meh the
truth, I’ll feed ya to the wolves.”

Pingting nearly laughed at this. Why should she be scared anyway? She had faced many difficulties inside the Jing
Anwang quarters and though she was still quite young, she had been in worse situations.

She asked him a question instead, “did you capture me in the city?”

The man looked surprised and chuckled, “yeah.”

“How long did I sleep for?”

“Two days and a half.”

Pingting went pale.

If I’ve really been asleep for the last two days, wouldn’t that mean Master was waiting at the cliff? She chose her
words carefully, “where are you taking me?”

“To…” the man suddenly stopped. “Eh? Yer know I’m askin’ the questions, right?” He paused, before saying, “which
family did you runaway from, wife?”

Huh? Runaway wife?

Pingting lowered her head and studied herself.

Though she was only a maid, her Master had always cherished her and looked after her like a lady. Her clothes
looked expensive so the trafficker had naturally thought that she had run away from her husband.

No wonder the man had allowed her to sleep for so long – he had probably seen some value in her.

Pingting shook her head and laughed, “I’m just a maid, not a runaway wife.”

“Tch, when did maids get good clothes?”

Pingting debated over what to say. I don’t want him to know who I am. So instead, she rolled her eyes and said, “I
stole some of Mistress’ clothes because I wanted to look pretty.” There were a lot of women like that in Gui Le anyway.

The man reacted immediately to this, “Boss! Com’over here!”

“Coming.” Another carriage had pulled up beside them.

 Gu Fang Bu Zi Shang Volume One Chapter One

Not long after, a chubby man peered inside. “Fu Erge, what would you like?”

So his name was Fu Erge.

“Wouldda like yer head! Didn’t ya say this girl could be a runaway wife and worth a lot? How much?” Fu Erge stared
at Pingting, “she’s just a maid. Tch and she slept for two days!”

The Boss scratched his head and studied Pingting carefully. Then he laughed, “Fu Erge, don’t be angry. What’s done
is done. She’ll probably have some value anyway.”

“Oh, so you can sell rubbish?” sneered the man, jabbing an accusing finger at Pingting’s nose.

True, Pingting was never a beauty. Even in the Anwang Prefecture, her looks had been fairly average, probably even
below. One should only say that she was “tidy”.

But everyone is Anwang Prefecture knew how important she was.

However, as the stranger jabbed a finger at her and claimed she was worthless, she couldn’t help rolling her eyes.

Fu Erge coughed two times and faked depression. “Ne’er mind, she should be at least worth around fifty dollars.
These fantasising bitches really give meh false hopes; I even let her stay in my cart for ‘ole two days. Dammit, take
her to the other cart.:

The moment she entered, dread flooded her senses and Pingting realised why Fu Erge had been so angry.

Compared to the first cart, this one was old and dusty, too hot.

Inside the second cart, there were around seven other girls and like Pingting herself, their hands had also been tied
behind their back, gagged and fear showed in their eyes. All eyes were trained on Pingting, as she was a new
addition.

“Move over! Here’s another one.” The boss pushed Pingting hard and unexpectedly began to ungag the girls, “at the
moment, we’re in the wilderness, so I’ll let you talk. Some of you are bound to die in this heat anyway. Be good and
stay put, okay!?” He ran off, probably to drive the cart or something.

Pingting struggled to sit down.

“Cough, cough…cough…” The cart was shaking so hard and she couldn’t help coughing.

Suddenly, unease rippled in her.

Eh? Master took me to the doctor last time…have I still not recovered? Pingting shook her head, closed her eyes and
leaned her head against the wall of the cart.
 Gu Fang Bu Zi Shang Volume One Chapter One

Though she felt better, she still couldn’t stop coughing.

Prince Su, no, he was now the new king. He hated Anwang Prefecture day and night. Recently, Master was very
successful and popular. So he plotted to take Master down due to his jealousy.

Luckily Master had been well informed, so the damage was not too great.

Master should be well hidden by now.

I don’t know where they will hide. But that should be fine, it’s best if they escape to somewhere no one can guess.
No one will ever be able to capture them.

Sound suddenly erupted, most girls were crying over their misfortune. Pingting opened one eye and stared.

Yep, they’re all really pretty. I should be the ugliest one here, right?

Human traffickers were always after pretty girls. The prettier they were, the more value they had. Pingting thought
of Fu Erge, her estimated value of fifty dollars and chuckled. The money her master had rewarded her was definitely
enough to make him faint.

If Fu Erge did know who she was, he’d definitely be surprised.

“Um…” a girl beside Pingting touched her shoulder, “did you get captured by them too?”

She was really cute, no wonder the human traffickers were interested in her. She nodded. “Yeah.”

“Aren’t you scared?”

“No.”

The little girl looked at her in surprise. “You’re not scared?”

Pingting saw that she was probably going to say something else, so she began first. “What’s your name?”

“My…name’s Qing. What’s yours?”

“I’m Hong.” She automatically lied about her name. She definitely wouldn’t use such a fancy name like ‘Bai Pingting’
but it wouldn’t do to have no name at all.

“Okay, then…”

“Do you know where we are?” She interrupted her again, taking advantage of her situation. She wasn’t scared, just
a little excited. It was a bit like accompanying Master, offering her suggestions and advice.
 Gu Fang Bu Zi Shang Volume One Chapter One

“According to that fat guy and mean guy, we should be sold in Dong Lin.”

In the enemy country? Pingting’s eyebrows creased even more.

Master’s last battle was against the troops of Dong Lin. Pingting had convinced the enemy going into the mountains.
They won. Back then, Master had said, “now the whole army knows that we have a female army advisor. When we
get back, I’ll get Father to reward you. What would you like this time?”

If she was recognised in Dong Lin, that would be…

It looks like using the human traffickers’ cart to escape from the wrath of the king is impossible. I’ll have to find the
right time, leave this cart and look for Master.

The cart jolted. Due to the shock, Pingting felt her energy draining away as she began to cough again.

“Cough, cough…”

“Hey…” Qing looked at her sympathetically.

“I’m fine.” She had finally stopped but it left a foul, blood-like taste in her mouth. Pingting suddenly froze, did she
just cough up blood?

First things first, how could she escape?

She wasn’t weak, but her illness was slowly eating away at her. She hadn’t told her master back in the battlefield,
because she didn’t want to worry him.

Her thoughts were still a mess, no wonder her illness had gotten worse.

Pingting looked up and sighed, “fine, Dong Lin it is.” She had decided to go to Dong Lin.

Anwang Prefecture commanded around a thousand people, in Gui Le.

The enemy probably had similar forces.

A couple of days later, the cart had arrived in Dong Lin.

But the human traffickers were not stupid to sell the girls at a poor village, on the skirts of Dong Lin, so they
continued to travel for a couple of days. When they arrived at a village called Moen, they forced the girls off the cart,
washed them and gave them clean clothes to wear.

That type of business wasn’t unusual and the traffickers took the girls to the town centre platform. Each of them was
pushed on to the stage, one by one, and auctioned.
 Gu Fang Bu Zi Shang Volume One Chapter One

Pingting was the most unpopular and was towards the back of the line. The clothes she had originally been wearing
had been given to Qing and she was sold for a high price.

“Beauties from Gui Le! Ah, the beautiful women from Gui Le!”

Pingting thought of how she was Gui Le, Anwang Prefecture’s most cherished girl and how she was being sold now.
She shook her head and laughed bitterly.

No wonder people are always talking about how life changes so quickly.

She stood on stage and studied her fellow girls, most of them now sold. The one who bought Qing was a painter and
he looked very kind, very rich. Qing was quite noisy, yelling “hey, hey!” while holding onto Pingting’s hand.

But Pingting knew that only a pretty girl like Qing would be sold into a nice family. If she hadn’t been saved by her
master, she would’ve died on the streets.

“Go, don’t be scared.” Pingting patted her, eyes watching her as she left.

She was the last one.

Ugly girls would never have a good family. The human traffickers finally sold her as a maid who was to do coarse
work, for forty cents.

Forty cents eh? Master could die of laughing by now.

She was brought over to the front of a huge house. "This is the main entrance, got that? You coarse-work maids
should be using the side door though." The housekeeper pointed at a sign overhead.

Pingting looked up and read, "Hua Prefecture".

Luckily it wasn't Zhen Beiwang Prefecture, or she would've tried to run.

Chu Beijie, the famous younger brother of Dong Lin's king, was also the best army official... he was also the
commander of the last battle she had participated in with her master.

"Yeah, not bad, at least you can read." The housekeeper nodded while taking Pingting to the so-called side door.
"From now on, this is your new home, our master's daughter is very kind so if you do your work properly, no one will
bother you.

Just like that, Hua Prefecture gained another girl.

Pingting's main role was to wash clothes. She couldn't believe this as she had never imagined washing clothes.
 Gu Fang Bu Zi Shang Volume One Chapter One

Back in Jing Anwang Prefecture, though her rank was a maid, she was like her master's younger sister. She never
did anything more than bringing tea or accompanying her master while painting or play the qin. As for her own
clothes, she had always given them to other maids to wash.

"I'm finally done." She took the cleaned clothes, which she had a lot of difficulty washing, to dry. Pingting muttered,
"geez Pingting, when did you expect such an easy life? Isn't this typical of a maid? How disappointing!" She smiled,
showing two dimples.

Her radiance overwhelmed her surroundings, though her looks were fairly plain, she had a graceful air. If Fu Erge
had seen her like that, he would never have sold her for a mere forty cents.

The people of Hua Prefecture were kind to their workers. The housekeeper noticed that Pingting coughed a lot and
even bought her some medicine. Though it didn't exactly work, she did feel a little better after drinking some.

Pingting secretly waited for her recovery, but one small incident, ruined all her plans to escape.

/fin.

(Thank you for reading our PDF version!)

Gu Fang Bu Zi Shang Volume One Chapter One
Gu Fang Bu Zi Shang Volume One Chapter One