After receiving the map, Lin Jian and Yao Ying quickly searched for those two men. Fortunately, it wasn"t that hard. No matter how many shadow guards there, it would be hard to control so many people at once. They were able to find a few loopholes and found those two men in a flash.
Besides, their tent wasn"t really that far from their place, so it made it easier for them to find those two men. When they were going to talk to them quietly, coincidentally, those two men also came out of their tent stealthily. They made a secret gesture and it seemed like no one in their tent knew about their intentions.
They loudly yelled inside the tent that they needed a place to relieve themselves, before they came out and behaved like thieves.
Those two men were also roaming around, seemed to search for something or someone"s whereabouts. Yao Ying and Lin Jian decided to follow them --- to find out their purpose of coming into the palace. Maybe they could use this as blackmail material. Besides, they needed to investigate them before offering them a cooperation opportunity, right?
From the way they saw it, it seemed like they were indeed hired a.s.sa.s.sins. The way they moved was a good proof. They could blend into their surroundings and could bypa.s.s several hidden guards easily without batting eyelashes --- they even treated those hidden guards as a joke. Their breathing was almost non-existence! This was the first requirement as an a.s.sa.s.sin --- to cleverly hide their presence and blend with their surroundings.
Hopefully, they had the same goal --- the Han Emperor and the wicked concubine. If they were ordered to kill them, it was better ah~! They didn"t need to work hard but they would add some spices to fire it up. Thus, they were able to have a happy cooperation. Or else, they needed to kill those two men to protect their own ident.i.ties.
Before they set off, Yao Ling told Yao Ying that there was a way to guarantee their cooperation even without needing to convince those two men and wasting words to them... Yao Ling provided them with poison. Once the cooperation had finished, she would give them the antidotes. Of course, she would need to see their performance whether they were good partners or not.
Easy peasy!
Yao Ying felt that having a clever wife was so convenience sometimes --- she really helped and made his job easier with her skills by a lot. There was a great Chinese idiom that really portrayed this matter. "Nán-nǚ dāpèi, gànhuó bù lèi" which meant that when men and women worked together they didn"t feel tired. This idiom could be applied to their relations.h.i.+p and Yao Ying felt so grateful for having Yao Ling as his wife.
Yao Ying looked at the people that they followed and he still wanted to see what those two men were planning to do, but those two were very careful when moving around.
Lin Jian whispered softly, "What do you think they want to do?"
Yao Ying shrugged his shoulder off helplessly. "How should I know? There are so many possibilities ah~!" The fight inside the palace was quite messy, so he didn"t know who sent those men. The Han Emperor had many princesses and princes because his harem was quite full with many pretty ladies and he didn"t seem to plan to stop collecting new beautiful ladies any time soon.
The fight between those people would be crazy enough --- they tended to kill each other to achieve their goal and there were a few attempts of a.s.sa.s.sinations towards the Han Emperor himself. So many people wanted to kill others...
Thus, he couldn"t really guess ah~!
Yao Ying sighed. "However, we can"t be out for too long because we still need to prepare a few things for our performance ah~!"
Lin Jian nodded his head. "If they don"t reveal their purpose sooner, we should use the hard way."
Yao Ying smirked but agreed with Lin Jian --- the sooner they finished this task, the better.
Finally, they saw that the two men were meeting up with a man --- a eunuch, to be exact. They started to realize it from the way that eunuch talked with a high-pitched voice. Even though he wore a commoner outfit, he couldn"t cover up his lack of masculinity.
It seemed like the eunuch was their partner, judging from how close they were --- maybe this wasn"t the first time they were working together as well.
Yao Ying and Lin Jian tried to get as close as possible to those three while listening to their conversations. They were still able to hear bits and pieces and once they put the pieces together, they understood everything that they were talking about.
"Have you prepared everything?" The eunuch asked in a low voice while looking around in a hurry --- he felt afraid that someone would find out about this meeting. This place was quite deserted, but he couldn"t stop his anxiety.
Both men pulled out the weapons and showed them to the eunuch which made the latter feel satisfied. Those weapons indeed were like how Yao Ling described it to be and their guess was correct.
"When should we do it?" One of the two men asked.
The eunuch answered, "Just like how we planned before ah~! When both of you do your performance."
"Do you know where the target"s position will be? There will be so many people in the banquet --- we need to have an estimation and also, do you have his picture?" One of the men asked once again.
The people in the palace rarely showed his face --- without a proper picture, how could the a.s.sa.s.sins know their target for sure? They couldn"t just randomly kill people there --- after all, the banquet was attended by important and powerful figures of this kingdom. They needed to kill the man and quickly ran away!
Yao Ying shook his head when he saw those two amateurs... Shouldn"t they make a research about the target before receiving the a.s.signment? This was a basic knowledge for a.s.sa.s.sins ah~! Trying to find information on the day of the a.s.sa.s.sination was quite funny for him and honestly, very stupid.
No wonder those two were sloppy enough to let Yao Ling see their weapons out of nowhere. Was there any use for high martial arts skills if they were brainless?!
Yao Ying wasn"t wrong in his deduction, however, this matter happened because the a.s.sa.s.sins were hired the previous day and they didn"t have the chance to find any pieces of information before. It was lucky for Yao Ying and Lin Jian, otherwise, they wouldn"t be able to get such a detailed explanation of those a.s.sa.s.sins" a.s.signment if it wasn"t because of this reason.
The eunuch gave them the seating information of the banquet, showing that he actually had a high status inside the palace. No one would dare to give a lowly eunuch such an important piece of information ah~!
They wondered who did the eunuch serve? What kind of important figure that person was?
They felt even more curious with the target"s ident.i.ty --- he must not be an ordinary person... If they could their hand on the seating information, it would be great and save them a great deal of trouble! Too bad, they were too far to see the drawing, so perhaps, they needed to steal it from them.
The eunuch gave it along with a drawing of their target. He explained something to them in a low voice while pointing at the target"s designated place to seat. One of the men opened the drawing and because it was bigger, Yao Ying and Lin Jian were able to see the target"s face clearly.
They were dumbfounded when they saw the person"s face because the target was someone that they knew!
"Oh My Buddha!"