CH 7

Chapter 7: The Dirty Little Beggar

(TLN: She’s finally here! The gender pronouns get confusing here since everyone thinks the beggar is male, but only Long Shiyan knows that the beggar is female.)

On the plethora of streets, a crowd of people observed the scene in confusion. A boy around ten years old was confronting a group of hooligans encircling him.

“Brat, you dare confront my brother?” The man pushed up his sleeves and became ready to fight. At this moment, he was held back by the smaller man next to him, who quietly said, “Big Brother. Look at what this person is wearing, he is obviously a nobleman. We have to consider the consequences of our actions.”

The boy frowned; he held no fear of confronting these men. “What did he do to you? Why did you beat him up?”

The leader of the hooligans stirred as he smirked evilly. “This kid is a thief and we need him to compensate us for our losses. That’s all. What? Do you wish to pay for him? His debt is massive. At least one hundred gold coins.” He grinned at the thief. In fact, the stolen good was less than one gold coin. Now, he will doom this self-righteous aristocrat.

“One hundred gold coins?!”

The crowd whispered to each other; one hundred gold coins were enough for ordinary civilians to live for two years.

The boy frowned, his delicate face could not help but become solemn. Although he didn’t care about the money, he also knew that this sharp-nosed monkey was mocking him.

However, he had just learned to use his internal strength. He did not dare to use it and let the world know the achievements that he had piled up in the past month.

“Its only one hundred gold coins. Is it really necessary to beat him to death?” Suddenly, a delicate but imposing voice passed from within the crowd. And then, a beautiful girl about ten years old came out from the masses. The girl was extremely attractive. Dressed in a white Chinese dress, she revealed a noble aura of someone from a prominent family. Long Aotian’s aura greatly contrasted with her’s.

“Yan Yan, why did you come out?” Long Aotian frowned. He stood in front of Long Shiyan, coldly watching his opponents’ movements.

She had to say that Long Aotian indeed knew that he should protect his women. If the average girl was carefully guarded in this manner, she would be moved to tears and would be willing to devote her life to him.

However, Long Shiyan, who was already familiar with his inherent nature, did not care about his actions. She wasn’t sure that he could even protect himself. But she knew there were many hidden family guards behind her that should not be trifled with.

The Long family hidden guards, as the name suggests, was the Long family’s secret organization. The Long family’s household head was in charge of controlling the guards as they have been secretly taking actions. One of the orders of the hidden guards was to protect the younger generation of the family.

If Long Shiyan recalled correctly, then some of the secret guards who were assigned to protect her were in the crowd. They included two beautiful women who will both become Long Aotian’s future wives.

However…they seldom made an appearance.

They were just characters who only appeared once in the story before disappearing. If she didn’t study the novel, then she really wouldn’t remember them. Oh, they may have appeared before her a few days ago.

“The gold coins are in here.” Long Shiyan took out a small bag from her waist and measured the amount by its weight. “I can provide the money, but you have to come over and take it from me.”

“This little girl has so much money.” The leader gulped. He sneered as his lips curled. As he stared at Long Shiyan greedily, he wanted to rush over. However, before he could move towards her, the younger brother standing next to him held him back awkwardly. He whispered nervously, “Big brother, this isn’t alright! She is from the Long family. We…we can’t afford to offend them.”

The leader’s expression suddenly changed. Glancing at the innocent-looking Long Shiyan and her nervous brother next to her, he repeatedly hesitated. But soon, he helplessly left. He didn’t even dare to ask for the gold coins in  Long Shiyan’s hands.

The plan was a perfect success, and those hooligans really knew that they shouldn’t mess with the Long Family’s treasure.

Long Shiyan sighed a little as her mind relaxed greatly. It wasn’t that she was afraid of this group of hooligans. After all, she still was protected by her guards. What she was really afraid of was Long Aotian showing off his powers and playing hero. This incident could have caused Long Aotian to despise everyone in this world.

In the original work, Long Aotian, who had just learned the Miraculous Nine Yang Method, was the one who dealt with the issue by showing his might. He held off the third-level swordsmen and even defeated the fifth-level swordsmen behind him.

The system said that Long Aotian began to despise the magic and martial arts of this world because of this event. Even though he only practiced improving his internal strength for a month, he could easily defeat others who worked hard for more than ten years. No one should underestimate his talents in this world. Due to his contempt, the rules of the world began to change.

As a result, the system wanted her to prevent this from happening.

To Long Aotian, the world didn’t make sense. They always looked down on the martial arts from different places and thought that the warrior’s fighting methods were only simple attacks such as smashing, chopping, and slashing. They were not comparable to Chinese martial arts.

However, several intelligent people knew that by relying on magic, they could fight with warriors.

Chinese martial arts was only 5,000 years old. The people here improved for hundreds of thousands to millions of years. The history of great masters in this world was also 5,000 years. Over time, much of the combat knowledge would be passed down with the efforts of countless generations. No one knew about the sheer amount of wisdom gathered over time. In spite of this, were the martial arts and Douqi techniques of this world still weak?

Long Shiyan didn’t understand this kind of theory where he was unparalleled because he was Chinese. Even if he was Chinese, shouldn’t he just be an ordinary man…

Incomprehensible.

When people act without using their brain, then even ordinary wild beasts could act smarter than them.

“Are you okay?” Long Shiyan looked down and couldn’t see the little beggar’s appearance very well. He fled and squatted down in a distance. Long Aotian also followed, slightly frowning and said, “The hooligans are gone. Are you injured?”

The beggar really stunk, but Long Aotian still endured it. After all, this beggar was most likely going to become his first subordinate. He couldn’t let the stink cause him to resent the beggar.

The little beggar gently shook his head; his body slightly shivered.

Long Shiyan pinched her nose. Apparently, she could endure the smell this way. “You haven’t bathed for a long time, so do you want to come with me? I could take you to a bath,” Long Shiyan said with a smile.

The little beggar still shook his head and refused to lift his head.

“You can’t talk?” Long Aotian was slightly surprised. Being mute was a bit troublesome. While it might be good to train the beggar until he became loyal… it would be difficult. Furthermore, he didn’t know if the beggar could understand him, not to mention being literate.

The little beggar didn’t move, but his body was no longer shaking.

“My name is Long Aotian, the young master of the Long family. Today, I incidentally witnessed them bullying you and decided to come out to help.” Long Aotian stood up, lazily stretched, and then took out a gold coin from his bag. Then, he threw the coin at the beggar. “This is just a gold coin. You should accept it. If you don’t want to be an ordinary person, you can go to the Long Family’s household to find me and report the name ‘Long Aotian’ to the guards there. If you do so, then there will be someone who will find some work for you.”

The little beggar clutched the gold coin without moving.

Observing the situation, Long Shiyan could not help but raise an eyebrow. This Long Aotian had the power to win over people’s hearts. He would selflessly help strangers and earn their gratefulness.

However, no matter what, this person should never become Long Aotian’s possession.

Finally, the little beggar lifted his head.

“Hu….”

In the surroundings, the people who were watching sucked a deep breath, and some people’s faces became pale. Others tried running away, but their fear caused them to tumble onto the ground.

Not only were the people around them reacting in fear, but even Long Aotian couldn’t help but scream, horrified, as he didn’t dare face the beggar.

Long Shiyan also faced the same situation as the others, but she was different from the rest because her heart was prepared. After seeing the scenes of the cruel battle her parents underwent, she tolerated it.

But even so, her body could not help but tremble.

No! This was an illusion!

Long Shiyan secretly gritted her teeth. Finally, she broke out of the battlefield of the blood and snapped into reality. She began to seriously size up the little beggar in front of her.

A dirty face, messy hair, and ordinary beggar’s clothing. But surprisingly, she had a pair of blood red pupils.

The color of these pupils wasn’t like the contact lenses that she had seen in her previous life. These blood-red pupils were like those of a demon’s. If an ordinary person saw them, then they would be scared witless and their knees would go soft.

Those were simply…not a human being’s pupils.

The little beggar looked at Long Aotian’s face, which was filled with fear. He then lowered his eyebrows, tightened the money bag in his hand, and handed it back to Long Shiyan.

“Don’t you want it?

The little beggar gently shook his head and said softly, “These are your gold coins, not his, so I must give it back to you.” The voice was very crisp, just like spring water. The voice was obviously a girl’s.

Then, Long Shiyan smiled. For her, this was an opportunity. She took the purse and handed it back to the beggar’s hands.

The little beggar could not help but frown as he looked up at Long Shiyan, finding the situation incomprehensible. Long Shiyan did not fear her gaze, but instead, greeted it. The two looked at each other for a few seconds, and finally, the little beggar couldn’t take it anymore. The little beggar removed her gaze, lowered her head, and pulled back her hand.

Long Shiyan grabbed her hand tightly and did not let go.

“Leave me alone!” The little beggar tried to pull back, biting her lower lip.

“Why would I?” Long Shiyan asked with an innocent appearance. “Are… are you a bad person?”

“Yes, I am a bad person. A bad person who only knows how to steals things. If you don’t let go, I will kill you,” the little beggar said coldly.

“Yan Yan, let him go!” Long Aotian suddenly cried out. This was strange. By just looking at her eyes, he was able to see blood, murder, death, and despair that his originally firm mind couldn’t help but fear.

After saying those cold words, he clearly felt strong murderous intent. If Long Shiyan wasn’t here, then he could have given something a try, but Long Shiyan was still here…

“She isn’t evil.” Long Shiyan smiled. “Why would she try to give the gold coin back if she was bad?”

“But…” Long Aotian wanted to refute but suddenly found that the beggar’s terrible aura had disappeared as he became relieved. At this moment, the present became different from the original book.

Then, Long Shiyan said with a smile. “My name is Long Shiyan. He is my elder brother, Long Aotian. This gold coin wasn’t given to you by my brother. I gave it to you. Take it with you, go back, and take a bath. I will head back first.” After she said that, she tried taking her hand away from the beggar.

However, the little beggar gripped her hand tightly.