165 The Teahouse (1/2)
It did not matter that whether Slave Huan wanted to kill Master Yu or whether it was the other way around. The important question was not about how to carry out the killing, it was how to avoid Shangguan Ru's suspicions. The two of them had sworn an oath in the presence of the Tenth Young Master to never fight again. Both had kept their word superficially over a long period of time - no one wished for it to end with losses on both sides.
Gu Shenwei had always remembered the words of his Master Shifu Tie Hanfeng - if you wished to 'safely kill somebody', then before you kill that person you have to cut off the target's 'relationships'. Another way of looking at this statement was that if you could not cut off the target's 'relationships', then you had to remove 'suspicions' related to yourself, to not let anyone have any doubts about you.
Shangguan Yushi managed to accomplish this. If she succeeded in her plans, everyone would have thought that Slave Huan had died in the struggle between the Kun and Horned Dragon Societies, and that his death had nothing to do with her at all.
Gu Shenwei decided to use a more traditional method. If only he could present evidence to Shangguan Ru showing that Master Yu had secretly conspired with the Horned Dragon Society and had broken the seemingly unbreakable bond between the two young women, his problem would be solved.
The stronger the love, the deeper the hatred.
Gu Shenwei forced Slave Yuan to recount the situation during the eavesdropping again and again, hoping to find the tiniest clues from his re-enactment. In the end he came up with the conclusion that the man who was arguing with Master Yu was not of high rank; he seemed to listen more than he spoke, and Gu Shenwei felt as though the man was a little afraid of the demoness.
Arguments and money; these two words danced around in his mind. Shangguan Yushi's family was of average wealth; when she was in school, she came up with all sorts of methods to get money from her classmates.
Could it be that she had borrowed money from the Meng Family? Or were they debts owed by her brother when he was alive? If Meng Mingshi had used this fact to humiliate Shangguan Yushi, Gu Shenwei did not feel surprised at all. But it did not seem likely that Meng could have used this to blackmail her into betraying the Tenth Young Master. Furthermore, Master Yu seemed to be reprimanding the other party at that time, and this did not seem like the sort of attitude a debtor would display towards a creditor.
Money - Marquis Gao's death was related to debts and the Meng Family as well. Gu Shenwei naturally linked both cases together, and what delighted him was that Xu Xiaoyi had managed to inquire about another important lead.
”The servant who accompanied Marquis Gao into the South City was called Qi Tian, which was pretty scary name, but in actual fact he was a honest man. He did not have a choice and had to be called whatever his master had chosen for him as his name. Everyone knew him as Qi Da, hey, which was just removing a stroke from the character 'Tian'...”, Xu Xiaoyi beat around the bush before coming back to the main point. ”He was hiding in Hope Alley, and other than me, who could have found out about his whereabouts? Even for someone like me, I had to expend so much effort...”
On the afternoon of the 15th day of the first month of the Lunar Calendar, Gu Shenwei brought Xu Xiaoyi along with him to Hope Alley, while Slave Jing was never far from his side. The three of them walked around in a big circle before going to their destination.
Xu Xiaoyi harbored deep seated fear about this deserted alley. Many years ago, he had travelled all around the South City and this was the only place he had not explored. At first, he looked for all sorts of reasons not to enter the alley and when his efforts were futile, he began to become anxious and afraid. He said, ”Brother Huan, I think you should not let me go further. I do not know kung fu, and would be a burden if I went. Furthermore, wouldn't a beautiful youth like me, who looks handsome, be swallowed alive upon entering the Hope Alley?”
Hope Alley was situated due south of the South City and was the place of 'men'. Men who were castrated amounted to the thousands there and dealt in all sorts of business. It was a small town in its own right.
Gu Shenwei had heard of this place before. At the very beginning, when the Kun Society tried to rope in merchants to get protection money, Tuo Nengya had warned him to not waste his efforts on Hope Alley. ”That is the dirtiest place in the entire Jade City and no one wishes to go near it. It is also the only alley with no affiliation with the Stone Castle or the Meng Family, everyone who lives in that alley are all evil in nature. It would firstly be very difficult and secondly a joke in the eyes of others if you tried to collect protection money from them,” said Tuo.
Tuo Nengya was not entirely correct. There were still people who willingly went nearby and even entered Hope Alley. What Xu Xiaoyi was afraid of was the preferences of some of these people.
Even though Hope Alley lacked nothing, the trade which had supported its continual growth was the same as Pleasure Alley.
”I heard that the people here have evil secrets, and specifically kidnap beautiful young boys. Some castrate the boys with one stroke of the knife to be the same as themselves, while other boys suffer an even worse fate and are eaten alive, in the belief that doing so would grant eternal youth and beauty to one...”.
Upon entering Hope Alley, Xu Xiaoyi clung onto the elbow of Brother Huan as if his life depended on it. He was afraid to let go because the horror stories that he had heard during his childhood was now occupying his entire thoughts.
Slave Jing did not look quite right either; once the fear of death had sunk in its hooks, it was hard to shake it off. He felt like a frightened bird fleeing from an archer, and the crowded Hope Alley with its mix of the good and the bad seemed like the perfect place for Master Yu to send people to assassinate him.
Gu Shenwei did not believe all these baseless rumors. Furthermore, the residents of Hope Alley did not seem any different, some of them even grew facial hair and did not look like eunuchs in the slightest bit. The only difference was the expression in their eyes; they seemed to possess a certain special ability to recognise an outsider in one glance. As soon as Gu Shenwei's party of three stepped into Hope Alley, they started drawing the attention of many.
Xu Xiaoyi grew more afraid and was literally hanging on to Brother Huan's elbow as he walked. Gu Shenwei had to bring him along as only this child could recognise the personal servant of the late Marquis Gao, Qi Da.
Hope Alley stretched a long distance with many twists in between. As one entered deeper into it, its uniqueness started to become more apparent. The number of shops became fewer and the houses lining the streets were mostly without any signboards but there were one or two men outside of their doors. To call them men would be a stretch, as the amount of make up they applied was even more than that of the prostitutes of Pleasure Alley. Amongst them were a few who were so beautiful without any equal, and no one would ever suspect a thing if they were to be identified as women.
The two killers and the youth hung their heads down as they walked and did not respond to the suggestive or open advances that were made towards them.
Xu Xiaoyi's intelligence had pointed out that Qi Da was hiding in the Joy Pavilion, situated at the heart of the Hope Alley. All they had to do was to continue walking in the same direction towards it.
”Keep alert and do not let Qi Da slip away from you,” reminded Gu Shenwei.
Xu Xiaoyi lifted his head and swept his eyes around after taking a few steps. He quickly grew nervous and afraid, and he muttered, ”I'm the ugliest, please don't take a fancy to me...”.
There were three stories to the Joy Pavilion, and it was a mix of various weird establishments in one place: on the first story was a teahouse, which was not entirely unheard of in the South Jade City, but rarely seen, on the second story was an area to wait before being called for, while a bunch of fortune tellers was living on the third story.
A signboard with four large words which meant 'Be pleased till you are at a loss for words' hung on the building.
”It is said that the fortune tellers here are the most accurate. There is a living immortal who can describe your entire life clearly to you. Let's give it a try later.”
They did not encounter any form of danger on their way and Xu Xiaoyi began to feel more confident and he started to feel concerned about his own future.
”You do not have to go for any fortune telling, as you will be serving prostitutes and killers for your entire life.”
Xu Xiaoyi retorted earnestly, ”Who knows, no one says that my sister cannot turn over a new leaf and stop being a prostitute.”
The teahouse was filled with customers and the three newcomers managed to find an empty table after some effort. After they sat down, they started observing the guests.