Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
After returning from the Norland, Xiao Fengchai had not served any guests. One night, even though Pleasure Alley was at its busiest time, she requested the maidservants and the elderly women to go to bed early.
Meng Mingshu paced back and forth restlessly in the living room. Occasionally, he would glance at his woman and fearfully ask, “How can this be possible? What should we do?”
Yet, Xiao Fengchai’s face was as calm as still water. Now that the situation had this dire of a situation, even Xiao Fengchai found it thorny. “Are you sure about this?”
“Absolutely positive. Actually there were some signs hinting at it before, but I didn’t pay extra attention to them. It was not until the Dragon King sent me a message that I came to understand. Earlier today, when I went to visit him, I wiped something off of his forehead.
Meng Mingshu stretched out his right hand and there was a layer of white paint on his forefinger and middle finger. He had already shown this to her, but he hadn’t wiped it off yet, and now the color had faded a little.
“My father never applies this kind of stuff.”
“The problem is… who’s behind it?”
“The Golden Roc Castle – it has to be the Golden Roc Castle. The Dragon King’s right. The Unique King wants all the assets of Meng family. I’m afraid that my two younger brothers are in grave danger, and that even I…” At the thought that his most trusted bodyguard was working for the Golden Roc Castle, Meng Mingshi was horrified.
Xiao Fengchai was much more composed than him, “Don’t forget that Golden Roc Castle’s not the only sect that’s good at disguises. Waning Moon Hall and the Dragon King are all masters of it.”
Meng Mingshu had thought that things were already clear, but now he fell into confusion again. “You’re right, but this is Jade City, where Golden Roc Castle can do whatever they want.”
“Haha. Haven’t you noticed that Golden Roc Castle has been restraining itself a lot since the fiasco in Xiaoyao Lake? Now tens of thousand troops are stationed in the Heaven’s Pass and their allegiance remains unknown, and they’ll only be revealed after the gate of Jade City is opened wide. So, I think that the Unique King is not necessarily the only path for one to do whatever he wants here.”
“So what do we do? One mistake, and the Meng family is done for.”
“Play it by ear.”
Seeing that Xiao Fengchai was so composed, Meng Mingshu also managed to calm himself down. He stopped pacing around and fondly gazed at her face as he said, “I don’t know what I would do without you. If Golden Roc Castle is behind this, then the first thing I’m going to do is divorce the woman in my house, marry you, and give you the official identity of Madam Meng.”
Xiao Fengchai smiled. “If the others heard of this, they would think that we’re the ones plotting everything.”
Yet Meng Mingshu became excited and sat on a chair. After pondering for a short while, he said to Xiao Fengchai, “Have you noticed? I’m now the patriarch of Meng family.”
Xiao Fengchai nodded. With a moderately encouraging look on her face, she said to him as if she were coaxing a child, “Just keeping that in mind is fine. Don’t talk about it openly. You could’ve gotten yourself into some serious trouble with this very remark.”
Meng Mingshu subdued his excitement as he asked, “How should I deal with the Dragon King later?”
“Try not to speak and let me do the talking. If by any chance things go south, you can always shift the blame onto me so that we’re still preserving some space for others maneuvers. Keeping you safe is the most important thing.”
Meng Mingshu wholeheartedly believed that this was an excellent idea. Rather than feel belittled, he was extreme grateful, to the point of even forgetting about his envy for the Dragon King.
Waiting…
There were no night watchmen in Southern Jade City, but Pleasure Alley was the exception. Some guests had to be cautious about the time and return to Northern Jade City before the connecting gateway closed. A while after nine o’clock, a man came out of Xiao Fengchai’s bedroom.
Looking at the Dragon King who went by the name “Gu Shenwei”, Meng Mingshu frowned. “Madam Xiao’s bedroom is one of the most difficult to access in all of Jade City, yet you came in so expertly. It seems that we’ll have to seriously audit the security of these windows.”
Meng Mingshu and Xiao Fengchai had agreed that they wouldn’t reveal his true identity at the moment.
“Yeah, you should.”
Meng Mingshu recalled what Xiao Fengchai had told him previously. He glanced at her and spoke no more.
Xiao Fengchai had put some simple makeup on, looking noble and elegant. With one hand on the table and the other on her knee, she said in a businesslike tone, “Please have a seat, respected envoy.”
Gu Shenwei sat down in a chair opposite and already knew who he was going to negotiate with.
“The Dragon King always gets straight to the point and never wastes any time beating around the bush. Are you the same, envoy?”
“We don’t have much time, so it’s best we cut to the chase.”
“May I ask a question first?”
“Sure.”
“How did you know that Meng Yuzun had been replaced? I still remember you didn’t say that when we first met.”
“Because I just found out myself. I happen to know that Meng Yuzun used to be a kung fu practitioner, and a pretty good one at that. Yet the footsteps of the one who was around the Bodhi Garden were fairly heavy and not like that of a kung fu practitioner’s at all.”
Xiao Fengchai glanced at Meng Mingshu. She had never heard the rumor of the moneybags Meng Yuzun venturing into arduous kung fu practice. Meng Mingshu nodded gently, indicating that it was true. Actually, it had been after his elder brother’s death that he found out about this, and he himself had been just as surprised back then.
“Do you have any information about if the true Meng Yuzun is alive?”
“It’s hard to say. But as far as I know, there is an underground chamber in the Bodhi Garden, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Meng Yuzun was locked in down there.”
This was yet another issue that Xiao Fengchai hadn’t heard about. After Meng Mingshu confirmed it, she commented, “It seems that Golden Roc Castle is indeed about to make its move on Meng family.”
That’s not a question, and Gu Shenwei tersely responded.
“Money is always easy to borrow but difficult to repay. Can you give us some kind of guarantee? Or is t just an oral promise?” Xiao Fengchai continued to ask.
“It’s not just a promise, but also a shared management right. And, if he wishes, Second Young Master Meng can choose to work for the Dragon King as his financial executive; he would be in charge of not only the Gu family’s assets, but also all of Dragon King’s financial resources.”
Meng Mingshu felt that he had to say something now, so he interjected and said, “Then I would be publicly making myself an enemy of Golden Roc Castle, wouldn’t I?”
“You may also designate someone you deem trustworthy to do it for you.”
“It’s viable,” Xiao Fengchai took back the momentum. “But in any case, my second brother’s safety is of the utmost importance. Do you have any plans about that?”
Meng Mingshu fell silent – this was the issue he cared about the most.
“If Second Young Master Meng is willing to join the Dragon Army, he will undoubtedly be under the best protection. And if he wants to stay in Jade City, I’ll make sure he has nothing to do with this ‘loan,’ and thus Golden Roc Castle will protect him.”
“Why would Golden Roc Castle still protect me after I lose have my money?” Meng Mingshu couldn’t understand.
“They will,” Golden Roc Castle said positively. “What Golden Roc Castle wants is money, and without money, there would be no need for them to kill the members of the Meng family. Besides, only by keeping you alive can Golden Roc Castle take back the Meng family’s wealth.”
Meng Mingshu pondered his words for a while. The Dragon King was good at beguiling people. Although his words sounded reasonable, they might not necessarily come true. “I want to stay in Jade City and let… Fengchai be in charge of the Meng family’s money.”
Golden Roc Castle’s status still looked secure, so Meng Mingshu didn’t necessarily want to draw the lines and choose a side too early, and he had to prepare himself for both eventualities.
“I’m a woman,” Xiao Fengchai reminded him blandly.
“What’s wrong with women? There are plenty of women working for Dragon King now, aren’t there? And there’s even an army of female soldiers. If they can do it, you can do it too.”
“We can talk about this later.” Xiao Fengchai was obviously not very interested. “I’m enjoying a pretty cozy life in Jade City. Why would I go mix with a bunch of stinky men in the army camp? Let’s get back to the main business topic. How do you plan on receiving this ‘loan’ without Golden Roc Castle suspecting my second brother?”
Meng Mingshu had already forgotten Xiao Fengchai’s warning and he immediately said, “Actually we have some previous experience with this. I can give him detailed information of all the shops and banks in various locations, and all Dragon King has to do is send his men to rob them. Those within Jade City are the most difficult to rob, and unfortunately they are also the richest.”
Gu Shenwei had also come up with an idea. “Robbing them is one option, but there’s also another way. The fake Meng Yuzun has been in a violent temper for the past half a year, and he’s made a lot of enemies…”
Meng Mingshu said resentfully, “Golden Roc Castle has been making a lot of preparations for their plan to eliminate our family. If things keep going this way, all the members of the Meng family will wind up dead and nobody will show any compassion to us anymore.”
“So if one or two traitors show up at this point, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise, would it?”
Light dawned on Meng Mingshu.
The negotiation continued on even though there weren’t any topics of much importance left. So after an hour or so, Gu Shenwei stood up, ready to leave. Xiao Fengchai gently said, “You should go back as well, second brother. And if you want me to make financial decisions for you, you’ll have to keep me at a distance from now on so that Golden Roc Castle won’t suspect you.”
Meng Mingshu was reluctant to part with her. “We don’t have to start so soon, do we?”
Xiao Fengchai glanced at the “Dragon King’s envoy” who was still present. “We don’t have much time left. If we had known that things would turn out this way, we would have kept quarreling.”
Gu Shenwei left first, and then he met Nie Zeng outside.
After a short while, Meng Mingshu opened the gate and walked out into the street. Anger was etched deeply into his face, and he defiantly strode towards another prostitute’s home. All the servants who were waiting at the gate understood that the two enemies who had just reconciled were now quarreling again.
Gu Shenwei waited a long time. After the hustle and bustle of the Pleasure Alley subsided, he went back to Xiao Fengchai’s home.
Xiao Fengchai was sitting in her bedroom, hands supporting her head, blankly staring at the dancing flames. Indifferent to the man who had sneaked in again, she talked as if she were talking to herself. “Things never go the way people want them to. If only the Dragon King were a few years older or I were a few years younger.”
Gu Shenwei knew that he had been recognized, so he didn’t deny it. “Why?”
“In that case you wouldn’t feel that I’m too old, and I would be eligible to compete with a young girl like Tenth Gongzi.” Xiao Fengchai turned her head and looked at him, with an expression so ambivalent he couldn’t tell whether she was smiling or not.
“I prefer the Xiao Fengchai of the Royal Court.”
Back then, Xiao Fengchai was stern and inviolable, yet now she had become someone completely different. “Ha-ha, the Royal Court is way too unfamiliar to me so I can’t exert my charm even when I have it, but this place is my home…”
“You’re the most seductive woman I’ve ever seen.”
“Dragon King is overpraising me.”
“Yet you’re just a person.”
“I’m far less important when compared to ‘supremacy.’”
Gu Shenwei nodded.
“I understand. I just feel regretful. Despite meeting so many people, none of them could be deemed a hero. However, the Dragon King is a true hero.”
Gu Shenwei had to admit that this woman could easily please anyone she wanted to. “You already have Meng Mingshu. I believe that should be enough.”
“Him?” Xiao Fengchai showed a slightly contemptuous look on her face, “You believe that ‘supremacy’ is more important than women, but I don’t have a view as broad as yours. As a whore, I believe that money is more important than men.”
“How much do you want?” Gu Shenwei asked.
“The usual. Twenty percent.” Xiao Fengchai put away the seductive look on her face. “I’ll help the Dragon King take all the wealth of Meng family, and all I want is just twenty percent of it.”
“A deal between a ‘hero’ and a ‘whore,’” Gu Shenwei commented in a slightly sarcastic tone.
“The ‘hero’ wouldn’t reject, would he?” Xiao Fengchai smiled back in response.
Gu Shenwei had never thought himself as a hero – he was someone who sought vengeance by hook or by crook.
After leaving the small building again, Gu Shenwei and Nie Zeng quickly returned to Lu Qiying’s courtyard. Three days had passed, and the men he had sent were waiting for him, ready to give the first inroad report.
