184 Return to South City (2/2)

The next morning, Shangguan Ru summoned a meeting. She ordered all the servants to return to Golden Roc Fort immediately and never to leave it again.

When a few servants insisted that they should stay, Shangguan Ru asked her killers to step out and drive them away.

The seven young killers were dressed in black and looked grim. Although they were not equipped with real sabers, they still successfully frightened the servants off.

After the servants' departure, the residence looked much more spacious. ”Let's return to South City and avenge Master Yu's death,” Shangguan Ru looked at her killers and said.

The seven teenagers drew out their wooden sabers to draw a line on the ground and then knelt down in front of Shangguan Ru. They had been waiting for this day for a long time. As killers, they wanted to fight, not to guard a residence.

Shangguan Ru wanted to break into Shangguan Fei's residence in North City and force him to give the Kun Society back to her.

Gu Shenwei decided to stop Shangguan Ru from carrying out this plan, since he had promised Lady Meng to prevent the twins from hurting each other and had secretly sworn an oath of loyalty to Shangguan Fei. ”It's useless to take back the Kun Society now. It's just a name. We'd better get back our territory and business in South City first.” After that, he told Master Ru what he had recently found out about the gangs and the other forces in South City.

”How much money do we have now?”

”About 130,000 taels of silver.”

This money was left by Tie Hanfeng. Shangguan Ru's team had not spent much of it recently since most of Tuo Nengya's machetemen had been killed during the previous fight against the Horned Dragon Society.

”It seems that we can only ask my brothers to lend me some money, if we fail to restart our business.”

In the following days, the seven young killers worked hard to restart their business. They rented a house in South City again and hired new employees. They also went to visit their old customers and the other gangs.

Gu Shenwei was eagerly anticipating gangs wars and conflicts to break out amongst the young masters of the Shangguan family, however, things did not turn out as he had expected.

The third day after Shangguan Ru's announcement of her return to South City, Shangguan Nu divided his territory in South City into two parts, and gave them to the twins.

Soon, the other young masters also followed Shangguan Nu's example and gave their territories to the twins. As a result, the twins quickly expanded their territories and got lots of protection money within several days. What they had occupied in these days was way more than what they had earned in the past few months.

The whole Jade City was stunned. Residents of the city had never seen any generation of the Shangguan family act in such a friendly way.

Gu Shenwei was bitterly disappointed, since now he could not find an excuse to start gang wars and kill more young masters of the Shanguan family. He was also confused by the other young masters' decisions at first, but gradually, he realized why they did that.

”During the past few months, Shangguan Fei showed his true potential as a leader, but Shangguan Ru revealed her weaknesses. Lady Meng must be planning a conspiracy now to help her daughter prove herself. As she doesn't want to see the twins fighting each other, she's probably planning to ask Shangguan Ru to fight against or even kill another young master of Golden Roc Fort. The other young masters still remember how Lady Meng plotted against the eldest Young Master in the past, so this time, none of them want to become a victim of her scheming. Given that, they decide to pacify Lady Meng by giving the twins all their territories in South City.”

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In order to reward their brothers' kindness, the twins decided to accept all their brothers' gangs. They let them continue to manage their old territories. The gangs gave the twins protection money but refused to let the twins or their killers get involved in their internal affairs. As a result, the actual controllers of those gangs were still the other young masters of Golden Roc Fort. The twins were dissatisfied with such an arrangement, but they had no choice except to accept it, for they themselves did not have enough manpower to take over all the territories from the gangs.

Shangguan Ru easily achieved her goal of expanding her business and building up strength in South City, but the gangs did not consider her as their real boss.

Fortunately, Master Ru did not need to worry about money anymore. The first month after she accepted her brothers' territories and gangs she received nearly 100,000 taels of silver. In the future, she would receive 70,000 to 80,000 taels of silver every month from the gangs.

Now that Shangguan Ru's problems about territory and money were settled, Gu Shenwei began to worry that she would sneak out someday to attack Shangguan Fei to avenge Master Yu's death. He decided to pay close attention to her in the coming days.

It was mid-March now. The wind became warm and the streets of South City became caked with mush from melted snow, but North City was still as tidy as always.

One morning, Shangguan Ru took a walk with Slave Huan and Maid Lotus in North City, chatting merrily with them all along the way. It appeared that she had totally recovered from her sadness. Nevertheless, when they had lunch together in a restaurant, Gu Shenwei noticed that Shangguan Ru was a little absent-minded. He suggested going home after lunch, and Shangguan Ru agreed.

However, right after they stepped out of the restaurant, Shangguan Ru resolutely headed for Shangguan Fei's residence.

Gu Shenwei exchanged a look with Maid Lotus. None of them were sure that they could stop Master Ru at this moment, so they decided to let her do what she wanted.

Shangguan Fei had lots of servants. Most of them were from Inner Residence of Golden Roc Fort and knew the twins very well. When the servants at the gate of Shangguan Fei's residence spotted Shangguan Ru in the distance, they immediately sent a servant into the house to report to their supervisor.

”Alas, Master Ru. Master Fei is out. Do you want to come in to wait for him or let me pass your message to him?” Slave Qing hurriedly came to the gate and said to Shangguan Ru, his face covered in sweat. He still acted obsequiously toward Master Ru, although he was already Master Fei's butler now.

Shangguan Ru carefully looked at Shangguan Fei's residence. This place was much more commodious than the residence offered by Slave Huan. It was also very clean and well kept.

”I'll stay here and wait for him,” Shangguan Ru replied and then entered the front yard of Shangguan Fei's residence.

Upon hearing that, Slave Qing perspired even more heavily. He winked at Slave Huan, hoping that the young killer could help him out. However, Slave Huan and Maid Lotus just followed Master Ru into the front yard without saying a word.

Shangguan Ru strutted around as if she owned this place. No one dared to stop her. However, when she was about to step into the back yard, Slave Qing hastily went over to block her way. ”Master Ru, you can't go into the back yard,” he said.

”Why?”

”Well... A bunch of machetemen live in the back yard now. You know, they're smelly and dirty.”

”Oh, I see,” Shangguan Ru turned around and said. Upon hearing that, Slave Qing heaved a long sigh of relief. However, in the next moment, Shangguan Ru turned back again and rushed into the back yard.

”Shangguan Fei, get out!” she shouted in the yard.

”What? Do you have another girl here?” A female voice came out of a room in the east wing of the house.

Gu Shenwei recognized that voice. He felt really awkward now.