Chapter 163: Seeking Protection
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
The youthfull killer really gave the commandant a replacement suggestion which he could not refuse.
“Two thousand taels as a basic monthly salary and as long as I’m alive, this source of income will always be there.”
Zhong Heng was trying to move his cramped up legs and stopped when he heard this statement. 24 thousand taels of silver annually were just about the right amount to compensate for a shaming that no one saw – not too much and not too little. He really was reluctant for this child to die too soon. He said, “Are you aware that the positions of Commandant and Governor change every three years, and after a few more months my term of office will end?”
There was a Governor of the Jade City who existed only in name and his popularity was not even on par with that of a small protector in the South City. Gu Shenwei had heard a little of him but did not pay too much attention to it. “As long as you, Sir, are in the Western Region, this amount of money will be delivered to you on time.”
“I don’t even know if I should believe you.”
“Please, believe me, Sir, for you did not earn this sum of money because of your official post but due to your experience and insight. I’ll be back to learn from you again.”
This sounded a little audacious but also like an ingenious way of flattering the Commandant. Zhong Heng thought for a little but settled for the latter impression. He said mirthfully, “Whoever knew that a mediocre official like me would be looked upon so highly by others? Hey, I believe you.”
It was just dawn as Gu Shenwei escorted Zhong Heng downstairs and the commandant hurriedly left. At the entrance, he turned around and said, “I did not further investigate this case at that time, but if I were looking for leads, I would put in a lot of effort to find Marquis Gao’s personal servant.”
The Xu siblings were also on their way downstairs from their sleeping quarters and had quite a shock – to kidnap the commandant was not in the plan they heard before.
“You are alright, correct?” Xu Xiaoyi tried to look as if he had nothing to fear, but his voice did not feel bold in any way.
“Everything’s fine.” Gu Shenwei’s voice portrayed serenity, but even he did not have full confidence in receiving Zhong Heng’s forgiveness. He did not know how much of an effect the silver would have nor did he know how high ranking the position of commandant in the Jade City was, and it was a rash action he took this time.
“Mister Zhong is a good man…” said Xu Yanwei timidly, as if implying that all of the customers she had were good men.
“Marquis Gao had a personal servant when he came to the South City. Xiaoyi, go gather information and find out where he is, but do not alarm him.”
Zhong Heng’s reminder was valuable as Gu Shenwei had overlooked this lead. Even though he had been enslaved for over two years, his thoughts and habits still had the mark of Master Gu. Servants were an unfamiliar group of people to him and he rarely gave consideration to them – just the same way the masters in the Stone Castle treated him.
Xu Xiaoyi was out gathering information for the entire day but surprisingly, no one knew his whereabouts. Logically, he would not have the financial capability to stay in the North City after his master’s death and definitely would have been lodging at the South City. However, he had vanished, and it felt as if he did not care about his master’s death or put in effort to look for his next master.
“Or he could have had backing and defected to a new master at the North City,” deduced Xu Xiaoyi.
Gu Shenwei thought that this was possible and was even more convinced that this servant had secrets to hide, thus he went into hiding. He requested for Xu Xiaoyi to continue gathering information while he returned to the stronghold of the Kun Society to handle the day to day tasks with Tuo Nengya.
The war was still going on and the Kun Society still had strong momentum. Only a few noticed that they were starting to show signs of losing, and Tuo Nengya was one of them. He said, “For three days consecutively there have been no new merchants defecting to us and all available resources have already been depleted. If this continues, I’m afraid we will not have much spending money left.”
The monthly expenditure for the over 100 machetemen hired at a high rate was over 20 thousand taels of silver. There were also various expenditures which amounted to about 30 thousand taels of silver. On the other hand, the Kun Society had only managed to gather 20 thousand taels for funds through various channels. Gu Shenwei was using Tie Hanfeng’s inheritance to top up the difference now but it would not be viable in the long term.
“We have to give a thought to the cessation of hostilities,” suggested Tuo Nengya. “If we manage to do that, we can move on to legitimate armed escorting and largely reduce the number of machetemen hired.”
“This is a decision to be made by the Tenth Young Master.” Gu Shenwei did not care about money and wished that this war would continue on forever. He wished for it to grow larger in scale too; the larger the better – if the mole could be found, it would greatly stir up the fighting spirit of Shangguan Ru.
After the matter of the machetemen was settled, Maid Lotus brought an unexpected piece of news which made Gu Shenwei simultaneously both excited and puzzled.
“Slave Jing wants to meet you; he has words for you.”
Among the 10 killer youths selected by the Tenth Young Master, Wildhorse had formed his own gang with five others. Liuhua was alone and the former “Tattooed Arm Gang”, which could be considered as another faction, had four members. With the death of Slave Yuan, there were only three of them left.
Slave Jing waited until between nine to eleven o’clock in the night before sneaking in to meet Slave Huan. There were only the two of them in the room and, as a huge sign of respect, he immediately went down on one knee upon meeting Slave Huan – as if the person standing in front of him was a Young Master of the Shangguan clan.
One had to be careful when dealing with killers, even more so when they were from your own faction. You had to show that you were unfazed when receiving flattery or humiliation. Gu Shenwei nodded and uttered an ‘Um’ sound as a sign that he had accepted the other party’s show of respect. However, he made a side step and gave up his position to show that he did not have the authority to accept such formalities.
“Slave Huan, you have to save me.” Slave Jing rose and was awfully anxious, even to the point that he did not seem to resemble a killer.
“Tell me, what happened?” Gu Shenwei asked. Maid Lotus was only responsible for passing the message and Slave Jing did not divulge the details to her.
“Someone killed Slave Yuan and wants to kill me.”
Gu Shenwei wrinkled his eyebrows slightly. A killer kills as a profession and naturally would be in the predicament of being assassinated many a time. If one was not clear on this, he or she was not fit to be a killer. He wished his followers to be strong and not pitiful beings being scared of death.
“I will protect you as long as you tell the truth.”
“It’s Master Yu.”
Gu Shenwei felt sudden shock but his expression did not betray his feelings. He waited for Slave Jing to continue speaking.
“One night the year before, I was with Slave Yuan carrying out a mission. When we came back, we saw… heard that there were people speaking in the alley outside. It was very late then and we were a little suspicious, so we eavesdropped a little of their conversation. One of them was Master Yu – I could recognize her voice – and the other was male, someone who I could not identify. At first, the two of them spoke softly but they ended up arguing. Shortly after they started arguing, Master Yu sensed that there were other people in the vicinity and asked the other man to stop talking. Me and Slave Yuan then began to scurry away.”
“What was Master Yu and that man arguing about?” This was the question that Gu Shenwei was most concerned about.
“I don’t know, they were speaking too fast and I couldn’t really understand them. It seemed to have been about money.”
“Okay, so the two of you ran. What next?”
“I thought that Master Yu had not seen the both of us; however, on the second day, she came looking for us and fervently praised us, requesting for us to monitor your movements.”
Gu Shenwei did not make his thoughts known; it was right to not trust anyone. Slave Jing and Slave Huan used to be core members of the ‘Tattooed Arm Gang’ and after the massacre of the apprentices, they still displayed great loyalty. However, under the influence of Master Yu, they could still have turned into renegades.
Slave Jing did not mention how they had replied to Master Yu, and Gu Shenwei did not pursue the matter further.
“Continue speaking.”
“After that was the assassination operation of the past few days, we… told Master Yu and who knew she wanted to kill off everyone. If it were not for you deciding in the spur of the moment to cancel the operation, the second person to die would have been me.”
“You can’t suspect Master Yu without evidence.” Gu Shenwei said indifferently, knowing that a big gift had been delivered to his doorstep.
“I did not make wild guesses based off of random speculation. It was after Slave Yuan had died when Master Yu came looking for me again, saying hypocritically that it was such a shame to lose Slave Yuan and even credited it to your incompetence in direction, saying that the planning for the entire operation was done too hastily and was full of loopholes. Slave Huan, we are both killers and we know how to spot false friendship. Once she spoke, I understood that she wanted to temporarily calm me down and was looking for the right opportunity to strike.”
Gu Shenwei did not remind Slave Jing that the first time Master Yu applied false friendship, she tricked two people into trusting her.
“What do you want me to do? Help you to pass this message to the Tenth Young Master? But you don’t have any evidence.”
“No, no, I don’t wish for the Tenth Young Master to know about this matter. She and Master Yu are so close that they could be the same person. I only wish to seek your protection.”
“I don’t have such capability.”
“You do.” Slave Jing went down on one knee again and lifted his head to look at Slave Huan, an expression of warmness emanating from his eyes. It was as if a faithful worshipper had received a reply from the gods. “Slave Huan, the things that you did may not be known to others, but they are known to us. It is you that Master Yu had wanted to kill but was unable to. It was you that could earn the trust of the Tenth Young Master. I am willing to pledge my service to you, and I am willing to put my life in your hands rather than being covertly assassinated by Master Yu.”
A killer would have never pledged loyalty to another killer. This was not in tune with the rules of the Stone Castle and if the masters of the Shangguan Family found out, such an action was punishable by death.
Gu Shenwei side-stepped again and evaded Slave Jing’s show of respect. He had not made up his mind as to whether to trust the other party yet.
“I can protect you.”
Slave Jing wanted to kneel again in a fit of happiness and Gu Shenwei prevented him just in time. “But you have to understand, this is akin to openly challenging Master Yu and she would be all the more keen to strike. Furthermore, you have passed on your danger to me and Maid Lotus.”
“Then there’s only one way, isn’t there?”
There was something in Slave Jing’s expression that Gu Shenwei disliked – a craziness that did not care about anything. This craziness was so strong that it could destroy one and cause harm to others.
“You don’t have to come up with ideas; the only thing you have to do is to follow me. From now on, you will be a killer in my small team. Other than Maid Lotus and myself, do not trust anyone else. If anyone says that the Tenth Young Master has called for you, let that person see me. If anyone says some Young Master has summoned you back to the Castle, let that person see me too. If you are to be under my protection, you have to listen to me. Also, do not act until I give you the approval to do so, do you understand?”
“I understand.” Slave Jing finally calmed down. The nature of a killer took effect, and now that there was someone willing to be responsible for his life, he could go back to killing without a worry again.
Slave Jing had brought a crucial piece of information which he himself did not fully know the importance of. Gu Shenwei had not managed to decipher the message in such a short period of time as well. He knew he had a lead which would allow him to uncover all the hidden mysteries, and the key was how to make use of this lead to let Master Yu show her true colors.
Slave Jing’s defection was akin to openly cutting all ties with Master Yu and Slave Huan’s acceptance of his defection was even more intensely taunting. The balance which Gu Shenwei had maintained so carefully was shattered just like this.
Master Yu had already shown her hand and it was now time for Slave Huan to counter-attack. He did not have too many chances to try, therefore he had to make sure to hit his target in one strike.
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