Chapter 106: A Private Conversation Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
As the Dragon Year apprentices were the best batch of apprentices in Golden Roc Fort’s history, the fort was not willing to waste their lives in monthly tests anymore. It chose 50 teenagers from them to form a new organization called Little Flag Battalion, whose base was located in the south of Woodensaber Alley. Five experienced killer mentors were selected to manage this new organization. Tie Hangeng was one of them.
Teenagers in Little Flag Battalion were not killer apprentices anymore, but they were not red-belt killers either. They were brown-belt a.s.sa.s.sins, who were eligible to wear black outfits embroidered with golden rocs, though they could only wear brown belts and not red belts yet. Their basic monthly salary was 100 taels of silver, and they would be able to get bonuses when they completed their missions successfully.
Once their trial period was over, they would be able to get their red belts.
The selected apprentices were thrilled, but soon their excitement was over. During their first few days of working in Little Flag Battalion, they only got some trivial jobs, such as delivering mails or standing on guard. They thought their lives now were even more boring than their old lives in the Pyrowork Academy.
Finally, they got an important task which was working as guards at a party.
The Meng family had a garden named Bodhi Garden in North City which boasted beautiful lotuses in four colors.
As the lotuses bloomed exceptionally well this year, the Meng family held a big flower viewing party and invited many friends and relatives to enjoy the beautiful scenery in the garden. Lady Meng, who had seldom visited the Meng family after getting married to the Supreme King decided to go to the party. Not wanting to go to a party with a group of fierce-looking killers, she chose the teenagers of Little Flag Battalion as her guards.
Working as guards in North City was not a challenging task at all. Golden Roc Fort only equipped the teenagers with wooden sabers. For the brown-belt a.s.sa.s.sins, the only benefit of this task was that they could go to the city to see the rare lotuses.
This outing of Lady Meng lasted for days. Besides the Meng family, all the other big families in the city also invited the lady to their banquets. Every time before she came to a place, the killer mentors would lead the teenagers to thoroughly check the place and keep irrelevant personnel away. When everything was alright, they would hide behind trees or rocks and continue to work as invisible guards.
Gu Shenwei did not get any chance to see the lotuses in those days. When they were in Bodhi Garden, he was sent to patrol an area far away from the flowers. Once his s.h.i.+ft was over, he had to return to a small, dark room immediately to sit silently with a bunch of teenagers who hated one another. Occasionally he could meet some of his friends in this room and chat with them quietly.
The influence of the gang wars still existed. The brown-belt a.s.sa.s.sins still regarded one another as enemies. They worked together just because the fort forced them to do so.
On the seventh day of Lady Meng’s outing, she held a banquet in Bodhi Garden to entertain the Meng family and the ladies of the other big families.
That day, Gu Shenwei was stationed at a guard post on an artificial hill, which was a secluded place situated on the edge of the garden. He was pretty sure that he would not get a chance to see the lotuses or meet anybody in this place for the whole day. As various kinds of flowers were blooming on that hill, he chose to hide inside a flowering shrub. He predicted that he would spend another boring day guarding against Golde Roc Fort’s enemies, who would never show up in this place.
This was North City, one of the safest places in the whole world.
However, something unexpected happened.
Two girls who had gotten bored with the endless banquets sneaked out. They walked up the artificial hill and sat on a stone bench, which was about three meters away from the flowering shrub where Gu Shenwei hid.
He held his breath and kept still to avoid disturbing the girls whom he thought were probably two young misses. Actually, according to the killers’ rules, he should find a chance to retreat from this place to stay away from them. However, when he recognized their voices, he chose to stay here without knowing why he did this.
He had known that Shangguan Ru would come with her mother long before, but he had never antic.i.p.ated that she would have appeared somewhere so close to him.
Shangguan Ru and Shangguan Yus.h.i.+ sounded a little tipsy. They chatted and laughed cheerfully without noticing that someone was hiding right behind them. Compared to killer apprentices in East Castle, they had received killer training for a much longer time. Nevertheless, they did not have the killers’ sharp six senses, since they had never been through any life-and-death battles.
Their voices sounded sweet and soft. Gu Shenwei remembered that these two bossy girls had never talked like this before. He even started to wonder if they were still dressed like boys now.
The girls shared various topics, such as the plants in the garden and some trivial things in Golden Roc Fort. Gradually, they started to talk about some private things, which made Gu Shenwei feel awkward. He was faced with a dilemma now. He felt that he should leave as soon as possible, but at the same time, he worried that once he moved, they would notice him and get furious.
“Yus.h.i.+, the Fifth Young Master Meng kept peeping at you.”
“No. I think you might’ve misunderstood. He was peeping at you. I just sat beside you.”
The next moment, the girls chuckled merrily. They sounded as if they were tickling each other now. “I don’t like that guy. Yus.h.i.+, let’s ignore him. Don’t you agree?”
“Yes. I dislike him as well. It makes me sick to see such a young man like him still behaving like a baby in front of his grandmother.”
“Hee hee, his grandma adores him. Given that, even my mother has to treat him differently.”
“Huh, if he dares to act so shamelessly in front of me, I’ll…”
“What will you do?”
“I’ll spank his b.u.t.t with my scabbard and send him crying all the way to his grandma.”
“You wouldn’t dare do so. You won’t.” Shangguan Ru was panting heavily after laughing.
“I promise I will. I dare to do anything.”
Hearing that, Gu Shenwei could not help but snort in his heart. “Shangguan Yus.h.i.+, stop bragging. When we were caught by Mister Guo in the same room after we stole Black Jade Palm, you didn’t dare to say anything.”
“Oh, look at you. What a daring girl you are. You can’t act like this anymore when you get married.”
“I’ll never get married.”
“I heard that the seventh aunt has already hired matchmakers to find a suitable husband for you.”
Gu Shenwei was overjoyed to hear that and thought, “I remember that Shangguan Yus.h.i.+ is only one year younger than me. Given that, she’s already reached marriageable age. If she gets married and leaves the fort, I’ll feel much relieved.”
“That’s a groundless rumor. I won’t get married. Master Ru, do you want me to get married?”
“Well, it’s not my call. My mother said that all girls have to get married when they grow up.”
“That’s not true. I knew some girls who remained unmarried throughout their lives. I’ll listen to you. If you don’t want me to get married, I’ll spend my whole life accompanying you. If you get married, I’ll follow you to your husband’s family. Once your husband makes you sad, I’ll hunt him down to kill him. Even his grandma wouldn’t be able to save him.”
“That’s ridiculous. I’m still too young to get married,” Shangguan Ru said and laughed even louder.
“Come on, it’ll happen soon. You’re 13 now. After a couple of years, you’ll reach marriageable age.”
“Shus.h.!.+ Stop talking nonsense. I’ll become the Tenth Young Master of Golden Roc Fort and lead my own killer team. If someone dares to marry me, I’ll kill him and his entire family.”
“That’s good. When you have your own killer team, I’ll become your military counselor to help you lead your killers. I’ll help you become the next Supreme King.”
The ambitious girls talked on and on about their distant future and got increasingly excited. Suddenly, Shangguan Ru felt that they lacked something at this moment. “I think we should drink at such a good moment. We should drink while enjoying this beautiful scenery,” she said.
“Do you still want to drink? Your face is red now.”
“I want that sweet liquor. We’ll never get drunk with it.”
“All right, you wait for me here. I’ll get us some sweet liquor.”
“No, no, I just said it casually. Let’s stay here together to have some rest.”
They remained quiet for a moment, and then Shangguan Ru started to giggle. Gu Shenwei did not know what Shangguan Yus.h.i.+ did to persuade her. The next moment, he heard Shangguan Yus.h.i.+ rapidly walk down the artificial hill while Shangguan Ru was humming a tuneless song. Gradually, the girl’s voice got lower and lower. After a while, Gu Shenwei could only hear her soft breath sounds. It seemed that she had fallen asleep.
Gu Shenwei breathed out a sigh of relief and decided to leave this place as soon as possible. “Once the girls find out that I overheard their conversation, they’ll definitely flare up.” With this thought in his mind, he sneaked out of the flowering shrub and headed downhill quietly.
He was a little bit disappointed since he had never heard them mention Slave Huan in their conversation. However, this was not totally beyond his expectations. He believed that Shangguan Yus.h.i.+ must have tried everything to make Shangguan Ru forget about the slave boy who had played with her during her childhood.
Before he arrived at the foot of the artificial hill, he saw a young master, who was about 17 or 18, walking toward the hill together with a group of young attendants.
“They walked this way. I saw them.”
“Over there, over there. See, one of them is lying on the stone bench.”
The artificial hill was not very high. The teenagers spotted Shangguan Ru easily through the flowering bushes.
“That’s the Tenth Young Master. She’s dressed in black, and the other girl, in blue.”
“Yeah, that’s right. All the people in Golden Roc Fort like the color black. I heard that only big shots in the fort are eligible to wear black clothes.”
When the young attendants were whispering among themselves, their master said scornfully, “The Tenth Young Master? Come on, she’s a little girl. She dared to laugh at me in front of all the guests. I’ll go to teach her a lesson.”
“Master, forget about it. You’d better leave her alone. All the people from Golden Roc Fort are cold-blooded killers.”
“She can scare the others away, but she can never scare me. You’re such a coward. p.i.s.s off. I don’t want to see you anymore.”
Seeing the “coward” withdraw embarra.s.sedly, all the other young attendants displayed a positive att.i.tude to their master’s decision but none of them dared to follow the young master to the artificial hill. In the end, a young attendant suggested, “Master, we admire your boldness, but you don’t need to do much to give her a lesson. You just need to go up there and kiss her. Let’s see how this tomboy would react.”
The young master moved his arms to warm up. “You just have to wait and see,” he said to his attendants and then walked toward the hill.
Gu Shenwei sneaked back into the flowering shrub and hid again. “This young master is probably a child of the Meng family, so he’s the girls’ cousin. I’d better not get involved in this thing. After all, Shangguan Yus.h.i.+ will come back soon. Shangguan Ru will also wake up when she hears his steps.”
However, things did not turn out as he had expected.
The young master seemed to know some kung fu and walked very quietly. Shangguan Ru was fast asleep after drinking and did not seem to hear a thing. Shangguan Yus.h.i.+ seemed to really take her time and did not show up at this crucial moment.
Gu Shenwei held his wooden saber and kept reminding himself in his heart that he had every reason to stay out of this thing. “This is just a joke between cousins. If I step out, I’ll get into trouble. I’ve had enough troubles in my life.”
Despite that, he still walked out of the flowering shrub to stand behind Shangguan Ru with his wooden saber in hand.
When the young master was stooping down to kiss the girl, he suddenly felt a s.h.i.+ver and lifted up his head. He saw a teenager standing in front of him with a saber in his hand. That teenager’s face was as cold as ice.
The young master was terrified by the murderous look on the teenager’s face. He knew that he needed to not feel scared since he was in his family’s garden. However, he was still petrified with fear. He turned pale and started to sweat. Droplets of sweat welled up on his temples and then fell down his face.
At this moment, Shangguan Ru suddenly opened her eyes and saw a fear-distorted face. She was shocked and raised her hand to slap the guy in front of her with all her strength.
The young master fell down the hill.