Chapter 24 – Cause and Effect. (1/2)
Chapter 24 – Cause and Effect.
Part 1
April 19, before dawn.
If there are no lanterns or fires, the time before dawn is always the darkest. If there are lanterns or fires, then this period of time is no different than any other during the day.
Some people are like those lights during the time before dawn. When something exists that others cannot even begin to grasp, that person will appear, and all questions will suddenly be resolved. The current matter was similar.
And that person had now appeared.
Part 2
Zheng Nanyuan slowly walked in.
It was hard to say whether he really did have rheumatism in his legs, or if they had in fact been injured in the past. The reason he always sat in his wheelchair was because he didn’t want others to see how he walked. He’d always believed his gait to be somewhat amusing and laughable.
Right now, no one thought it laughable. Even if he crawled in, no one would would have thought it laughable.
—He was no ordinary person, no restaurant manager. He had only used that front to cover up his true identity.
—There must be some hidden connection between him and Sun Jicheng. As for his true identity and martial arts ability, they were beyond the imagination of others.
Those things were his secrets. And yet as of now, it seemed they were secrets no longer.
Upon his entrance, the happiest person was Ingot.
“I knew you would show up sooner or later,” he said. “And here you are.”
Frogboy looked thoroughly surprised, and yet he couldn’t help but ask, “It’s such a cold, damp night! It’s not convenient for you to walk around, sir. Why would you take such pains to come here?”
Zheng Nanuan rubbed his legs and sighed. “I didn’t really want to come, but I had no choice.”
“What do you mean?”
Zheng Nanyuan responded, “If Ingot testified that this man is Guo Mie, would you believe him?”
“I wouldn’t.”
“What about Chamber Lord Xiao?”
“I wouldn’t believe him either,” said Frogboy. “When Great Hero Guo went missing, one of those two hadn’t even come out of his mother’s womb yet, and the other was still walking around with his nose running. What could they testify to?”
“Luckily, by that time, I had stopped walking around with my nose running! I had already learned to bleed!”
“You have to learn how to bleed?”
“Of course,” said Zheng Nanyuan. “When should you bleed, and why? What can you do to make the least amount of blood flow? Mastering these things is not easy. It usually takes twenty or thirty years.”
“So at that time, you were already at the point where you could be considered not young.”
“At that time, I had been a public figure for over thirty years. And so tonight, I had no choice but to come here.”
“Come to testify that he really is Guo Mie?”
“Yes,” said Zheng Nanyuan. “Of everyone here, I’m afraid I am the most qualified to testify to this.”
“Why is that?”
“Because I was there that day.”
This was an incomplete sentence, so of course Frogboy didn’t understand. “What day? And where?”
Zheng Nanyuan didn’t answer. He turned his head to look at Guo Mie, and the two of them stared at each other, their expressions both filled with indescribable emotion.
After a long time passed, Guo Mie slowly nodded his head, and then Zheng Nanyuan responded. “That day was April Fifteen. April Fifteen, seventeen years ago.”
April 15 was the day Sun Jicheng had disappeared from the earth, and it was also the same day that Guo Mie and General Li had disappeared.
Zheng Nanyuan continued: “That day, General Li and Guo Mie met. Madam Gao also went. The three of them fought, and Madam Gao’s arm was severed. She was furious. But Guo Mie and General Li were also injured. General Li was hit by a palm strike from Madam Gao, and the injury was quite serious.”
He did not add many details because he did not want to reveal the personal matters of others.
But he did reveal something very important that neither Ingot nor Xiao Jun had known.
“This matter happened so many years ago, I originally would never have brought up what I’m about to say,” said Zheng Nanyuan. “But it is crucial to the whole affair, so I really have no choice but to speak it out.” He knew that everyone would wait for his explanation, so he opened a jug of alcohol, took a drink, and then continued, “The day they met, they did not take any subordinates along with them. They felt that the matter was a secret between the three of them, and they had absolutely no intention of letting others know about it. But they didn’t realize that we had planned for this event for many years. By the time they began to fight, we had already completely surrounded Moon Water Temple.”
Of course, Moon Water Temple would have been the location of their meeting. But Ingot couldn’t stop from asking, “We? What do you mean ‘we?’”
“There were eight of us,” said Zheng Nanyuan. “We knew that ‘End the heavens, destroy the earth’ and General Li were peak experts in Jianghu. But we were afraid we might alarm them, so we didn’t bring along any subordinates.”
“Which eight people?”
“The Chief Bodyguard of the Imperial Palace, ‘One Sword Defending Eight Wastelands,’ Tie Changchun. The former Chief of the Beggar Sect, Mr. Ren. Mount Cang Temple’s Wu Xueyan. Southern Shaolin Temple’s Grandmaster Fahua. The Helmsman of the Yangtze River 36 Strongholds, Boss Shu. Elite expert from the palace of the Prince of Northeast China, Steward Feng. Chief of the North China Bodyguard Alliance, ‘Stable and Steady’ Wang Zhongping.” In one breath, Zheng Nanyuan spoke seven names.
Seventeen years ago, anyone who spent even just a single day in Jianghu would go pale in the face upon hearing those names.
Seventeen years later, it was still the same. Even Ingot had heard of all of them.
“You said there were eight people,” said Ingot with a bitter laugh. “But I think what you had was sufficient. Each one of those men by himself is worth more than 800 men.”
Zheng Nanyuan didn’t argue this point.
“General Li had committed too many crimes, and was too gutsy. No one dared to make a move,” he said. “Furthermore, the methods of ‘End the heavens, destroy the earth’ were too ruthless and savage. That is why eight people showed up.”
“But you only said seven names,” said Ingot. “Who is the last person?”
“The last one was merely a constable.”
“A mere constable is nothing amazing. Who knows how many tens of thousands of constables there are in the world. But as far as amazing constables, there is only one!”
“Oh?”
“Of course, I’ve only heard of him, but if I’m not mistaken, that constable is also surnamed Zheng.”
“I believe so.”
“You’ve heard of him too?” asked Ingot. “His name is Zheng Po, and I believe he also had the nickname Zheng Nothing, right?” [1]
“I believe so.”
“The meaning of ‘Zheng Nothing,’ wasn’t because he was nothing. What it meant was that regardless of the case, once he got his hands on it, nothing could prevent him from breaking it.” He stared at Zheng Nanyuan. “You must be Zheng Nothing.”
This seemed to be a certainty. But Zheng Nanyuan simply shook his head.
“I’m not,” he smiled. “The boy genius finally makes a wrong guess.”
“You’re not Zheng Nothing?” said Ingot, not expecting this outcome. “Who are you, then?”
“Zheng Nanyuan and Sun Jicheng are both fake names. I never carried the surname Zheng before.”
“Then what was your surname?”
“Tie.”
Ingot was shocked. “Then you are one of the four great swordsmen of Jianghu, the greatest expert in the Imperial Palace, ‘One Sword Defending Eight Wastelands,’ Tie Changchun?”