The court lackeys of the eight-hour workday

Chapter 591 Kyoto
On the 20th day of the fifth month of the 26th year of the Jiajing reign.

Kyoto, Japan.

The streets were bustling with pedestrians.

Lu Wushuang frowned as she looked at the plate beside her, which contained several skewers of vegetables with slightly charred skin and a layer of dark brown sauce, giving off a faint, unpleasant, fishy smell.

The cries of vendors could be heard from the side.

"Miso Denraku~!"

Lu Wushuang pushed the plate away.

Ryota Miyoshi, who was sitting on the same bench and engrossed in eating, looked up.

"Big sister, aren't you going to eat?"

Lu Wushuang clicked her tongue.

"The stinky fermented soybean paste is wrapped around rotten vegetable leaves. I don't know how many people have slurped this skewer... It would be better to just eat people's saliva, at least you'd eat less rotten soybean paste."

Nanako, who was munching on a skewer next to her, turned pale upon hearing this description and involuntarily put down her skewer.

Seeing that she wasn't eating anymore, Lu Wushuang took the opportunity to speak.

Are you sure your home is around here?

Upon hearing this, Nanako's face turned pale.

"Sure……"

Ryota Miyoshi, who was sitting next to her, finished his skewer and, upon hearing Nanako's words, remarked while chewing.

"But...your family is wealthy, right?"

Nanako nodded.

"Moreover, the mansion is quite large, with many servants, and they usually buy large quantities of things from the surrounding shops?"

Nanako nodded.

"And it's located right here on Muromachi-dori?"

Before Nanako could nod, Ryota Miyoshi shrugged.

"Then you must have remembered something wrong."

He pointed forward.

“Look, there are only a few hundred households on Muromachi Street, and a little over a thousand people. Among them, the mansions are considered quite large. We’ve been to all of them, and none of them recognize you.”

"We've asked every shop in the area, from cosmetics and cosmetics to coal and timber, but we haven't found a single household with the surname Sasakura. Since your family uses so many items, how come you don't know a single one?"

"Furthermore, you ran away because your family arranged a marriage for you. It's been almost half a year now. Your family must have looked for you by now, and they must have described your appearance to others, right?"

"You even changed into the same clothes you wore when you ran away, how come no one recognized you?"

Nanako twisted the hem of her clothes with both hands.

"I...I don't know..."

“My home really is here… my parents, my friends, my guards, and my maids… they should all be here…”

"I don't know... I'm not lying..."

Seeing that Nanako was on the verge of tears, Ryota Miyoshi realized he had said the wrong thing and quickly comforted her.

"That's not what I meant. You rich young ladies don't go out much, so maybe you remembered the wrong place, or maybe your family moved for some reason, or maybe we just missed it..."

Lu Wushuang glanced at him.

"Ah!"

Just by looking at Ryota Miyoshi's nervousness, you could tell that he had feelings for Nanako, and Nanako didn't resist him—which made her even more agitated.

"The leader of the Ming Cult... Ji Tianrui!"

She clenched her fist.

A formidable rival, an unprecedentedly formidable rival.

Whether it was martial arts skills, intelligence, speech, demeanor, appearance, or even her past with Li Miao, she was utterly defeated.

On the day of Yanli Temple, Li Miao and Ji Tianrui went together, while she stood there like a lackey, not even qualified to break through Ji Tianrui's acupoints and shout a word.

They even had to come to Kyoto as she instructed!
Then I recall certain rumors circulating in the martial arts world about "starting a relationship and then abandoning it, acting out of rage for Li Miao, assassinating the king to avenge a heartless lover, and entanglements of love and hate..."

Although the source of the information seems to be a notorious rumor-monger, there's no smoke without fire! Li Miao is no saintly, chaste man!

Now they're alone together again! Thinking of this, Lu Wushuang clicked her tongue in annoyance.

"I'll ask again later."

"It's getting dark soon. If I can't find you today, I'll leave you somewhere and come back to you after I've finished my business."

"Don't worry, Lord Li promised to take you home after I finished being your guide. As long as I'm alive, I won't break my promise."

Nanako finally calmed down with Ryota Miyoshi's comforting words, but she couldn't be happy. She just nodded sullenly and looked towards the street in a daze.

She was certain that she hadn't misremembered.

This should have been her home. She was extremely familiar with the shops around her, and even the scratches on the bench beneath her were exactly the same as she remembered... But alas, her home was gone, she was gone, the huge mansion had vanished, and even the few people she knew had no recollection of her whatsoever.

It's as if her previous life was just a big dream.

For a moment, no one spoke.

Lu Wushuang was too lazy to speak, Miyoshi Ryota didn't know what to say, and Nanako's gaze was unfocused, staring blankly ahead.

Suddenly, Nanako's pupils contracted sharply!

She saw a figure, a very familiar figure, as thin and tall as she remembered, who seemed to have been her father's bodyguard before.

Their gazes met.

Nanako said in a low voice.

“That… seems to be one of my father’s guards…”

Lu Wushuang looked in the direction of the sound, and suddenly stood up, his hands disappearing into his sleeves, whereupon two soft swords slid into his palms.

Ryota Miyoshi abruptly threw the bamboo skewer on the ground, then grabbed the knife handle and asked in a low voice.

"Big sister, what's going on?"

Lu Wushuang didn't rush to answer. After a moment of thought, she said in a deep voice.

"Ryota, your little lover really doesn't tell the truth very often."

Miyoshi Ryota was stunned.

"Big sister, Nanako didn't lie."

Lu Wushuang stared at the man and said in a deep voice.

"She may not have lied, but what she said wasn't the truth, which is why we couldn't find her home... a wealthy merchant's house?"

"Ah."

"What kind of wealthy merchant could afford to support the [Sword Saint]?"

Ryota Miyoshi was stunned for a moment, then shuddered in shock.

"【Sword Saint】!?"

His mind raced, then his gaze settled.

"Big sister, should we fight?"

Reach out and grasp the knife.

“I can make some connections.”

Lu Wushuang didn't turn her head. After watching for a while, she frowned and said...

"It shouldn't be necessary...the other party doesn't seem hostile."

Sure enough, before he could finish speaking, the man who clearly recognized Nanako turned around and disappeared into the crowd without saying a word.

Just as Nanako was about to shout, Ryota Miyoshi covered her mouth.

"Don't make a sound, leave it to the eldest sister."

Lu Wushuang pondered for a moment, then suddenly got up and followed the other person into the crowd. After walking a few steps, she saw the other person squatting in front of a stall selling wooden baskets, haggling with the vendor.

After a few cups of tea, as if they hadn't reached an agreement on the price, he waved his hand, sighed, stood up with his knees on his hands, and strode away.

Lu Wushuang stood still for a moment before slowly walking to the vendor and squatting down, pretending to look at the goods. In reality, her fingertips were groping around under the wooden basket, and she finally found the tiny characters carved by the vendor.

"Home, midnight, be careful to hide."

Lu Wushuang pondered for a moment, then scraped away the writing with her fingernail, got up, and left.

(End of this chapter)