Imperial Treasure

September 1, 2009, on this day, the weather was nice, allowing one to see the blue stone slab bridges covered in green moss, the weak and frail willows, the leisurely waters, and the circles created by the stepping of the partridges, distorting the reflection of the ancient brick tiles and blue stone houses...

In the ancient town of Huzhou, Zhejiang, a renowned scenic spot in the country, the delicate and elegant beauty of the Jiangnan Water Town resembled a beauty among pavilions, towers, drum towers with ancient charm, just like the graceful figure of spring willow in the ancient bridge corridor, carving out the outline of the years.

However, after the socialist reform made great strides across the Central Plains, this place was obviously no longer the delicately beautiful site it had been hundreds or thousands of years ago.

At the moment, a bus passed over the smooth and shiny road, by the lakeside stone bridge and the ancient houses...

On the bus, a man dressed in a suit and leather shoes, holding a briefcase in one hand, struggled to squeeze into the densely crowded bus. Luckily, he managed to stand beside a seat, avoiding the dilemma of being squashed into a 'human meat pie', but at this moment, his forehead oozed a bit of sweat, his tongue slightly extended over his lips wet by sweat, unidentifiable in taste, eliciting an expression of pleasure as if he had drunk the nectar of the gods.

However, he happened to look down and suddenly felt something was amiss.

A high school student in a school uniform, about seventeen or eighteen, with shoulder-length short hair, very black and delicate, albeit a bit tousled, a face the size of a palm, with fine and delicate features giving a refreshing sense of freshness.

But those slightly squinted eyes and facial expression, as if not fully awake, an overly pale complexion, lips lacking color, seemingly unhealthy and nearly feeble—yet her lazy posture leaning against the back of the seat momentarily gave her an impression of being somewhat mischievous. Upon closer inspection, her face seemed clean and translucent.

Overall, this sixteen or seventeen-year-old high school girl was quite beautiful, but with a cold indifference and a strange sense of detachment.

At this moment, she was sideways, looking straight at his hand with a detached expression.

The man suddenly felt uneasy, which quickly turned into chagrin. In a moment, he recognized the school uniform the other was wearing, and the chagrin faded away. He stared at her, defiantly pulling out a cell phone from under a woman's skirt and waved it.

He gave her a somewhat vicious smile.

Just a high school student, seemingly frail and obedient, nothing to fear...

The girl looked up at the menacing middle-aged man, her eyes showed a hint of understanding and fear, and then she slightly averted her gaze. The man smiled, looking at the girl without any restraint, his lip-licking becoming more brazen...

It must be said, the girl was indeed quite beautiful... with a sense of forbidden allure that could inspire lust in men.

But, what was she about to do?

The girl, who was rather beautiful, naturally extended her hand with slender fingers and in a moment that caught the man off guard and bewildered, pulled out the phone.

"You!" The man was only slow for an instant, letting out a monosyllable...

The phone lay in the delicate and pale palm, the long thumb gently swiped, the screen lit up, she glanced at it, hooked the corner of her mouth slightly, casually handing the phone to the tall and glamorous woman in short skirt and flesh-colored stockings facing the middle-aged man.

The woman's face instantly flushed red with embarrassment, eagerly snatched the phone, turned her head, saw the girl's glance towards the astonished man and she came to an understanding.

Then, she slapped him hard, "Go to hell, you damn pervert, shameless, taking pictures of me!"

Snap! The sound was too loud!

The crowd was in an uproar, ha, so he was a voyeuristic pervert!

The middle-aged man, naturally angered, pushed the glamorous woman forcefully after being slapped and then turned to swing a hand at the girl!

He bellowed, "You little bitch!"

At that moment, the girl reached forward to the handrail in front of the seat, whoosh, suddenly pulled out a black umbrella. The sound of its extraction was like tearing silk, crisp and abrupt, as if a swordsman was drawing his sword from its sheath!

The slender black shadow swept through the air, swish!

The umbrella, short and sleek, thud! It struck precisely on the man's Adam's apple!

That action, as dashing as a Western Sword's precision and flair!

How fragile is a human's throat? And the Adam's apple? Why don't you try pressing your own knuckle against your Adam's apple and see?

It would make one momentarily think they might die...

"Ugh—!" The man's right hand holding the briefcase dropped to the ground, his eyes widening, as he grabbed his throbbing neck and began to scream in agony. The people nearby and the glamorous woman finally reacted.

The passengers on the bus still showed some enthusiasm, and since the man didn't seem particularly strong or formidable, a couple of spirited young men pinned him down to the ground. Of course, their enthusiasm might be because the person who was photographed was a beautiful woman.

"Well caught, perverts like him should be arrested, we'll take him to the police station right away!"

"My daughter keeps telling me she encounters perverts on the bus all the time, I didn't believe her, but now it seems there really are!"

"I see it every day, these kinds of people will only get worse if they are not caught once, they must be stopped,"

The bus instantly erupted into noise, with many people stirring up a scene.

Just then, with a clang, the bus arrived at the stop, and the girl stood up, flinging her black umbrella from her hand.

Whoosh! The black umbrella neatly inserted itself back into its original spot, right beside the elderly man who had been sitting next to her. She turned to him and said, "Old man, your umbrella is of good quality."

Her voice was soft and gentle, yet it carried an indifferent, detached tone, seemingly unaware of what she had just done.

——An outsider to her own actions.

The old man who had watched everything from beginning to end and had remained silent the whole time smiled. His smile was comfortable and content as he said with glee, "Thank you for using it, female knight-errant."

The girl had suddenly plucked his umbrella and used it to stab swiftly as lightning, with fluid grace, giving him the impression of a solitary swordsman's elegance.

Was this supposed to be a meek and fragile little girl attending school?

Female knight-errant? The girl raised an eyebrow noncommittally, turned around, and got off the bus, paying no attention to the astonished looks from the people behind her. "Eh, what was that just now?"

"I saw it too, damn, I thought modern girls were all delicate, but I didn't expect one to be that formidable!"

"That guy was just unlucky, to have his plans foiled by a girl..."

......

In a corner, a high school student stood with a face full of shock. That person, wasn't it... Sui Yi?

The Sui Yi from Class 2 of the second year?

No, it should now be Class 2 of the third year!

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Sui Yi, it was a strange name. Not to mention its homophony with 'Sui Yi' which means 'as one pleases,' even the surname was rare. Someone had once looked it up and indeed found it existed.

But the given name 'Yi' was rather unusual, leading one to wonder if it was appropriate for a girl. No one could answer that because it was a name casually picked from a dictionary by the headmaster of an orphanage.

'Yi' has a sound that is not commonly recorded in classic texts. It refers to an ancient method of shooting eagles with bows. There are two techniques: using the bow and using a trapping tool known as 'yi.' There's no additional meaning, with later generations simply interpreting it as a deliberate means of attack, as in "The Book of Songs. Zheng Feng. The Woman Says the Cock Crows": "An eagle soars, hunting ducks and geese."

In the primitive tribes of those times, an adept yi-shooter was considered powerful and often chosen to lead.

Obviously, for a girl from an orphanage, naming her was unlikely to entail such meaning—probably the headmaster just randomly chose a character with fewer strokes for ease of writing.

Sui Yi herself hadn't delved much into it. Occasionally, she thought about a movie from a long time ago, "Days of Being Wild" where Leslie Cheung portrayed Ah Fei, who danced the tango sublimely yet with an air of desolation. He moved rhythmically, twirling his body, presenting his rebellious madness and tender confusion in the mirrors. He said he was a bird without feet, unable to find a place to land, not knowing where to fly to.

The most bewildering thing for him was not knowing where he came from.

This was something that Sui Yi could relate to.

She was an orphan, an orphan without any clue to her past.

Orphans invariably possess a heart that must survive and strive, and if one is more ambitious, after fighting for their future, they might even wish to find their past.

With her feet on the ground, hands in the pockets of her roomy school uniform, Sui Yi stood tall and slender, as delicate as a young willow sprout, standing against the wind, fluttering like a ripple on water.

She wanted to find her past, but first and foremost, she needed to survive the present.

China's school uniforms, upholding the fine historical tradition, are usually blue and white or white and blue, and those who manage to look pleasing to the eye in them undoubtedly pass the test of attractiveness.

Clearly, Sui Yi was one such person. Just as she was about to walk forward, she heard a shout from behind. Without looking back, she knew who was calling her; the sound of heels on marble was too distinctive.

Turning around, Sui Yi saw the glamorous woman gesturing to her while striding over with a clang-clang of her heels, followed by a few young men twisting away from that perverted man.

"Hey, little sister, thanks for just now. Here's my business card. Oh, what's your name?"

The beautiful woman was clearly probing Sui Yi, scanning her up and down, but her face showed genuine gratitude.

With a calm demeanor like willows in the breeze, Sui Yi took the business card without a glance and stuffed it into her pocket while asking, "Gratitude? Are you paying me?"

Her expression seemed to say, why call me if you're not going to pay?

(This story follows a mainstream narrative with occasional dark humor but is mostly serious. Thus, it won't go overboard with wishful thinking. It's a tale of gradual growth. For those who still enjoy it, please add it to your collection. Just login to your account and click to add to your bookshelf. That's the true way to collect~~ It's a big help to the book~~)