Chapter 76

Chapter 76

Chapter 17 (Part 4)

Wu Du stands in the courtyard and slowly draws his sword.

“Chang Liujun.” Wu Du says frostily, “I’ve got urgent business. Don’t you force my hand.”

Mu Qing thinks Wu Du is just joking around, and he steps away from them to keep kicking his shuttlecock.

Chang Liujun schools his expression to placidity, draws his sword, and the two face off.

Wu Du knows that Mu Kuangda has to be right here in the compound, if for nothing else but the fact that Mu Kuangda is afraid to die; there’s no way he would leave for Jiangzhou on his own and let Chang Liujun leave his side.

“What’s going on?” Mu Kuangda’s voice is coming from the floor above. “What are you doing back by yourself, Wu Du?”

Chang Liujun only sheaths his sword once he hears the chancellor, but Wu Du keeps his sword out in his hand, his eyes locked on Chang Liujun’s every move.

Mu Kuangda steps between the two assassins and places his hand on Wu Du’s sword-wielding wrist, and thereupon Wu Du sheathes the Lieguangjian. His eyes remain on Chang Liujun as he says, “I have something important to report, Chancellor Mu.”

“Come talk up here,” Mu Kuangda replies, leading Wu Du upstairs.

On the second floor, the room is dimly-lit. Smelling of sweat, Wu Du takes off his shoes and goes inside.

“Wu Du?” Cai Yan sounds surprised.

Wu Du can never have expected for the present crown prince to come to Chancellor Mu’s estate of his own volition. Also, next to Cai Yan is an attendant, but it’s not Lang Junxia.

“His Highness was just looking for you,” Mu Kuangda says. “To think you’d come back ahead of schedule.”

Wu Du makes sure to bow at Cai Yan first, and then he curiously turns his attention to the attendant next to him with surprise in his eyes.

The attendant is wearing a deep red embroidered silk warrior’s robe, and he slouches against the table indecorously as he drinks. There’s a jade thumb ring and three precious rings on his left hand, while his right hand that holds a luminous jade cup is covered in a gauzy silk glove. He looks bleary-eyed with drink, and after hiccuping drunkenly, he pushes his cup in Wu Du’s direction to mean he should come have a drink.

“What are you doing here?” Wu Du says with a frown.

“His Majesty summoned me,” that young man smiles like a ruffian and replies without fanfare, “therefore I came. Got a problem?”

“Zheng Yan, you two know each other?” It’s Cai Yan’s turn to be surprised.

“Mm-hmm.” The man named Zheng Yan glances absently at Cai Yan, then turns his smiling attention on Wu Du again.

“Save the reminiscing for later.” Mu Kuangda says, “Wu Du, what do you have to tell me?”

Keeping in mind that Cai Yan and Zheng Yan are right here, Wu Du doesn’t say anything. Presumably the reason Chang Liujun didn’t announce him earlier was because of the crown prince’s presence in the estate. Of course he can’t give Mu Kuangda any details, so he reaches under his lapel for a flat envelope wrapped in oil cloth and hands it to him.

Mu Kuangda says cheerfully, “Very good.” Then he turns to Cai Yan. “News from Chang Pin has arrived. Please allow me some time to sort out the information before I make a copy for Your Highness.”

“It’s quite alright.” Cai Yan says to Mu Kuangda, “I was just thinking about asking Wu Du to take care of something small for me.”

“Certainly.” Thus Mu Kuangda slips out of the room as the situation demands, closing the door behind him to go read Duan Ling’s letter.

After a moment of quiet, Cai Yan says to Wu Du, “Zheng Yan is one of us.”

Wu Du puts a finger in front of his mouth to let him know he shouldn’t say too much right now.

Cai Yan thinks for a moment before he nods, and gets to the heart of the matter. “Wuluohou Mu has been missing for a month and a half. He didn’t even leave me a letter.”

Pfft, Zheng Yan laughs aloud.

“A fine fowl perches only on a fine tree.” Zheng Yan says to Cai Yan, “Your Highness, you should stop taking it so hard.”

Cai Yan’s eyes are showing a hint of fury; he’s clearly quite angry with Zheng Yan’s rudeness, but he doesn’t have the gall to do anything about him.

Wu Du realises what has happened right away: Lang Juxia has run off without a word, and Zheng Yan has taken over the job of guarding the crown prince. Most likely, Li Yanqiu was the one who appointed him by name.

But Cai Yan seems to find it a tricky thing to order this particular personal guard around. Just by seeing the way Zheng Yan dares to interrupt Cai Yan when he speaks, Wu Du can tell Cai Yan has been tolerating him for quite a while.

This chapter is scrapped from readlightnovel.org

“Wuluohou Mu first betrayed the late emperor, and now he’s betrayed Your Highness.” Wu Du says, “It is about time for us to catch him and bring him to justice.”

Cai Yan heaves a sigh, waving one hand. “Well it’s not as though I’m condemning him or anything of the sort; after all, even Zheng Yan hasn’t any idea where Wuluohou Mu may have gone … Wu Du, if you … if you have clues of where he is at all …”

“Just say it like it is.” Zheng Yan says impatiently, “What do you even bother beating around the bush like that for.”

“Get out of my sight!” Furious, Cai Yan abruptly shouts at him.

Wu Du feels rather awkward about all this, but Zheng Yan has skin so thick his face may as well be doubled up; he picks up his cup and stumbles his way towards the door, pulls the door open and slams it behind him.

Cai Yan’s expression is so dark it borders on terrifying.

“What can I do to help, Your Highness?”

Cai Yan hesitates for a moment, and says at last, “The purpose of my coming here today, aside from to speak with Chancellor Mu in regards to the capital’s relocation, is also because I wanted you to find Wuluohou Mu somehow through your connections.”

Wu Du thinks quietly to himself for a moment. He nods. “Though the White Tiger Hall used to lead the four assassins, by my generation there’s hardly any of us left. As Wuluohou Mu came from the Xianbei tribes, and on top of that he’s slaughtered his entire sect, he’s unlikely to abide by my commands. But if Your Highness would give me the order, whether I can bring back a live one isn’t something I dare guarantee, but I can at the very least bring back his corpse.”

Cai Yan doesn’t utter a word. His eyebrows have tightened into a knot as though he’s trying to make an extremely difficult decision.

“Try your best to bring him back alive,” Cai Yan says finally.

Wu Du nods. There’s another knock on the door, and Mu Kuangda comes in. He says to Wu Du, “I got it, thank you for travelling day and night to bring this to me. Go get some rest for now and have some dinner, make sure to replenish your energy. I’ll need you to run another errand for me before dawn comes.”

Wu Du knows that Mu Kuangda wants to send a message to Tongguan, so he’s most likely agreed to Duan Ling’s suggestions. He bows at Cai Yan again before leaving the room, while Mu Kuangda goes to sit in front of Cai Yan, spreading a memorial open on the table.

The sun is setting. Walking through the winding gallery, Wu Du sees Zheng Yan drunkenly holding the stem of his cup as he speaks to Mu Qing, while Chang Liujun sits before the gallery scrutinising him with his arms crossed. As soon as Zheng Yan spots Wu Du he beckons him over. “Come on come on come on, have a few jugs of wine with me today — let’s drink ‘til we drop!”

Zheng Yan starts walking towards him, but Wu Du has drawn his sword to point it at Zheng Yan’s throat.

“I need to get some sleep,” Wu Du says frostily.

Zheng Yan can only nod at him. “Get a few cups in with me when you wake up.”

“We’ll see.” Wu Du sheaths his sword and turns to glance at Chang Liujun, and Chang Liujun gives him a sarcastic sneer. Wu Du doesn’t pay him any more attention and hurries back to the courtyard house at the edge of the chancellor compound that he used to live in with Duan Ling.

Nothing has been touched, but the flowers that Duan Ling used to keep have withered away. Wu Du gets on the bed with his clothes still on, and immediately falls asleep.

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