“How long has he been coming here?”

The Princess made sure not to let her inner turmoil show when she asked the question towards the woman, Liu Yan, who was one of the residents of the slums.

An area that she knew existed and was aware of but never truly realized the state of until today.

She always thought that she knew the suffering of the mortals under the inevitable divide between them and the cultivators and nobles. However, she never realized it would be this exaggerated.

Buildings that looked extremely shabby compared to even the regular houses of the commoner district. The distinct smell of trash and waste. The shabby clothes that these people wore looked barely enough to protect them from the elements. Their malnourished bodies looked like they were just starting to grow healthy.

A state that made her feel extremely uncomfortable, especially when she remembered the fat pigs in her father’s court that called themselves ‘representatives of the common people.’

Liu Yan smiled at Yin Lingxi and answered.

“The Lord has been providing for us for the last six years. While his visits are unpredictable and rare, he makes sure to arrive at least twice a year and stay for at least a week to tend to our needs before going back to his village.”

She turned to look at the distant figure of the man in question talking with her ‘leader’ and smiled wistfully.

“I have no problem in saying that if it were not for him, there would be very few people left alive in this place, especially after the harsh winter last year.”

“…Why didn’t your people ask the governor of this district for help? Don’t you know that the Royal family allocates a lot of resources every year for the commoners without any work to sustain themselves?”

Liu Yan turned to stare at Yin Lingxi with pity as if pitying the naivety of the princess. A look that instantly annoyed the proud princess.

“If those in position actually did their job, do you think we would be in such a situation in the first place? Not to mention the fact that refugees have been flooding the capital in the past few weeks and instantly becoming residents of the slums due to a lack of work.”

The princess nodded solemnly. Her suspicions were confirmed by the words of the woman.

“…If the lady doesn’t mind me asking, how are you related to the Lord?”

Yin Lingxi thought for a moment before replying.

“I am his friend.”

“A friend huh? Quite a privilege.”

“Are you saying I am privileged to be friends with him?”

“No. I mean to say that you have the privilege to even have a friend in the first place.”

The Princess gave a confused look, a look that the woman must have understood somehow despite Yin Lingxi wearing a mask that obscured her face since she started talking again.

“Unlike those in the upper-class district and the nobility. We never had the time to make friends, nor do we have the ability to look after others without thinking about ourselves. In our little world, the only thing that mattered was survival. To live, we gave up our dignity and basic socialization. The only thing that mattered to us was our own lives and the lives of our loved ones. Everyone else was nothing more than competition in this race for survival.”

Shock ran through the mind of the princess as she comprehended the ruthlessness that the woman of the slums was talking about. A ruthlessness and personality that the princess believed to be unique to herself until now.

Then, she caught on to the meaning behind the woman’s words.

“You are speaking in the past tense. Are you saying that things are no longer like that?”

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This time, Liu Yan gave a radiant smile that mesmerized the princess. A smile free of any hidden agenda or ulterior motive. A smile filled with happiness and hope.

A smile that Yin Lingxi could never hope to have as long as she remains the princess of this empire.

“Indeed. All of this was before the Lord walked into our lives.”

“It must have been frightening to have a cultivator suddenly show up at your homes like that.”

“Oh! You have no idea. Do you know how he arrived? One moment, we were going about our usual routine, trying to find a naïve person to steal from or an unattended store to raid from. The next moment, a cultivator suddenly appeared out of thin air, scaring us silly. We thought that was it. That the city had sent a cultivator to get rid of us, or someone had come to take away our family, our sisters, mothers, daughters, or wives as their ‘servants’ or to take our healthy men as their ‘Pill trial disciples’. We thought that we were done for.”

Yin Lingxi tried to imagine the situation. A place where people were going about their day when suddenly, out of nowhere, a cultivator showed up with unknown intentions. She tried to place herself in the situation that Liu Yan described. To be so vulnerable that her fate would be decided based on how lustful, irritated, or adventurous a cultivator was feeling. To be in a situation where nothing she did would save her from a fate worse than death.

And she hated it. She hated that thought with all her being.

“Then, as we wait for the worst to happen. The cultivator talks to us in a respectful tone and asks us to bring him the leader of our little group. Can you imagine? An esteemed cultivator talking with respect towards a bunch of mortals? A bunch of mortals that were considered trash even by their fellow mortals?”

Admittedly, Yin Lingxi did not know Wang Xiang, or as he had requested her to call him, Da Wei, for too long. Barely two days at this point. But she really could imagine such a situation if it was him. He had an air of someone who cared little about the identity of the person he interacted with.

“Long story short, ever since that day, he had been providing for us. Allowing us to finally live like human beings instead of animals. It is a shame that he visits us so rarely, if not, I am sure that he would have directly become the leader of our little group with old man Zhou happily giving up the leadership.”

As she listened to the woman speak, the princess had a question that she wanted answered before she did anything else.

“But, if he takes such good care of you, why are your buildings in such a state and you people are so malnourished?”

At those words, Liu Yan gave a proud smile before talking again.

“The Lady might not understand, but despite being thieves and beggars, we still have our own pride. The Lord might stock the supplies with enough stuff to last for years every time he arrives, we will not take advantage of his kindness without giving him anything in return. We offered him our services, to become his slaves or servants. To help him in any way possible. Do you know what he said?”

Yin Lingxi leaned forward with interest, wishing to know more about the man that she was now considered a good friend just after such a short time.

“he said that he needed us to do one thing and one thing alone. To Live. Not just survive, but to truly live. He wanted us to live just like the rest of the people who live in this city. By earning our keep and finding a place for ourselves in this society. To live happily as human beings with our dignity and morality intact. No matter how long it might take.”

She waved her hand, gesturing towards all the crude but effective buildings around her.

“Needless to say, we took his words to heart. Every building you see, we built from the ground up with our own hands. With our hard-earned money. Money is earned through legitimate ways like working as laborers or manning the same stores that we once used to steal from. The men work as hands for hire while we women work as maids, tailors, cooks, and many other such chores that we are good at.”

Yin Lingxi could feel nothing but respect as she continued listening to the woman, both towards these hardy people who clawed out from the darkness after a single push and the man who gave them that push in the first place.

“We refrain from taking too much from the storehouse, just enough to keep ourselves fed. The rest of our food, our comforts, and basic necessities, we earn by ourselves. This, is our way of life, our way of keeping our word to the man that saved us from ourselves. And for those that would not follow our way, those that wish to take advantage of his generosity for their own ends, there exists no place in our community.”

Liu Yan looked towards the direction where Da Wei was now bickering with Zhao over something and chuckled.

“Of course, the lord protested a lot at the beginning. He wanted us to use the provisions he gave to us as the starting capital to either start our own business or use them to become healthy individuals first before looking for work, not set aside those resources and barely use a tenth of it to sustain ourselves on a minimal level. However, in the end, our stubbornness won out against his protests, and here we are today.”

She looked fondly at her surroundings.

“We are not the wealthiest people in this city, neither do we have unlimited access to food. But, what we do have, we are proud to say we have earned it through our own two hands. And for giving us this pride, this life, we are eternally grateful to the Lord.”

Yin Lingxi silently nodded at those words and followed Liu Yan into her home where she offered to brew her some tea as it looked like Da Wei and Zhao were stuck in another one of their arguments where they forgot about the world around them.

However, unlike her calm exterior, thousands upon thousands of plans and thoughts were forming in her mind, each and every one capable of bringing about a storm of unprecedented proportions for the empire as a whole.

One thing was certain. After this encounter, the princess had already decided just what kind of an empress she wanted to be after ascending to the throne.