Three Steps: From Assassin to Empress - Chapter 13: Can I Stay Here with You?
Chapter 13: Can I Stay Here with You?
Ying Xiu used his sword to split open the bottom of the boat. What greeted his eyes was a pitch-black cabin, inverted in the water, small and dark. He didn’t hesitate to wade and swim into the darkness, his entire body submerged in the cold river water. He looked around. The cabin of the boat was small, and he could see it all in just a few glances. There was no one here. The scholars who should have been on the boat were nowhere to be found. He didn’t see any bodies, and the tense string in Ying Xiu’s heart finally loosened a little.
Just then, he heard a sharp, urgent cry from outside. “We found them!” The fifteen scholars who should have been drowned by the collapsing river dike had been found. On the river dike, where the water had receded, a large ship was approaching. On the bow stood more than a dozen figures waving toward them. They were all familiar faces, both old and young. One, two, three, four… a total of fifteen people, not one missing.
Ying Xiu stared at these people in a daze, his eyes slightly red. The melting disguise had a mottled color, and the slap mark was even more obvious. Fortunately, it was too dark on the river to see clearly. In the distance, he saw a banner. It was the ship of the Xie clan of Jianzhang, and the people on it were sent by Xie Zhou.
“Where’s Xie Zhou?” Ying Xiu was soaked, his eyes wide and unblinking as he stared at the Xie clan’s retainer steering the ship. “Is he on the ship?”
The Xie clan’s retainer looked at Ying Xiu as if he were a giant panda, his calm tone tinged with a hint of respect. “He’s not on the ship.” As for why they were so coincidently able to save the group of scholars tonight, the retainer explained it this way: Xie Zhou had sent them to the vicinity of the Bottle Mouth to buy things. A master on the ship felt that the water level was not right, so they dispersed the people at the ferry and, incidentally, stopped the scholars who were about to go boating and invited them onto the Xie clan’s large ship. The retainer also said that the reason they invited them onto the ship was that they were Ying Xiu’s friends, and Ying Xiu was Xie Zhou’s good friend.
The Xie clan’s retainer, or rather, Changshui, one of the Five Colonels, was ordered by Emperor Zhaosu to keep an eye on the powerful families of Jiangzhou and report any changes, no matter how small. The emperor had always not interfered in the factional struggles between the aristocratic families and even intended to encourage them. But a few days ago, the emperor had issued an oral decree to protect Ying Xiu’s friends. With the emperor’s words, even if the dike collapsed and the floodwaters surged, those fifteen scholars could not be harmed.
Xie Zhou’s people had saved his friends. Ying Xiu stood there in a daze, a little disbelieving that there could be such a coincidence in the world. The ups and downs of his emotions made him feel a little tired. He asked again, blankly, “…Where is Xie Zhou?”
The whereabouts of Emperor Zhaosu were not something a colonel should reveal to outsiders, but the person who asked was Ying Xiu, Emperor Zhaosu’s new favorite. He hesitated for a moment and replied, “At the lodge on the foot of the mountain.” In other words, Xie Zhou had not gone out tonight and was still in the lodge.
Ying Xiu couldn’t wait to see Xie Zhou. Before that, he had to confirm that Xue Hao and the others were safe. All fifteen scholars were safe and sound on the dike. Xue Hao even had the heart to joke with Ying Xiu. “What’s wrong with your face? Did you put on makeup? Or did someone hit you?”
Wang Shouzhen’s slap made Ying Xiu’s cheek burn. The pain was still on his face, in waves. He touched the swollen mark and said in a relaxed tone, “It’s nothing, I just put on some powder when I came.”
Xue Hao’s suspicion did not go away. He stared at Ying Xiu in the moonlight from the river. No, that looks exactly like a slap mark. Then he looked at the young man behind Ying Xiu, whose expression was grim and who was clearly an aristocrat. Xue Hao seemed to understand something.
…At the same time, the moonlight shone on the lodge at the foot of the mountain, illuminating the bamboo slips that lay quietly on the table. The handwriting was elegant, as if it were slicing through paper. If Ying Xiu were here, he would recognize his own handwriting. The content was all from his hand, written about the unspeakable private affairs of the powerful families of Jiangzhou.
In the places where the moonlight did not reach, Emperor Zhaosu sat quietly in the darkness. The outline of half of his face was hidden in the darkness, and it was impossible to see what he was thinking. The emperor’s heart is unfathomable. This was the only thought Shang Wei-jun had at this moment. In their eyes, the things these powerful families of Jiangzhou did were nothing. If they were revealed in the daylight, the bl00d of the powerful families could fill the Yuan River. If they were kept secret, nothing would happen. The lives and deaths of these powerful families depended on the emperor’s attitude.
The emperor sat quietly. A glass lantern was on the table in front of him, filled with soil from the Central Plains, with the words “Central Plains Royal Army” on it. It was a gift from the assassin. The emperor placed it on the table. Next to the glass lantern were the bamboo slips. If the contents of the bamboo slips were to be made public, how many deeply rooted trees would have to be uprooted, and how many people would have to be killed, from the powerful families to their retainers? The number was so large that the executioner’s blades would become dull and chipped. However, Emperor Zhaosu was a tyrant, and a tyrant would not have any reservations. He lightly tapped on the names on the bamboo slips, his tone very soft. “Investigate thoroughly.” He would investigate and kill them one by one.
As early as when Ying Xiu wrote these bamboo slips, the Xuanjing Division had already secretly investigated the authenticity. Unlike the sluggishness of the Wang clan of Langya, their methods were covert and their actions were swift. In less than three days, they had thoroughly investigated all the old records. The bl00d of the powerful families would soon dye the entire Yuan River.
The hall was filled with a murderous atmosphere. The emperor sat quietly in the darkness. The shadow cast on the wall by the glass lantern was like a lurking beast, terrifying and dangerous. “Your Majesty,” the young eunuch from the Xuanjing Division walked in softly and reported in a low voice, “Young Master Ying has arrived.”
Even the young eunuch was a little confused. Was that Ying Xiu? He was soaked, like a beautiful sword drenched in rain. His dark hair was stuck to his pale cheeks. The high ponytail he usually tied with black silk was also soaked, the ends curled behind his shoulders, and a few strands even clung to his collarbone. One side of his face was red, which seemed to be a handprint. The young man had even deliberately covered it with his hair, as if he didn’t want people to see it.
“…Xie Zhou,” the soaked Ying Xiu stood in front of the moon gate, looking like he wanted to enter but was afraid to. Xie Zhou, who was sitting in the darkness, slowly blinked. When he saw what Ying Xiu looked like, his eyebrows furrowed slightly, and his tone was very cold, almost undisguisedly so. “Who hit you?”
Ying Xiu didn’t answer the question. He still held his sword and tentatively walked two steps forward. His wet clothes clung to him, and a trail of water followed him. “Xie Zhou, thank you for saving my friends. If your ship hadn’t appeared tonight, they might have…” Ying Xiu spoke incoherently. On the way here, he had been thinking about this over and over again. If Xie Zhou’s people hadn’t appeared at the right time and saved Xue Hao and the others at the right time, they might have really drowned in the river.
He had come late at night, looking disheveled and soaked, like a beautiful flower drenched in rain. Xie Zhou stared at the slap mark on Ying Xiu’s face for a while. He had always been gentle and polite in front of Ying Xiu and had never said a harsh word. But now he repeated again, “Ying Xiu, who, hit you?” The white-robed young man’s tone was calm and enticing. Ying Xiu could even hear a hint of seduction in it, a seduction to make him say that person’s name.
Ying Xiu inexplicably felt a chill all over his body. An unfounded sense of fear was like a venomous snake, slowly tightening around his neck, cold and terrifying, making his throat feel dry and his voice hoarse. “…I fell,” Ying Xiu didn’t say Wang Shouzhen’s name. He just looked at the other person’s calm gaze and tried to explain. “The Bottle Mouth collapsed tonight, and I went to save people. I fell in the water and hit my face…”
He had a handprint on his face from the fall.
Xie Zhou listened to Ying Xiu’s nonsense calmly, patiently waiting for the young man to finish. “So, why did you come?” He asked. What was the purpose of this late-night visit? This question was perfectly normal. A guest had come uninvited, and the host was asking the purpose of his visit. This was completely normal.
Ying Xiu’s mind was a mess. His ears were still buzzing. The side of his face that had been hit was still hot, and his head seemed to be getting hot, too. “I,” the young man stammered, “I have nowhere to go.” He looked at Xie Zhou with anticipation. “Can I stay with you for a while…” Wang Shouzhen had slapped him in public and called his friends lowlifes. He didn’t want to see Wang Shouzhen anymore, and he didn’t want to be an assassin for the Wang clan of Langya anymore. He just wanted to stay by Xie Zhou’s side.
Would Xie Zhou refuse him? He had just spoken to him in such a distant and polite tone, as if they were strangers to each other… Ying Xiu’s somewhat muddled mind suddenly cleared up. He and Xie Zhou actually had an ordinary relationship, far from as intimate as he had imagined. Xie Zhou would probably refuse him… The young assassin, who had suddenly wilted, felt his cheeks burn with embarrassment at his own transgression. He wanted to turn and flee, but his legs seemed to be nailed to the ground, unable to move a single inch.
“Alright,” Xie Zhou said.
The warm, low, and magnetic voice reached Ying Xiu’s ears. At that moment, he felt like he was about to faint. “You’re all wet,” unlike the young man’s nervous and excited state, Xie Zhou calmly described his disheveled appearance. He then ordered him, “Go and get cleaned up first.”
Xie Zhou had let him stay and told him to clean up. Ying Xiu’s mind was filled with these two sentences. He walked out dizzily, as if he were walking on clouds, soft and fluffy. He was still holding his sword, hugging it tightly to his chest.
The young eunuch from the Xuanjing Division watched in astonishment as the young man in black robes turned in a circle and walked straight toward the column of the hall. He was about to run into it—
“Ying Xiu,” Xie Zhou suddenly called out to him.
“Huh?” Ying Xiu turned back, looked at the tall, white stone wall of the moon gate, and asked dazedly, “Xie Zhou, what’s wrong?”
Xie Zhou: “…”
The young eunuch was about to grab Ying Xiu and lead him to the right path. But then he saw the white figure in the room move. The emperor himself walked out, and the young eunuch quickly knelt down in fear. As he lowered his head, he only saw a flash of a white robe in front of him, and then the emperor’s tall and terrifying shadow was cast on the bluestone slab. Slowly, another shadow seemed to have been added to the emperor’s arms.
“Xie Zhou, don’t hold me so tight. It hurts!” The young man was already so feverish and muddled that he was randomly kicking his slender and strong legs. His wooden clogs were kicked off onto the ground, revealing his slender ankles.
“Who hit you?” Xie Zhou asked again. His cold, pale hand stroked Ying Xiu’s feverish cheek, inch by inch, tracing the red slap mark. Where his fingertips touched, the disguise slowly peeled off, revealing the assassin’s true face.