chapter 22.3

Back inside the inn, three men in ornate clothing sat around a table in the middle of the dining hall. The one in the leader seat was a dignified looking man with a gold crown on his head and gold trim around his sleeves. His only flaw was a moderate size scar on his left cheek seemingly from a knife. It made his stern face looked frightening. This man was Hua Ye Li, son of King Liang1 of Su Province.

“Master indeed has excellent judgement of character. Murong Yun Shu was indeed brave and intelligent. If she could be a very help addition for our master.”

Hua Ye Li stared intently at the directly the carriage headed off to, “A woman like her, even when she had no other option, will never submit and take orders.”

“So what does master intend to do…?”

Hua Ye Li did not respond but looked on with a complicated expression.

“Master, you could consider marrying her. Once she became your wife, she will definitely be on your side.”

“She won’t even marry the crown prince, I doubt she’d marry me.” The light in eyes darkened, “Besides, haven’t you seen what happened when someone blatantly tried to compete for his woman? The crown prince is still suffering from his poison, not to mention he was under surveillance by members of the mojian sect day in and day out. It’s almost impossible for him to get closed to Murong Yun Shu again.”

“Chu Changge’s action was certainly blatant, but also helped us a lot. The crown prince is now close to dying, many officials in the court were already submitting suggestions of the next crown prince to the emperor.”

“The emperor only has one son, he will never name a different successor.” Hua Ye Li put down his tea cup and stook up, “We are returning to Shu Province.”

“We are not following Murong Yun Shu any more?”

“There will be mojian sect members in every town from this point forward. My dad’s people will not be able to hurt her.” said Hua Ye Li as he walked toward the exit, “Besides, the purpose of this trip was to confirm her value. If she couldn’t even protect herself, she’s not good enough to stand beside me.”

*

At the very same time, in a tea stand somewhere in a desolate area of Xi Zhou, Chu Changge was enjoying a cup of tea while listening to East, South, West, North Guardians relaying reports that has came in.

“After the advertisement by Jiang Zhou Four Odds, the entire jianghu now knows that you will be saying at Jianghu Inn prior to August 15.”

“So what?” asked Chu Changge undisturbed by the news.

“You have a lot of enemies,” reminded East Guardian out of his kindness.

“But very few has the guts to check into Jianghu Inn.”

“They can set traps outside of the inn.”

“That’s even better,” he squinted, an extremely gentle smile appeared on his handsome face, “Saves me the trouble of digging graves for the corpses.”

We are sure you will defer that task to us, was what was going through the mind of the four guardians.

Three seconds later, the East Guardian continued, “Don’t you want to know where the information came from?” his tone full of malice.

Chu Changge picked up the tea cup and took a sip, a meaningful smile spread across his face, “Who else would do that other than her?”

“Boss is so observant of the details,” East Guardian was disappointed that the sect leader was not bothered by that at all.

“We’ve also heard that madam wished the Jiang Zhou Four Odds good luck on their mission to kill you,” North Guardian took another shot at him.

Suddenly, his handsome brows lowered, the intention to kill seeped out of his attractive black eyes but quickly dissipated. Chu Changge gently shook the tea cup in his hand, “She knew they were here to seek their own death. That’s why she wished them luck.”

“Boss is so smart! Madam even asked them to relay a message to you, she asked you to be extra ruthless!” North Guardian didn’t want to be the one who had nothing to say, so he quickly added before West Guardian. The other three guardians stared at him, that’s when he remembered that their purpose was only to relay the bad news to the sect leader, not the good ones….

Chu Changge gave out a happy smile on his thin lips, “They even advocated that?”

“No, we heard someone overheard it accidentally,” said West Guardian, while giving North Guardian another stare, You messed everything up!

North Guardian lowered his head as though admitting to his guilt. That was just a slip, truly, it was.

Chu Changge couldn’t care less about the politics among the four guardians. Rotating the tea cup slowly, he looked at a hill nearby and smiled.

“What’s he smiling at?” asked North Guardian, elbowing West Guardian.

“How should I know?” West Guardian was still mad that not only did North Guardian cut him off while reporting to the sect leader, but also reporting the wrong things.

East Guardian felt that North and West Guardians were very childish so he simply ignored them and continued with his report, “Boss, I have also received a message from Chef Guo’s message dove. He said he is bringing with him a letter from the madam from the capital and he has important items to report. Do you want to slow down on our travel to wait for him?”

With that, Chu Changge’s smile broadened, he mood obviously elated, “Let’s say for a while in the next town.”

A letter from her…. he wondered what she had wrote to entertain him……

***

1. King Liang was an official title.