Published at 21st of October 2020 11:30:51 AM
Chapter 29
It was not until after Wu Xi had first appraised the middle-aged man with utmost caution that he finally asked Jing Qi: “Didn’t you get drunk?”
“A tad, but it was not to the point of becoming muddleheaded.” Jing Qi was sitting on a tattered chair, utterly relaxed as he pointed to the middle-aged man standing next to him, “This gentleman is Sir Lu, Zishu’s person.”
“Sir Lu” hurriedly gave Wu Xi his greeting: “I would like to present myself to Young Sorcerer. His Royal Highness has overstated it — This lowly commoner is Lu Yu, and I am merely someone who runs errands for our Lord.”
Wu Xi looked at Jing Qi, a hint of doubt in his eyes: “What happened?”
Jing Qi responded: “Sir Lu, let us hear about it from you.”
Lu Yu responded with a “yes” and began explaining: “Some time ago, this lowly commoner received an order from our Lord to secretly inquire into the ‘Black Sorcerers’, and very recently I have been able to track them down and found some clues …”
“Where are they?” Wu Xi’s expression was solemn, his gaze filled with fierce sharpness — in that flashing moment, Lu Yu could not help but turn away to avoid the other person’s eyes.
“As the second Helian Prince holds a penchant for the search of immortality, there is a specific manor on his estate that was built next to Huai Xu Taoist Temple. Those Black Sorcerers whom he has been sheltering inside the temple rarely came into contact with the outside world — whether it is wine or dine, everything is handled by the temple master himself, and their presence has never been made known to others. Helian Qi has been extremely vigilant about this — it took us three months to have someone infiltrate their place as a daily vegetable delivery man. Besides scouting for the trace of those Black Sorcerers, we also discovered an unexpected individual who has been making contacts with them on the sly.”
Wu Xi cast a glance at Jing Qi’s indifferent expression; with some vague speculation having already arrived in his mind, he asked: “Who is it?”
“The Lady of the Moon, Su Qingluan.” The one who answered was Jing Qi, his voice was lowered to sheer depths, and the emotion painted on that face was indiscernible.
A Xin Lai gawked at Wu Xi with openmouthed incredulity. Wu Xi remained quiet for a long time, a plethora of thoughts flashing through his mind; then, with utmost prudence, he opened his mouth, unhurried, and asked: “Are you certain? Aside from the indication that she has gone to that Taoist temple, is there any other evidence?”
Lu Yu nodded his head: “Afterwards, we went to investigate Su Qingluan’s background, learning that her former name was ‘Su Cui Er’, and that she was originally from Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. The hamlet where she used to live is called Su Jia Village. Although she has no other relatives in her family, it is mentioned that when she was young, her parents once offered a saving hand to a Taoist with the surname Li.”
Lu Yu glanced over at Wu Xi, whose face had then been overcast with somberness, before adding: “Based on the description provided by an old man, it seems like he is precisely the one who has been staying at Helian Qi’s residence.”
Jing Qi then joined in: “Wu Xi, you understand these Black Sorcerers more than I do. Those people have been held idle by Helian Qi for over half a year, and allowed to do nothing. Having to live the days that are no different from being imprisoned, how could they be willing?”
Lu Yu continued: “That’s right. If it had not been for the conflict between the leader of those Black Sorcerers and the temple master, it would have been impossible for our man to verify that they were hiding inside.”
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As Jing Qi nodded his head, it immediately dawned on Wu Xi’s mind the reason why the former had to take advantage of the chaos to slip out earlier. He then turned around and faced A Xin Lai: “You go back first, gather the warriors together, and come here wait for me.”
A Xin Lai stared at the other with widened eyes: “Young Sorcerer, who is going to be here to protect you?”
Wu Xi shot him a glare of displeasure, prompting A Xin Lai to hastily respond: “That’s right, Young Sorcerer is powerful, but… but…”
After stuttering all the “but” for the longest timehalf a day, he finally thought of a reason: “But if you masters go back up there later without me escorting you, won’t that arouse suspicion from others?”
Lu Yu chimed in with a smile: “About that, you don’t have to fear.”
Once finished talking, he walked to the side and took out a small, obscure case; with his back against everyone else, he started to fiddle with his face for a while before turning around. A Xin Lai was startled to the point of nearly leaping up, his finger pointing at Lu Yu as he said: “You, you you you... how…”
Jing Qi smiled: “Sir Lu’s disguise technique indeed came from Zishu’s authentic teaching; it is truly miraculous.”
With a face bearing exact resemblance to A Xin Lai’s, Lu Yu responded: “It is merely a small, frivolous trick, and can’t be considered a thorough, elaborate work. But since the night is dark and the light is dim, that should be enough to bypass people’s eyes. I will also have to ask this brother A Xin Lai to exchange clothes with me.”
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Thus A Xin Lai had no choice but grudgingly trade his robes with Lu Yu. The latter then summoned a servant boy over and told A Xin Lai: “There is no need to act rashly to alert the enemy; just let him lead you to a different route.”
Both of them heeded the order and left.
Jing Qi then rose to his feet and was just about to walk away, but something seemed to have crossed his mind, thus he turned around towards Ping An: “Go fetch that lady here to avoid having other people say how we have jostled in the crowds for naught. Wu Xi will come back with me.”
As soon as they entered the side gate to return to the hall filled with all sorts of wretched souls and evildoers, the clarity that had just shone in Jing Qi’s eyes immediately vanished. With arms soft and legs limp, he leaned against Wu Xi, his mien entirely engulfed in a drunken stupor. Wu Xi had long grown accustomed to this man’s special ability to easily change one mask to another; however, getting too close to other people like this was not something he had come to adapt, thus he could only scramble to hold the man up.
Jing Qi then whispered into his ears: “Let us go for a walk. Wait for the cold air on our bodies to be gone before coming back up there.”
Those words nestled up to Wu Xi’s ears almost too closely, setting flame to it at once. All of a sudden, he came to realize, the cloying sweetness lingering inside the main hall was very likely something that had been released in the air to excite others.
Such a thought made him feel even more restless.2
The body resting in his embrace was very special, and it was distinguished from that of any person he had ever encountered before. During his fighting practice with A Xin Lai and the crew, there also involved physical contact; however, the bodies of those men were sturdy as a rock and tough as iron — within close distance, the smell of sweat could be noticed, and striking his fist at them was no different from punching at the wall. This person’s body was also not the same as those of the women who had deliberately rubbed against him when passing by with a pungent reek of scented powder, whose velvety white flesh reminded him of the anacondas from South Xinjiang.
The person who was leaning on him at that moment was remarkably slim — when Wu Xi caught Jing Qi in his embrace and wrapped one arm around the latter’s back, he could feel the hardness of the man’s ribs, thus dared not to apply too much force. Amidst staggering footsteps, the jabbing from Jing Qi’s shoulder gave Wu Xi a whiff of pain. His waist was very slender, but unlike the kind of female delicacy that could be crushed in one tight grip, underneath that form there hid the kind of strength full of resilient limberness.
Only then did Wu Xi realize that Jing Qi was neither rottenly pampered nor helplessly fragile in the slightest as shown on his facade. Anyone who practiced martial arts would know that acquiring power in the four limbs, in fact, was only next to being important: the most essential was the strength and flexibility in the waist and hip region that could control movements of the entire body.
Thus it could be seen that even if Jing Qi’s fighting skills only consisted of impractical fanciness, those embellished moves had definitely been procured through training — those who took shelter in the study all day would not be likely to have such firm and strong lower back muscles like that.
The eyes of that person slightly shuttered in the enshrouded mist, his gaze unfocused — although Wu Xi was clearly aware that the other was only feigning, he could not help but look away and avert those eyes.
He believed that all the coldness on his body had already steamed off without fail.
At last, he was able to endure until Ping An came back and brought along a shy young lady whose head was lowered timidly. Wu Xi then hurried pushed Jing Qi back to Ping An as if he had been holding a hot potato on his hand and, with Lu Yu in A Xin Lai’s disguise, he strode upstairs in haste.
Even until after returning to the private room, there was still a dash of warmth on Wu Xi’s face that had yet to dissipate; however, a certain someone had tacitly mistaken it for another reason. With an expression shaded with ambiguity, He Yun Xing looked at Wu Xi and asked: “Young Sorcerer just went downstairs for a walk, and perhaps you have caught sight of a girl to your liking?”
Wu Xi was feeling rather miserable in his heart, thus immediately shot a wintry glare at the man upon hearing those words. He Yun Xing blinked a few times; realizing that he had irritated the other person, he could only seal his lips, looking extremely pitiful.
Zhou Zishu knew very clearly what these people had been up to after leaving the scene, yet he did not make a single sound. On the other hand, the person who ended up asking was Su Qingluan, her voice tinted with worry: “What about His Royal Highness?”
Wu Xi raised his head to glare at her, and Su Qingluan could not help but shiver a little. She felt that there was a kind of extremely cold and terrifying aura exuded from the young man who had never spared her a direct look, and that seized her in a helpless tremble, where the feeling was similar to that of the rabbit running into a wolf on the prairie.
It was not until moments later that Wu Xi began to slowly speak, “He is right behind,” before shifting his gaze away.
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Only then Su Qingluan finally breathed out a sigh of relief.
A while later, Ping An, after an arduous struggle, eventually was able to bring Jing Qi, whose appearance was no different from a dead dog, up to the room. Jing Qi, albeit being in such a state, did not forget to take hold of that young maiden’s wrist — it was unclear what sorts of incoherent words he was whispering into the girl’s ear, yet one could see that her head had lowered even more. Unexplainably, Wu Xi found this scene rather an eyesore.2
Wu Xi mused to himself, I should have realized earlier that there is absolutely not a single bit of connection between this Nan Ning Wang and the glorious word, “decency”, whatsoever. Later in the future, he will definitely become an unfaithful and fickle one who says three in the morning but four at night. If I myself had sisters, I’d rather break their legs than let them become close to this disastrous kind of man. 3
Everyone was immersed in boisterous laughter until very late — during that time, He Yunxing, fearing that all under the heaven were too free of chaos, kept pushing a young lady, called Shui Mo, who was accompanying them towards Wu Xi’s direction. Despite her graceful and gentle-sounding name, the girl herself was awfully fierce and daring: noticing that Wu Xi was not acknowledging her, she went as far as leaning over to feed the food to his mouth. Wu Xi finally had reached the limit of his endurance, thus shoved her aside then immediately rose to his feet, almost backing out on them and taking his leave.
Next to him, the two half-drunk and the one feigning drunkenness began to burst into unscrupulous and heartless laughter. With the hand hidden in his sleeve, Wu Xi took out a poisoned needle, quietly figuring out in his mind how to stick all of these on Jing Qi’s body for having brought him to this kind of place, after returning home later.2
Even until after midnight, the main hall was still bustling with excitement as before — it seemed like these people would remain boisterous like this all night. Even Jing Qi could no longer sit steadily and slid to the floor like an ooze of mud. Zhou Zishu finally arrived at his side to help him up: “Your Royal Highness, you cannot drink anymore. Tomorrow you still have to rush to attend court early in the morning.”
“Attend… attend my foot! His Majesty is not going, I… I am also not going…” Jing Qi blurted out heedlessly, borrowing this opportunity of drunken madness to act rebellious and utter blasphemies. This time, even Wu Xi could tell for sure if the other was truly intoxicated or not. Although he was sober earlier, what if the wine had finally kicked in? Not to mention that Jing Qi had poured himself a good number of cups as soon as he sat down.
If he had not drunk until besotted, when would the utterances that crossed the boundaries of propriety ever come out of Nan Ning Wang’s mouth like that?
Wu Xi could no longer care about his wish about pricking Jing Qi with the poisoned needle that he had moments ago — after calling Ping An and the fake A Xin Lai over to help prop the man up to his feet, he said: “I am taking him back. Both of you, please help yourself.”
He Yunxing’s loud refusal of “No. The winner has not been decided yet!” was completely ignored.
Su Qingluan hurriedly turned to a little maid who was waiting on the side and ordered: “In this autumn weather, when the dews descend, one will certainly catch a cold. Go and call a carriage.”
Wu Xi slightly pursed his lips together: he was quite unsure how to arrange this situation for Jing Qi, and whether it was a good idea to sit in the carriage prepared by this woman. Before that night, he had always felt that Su Qingluan was not only very beautiful but also very pitiful. By intuition, he had never particularly liked her, nor had he been willing to come to approach her; however, Wu Xi occasionally pondered about how much agony her heart had to suffer because the Crown Prince, who already had her, yet because of her low status, had chosen to marry someone else. Thus, there were always some feelings of sympathy that Wu Xi had for her.
But after the truth had been learned, at that moment, anything that came from her was an act in his eyes, the kind of falseness that made people scorn, and he did not even bother to spare her a single glance.
Then, Wu Xi heard the careless question from Jing Qi, who was wobbling on his feet while being supported by the other two: “Mmm… Carriage? What carriage? Are there any beauties inside?”
Su Qingluan had no other choice but to coax him: “ Yes, anything that Your Royal Highness wants will be there.”
Jing Qi started to laugh: “Good, good, sitting in the carriage… with the beauty in my embrace, I will get on…” Then, he wriggled out of the support and insisted on going outside.
Wu Xi could only chase after him.
Su Qingluan personally led both of them to the gate where the two carriages had already been waiting, and it was unclear whether they had soon been neatly arranged or not.
From the beginning, she was afraid that Jing Qi would open his mouth to demand the person, thus having brought the other maiden along. However, little could she have expected that as soon as they walked out of the gate, a blast of wintry air immediately struck, and that troublesome, disgraceful young prince who then even became unable to tell one direction from another immediately broke away from Ping An and “A Xin Lai”, throwing himself directly at Wu Xi, his hand lifting the other person’s chin up as he let out wicked laugh: “Beauty, come back with me… I… I will never ever mistreat you…” 2
Wu Xi’s face finally flushed into the shade of crimson. With one hand raised, he was going to swing a strike on the back of Jing Qi’s neck, making this person faint before dragging him back — fortunately, such a plan was halted by those people around him. Jing Qi, who clearly did not even want his own life, clutched at the other person’s robes, unwilling to let go. Su Qingluan could only helplessly tell the young maiden to stay back while letting Jing Qi pull Wu Xi into the same carriage.