“Usually, your reaction is later than mine. How come tonight you react so quickly?” Cen Fu asked him. Cen Shou’s room was farther than his.
“A’Rui said it sounded like there was someone in the Young Master’s room. I didn’t believe it at first but I felt like something was wrong so I decided to rush over.”
Cen Fu couldn’t believe it. “His hearing is good.”
Lu Yi said, “Before A’Rui was injured, his kung fu was above yours, no wonder.”
Outside the door, Chun Yumin’s maid poked her head inside slowly and noticed the bloodstain right away. She trembled with fear and said, “Did someone die?”
“No.” Lu Yi said in a low voice, “Cen Fu, send her back and explain the situation. Try not to scare them.”
Cen Fu obediently listened. Before leaving, he noticed Cen Shou still standing there, so he quickly dragged him out.
Lu Yi borrowed the brightness from the candle to look down at Jinxia’s bare feet.
“You didn’t even have enough time to put on shoes and socks… Were you in a rush to see me?” He walked forward and carried her to the bed, covering her legs with a blanket, then brightly smiled at her, “You’re worried about me?”
“That… Brother, did you investigate the situation? Is Hu Zongxian trying to kill you?” Jinxia held his face, “You’re not allowed to lie to me, you can’t hide anything from me. You think I can’t see that you just came back from the outside?”
Lu Yi praised her, “How did you find out?”
“There is moss and dirt under your shoes. Look at the window and the floor…” Jinxia pointed in the direction of the window, “You entered from the window and you slid under the window to avoid their attacks, then turned around… Everything is clear.”
“I’m impressed.” As he said that, he slowly stepped toward her and then kissed her hard.
As soon as she was kissed by him, Jinxia’s mind immediately went blank, her heart skipping a beat. After a while, she finally got the courage to push him away and irritably said, “Wait, you haven’t answered my questions… Don’t try to use these sweet tactics on me!”
Lu Yi didn’t expect her to remember it. He licked his lips, tilted his head and looked at her, “Your beautiful face seems quite determined, it seems like Constable Yuan wants to be promoted this year.”
Seeing him keep dodging the question, Jinxia was becoming more convinced that he was definitely covering up something. She frowned, “What? You don’t trust me enough to tell me?”
“No…”
Lu Yi sighed, then he started to slowly tell her about Wang Yangshi but intentionally left out Lan Daoxing’s part.
Jinxia listened carefully, then started to think deeply. She felt that this matter was like a tangled thread, making it difficult for people to interpret it. She could only say, “Then, is Hu Zongxian related to the pirates or not?”
“What do you think?” Lu Yi asked back.
“Based on Wang Yangshi’s words, it means that Hu Zongxian forced Wang Zhi to go down to the mainland, that’s when he was arrested. This was Hu Zongxian’s trap, so it means that Hu Zongxian is not cooperating with the pirates; but after Wang Zhi was arrested, he still gave gifts to the Wang Zhi’s family, which is weird, as if he was trying to make it seems like all the arrest was a misunderstanding and he intended to release Wang Zhi, which indicated that he was heavily involved with the pirates. But it doesn’t make sense! If Hu Zongxian was controlling the pirates, why would he need to hand Xia Zheng over and pretend to treat them well? This just means he was just pretending and not actually cooperating with the pirates…” Jinxia’s mouth kept moving, trying to analyze the complicated situation, “But there’s one more important matter, Hu Zongxian sent someone to assassinate you tonight, so he obviously did something wrong or he’s a pirate.”
“Not necessarily. In the circle of officials, if there’s no smoke, there wouldn’t be a fire. Maybe, he misunderstood my intention and in order to defend himself, he thought to act first.” Lu Yi slowly said.
Jinxia looked at him suspiciously, “Brother, why do I feel like you’re defending him? Think about it, he sent Xia Zheng to Mao Haifeng, then sent people to arrest Wang Zhi, now he’s sending someone to kill you. All these problems are gradually piling up, this just means he’s somewhat involved with the pirates.”
“This case doesn’t have complete evidence yet, so we can’t jump to conclusions. We must investigate it carefully.”
Lu Yi said in a formal tone.
Outside, someone suddenly knocked on the door, then they heard Mrs. Shen’s voice, “Jinxia, are you inside?”
“…Yes!”
Jinxia took off the blanket and went to open the door but before she could get there, she was stopped by Lu Yi, who opened the door instead.
Mrs. Shen stood upright at the door, her hands holding Jinxia’s shoes. She did not enter but her tone sounded displeased and slightly accusatory, “Jinxia, you are a girl, so you must behave like a lady. You can’t be in a man’s room in the middle of the night, hurry back!”
“Huh? Oh…” Jinxia was slightly taken aback.
Lu Yi’s face remained calm. He passed the shoes to her.
Jinxia put on her shoes, her face was still full of questions but she obediently followed Mrs. Shen back to their room.
Lu Yi closed the door. Even though in his heart, he was unwilling to let her leave, he knew that if she had remained any longer and continued to dig into the case, he really wouldn’t have known what to do.
***
The next morning, YangYue brought in some porridge for Jinxia and asked, “What happened last night?”
Jinxia shoved in three large dumplings, saying while eating, “You slept like the dead. Last night was very exciting and you didn’t hear anything?”
YangYue looked gloomy, “I heard everything and was about to rush over but then I was restrained by your uncle. He said Lu Daren could deal with it, no need to interfere. Overall, he didn’t let me go. His kung fu is good and he’s very strong, I was no match for him so I couldn’t even push him away.”
“I didn’t expect my uncle to be that smart. It’s true, Lu Daren was fine.” Jinxia said proudly.
YangYue asked, “What exactly happened?”
Jinxia moved her face closer to his but, as she was about to tell him the story, suddenly an inn’s servant rushed into the room.
“I came with an order from General Hu, this item must be given to Lu Daren, and he’s also inviting him to come to Hu’s Residence.”
“General Hu?”
Jinxia narrowed her eyes, suspiciously looking at the servant. Last night, assassins came to the inn, and this morning, he was already sending people over as if nothing had happened? And he also wanted to invite Lu Yi over to his residence? Did he think everyone was a fool?
At this time, Cen Fu walked forward to take the box. For safety reasons, he opened the lid of the box and checked, then closed it again while furrowing his eyebrows.
“Young Master, General Hu is inviting you to his residence and also giving this….”
Hearing the hesitation in Cen Fu’s words, Lu Yi opened the door, seeing that beside him was a servant who was holding in his hands a long, wide box.
Cen Fu, who already knew what was in the box, opened it for Lu Yi to see.
Inside the box were two long swords, as well as two hands covered in blood. It seemed that those were the hands of the two people who’d come to kill Lu Yi last night. Lu Yi furrowed his eyebrows, signaling Cen Fu to close the box, while facing the servant and complaining, “Last night, I let them go, why did General Hu have to do this?”
Last night, Hu Zongxian had sent people to kill him, surely after hearing Zhao Wenhua’s demotion, he must’ve been afraid he was gonna be next, therefore, he’d panicked and tried to find a way to protect himself. Now, he’d cut off the hands of his own men to beg for peace, hoping Lu Yi would forgive him and forget his reckless mistakes… It seemed, Xia Zheng’s death and Zhao Wenhua’s demotion had piled up like snowflakes on him, making him feel extremely uneasy.
“At first, General Hu wanted to send the heads of those two men, but Hu’s personal advisor said Lu Daren has a big heart, since you’ve let them go, you would not want to see them die as an apology.” The servant said while holding the box.
“Hu’s personal advisor?” Lu Yi’s eyebrows tightened.
“Yes, Xu Wei Xu Wenzhang.”
Lu Yi let out a cold snort, he nodded his head, “Fine, I’ll go with you.”
Cen Fu said uneasily, “Young Master, let Cen Shou and I go with you.”
“No need. If I am willing to meet him, it means I can trust General Hu.” Lu Yi waved his hand in refusal, went inside and changed his clothes.
Seeing Lu Yi had changed to his sky blue and gold JinYiWei uniform, Jinxia quickly walked up, passed by the courtyard and said, “You really want to go to his residence? Don’t forget that…”
Lu Yi stopped her, “Don’t worry, I have my own plans.”
“Should I go with you?”
“Your leg is not completely healed, limping in front of General Hu is a little impolite.” Lu Yi smiled slightly, turned around and walked away.
She continued to stare at his back as he slowly walked away. Jinxia stood there nervously, biting her lips.
***
Lu Yi had already visited Hu Residence before, it was when he’d come to express his condolences for the death of Xia Zheng but he’d only stayed for a cup of tea and then left. Today, he was led by a young man, then directed to go inside and head toward the back garden.
It was still early summer, several pomegranate trees in the garden were beginning to bloom, the flowers were growing rapidly like flames of fire.
Hu Zongxian put on a gloomy face, standing upright with his hands behind his back, his eyes wandering around the garden. The person leaning against the chair was Xu Wei, sitting at the table, with his slender fingers gently stroking a teacup. The garden fell quiet.
Hearing footsteps, Hu Zongxian turned around, looking past the servant. He saw Lu Yi and his face looked relieved; he was afraid Lu Yi would refuse to come because of last night’s incident but seeing him here today, it meant there was still a chance for a discussion.
Xu Wei also looked at Lu Yi, considering that after last night’s incident, he still dared to come here alone. He felt an unexpected sense of respect for him.
“Yan Yuan,” Hu Zongxian walked toward Lu Yi with a smile on his face, “It’s good that you’ve agreed to come. I was worried that you had misunderstood me because of last night’s incident.”
Lu Yi laughed, “Since it’s a misunderstanding, Beizhe doesn’t dare to questions it.”
“Very nice! Such a wise man, for someone who is still young, you are so understanding. We old folks can only blame ourselves!” Hu Zongxian forcefully patted Lu Yi’s shoulder and invited him to sit down.
Lu Yi did not hurry to sit down, turning to face Xu Wei who was standing silently to the side. He greeted him and said, “This must be the Qin Teng scholar, Xu Wei Xu Wenzhang, your personal advisor, right?”
Xu Wei greeted without any arrogance or condescending, “Wenzhang greets Lu Daren.”
[All translations belong to Syublush. If you are reading it anywhere else, then it’s stolen]
“I’ve heard of your name before. Today is such an honour for Yan Yuan to have a chance to meet you.”
“Wenzhang doesn’t dare to accept this compliment.”
Hu Zongxian didn’t think Lu Yi would be so respectful towards Xu Wei. He quickly invited them both to sit down. After the servant served the tea, he told all of them to retreat from the garden and ordered no one to be allowed in there.
Seeing Hu Zongxian telling all of his servants to leave, Lu Yi knew that Hu Zongxian wanted to discuss serious matters, but the first one to speak was Xu Wei.
Xu Wei asked, “Lu Daren came alone today, which means he trusts General Hu, then we can immediately talk about the problem, there is no need to be on guard. Last night, Lu Daren told our people to deliver a message, ‘where the hills and rivers end, a glimmer of hope arises’, what do you mean by this?”
Lu Yi laughed, avoiding answering the question directly and only said, “I know that Zhao Wenhua was demoted. As of now, many people are filing charges against Daren for having secret relationships with pirates, surely Hu Daren is in the most desperate state right now, so I sent them home with a few words of comfort.”
Noticing that he didn’t explain his intention clearly, Hu Zongxian replied plainly, “Yan Yuan, I know that this time you came here to fulfil an important task, which regards clearly investigating my involvement with the pirates, am I right?”
“This is my responsibility. I hope Daren can forgive me.”
“You dare to come here alone, so I won’t bother hiding it from you anymore.” Hu Zongxian waved his hand, “Xu Wei, all the plans you’ve been carrying out over the years, tell him about it, then he can make a judgement regarding whether we’re cooperating with pirates or not.”
“Usually, your reaction is later than mine. How come tonight you react so quickly?” Cen Fu asked him. Cen Shou’s room was farther than his.
“A’Rui said it sounded like there was someone in the Young Master’s room. I didn’t believe it at first but I felt like something was wrong so I decided to rush over.”
Cen Fu couldn’t believe it. “His hearing is good.”
Lu Yi said, “Before A’Rui was injured, his kung fu was above yours, no wonder.”
Outside the door, Chun Yumin’s maid poked her head inside slowly and noticed the bloodstain right away. She trembled with fear and said, “Did someone die?”
“No.” Lu Yi said in a low voice, “Cen Fu, send her back and explain the situation. Try not to scare them.”
Cen Fu obediently listened. Before leaving, he noticed Cen Shou still standing there, so he quickly dragged him out.
Lu Yi borrowed the brightness from the candle to look down at Jinxia’s bare feet.
“You didn’t even have enough time to put on shoes and socks… Were you in a rush to see me?” He walked forward and carried her to the bed, covering her legs with a blanket, then brightly smiled at her, “You’re worried about me?”
“That… Brother, did you investigate the situation? Is Hu Zongxian trying to kill you?” Jinxia held his face, “You’re not allowed to lie to me, you can’t hide anything from me. You think I can’t see that you just came back from the outside?”
Lu Yi praised her, “How did you find out?”
“There is moss and dirt under your shoes. Look at the window and the floor…” Jinxia pointed in the direction of the window, “You entered from the window and you slid under the window to avoid their attacks, then turned around… Everything is clear.”
“I’m impressed.” As he said that, he slowly stepped toward her and then kissed her hard.
As soon as she was kissed by him, Jinxia’s mind immediately went blank, her heart skipping a beat. After a while, she finally got the courage to push him away and irritably said, “Wait, you haven’t answered my questions… Don’t try to use these sweet tactics on me!”
Lu Yi didn’t expect her to remember it. He licked his lips, tilted his head and looked at her, “Your beautiful face seems quite determined, it seems like Constable Yuan wants to be promoted this year.”
Seeing him keep dodging the question, Jinxia was becoming more convinced that he was definitely covering up something. She frowned, “What? You don’t trust me enough to tell me?”
“No…”
Lu Yi sighed, then he started to slowly tell her about Wang Yangshi but intentionally left out Lan Daoxing’s part.
Jinxia listened carefully, then started to think deeply. She felt that this matter was like a tangled thread, making it difficult for people to interpret it. She could only say, “Then, is Hu Zongxian related to the pirates or not?”
“What do you think?” Lu Yi asked back.
“Based on Wang Yangshi’s words, it means that Hu Zongxian forced Wang Zhi to go down to the mainland, that’s when he was arrested. This was Hu Zongxian’s trap, so it means that Hu Zongxian is not cooperating with the pirates; but after Wang Zhi was arrested, he still gave gifts to the Wang Zhi’s family, which is weird, as if he was trying to make it seems like all the arrest was a misunderstanding and he intended to release Wang Zhi, which indicated that he was heavily involved with the pirates. But it doesn’t make sense! If Hu Zongxian was controlling the pirates, why would he need to hand Xia Zheng over and pretend to treat them well? This just means he was just pretending and not actually cooperating with the pirates…” Jinxia’s mouth kept moving, trying to analyze the complicated situation, “But there’s one more important matter, Hu Zongxian sent someone to assassinate you tonight, so he obviously did something wrong or he’s a pirate.”
“Not necessarily. In the circle of officials, if there’s no smoke, there wouldn’t be a fire. Maybe, he misunderstood my intention and in order to defend himself, he thought to act first.” Lu Yi slowly said.
Jinxia looked at him suspiciously, “Brother, why do I feel like you’re defending him? Think about it, he sent Xia Zheng to Mao Haifeng, then sent people to arrest Wang Zhi, now he’s sending someone to kill you. All these problems are gradually piling up, this just means he’s somewhat involved with the pirates.”
“This case doesn’t have complete evidence yet, so we can’t jump to conclusions. We must investigate it carefully.”
Lu Yi said in a formal tone.
Outside, someone suddenly knocked on the door, then they heard Mrs. Shen’s voice, “Jinxia, are you inside?”
“…Yes!”
Jinxia took off the blanket and went to open the door but before she could get there, she was stopped by Lu Yi, who opened the door instead.
Mrs. Shen stood upright at the door, her hands holding Jinxia’s shoes. She did not enter but her tone sounded displeased and slightly accusatory, “Jinxia, you are a girl, so you must behave like a lady. You can’t be in a man’s room in the middle of the night, hurry back!”
“Huh? Oh…” Jinxia was slightly taken aback.
Lu Yi’s face remained calm. He passed the shoes to her.
Jinxia put on her shoes, her face was still full of questions but she obediently followed Mrs. Shen back to their room.
Lu Yi closed the door. Even though in his heart, he was unwilling to let her leave, he knew that if she had remained any longer and continued to dig into the case, he really wouldn’t have known what to do.
***
The next morning, YangYue brought in some porridge for Jinxia and asked, “What happened last night?”
Jinxia shoved in three large dumplings, saying while eating, “You slept like the dead. Last night was very exciting and you didn’t hear anything?”
YangYue looked gloomy, “I heard everything and was about to rush over but then I was restrained by your uncle. He said Lu Daren could deal with it, no need to interfere. Overall, he didn’t let me go. His kung fu is good and he’s very strong, I was no match for him so I couldn’t even push him away.”
“I didn’t expect my uncle to be that smart. It’s true, Lu Daren was fine.” Jinxia said proudly.
YangYue asked, “What exactly happened?”
Jinxia moved her face closer to his but, as she was about to tell him the story, suddenly an inn’s servant rushed into the room.
“I came with an order from General Hu, this item must be given to Lu Daren, and he’s also inviting him to come to Hu’s Residence.”
“General Hu?”
Jinxia narrowed her eyes, suspiciously looking at the servant. Last night, assassins came to the inn, and this morning, he was already sending people over as if nothing had happened? And he also wanted to invite Lu Yi over to his residence? Did he think everyone was a fool?
At this time, Cen Fu walked forward to take the box. For safety reasons, he opened the lid of the box and checked, then closed it again while furrowing his eyebrows.
“Young Master, General Hu is inviting you to his residence and also giving this….”
Hearing the hesitation in Cen Fu’s words, Lu Yi opened the door, seeing that beside him was a servant who was holding in his hands a long, wide box.
Cen Fu, who already knew what was in the box, opened it for Lu Yi to see.
Inside the box were two long swords, as well as two hands covered in blood. It seemed that those were the hands of the two people who’d come to kill Lu Yi last night. Lu Yi furrowed his eyebrows, signaling Cen Fu to close the box, while facing the servant and complaining, “Last night, I let them go, why did General Hu have to do this?”
Last night, Hu Zongxian had sent people to kill him, surely after hearing Zhao Wenhua’s demotion, he must’ve been afraid he was gonna be next, therefore, he’d panicked and tried to find a way to protect himself. Now, he’d cut off the hands of his own men to beg for peace, hoping Lu Yi would forgive him and forget his reckless mistakes… It seemed, Xia Zheng’s death and Zhao Wenhua’s demotion had piled up like snowflakes on him, making him feel extremely uneasy.
“At first, General Hu wanted to send the heads of those two men, but Hu’s personal advisor said Lu Daren has a big heart, since you’ve let them go, you would not want to see them die as an apology.” The servant said while holding the box.
“Hu’s personal advisor?” Lu Yi’s eyebrows tightened.
“Yes, Xu Wei Xu Wenzhang.”
Lu Yi let out a cold snort, he nodded his head, “Fine, I’ll go with you.”
Cen Fu said uneasily, “Young Master, let Cen Shou and I go with you.”
“No need. If I am willing to meet him, it means I can trust General Hu.” Lu Yi waved his hand in refusal, went inside and changed his clothes.
Seeing Lu Yi had changed to his sky blue and gold JinYiWei uniform, Jinxia quickly walked up, passed by the courtyard and said, “You really want to go to his residence? Don’t forget that…”
Lu Yi stopped her, “Don’t worry, I have my own plans.”
“Should I go with you?”
“Your leg is not completely healed, limping in front of General Hu is a little impolite.” Lu Yi smiled slightly, turned around and walked away.
She continued to stare at his back as he slowly walked away. Jinxia stood there nervously, biting her lips.
***
Lu Yi had already visited Hu Residence before, it was when he’d come to express his condolences for the death of Xia Zheng but he’d only stayed for a cup of tea and then left. Today, he was led by a young man, then directed to go inside and head toward the back garden.
It was still early summer, several pomegranate trees in the garden were beginning to bloom, the flowers were growing rapidly like flames of fire.
Hu Zongxian put on a gloomy face, standing upright with his hands behind his back, his eyes wandering around the garden. The person leaning against the chair was Xu Wei, sitting at the table, with his slender fingers gently stroking a teacup. The garden fell quiet.
Hearing footsteps, Hu Zongxian turned around, looking past the servant. He saw Lu Yi and his face looked relieved; he was afraid Lu Yi would refuse to come because of last night’s incident but seeing him here today, it meant there was still a chance for a discussion.
Xu Wei also looked at Lu Yi, considering that after last night’s incident, he still dared to come here alone. He felt an unexpected sense of respect for him.
“Yan Yuan,” Hu Zongxian walked toward Lu Yi with a smile on his face, “It’s good that you’ve agreed to come. I was worried that you had misunderstood me because of last night’s incident.”
Lu Yi laughed, “Since it’s a misunderstanding, Beizhe doesn’t dare to questions it.”
“Very nice! Such a wise man, for someone who is still young, you are so understanding. We old folks can only blame ourselves!” Hu Zongxian forcefully patted Lu Yi’s shoulder and invited him to sit down.
Lu Yi did not hurry to sit down, turning to face Xu Wei who was standing silently to the side. He greeted him and said, “This must be the Qin Teng scholar, Xu Wei Xu Wenzhang, your personal advisor, right?”
Xu Wei greeted without any arrogance or condescending, “Wenzhang greets Lu Daren.”
[All translations belong to Syublush. If you are reading it anywhere else, then it’s stolen]
“I’ve heard of your name before. Today is such an honour for Yan Yuan to have a chance to meet you.”
“Wenzhang doesn’t dare to accept this compliment.”
Hu Zongxian didn’t think Lu Yi would be so respectful towards Xu Wei. He quickly invited them both to sit down. After the servant served the tea, he told all of them to retreat from the garden and ordered no one to be allowed in there.
Seeing Hu Zongxian telling all of his servants to leave, Lu Yi knew that Hu Zongxian wanted to discuss serious matters, but the first one to speak was Xu Wei.
Xu Wei asked, “Lu Daren came alone today, which means he trusts General Hu, then we can immediately talk about the problem, there is no need to be on guard. Last night, Lu Daren told our people to deliver a message, ‘where the hills and rivers end, a glimmer of hope arises’, what do you mean by this?”
Lu Yi laughed, avoiding answering the question directly and only said, “I know that Zhao Wenhua was demoted. As of now, many people are filing charges against Daren for having secret relationships with pirates, surely Hu Daren is in the most desperate state right now, so I sent them home with a few words of comfort.”
Noticing that he didn’t explain his intention clearly, Hu Zongxian replied plainly, “Yan Yuan, I know that this time you came here to fulfil an important task, which regards clearly investigating my involvement with the pirates, am I right?”
“This is my responsibility. I hope Daren can forgive me.”
“You dare to come here alone, so I won’t bother hiding it from you anymore.” Hu Zongxian waved his hand, “Xu Wei, all the plans you’ve been carrying out over the years, tell him about it, then he can make a judgement regarding whether we’re cooperating with pirates or not.”
