183 Tactics (2/2)

He was greatly surprised that Maid Lotus knew Shangguan Ru this well and asked her what she did to figure Master Ru out.

”Only a girl can truly understand another girl,” she replied.

Her explanation made Gu Shenwei confused, but after a moment of thought, he came to understand the reason for his bewilderment. He had thought that all girls were like Xu Yanwei and had never looked upon Maid Lotus and Shangguan Ru as girls.

After discovering the cause of Shangguan Ru's depression, Gu Shenwei and Maid Lotus still could not figure out a way to help the girl stop feeling sad. When they believed that they had no choice except to let Master Ru recover from her sadness by herself, Wildhorse suddenly volunteered to help Master Ru.

This mute killer had treated Shangguan Yushi as his real master and had done many things for her. No one else in this killer team knew the girl better than him. Gu Shenwei believed that Wildhorse might really know how to help Shangguan Ru make a clean break with the past.

As Shangguan Ru was unable to understand the Snow Mountain Gang's sign language, Wildhorse asked Maid Lotus to work as his interpreter. He sincerely apologized to her for having sent Black Snake to assassinate her. He told Maid Lotus that it was nothing personal but that he was acting on Master Yu's orders.

Maid Lotus accepted his apology and promised to work as his interpreter.

Wildhorse had heard of Maid Lotus and Slave Huan's relationship. He was pretty sure that she would tell Slave Huan everything that he said during his conversation with Master Ru, so he did not ask her to keep the content of the conversation confidential.

At the beginning of the conversation, Wildhorse confessed to Master Ru that Master Yu had gotten in touch with him and some other apprentices long before the gang wars in East Castle and had worked hard to win his loyalty after his duel with Slave Huan. He contended that although he had sworn an oath of allegiance to Master Yu after the duel, he had not done anything for her until joining Master Ru's killer team.

He did not explain why he had chosen to serve Shangguan Yushi at that time. He simply told Master Ru that it was his hatred toward the Tattooed Arm Gang that gradually brought him closer to Master Yu. He admitted that he had assassinated Marquis Gao and had sent some other killers to kill Zhou Huan and Slave Yuan. He also confessed that he had lured Slave Jing into the trap.

After that, Wildhorse risked his life to tell Master Ru that it was Master Yu who had ordered Meng Mingshi to kidnap her. ”Master Ru, Master Yu just wanted to frame Slave Huan by doing that. She made Meng Mingshi swear to the gods that he would never harm you before the action began.”

Upon hearing that, Shangguan Ru was not irritated. Instead, she was impressed by the mute killer's frankness and believed what he said even more.

Wildhorse went on to explain Shangguan Yushi and Meng Mingshi's relationship to Shangguan Ru. ”The Fifth Young Master Meng fell in love with Master Yu a long time ago. He had never seen any girl like her before and was determined to win her affection. He hoped to get close to her by traveling together with us to the camp of the Iron Mountain Gang, however, he ended up losing her respect. Master Yu would never fall in love with a coward like him. She just wanted to use this wealthy young master to actualize her secret plan.”

Wildhorse contended that Shangguan Yushi had secretly planned to kill Slave Huan and use Meng Mingshi to swindle a large sum of money out of the Meng family. According to him, she intended to invest the money in the Kun Society to help it become the largest gang in the whole of South City.

”Meng Mingshi never discovered that Master Yu had been lying to him all this time, but Master Yu didn't feel ashamed of her behavior since she believed that a professional killer should try all means to achieve his or her goal. Unfortunately, she never paid any attention to Master Fei and got assassinated by him before she could fulfill her plan. That's why Meng Mingshi still believes that Master Yu loves him.”

Wildhorse was also 100-percent sure that Master Yu had never planned to marry Meng Mingshi. He told Shangguan Ru that she had already made a plan to get rid of Meng Mingshi after she got the money. ”Meng Mingshi is a faithless man and a frequent visitor to the brothels. Master Yu intended to hire a beautiful prostitute to seduce him after she got the money. She would find a chance to go to the prostitute's place to catch him cheating and break up with him. After that, she would give you the money and tell you her entire plan. Master Ru, Master Yu was only loyal to you. Meng Mingshi said that Master Yu wanted to make you her puppet. That's not true. Master Yu just tricked him into believing that. She just wanted to protect you. In her eyes, you're the only good person in Golden Roc Fort. She hoped to keep you away from this kind of filth forever. That's why she didn't tell you her plan beforehand.”

Afterwards Maid Lotus told Slave Huan what Wildhorse had said during the conversation. Both of them reckoned that the mute killer's story was implausible. However, Shangguan Ru believed it and even forgave the mute killer for murdering the members of the Kun Society.

Gu Shenwei was never a close friend to Shangguan Yushi, but he believed that compared to Shangguan Ru, he had more insight into the psychology of Master Yu.

”Shangguan Yushi was a social climber and always felt insecure about her future. She probably did not love the Fifth Young Master Meng, but she was not absolutely loyal to Shangguan Ru either. Wildhorse claimed that Shangguan Yushi just wanted to keep Shangguan Ru away from filth, but all the deals of a gang are quite dirty. Given that, it's just another way of saying she wanted Shangguan Ru to be a puppet.” Gu Shenwei thought to himself.

Neither Gu Shenwei nor Maid Lotus believed Wildhorse's story, but they had no chance to dig out the truth now, since Shangguan Yushi was dead already. They guessed that Shangguan Yushi might have lied to Wildhorse. They reckoned that she might have just told everyone what they wanted to hear to safeguard her own interests.

Gradually, Shangguan Ru recovered from her sadness. Gu Shenwei was delighted to see that since he could not wait to return to South City. He had already made a plan to help the Kun Society regain its standing.