94 An Unexpected Gues (2/2)

”And this time... you don't need me to go with you, do you?”

”No, I don't.”

”Wow, that's great. You know, I don't know kung fu. It'll be alright if you ask me to steal something for you, but I can't fight those guys.”

”I don't need you to steal anything for me.”

”Hah-hah, how about we go out to eat now? You know sometimes my sister's clients come here during the day.”

”You go by yourself. I'll leave very soon; I have something to do.”

”Well, I can stay with you for a while; it's freezing cold outside so I don't want to go out right now.”

Fifteen minutes later, Gu Shenwei walked out of the house with the machete, but he did not completely leave the area. He hid in a street corner, observing the house. Half an hour later, he saw a tall man walk out of it, wearing a cape and a hood to cover his face. He looked left and right before hurriedly leaving.

In South City, especially in the brothels, there were many sneaky men like him.

Gu Shenwei waited for a while longer. When the cold weather became too unbearable, he left for Southwall Tavern.

The fat guys searched him and asked him to leave his machete at the gate.

After entering the tavern, Gu Shenwei was greatly disappointed; he did not find Tie Hanfeng or Zhang Ji here. Sitting at his mentor's favorite table, he ordered a cup of wine and asked the manager to put his spendings on Tie Hanfeng's tab again.

He stared at the red liquid in the white cup and waited for his mentor, but Tie Hanfeng did not show up for the entire afternoon.

When the sun began to set, he knew that he had to leave for the courtyard. He walked out of the tavern and picked up his machete at the gate. This time, the fat guys did not play any trick to try and change his weapon.

A light snow was falling when he left the tavern, but when he arrived at the courtyard, it snowed so heavily that his vision became limited to 10 steps around him.

Evidently, there were not as many gang members as usual. When Gu Shenwei walked around the courtyard several times and even leaped into it, no one came out to stop him.

The cottages were lit up and noisy. He could clearly hear people drinking and shouting inside the warm room, but he still hid outside in the snow, despite the cold weather. Gu Shenwei was not scared by Elderly Dragon; he just wanted to find out what the gang was plotting.

This time, he needed to discover the truth to solve the problem.

In front of the cottages, there were piles of liquor jars. They were covered by the snow and looked like small hills. Gu Shenwei wiped the snow off of them and knocked on them one by one, discovering that they were all empty.

”Hey!”

Someone spotted the sneaky teenager. Gu Shenwei turned around and saw Dragon Tooth run at him, long machete in hand. Elderly Dragon's son and several machete-men followed behind.

”Do you still remember what Elderly Dragon told you?”

”He said that he wanted to invite me here for a drink to thank me for beating his son, but I refused. The liquor here is of poor quality and you mix it with water. I don't want such drinks,” Gu Shenwei said, gripping his machete shaft tightly. Although the machete was quite different from a saber, he still thought it was better than a short sword.

The machete-men clamored as Dragon Tooth brandished his long machete and said, ”You only get one chance. Piss off.”

Gu Shenwei stared at Dragon Tooth for a moment and then retreated. Soon, he could not see them anymore in the snow but he could still hear them laughing at his cowardice.

They were the 20 killer apprentices' targets, thus he could not kill them before they launched an attack - especially since Shangguan Yushi was their killer leader.

He returned to Southwall Tavern to find Tie Hanfeng, but his mentor was not there so he could only return the siblings' dwelling.

When Gu Shenwei entered the house, Xu Yanwei was sleeping upstairs and Xu Xiaoyi was also lying in his makeshift bed on the first floor. The moment the boy saw the killer apprentice, he mumbled, ”Latch the door.”

Gu Shenwei sat by the fire alone. He closed his eyes to imagine a piece of white paper. After that, he began to write down the contents of the document on that paper in his mind. While writing the 20 apprentices' names, he matched them with the faces he had seen in the house this morning. When it came to Liuhua, he suddenly realized that he did not see him earlier.

He saw the light.

He pushed Xu Xiaoyi and asked, ”Who hired you to do this job?”

”Ah? What? Bigmouth Liu. Do you know him?”

Gu Shenwei did not know Bigmouth Liu. He grabbed Xu Xiaoyi's shoulders and shook him harder until the boy finally woke up, sitting up in his bed grumpily.

”What're you doing?”

”Who came here in the morning?”

”Elderly Dragon.”

”Not him. I mean the man hiding upstairs.”

Xu Xiaoyi smiled embarrassedly. He turned his eyes, seemingly wanting to refute, but then he changed his mind and said, ”You found out?”

”Who is he?”

”A client of my sister's. A normal person. Elderly Dragon came here right after he entered the house, so he could only hide upstairs. I didn't mean to lie to you, but you've already driven one of my sister's clients away. We were just a little worried.”

Knowing that Xu Xiaoyi was lying and acting again, Gu Shenwei said, ”Don't play tricks. You and your sister can't afford it. Watch out for your own heads.”

Hearing that, Xu Xiaoyi immediately touched his head to make sure that it was alright. ”Relax, who am I? I ran about in South City long before you knew the place.”

Gu Shenwei returned to sit by the fire. He was sure that the siblings would be killed the day after tomorrow if they did participate in this plot, and at that time, he would not be able to protect them. Xu Xiaoyi refused to tell him the truth, which made him feel quite relieved; it did not make him feel obliged to save the siblings.

Xu Xiaoyi sat on his bed, looking at the killer apprentice profoundly. He wanted to say something, but after a while, he swallowed his words and fell back into his bed, snorting loudly.

Gu Shenwei gripped the machete shaft tightly. Part of him longed for killing, and the other part was always sickened by the color and the smell of blood. He was not sure which one was his true self...