After taking a few deep breaths, He Sanlang once again suppressed the endless waves of anger rising from within him.
Once he was calm enough, he picked up the drawings once again and took a proper look at them.
But now that he was giving them a good look, He Sanlang actually became completely immersed in them.
The drawings in Chu Lian’s letter were similar to the four box manga style of the modern age. Although she didn’t include a single word in there, it managed to do a fine job at narrating and expressing exactly what she wanted to. The lack of words didn’t have any negative impact on conveying the content.
In the drawing, the cutely drawn female lead was Chu Lian herself. On every page, the little girl had different expressions and actions; sometimes she was angry, sometimes haughty, and sometimes sincere.
The expressions and emotions given to the little girl were all lively and fresh. Despite the art’s simplicity, it was attractive, and appealed to people in a way that drew others closer to the artist.
Actually, there was a reason why Chu Lian had made these comics instead of just writing a reply. She was afraid that she would be exposed by her handwriting, so she had no choice but to draw instead.
The contents of the drawings were also quite random. Perhaps due to her professional habits from her previous life, she subconsciously drew each of them with a theme. The comics were all centered around interesting things that happened in her daily life.
A single picture could convey more than a thousand words, and was far more intuitive to understand. Moreover, a manga style like this hadn’t appeared in the Great Wu Dynasty before.
Looking at these drawings, He Changdi felt like he could envision Chu Lian’s everyday life. The lively, happy-go-lucky girl in these drawings deviated greatly from the personality of the insidious, deceitful, wicked woman that he knew her as.
A short while later, he abruptly opened his eyes. He hated that he had unwittingly had a change of heart once again. He Sanlang took a deep breath to suppress the strange feeling before his deep gaze landed on the final drawing.
In that drawing, a little girl who had her hair tied up in a bun sat on a chair, facing a kind, middle-aged lady. The two were happily chatting away. The middle-aged lady had a benevolent smile, but there was a red patch on the left cheek of her slightly plump, round face. There was also a servant pouring some tea for her.
The little girl with the bun had a thought bubble floating on top of her head. There wasn’t a word in it, but there was a remarkably detailed portrait of a noble lady with white hair.
The noble lady had a kind face, but it wasn’t very recognisable. The most notable aspect of her was the phoenix headdress on top of her head, and this phoenix had nine phoenix tails on it.
The noble lady with white hair was smiling brightly with an aura of a saint, and her hand was drawn giving a thumbs up.
It went without saying that the little girl with the bun was Chu Lian. That woman felt no shame in drawing herself so cutely. As for the background of the drawing, He Changdi only needed a second to recognise it: it was the Dingyuan Estate.
A middle-aged woman with a red patch on her face… Anyone in the capital would know that the northern border troop’s Captain Guo had an extremely ugly wife.
However, Captain Guo had nothing but deep respect for his wife. Not only did he treat her as his equal, but he never even took a single concubine. They had two sons and three daughters together, and were well-known in the capital as a couple.
The identity of the noble lady in the bubble was even more obvious: it was the current Empress Dowager.
There was a rule in the Great Wu Dynasty that only the Empress Dowager was qualified to wear ornaments with nine phoenix tails. Even the Empress was limited to just seven phoenix tails.
Chu Lian was happily chatting with Captain Guo’s wife, while the Empress Dowager was happily showing her approval.
Hmm? What was that wicked woman trying to tell him?
The northern border troops were under the command of the Duke of Lu, Great General Qian. Captain Guo was one of his subordinate officers. Although he didn’t have the most important position amongst the general’s men, he was still close to General Qian.
The officers serving in the northern border troops all had actual authority. Captain Guo was brave and fierce, good in battle, and empathetic to the soldiers under his command. He was a great leader who protected his men, and didn’t steal credit for deeds that weren’t his. Although he had many good points to him, he was also hot-headed and impulsive. It was due to this fatal weakness that General Qian hadn’t given him a more important post.
TL Note: Some important changes in names!! While translating this chapter, I realised that I made a mistake in translating the names of the Dukes in this story.
Chu Lian’s maiden family is the House of Duke Yingguo, but it should actually be Duke Ying. I didn’t realise that ‘guo’ is part of the title ‘Duke’ in Chinese, as the other noble houses all had two Chinese characters in their names (ie. Count Jing’an, Marquis Dingyuan etc.). >w<
All the chapters before this have already been changed!
Duke Yingguo -> Duke Ying
Duke Zhengguo -> Duke Zheng