Chapter 126: Lin Feng's Strange Behavior (Part 1) [Requesting Monthly Tickets]

"Isn't Xiaofang going home today?"

Riding the pig to the halfway point of the mountain, Shen Tang felt uncomfortable from the direct sunlight. She steadily turned around on the pig's back, changing from riding it forward to riding it backward. Her gaze swept over Zhai Le, and she suddenly found a topic to talk about. While teasing him, she crossed her legs.

"I thought your cousin would impose a curfew on you."

Zhai Le found it both funny and puzzling.

"Access control? Why would there be access control?"

Hearing the noise, Qi Shan turned around and saw Shen Tang's strange sitting posture—riding a pig backwards with her legs crossed. Wasn't she afraid that the black-faced man would suddenly jump up and jolt her? She whispered a reminder: "What kind of sitting posture is that? You Li, sit properly!"

Shen Tang looked up at him, smiling as she sought praise.

"I sat perfectly still the whole time. Hehe, pretty impressive, right?"

Even she herself was amazed by her own balance.

Qi Shan: "..."

With a few words, Shen Tang left Qi Shan speechless, a hint of smugness in her eyes as she continued chatting with Zhai Le: "Of course it's because you're young."

Which older brother would feel comfortable letting his young brother spend the night away from home, especially in a bandit's den deep in the mountains, a desolate place where even birds wouldn't poop and chickens wouldn't lay eggs, and where packs of wolves would lull him to sleep in the middle of the night? If it were Shen Tang, she definitely wouldn't feel at ease.

Zhai Le was speechless, while Qi Shan burst out laughing.

It's quite amusing to hear an eleven or twelve-year-old child, speaking in a mature tone, tell a teenager who is already considered a child, "You're still young."

Zhai Le pouted: "Brother Shen, I'm not young anymore."

You say you're not young?

But no matter how you look at it, he's still a high school student.

Zhai Le patted his chest and said, "Of course it's not small. My classmates who are about the same age as me already have one or two kids."

In Zhai Le's mind, he was already a man.

What kind of access control does a man need?

He's a grown man, and a seventh-rank official; even if he were thrown onto the battlefield, he wouldn't die. There's really nothing in Xiaocheng that could threaten his life, so his cousin naturally wouldn't interfere.

Instead of worrying about him, we should worry about his enemies who will be left without anyone to collect their bodies.

Shen Tang: "..."

High school juniors and seniors...

A father of one or two children?

She could never equate these two identities.

In fact, most martial arts practitioners age faster than their peers. Zhai Le looks about the same age as his actual age, largely thanks to his youthful face. If his family hadn't been so cautious and picky about his marriage, he would probably already be single.

When this topic came up, Zhai Le became curious.

What kind of woman would be a perfect match for a man as remarkable as Brother Shen?

"Hey, what kind of wife does Brother Shen like?"

Shen Tang: "...Why do I like my wife???"

Can't she like a guy?

Zhai Le laughed heartily, "Of course, it's so you have more people to play with! That's great! That's what my parents said too. It's just a pity that the women they've been set up with are all too gentle and quiet; I feel like we wouldn't get along. Sigh, I wanted them to help me find someone who can fight, but I was too embarrassed to say so..."

Qi Shan: "..."

Lili: "..."

Shen Tang: "...Find someone who can fight and play with you?"

Good grief, are we having all-out brawls every day?

“Yes, yes, but such a noble lady is really hard to find. I like archery, hunting, and martial arts, while my future wife likes discussing poetry, philosophy, painting eyebrows, and needlework. We don’t see eye to eye.” Zhai Le put on an air of experience and said, “Being able to get along is very important.”

"...Although I feel sorry for her, a woman lacks both literary talent and martial prowess. Even with the best martial arts skills, she couldn't withstand a single move from you, could she?"

Before you know it, you're on the front page of the news.

Upon hearing this, Zhai Le's smile gradually faded, and he said regretfully, "Indeed, why can't women possess both literary talent and martial prowess?"

It was as if he was asking himself and also as if he was asking Shen Tang.

Li Li's eyelids twitched, and a slight ripple appeared in her usually calm eyes. This question wasn't just one that Zhai Le wondered about; it was probably a question that many women around the world pondered in their midnight dreams—why can't women have both literary talent and martial prowess?

If there is—

Perhaps we wouldn't have been so powerless back then.

To outsiders, the venomous spider is an arrogant, promiscuous, and philandering figure, but in his memory, he sees a completely different face.

The scene that impressed him most was when she hugged him, asking repeatedly with grief and resentment why women couldn't do it.

If she has a heart, who can control her?

Brother, I only want to keep one male concubine that I like.

[You like him? A slave? Shameful!]

[It's not like I'm a husband, what's so shameful about it?]

"It's shameful for you to have anything to do with him! He's not even as good as the janitor who washes the chamber pots in the backyard. What do you care about him for? Tall, good in bed, decent-looking? That's all. Later, your brother will help you get to know a few more officials from Sibao County..."

Brother!

[You used to cry and fuss, and your brother never stopped responding, but this person is really no good. You can keep him as a pet, but you can't take him seriously! Look at all those flowers and plants outside; let them know they're not as good as this thing. No good, no good!]

As a party involved, Li Li had no right to interrupt, but he was very clear about the final outcome of this power struggle between the siblings—

Unsurprisingly, the widow living in her brother's house had no right to say "no" to her brother who granted her special privileges.

Especially when her brother issued an ultimatum—

If there were Tanuki, there would be no elder brother like him.

The only thing Tanuki could do was to ask to leave.

Just as depicted in the painting—he tended to a rare and exquisite double-flowered peony. In the painting, he seemed to be taking good care of the flower, but everyone knew that once it was removed from that soil and that flowerpot, the wind and rain outside would cause it to wither completely.

Li Li was lost in her own world, vaguely hearing Shen Tang's voice beside her. She said, "I think... it's possible that a woman's inability to possess both literary talent and martial prowess has nothing to do with her physical body, but rather with who holds the Imperial Seal. How were the first batch of women with both literary talent and martial prowess created? The monarch held the Imperial Seal, and the subjects were allocated literary and martial fortunes based on their merits, which were forcibly condensed..."

Zhai Le was hearing this explanation for the first time and found it intriguing, but he quickly found a flaw in it. He said, "Women aren't incapable of sensing the energy of heaven and earth; in fact, they can sense it, but they can't retain it in their bodies, much less open up their dantian..."

This is the key reason why it is impossible to unite people's hearts and minds and their courage.

If we can retain them, we will surely be able to unite them.

Therefore, it is generally believed to be a female health issue.

Shen Tang: "..."

She had something to say, but she wasn't sure if she should.

The woman in front of you is a woman!

Unfortunately, she couldn't say.

Shen Tang was also curious as to why she had literary talent.

Could it be that the time-traveling god saw that she was dying too easily at the beginning of her hellish journey, so he forcibly gave her a cheat code? She always felt that it couldn't be that simple, and there must be some inside story that she didn't know.

At this moment, Qi Shan joined the group chat: "Young Master Shen's guess is not without reason. When I was traveling, I also heard someone make a similar point. He said that to confirm this guess, all that is needed is for a country to have a female ruler, female officials in the court, and finally, both literary and military fortunes to be combined, to see if they can develop both literary talent and martial prowess... However, this is obviously impossible."

(End of this chapter)