Chapter 319: Rescued
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
It was not entirely due to random chance or by accident that Chu Nanping and Tie Linglong managed to sneak into the Golden Roc Fort. They were already marked as suspicious characters at the gates of North City and their identities as the personal bodyguards of the Dragon King were confirmed when they were at the foot of the stone bridge.
However, the news of them trying to enter the fort was reported directly to Lady Meng instead of the Supreme King.
Just like this, the two confident youths fell into a trap set up for them. They were captured once they set foot in the Inner Residence and did not even have time to find their bearings around the place.
Lady Meng was disappointed that it was not the Dragon King himself who had been lured into the trap, but two of his subordinates instead - not to mention that they were just teenagers. She understood him and knew that he would not give up the secret manuscript just for Chu Nanping and Tie Linglong, but she still informed Meng Yuzun that the youths were in her hands; this would allow him to use them as bargaining chips in his negotiations with the Dragon King.
The two teenagers did not suffer much during their captivity; in fact, they were rescued before the negotiations even began.
Shangguan Fei was exaggerating when he told the Dragon King that his sister was not speaking to anyone and that she would rather be mute. However, it was true that she had not talked to her mother for three years.
Shangguan Ru was only on partial house arrest and could still move freely within the Inner Residence. Moreover, she still enjoyed the love and loyalty of many within the fort. As such, her sources brought her even more information compared to what her mother and brother knew about.
Very quickly, she got to know about the capture of the two teenagers and understood that they had come to 'rescue' her.
The way things turned out in the end, Chu Nanping and Tie Linglong were the ones who required rescuing instead.
Shangguan Ru knew very well that it would be easy to rescue both of them: Lady Meng did not want the Supreme King to know about the teenagers and therefore had them imprisoned in a stone hut instead of the heavily guarded underground dungeon.
Springing them from the hut would be one thing, but it would be next to impossible to send them safely down the mountain. Security in the Golden Roc Fort had gradually become stronger all these years after the rebellion of Slave Huan and Maid Lotus. Even Shangguan Ru was unable to escape from the castle herself, let alone the two youths who were unfamiliar with the territory.
The only option would be to find a safe place to hide them temporarily - Shangguan Ru thought.
But that would be nearly impossible, she concluded. There were only a few places in the Stone Castle that were out of Lady Meng's reach - basically, the houses frequented by the Supreme King, including the residence of the Eighth Young Mistress, Luo Ningcha.
After managing to survive the assassination attempt, she had her wish fulfilled: she gave birth to a son. Her quarters in the Inner Residence was a grand mansion which was relatively independent of the other houses. She kept a distance away from Lady Meng and was also situated far away from the Supreme King, Her mansion can be considered as somewhat shielded from public eyes , Shangguan Ru thought to herself.
Luo Ningcha did not allow Lady Meng to get involved in anything pertaining to her 'territory' and only she dared to (and gladly) partake in everything that would lead to the displeasure of the matron.
As such, Shangguan Ru sent the two brash youths to her Eighth Sister-in-law's residence.
Luo Ningcha immediately agreed to take them in, as she had a somewhat good impression of Shangguan Ru. Another reason was that she heard that Lady Meng kept their presence in the fort a secret from the Supreme King and intended to use them to threaten Slave Huan.
Shangguan Ru knew the inherent danger of her actions and warned Luo Ningcha against presenting the two youths to the Supreme King: they were the trusted subjects of the Dragon King, and he would come looking for revenge if any harm came to them.
Luo Ningcha was not afraid of the Dragon King's vengeance, but she promised to keep the presence of the two youths a secret. However, she made it very clear that she wanted Slave Huan, instead of Shangguan Ru, to repay the favor in future.
Thus, Chu Nanping and Tie Linglong spent the next 20 over days in the "residence of the Eighth Young Master". Luo Ningcha was the one who came up with the sudden and weird idea of forcing Chu Nanping to dress as a girl and making Tie Linglong constantly squint her eyes to conceal those emerald pupils, so as to hide their true identities from the spies of Lady Meng; the girl was also dressed as the opposite gender, albeit without force.
Even though the two youths were a little resistant to the cross-dressing and squinting, they could still bear with it. What was insufferable for them was the constant nagging of Luo Ningcha.
"At least three times every day," Tie Linglong said.
She was in charge of recounting their adventure to the Dragon King. Her eyebrows wrinkled together as she thought about Luo Ningcha's nagging; just the thought of it was unbearable.
"We had to swear that she was our savior. Luckily, she did not want us to repay the favor. She wanted us to inform you, Dragon King, that she was taking a huge risk and that you are obliged to repay her."
This was exactly the Luo Ningcha that Gu Shenwei knew. "Don't worry, I have a way to handle her," he replied.
Even though there were times when Gu Shenwei had underestimated Luo Ningcha, his impression of her was merely an extremely selfish woman and had never viewed of her as an opponent that should be treated seriously.
"Right, then it's all good, I guess." Tie Linglong felt relieved. Even though Luo Ningcha could be considered as her savior, she was unable to get herself to like the woman. She then asked curiously, "Are you familiar with her, Dragon King? She seemed... to know you pretty well."
"I was working under her and that's how I entered the Golden Roc Fort in the past," replied Gu Shenwei indifferently with a calm tone. He believed that no matter how foolish Luo Ningcha was, she would not speak irresponsibly about their past.
Tie Linglong and Chu Nanping nodded at the same time as a mystery clouding their thoughts was solved. They were young and knew little about the ways of the world; if a more worldly adult was in their place, surely he or she would be more suspicious after hearing what the Dragon King had said.
As for Lady Meng, she went off her rocker upon discovering that her two captives, who she had spent so much effort to catch, were missing. She suspected that her daughter was involved but could not find any evidence leading directly to her. Furthermore, she could not openly start a search for the two teenagers as well. As such, she issued a gag order, hoping that the Dragon King would still believe that they were in her custody.
Both of them had actually followed Shangguan Ru down the mountain as part of her entourage of slaves during her wedding.
Every family in the fort contributed a gift for the young lady who was getting married. Even though many of the Supreme King's sons were dead now, his grandchildren were still around. Under the supervision of their mothers, they still had to pay tribute to Lady Meng, who held real power, on behalf of their fathers.
Luo Ningcha was the Eighth Young Mistress in name and she followed the Bighead Kingpin's tradition of sending gold, silver and precious jewels as well as slaves for the wedding gift. Among the five pairs of slaves from both sexes were Chu Nanping and Tie Linglong, who were, of course, dressed as the opposite sex.
No one in the entourage expected Meng Mingshi to die before even crossing the stone bridge to the castle, and the two youths were almost detained in the fort once again. It was only when the Supreme King insisted that the marriage was valid regardless of Meng Mingshi's death that they managed to leave the mountain with Shangguan Ru.
Shangguan Ru did not let the two of them leave immediately when they arrived at Lotus Yard for fear that they would be exposed in North City due to their unfamiliarity with the place, but she also had other reasons for letting them stay.
"She did not say it directly, but she knew you would come looking for her, Dragon King," said Tie Linglong, displaying the natural instincts of a woman in matters of the heart. "And it was true. You came eventually," she continued.
"The words 'we are enemies' came from her, and she was very right about that," Gu Shenwei reminded the young girl.
No matter how good her instincts or smarts were, Tie Linglong had no comeback for the Dragon King. She tried very hard to figure out the meaning of Shangguan Ru's statement but did not even know where to begin.
Therefore, she changed the subject of their conversation. She started describing Shangguan Ru's plans to tackle the problem of her marriage. She had come up with a few plans but did not manage to execute them due to the sudden death of Meng Mingshi.
The simplest of them was that she would hold Fifth Young Master Meng hostage in public once she arrived at the Meng's residence, thereby forcing him to annul the marriage. Shangguan Ru expected this to be very easy, as Meng Mingshi was terrified of her, and was similarly reluctant to be married together.
As for the most complicated plan, it would be to secretly switch places with a loyal maid and forcing Meng Mingshi to keep it a secret. The fake bride would find an excuse not to show herself for a few days, while the real Shangguan Ru would take this opportunity to flee. As for what she would do after escaping, Shangguan Ru did not say that she would go and find the Dragon King, but rather she mentioned that she wanted to wander around the world.
Shangguan Ru felt that her plans were very carefully considered; she had even thought of a way out for the maid who was going to switch places with her. If her double was willing, she would consummate the 'marriage' with Meng Mingshi. If not, she would bring some valuables with her to look for the Dragon King. With Chu Nanping and Tie Linglong around, Shangguan Ru believed that the Dragon King would not mistreat the maid.
No matter what plan would be carried out eventually, Shangguan Ru had decided that first, she would have to get out of the fort and down the mountain so that the two teenagers could be on their way.
Gu Shenwei thought that Shangguan Ru was still as child-like as before. If he had not managed to poison Meng Mingshi, none of her tricks would have worked. Even so, she was even full of confidence that she could prevent him from 'going overboard in his quest for vengeance'.
"Hrumph," said Gu Shenwei softly. He could not decide whether he found her behavior absurd or not.
Even though Tie Linglong did not manage to accomplish her original objective, her experience had been an adventure so far. Furthermore, she got to see for herself the girl that Xu Yanwei had described more or less like a deity, and she felt that it was not a wasted trip at all. After she had finished speaking, she lifted her head and looked excitedly at the Dragon King, waiting to hear his praises.
The stern voice of the Dragon King quickly killed her hopes. "You two did not follow my orders and left your posts on your own accord. From today onwards, both of you shall be placed under house arrest for a month."
Tie Linglong was surprised beyond words. Even the normally silent Chu Nanping tried to defend himself, "I was being forced. She said..."
The Dragon King cut him off, "You are a swordsman, and yet it just took a few words to convince you. Where is your 'emotionless heart'?"
Unable to speak any further, Chu Nanping was flushed with embarrassment. When Tie Linglong reprimanded him for 'betraying' her as they left dejectedly, he found it even harder to try to come up with a reply.
It was Xu Xiaoyi who consoled them in the end. "The Dragon King has his reasons. Think about it, Miss Ru has just come down from the mountain a few days ago. If the two of you began showing yourselves in public, wouldn't you be selling her out to Lady Meng?", he suggested.
Tie Linglong was enlightened by his words and accepted her house arrest with no further complaints.
However, Chu Nanping was still moody. "I heard that the Dragon King had all of the people from the Joy Pavilion killed," he said.
He used to be the servant of the dwarf Immortal Peng, and even though he practiced Emotionless Swordsmanship, he had quite a lot of feelings towards the pavilion. Xu Xiaoyi was surprised to hear his question and did not know how to answer. After hemming and hawing for a long time, he replied, "In reality, it was not the Dragon King who struck first. Most of the disciples were killed by that bunch of women..."
"The Dragon King is right. I am practicing Emotionless Swordsmanship, yet there is always something holding me back. I can't be thinking of that Joy Pavilion anymore now--"
Xu Xiaoyi breathed a sigh of relief. However, Chu Nanping was not quite finished yet. He swept his gaze across the faces of Xu Xiaoyi and Tie Linglong, his two best friends.
"Also, I want to cut off all ties with the both of you."
Xu Xiaoyi was speechless. He did not understand how the death of the disciples of the Joy Pavilion had anything to do with him.
"With pleasure", said Tie Linglong. She then cocked her head proudly and stormed back to her room to begin her house arrest.
Gu Shenwei did not spend too much time thinking about the bickering teenagers. He was discussing a matter of importance with Maid Lotus in a separate room -- however, not a word was spoken about Shangguan Ru.
Second Young Master Meng had kept to his part of the promise and poisoned his brother; now was the time for the Dragon King to fulfill his part of the deal. He had to murder Meng Mingkuan, the successor of the Meng family.
Gu Shenwei had already secretly gathered some intelligence -- and although it was not as comprehensive as that of the New Moon Hall, the conclusion from their preliminary discussion was that it would be extremely hard to assassinate First Young Master Meng; the difficulty of carrying out the hit could possibly even rival that of a mission targeting Meng Yuzun.
"Therefore, it would be a fatal blow to Old Meng," Gu Shenwei concluded. He had made up his mind to stick to the deal. Since he had already declared war on the Meng family, he could not back out of it halfway.