In the afternoon, Yan Liqiang took a long, luxurious nap in his room within the Vista Paradiso inn to conserve his strength. After waking up, he practiced Muscle Tendon Changing and Marrow Cleansing twice in his room and then like a normal guest, he left the inn and wandered once around the streets and markets. He only returned to the inn after eating dinner as the night was about to fall.
After returning to his room, Yan Liqiang stood in front of the window, looking out towards the clear, gleaming reflection of the Lake of Longevity, patiently waiting for the sky to completely darken.
After an hour, the sky was completely dark, and Yan Liqiang faced the other side of the Lake of Longevity. The Plum Gardens were about a thousand or so meters out and it was at this time that the many pavilions within the Plum Gardens started lighting up with rows of lanterns. Looking from afar, the clear, gleaming lake reflected the multicolored and multi-shaped lanterns upside down, making it seem like it was truly something out of the norm.
It was then that Yan Liqiang finally moved. He pulled out his leather bag, took out the dagger, and cut through a piece of material inside the leather bag. He pulled out a mask that was in between the layers of the leather bag.
That mask was the one that King Cobra had used. After he wore this mask to destroy the Hong family, Yan Liqiang had carefully packed it away. He originally thought that he would not have much use for it in the future, but he didn"t expect to use it in Pingxi City this time. Not long after its last use, it would again be time for King Cobra to rise and make a disturbance again.
Yan Liqiang carefully put the mask on his face in the room. After a mere moment"s effort, King Cobra appeared in the room with an icy expression, slanted eyes, and a visible black beauty mark on his left cheek.
After changing, Yan Liqiang took off all of his clothes in his room. Wearing only a pair of shorts, he hung the blow darts that were wrapped in a waterproof oilcloth on his body with a thin string. He picked up the dagger, and after making certain that there was no one around paying him any attention, Yan Liqiang quietly opened the back window of his room and climbed outside.
The window was over two meters from the ground and just beneath the window were two rock embankments that were each a foot wide. Next to the embankments was the Lake of Longevity. If one stood beneath the window, one could hear the sound of people eating and drinking from the nearby restaurants as well as the sound of the lake lapping gently against the embankment.
Yan Liqiang took a deep breath and then slid into the water without a ripple, just like an eel. He then dove headfirst into the water, swimming underwater towards the dimly lit Plum Gardens in the distance.
In his previous life, one of Yan Liqiang"s favorite sports was swimming and snorkeling. Even though his swimming and snorkeling standard wasn"t quite at the professional compet.i.tion level, within the amateur crowd, he was one of the best.
In his previous life, Yan Liqiang could swim out over forty meters on one breath of air. However, today, when Yan Liqiang raised his head above the water for a breath, he was already two hundred meters out...
After training, his powerful legs and arms let him move faster in the water, and after three heavenly possessions, his lungs made him feel like a fish in water. The amount of time he could spend underwater with each breath surprised even Yan Liqiang himself.
The night wind blew across the Lake of Longevity, raising little waves. However, these waves did not affect Yan Liqiang at all as he sped through the water; in fact, because of these waves, Yan Liqiang was even less likely to be seen when he raised his head above water for a breath. On a night like this, unless someone was within ten meters, if anyone saw Yan Liqiang"s head pop up from the lake, they wouldn"t think it was a person. Rather, they would have mistaken his head for a fish or a turtle in the Lake of Longevity.
After using about ten or so minutes, Yan Liqiang only came up to breathe less than ten times and was already about across the Lake of Longevity. He had reached the waters of the Plum Gardens.
...
Within the Plum Gardens, near the Lake of Longevity, there was a four-story-high turreted loft. At this time, the loft was brightly lit and filled with people. From within the loft, there was the sound of traditional instruments as well as the mellow sound of female voices. From time to time, there was also the sound of cheers coming from the entire room. This was the busiest place in the Plum Gardens: the Plum Gardens Theater. It was the place in Pingxi City where all the famous actors, actresses, martial arts specialists, as well as all the theater groups came to perform a few times each night.
In this entertainment-deprived age, watching theater performances had become the biggest recreational activity for many people. The performances and plays within the Plum Gardens Theater made even the richest men in Pingxi City rush for tickets. The theater was packed every night with hardly a seat to spare.
"Oh, Manager Li, you"ve arrived. My manager kept your reserved seat for you. You"re so late tonight, the performance of"Taming of the Princess" started over a quarter of an hour ago…" Out at the entrance of the Plum Gardens Theater, the doorman greeted a portly man with his face wreathed in smiles. The man was walking over while chewing on a big meat bun.
"You don"t say. I closed the shop just now, and came here straight away without dinner just to catch the show. I didn"t expect for my cart to break down along the way, which delayed me a bit. Quick, take me inside. From what I can hear, that voice, Little Yulian has already come out, right…" The portly man walked toward the entrance whilst stuffing the rest of the bun hastily inside his mouth.
"She"s already onstage…"
"Then hurry…" the man said, not even bothering to continue eating the bun in his hand. There was still a bit left which was about half the size of a palm, so he casually threw it into the nearby lake and wiped his mouth and walked into the theater.
Splash. As Yan Liqiang was listening to the conversation above, that half-palm sized bun landed squarely in the water not even half a meter away from where he was. Droplets of water splashed upwards, and some even hit Yan Liqiang on the face, briefly scaring him.
At this point in time, Yan Liqiang had already arrived beneath the pier next to the theater. Next to him were stone support struts that stood in the water. The bridge part of the pier stretched above and across. His current position was a blind spot for anyone that was standing above.
Yan Liqiang stayed in the water, unmoving, not even breathing, until he figured out that the thing that had been thrown in the water was merely half a bun. He only let out a breath after he realized that no one had discovered him — d.a.m.n!
The half-bun floated on the surface of the water, bobbing up and down with the waves. Yan Liqiang waited until there were no more sounds from above before he followed the curve of the pier, submerging himself and swimming towards a small island about one hundred meters away from the Plum Gardens Theater.
That small island was only about one-fifteenth of a hectare big. On the island, there was only one pergola which was surrounded by trees and rocks, containing the heavy scent of flowers. In the middle of the night, this was an unexpectedly quiet location.
Yan Liqiang remained beneath the pier in the water, unmoving, waiting silently.
Lu Beixin and w.a.n.g Haofei had been in contact with each other for about half a year. Within this timeframe, as a woman in love, as long as she was in Pingxi City, Lu Beixin would come to the Plum Gardens on the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days of the month. She"d use the excuse of going to the theater, to clandestinely meet with w.a.n.g Haofei.
This was something that Yan Liqiang discovered only after his "last death". Today was coincidentally the seventh of the month. If everything went according to plan, and if w.a.n.g Haofei still didn"t know that Lu Beixin was forbidden to go out by the Lu family, then w.a.n.g Haofei would definitely come here to meet Lu Beixin tonight. It was the perfect opportunity to kill w.a.n.g Haofei.
Yan Liqiang didn"t really know if w.a.n.g Haofei would really come, but either way, it was still a chance and it was worth a try. If it didn"t succeed, then he would make other plans.
After approximately thirty minutes, the sound of footsteps sounded above Yan Liqiang"s head. Listening to it, he determined that there was one person in front, two people behind: in total, three people.
"Alright, the two of you can wait over there. If other members of the Lu family are lured here tonight, then the two of you will follow the plan. You know what to do right?"
This voice was one that Yan Liqiang would recognize in his very dreams. It was that b.a.s.t.a.r.d w.a.n.g Haofei"s voice.
Hearing the sound of this voice, Yan Liqiang, who was still in the water, suddenly found himself energized.
Feeling that there was no one nearby and whatever he said would go unheard, w.a.n.g Haofei"s words held an indescribable tone and was slightly hard and cold.
"Yes, don"t worry Sir, we know what to do!" The two guards responded in a rough tone. "Today this Forgotten Sorrow Pergola has been occupied by our young master. If other members of the Lu family are lured here, then we"ll block them and not let them step onto the pier…"
"I"ll go and row the small boat over. We"ll get that Lu woman to sit on the small boat and then take her to Mingquan Courtyard. w.a.n.g Fu has already prepared everything over there. Tonight, we definitely won"t let that woman escape your grasp, Young Master…"
"Good, if nothing goes wrong tonight, then it"ll be the last night. If your performances are good, then when we go back I"ll ask my father to handsomely reward you both…"
"Thank you, Sir!"
"Go, stay sharp. Oh, right, get someone to remove all the incense burners from this island. You need to change it to green sandalwood, that woman doesn"t like any other scents…"
"Yes!"
The sound of the two guards" footsteps faded even as w.a.n.g Haofei stepped onto the island.
Yan Liqiang silently drew in a breath when he heard this conversation in the water from below. Listening to what w.a.n.g Haofei meant, he had prepared a trap here tonight — w.a.n.g Haofei was to meet Lu Beixin here and then deliberately lure people from the Lu family here as well. Under those circ.u.mstances, Lu Beixin would definitely be worried and she would not want to face them here. w.a.n.g Haofei would then organize for the little boat to take Lu Beixin away from here to avoid having her meet anyone from the Lu family. If Lu Beixin got on the boat, she would be taken to Mingquan Courtyard and be at their mercy...
It was good that old man Lu had forbidden Lu Beixin from leaving. If Lu Beixin actually did come out, then what would happen to her after tonight would be hard to predict.
Not even a minute after, while Yan Liqiang was still in the water, the soft sound of a guqin could be heard from the pergola on that little island...
Listening to the sound of the guqin, Yan Liqiang"s eyes grew colder and colder...
...