Fourth Young Master

Xu Yue carried the bags behind Shirley, watching as she occasionally stopped to admire little trinkets unique to China—or simply bought them outright. Through her, he had come to appreciate a trait shared by all women.

What amused him was that the group behind them had been tailing them from not too far away the whole time.

It seemed they had discovered this new threat in him, so they had temporarily set aside their conflicts with one another.

What surprised him, though, was that they showed no intention of coming up to interrupt the two of them shopping, nor did they force another "chance encounter." They had apparently realized the flaws in that approach and that it was impractical.

Instead, Britt, De Gaulle, and Johnson—the three who had come all the way from France—joined Xu Yue and Shirley along the way.

It became Xu Yue, as the host, showing them around and letting them experience the charms of China.

After having some local snacks for lunch, they boarded the train bound for the imperial capital right on schedule that afternoon...

Whooo—

Trailing thick white steam, the special express train from TJ to the imperial capital slowly pulled out of the station, filling the air with the smell of coal smoke.

Traveling by a contemporary means of transportation without special privileges brought the experience back down to the level appropriate for this era.

No matter how nice the carriage was or how attentive the service, it was nowhere near as comfortable as a high-speed train.

Not only was it slow and without air conditioning, but the current state of railway technology also caused occasional faint tremors throughout the carriage.

"Seriously? He gets to stay behind and have afternoon tea with her? Who the hell is that guy?"

"He really got