Chapter 113: Bitch!

Killed while attempting to escape?

Chen Guishuo’s pupils contracted sharply. He suddenly began struggling with all his strength, making the chains rattle violently as he screamed himself hoarse, “Someone! Help! Help me...!”

Niu Youdao tilted his head and looked over with a strange expression, then turned his attention back to the brazier. Gripping the branding iron by its handle, he slowly turned it among the coals, sending sparks flying.

He was in no hurry to do anything to Chen Guishuo. He simply let the man scream while idly playing with the branding iron.

After Chen Guishuo had shouted for a long while without hearing the slightest movement outside, his breathing had grown ragged from tension. At last he understood. He could probably scream his throat raw and no one would come. He swallowed hard, despair nearly filling his face.

Sometimes death itself was not frightening. What was frightening was the process before death, and worse still was not knowing how Niu Youdao intended to torment him.

Seeing Niu Youdao remain unresponsive, Chen Guishuo clutched at his final straw of hope and pleaded, “Junior Brother, Junior Brother, for the sake of our years in the same sect, please... please let me go.”

Niu Youdao said, “Stop right there! Who is your junior brother? Don’t claim relations that don’t exist. You’re no longer a man of the Shangqing Sect, and neither am I.”

Chen Guishuo immediately changed his form of address. “Brother Niu, Brother Niu, everything was my fault. Please be magnanimous and overlook the faults of a small man like me. I beg you, show mercy and let me go!”

Niu Youdao said blandly, “Are you qualified to call me brother? In the jianghu, people call me Master Dao.”

Whatever “people in the jianghu” might mean, Chen Guishuo had no mind to care about it now. He promptly changed his address again. “Master Dao, Master Dao, I know I was wrong. Please let me go! If nothing else, at least give me a quick death!”

Clang! Clang! Clang! Niu Youdao tapped the iron handle several times against the edge of the brazier. “Look at that. See? You’ve misunderstood me. What do you mean, give you a quick death? The thing I hate most is all this fighting and killing. I don’t like killing people!”

“...” Chen Guishuo was speechless. Wasn’t this lying with his eyes wide open? You don’t like fighting and killing? Then who killed Song Long?

But right now, whatever Niu Youdao said was the truth.

Watching the branding iron slowly redden in the coals, Niu Youdao rambled on, “And you, really. You had a perfectly good place as a disciple of the Shangqing Sect, yet you chose to become a traitor. Maybe you’d say I did the same, but you and I are different. Very different. You betrayed the Shangqing Sect. I left because the Shangqing Sect had no place for me.”

“You wanted to latch onto Song Yanqing and find yourself a future. That much I can understand. But Song Yanqing is already dead, and you still abandoned the Shangqing Sect to run to the Song family. That I cannot understand. Do you have any friendship with the rest of the Song family? What is so good about following them? Just because the Songs look like a powerful aristocratic clan? Does the Song family lack lone independent cultivators like you? Your cultivation is nothing remarkable, you have no background, you possess nothing particularly valuable, and on top of that you carry the reputation of betraying your sect. Would the Song family truly place someone like that in an important position? You’re nothing more than a chess piece in their hands. What future can you possibly have?”

Niu Youdao drew the glowing branding iron from the brazier and walked toward the bound Chen Guishuo.

Watching the red-hot iron approach, Chen Guishuo’s breathing quickened. He pressed himself back as far as he could and said nervously, “Master Dao, Master Dao...”

Yet Niu Youdao seemed to have no intention of pressing the iron into him. He simply waved it slowly in front of Chen Guishuo as he said, “Everyone has their own ambitions. Seeking a future for yourself is perfectly ordinary and understandable. But if you’re doing it for your future, shouldn’t you plan that future properly? The Song family will never make real use of you. You may not feel it yet, but given enough time you’ll naturally learn whether the Song family treats you well or poorly. Why not consider another road? Another way out means another choice.”

Chen Guishuo seemed to understand something at last and hurriedly said, “Master Dao, I’m willing to follow you!”

“Straightforward! I like a straightforward man!” Niu Youdao praised him warmly, nearly waving the glowing branding iron into his face. Chen Guishuo hastily turned his head aside. “That’s exactly the sort of man I like. Don’t worry, I won’t make things difficult for you either. After this, act as though nothing happened. Keep serving the Song family. Once you feel safe, once you think the time is right to come over to my side, it won’t be too late.”

“...” Chen Guishuo had nothing to say. Could there really be such a good bargain?

Niu Youdao soon answered the question in his heart. “Of course, you can’t simply do nothing. After what happened this time, the State of Yan will probably summon all of you back and question you. Once you return, find a way to remain at the Song residence. Stop wandering around outside. Learn as much as you can about what is happening in the Song household. I’ll arrange for someone in the capital to contact you. When I need you, naturally I’ll come looking.”

Chen Guishuo nodded repeatedly. “All right! I’ll do whatever Master Dao says.”

Niu Youdao gave him a cold look. “Don’t agree so quickly. Can you decide where the Song family sends you? Are you certain you can remain at the Song residence?”

“Yes, yes, I can!” Chen Guishuo said. “Song Shu, and Song Shu’s wife—I was close to Song Yanqing, so the two of them still show me some consideration for his sake, especially Song Shu’s wife, Hu Guizhi. I only need to find some object and say it was one of Song Yanqing’s belongings. If I present it to her and mention the matter along the way, she should speak for me. Staying in the residence ought to be no great problem.”

Niu Youdao smiled. He could casually produce a scheme involving Song Yanqing’s belongings on the spot. It seemed this fellow had been thinking about the matter for some time already.

The branding iron in his hand had gradually darkened. Niu Youdao turned back to the brazier and placed it into the coals again, idly working it back and forth. “If I simply let you go like this, what happens if you refuse to acknowledge our agreement afterward? Once you run off, I’ll have no way to do anything to you, will I?”

Chen Guishuo said, “I’ll obey Master Dao in everything. Whatever Master Dao says I should do, I’ll do it!”

“Good! Straightforward! A fine man who knows when to bend and when to stand tall. I think highly of you!” Niu Youdao drove the branding iron deep into the coals. “Like I said, I don’t enjoy fighting and killing. I prefer everyone to settle matters peacefully. How about this: I won’t force you. Decide for yourself. Give me something I can hold over you—something that will make me completely confident in you. As long as what you give me satisfies me, I guarantee you’ll leave this place safe and sound...”

About an hour later, Chen Guishuo was returned to the prison.

Once he had been locked back inside his cell, Huang Xusheng came over from the neighboring cell and asked through the bars in a deep voice, “Why were you gone so long? Out of all of us, you were the only one kept away that long!”

Chen Guishuo said helplessly, “Senior Huang, I didn’t say a single thing I shouldn’t. But they learned that Niu Youdao and I were once fellow disciples and questioned me about him for a while.” He shook his head after speaking.

Huang Xusheng relaxed. So that was it. It made sense. Niu Youdao had killed Song Long; there was nothing strange about the Provincial Inspector’s Residence trying to understand the grievance between Niu Youdao and the Song family.

Chen Guishuo walked to a corner of the cell and sat cross-legged. He looked calm on the surface, but the events in the interrogation chamber still filled him with lingering fear. From the instant Niu Youdao had appeared there, Chen Guishuo had believed he was dead. Who would have imagined that he would walk out alive without so much as a scratch...

Hai Ruyue’s room was refined and understated, yet its air of nobility could not be concealed.

By rights, no man should have appeared in her chambers. By rights, at such a late hour, no man should have appeared in the chambers of a widow like her.

Yet a man was indeed seated inside.

His hair was graying, but his beard was black as ink. On the surface he looked somewhat past middle age, a little old, with ordinary features, though his eyes were bright and full of spirit.

This man was Li Wuhua, External Affairs Elder of Myriad Caves Heavenly Mansion. Affairs in Jinzhou were one of his principal responsibilities, and the Sect Leader of Myriad Caves Heavenly Mansion was his senior brother.

The dignified and beautiful Hai Ruyue had loosened her coiffure. Her long hair fell across her shoulders, giving her another kind of alluring charm. Seated across the tea table, she finished recounting Niu Youdao’s proposal and asked, “What do you think?”

Li Wuhua remained silent, considering it.

Hai Ruyue rose and personally lifted the teapot to refill his cup.

The instant she set the pot down, Li Wuhua reached out and caught her wrist. Smiling, he said, “It’s late.”

Hai Ruyue struggled once but could not break free. A complicated look flashed through her bright eyes, with obvious resistance in it, though that quickly gave way to faint reproach. “The serious matter first.”

Li Wuhua tugged her toward him. Hai Ruyue lost her balance and fell onto his lap. “Haven’t you already made up your mind by telling me all this?”

Hai Ruyue shifted uneasily. “What use is my decision alone?”

Li Wuhua rose with her in his arms, carried her to the bed, and threw her down upon it, taking complete control of her.

Outside the narrow gap in the window, a pair of eyes watched the room.

Xiao Tianzhen stood outside in thin clothing, without even an outer robe. He listened to the unbearable sounds from within and peered through the window that had not been fully closed, watching the intolerable scene inside. Fury filled his eyes. His fists were clenched tight, and his whole body trembled, whether from anger or cold even he might not have known.

He knew the man on the bed had seen him. The moment Xiao Tianzhen approached the window, the man seemed to sense him and turned his head. Their gazes met briefly.

This was not the first time Xiao Tianzhen had witnessed such a scene, nor was it the first time the man had noticed him. Yet the man had never cared, treating him as though he did not exist.

“Be gentler... You still haven’t answered me about the serious matter.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll argue the case strongly before the sect afterward. It shouldn’t be much of a problem...”

A large hand gently took Xiao Tianzhen’s icy little hand and quietly led him away.

It was Steward Zhu Shun.

Only after they returned to Xiao Tianzhen’s own room did Zhu Shun say, “Young Master, your body cannot tolerate the cold. Don’t run outside at night again.”

Once Xiao Tianzhen had been settled back onto the bed, his expression gradually twisted. Two words seemed forced through his clenched teeth.

“Bitch!”

Zhu Shun’s hands stiffened for a moment as he tucked the blanket around him, then continued. In a low voice, he said, “Young Master, some things are not what they appear to be. Madam also has many things she has no choice about. You will understand when you are older. Alas...”

All the deeper meaning was contained in that sigh.

Could a frail, sickly child sit securely in the position of Provincial Inspector of Jinzhou? How could a widow with a child like this control a vast place such as Jinzhou without borrowing someone else’s strength? Especially when that widow was exceptionally beautiful. There were some things Zhu Shun could not yet explain to him...

[End of Chapter 113]