107 A Private Conversation (1/2)
As the Dragon Year apprentices were the best batch of apprentices in Golden Roc Fort's history, the fort was not willing to waste their lives in monthly tests anymore. It chose 50 teenagers from them to form a new organization called Little Flag Battalion, whose base was located in the south of Woodensaber Alley. Five experienced killer mentors were selected to manage this new organization. Tie Hangeng was one of them.
Teenagers in Little Flag Battalion were not killer apprentices anymore, but they were not red-belt killers either. They were brown-belt assassins, who were eligible to wear black outfits embroidered with golden rocs, though they could only wear brown belts and not red belts yet. Their basic monthly salary was 100 taels of silver, and they would be able to get bonuses when they completed their missions successfully.
Once their trial period was over, they would be able to get their red belts.
The selected apprentices were thrilled, but soon their excitement was over. During their first few days of working in Little Flag Battalion, they only got some trivial jobs, such as delivering mails or standing on guard. They thought their lives now were even more boring than their old lives in the Pyrowork Academy.
Finally, they got an important task which was working as guards at a party.
The Meng family had a garden named Bodhi Garden in North City which boasted beautiful lotuses in four colors.
As the lotuses bloomed exceptionally well this year, the Meng family held a big flower viewing party and invited many friends and relatives to enjoy the beautiful scenery in the garden. Lady Meng, who had seldom visited the Meng family after getting married to the Supreme King decided to go to the party. Not wanting to go to a party with a group of fierce-looking killers, she chose the teenagers of Little Flag Battalion as her guards.
Working as guards in North City was not a challenging task at all. Golden Roc Fort only equipped the teenagers with wooden sabers. For the brown-belt assassins, the only benefit of this task was that they could go to the city to see the rare lotuses.
This outing of Lady Meng lasted for days. Besides the Meng family, all the other big families in the city also invited the lady to their banquets. Every time before she came to a place, the killer mentors would lead the teenagers to thoroughly check the place and keep irrelevant personnel away. When everything was alright, they would hide behind trees or rocks and continue to work as invisible guards.
Gu Shenwei did not get any chance to see the lotuses in those days. When they were in Bodhi Garden, he was sent to patrol an area far away from the flowers. Once his shift was over, he had to return to a small, dark room immediately to sit silently with a bunch of teenagers who hated one another. Occasionally he could meet some of his friends in this room and chat with them quietly.
The influence of the gang wars still existed. The brown-belt assassins still regarded one another as enemies. They worked together just because the fort forced them to do so.
On the seventh day of Lady Meng's outing, she held a banquet in Bodhi Garden to entertain the Meng family and the ladies of the other big families.
That day, Gu Shenwei was stationed at a guard post on an artificial hill, which was a secluded place situated on the edge of the garden. He was pretty sure that he would not get a chance to see the lotuses or meet anybody in this place for the whole day. As various kinds of flowers were blooming on that hill, he chose to hide inside a flowering shrub. He predicted that he would spend another boring day guarding against Golde Roc Fort's enemies, who would never show up in this place.
This was North City, one of the safest places in the whole world.
However, something unexpected happened.
Two girls who had gotten bored with the endless banquets sneaked out. They walked up the artificial hill and sat on a stone bench, which was about three meters away from the flowering shrub where Gu Shenwei hid.
He held his breath and kept still to avoid disturbing the girls whom he thought were probably two young misses. Actually, according to the killers' rules, he should find a chance to retreat from this place to stay away from them. However, when he recognized their voices, he chose to stay here without knowing why he did this.
He had known that Shangguan Ru would come with her mother long before, but he had never anticipated that she would have appeared somewhere so close to him.
Shangguan Ru and Shangguan Yushi sounded a little tipsy. They chatted and laughed cheerfully without noticing that someone was hiding right behind them. Compared to killer apprentices in East Castle, they had received killer training for a much longer time. Nevertheless, they did not have the killers' sharp six senses, since they had never been through any life-and-death battles.
Their voices sounded sweet and soft. Gu Shenwei remembered that these two bossy girls had never talked like this before. He even started to wonder if they were still dressed like boys now.
The girls shared various topics, such as the plants in the garden and some trivial things in Golden Roc Fort. Gradually, they started to talk about some private things, which made Gu Shenwei feel awkward. He was faced with a dilemma now. He felt that he should leave as soon as possible, but at the same time, he worried that once he moved, they would notice him and get furious.
”Yushi, the Fifth Young Master Meng kept peeping at you.”
”No. I think you might've misunderstood. He was peeping at you. I just sat beside you.”
The next moment, the girls chuckled merrily. They sounded as if they were tickling each other now. ”I don't like that guy. Yushi, let's ignore him. Don't you agree?”
”Yes. I dislike him as well. It makes me sick to see such a young man like him still behaving like a baby in front of his grandmother.”
”Hee hee, his grandma adores him. Given that, even my mother has to treat him differently.”
”Huh, if he dares to act so shamelessly in front of me, I'll...”
”What will you do?”
”I'll spank his butt with my scabbard and send him crying all the way to his grandma.”
”You wouldn't dare do so. You won't.” Shangguan Ru was panting heavily after laughing.
”I promise I will. I dare to do anything.”
Hearing that, Gu Shenwei could not help but snort in his heart. ”Shangguan Yushi, stop bragging. When we were caught by Mister Guo in the same room after we stole Black Jade Palm, you didn't dare to say anything.”
”Oh, look at you. What a daring girl you are. You can't act like this anymore when you get married.”
”I'll never get married.”
”I heard that the seventh aunt has already hired matchmakers to find a suitable husband for you.”
Gu Shenwei was overjoyed to hear that and thought, ”I remember that Shangguan Yushi is only one year younger than me. Given that, she's already reached marriageable age. If she gets married and leaves the fort, I'll feel much relieved.”