Missy followed Bryson to the entrance and saw a carriage already waiting there.
The journey from the village to Wujiang County was several dozen miles.
Bryson didn't mind. He walked fast and had good stamina.
To him, it wasn't a big deal.
In fact, he treated it like a workout.
But he didn't want Missy to go through the trouble with him,
so before he left, he rented a carriage from the village.
He also wanted to quickly take care of her identity card.
Actually, this was something he had planned long ago.
The carriage was led by a short, thin man.
When he saw Bryson, he greeted him warmly.
Bryson was well-liked. Everyone in the village had eaten the game meat he hunted and shared.
When the driver saw Missy,
he looked surprised and a little jealous.
"Bryson, when did you buy a wife? She has a nice figure."
Even though Missy had tried to look ugly and covered her face with a veil,
her graceful figure could still be seen clearly.
Bryson smiled gently.
"I went to the market two days ago, saw her, and decided to buy her."
The driver looked at Missy's hand and saw she had no identity card.
"You bought her at the slave market?"
People with a slave background had low status and were treated badly in many ways.
So the price for them was cheaper than for regular women.
But Bryson didn't want Missy to be looked down on.
He planned to get her a citizen status, and he had already come up with a story.
He had Missy sit in the carriage first and then explained to the driver.
Missy's hometown had been hit by a flood. Her parents were gone.
She was taken by the local authorities.
He saw her and thought she was good, so he bought her.
But at the time, he didn't have enough silver on him. He begged the officials to let him take her first.
The county office agreed but kept her identity card.
Now that he had the money, he was taking her back to pay the rest,
and at the same time, he would go to the Wujiang County office to register her and make a new ID.
"Wow, Bryson, you really have skills."
The driver drove the carriage and sighed with envy.
Actually, Bryson's story didn't make much sense, but the driver was from the same village.
He trusted Bryson and didn't question him.
The driver and Bryson chatted on the way, using the local dialect.
Missy listened carefully but couldn't understand a single word.
"Bryson, were you talking about me?"
Missy knew they were probably talking about her,
but she had no idea what they were saying.
"Missy, you really didn't understand anything?"
Missy nodded.
Bryson asked,
"Then how do you know how to speak the common language?"
"My hometown only speaks the common language."
Missy had already prepared her answer.
If Bryson asked where she came from, she would say it was a faraway place.
And she didn't know how she got here.
Bryson wondered if maybe there were other places in this world besides Qi Kingdom that he didn't know about.
Or maybe Missy came from some hidden family.
Of course, that was just what Bryson guessed.
Bryson told the driver to take them straight to the side gate of Wujiang County's government office.
He got out of the carriage with Missy. By now, it was already dark.
He gave the driver some silver and told him to get two rooms at a nearby inn and wait for him.
After the driver left, Bryson took a lantern and brought Missy to the side gate of the county office.
He seemed to know this place very well.
He knocked lightly on the side gate, and it opened right away.
A gatekeeper was already waiting there,
as if someone had told him in advance.
He led Bryson and Missy into the household registration office.
It was a separate building used for handling land, taxes, and household records.
The clerks there organized documents and ledgers,
keeping track of the county's land, population, and taxes,
to help the county magistrate make decisions.
Bryson went inside and greeted Jerome using the local dialect,
which confused Jerome. Usually, he and Bryson spoke in the common language.
He didn't understand why Bryson was using dialect now,
but he was smart enough not to ask. He just followed along.
"Bryson, I thought you weren't coming today."
Actually, everything today had been planned by Bryson ahead of time.
Yesterday, he had someone send a message to Jerome.
And after receiving the message, Jerome already knew what Bryson wanted.
Jerome's family had connections. He didn't do well in school,
but still managed to get a job at the Wujiang County office because of his background.
As a clerk in the household office, he didn't usually have much work.
"Even if there's something to handle, the small officers can do it."
As for him, being a registration clerk, he usually didn't do much. It was only because Bryson sent him a message yesterday that he stayed today.
"Thanks, Jerome."
Bryson politely bowed with his hands.
Jerome quickly waved it off, saying Bryson didn't need to be polite.
This kind of favor was easy for him. If he could help Bryson, he was happy to do it.
"She… was she bought from the slave market?"
"I found her on the road. She lost her ID tag. She's still young and doesn't even know where she came from."
Bryson didn't hide anything from Jerome.
Jerome looked at Missy for a moment,
Then gave Bryson a light punch on the shoulder and said with surprise,
"Wow, Bryson! You're really lucky! You actually picked her up?"
He walked around Missy, noticing her beautiful long black hair.
Even though he couldn't see her face clearly, her graceful figure was enough.
He clicked his tongue and said,
"Not bad at all. Even what you find by chance looks this good."
Bryson just stood beside him, smiling gently.
Jerome pulled Bryson over to sit at the table.
"Bryson, with this kind of luck, of course I'm going to help you."
Actually, if you paid the registration clerk, it was easy to change someone's records.
There were many rich families who secretly changed slave women's status into normal citizens.
And for someone like Jerome, creating a fake ID and adding someone into the records wasn't hard.
Jerome had Bryson sit down while he sat across from him.
Bryson took a small bag of silver from his coat, gently placed it on the table, and pushed it to Jerome.
Jerome didn't say anything, just picked up the silver bag, weighed it in his hand, smiled, then put it into a wooden box beside him.
He gave Bryson a look that said he understood.
Then he called in a young officer to help register Missy.
The officer probably had done this many times before.
He finished the registration quickly and went next door to make the ID tag.
Jerome also quickly added Missy to the household record.
Bryson had planned to take Missy to the ID room and leave after getting the tag.
But Jerome stopped him, saying he already told them to bring the ID as soon as it was ready.
So Bryson only needed to sit and wait for a while.
"Heh, who would've thought? Our Bryson finally gets it."
"So, tell me, have you used her yet? How does she feel?"
Jerome had no filter. As soon as the young officer left, he started teasing Bryson.
He didn't want Bryson to leave just yet, mostly because he was curious.
Bryson knew he couldn't stay longer.
"Jerome, I still have things to do. Let me treat you to drinks at Spring Flower Pavilion next time."
Jerome looked at him playfully. He clearly thought Bryson was rushing off for something fun.
"Your little girl's figure is nice. I bet kissing her feels great."
"You…"
Bryson didn't want to respond.
"Hey, don't tell me you haven't even kissed her?"
Jerome's eyes were wide. His look clearly meant,
Are you really a man?
You have someone like that next to you and you still haven't done anything?
Bryson felt embarrassed being looked at like that.
A man's pride is everything. Even if nothing happened, he couldn't lose face.
"So what if I did? Do I need to tell you?"
He looked like he didn't want to talk about it anymore.
Jerome gave a sneaky laugh.
"Alright, I won't bother your good time. But next time, you better tell me everything."
Bryson felt uncomfortable under that stare. Whatever it was,
Jerome talked too much. In just a couple of days, everyone would probably hear about it.
Looks like next time he drank with friends, they would all tease him.
But Jerome wasn't someone who crossed the line. He would never share anything he wasn't supposed to.
That's why Bryson trusted him with this.
Missy had been listening quietly the whole time.
She felt like Bryson's friend was creepy and didn't seem like a good person.
She didn't understand why Bryson would have a friend like that. She really didn't like him.
If Bryson hadn't told her to stay quiet, she would've already scolded him.
She didn't understand what they were saying,
But the way that man kept staring at her made her very uncomfortable.
Still, Bryson kept his calm and gentle look the whole time.
She started to wonder if maybe she was just being sensitive.
Just when Missy felt she couldn't take it anymore,
Bryson said goodbye to Jerome and took her to get the ID tag.
Missy kept staring at him angrily.
"Missy, what's wrong?"