A month later, if we fail to complete the task, we’ll deliver twelve thousand taels to your residence,” the shop assistant said, tucking away the ten taels of silver before bowing and taking his leave.
An Jiu watched him go, lost in thought. She and Chu Dingjiang had been monitoring for so long, yet they’d never seen this person come or go. Where did he suddenly appear from? She wondered if Chu Dingjiang could keep track of him.
After sitting for a while, An Jiu left the teahouse. Outside, a fine drizzle had begun, darkening the sky. She walked away, finding a random inn to stay and await news.
Chu Dingjiang, hidden nearby, saw An Jiu leave and knew the deal was done. He focused intently on watching the teahouse. Half an hour later, two customers exited together.
He had followed these two before but found no direct evidence they weren’t from Misty Mountain Manor. Trusting his instincts from years of experience, he decided to wait.
If he lost the trail, he’d return to Cui Linglong to wait. Misty Mountain Manor’s assassins would eventually go there after accepting a job.
Regarding who the target might be, Chu Dingjiang had considered various factors before settling on Zhu Pianpian. Whether she could survive now depended on her fate. Chu Dingjiang never cared about the wishes of those he used, especially since Zhu Pianpian had accepted two thousand taels and claimed she’d take responsibility. With such legitimacy, it would be strange if Chu Dingjiang didn’t use her completely.
The misty rain blurred the twilight of Yangzhou.
Two lanterns were hung at the entrance of Liu’s Teahouse.
Chu Dingjiang’s eyes lit up. In all the time he and An Jiu had been observing, the teahouse had never hung lanterns before. This must be the signal.
He looked around. Only nearby houses could see the lanterns, but all their doors and windows were tightly shut.
About fifteen minutes later, the sound of cartwheels approached the stone road, stopping near Liu’s Teahouse.
The arrival was a hunchback. He slowly entered, hunched over, and soon emerged carrying a large wooden bucket. Throughout, he paid no attention to the lanterns by the door.
From start to finish, the man showed no signs of oddity, yet this very normalcy seemed strange. In Chu Dingjiang’s observations, others behaved naturally, but this hunchback’s calmness set him apart, with his aloofness subtly different from ordinary people.
As the hunchback drove away, Chu Dingjiang also moved.
…
The shape of Yangzhou City gradually faded into darkness, with scattered lights twinkling in the velvet-like night.
At the four-story Yunlai Inn, bright with lanterns, most guests were still enjoying performances in the main hall.
In a dark corner room on the third floor, a slender figure stood by the slightly open window overlooking the street.
An Jiu was accustomed to observing the outside world this way.
In daylight, she could see Qingfeng Restaurant from here, but now only a misty haze with faint orange glows pierced through. Occasional footsteps echoed on the stone road below.
The contrast between the lively outside and the stillness here was stark.
Footsteps passed by her door. Six skilled fighters caught her attention.
As the steps halted, a man’s tired voice said, “Bring two buckets of hot water.”
An Jiu started slightly. Hua Rongjian?
She turned towards the closed door, her delicate profile outlined in the dim light. After a moment’s thought, she leaped out the window, following Hua Rongjian’s aura to the window of his room.
She heard the door open and close, followed by Lu Danzhi’s heavy sigh.
“Danzhi, what happened?” Hua Rongjian asked anxiously.
An Jiu was surprised to encounter them again. Yangzhou wasn’t small, but it wasn’t huge either. Still, it made sense—Yunlai Inn was Yangzhou’s most renowned official inn, and someone like Hua Rongjian would naturally choose the best accommodation when traveling.
A long silence fell in the room, but An Jiu had nothing else to do and plenty of patience.
A servant entered with water, and splashing sounds followed.
An Jiu’s expression changed as she realized two men were in the room.
“Danzhi, did something happen to Cui Yichen?” Hua Rongjian had heard about the massacre of over a hundred people on a boat but hadn’t investigated to avoid trouble. He had long suspected it was related to the “madman” Cui Yichen.
Silence answered him again.
Hua Rongjian kicked the bathtub, cursing, “Did you call me all this way just to watch you bathe?!”
“He’s dead,” Lu Danzhi’s voice was hoarse, like that of a dying old man.
Now it was Hua Rongjian’s turn to fall silent.
After a while, he asked softly, “What happened?”
“I used all my connections and finally found him in Bianjing, but…” Lu Danzhi’s voice choked, and he began to sob.
He couldn’t forget how the once-promising heir of the Cui family had clung to his clothes like a child begging for candy. Precocious children often mature early, and in his memory, Cui Yichen had never done such things, even at three or four years old.
He also couldn’t forget how Cui Yichen, though only about twenty, had aged prematurely, looking like a man in his thirties or forties.
“The person I’ve wronged most in my life is my elder brother. This time… I thought I could save little Chen…” Lu Danzhi took a deep breath, struggling to regain some composure amidst his pain. He began to recount their journey to Hua Rongjian.
Lu Danzhi had found Cui Yichen in Bianjing, discovered he was poisoned, and remembered a powerful shaman doctor he knew. He tricked Cui Yichen into traveling south for treatment. Lu Danzhi never dreamed that Liao woman would dare enter the Song Dynasty, let alone board a passenger ship at Bianjing’s dock so brazenly.
Everything after that spiraled out of Lu Danzhi’s control. He watched in shock and grief as Cui Yichen took an arrow for that woman.
This woman must have been Yelü Hangwu… Hua Rongjian was also astonished, but seeing Lu Danzhi’s state, he refrained from questioning further and simply said, “Danzhi, everything is predestined.”
Hidden below the window, An Jiu silently wondered if Hua Rongjian could still offer such comfort if he knew his birth mother had been murdered, but that her killer had given him his current wealth and glory.
“Perhaps,” Lu Danzhi replied, his face ashen, looking even more dejected than before.
Seeing him like this, Hua Rongjian reached out and patted his shoulder.
“I urgently called you here to tell you a few things and ask for your help with something,” Lu Danzhi said.