Eternal Night - Chapter 33
The sound instantly pulled Yongye back to his memories. His father was an opera enthusiast who often gathered a group of elderly men and women to sing operas when he had nothing to do. Whenever Yongye came home and ran into his father, his father would yell, "You brat! Go buy some vegetables from Grandpa Zhang's braised food stall!"
Yongye would always smile and show the braised food he had bought to his father before changing his clothes and going out again.
He listened intently, deeply regretting not having spent more time with his father.
The pipa music ended, but the string and wind instruments began again, and laughter echoed from the room once more.
Yongye stopped thinking, and the murderous intent in his heart faded. Lord Cao deserved to die, but what did it really have to do with him? The Empress's men? The Emperor's men were none of his concern either.
If he had the power to fight against the Wandering Valley, why would he have ended such a happy life?
Yongye decided to let Lord Cao have some more fun. He leisurely lay on the roof, watching Lord Cao's concubine dance through a hole in the roof tile. From a distance, he looked like a patch of newly covered white snow on the roof.
The concubine had a delicate face, wore a light red silk shirt, and changed into soft satin shoes with silk soles. Her dance was graceful. She looked to be no more than sixteen years old, while Lord Cao was already over forty. Yongye was very envious. Being a man in ancient times was so good. As long as you had money and could afford it, marrying twenty wives was no problem. Thinking of this, his hatred for Lord Cao rose again. His Lancui was about to marry that bastard Li Yannian, and he couldn't marry her or protect her. What kind of person was he to dare to defile an innocent young girl?
The concubine sang softly, her flowing sleeves billowing, her body trembling as if she were about to collapse, making her appear even more frail. Yongye looked closely and discovered that the brocade carpet in the room was covered with soybeans. No wonder she couldn't stand steadily. This pervert!
Lord Cao watched with great interest, praising the performance repeatedly, and ordered several of his young concubines to take off their outer garments and dance.
The First Madam, seated at the table, watched with delight. Beside her, a young woman dressed as a concubine carefully peeled the pith from an orange and fed it to her. It seemed these young concubines were also playthings for her amusement.
Watching the women dance unsteadily in the dead of night, Yongye couldn't help but touch his own feet. Wearing shoes made of silk felt almost the same as standing barefoot on stones—it must hurt. He decided to rescue his beautiful concubines from their misery as soon as possible, and with a flick of his fingers, he released a wisp of sleeping powder.
A moment later, the room fell silent. Yongye landed gracefully, picked up a throwing knife, and looked at it with a pang of regret. It was a specially made throwing knife made of pure silver; each one cost a fortune!
Lord Cao collapsed to the ground, his horse-like face appearing even more hideous in the candlelight. Yongye spat at him, intending to wake him, but then, remembering that it was a human life at stake, his heart softened, and he murmured, "It's better this way, it doesn't hurt so much!" With a flick of his wrist, a one-inch-long throwing knife accurately pierced Lord Cao's throat, leaving only a trickle of blood slowly seeping from the wound.
Just as Yongye was about to leave, his playful mood returned, and he wrote eight large characters on the wall with wine: "Little Li's Flying Dagger, never misses!" He took two steps back to admire his calligraphy. Since Youli Valley wanted him to leave his mark, this should be enough, right?
He should have returned to his residence immediately, but then he remembered the old man selling noodles. Yongye touched the thousand taels of silver notes on his person and headed towards the shantytown.
With a light touch of his toes on the roof, Yongye happily enjoyed the light feeling of running in the wind. There were only a few dozen households in the alley. He checked about ten households but didn't see Old Man Wang. Just as he was prying open a roof tile to check, a sword light silently pierced out.
Yongye cursed inwardly, realizing he had forgotten that Feng Yangxi had come out from here. He flipped backward in mid-air, using his toes to lift up a patch of grass to block Feng Yangxi's view.
The speed with which Feng Yangxi leaped out of the house surprised Yongye. He scattered a cloud of smoke with both hands and retreated swiftly like a bird. He had no intention of lingering in the fight.
Feng Yangxi snorted and unleashed a sword light like a bolt of lightning. Yongye, who was always confident in his lightness skill, felt a pain in his back. Without turning around, he used the momentum to rush forward again.
Feng Yangxi shouted, "Where do you think you're going!" and slammed his palm down again.
Another dark figure rushed out like lightning, ignoring Feng Yangxi's palm strike, and stomped down, causing the thatched house to collapse instantly. A scream came from inside.
"Cunning!" Feng Yangxi cursed fiercely, then jumped off the roof to rescue the people, not bothering to chase after them. In the blink of an eye, the two dark figures had vanished into the snow.
Fortunately, it was just a thatched hut, and no one was hurt. But it was pitiful to be without a door to block the wind on a snowy night. Feng Yangxi had no choice but to take the homeowner back to his own hut to settle him in.
He sat motionless on the rooftop, oblivious to the falling snow. Gazing at the vast shantytown in the night, a satisfied smile spread across his lips. Thinking of the prefect of Kyoto's vast wealth of gold and silver, Feng Yangxi felt exceptionally lucky. He figured the poor people of Kyoto would be able to get through the New Year much better.
The shadow carried Yongye back to the palace silently. Yongye felt a tightness in his chest, coughed, and choked on blood. He quickly found the Soul-Returning Secret Recipe and took it.
"It's alright. The black armor has depleted most of its internal energy and suffered some shock. It will be fine after a few days of rest."
"Thank you, Uncle Shadow." Yongye coughed up blood, but felt much better. Feng Yangxi was truly amazing.
"If you had cultivated the Heavenly Meridian Inner Scripture, you wouldn't be so badly injured."
Yongye smiled bitterly. It wasn't that he hadn't practiced the Heavenly Meridian Inner Scripture; he just couldn't defeat it even if he had. But he lied along with Shadow's words: "The Heavenly Meridian Inner Scripture doesn't seem to have anything of value, and we can't let Youli Valley find out, so we simply destroyed it."
"Destroyed?" Shadow asked anxiously.
Yongye could feel that Shadow's breathing had become rapid with anger. He was disappointed that Shadow's rescue and help were not simply out of kindness.
After a moment, Shadow sighed, "That's fine, saves me from worrying. Perhaps this inner classic isn't suitable for you to practice. Also, you should go straight back to your residence today. That old man is already dead. If he weren't dead, you would be in a lot of trouble."
Yongye's heart skipped a beat. He knew that not killing the old man would cause him trouble, but he simply couldn't bring himself to do it. He didn't know whether to thank Shadow or hate him. "I caused this mess, and now I'm troubling Uncle Shadow to clean it up. I'm really sorry."
"Let this never happen again."
"In the future, if something like this happens again, Uncle Shadow should keep an eye on things. If Li Yannian finds out, Uncle Shadow can just kill him," Yongye said, enunciating each word clearly. The old man died because of him; though he didn't die at Yongye's hands, he died because of him.
After a long silence, Shadow replied, "That's a bit troublesome. Li Yannian can't die yet."
"Why? Why are you being nice to me?"
"I've already said it, I owe people favors..."
"Didn't you promise that once I learned a skill, I would repay this favor?"
Shadow was a little embarrassed and coldly said, "You just need to live well here."
"You know I'm... not the crown prince. How am I supposed to live a normal life like this? Aren't you afraid that if I'm exposed, I'll die an even more horrible death?"
"No, not at all. Remember, although Feng Yangxi is young, his martial arts skills far surpass yours. Don't provoke him." Shadow finished speaking and left.
Yongye slowly savored Yingzi's words, his face a mixture of a smile and a sob. A sudden, intense sorrow gripped his heart. He rose and stood before the bronze mirror. His face, exquisitely perfect, pale and with a trace of blood on his thin lips, possessed an indescribable, poignant beauty. "A femme fatale!" He recalled Yuepo's words, his hand flicking a small throwing knife against his face, but he couldn't bring himself to destroy it.
He murmured to himself in the mirror, "Master in green robes, you said that if all else fails, there's always a place to settle down in this vast world. When will I be able to improve my kung fu further?"
The news of the murder of Prefect Cao in his residence spread throughout the capital. Emperor Yujia's good mood was completely ruined, and he ordered the Prefectural Assistant to temporarily assume Cao's duties, while the Ministry of Justice was given a deadline to solve the case. Prince Duan, who was in charge of the defense of the capital region, was also severely reprimanded.
Fortunately, nothing else happened in the capital until after the Lantern Festival. The Ministry of Justice was overwhelmed and complained bitterly. They didn't catch the murderer, but they did uncover Lord Cao's history of corruption and bribery. Emperor Yujia was greatly surprised by the amount of Lord Cao's wealth and was furious. Such a corrupt official would not be appeased without being executed. Although he was an official of the court, the Emperor did not pursue the case further, and the matter gradually calmed down.
The small throwing knife that Yongye sent to Lord Cao's throat was originally kept in the Ministry of Justice as evidence, but it was stolen one night.
Feng Yangxi stared blankly at the two throwing knives in front of him. He was certain that this was a professional assassin. Only a professional assassin would kill without regard to loyalty or treachery, for the sake of money.
"Killing that corrupt official is fine, but you shouldn't have killed Old Man Wang. Little Li's Flying Dagger never misses! Is that right?" Feng Yangxi sneered, a sharp glint in his eyes. He would definitely find him and kill him to avenge Old Man Wang.