Ning Que saw Xia Hou for the first time in Hulan Sea last year, and later they were face to face in Tuyang City. At that time, although Xia Hou had failed to possess the “Ming” Handscroll of the Tomes of the Arcane, and was forced to retire by the Academy, he was still calm, confident, and ambitious.
However, Xia Hou looked much older today. He was wearing a brand new suit of armor, his face was as cold and calm as usual and his body was tall and straight, but Ning Que swore the general smelled like a wet and mildewy woodshed.
Xia Hou suffered from continuous assassination attempts by the powerhouses in the Wilderness. Ning Que heard of this even though it was kept a secret by the Military Ministry.
“It’s more straight and tough than expected for the Devil’s Doctrine to eliminate their renegades.”
Ning Que looked at Xia Hou’s back and thought, “If Tang could have damaged the armor on Xia Hou, his little hope of killing him successfully would grow.”
Xia Hou was the General of the Empire, unlike Zhang Yiqi and Huang Xing who could be murdered easily. The biggest problem was, although Xia Hou was getting older, he remained strong. It was impossible for Ning Que to assassinate him without leaving a trace.
Even though both the imperial court and the Academy agreed on his retirement, and the West-Hill did not object to it, even if Ning Que seemed to have some backers, they would not help him. How was he able to eliminate Xia Hou in this case?
In the late summer of the 15th year of the Tianqi era, a plan gradually formed in Ning Que’s heart. However, every time he thought of this plan, he ridiculed himself since it had no possibilities to succeed. If anyone knew of his plan, like Li Yu, Ye Hongyu, or Chen Pipi, they would surely think he was out of his mind.
In the whole world, only his Second Brother and Chao Xiaoshu would agree with him.
Holding her jaw, Sangsang looked at the crowd under the tea house. Suddenly, she turned around and said to Ning Que worriedly, “Why do you rush?”
Ning Que said, “I’ve been waiting for 15 years. I think I’m very patient.”
Sangsang said seriously, “If he gets older or we become stronger, or we wait for a few more years, we would be more confident to kill him at that time.”
Ning Que had been trying to keep Sangsang away from thinking about bloody and cruel matters, but it did not mean he had never taught her how to deal with them. No matter if it was in Min Mountain or in the grassland outside the City of Wei, he kept instilling a concept in her— No matter who your enemies were, the elder, the sick or even the youth, if you wanted to win, you had to use all the shameless methods and endure your sadness. You had to wait until you were strong enough so that you were able to kill them by using one move.
Ning Que smiled and said, “If I don’t kill him, he would be too old to fight.”
Sangsang felt puzzled and said, “It’s better, isn’t it?”
“Although I’ll be more confident to defeat him when he becomes older, I’m worried that by that time he would die of illness or old age, instead of being killed by me.”
Sangsang did not understand. “Is there a problem if he died that way?”
Sangsang asked again, “It’s better, isn’t it?”
Ning Que gestured with his head and said, “No, it isn’t.”
“Why?”
“Because he is not my opponent.”
Ning Que paused for a while and added, “He is my enemy.”
At this moment, the shopkeeper and the waiters all came back and they were excitedly talking about the troops and praising General Xia Hou.
Ning Que listened quietly and shook his head.
“People will feel happy if their opponent dies naturally, because he won’t stand in their way forward or destroy their life anymore. It doesn’t matter whether he chokes to death while eating or he is suffocated in the toilet.”
“However, when facing your enemy, it’s totally different.”
“Taking revenge would be different if it takes us too long to finish it. Comparing with killing the enemy, the most important thing is how to forget the grudges and how to get free by doing this.”
He looked at Sangsang. “No matter if you make your enemy pay for what they did or you set yourself free, the key is to kill him. He must be killed by us, and he cannot die accidentally or naturally.”
Ning Que remembered Eastern City in Chang’an that rainy day, the dead old blacksmith with his open eyes, and his wet pale hair, and then he was perplexed.
“He can’t be old, sick, or weak, and he would better be at the peak of his life. We would only be satisfied by killing such an enemy. That’s the key.”
“Xia Hou is getting older.”
Ning Que repeated it seriously.
“If I don’t kill him, he’ll be too old to be my enemy.”
…
…
General Xia Hou first went to the palace to meet the Emperor after he returned to Chang’an. He was awarded the royal rank in the meeting and received much respect and honor.
After that, he turned down some ministers’ invitations and went to the Military Ministry. It was said that he spent a whole afternoon in the tower beside the Vermilion Bird Street and had a long conversation with General Xu Shi.
Xia Hou left the Military Ministry when it was late. He was protected by his private soldiers and went to the Prince’s Mansion in the Northern City.
The mansion was brightly lit at night. After having dinner in a friendly atmosphere, the Prince, Li Peiyan brought him to his study room.
On the black table were a few files with a lot of characters on them. Some of them were new and some were old. There were a lot of names on the files and each of them was commented.
Zhang Yiqi, Chen Zixian, Yan Suqing, Lin Ling, Gu Xi, Huang Xing, Yu Shuizhu…
They were normal citizens, officers or soldiers. However, they had two things in common, one was they were all used to be members of Tang’s Military, and the other was that they had all died.
Li Peiyan looked at the names and said, “Their deaths suggest that a man who should have died long ago is alive.”
Xia Hou pointed at a name and said with no expression, “This man wasn’t involved in that case.”
“But he took part in the Yan territory event.”
Li Peiyan sighed and pushed the files away. He looked at Xia Hou and said worriedly, “Even if we have no evidence, these names and what they did are all connected. They tell us that what we were concerned about is happening. These indicate that someone related to the Xuanwei General is alive.”
Thinking of Lin Guangyuan’s name, Xia Hou frowned his eyebrows tightly.
How was he able to forget who Lin Guangyuan was?
A dozen years ago, there was a Xuanwei General in Tang, and his name was Lin Guangyuan. At that time, all people considered him as the second valiant general after Xia Hou.
In the first year of Tianqi era, Xia Hou exterminated Lin Guangyuan’s entire family.
He did that not because of people comparing them like that. Even he was famous for his obduracy and barbarity, he would not exterminate an entire family with such a little provocation.
Xia Hou narrowed his eyes slightly and looked a little complicated.
Since he had killed so many people in his life and he also did something crueler than that, he did not feel sorry for the Xuanwei General even if he exterminated his family.
However, the name of Lin Guangyuan indeed reminded him of many things in the past.
A dozen years ago, the Empress had passed away because of illness, and someone in Qinghe County was not discontented. His Majesty was tired of this, so he went to the south to play and inspect along with a concubine named Xia Tian.
Xia Hou was ordered to return Chang’an from Tuyang City with thousands of cavalry soldiers in secrecy. He was told to defend Chang’an and helped the Prince with national affairs.
Then he received a letter from the West-Hill Divine Palace.
Facing this, if he wanted to protect what he had in his life, he had to accept their requests.
A rain of bloodshed had covered Chang’an and the Xuanwei General’s family was exterminated.
Xia Hou knew that his actions would infuriate the Empire, but he also believed that the Empire would do nothing for there was no evidence pointing at him, and because of what he had done for the country no matter how angry he was.
He did not want his sister to be the Empress of Tang because he knew how dangerous it would be. Unfortunately, His Majesty still made his sister the Empress anyway.
Compared with this, he did not care how much blood was on the stone lions in front of the Xuanwei General’s mansion at all.
…
…
Inside Li Peiyan’s study room.
He looked at Xia Hou and said bitterly, “It’s not a big deal that a son of Lin Guangyuan is alive. However, if the boy who is trying hard to avenge his father’s death has become the core disciple of the Headmaster and Mr. Thirteen on the Second floor of the Academy, that is a big problem.”
Xia Hou thought for a while and said, “You mean, Ning Que is Lin Guangyuan’s son?”
Li Peiyan sighed. “Even though I don’t want to admit, there is no other explanation except for this.”
“I supervised the case by myself and there were few people who could be exempt from punishment. Since they were all temporary workers without contracts, no one was able to escape.”
Xia Hou gazed at the candlelight on the table and said, “Lin Guangyuan only had two sons and all the characteristics were in the record. I checked them by myself, too.”
“They must have been tampered by someone.”
Xia Hou thought for a while and said, “Even if Ning Que is Lin Guangyuan’s son, what can he do to us?”