***
(Jing Xiuying POV)
Darling had just returned home. I, as the great wife that I am, went out to greet him as soon as he returned. Jinzi and I had just finished our conversation near the time of his return so she accompanied me. Her greeting was clumsy with a stutter here and there, but she managed to get through it.
She even got a little head pat which incited a small flame of jealousy, but that was quickly stubbed out by a slightly serious tone. He said something had happened tonight, but first he would have a little pot of tea. In the kitchen, he prepared tea quickly before we sat down and then he began to narrate what had transpired tonight.
"WHAT!!! Darling, would you mind lending me the poster?" I picked up the tea pot and poured the tea he just made. The liquid smoothly poured from the spout without much splash which showed the quality of the pot.
"No, of course not. Here you go!" He grabbed the cup with his left hand and gently blew on the steam. With his right darling placed his hand into his robes and took out a few pages before placing them down on the table with a slight spread.
I quickly snatched the one with a poorly drawn face on it to read. My eyes intently stared into the crude and unrefined image of my beloved Darling.
'Th-they bastardized him! How dare this artist try to draw his grandeur?! From looking at this image alone I could tell he had never even seen my Darling! He must have based it off another's words alone and that simply won't do!'
After enough scrutiny of the picture I decided to move my eyes down and read the text one by one, line by line. By simply reading these words I could feel my left eyelid twitch and slightly spasm. As I read I saw in my peripherals that Jinzi was leaning her head over to look at what I had.
'Ho-how dare they slander him like that?! Kidnapping women? Forced as wives? FORCED?! I am proud to be his wife!
Tch! Don't show him mercy?! I swear as soon as I find this person I won't show him any mercy!!! Torture is fair game and techniques are a-plenty. I wonder how this person would react against growing bamboo shoots through his nails or the feeling of said bamboo growing through his back?
Atone for his crimes? As far as I'm concerned my Darling has done no wrong! Everything he has done has been fair and equal! In fact I believe he is even kinder than those hypocritical righteous sects out there!
As for his cultivation I wonder how they even managed to get such a ridiculously low realm? He is even stronger than me by who knows to what extent? I've never seen his full strength, but I'm sure that even in the Upper Realm he would be considered at least some sort of known expert.'
By the end I was even slightly shaking in anger. I turned my head slightly toward Jinzi and, once she met my eyes, backed up a bit. There was a tint of fear as she looked at me and she avoided my gaze by looking back at the page she had in her hand.
"Is my calm wife overcome with emotions?" A steady and gentle voice interrupted my thoughts.
I refocused and took a deep breath before putting the poster down. Darling sat with a playful smile and a steaming cup of tea in hand.
"I can't help it, they ar-"
"Ying'er, don't let it get to you. You have to think about it rationally and to do that you must be calm. Don't let your rage cloud your judgment. Have you perhaps become too complacent with our current situation? It's not your fault alone, I too might have been a little complacent.
Our past 10 years have been the most peaceful I've ever seen in the world, but do remember what kind of world we live in. This world is inherently violent, we cultivators are the prime example of such things.
There is no way our simple lives can continue endlessly without any interruption. This is but one obstacle we must face, in the future who knows what we'll face. For now this situation can't even threaten us, so let's deal with it calmly and rationally." In the end he calmly sipped his tea with a face of delight.
"You're right, Darling."
'But you don't understand! It's not just their measly threat, it's the fact they would utter such horrid and slanderous words towards you. You may be able to accept it, but I as your great wife will not tolerate such acts against you!'
I placed the poster down and looked at the one Jinzi had. She was still staring intently at the page, trying her best to avoid my gaze. I took a quick peek over to see what she was looking at and saw an even cruder and rudimentary drawing, this one didn't even have text to accompany it.
Annoyed by the horrendous drawings I turned my attention to the other two sheets of paper. I grabbed one to read and immediately a frown appeared too. To be honest I don't know what I was expecting, after all I knew that these papers were created to ruin my darling's reputation.
I took the last one and read it, but this time I tried my best to restrain my emotions. The two I just read were quite descriptive with their commentary of my Darling. The final one made the readers and passerbys feel full of sympathy for the women described. One would feel the women were quite pitiful in that aspect. If I didn't know better I might have even felt bad for myself too.
The second last one was created to induce hate for my Darling. It made him out to be some of the worst scum out there, even murders would sound like a saint in front of him. It's most likely why those people attacked with such prejudice.
'I have to deal with this issue immediately! There is no way I can just let my Darling take this hate, especially since we haven;t done anything!'
When I put down the page I heard a soft *tak* as the tea pot was lowered onto the table. In the cup Darling had another plume of steam wafted upwards from the hot tea. I looked into his soft dark brown eyes as he gently returned a gaze.
*Tak*
I looked down at the noise to see a hand extended toward me with a hot cup of tea placed down in front. Steam gently rose up from the fragrant orange liquid. It was another of Darling's favorite teas, Da Hong Pao or Big Red Robe.
"Have a drink Ying'er, calm down. That look in your eyes is telling me you might do something radical. At least think it through before you act on it. From your current state I feel like you might just rush out there and aimlessly look around for a culprit you might not even know about. I have an idea of who it might be and I'm sure you'll think of them soon, but for now I won't tell you in case you might actually rush out."
I looked at his charming facing with his lips curved into a soft smile. The cloudy judgment I've made with anger was cleared, but not entirely disposed of. I would keep those dark thoughts in the back for afterwards. I picked up the tea and smelled the fragrance before feeling the smooth warm liquid move down my throat. The tea had a rich roasted taste followed by a lingering sweetness to it making me crave more.
"Um, Big Brother, can I have a cup of tea? I want to try it too!"
"Of course!"
There was a small flash as two tea cups appeared in his hand. He placed a cup down in front of her before perfectly pouring a cup for her.
"Whoa!"
"Enjoy!" As he spoke he began pouring another cup for himself.
I watched her slow and careful motions in handling tea as another way to calm myself down.
She held her tea cup with both hands carefully making sure that it wouldn't slip before bringing it up to take a small sip.
"Ahh! Wow, this is great! I've never had tea this good before! Are you fond of tea?"
"Why yes, in fact that's how Ying'er and I got to know each other."
The two went on a small tangent as they discussed tea, well Jinzi's limited knowledge of it. They spoke a bit about Da Hong Pao as well, but she didn't know much about it. It is after all the most expensive tea using mortal methods, perhaps she never got to experience it or maybe she simply never heard of it.
..
I laid in bed hugging my Darling and when I finally felt that he fell asleep I carefully got up without disturbing him. I kissed him lightly on the forehead as I prepared to go out for an excursion during the night.
I had thought about a plan while they had been chatting. Deducing the enemies we had, I quickly singled out that disgusting young man from the clothing store as the perpetrator. He was the only one with a motive necessary enough to cause this.
I picked out a big and heavy hooded black robe to wear out at night. His current whereabouts are unknown, but I could still do another task right now to help out.
I took our teleportation array into the city before running out to find into the city's underground world. The way leading to the entrance was a series of convoluted twists and turns in the city's nightlife central. Eventually I reached a plain and nondescript metal door.
I walked up and sent a series of short and long knocks and waited for a moment before doing a final hard knock. The door was unresponsive to all the knocks until the last one, at that moment the door was opened by an indistinguishable individual whose only feature was a set of indifferent eyes, eyes which stared silently at me.
I nodded at the man and he nodded back before stepping aside to let me in. Past him was a long staircase which eventually led to an entire underground city. It was a place where shady deals were made and black listed items were sold.
Lord Hao of course knows about this underground city. Lord Hao is a righteous man, so how could he let this black market thrive? Well he made a deal with the leader of the underground, and since he was backed by my Darling's sect, that leader had no choice but to accept.
The demands were quite heavy making it so that the underground city or crime barely even had that. Lord Hao's main focus was to spare innocent lives from being killed. He knew if they were indeed too heavy of restrictions several other underground markets could pop up to replace this place. To make sure this was the hub of crime in the underground he turned blind eye to contraband being sold in the black market. That is as long as the item in question wasn't too horrific.
He wanted to protect the common people mostly and since people who would go here probably aren't great people anyway he would let some of them be as they would. The leader did gain in the end being the only underground, even though he had to give up a few of his more profitable services.
The underground was packed just as it is up above, but the buildings here are even more cramped and dirty. I already knew where I needed to go so I weaved through the crowd to find a sizable building located here. I walked in and the receptionist looked at me with a face of indifference just as the man at the door had. I reached into my robe and then pulled out a black token with a blood red character on it.
"A-ah! One moment please! I'll make a room available right away!"
What I had taken out was a gift from darling's 7th disciple, Yuan YueYang. He made a wide information network and one time he returned and gave me this token saying that if any of his information bureaus saw it they would treat it as if they were seeing a VIP.