Chapter 183: Return to South City
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Wildhorse's story made Gu Shenwei realize that truth was illusory and people just believed what they wished to believe.
In the meantime, he also had a suspicion that Wildhorse might have just made up a story to cheer Shangguan Ru up. "That mute teenager is a natural born killer and has a strong desire for blood. He wants a capable leader, so he can't stand by watching Master Ru slide into a depression," Gu Shenwei thought to himself.
Although Shangguan Ru lived in North City now, her killers still worked on a shift basis to keep watch at night. One night, Gu Shenwei was on the first shift. He wore a black cape and hid himself in a tree in the middle of the yard. When seen from a distance, he looked like a bulge in the trunk or an empty nest in the tree.
As this residence was not very large, he was able to see everything inside it while staying up in the tree. That night, he could even keep an eye on the situation in the streets nearby, for the moon was exceptionally bright.
Compared to South City, North City was much quieter at night. He could not see any pedestrian on the streets or hear anyone shouting or playing music after 9 pm. During this hour, the city looked as if it was empty.
Despite that, he still strictly carried out his mission and focused on observing everything around him. He was a professional killer, who knew when to think, observe or kill.
To his great surprise, Shangguan Ru quietly walked out of her room all of a sudden.
She was dressed in a long white robe, her long hair tied into a ponytail. In the moonlight, she looked like a wandering fairy.
Upon seeing her, Gu Shenwei immediately tensed up. He thought that she was going to sneak out of the residence. He decided to follow her to keep her safe and also to prevent her from doing something foolish in North City.
However, beyond all his expectations, Shangguan Ru did not go anywhere. She took off her robe in the yard, revealing a black outfit, and then she drew out her wooden saber and began to practice a saber routine beside the tree where Gu Shenwei hid.
She moved very fast, making her saber whistle. However, this routine still looked more like a workout routine than a combat routine.
Gu Shenwei had never seen this workout routine before. He considered that it was probably due to the fact that children of the Shangguan family were taught more kung fu skills in the Golden Roc Fort.
After watching her practicing for some time, he gradually realized that she was practicing saber skills with an imaginary partner, Shangguan Yushi.
A moment later, Shangguan Ru stopped practicing and went over to lean against the tree trunk. She looked up at the starry sky and asked, "Can you identify constellations in the sky?"
"No," Gu Shenwei blurted out. After a while, he added, "I can only identify the seven bright stars of the Big Dipper."
"The saber routine that I practiced just now is called Seven Stars, since it has seven variations. My favorite move in this routine is the one named Ursae Majoris. I like its name. I also like another one called Alkaid."
"Yeah, nice names."
Shangguan Ru continued to talk about many other things, and Gu Shenwei just kept listening.
"Does Master Ru just want to talk about Master Yu? Or, does she want me to pledge my eternal loyalty to her again?" Gu Shenwei wondered.
"Do you know any other stories of burglars? I mean those cool burglars who always work alone." Shangguan Ru suddenly changed the subject.
Gu Shenwei was surprised that she still remembered the story of Red Bat Lady, which he had told her years ago. Back then, he had just wanted to goad her into breaking into Six Kills Temple by telling her this story.
"There are not many such burglars. A burglar usually works for an organization behind the scene and is backed by a secret power. Even a top burglar like Red Bat Lady was unable work on her own and always go her own way."
Gu Shenwei was no longer a child. He did not believe that the Red Bat Lady could sneak into the palace without relying on anyone else to help her.
"Not many, but there are still some of them, aren't there?"
"Yes, there are." Gu Shenwei racked his brain and finally thought of a jianghu tale that he had heard during his childhood. "Many years ago, there was a renowned burglar named Hairless Specter."
"Hairless Specter? What a weird name," Shangguan Ru interrupted.
"Yes, this name is very weird, but this burglar is legendary. No one was able to catch Hairless Specter. No one knew if the burglar was a man or a woman."
"Are you suggesting that this Hairless Specter is even more legendary than the Red Bat Lady?"
"It's impossible to compare Hairless Specter to Red Bat Lady, although Hairless Specter's kung fu was also quite good. Hairless Specter just worked for himself and only stole items which were more peculiar. The officials didn't work very hard to hunt him down."
"What did Hairless Specter steal?"
"Hair."
"Hair? Are you saying that the burglar stole hairs on a human head?"
"Yes. Hairless Specter liked to sneak into the homes of others in the night to cut hair, regardless of sex. Many people's hair was cut by the burglar."
"Hahaha, that's nonsense. You must be kidding."
"It's true. I knew a guy whose hair was cut off by the Hairless Specter. He wore a hat to cover his head for days."
...
Shangguan Ru returned to her bedroom after midnight, feeling much better.
Gu Shenwei was still up in the tree. He looked into the distance and felt lost. He discovered that he was only able to recollect little about his life in the Central Plain.
A moment later, Maid Lotus came out for her shift. When she jumped up to the tree, Gu Shenwei told her, "Let's get ready. We'll return to South City very soon."
The next morning, Shangguan Ru summoned a meeting. She ordered all the servants to return to Golden Roc Fort immediately and never to leave it again.
When a few servants insisted that they should stay, Shangguan Ru asked her killers to step out and drive them away.
The seven young killers were dressed in black and looked grim. Although they were not equipped with real sabers, they still successfully frightened the servants off.
After the servants' departure, the residence looked much more spacious. "Let's return to South City and avenge Master Yu's death," Shangguan Ru looked at her killers and said.
The seven teenagers drew out their wooden sabers to draw a line on the ground and then knelt down in front of Shangguan Ru. They had been waiting for this day for a long time. As killers, they wanted to fight, not to guard a residence.
Shangguan Ru wanted to break into Shangguan Fei's residence in North City and force him to give the Kun Society back to her.
Gu Shenwei decided to stop Shangguan Ru from carrying out this plan, since he had promised Lady Meng to prevent the twins from hurting each other and had secretly sworn an oath of loyalty to Shangguan Fei. "It's useless to take back the Kun Society now. It's just a name. We'd better get back our territory and business in South City first." After that, he told Master Ru what he had recently found out about the gangs and the other forces in South City.
"How much money do we have now?"
"About 130,000 taels of silver."
This money was left by Tie Hanfeng. Shangguan Ru's team had not spent much of it recently since most of Tuo Nengya's machetemen had been killed during the previous fight against the Horned Dragon Society.
"It seems that we can only ask my brothers to lend me some money, if we fail to restart our business."
In the following days, the seven young killers worked hard to restart their business. They rented a house in South City again and hired new employees. They also went to visit their old customers and the other gangs.
Gu Shenwei was eagerly anticipating gangs wars and conflicts to break out amongst the young masters of the Shangguan family, however, things did not turn out as he had expected.
The third day after Shangguan Ru's announcement of her return to South City, Shangguan Nu divided his territory in South City into two parts, and gave them to the twins.
Soon, the other young masters also followed Shangguan Nu's example and gave their territories to the twins. As a result, the twins quickly expanded their territories and got lots of protection money within several days. What they had occupied in these days was way more than what they had earned in the past few months.
The whole Jade City was stunned. Residents of the city had never seen any generation of the Shangguan family act in such a friendly way.
Gu Shenwei was bitterly disappointed, since now he could not find an excuse to start gang wars and kill more young masters of the Shanguan family. He was also confused by the other young masters' decisions at first, but gradually, he realized why they did that.
"During the past few months, Shangguan Fei showed his true potential as a leader, but Shangguan Ru revealed her weaknesses. Lady Meng must be planning a conspiracy now to help her daughter prove herself. As she doesn't want to see the twins fighting each other, she's probably planning to ask Shangguan Ru to fight against or even kill another young master of Golden Roc Fort. The other young masters still remember how Lady Meng plotted against the eldest Young Master in the past, so this time, none of them want to become a victim of her scheming. Given that, they decide to pacify Lady Meng by giving the twins all their territories in South City."
.
In order to reward their brothers' kindness, the twins decided to accept all their brothers' gangs. They let them continue to manage their old territories. The gangs gave the twins protection money but refused to let the twins or their killers get involved in their internal affairs. As a result, the actual controllers of those gangs were still the other young masters of Golden Roc Fort. The twins were dissatisfied with such an arrangement, but they had no choice except to accept it, for they themselves did not have enough manpower to take over all the territories from the gangs.
Shangguan Ru easily achieved her goal of expanding her business and building up strength in South City, but the gangs did not consider her as their real boss.
Fortunately, Master Ru did not need to worry about money anymore. The first month after she accepted her brothers' territories and gangs she received nearly 100,000 taels of silver. In the future, she would receive 70,000 to 80,000 taels of silver every month from the gangs.
Now that Shangguan Ru's problems about territory and money were settled, Gu Shenwei began to worry that she would sneak out someday to attack Shangguan Fei to avenge Master Yu's death. He decided to pay close attention to her in the coming days.
It was mid-March now. The wind became warm and the streets of South City became caked with mush from melted snow, but North City was still as tidy as always.
One morning, Shangguan Ru took a walk with Slave Huan and Maid Lotus in North City, chatting merrily with them all along the way. It appeared that she had totally recovered from her sadness. Nevertheless, when they had lunch together in a restaurant, Gu Shenwei noticed that Shangguan Ru was a little absent-minded. He suggested going home after lunch, and Shangguan Ru agreed.
However, right after they stepped out of the restaurant, Shangguan Ru resolutely headed for Shangguan Fei's residence.
Gu Shenwei exchanged a look with Maid Lotus. None of them were sure that they could stop Master Ru at this moment, so they decided to let her do what she wanted.
Shangguan Fei had lots of servants. Most of them were from Inner Residence of Golden Roc Fort and knew the twins very well. When the servants at the gate of Shangguan Fei's residence spotted Shangguan Ru in the distance, they immediately sent a servant into the house to report to their supervisor.
"Alas, Master Ru. Master Fei is out. Do you want to come in to wait for him or let me pass your message to him?" Slave Qing hurriedly came to the gate and said to Shangguan Ru, his face covered in sweat. He still acted obsequiously toward Master Ru, although he was already Master Fei's butler now.
Shangguan Ru carefully looked at Shangguan Fei's residence. This place was much more commodious than the residence offered by Slave Huan. It was also very clean and well kept.
"I'll stay here and wait for him," Shangguan Ru replied and then entered the front yard of Shangguan Fei's residence.
Upon hearing that, Slave Qing perspired even more heavily. He winked at Slave Huan, hoping that the young killer could help him out. However, Slave Huan and Maid Lotus just followed Master Ru into the front yard without saying a word.
Shangguan Ru strutted around as if she owned this place. No one dared to stop her. However, when she was about to step into the back yard, Slave Qing hastily went over to block her way. "Master Ru, you can't go into the back yard," he said.
"Why?"
"Well... A bunch of machetemen live in the back yard now. You know, they're smelly and dirty."
"Oh, I see," Shangguan Ru turned around and said. Upon hearing that, Slave Qing heaved a long sigh of relief. However, in the next moment, Shangguan Ru turned back again and rushed into the back yard.
"Shangguan Fei, get out!" she shouted in the yard.
"What? Do you have another girl here?" A female voice came out of a room in the east wing of the house.
Gu Shenwei recognized that voice. He felt really awkward now.