Chapter 320: Information
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
The Meng family kept the news of Gu Shenwei killing the woman in the Bodhi Garden in North City a secret. After fighting for a few days, the two sides entered a temporarily cooling-off period.
Many Golden Roc's killers and machetemen had already been sent to different parts of the Western Region to protect the Meng family's property and to chase the bandits. At this point, Gu Shenwei still believed it was best to be prudent.
However, he also thought that, after provoking Old Meng's anger, he could not be overcautious. His next target would be First Young Master Meng, Meng Mingkuan.
Meng Mingkuan was about thirty, young, vigorous and well-known. His behavior, unexpectedly, was very discreet. He rarely showed up except when he was with his father.
He lived in a small house next to the Meng's residence, with doors which connected the buildings. Every morning, he would go to pay respect to his father, and deal with business for him in the studio, and in case of important matters, he would wait until noon to personally ask him for instructions.
365 days a year, wind or rain, frost or snow, First Young Master Meng would never neglect his duty. He would not let his father worry in the slightest. Even when he fell ill, he would take medicine and carry on working.
Thanks to the efficiency of his eldest son, Meng Yuzun had the energy and time to enjoy himself and also deal with more important matters. For this reason, there was no need to question who Meng Yuzun's successor would be.
Only his death could clear the way for the ambitious second son of the Meng's family.
Gu Shenwei and Maid Lotus spent almost an entire day combing through the information they had obtained. In the end, however, they came up empty. This First Young Master Meng was truly impeccable. He was not addicted to alcohol, not lascivious, not fond of gambling, and for many years he had hardly ever stepped into South City. They could not use the traditional killer's method to assassinate him.
First Young Master Meng exerted an extremely stringent control over his subordinates. Those who he really trusted numbered no more than ten and he tempered justice with mercy towards them. He would offer them rewards, but one mistake, and he would never employ them again. Buying a traitor from within was not entirely impossible, but it would need time and would most definitely be expensive.
There was still a problem with getting rid of First Young Master Meng: they could not be too ostentatious about it, but they also had not to be too quiet. If they draw suspicion away from Meng's secondborn, they had to let everybody know it was Dragon King's handwriting, but at the same time, they had to be careful not to leak any information and to publicly blame the Great Snowmountain of cheating on peace talks.
For two days in a row, Gu Shenwei and Maid Lotus failed to come up with any plan and kept delaying action.
Finally, breakthrough emerged as unexpected news form Xu Yanwei.
Xu Yanwei spent ten thousand taels to buy a five-stores brothel. It was far from being the biggest in South City, but it was without a doubt the first in Pleasure Alley, where land was more precious than gold, and still bigger than Xiao Fengchai's one in front of it.
This was her great idea: Since the prostitutes in Pleasure Alley were the ones who earned the most money, why not open a bigger brothel and hire some women?
As a result, the ten thousand taels she received from her younger brother, Xu Xiaoyi, were spent in a blink of an eye. They had just enough to pay the rent for the first month. Additionally, the three girls she knew were not even enough to fill a single room.
In Jade City, they believed in miracles. Xu Yanwei made up a lie about the places he had been to in the previous years and how he rose from the dead and nobody doubted it, or at least, nobody cared to check the details.
In short, Xu Yanwei did not have any money and Xu Xiaoyi did not dare to give her more, leaving her with the only solution to go to Dragon King.
Xu Yanwei did not know yet that the two men had already been saved and she was still harboring guilt over their imprisonment. Being afraid of seeing Dragon King, she hesitated before scraping together some information and finally deciding to report in.
"I have important news, we don't have time to delay." Xu Yanwei told the guards whom Dragon King had ordered to not let her in.
Only after being stuck at the gate for almost half an hour was Xu Yanwei allowed to meet Dragon King in the hall. She was upset about it, but ultimately, it was by her efforts that Dragon King decided to break that unhappy marriage. Although she had not thought about killing Meng Wu, she still contributed to Dragon King's mysterious poisoning.
She was full of complaints, as soon as she entered the hall, she beamed with joy. She did not mention her "merits", nor the money problem, but gave him all the information as sincerely as she could.
The merchants were asking where all the money stolen from the Meng family in the Western Region was. The machetemen were curious about who Dragon King's next victim would be. The protectors cared about the next conflict between Stone Castle and Dragon King. An old nobleman in exile, in his fifties, having lost his entire fortune and unexpectedly still wanted to stay at Xiao Fengchai's house, was sent to the checkpoint between South and North Cities, and, when thrown on a bridge, cried all day. When the old servant of Miss Xiao Ju's house talked about Dragon King, she did not show any sign of respect and even called him "Yang Huan". In those days, all the people in the Pleasure Alley were regular guests, but that day, there was no one around.
The pieces of information were becoming more and more trivial, but since Gu Shenwei had never made it explicitly clear what he wanted, he could not blame her.
After being stuck in the freezing cold for half and hour, Xu Yanwei spitefully decided to nag at him for that same amount of time. She wanted Dragon King to lose patience before telling him about the money so that he would agree to anything just to be left in peace.
Just like every other brothel, prices for the prostitutes at Pleasure Alley were fixed. It did not matter how high or how low the prices were, the prostitute would make the guest happy. The only important thing was that the tip left by the guest was usually higher than the fee.
Xu Yanwei was not an expert in negotiation, but that that day was just a disaster. Dragon King patiently listened to her nagging, nodding absently, just like one of those patronizing old women listening at the feet of their masters.
In the end, Xu Yanwei gave up. Since the first time she met Dragon King, back when he was still called "Slave Huan", none of her moves had ever succeeded.
"That's all." Xu Yanwei took a long sip of tea to soothe her dry throat, "Dragon King, do you think it is useful?"
To Xu Yanwei's surprise, Dragon King nodded, pondered for a while before asking her: "Is Jin Quan a guest of Pleasure Alley?"
"Yes, he is. He has been with Xiao Ju for almost half a year now. He used to say that he would redeem himself and start a life with her, but I have not seen him recently. I keep telling Xiao Ju, she can't take the words of her guests seriously."
Despite her hoarse voice, Xu Yanwei wanted to go on, but Gu Shenwei interrupted her and ordered her, "Find out what Jin Quan is busy with and inform me immediately."
"No problem." Xu Yanwei brightened again, jumped up to move, but as she took a step, she turned around again and said softly: "Dragon King, I don't have money."
Xu Yanwei left the Residence of Dragon King very satisfied. She had obtained other ten thousand taels, enough to cover the expenses for another month. If only the luck of the brothel turned, she was sure that money would not be a problem soon.
Although she was only in her early twenties, Xu Yanwei believed she was past her prime: the old tricks she had once used were pathetic would not work anymore, so she decided to become a Procuress and to devote herself to teach and foster a new generation of famous prostitutes.
The twenty thousand taels from Dragon King was a good start.
In only two months, three at most, the money could double, she thought happily. As she arrived at Pleasure Alley, she immediately jumped into action and in less than four hours, she had all the news Dragon King needed.
Gu Shenwei was especially interested in Jin Quan. He had discovered long ago that he was First Young Master Meng's housekeeper.
Now he wanted to know whether Jin Quan could be bought, but the news he received from Xu Yanwei was even better than expected.
Jin Quan had not actually abandoned Miss Xiao Ju, but he had been preparing to leave for a long trip to deal with some important matters.
Xu Yanwei was extremely excited with her newly acquired ten thousand taels, and proved herself better than her younger brother at finding out some news, almost guessing the real intentions of Dragon King. She ran from brothel to brothel, to call on Procuresses and gossip with them. After gathering information, she reached this conclusion: it was First Young Master Meng himself who was ready to leave for a long trip, Jin Quan was only following his master to help him in his business.
First Young Master Meng, Meng Mingkuan, was almost impeccable. He was going to inherit a huge property, but he could not demand as much from his subordinates as his father had. They were loyal to their master, but at the same time, they also wanted to enjoy their lives.
When they were indulging with the women of Pleasure Alley, there was no man who could keep his mouth shut. Although everyone was confident that they had not revealed the whole situation, a few words were enough for a clever prostitute, only, most of the time, they did not care about these kinds of information. All they really wanted was to extort more money from their guests.
Gu Shenwei and Maid Lotus made an effort to keep on the investigation under wraps without leaving any trace. Finally, in the New Moon Hall, in the Meng's residence, they received the most explicit piece of information: in three days, Meng Mingkuan would leave for Shu-lik.
The machetemen of Tuo Nengya's subordinates had seriously damaged the Meng family's network of the merchants, especially those from Shu-lik, which was almost completely paralysed.
Shu-lik was the largest country in the Western Region, and its importance could not be overlooked. First Young Master Meng had received two orders from his father. First, to bring a big sum of money to alleviate the economic crisis. Even though the losses were only temporary, they could not damage the Meng family's reputation and prestige. Second, to buy over some ministers from Chaozhong, and sort out the story for this grievous plunder.
Meng Yuzun had already smelled the conspiracy in Shu-lik: he suspected that someone must have been secretly collaborating with Dragon King, otherwise, the looting would not have been successful and the event would have been void of evidence.
The Meng family already had many steady supporters in Shu-lik. Now it was their turn to stand for the Meng family.
Meng Ziyun hoped that the news of his eldest son leaving Jade City for Shu-lik remained a secret, but he was also worried for his safety. Therefore, he made sure to prepare on both sides.
Golden Roc Fort sent to Shu-lik thirty killers and one hundred machetemen, who were hired in name to protect Meng family's property, but whose task was in fact, to protect First Young Master Meng along the way.
Meanwhile, many of the machetemen in South City had begun to stir restlessly, hanging around Dragon King's surveilling, which made Old Meng have no more illusions the matter. He also wanted to give the impression of a surprise attack against Dragon King. In this way, he thought, he would trap Dragon King in his residence, leaving him without the energy to do anything else.
But once he understood the facts, all the events at the Meng's residence and the Golden Roc Fort became just clear evidence to Gu Shenwei.
This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to kill. That very night, Gu Shenwei and Maid Lotus started to formulate a plan and the following day they set out to prepare.
As First Young Master Meng had the close protection from Golden Roc's killers, whose assassination methods could be predicted. However, since The Agreement between the two killers could not be broken, they decided to adopt a less conventional method.