Three Steps: From Assassin to Empress - Chapter 24

Chapter 24: The Assassin Is Afraid of the Dark

“Drip…”

The stone wall in front of him was cold and dark, with no light on any side. Raindrops dripped from a crack, a broken line, splashing into a puddle.

Perhaps it was raining outside again.

Ying Xiu sat in the small room with his knees hugged. Just now, Wang Shouzhen had led him into this small room, saying he wanted him to stay inside and reflect until he had thought it through.

He had heard that when an assassin raised by an aristocratic family disobeyed their master’s orders, they would be locked in a small room for confinement. But he had never been locked up before; this was the first time.

Darkness, silence.

Ying Xiu lowered his head and spread his fingers, but he couldn’t see their shape. The thick darkness was like a boundless ink, slowly devouring his figure until it completely swallowed him.

In a trance, a hazy and distant memory flashed by: a sky full of fire, a covered mouth, a sealed box, a bumpy darkness…

He couldn’t tell if it was an illusion or a sealed memory. Only the fear was very real. A chill crept up Ying Xiu’s spine inch by inch. Cold sweat soaked his temples, and his clothes felt cold and sticky inside.

The young assassin could no longer sit still. He loved sunlight and couldn’t stand the darkness and silence. He wanted to get out, he wanted to get out!

“Let me out!”

Ying Xiu beat against the stone wall with his hands. The jade ornaments on his golden robe clinked violently. However, the stone door of the small room had been closed and could only be opened from the outside. The person inside could not move it in the slightest.

There was no response from the outside, only the young man’s panicked voice echoing in the small room.

He would never be friends with Jiànxīn again!

He would never again treat a high-and-mighty aristocratic young master as his close friend.

Ying Xiu thought this calmly. He also thought of Xie Zhou. He had been boating with Xie Zhou at the Sixteen Crossings that evening, and now he was gone. He wondered if Xie Zhou would come looking for him…

After an unknown amount of time, Ying Xiu was about to fall asleep against the stone door when the door was suddenly opened from the outside. He woke up with a start, opening his eyes blankly.

Outside the stone door, a colleague with a mask held a lantern and squatted down, patting Ying Xiu on the shoulder: “The young master wants you to go out. Someone is waiting for you outside the mansion.”

…What?

Ying Xiu blinked. In the light of the candle, his delicate features were divided into soft, scattered shadows, hazy and beautiful. There was a faint glimmer of water in his eyes, like a crane from another world, accidentally trapped in a cage.

He slowly got up. After being curled up for a long time, his knees and ankles were sore and numb, and he almost stumbled. Refusing his colleague’s help, he stood up with a limp and walked out.

Ying Xiu had always been friendly with people. Most of the people around him had received his intentional or unintentional help. This colleague was no exception. Seeing him in this state, he felt a little emotional and intended to give him a piece of advice:

“Don’t rely on the grace of the past and really treat the young master as a friend. They are masters, and we are servants. Masters and servants can never be friends.”

Ying Xiu, who had always been polite to people, did not respond to him. He lowered his head and walked forward silently, watching the flickering lantern light on the ground, a faint halo moving in his vision.

He used to have nothing he particularly disliked, but overnight, he had many.

He hated darkness, confinement, and Jiànxīn.

At the end of the small room’s path, a figure in green stood there. It was Wang Shouzhen.

“Now that the Jiangzhou Canal is completed, it only awaits the sacrificial ceremony in the tenth month before the canal transport can begin. He is a retainer of the Xie family. Who knows if he will turn on you and fight for the transport of goods?” Wang Shouzhen said slowly. “I’m letting you go out. You must be careful and cautious.”

The moonlight was dim, and it was impossible to distinguish his features. Moreover, the young assassin had kept his head down and his expression was unreadable.

Wang Shouzhen looked at Ying Xiu with a probing gaze. He had never interfered with Ying Xiu’s private matters. Who he met outside and who he was friends with, he never asked unless Ying Xiu brought it up.

As a result, he only found out today that Ying Xiu had a subtle reputation among the people. The scholars of the small Qinhuai River district were friends with him, and the common people of Jiànpōofāng supported him.

These people had heard that he was missing from who knows where. A group of common people had spontaneously gathered outside the mansion, wanting to meet Ying Xiu.

For an assassin’s reputation to surpass that of their master was nothing short of betrayal.

Wang Shouzhen considered himself Ying Xiu’s friend, and even more so, the future master of the Langya Wang family.

He chose to forgive this betrayal, but there could not be a next time.

Furthermore, Xie Zhou chose to use this roundabout way to rescue Ying Xiu tonight. This was enough to show that he was just an ordinary retainer of the Jianzhang Xie family.

—Perhaps his intuition was not true after all.

Ying Xiu avoided his gaze and said in a low voice, “I understand, Master. Thank you for your guidance.”

Although this was the humble attitude an assassin should have toward their master, Wang Shouzhen stood there for some reason, silent for a long time. Even after Ying Xiu had walked far away, he remained still.

Ying Xiu walked through the winding corridors and around the mansion’s screen wall. Outside the small door, he saw a group of common people.

Men and women, young and old, were wearing raincoats and bamboo hats, waiting for him in the stormy autumn night.

The person at the front held a lantern. The glass light turned, reflecting a pure white robe. Looking up, he was holding a plain silk umbrella. The umbrella surface had no patterns or designs, just a pure white. When the rain fell, the desolate starlight scattered on it, and a curtain of crystal clear water fell from the umbrella’s edge.

Not wanting the silk umbrella handed over by the Wang family’s servant, the young man ran straight out into the rain. He plunged into the curtain of rain and into the arms of the white-robed retainer. He wrapped his arms around the other’s lean and strong narrow waist, hugging him tightly. He didn’t speak for a long time.

Ying Xiu trembled slightly. He finally recovered from the boundless darkness of the small room. His breathing gradually stabilized, and he said in a low voice, “Why did you come?”

He remembered something and suddenly popped his head out of the retainer’s arms. He looked at the group of joking scholars not far away, and then at the common people who were quietly pulling down their bamboo hats. His cheeks flushed. Fortunately, it was too dark to see clearly at night.

Ying Xiu quickly moved away from Xie Zhou. He looked up at the retainer holding the umbrella and lowered his voice: “Why did you call them here too?”

Xie Zhou quietly looked at the young man under the umbrella. His cheeks were red. His black hair was stuck to his temples, as if he had been in a stuffy place for a long time. There was a faint blush around his eyes. His pupils were still clear and bright, sparkling with a little starlight and dew.

His golden robe, soaked with rain, clung to his muscles and bones. His figure was beautiful and well-proportioned. The exposed snow-white skin glowed and was delicate and immature under the light of the glass lantern.

His eyes were clear and looked at him with complete trust.

“I was worried about you.” The retainer said softly. He was satisfied to see the young man’s eyes suddenly widen. In addition to being moved, there was another emotion he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

Every action Ying Xiu took and every word he said in the Wang family’s private residence today was clear to him. He naturally knew that Ying Xiu had been locked in the small room by Wang Shouzhen.

He waited patiently for four hours until his secret guard reported that the young man who had been crying and struggling in the small room had gone quiet. Only then did he arrange for someone to contact those common people and tell them that Ying Xiu was being held in this mansion.

He only needed to say one sentence to make Wang Shouzhen willingly release Ying Xiu and even offer this assassin to him. But the Emperor Zhaosu chose this roundabout way.

And as expected, he got a flustered Ying Xiu who was full of trust in him.

The young man’s warm and hot skin was pressed against his waist and abdomen, trembling slightly, like a crane with its wings plucked. Without a place to lean, his fear had not faded, and he could only carefully cling to him.

He cautiously held onto his wide white sleeve, gripping it tightly, as if to draw a little comfort from it.

—He seemed very afraid of the dark. Can an assassin also be afraid of the dark?

An indescribable emotion flashed through Xie Zhou’s heart. He had never regretted anything in his life, and it was impossible for him to feel regret because of this small action.

Xie Zhou gently patted Ying Xiu’s back, comforting him softly. In a place where the young man couldn’t see, the retainer’s handsome and cold face was indifferent and calm, even with a hint of hidden interest.

In the next moment, the hand that should have gently patted the young man’s back missed. He looked up and saw that Ying Xiu had already clinked and clanked his way out from under the umbrella and ran to those common people in the rain.

Not a single one of the fifteen scholars was missing. They were all wearing raincoats, mixed in with the common people, waiting for Ying Xiu. They quickly waved at Ying Xiu. For some reason, their gestures were a forceful pushing motion, as if they didn’t want Ying Xiu to come over.

However, the golden-robed young man had already run in the rain and stopped in front of them. “Did Xie Zhou call you here?”

“Xie Zhou?” The scholars chattered. “His name is Xie Zhou? I don’t think he’s someone to mess with. That demeanor, tsk tsk tsk, it’s not an exaggeration to say he’s as cold as ice. Where did you find such a person?”

“Exactly. He’s clearly from an aristocratic family. His aura is terrifying. When I saw him, I wanted to kneel down and kowtow twice before leaving.”

“He’s your couple? You’re so lucky in the future. This Lord Xie looks like someone who likes to be in charge. You probably won’t be able to go out whenever you want from now on…”

“Stop, stop, stop,” Ying Xiu saw that their words were getting more and more outrageous and quickly stopped them. He said angrily, “What are you talking about? Xie Zhou is a very good person. He was the one who saved you last time.”

When this was mentioned, the scholars looked at each other. Last time, they were lucky enough to hitch a ride on an aristocratic family’s large ship and escaped the dam collapse at Baopingkou. Afterward, that aristocratic family did not leave their name. When asked, the servants on the ship only said that they had helped them because of Ying Xiu.

It was just a simple gesture, and they didn’t need any reward.

So, it was that white-robed gentleman who was as cold as ice who saved them.

The scholars’ expressions instantly changed. They wanted to thank that gentleman. The group hesitated for a moment, not daring to face that gentleman directly. They had no choice but to take out their purses one by one and give them to Ying Xiu, asking him to pass them on.

Ying Xiu spoke a few words to the common people of Jiànpōofāng, refused the raincoats and bamboo hats they took off for him, and returned to Xie Zhou in the wind and rain, holding the heavy purses.

Xie Zhou watched quietly as the young man moved around in the crowd, talking to this person and that person. The group of people huddled together, whispering and muttering, who knows what they were plotting.

Seeing that Ying Xiu had finally remembered him and was clinking and clanking as he ran toward him, holding a pile of bulging cloth bags, he motioned to hand them to him.

He slowly lowered his eyes, staring at the pile of things. His gaze fell on the young man’s rosy face.

“…What is this?”