Chapter 145: Midnight
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
There were subtle changes in the attitude the teacher Zhang Ji displayed towards this "Outsider Student".
After the teacher-killing incident, Gu Shenwei garnered mostly suspicion and respect from the Golden Roc Fort, yet when he was with Zhang Ji, he could not help but feel a hint of disgust and watchfulness coming from Zhang. This was rightfully the reaction to be expected from normal people, yet it was different at the Stone Castle.
The two of them chatted idly, and there were many gaps in their conversation. The words did not flow out from Zhang Ji like before, and Gu Shenwei could not directly speak about what he had eavesdropped. After a fruitless discussion in which both were beating around the bush for half of the day and from which he did not get much information. Thus, Gu could only bid his farewell.
As to why the texts could have gone missing, Zhang Ji felt that this was a common occurrence. "It wasn't very important as to whether the texts were kept separately. I estimate that 20 to 30 percent of the texts were lost over the passage of time because they were misplaced or destroyed for whatever reasons," said Zhang.
However, something which Zhang Ji said piqued the wild imagination of Gu Shenwei. Zhang Ji himself did not know the importance of these words of his, "Ten years ago, Mister Guo was the steward of the Ceremonial Department, having about the same responsibility as a chamberlain of the royal palace. He was by the side of his Lordship every day, recording all his words and movements. This was how he started his career."
As Gu Shenwei's father was a palace guard before at the Central Plains, he heard stories of the palace since young and knew a little of the inner workings of the palace. He immediately knew what kind or role Mister Guo had 10 years ago. His heart stirred a little and felt a little enlightened.
Back at the East Castle, he found Maid Lotus and told her to gather information. She came back quickly with this news, "Kun Yard used to be the manor of the previous Third Young Master, and he was his Lord's brother. He had already died many years ago."
While Gu Shenwei's guesses were confirmed to be true, it still came as a great shock to him as never would he had known that during his secret trip to the Whiterobe Academy, his search for the documents on the extermination of the Gu family would come to naught but instead he would have eavesdropped about a greater conspiracy.
Going through all the details again, Gu Shenwei felt that his deductions could not be too far off from the actual events. What was going to happen next would be how he was going to handle the situation; would he watch how the events unfolded from afar or would he throw himself into the mix?
Strictly speaking, this conspiracy had utterly nothing to do with him, but he did not intend to let Mister Guo have his way. It would not bode well for Gu in the long run once Mister Guo regained the trust of his Lord again.
Gu Shenwei passed on all the information he knew and all the deductions he made to Maid Lotus. He told her, "This is a chance for you to contribute The risks won't be small, and if you're willing to do it, you have to act immediately. We could be out of time tomorrow."
"Don't you want to do it yourself?" She asked. Of course, Maid Lotus would have wanted to grab the chance to achieve glory, and this was no small accomplishment if she managed to finish the task.
"I need help. Therefore it's better for you to be a killer as well." In truth, as this task involved getting into the inner manor, Maid Lotus would be better suited for it than Gu Shenwei.
Miss He bowed to him, and Gu Shenwei felt shocked. This was decorum reserved for superiors, and even when he was made the chief of the Tattooed Arm Gang, she did not show such respect for him.
Gu Shenwei nodded slightly, calmly accepting this show of loyalty. He had already made it clear that he needed an 'assistant' and not a 'friend'.
Maid Lotus took her leave; she was definitely different from the simple-minded Luo Ningcha, and Gu Shenwei did not have to instruct her what to do.
After the task was completed, Maid Lotus still told him about how it all went down.
There was a female disciple in the Little Flag Battalion who was friends with Maid Lotus. The master of this female disciple was the Sixth Young Master whose wife was from the Meng clan and the niece of his Lord's wife. Although Lady Meng had some veiled criticism of her own family, she was very close to this niece and daughter-in-law of hers.
Using her influence over many layers of contacts, Maid Lotus managed to get Lady Meng to summon her for a visit that very evening.
Lady Meng first expressed her gratitude to Maid Lotus for dutifully taking care of Shangguan Ru on the way to the Iron Mountain Battalion in the past. Even though it was a few months ago, Lady Meng had not forgotten about it and gave Maid Lotus many precious pearls and food. She even asked Maid Lotus a little about the training of a female killer out of curiosity.
A handmaiden led Maid Lotus to the annex to collect her gifts and told her in a soft voice not to leave first.
After the ladies in the hall made them leave, Maid Lotus was summoned again. This time, Lady Meng's expression changed from one of an approachable matron of a large household to that of an interrogator who looked straight into the depths of someone's heart.
Maid Lotus first swore that even though she was brought into the Fort by Eighth Young Mistress as her bridal maiden, she had never served any of the ladies from the Luo Household; she was a slave purchased by the Bighead Kingpin at the spur of a moment during one of his journeys. After which, she told Lady Meng about some of the information she had gathered.
This was the hard part as she could not divulge all the deductions of Slave Huan, as it would cause her to become a suspicious insider. Therefore, she directed everything towards the path of Mister Guo.
Mister Guo had worked secretly in the past to arrest all of the elite Dragon Year apprentices. Even though the conspiracy was never openly attributed to Mister Guo, all of the brown-belt assassins in the Little Flag Battlalion hated him.
Maid Lotus hated him as well, which explained why she was especially interested in the movements of Mister Guo. Once she heard that Mister Guo abused his position as the chief of the Document Library to search for information from 15 to 16 years ago and planned to use it against the Tenth Young Master, she decided to pass this secret on to Lady Meng.
Lady Meng was not a gullible person, but that night Maid Lotus succeeded in convincing her. Lady Meng was not totally clueless as to Mister Guo's conspiracy, and her expression changed once Maid Lotus mentioned "information from 15 to 16 years ago", thus confirming that Gu Shenwei's deductions were very close to actual events.
Lady Meng calmed down quickly and indifferently praised Maid Lotus, instructing her not to bring this matter up to anyone else and then got the help to send her off from the Inner Residence.
Once Maid Lotus got back to the East Castle, she found Slave Huan and described everything to him. Both felt that tomorrow's adulthood initiation ceremony for the twins would be interesting.
Little would they know that they had underestimated Lady Meng and that the action had already begun prematurely that night.
Lady Meng was not the naïve type of person who was willing to be a sitting duck. Earlier on at the Supreme King's lavish wedding ceremony, she had already noticed the inner conflict amongst this household and knew that she would become an object of public criticism. From that day onwards, she continuously consolidated her power and meticulously gathered information that could be used against her opponents.
Lady Meng seldom used this information as she knew full well that if she could not manage to completely destroy her opponents, moving too soon would only result in achieving the opposite from what she wanted. Therefore, she had always bid her time.
With what Maid Lotus confided in her, Lady Meng came to see that the enemy was already hiding under plain sight and waiting to strike the fatal blow; she had to act first.
That evening was absolutely normal to most people inside the Stone Castle as only a select few were kept busy. The next morning, the huge changes inside the Golden Roc Fort shocked everyone, and the ripples of the shockwave could be felt even outside Jade City.
Lady Meng's decisiveness and ruthlessness far exceeded Gu Shenwei's expectations, and he never thought that one sentence of which he eavesdropped could create such a big commotion. This made him reconsider the infighting in the Inner Residence, and he felt that maybe he could still leverage on Luo Ningcha.
At midnight, a handmaiden from the Inner Residence knocked on the door of Slave Huan's residence and passed on the order from the Tenth Young Master Shangguan Ru, who requested his immediate presence at the Inner Residence.
Initially, Gu Shenwei wanted to give all credit to Maid Lotus while staying behind the scenes himself but now he had to get involved himself albeit reluctantly. He was suspicious as to why Shangguan Ru would be involved in this matter.
When he entered the Inner Residence, he secretly admired Lady Meng's discreetness.
Shangguan Ru was not aware of what had transpired at all and was half lying in her mother's arms with a blank look on her face. Lady Meng was only using her daughter's name to act.
Maid Lotus was also summoned at the same time, and she too did not expect that the reaction to her secret information would be so swift.
Lady Meng sat upright on a mat, wearing a gorgeous looking formal dress. This outfit was worn only once a year during the sacrificial ceremony and portrayed her as the rightful wife of the Lord. She hugged the twins tightly with both her arms with a stern look across her face. It felt as though her children would die once she let go of them.
There were only four handmaidens in the hall, and the dim rays of light coming from the solitary candle burning hid Lady Meng and the twins partially in the light and partially in the darkness.
"I need both of you to do something for me, and Ru'er has recommended you two."
Gu Shenwei and Maid Lotus kneeled on one knee and planted their left palm on the floor, keeping silent. This was the pose struck by a killer willing to accept the mission given.
"Even though both of you were brought into the Stone Castle by that woman, I have seen your loyalty towards Ru'er with my own eyes. Therefore I trust you two."
Lady Meng got off the mat and turned to caress the cheeks of the twins, showing a smile expressing consolation to them. She then walked in front of the two youths and the handmaiden went forward to Slave Huan and Maid Lotus to signal them to get up.
"Now the lives of my two children and I are in grave danger, and I have to act first. I want you both to kill Mister Guo."
The two youths lifted their heads in shock, both feeling that this was not the best idea.
Lady Meng knew fully well what effect her words would produce and pulled out a folded piece of paper from her sleeve. She said, "This is his Lord's personal handwritten order, and both of you can feel free to act accordingly."
Gu Shenwei received the paper with both hands, and saw the following lines once he opened it: "Guo Chun of the Whiterobe Academy has intentions of rebellion and disobedience, and can be assassinated." There was a stamp of a Golden Roc spreading its wings on the bottom left corner and in the entire Jade City, only the stamp ink of the Supreme King was gold.
Gu Shenwei folded the handwritten order back, and Lady Meng collected it back when she deemed it the right moment.
The two youths had no other choice left; whether the handwritten order was forged or not, they had to act according to their orders.
"Receive your orders." They kneeled on one knee again.
"Bring his head back to me right now."
They took two waist tokens made with white jade and engraved with the words "Wang" from the maid, for use when traveling in the night, and left hurriedly. They noticed that other assassins in black were waiting in the house next door and understood that killing Mister Guo was only part of Lady Meng's plan.
Mister Guo was staying at the West Castle and both Gu, and Maid Lotus had to return to the East Castle to get their sabers. Gu Shenwei managed to keep his wits about him amidst the cloud of heavy conspiracy around them. He had to have an escape plan for both Maid Lotus and himself.
"You go get the weapons, after which meet me at the entrance to the main yard of the Eighth Young Master."
This was a peculiar night; no night sentry came to stop the youths sprinting about within the Fort.
Even so, Gu Shenwei still kept carefully observing while he walked and after making sure that no one was tailing him, and leapt directly into the main yard of the Eighth Young Master without announcing himself. He stealthily walked to the backyard and knocked on the door of the middle bedroom.
"Who goes there?"
After knocking a few times, a maid's voice rang out from within the room.
"There's an urgent message from the Eighth Young Master", Gu Shenwei lied.
As someone in the house started to strike a flint to light up the lantern, Gu Shenwei hurriedly stopped the person, "Please do not make any light."
The person stopped trying to light the lantern, and after a while, Miss Luo Ningcha's voice came from the side of the door, "I know it's you. The maid's ears are sealed. Now tell me what you have to say."
Luo Ningcha's calmness surprised Gu Shenwei. He said, "Send someone to Madam Yang with a message to let Shangguan Hongye leave the Stone Castle immediately, and to hide outside its walls."
"What happened?"
"Madam Yang has done something foolish, somehow she wanted to conspire with Mister Guo to take down Lady Meng. His Lord had ever shown affections towards Madam Yang, and Shangguan Hongye could very likely be his illegitimate son. Now Lady Meng has begun to remove all that is deemed as a threat to her and if Shangguan Hongye does not leave he will surely be dead tomorrow morning."
Gu Shenwei hoped that Shangguan Hongye would survive not out of pity but because he wanted to have a backup plan for himself. If Lady Meng should decide to sever all connections, he would have the ability to react.
Only Lady Meng had acted too quickly, and he did not know if his plan would still be able to work in time.