I pulled over other workers at the office and asked them where Boss Shen was. I've been carrying out my mission since yesterday until now, so I should at least get a reward, right?
But it seemed like Boss Shen was personally on duty overlooking the guards at the imperial city.
Liu Shan Men doesn't have many fighters, so there were only enough members for one shift of guard duty. As a result, Boss Shen had to borrow some people from the emperor's entourage and she herself had to go on duty in order to fill the gaps. Liu Shan Men was assigned guard duty so Liu Shan Men had to have some results to show. Although the assassination that took place in the ring on the first day wasn't Liu Shan Men's issue, there may still be follow up assassinations that are hard to guard against on day two or three.
But with Boss Shen in the imperial city, the Black Winds Thirteen Wings are much less likely to have a chance to strike. The imperial city wasn't an easy place to enter to start with, and now with Boss Shen on guard… It's better than leaving it up to us stragglers now, isn't it?
But if that's the case, then the guard duty hours should be over already. Why is it so quiet and empty in the office?
I seemed to hear something and could detect no more than a few people. Something happened while I was away yesterday, didn't it?
"Ming……."
"Liu Yuan, I was looking for you." Before Liu Yuan could pop out from behind and scare me, I pulled him over and scared his soul out of his body.
"A-Are you trying to scare me to death?! Where the fuck did you go?"
"Nowhere, I just made a trip to the Qilin Guards main courtyard." I ignored his handsome-guy faces: "Hey, what happened here? Did the Black Winds Thirteen Wings stir up trouble or something?"
That was all I could think of.
Could it be that my warning was ineffective and they came to Liu Shan Men?
"The Black Winds Thirteen Wings? You're overthinking things. Our people are all gathered together, so they wouldn't even have a chance to strike." Liu Yuan shook his head and then dejectedly said to me: "Ming Feizhen, you enjoyed wagging work today, didn't you? As soon as I entered the imperial city this morning, the inner palace's General Manager Bai came asking about you. When I said you weren't present, General Manager Bai suspected me of covering up for you and beat me with ten pole strikes! You bastard, how did you offend somebody with such status?"
Oh, no wonder why this punk was wobbling. Bai Ling hit you? Lucky I didn't go otherwise I'd have been the one who got a beating.
"Forget that for now. Have the Black Winds Thirteen Wings started behaving yet?" If they don't stop after the clear signal I gave them, then that would mean that it's a big mission can't be aborted.
"Who said they started behaving?" Liu Yuan angrily continued: "They killed again; three for that matter."
WHAT?!
They went even harder after I warned them?! Those guys are looking down on me, the number one gangster of Jiang Nan's Night Fortress!!
"Since you came back so late, are you not going to the official imperial martial arts tournament tomorrow?"
Martial arts tournament? I didn't even go to the preliminary selections yesterday. Haven't I been disqualified? I'm in the official matches?
"What, you didn't know?" Liu Yuan gave me a weird look after hearing my question, "Didn't you hear who died today?"
"Who died?"
Liu Yuan smiled secretively: "The Qilin Guards: Wang Han, Lu Guang, Yang Jinwu."
"…Who the fuck are they?"
"They were your opponents for yesterday and today." Liu Yuan daggered me. He looked at me with a suspicious attitude: "I wonder if you were the one that assassinated them. All three of your opponents for today are dead. Aren't you glad…?"
Huh? What the fuck is this?!
Meng Jiangnan's fat face suddenly appeared in my mind. Could it be that that was how he interpreted doing me a favour?!
Man! Not this type of favour!!
I wanted you people to stop, not clear my obstacles. Son of a bitch!!
"Also……" I wearily asked: "Where's everybody today? Why don't I see anybody?"
"Didn't you just come back from the Qilin Guards main courtyard? I thought you'd know."
"Hmm?" I carefully pondered Liu Yuan's words and then suddenly understood what he meant,
"You're saying that all of our people have gone to the Qilin Guards' main courtyard?"
Huh?
Haven't they come knocking and picking on us the last few days? Did our people finally explode and decide to bite back?
"You really didn't know?"
"I didn't."
"Well……." Liu Yuan seemed to be in a dilemma as he clenched his teeth and softly said: "I need to start by recounting yesterday. Do you know Yi Yixian, The one that looks like Liu Zi from Dong Po Tavern? He brought Qilin Guards over, lied in ambush nearby, and beat up anyone from our office that they came across."
"Oh……" Ever since the assassinations began, the Qilin Guards have been going downhill. Are they anxious and desperately trying to keep the pressure on Liu Shan Men? But then Long Zaitian and the Black Winds Thirteen Wings are connected… Now I'm getting more and more confused.
"So our people couldn't hold in their anger and fought back?"
The Liu Shan Men that I know has been so used to bullying that they don't have the courage to fight back.
"No, our people dodged them yesterday. Su Xiao had to ask old Huang to go and buy him some stuff." Liu Yuan was making me more and more confused, "But since Yi Yixian is new in his position, he doesn't know our people. He just beat up anybody he saw, so he beat the living daylights out of old Huang……"
"What?!" My expression changed drastically. Someone in the martial world hitting a peasant is a violation of the martial world's rules. I asked: "How's old Huang?"
"He's lying down in Doctor Li's room. Do you want to see him?"
Liu Yuan saw my glum expression and understood what I was thinking right away.
"Follow me."
As we walked to Doctor Li's room, Liu Yuan said: "They beat old Huang so severely that he can't straighten up his body. The old man that was stiff to begin with. He probably broke a few bones. He looks pitiful."
I suppressed my anger and asked: "Does he have family?"
Liu Yuan who never behaved properly also felt sympathetic. He compassionately nodded and softly said: "He left them a long time ago. He has a son, daughter-in-law, and a pair of grand children back home in the village. He was going to leave the city while on holidays to see his grandchildren today."
We entered the room.
Doctor Li wasn't in the room. It looked like he had left. On the bed lay old Huang who had his head wrapped up with white cloth and his eyes shut. His face was covered in blood-marks which weren't cleaned properly. His two eyes were swollen like eggs. It didn't look like he could open them. His nose looked broken and bruised. His old hands were curled up and looked like mouldy wood that somebody broke off. Old Huang is usually full of vigour, but he looks like a dying monkey right now.
"What did the doctor say?"
Liu Yuan sighed and replied: "The doctor said…his organs have shut down. There's no hope of saving him. He can only await his death."
"What did Captain Song say about the incident?"
Having somebody tread all over him and beating an employee to death… Song Ou should finally man up this time, right?
However, when I looked at Liu Yuan, he dodged my gaze.
"He pussied off? He doesn't care?" With a furious look in my eyes, I exclaimed: "Why didn't you say anything to him?! You've shamed Thousand Willow Mountain Villa's reputation!"
Resentment crept up onto Liu Yuan's face: "Watch your mouth! I spoke to him thrice, and asked him to ask the Song family to take a stand, but my rank at Liu Shan Men isn't high, so why would Captain Song going to listen to me?"
Liu Yuan was right. But what exactly is Song Ou thinking? They beat his employee to death and yet he won't say a word?
"What else? He's a chicken that's scared of everything. He got owned by Long Zaitian at the conference. He doesn't dare to fight with Long Zaitian. And since the Qilin Guards number more, he's even more scared."
"Wait, you said our people went to go and pick a fight with them, right…?" I thought about it, and since Song Ou didn't go… I suddenly had a bad feeling, "Who's leading our men?"
"Who else?" Liu Yuan shrugged, "One of them is your friend who's always with you, and always present at a fight, your good brother, Tang Ye."
I was astonished.
What?! Tang Ye is the leader?!
I'm not worried about you morons picking a fight. Worst case scenario, they'll send a few troops to beat your asses back here, but Tang Ye is different. He has true skills. He's at least at the Jia rank level. With so many Jia rank warriors from the Qilin Guards dead recently, I truly question whether they can fight Tang Ye.
If Tang Ye leads the group, then we will be spitting in their faces. If they piss the Qilin Guards enough to bring their main force out, then just those three hundred Qilin Guards will be enough to kill them ten times over!
Wait! I suddenly realised something wrong with what Liu Yuan said……
"Wait, you said, 'one of them'? So he has an accomplice?"
"Not accomplice, but main offender." In a slandering tone, Liu Yuan said: "It's that kid, Su Xiao. He looked scary as can be when he heard the doctor's diagnosis. He grabbed his sabre and left the office without a word. Everybody else, including Tang Ye followed him. In my opinion, that kid is the leader of the pack."
I had no expression I could use to express myself.
Good going, Su Xiao. You're more daring by the day!! You even have the guts to form a gang to seek vengeance now! Your skills can't even rival warriors in the Bing rank, what fucking fight are you fucking starting?!!
Liu Yuan angrily exclaimed: "Of course I wanted to go. But if I went too, who would notify the vice-captain? This is definitely going to become a huge mess. I'm not a hot-head like them. I understand what should and shouldn't be done. I was just about to go out when you came back. Hey, where are you going?"
What a stupid question! Of course I'm rushing over to check things out!
You punks create a mess as soon as I'm absent. My fucking god, you punks drive me insane!