Chapter 41: Just Me
Jinzhou City was alive with a steady roar of traffic and bustling crowds. Regular patrols of soldiers and guards marched through the streets with disciplined, solemn expressions, while the passing pedestrians all carried relaxed, contented smiles.
Lu Yunxi pushed open her carved wooden window, and the rich aroma of fresh food immediately wafted inside. Leaning over the sill, she tracked the scent straight to the breakfast stall operating right across the street. She hopped down, bought two steaming meat buns, and ate them on the go as she made her way toward the main gates of the city.
“Miss Lu!” A farmer waiting by the entrance spotted her and beamed. He immediately began unloading logs from his ox cart, handing them over in neatly tied bundles.
She carefully inspected the delivery. Every piece was perfectly dried, split, and stacked. Satisfied, she nodded and said, “Excellent. Here is the payment for today’s batch.”
The farmer happily pocketed the coins, turned his cart around, and whistled as he went on his way.
Yunxi hoisted the firewood onto her back and set off toward the wealthy residential district she routinely serviced. Along the way, several familiar faces waved to her. “Out selling firewood again, Miss Lu?”
She returned the gesture with a warm smile. “I am. Good morning, Aunt Wang. Where are you heading in such a rush?”
Aunt Wang glanced around furtively, leaning in close with a conspiratorial whisper. “Miss Lu, my son is heading to the grand examinations tomorrow alongside the young master of the estate! I heard that anyone who successfully enters that academy is guaranteed an official government post in the future. Don’t you have a younger brother who is a scholar? You should absolutely bring him along to try his luck!”
“My brother is currently traveling and studying abroad with his classmates,” Yunxi replied, her interest instantly piqued. She carefully set her bundle of wood down, adopting an intensely curious expression. “But what is this academy you’re talking about…?”
“Oh, you haven’t heard?” Aunt Wang beamed, her eyes shining as proudly as if her son had already passed. “This academy is completely different from the standard private schools scattered around the city. It is the most prestigious institution in the entire empire! Once you’re accepted, you can choose to study either literature or martial arts, and every single graduate receives at least a sixth-rank official appointment!”
Aunt Wang flashed a ‘six’ gesture with her fingers, radiating excitement. “I’m on my way to buy some premium ingredients to cook a celebratory feast for my boy. The mistress of the estate told me that once my son becomes an official, she’ll grant me my freedom so I can live with him!”
“Auntie Wang, you are incredibly blessed! You’ll be the mother of a government official soon—that is amazing!” Yunxi widened her eyes in perfect envy before letting out a soft sigh. “My own little brother still has so much to learn. I wonder when he’ll finally make me proud like that.”
Witnessing her jealousy, Aunt Wang’s ego swelled. “Oh, don’t press the poor boy too hard! Plenty of scholars have to sit for the examinations multiple times before they manage a passing grade. I heard the registration starts at exactly three-thirty tomorrow morning in the central plaza of Jinzhou City. If you can get a message to your brother, tell him to hurry back!”
Having successfully extracted the crucial details, Yunxi showered Aunt Wang with a few more flattering compliments. Leaving the woman completely elated, she bid her farewell, slung the firewood back over her shoulder, and slipped into the alleys behind the affluent estates to continue gathering gossip.
On her route, she crossed paths with a man pushing a honey wagon. The waste collector flashed her a look of profound disdain, tossed his head back proudly, and marched right past.
Lu Yunxi: …
The story of this particular dung collector traced back to her initial arrival in Jinzhou City. To maximize her access to local information networks, she had bypassed traditional stable positions, like restaurant work, and gone straight to the regional yamen to review public labor contracts. At the time, the board only listed two available openings: a wood porter and a waste carrier.
The officiating clerk had strongly pushed the waste management route. “Young lady, neither of these physical roles is truly ideal for someone of your stature, as both demand immense manual strength. But if you are determined to choose, I highly recommend the waste collection route. It’s grueling labor, certainly, but a standard porter only brings home ten to twenty copper coins a day, whereas a waste carrier can easily clear fifty to sixty. It pays vastly better!”
Before she could even formulate a response, a man who had been eavesdropping nearby aggressively shoved his way forward, snatching the waste order right out of the clerk’s hand. “Hah! She’s just a fragile little girl. Go back to a kitchen where you belong! There is absolutely no way you can handle a real man’s labor.” He had rolled his eyes at her repeatedly, clearly trying to intimidate a potential rival out of the job market.
Yunxi had been completely speechless. A pittance of coppers wasn’t nearly enough to tempt her into hauling human waste around the city. Ultimately, she had stopped a local elder who wanted to argue on her behalf, thanked him with a bundle of dried meat, and quietly accepted the porter position instead.
Since that day, whenever she crossed paths with the waste collector on the streets, the man never missed an opportunity to throw sarcastic barbs her way. She simply couldn’t be bothered to waste her breath on him. The stench radiating from the man was a biohazard; it was unbearable within a hundred-meter radius and lingered heavily for five hundred meters. Engaging him in a verbal sparring match meant standing in his splash zone—a classic case of hurting the enemy a thousand times while inflicting eight hundred points of self-damage.
Holding her breath, Yunxi quickly accelerated past the foul zone.
The next morning, at precisely one in the morning, Yunxi arrived early at the expansive central plaza of Jinzhou City.
The courtyard had already been structurally divided into two massive testing sectors: one side was densely packed with individual testing desks, while the other featured a sprawling, reinforced combat arena.
She stood at the boundary, debating whether she should formally register for the martial arts trials, when a group of academy proctors emerged to pin a massive public scroll to the announcement board. Intrigued, she stepped forward rapidly to parse the contents.
It wasn’t an examination announcement—the academy was launching a massive institutional recruitment drive!
Three Teaching Assistants: Responsible for curriculum organization, distributing and collecting coursework, and maintaining classroom decorum.
Ten Combat Sparring Partners: Responsible for engaging in direct martial arts matches against the students of the elite combat wing.
…
The text outlined dozens of open vacancies; from high-tier instructional scholars down to baseline groundskeepers, the institution was facing a severe staffing shortage.
After careful consideration, Yunxi locked her sights onto the position of library archive keeper. According to the data she had meticulously compiled, both the liberal arts division and the martial combat wing maintained separate facilities, but their restricted archives were integrated into a single, massive library building.
Her intelligence network had already confirmed a critical variable: anyone who truly desired to master supreme, world-shattering martial arts would eventually seek out the legendary sects. However, data regarding these reclusive organizations was tightly controlled; only a handful of high-tier entities had ever even heard whispers of their operations, and no one knew their geographic locations or how to initiate a recruitment trial.
Yet one rule remained undisputed: no student who formally graduated from the public academy could ever gain entry into the secret sects. That specific restriction was the sole reason she had hesitated at the arena gates.
But if she entered the academy infrastructure as a contracted staff member rather than an enrolled student, she would be completely free to resign and seek out a sect whenever the opportunity arose! Furthermore, it provided the perfect cover to infiltrate their restricted archives and see exactly what high-tier secret manuals they were hoarding.
Yunxi aced the interview process, securing the position almost instantly. The hiring proctor instructed her to pack her belongings and report for duty that very afternoon.
Excited, she hurried back to the city gate to explain the transition to the woodcutter, then marched to the yamen to formally discharge her previous porter contract. Naturally, the arrogant waste collector happened to be standing by the main counter.
“Miss Lu, back so soon?” the yamen clerk greeted her warmly, a bright smile on his face. “How can I help you today?”
The dung collector immediately tensed, throwing her a deeply defensive look. “You’re not here to steal my route, are you? Let me tell you, don’t even think about it!”
Her eyelid twitched slightly. “Sir,” she addressed the clerk, ignoring the idiot entirely. “I have just secured a permanent position within the academy staff and came to officially tender my resignation. I will no longer be occupying the public porter registry.”
The clerk blinked in surprise, then let out a hearty laugh. “Incredible! Congratulations, Miss Lu! Your future is looking brighter by the day.” He rapidly processed her file, releasing the wood contract back onto the active job board.
The dung collector stared at her, his jaw dropping in absolute disbelief. “Impossible! A little thing like you?! How could the academy possibly hire you?!”
Here he goes again, Yunxi thought, thoroughly annoyed. This man pathologically sought her out just to throw a tantrum over her successes.
As she glided past him toward the exit, she raised her eyebrows, tilting her chin up slightly. Breaking her usual rule of silence, she threw him a brilliant, sharp smile. “Believe what you like, but the contract is signed. You enjoy your career as a waste carrier, sir. I’ll be drawing a fixed salary of ten silver coins a month from the archives. Try not to let your envy ruin your day.”
Leaving the man to choke on his own rage, she skipped out of the yamen and into the sunlight.
