Three Steps: From Assassin to Empress - Chapter 12: The Retainer and the Deer Looked at Him...

Chapter 12: The Retainer and the Deer Looked at Him…

A retainer opened the door, motioning for Ying Xiu to leave. Ying Xiu took two steps forward and slapped the thick stack of papers onto the table. Someone peeked at them, and their expression gradually became serious. The papers were filled, every word and every sentence, with the private affairs of the powerful families of Jiangzhou. If these secrets were true, the entire gentry of Jiangzhou would no longer be a threat.

For a moment, no one had time to mock Ying Xiu. Each person grabbed a few sheets of paper and quickly scanned them, their expressions becoming more and more solemn the more they read. “Are these…” The retainer who had previously mocked Ying Xiu stammered, “All from your friends? Could they be fake?”

“Whether they’re real or fake, a simple check will tell,” Ying Xiu said.

Compared to the fragmented and flawed local records, these papers were clearly more important. Wang Shouzhen didn’t hesitate to mobilize all the retainers, clerks, scribes, staff, and spies of the Wang clan of Langya in Jiangzhou to investigate the authenticity of the contents of these papers. These people acted covertly and cautiously, without alarming the powerful families of Jiangzhou.

While waiting for the investigation results, several retainers stationed at the private residence were meticulously cross-referencing the contents of the papers with the local records. From time to time, they would look up at Ying Xiu with complex expressions. After all, who would have thought that such a young, ignorant, and lowly assassin from the countryside would have such means to figure out the situation in Jiangzhou and untangle the intricate network in just three days? This person’s cunning and wisdom far exceeded their expectations. They just didn’t know if the eldest son could hold on to such a beautiful sword, one that was exceptional in both civil and military matters.

Ying Xiu felt uncomfortable under their gazes and awkwardly adjusted his robe. He felt as if these people were looking at him as if he were a fine, cold sword, with a mix of admiration and fear.

When the retainers of the Wang clan of Langya returned with the preliminary investigation results, Ying Xiu found that the retainers’ gazes at him became even stranger. Nothing else, every word written on the papers Ying Xiu brought had a verifiable source and could be matched with the records in the Court of the Grand Justiciary’s prison. As long as they could find the evidence, they would have the leverage on most of the powerful families in Jiangzhou. This was enough to pry open a huge gap in the powerful families’ impenetrable strongholds and implement the imperial policy of registering and organizing the commoners.

Wang Shouzhen looked at Ying Xiu with a complex expression, and an unrelated thought popped into his mind: no matter how cunning and formidable Xie Zhou was, Ying Xiu was not without a way to deal with him. He should have known that Ying Xiu was an exceptionally intelligent child when he first met him on the road in Guangling in the eighth year of Jianyuan.

Overnight, the entire Wang clan’s perception of Ying Xiu changed. They believed he was a person who was deeply hidden and unfathomable. Meanwhile, the unfathomable and deeply hidden Ying Xiu was pacing back and forth in the retainer Xie’s quarters. His hands were full, one with purchased hay and the other with lotus flowers he had picked from the Xiao Qinhuai. He still remembered telling Xie Zhou last time that he wanted to feed the deer with him. As soon as he was done with the matters of the ferry and the Wang clan, he came without delay. When Xie Zhou arrived, they could feed the deer together and he could tell Xie Zhou what had happened during this time. He was so impressive these days! He had not only gotten the government office’s approval to build a ferry in Jianxiafang, but he had also managed to collect the secrets of the powerful families of Jiangzhou. Ordinary assassins couldn’t do these things. He wondered if Xie Zhou had heard about the ferry and what his reaction was.

Ying Xiu paced back and forth in the main hall, full of anticipation. It felt like a long time had passed, and yet it felt like only a moment. In the middle of it, Ying Xiu ran to look at the sundial outside and found that it hadn’t even been a moment.

Suddenly, footsteps came from behind him. The young man was tall and slender, in a plain robe and orchid crown, looking pure and beautiful. His features were handsome and cold, with long eyebrows reaching to his temples and thin eyes. His dark, cold eyelashes drooped, and his pupils reflected Ying Xiu’s slender and tall figure. Xie Zhou clearly had a celestial face, but his expression was cold and indifferent, as if he didn’t care about anything in the world.

Ying Xiu stared at him blankly, not even noticing that a bunch of the expensive hay he was holding had fallen to the ground. The young man always seemed to lose his composure when looking at him. The time before last, he dropped his sword. Last time, he dropped the lotus flower. This time, he dropped the hay. For a moment, no one spoke. Ying Xiu was still in a daze. The usually sharp assassin didn’t even realize he was in a daze. He was thinking that even if he traveled all over Jiangzuo, all the way north to the Central Plains, he probably wouldn’t find a second person as good-looking as Xie Zhou.

“Did you bring these for the deer?” Xie Zhou’s warm and calm voice reached Ying Xiu’s ears. He was like a man waking from a dream, clumsily hugging the hay and lotus flowers. “Yes, I wanted to feed the deer with you,” he thought for a moment and added, “I promised you last time.”

A young boy led the snow deer over. The snow deer saw Ying Xiu from a distance, gracefully circled the pavilion, and walked toward him. More precisely, it walked toward the lotus flowers in his arms. The snow deer walked up to Ying Xiu, not even looking at the expensive hay he had bought. It slowly lowered its noble head and leisurely chewed on the lotus flowers in Ying Xiu’s arms.

Xie Zhou, who was standing beside him, noticed something was wrong. “…What about mine?” The first time Ying Xiu visited, he also brought him lotus flowers. Unexpectedly, Xie Zhou actually cared about this. Under Xie Zhou’s calm but questioning gaze, Ying Xiu took out a small box from his robe. It was shaped like a glass lantern, and inside was a small sand table with a banner on it that read “Central Plains Royal Army.” “Last time you showed me the map and said the Central Plains was your hometown. I saw some of the Central Plains’ soil in the commoners’ homes in Jianxiafang and asked them for some,” Ying Xiu said with a hint of nervousness, his voice getting lower and lower. “I don’t know if you’ll like it…”

In those years, when the Qiang people violated the border, wars broke out in the Central Plains. The common people had to leave their hometowns. When they moved south to Jiangzuo, they took a handful of their homeland’s yellow soil with them. The rough, thin soil particles carried the aspirations of countless people for their homeland. In dreams, sometimes one becomes a crane; in the human world, countless grasses become fireflies. The sand table made of Central Plains soil was placed in a glass lantern. When the candle was lit, golden sand filled the air, looking just like fireflies.

Xie Zhou reached out and took it, examining it carefully. “I like it very much.”

Ying Xiu secretly took a deep breath. He was calm on the surface, but a little person in his heart was dancing with joy. Xie Zhou liked it, yay!

“This yellow soil is from the commoners of Jianxiafang?” Xie Zhou asked. Jiangzuo was very big, with eight states and countless towns. If it weren’t for Ying Xiu, Xie Zhou probably would never have noticed this small residence.

“Yes, they are all refugees. It’s strange, but it seems most of the people living there are from Yizhou in the Central Plains,” Ying Xiu said casually.

Central Plains, Yizhou. Xie Zhou remembered this place. A refugee general once came from Yizhou. Later, he took his troops and moved south to Jiangzuo, becoming a stronghold master. And then—he colluded with the enemy, betrayed the country, and committed regicide.

Xie Zhou’s smile slowly faded. He ordered someone to put away the glass lantern containing the soil from the Central Plains. “You want to build a ferry for Jianxiafang.”

“You heard about it, too. I thought that since Jianxiafang is located downstream of the Yuan River, it would be more convenient when the canal is completed and connects to Jingzhou.” Ying Xiu explained, “Most importantly, it can make the lives of the people in the residence better.”

—He really didn’t seem like an assassin. There would never be another assassin like Ying Xiu in the world.

Xie Zhou said warmly, “You did very well.”

After feeding the deer with Xie Zhou and chatting for a bit, dusk was approaching. The matter of registering the commoners had not yet been resolved, and Ying Xiu had to rush back. He had to reluctantly say goodbye. He walked a few steps, then turned back to look at Xie Zhou. A long wind blew through the bamboo curtain of the hall. The white-robed retainer sat quietly in the hall, and the snow deer lay peacefully at his feet. Seeing him turn back, both the retainer and the deer looked at him.

Ying Xiu suddenly felt an indescribable feeling in his heart. He stood there foolishly for a while. As he was about to turn and leave again, he heard the retainer’s voice behind him. “Be careful on your way.”

—”Be careful on your way.”

An assassin’s intuition was always sharp. He vaguely smelled the scent of a coming storm in these words, but at the time, he couldn’t understand their meaning. He just thought he was overthinking it and continued to walk outside.

…A storm was brewing in Jiangzhou.

Before the vice-governor of Jiangzhou, Wang Yu, could begin the first step of the new policy of registering and organizing the commoners according to the imperial edict, a major incident occurred—something had gone wrong at the Yuan River weir. A weir called the “Bottle Mouth” had collapsed. In just half an hour, the Yuan River had poured out for ten miles.

Ying Xiu remembered that a few days ago, Xue Hao had knocked on his door and asked him if he wanted to go boating and have a discussion at the Bottle Mouth, saying that a powerful family was hosting a banquet. He was too busy and had refused. Thinking about the time, tonight was the day Xue Hao and his friends went out for their boating discussion. The Bottle Mouth was a weir built by the commoners of Jianxiafang, personally supervised by the vice-governor of Jiangzhou, Wang Yu. It wasn’t the flood season, but it had collapsed for no reason. If they couldn’t find the reason, the commoners who built the weir would be put to death, and Wang Yu would also be punished. Ying Xiu, who had recommended the commoners, and the eldest son of the Wang clan of Langya behind Wang Yu would also be implicated. They couldn’t escape the crime of neglecting the river and building a weak structure.

Before that, he had to go find people and bring his fifteen friends back. If he hadn’t gone to the scholars to investigate the secrets of the powerful families, this incident probably wouldn’t have happened tonight, and his friends wouldn’t be in danger.

The autumn water was cold, and darkness surrounded them. On the flat ground not far from the dike, Ying Xiu rolled up his pants, revealing a section of his fair, slender calves. He waded into the rising river, his hand on his sword and the other holding a lantern, and walked down into the still-surging river. The river at first just beat heavily against his wooden clogs, and then slowly, inch by inch, it covered his ankles, calves, and thighs…

Someone called his name from behind. “Ying Xiu! Get back here! We’ll look for them after the water recedes! Ying Xiu—!” Wang Shouzhen’s voice was sharp and hoarse, a sound he had never made before. On the high platform, the water officials, canal scribes, and dike guards who were gathered around him looked at him in surprise. People said that the eldest son of the Wang clan of Langya, Wang Shouzhen, was the crown of the Central Plains, the ideal of the gentry, and a person of integrity, warmth, and benevolence. What was wrong with him today?

Below the platform, the young man continued to walk forward. He used his lightness skill, and his black robe floated on the water, as light as a dark flower. The hazy yellow light from the lantern in the water shone on the flower’s shadow, fluttering and falling. The figure, the lantern’s light, the firelight, and the starlight all swayed with the rising waves, twisting like transparent scale-covered snakes.

“Ying Xiu! You’re crazy! You’re looking for death for the sake of those lowly people!” Someone jumped off the high platform behind him, rushed over, grabbed Ying Xiu’s soaked robe, and then raised his hand with a heavy slap—

Smack!

A crisp sound. The crowd on the high platform was shocked. Ying Xiu’s head was turned to the side by the blow. He didn’t say a word. He quickly broke free from Wang Shouzhen’s iron-like grip and continued to wade forward. Not far away, a capsized boat floated, its cabin door tightly shut.