Three Steps: From Assassin to Empress - Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Getting Drunk in Front of the Retainer

Seeing Ying Xiu about to leave, Xue Hao quickly called out to him. “Where are you going?” he asked, full of concern. “The second floor is not for us. You just offended someone up there, and you still dare to go?”

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw a servant from the second floor walk up to Ying Xiu, his attitude very respectful, as if treating Ying Xiu as an honored guest. He watched as Ying Xiu followed the servant, looking eager, as happy as if he were going to meet a lover.

Xue Hao was speechless.

Ying Xiu went up the stairs to the second floor. The place was solemn and dignified. Armored soldiers stood in a line on both sides of the corridor, their long swords looking like snowy, forged iron. Ying Xiu couldn’t help but take a second look, thinking that his own Heart-Questioning Sword was the best.

Behind the crimson curtain, the main seat was empty. Xie Zhou sat on a stool below, which looked as if it had been brought there temporarily, making him seem a little pathetic.

“Xie Zhou!” Ying Xiu hurried over. After calling his name, he suddenly didn’t know what to say. He just stared blankly at the cold, handsome face for a while before finally saying, “Did he… did he give you any trouble?” The “he” he was referring to was Xie Zhou’s master.

Xie Zhou’s gaze swept over Ying Xiu’s wide-sleeved robe and broad sash. The young man wore a snowy white robe with a wide sash cinching his slender waist. He had the indigo-red mask tucked behind his ear. His hair was as black as ink, and his skin was as white as porcelain glaze.

His sword was hidden in its scabbard, a show of external elegance with a sharp internal edge. He was a young man who had killed the Lord of Jiangzhou with a single sword, his swordsmanship reaching a sublime level, his lightness skills ethereal, yet he was also delicate and pure.

Ying Xiu willingly came closer, their eyes locked in a stare. The young man seemed to have had a bit to drink; his cheeks were flushed, and he seemed a little woozy. His foot was stepping on his own robe as he called out Xie Zhou’s alias. “Xie Zhou, Xie Zhou. If anyone dares to bully you, I’ll take care of them!”

The drunken young assassin was earnest. He was telling him he would protect him and not let him be bullied.

Xie Zhou didn’t understand why Ying Xiu always felt pity for him. The first time they met, he had been dazed, his eyes wide and foolish, even dropping his sword. After that, he seemed to treat him like a helpless young bird that needed to be carefully protected.

…Why?

Xie Zhou didn’t understand, but he didn’t refuse.

General Shang Weijun, the Central Leader of the Imperial Guards, stood outside the door. He could vaguely see the scene inside from the corner of his eye. The young man who was stepping on his own wide robe tried to take a step forward, but instead fell into Emperor Zhaosu’s arms.

Oh my! What a sight to behold!

He quickly closed his eyes, pretending he was still dreaming.

Ying Xiu was groggily drunk, mumbling “Xie Zhou” and “Xie Zhou, you’re so handsome.” The next moment, he was woken up by a pat on the face and opened his eyes to see Xue Hao’s face up close. “You want to eat crab porridge so badly? You kept muttering about it in the carriage!”

Seeing it was Xue Hao, Ying Xiu suddenly sobered up. He sat up straight and ran his hand through his messy hair. “What time is it?”

“It’s 10:15 a.m.,” Xue Hao said irritably. Then, his eyes widened with curiosity as he stared at Ying Xiu. “Where did you go last night? You went to the second floor and never came down. Who sent you back? Was it a servant from a powerful aristocratic family?”

A series of questions came at him all at once. Ying Xiu touched the disguise on his face. There were no signs of disturbance. He finally let out a sigh of relief. Last night, he had fallen asleep in a daze in Xie Zhou’s arms, and he couldn’t remember anything after that. It seemed Xie Zhou had sent someone to take him back.

“I’m going to sleep. You should go.”

After getting rid of the overly curious Xue Hao, Ying Xiu was alone in the tavern room, grabbing his hair in frustration. How did I fall asleep in front of Xie Zhou? Was my sleeping posture bad? What if Xie Zhou saw… By the way, do I snore at night? Did I snore in Xie Zhou’s arms? Thinking of this, Ying Xiu felt like he could die. He picked up his Heart-Questioning Sword, wishing he could stab himself with it.

It was 10:00 a.m. and the sun was just right.

A corpse was floating on the Xiao Qinhuai. The pale, wide-sleeved robe floated in the water like a giant white flower. A fisherman, summoning his courage, used a bamboo pole to flip it over, revealing a face with an indigo-red mask. The mouth was a hollow void; the tongue was gone.

The scholar who had mocked the ruler at the Yuan River gathering the night before was dead. Before he died, his tongue was cut out, and his body was thrown into the river. The entire city of Jiangzhou seemed to be shrouded in a gloomy atmosphere. The scholar who died was from the Wu clan of southern nobles. Not long ago, the Lord of Jiangzhou also died, and he too was a southern noble.

Some people said that the northern gentry couldn’t stand the southern nobles, which was why they resorted to such cruel methods. The biggest aristocratic family among the northern gentry was the current emperor, Emperor Zhaosu, who was far away in the capital, Jiankang.

The tavern was filled with chatter. The southern nobles dared not mention Emperor Zhaosu’s name directly, so they referred to him as the “chief cang,” a derogatory term. The northern gentry who migrated south were called cangren, and the emperor, being from the northern gentry, was naturally the “chief cang.”

Ying Xiu bought a pot of clear water and sat in a corner of the tavern, propping his chin on his hand, listening to the passionate debates of the scholars nearby. They kept repeating that Emperor Zhaosu was a tyrannical and cruel ruler, who at twelve years old had killed eunuchs, officials, and sorcerers. He was also a young emperor who had led a campaign to slaughter the Qiang people, and his brutal methods made even the bloodthirsty Qiang tremble in fear.

Kill, kill, kill. In their mouths, Emperor Zhaosu seemed to be a bloodthirsty monster, devoid of human empathy, ruling the country with slaughter. Bored by the conversation, Ying Xiu casually said, “Did he ever kill commoners?”

When he said this, the room fell silent.

“That scholar wasn’t just—” A southern noble blurted it out subconsciously and then quickly swallowed the rest of his words.

Without any proof, who could say that the unknown scholar was killed by Emperor Zhaosu? With Emperor Zhaosu’s narrow-minded and violent nature, if he were to hear this, everyone present would likely be killed. No one spoke again. The southern nobles and commoners, who had been filled with righteous indignation just moments before, felt as if they had been doused with a bucket of cold water and scattered away in disappointment.

The superior, who had been dozing in the rattan chair, opened his eyes. “Why did you argue with them?”

Ying Xiu smiled. “I just asked a question casually. Who knew they couldn’t answer it?”

The death of a scholar was a serious matter, and the intellectuals of the Wu clan felt their lives were in danger. For a while, the scholar’s words from the Yuan River gathering, “The lesson is not far away. It is in the era of the Xia Dynasty,” spread quickly throughout Jiangzhou. Emperor Zhaosu made no move, and the Jiangzhou prefectural office did not send anyone to stop the rumors. They let the rumors spread for three days.

After three days, the Minister of Justice announced the handwritten confession of the murderer on the city gates. The murderer was sentenced to be paraded through the streets of Jiangzhou and beheaded in the marketplace the next day. The swiftness of catching the murderer, clarifying the case, and the brutality of the punishment were shocking.

The murderer of the scholar was a boatman who killed the drunken scholar for money at night. He cut out his tongue and pushed him into the river. The case was handled by the governor of Jiangzhou, who was from the Wu clan. This explanation barely managed to silence the southern nobles of the Wu clan.

The Wu clan was quiet for a while, then said that the death of the Lord of Jiangzhou was suspicious. If the assassin was not caught and brought to justice, they might also die mysteriously one day.

The scouts began to search the city for the assassin who had killed the Lord of Jiangzhou. Little did they know that the assassin had already changed his face and was waiting for someone at the dock. The eldest son’s ship was arriving today, as the owl had informed Ying Xiu beforehand.

The ship slowly docked. From a distance, a group of people could be seen surrounding a figure who walked out from the gangplank. The person in the center wore a purple robe, leather boots, and a tall crown. He was the epitome of gentry, a descendant of a noble family. Ying Xiu waved at him. “Jianxin! I’m over here!”

The aides and officials surrounding the eldest son of the Wang clan raised their eyebrows slightly. Did a mere retainer dare to call the eldest son’s courtesy name?

Dismissing his followers, Wang Shouzhen walked quickly to Ying Xiu’s side. He slowed his pace to walk alongside him and made a gesture to measure Ying Xiu’s height. He smiled. “You’ve grown a lot since last year.”

He remembered when he met Ying Xiu, he was still a skinny, small boy, wearing a grass hat and a short, coarse tunic. His face was covered in dirt, making him look like a little savage. But it was this little savage, with one person and one sword, who had saved his life on the road in Guangling.

Wang Shouzhen was very emotional. He asked Ying Xiu about his well-being and took out a thick stack of bank notes, stuffing them into his pocket. Ying Xiu didn’t resist and accepted them naturally. Jianxin was always like this, as if he was afraid he would starve to death while away from home. He wanted to stuff a whole bank into his sleeve. If he didn’t accept, Jianxin would really get upset with him.

They had known each other for four years, a short time, but they were the best of friends. They had never hidden anything from each other. Along the way, Wang Shouzhen slowly explained the purpose of his trip.

The Lord of Jiangzhou, Xiangli Jue, was dead, and the Xiangli clan had fallen. Without the local warlord as an obstacle, the court was now starting to repair the canal, beginning in Guangling. It would pass through the capital, Jiankang, and connect the four states of Xuzhou, Yangzhou, Jiangzhou, and Jingzhou from east to west, linking with the Yangtze River. The governor of Jiangzhou was to oversee the project, and Wang Yu, a member of the Central Secretariat from the capital, would be appointed as the vice-governor of Jiangzhou to assist. Wang Yu was a retainer of the Wang clan of Langya. On the surface, he was in charge of the project, but in reality, the person who would make the decisions was Wang Shouzhen.

When Ying Xiu was a child, he lived in the mountains and had never attended school. After listening to Jianxin, he only understood that Jiangzhou was going to build a canal, from east to west, and it would be very long and wide. The governor of Jiangzhou would be in charge, and a retainer from the Wang clan would help with the construction.

Wang Shouzhen listened to his summary and burst into laughter. After thinking about it, he realized that what he said wasn’t wrong at all. Wang Shouzhen said, “I told you to read more books. It seems you didn’t let my words go in one ear and out the other.”

Ying Xiu replied, “It was boring staying in my room. I secretly read all the books the scholars had.” It was strange. He didn’t know why Jianxin, his superior, always told him, an assassin, to read more. He had studied like those scholars, poring over books for a long time, only to be disappointed that they didn’t teach the art of killing.

“If there’s anyone you need to kill on this trip, just tell me,” Ying Xiu said, thinking for a moment. His tone was solemn. “I only kill bad people.”

Aristocratic families cultivated retainers and household guests, and the most important thing to them was loyalty. They needed loyal dogs more than smart people with hidden agendas. A qualified retainer had to be absolutely loyal, prioritize their master’s wishes, and be willing to shed bl00d and even their heads without making their master frown. Even if the master wanted to kill them, they would obediently take their own lives. So there was no reason to refuse if they were just asked to eliminate the master’s enemies.

But Ying Xiu was an exception. Wang Shouzhen cared more about his feelings than about his being fiercely loyal and willing to die for him. Retainers were a dime a dozen, but a friend was hard to come by.

“Being an assassin isn’t safe. Once the canal is repaired, I’ll take you back to Guangling.” Wang Shouzhen didn’t say the rest of the words. When the canal was completed, he would be a famous figure, in charge of the transportation of four states. He would be the undisputed master of the Wang clan of Langya. Ying Xiu would no longer have to risk his life as an assassin. He would stay by his side, become a general, and they would leave a legacy for generations to come.

Ying Xiu had lived in Guangling for two years. It wasn’t a long time, but he had a good life there and had already considered Guangling his second home. However… “I met someone in Jiangzhou. He’s very handsome.” When he mentioned the man, Ying Xiu’s clear eyes lit up slightly.

“…Oh?”

Hearing this, the smile on Wang Shouzhen’s face faded a little, and his tone became gentle and warm. “Where is he from?”