Chapter 146: Outsiders and Subversion
The maid remained still, only urging, "Young Master, the meeting is almost overdue."
Yan Shi looked down at the top of the woman's head: "Young Master, I don't want to have a meeting today."
"Please don't make things difficult for me." The maid seemed to have dealt with this many times before. "The situation will improve; the adults are already trying to find a solution."
This statement contains a lot of information.
Yan Shi lowered his eyes.
The young master she is currently being mistaken for seems to be in a rather unstable situation.
So, the young master's temporary escape seems to be a natural consequence.
But Yan Shi and the young master should look completely different, so how could the maid mistake her for the young master?
Before Yan Shi could figure it out, the door to the room was suddenly pushed open again, a head peeked out from outside, and then a familiar figure walked in.
"Aska, are you surprised to see me? Are you taken aback?" Yu Youguan walked in casually, dressed in a simple outfit with her hair tied in a ponytail.
Then, upon seeing the figure in the center of the room, he was startled, but then realized what was happening.
"Aska, why are you looking like Yanlan?" Yu Youguan approached and looked him up and down with curiosity.
The maid bowed again, "Young Master Yu."
He's someone I know.
Yan Shi raised an eyebrow and said to the maid, "You can go out now, I have to go to a meeting."
As she spoke, she took the clothes from the maid's hands and placed them on the bed.
The maid closed the door.
Yu Youguan seemed to have a good relationship with Aska, and was currently circling around her, observing her closely, constantly clicking his tongue in admiration: "Aska, your abilities seem to have improved again. It's so lifelike! If I didn't know Yanlan would never be here, I would have thought this was the real Yanlan..."
Her voice trailed off as she spoke.
“Something seems off…” Yu Youguan’s gaze fell on the spatial bracelet on Yan Shi’s wrist, and he looked up to meet Yan Shi’s ambiguous smile.
Aska shouldn't know such subtle details.
Yu Youguan slowly took a step back, her smile freezing. "No way, really?"
Mental breakdown.jpg
Yan Shi whistled: "Yu Youguan, it's been a long time."
Yu Youguan: ...
"Long time no see," she replied somewhat stiffly.
Yu Youguan was contemplating how to disappear from this place out of thin air.
If I had known, she would have come to visit Aska again tomorrow and stayed in the city for another day.
Yu Youguan shed tears.
"So this is your friend." A voice suddenly came from the windowsill.
Yan Shi turned his head to look.
The room had a large window sill, covered by a semi-transparent veil. A woman sat in one corner of the veil.
Because the bed curtains were three layers long, the two layers of opaque thick velvet on the side covered the woman, making the room appear empty.
At this moment, the woman spoke up, and Yan Shi noticed her.
She had blonde hair and blue eyes, wore a long white nightgown, and had a pale face.
Yu Youguan stepped forward and pulled back the curtains. "Aska, what are you doing hiding here?"
"I don't want to go to the meeting," Aska said calmly. "It's pointless. It's just about arguing about the division of assets."
"Everyone wants to tear off the biggest piece of meat and take it with them." Her tone was sarcastic.
Yu Youguan: "Then why aren't you going? These should all be yours."
“Not all families treat you the same way as the Yu family head,” Aska sighed. “My mother didn’t leave a will, and the division of her estate was vague before she died. I wasn’t her favorite child.”
“But you are the rightful young master. Governor Garcia is dead, so you should be the next governor.” Yu Youguan’s thinking was clear.
Aska: "Youguan, you know I don't want it."
"So," Yan Shi also approached, jumped onto the other side of the windowsill and sat down, "can you give me a brief summary of what happened before?"
Aska was struggling with how to deal with her friend when she heard this, she immediately changed the subject: "Okay."
Yu Youguan snorted coldly.
Aska pretended not to hear: "This is Governor Garcia's residence. I am Aska, the eldest daughter of Governor Garcia."
Yan Shi appeared calm on the surface, but was inwardly completely bewildered.
Where was Governor Garcia located...?
There are too many chaotic and large families in the Otherworld. The Eastern humans are somewhat better off, but the Western humans have very long names and surnames for their territories, each one more difficult to remember than the last.
"The recent events in Port Novano should have spread quite a bit in the underworld by now?" Aska shrugged. "After Mother's death, the Garcia Governor's Mansion is in a precarious position."
"Because the Garcia family has been operating in Port Novano for a century and has countless assets. My father passed away early, and Mr. Carter, who is currently in charge of the mansion, also has a daughter. In addition, the situation in Port Novano has become tense recently, and the riots have become more intense. As a result, the matter of succession has been delayed for a long time."
It turns out that Aska is the daughter of the head hanging on the port flag of Novano.
Yanshi nodded.
Yu Youguan said indignantly, "Isn't Mr. Carter just taking advantage of your lack of assertiveness? If you had taken the initiative to step forward, most of the senior officials in the Governor's Office would have given you, the eldest daughter, face."
"That's because I'm not as capable as my sister, and I'm much easier to control," Aska stated calmly, his expression unchanged.
“A thousand faces is really good,” Yu Youguan muttered softly. “Being able to transform into the appearance of anyone you’ve ever met is so useful.”
Aska chuckled, "Many magical artifacts and alchemical products can achieve the same effect. Alright, Youguan, I know you're upset on my behalf. I've already accepted this fact."
Yan Shi suddenly realized.
Asuka's ability is to transform into a thousand faces, often appearing in the form of other people. Therefore, the maid was not surprised to see a stranger in the room and mistook her for the young master.
As Yu Youguan said, it's a very practical skill.
It has no offensive capabilities and provides almost no improvement in strength.
But he'd be perfect for being a master thief.
"So you're just going to drag this out like this?" Yan Shi concluded, "Sitting on the windowsill, waiting for the officials in the manor to decide your future, or waiting for the refugees outside to rush in and send you to the guillotine?"
Aska was unfazed by both outcomes: "Yes, the latter is better. This is what I owe the people of the city."
“Every gem in the Governor’s Mansion carries the flesh and blood of the living beings in Novano Port. I was born with original sin.”
“But you never think about changing,” Yan Shi pointed out incisively. “You’re just indulging in self-pity.”
“If you truly feel that you were born with original sin and have a sense of guilt, as the eldest daughter of Governor Garcia, you can’t possibly be powerless to do anything.”
Aska laughed.
She has a very typical Western aesthetic appearance.
Her thick blonde hair was curly, and her blue eyes were pure. She looked like a messenger of the Mother Goddess in a prayer book, but her words were cold: "Because I don't want to be an outsider."
"To bestow favors upon the weak is to be an outlier among outliers."
“I admit that my sympathy is completely contrary to my mother’s teachings.” Aska leaned her head against the windowpane and looked out. “That’s why my mother favored my sister more.”
"The underworld has no place for the weak."
Yan Shi also turned his head to look out the window.
The governor's mansion was very large.
Aska's bedroom, as the young master, should be on a high floor of the main building of the governor's mansion. From there, one can see other buildings within the governor's mansion, busy gardeners in the garden below, and the governor's officials walking along the main road with serious expressions and guards by their sides.
Looking further out, everything seemed to have lost its color.
The buildings inside the Governor's Mansion are brightly colored and meticulously designed; the exterior, however, is gray.
Aska sighed. Yu Youguan pouted, but did not refute Aska's statement about the outcast.
In an instant, Yan Shi understood why, in Lin Cai's future world, after the world barrier collapsed, no one offered a helping hand to the outer world.
We are all human.
Nobody wants to be an outlier.
Those who are different will be rejected and expelled.
Those who are not strong enough will become the next weak and oppressed.
"Who judges the outcasts?" Yan Shi withdrew her gaze, the glass she was leaning against becoming warm from their prolonged closeness. Her eyes were unrestrained. "Others are the outcasts."
"Anyone who calls me an oddball, I'll shut them up forever."
Aska shook his head: "But I can't do it. My abilities determine my limits."
“Well, I don’t have the ability yet.” Yan Shi bent one leg. “Strength isn’t just judged by ability.”
It can also be judged by other people's imaginations.
For example, when she first took office as director.
"Just do what you want to do, regardless of the outcome." Yan Shi looked into Asuka's blue eyes. "After all, you're no longer afraid of death, so what else is there to be afraid of?"
Aska: "I'm afraid, I'm afraid of an ending worse than death. I'm quite afraid of pain."
“Then run!” Yan Shi said matter-of-factly. “See how useful your ability is?”
You have countless opportunities to try again.
Yu Youguan chuckled: "Aska, I knew your ability was incredibly useful!"
Aska thought about it for a moment, confused: "It does seem so...?"
Yan Shi: "Right?"
Yu Youguan suddenly became excited; she had the same expression when Yan Lan came to see her last time.
"Yanlan, what are you going to do? Count me in!" She was eager to try. "Last time was so much fun! You don't know, several families have fallen out recently."
Aska: ?
"Last time?"
“There was a riot in Novano Port recently, and the situation was too tense, so you didn’t go,” Yu Youguan explained. “It was the banquet that Lord Dongtong held in the spatial gap.”
"Yanlan and I set off a super beautiful fireworks display. The City Lord of Dongtong in the spatial gap even gave it to Yanlan."
"Is it the spatial gap I know about?" Aska asked Yu Youguan uncertainly, seeking confirmation.
Yu Youguan affirmed: "There is only one spatial gap in Jiangling City."
Aska was truly shocked. "Even if something goes wrong at the banquet and someone dies, the Lord of Dongtong City will not give up this spatial gap as compensation."
“Oh,” Yan Shi tilted her head, “I’m the sister of the director of the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs, she has to give Director Yan an explanation.”
Yan Shi can now say quite frankly that she is her own sister.
Aska: "You're Yanju's sister, come to the Governor's Mansion in Novano Port." She paused. "To relax?"
Yan Shi: "Come and stir up trouble."
Aska: ...
That's very direct.
"Do you want to cause trouble with me?" Yan Shi jumped down from the windowsill.
“It’s not impossible.” Aska smiled with relief. “It seems that the headquarters is really starting to intervene and take back control of the branch offices.”
"How do you want to cause trouble?"
"It depends on what you want," Yan Shi said lazily. "If you just want to ease your guilt a little, then anything is fine. I need to find a different partner."
"If you want to completely overturn all of this, then there's another way to play."
Yan Shi abandoned his casual demeanor and looked at Aska with a sharp gaze. "What do you want?"
Aska: "I..." She took a deep breath and then exhaled.
"I'm going to overturn all of this."
Yan Shi smiled again: "Then, my partner, are you confident that you can become the next Governor Garcia?"
“If I want to, I can,” Aska nodded. “I have a blank warrant from my mother.”
A warrant is a lord's conscious entity that exerts a strong binding force on his subjects.
Yu Youguan: ?
"You had something this good, and you kept it hidden all this time?" She was genuinely shocked. "Aska, you've changed!"
"We used to talk about everything, sob sob sob."
Aska said with a hint of helplessness, "I wasn't planning on using it."
“I intend to take this warrant to my grave.”
Yan Shi: "If you are one of the two endings you envisioned, then you have no grave."
Aska: ...
The three fell silent.
“With the warrant, things will be much easier,” Yan Shi continued casually. “Before his death, Governor Garcia realized his mistakes and decided to distribute the Governor’s estate’s property to the residents of Novano Port as a sign of repentance.”
"As Garcia's new governor, you must fulfill your mother's last wish," Yan Shi said with a smile to Aska. "Is that right, Governor Garcia?"
Asca, the young master of the García Governor's Mansion, received a lord's education from a young age and immediately grasped the key point: "You must prevent the major families from interfering in the port of Novano."
At the very least, they cannot intervene under the pretext of helping to suppress the riots, because the García Governor's Office is already distributing funds to appease the displaced people.
“This argument won’t last long,” Aska said calmly. “The Governor’s Office doesn’t have any military force to its name.”
Yan Shi: "It's just a statement."
"Aren't the assassins still in the city?" she said casually.
Chu Mengfu will lead a group of refugees from the "outside world," sponsored by the branch of the Bureau of Foreign Affairs.
There was also a group of original, undocumented migrants in the city.
There was also a statement from the Governor's Office.
It's chaotic enough.
That's enough.
When the three groups started causing trouble, the local authorities intervened to suppress them.
This situation would be difficult for other powerful families to manage, but it would be easy for the Bureau of Dissidents to manage it.
"An assassin?" Aska's fingers dug into his palm, then slowly released them, his face filled with melancholy.
Yan Shi: "Your future colleague."
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