Book 58 Chapter 4: A Princess' Heart

Translator: Foxs' Wuxia

Snow powder suddenly fell, immediately it enveloped the entire city of Chang'an in a beautiful white dreamland that could not be transformed.

It was precisely on this extraordinary night that Kou Zhong, accompanied by Zha Jie arrived at the front gate of Feng Ya Ge. He smiled and said, "I still don't feel at ease, let me remind you again."

Zha Jie was so nervous that the base of his ear was turning red, yet Kou Zhong's words made him even more uneasy. Immediately he spoke deferentially, "Shaoshuai is willing to give pointers, shuxia is very grateful."

Kou Zhong raised his eyebrows and laughed aloud, "It's his granny's bear, understand?" he said.

Hearing that, Zha Jie was even more confused and did not know what to say. But Kou Zhong already pushed him into Feng Ya Ge. The several hired-thug-like servants guarding the door came out to meet them. A rather senior one among them asked, "May I ask whether the two Daye have already reserved a wing room?"

Kou Zhong loved dealing with this kind of little hoodlums the most, because he could relive his Yangzhou's old childhood dreams, plus he understood their ways of doing things better than anyone else. Casting the man a sidelong glance, he spoke indifferently, "Just tell Qingqing Furen that Cai Yuanyong who played polo is here!"

Zha Jie had never thought that Kou Zhong would take him to see Xi'er like this, instead of sneaking in from the backyard and quietly slipped into her fragrant chamber, or something like that.

None of the men was not emotionally moved. I was obvious that Cai Yuanyong, the polo player, has grown into a well-known household hero.

A comparatively older man, who seemed to be the leader, hurriedly shouted, "Why haven't you immediately passed on the message for Cai Ye?"

One of his men took the order and left.

The man who issued the order piled up a smile on his face, he bowed respectfully with clasped hands and said, "Turns out it's Cai Ye, Xiaoren Zhou Bao; relying on Cai Ye and Kuang Ye helping Huangshang rendering great defeating to the Persian devils, Xiaoren won quite a fortune. Please come with Xiaoren."

Hearing that, Kou Zhong and Zha Jie looked at each other, it was only then did they understand the cause of the sensation among these men, and that Cai Yuanyong and Kuang Wentong's names, due to their illustrious fame among polo betting community, had also spread to the whole city of Chang'an.

Kou Zhong was puzzled, "Since there was no winner or loser, it should be a tie, how could Zhou Dage win the money?"

Zhou Bao said cheerfully, "That day's odds was: ours was one to nine, and the Persian ghosts was one to one. Since it was a tie, the side with the higher buy-in odds wins. This is the rule set by the Six-Happiness; there was also a one-to-three odds."

Kou Zhong mused inwardly that it was one of the fine things that Chi Shengchun did, if this person was not removed, it would only be harmful without any benefit to the folkways of Chang'an.

Zhou Bao took them to a wing room to sit down, Kou Zhong picked up his ear and listened carefully, the sound of the string and woodwind [orig. bamboo pipe] ensemble resounded from every corner of the pavilion, he laughed and said, "Your business is very prosperous."

Zhou Bao spoke in low voice, "Were it not for Ji Xiaojie is returning home to visit her family, business would have been even better."

Finished speaking, he asked to be excused and left, replaced by pretty maid coming in to pour tea and serve towels, and waited upon them attentively.

When only the two of them remained, Kou Zhong spoke in a relaxed manner to Zha Jie, who was so tense that it was difficulty for him to breathe, he said, "Currently Chang'an seems to be relaxed on the outside but tense in the inside. On the surface, it appears that nothing is happening, but the fact is that various major forces in the city are wrestling for control against each other, and since we have become Yin Zuwen and Chi Shengchun's scouts, others will not dare to provoke us. Therefore, we must take advantage of this situation to establish the impression that we are mingling all over the place in Chang'an; the more arrogant and extravagant, the more we spend every night in music and song, while wandering around the gambling establishments and pleasure houses, the more it will convenience us in moving around, so that the enemy lose the heart to be on guard against us."

How could Zha Jie be in the mood to indulge in this kind of talks? He was only nodding to indicate he understood.

Accompanied by the sound of jingling jewelry, the beautifully dressed [orig. lovely scene of blossoming flowers swaying in the breeze] Qingqing came in leisurely. She was already aware that Cai Yuanyong was Kou Zhong, only she did not expect that Kou Zhong would openly visit her in the pleasure house as a guest. Barely entering the door, she feigned anger coquettishly and said, "Cai Ye scared nujia out of my skin, now my heart is still jumping wildly."

Kou Zhong quickly stood up to apologize. When he sat back down, he said, "This gentleman is Xiao Jie that I mentioned; he has a deep affection for Xi'er, hee ...!"

Zha Jie was so embarrassed that he almost wanted to dig a hole and crawl in; how would he know that Kou Zhong would be this forthcoming? His whole tender face was burning like a baked cake.

Qingqing's beautiful eyes floated towards him, she smiled and said, "Indeed he looks a bit familiar. Oh! I remember! He is from the shipping company, the first time he was pushed inside by other people to come in; he was blushing so deep and did not dare to say half a word."

Zha Jie was so embarrassed that he was unable to show his face; hanging his head low, he said, "Ay! I ..."

Kou Zhong smiled and said, "Xiao Jie is one of the top rank great generals under my command, he has been with me for many years, I dare to guarantee that he will be the most ideal husband for Xi'er. For Xi'er's lifelong happiness, I am troubling Jiejie to do me a favor by playing matchmaker for them. If it does not succeed, Xiao Jie will have no choice but to sigh over his meager luck. I am leaving! I am asking Jiejie to take a good care of Xiao Jie."

Zha Jie was shocked; he nearly grabbed Kou Zhong to stop him from leaving.

But Kou Zhong was one step ahead by pushing him back into the chair. Laughing aloud, he said, "Jiejie, did you see that? Isn't this a young man of pure and fine moral character? Furthermore, he is not a glib-in-his-speech-and-wear-an-ingratiating-expression, picking-the-flowers-and-trampling-the-grass [idiom: womanizer, one who frequents brothels] trash. Don't look at his shy manner, the fact is that he has extraordinary skills with extremely ample experience in Jianghu. Some day he will serve as the bodyguard to escort the two of you to Liangdu."

Zha Jie began to understand what Kou Zhong meant by 'his granny's bear', which was to throw caution to the wind and show their real character, to use quick sword to cut through tangled hemp [idiom: decisive action in a complex situation], to use direct and plainspoken words to see whether the marriage between him and Xi'er was determined by Heaven.

Qingqing burst out in tender laughter; holding Kou Zhong's hand, she sent him off out of the wing room, saying, "Just go in peace! Since he is a good brother that you strongly recommend, naturally Jiejie will play matchmaker with all of my heart."

The heart in his bosom on alert, Xu Ziling lightly tapped on Shen Luoyan's fragrant chamber's window, sending the secret signal inside.

The night sky was filled with gently floating snow, there was some kind of a beautiful state of stillness within motion. This could be the last snowfall before the warm spring and blooming flowers, without anybody noticing it, the three-month freezing period was coming to an end.

He had no choice but to be careful with Shen Luoyan. Shen Luoyan has always had a casual attitude towards the relationship between men and women. Even though she was married and has become somebody else's wife, she was still as unruly as in the past.

'Creak!'

The window pane opened, Shen Luoyan flowery jade countenance appeared in the dark room, she blissfully said, "Good thing that you are sensitive! If you did not come to see me tonight, tomorrow night I will look for you to give you bad luck."

Xu Ziling was apprehensive inwardly, he did not dare to turn his gaze toward her, who was only wearing thin clothes, completely putting her attractively curvy figure on display; he spoke softly, "I am coming in!"

Shen Luoyan suddenly reached out, held his cheek, leaned forward and said, "Surely you know that I miss you very much!" Without the slightest hesitation, she lightly kissed his lips before moving back.

Xu Ziling was at a loss against her; he leaped inside.

Shen Luoyan closed the window, took him by the hand, and led him over toward the embroidery couch.

Even with Xu Ziling's self-control, his heart was beating wildly, wondering whether she would force him to bed with her? He cried 'Bad!' inwardly, but also felt that it was greatly romantic and extremely arousing, even though he was fully aware that he should definitely not feel this way. After all, it's not that he did not have favorable impression toward Shen Luoyan, and this moment she was even more extremely captivating. From their first encounter, when he saw her decisively commanding the battlefield, her charming beautiful image has long been planted in the field of his heart.

Fortunately, Shen Luoyan just took him to sit side by side on the edge of the bed. Xu Ziling's heart was moved, he took the quilt, which was still warm, and wrapped it tightly around her tender body, and said, "Be careful, I don't want you to catch a cold!"

Shen Luoyan never thought that it was Xu Ziling's safety measure that he took for fear that he could not resist her allure, she thought he was concerned about her wellbeing; she spoke gratefully, "Ziling is really attentive." Finished speaking, she put her small cicada head gently and naturally using his broad shoulder as a pillow.

Xu Ziling composed his mind to maintain his calm, otherwise, if Shen Luoyan heard his heart beating wildly, it might lead to a once it gets started, there's no stopping it - situation. "How is the situation?" he asked.

Shen Luoyan closed her beautiful eyes, she spoke faintly, "Which aspect of the situation you are talking about? Ziling doesn't want to know how I was terribly worried about you? When the battle of Luoyang reached its most-intense juncture, I was really afraid that you and Kou Zhong would not be able to survive!"

Xu Ziling said, "That was a nightmare that has already passed. I haven't had a chance to thank you yet. If it weren't for you sending Xibai to help, Fenghan and I would definitely lose our lives."

As if she was talking in her dream, Shen Luoyan spoke gently, "Do we still need to talk about these things? Wei Zheng will come back with Jiancheng tomorrow, I haven't had the chance to contact him yet."

And then she said, "The biggest worry at present is that Huangshang has been instigated by the lowly people and believed that the two men, Du Ruhui and Fang Xuanling were the master mind who instigated Qin Wang to poison Zhang Jieyu. Fortunately, both of them are outside the Pass with Qin Wang, otherwise Li Yuan would have killed them early on like Liu Wenjing. You ought to know that Liu Wenjing has a lot of understanding in medicine, plus he had quite close relationship with Fang and Du, two men. This was the real main reason why Liu Wenjing was executed."

Xu Ziling already learned from Feng Deyi earlier about Li Yuan's suspicion toward the two men, but he was still greatly baffled and had headache. If Li Shimin returned to Chang'an from the south, and Li Yuan immediately asked him to hand over Fang and Du, two men to him, how should he deal with it? He spoke heavily, "Notify Qin Wang immediately and think of an excuse to keep them in Luoyang."

Shen Luoyan shook her head and said, "It won't work. In the written imperial order, Huangshang specifically stated that Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui were the ones who have to come back with Qin Wang. Not following the order is akin to disobeying the emperor's edict, then Qin Wang will be guilty."

"Where did your information come from?" Xu Ziling asked.

Shen Luoyan replied, "It was Xiuning Gongzhu who told me. In Chang'an, I am the only intimate friend with whom she can talk about the load in her mind, talk about her Er Xiong [second brother], and even talk about Kou Zhong and you."

"Can you arrange for me to meet her?" Xu Ziling asked.

Shen Luoyan sat her tender body upright, her gaze flickering, she looked at him, wondering, "What's the use of seeing her? It will only make her feel difficulties left and right."

Xu Ziling said, "She is a person who understands reason, and she has a bemoaning-the-state-of-the-universe-and-pitying-the-fate-of-mankind good heart and intestines even more. If she is willing to stand on Qin Wang's side, we could persuade Li Shentong through her."

Emotionally moved, Shen Luoyan said, "Li Shentong is someone that we have a good chance to win over. Forget about he has always had a good relationship with Qin Wang, at least he is a person who is accustomed to the battlefield, he understands better than Li Yuan that Qin Wang is Li Tang's only hope; more importantly, he is deeply aware of the power of Kou Zhong and Song Que's joint forces, weighing the advantages and disadvantages, he should know what to choose. But if he can't be persuaded, he must be killed, we can't afford to have anybody ruining our plan."

Xu Ziling could not help thinking of Ke Dazhi, he said with a wry smile, "I hope that situation will never happen."

Shen Luoyan's jet-black eyebrows lightly knitted, she said, "The one to see Xiuning Gongzhu must be Kou Zhong, not you, Xu Ziling. A girl's load on her mind, only a girl would understand. She has special feelings for Kou Zhong, if Kou Zhong does not dare to see her, the consequences will be hard to fathom."

Xu Ziling had a headache for Kou Zhong. Could it be that Kou Zhong must tell her that not only he would launch a coup to force her father to abdicate, but also to kill her two elder brothers?

Shen Luoyan's voice sounded in his ears, "I will find a way to invite Xiuning Gongzhu her to see me. Tomorrow afternoon, come to my backyard wall and read the secret marking I will leave there, you will know the time and place of the meeting." And then she explained the technique of the secret marking.

Xu Ziling knew that it would be inappropriate for him to stay for a long time, he said, "I have an appointment with Kou Zhong to do something, I will see you another day."

Disappointed, Shen Luoyan said, "I thought you would accompany me to talk until dawn. Next time, I won't allow you to blurt out and leave so quickly."

Inwardly Xu Ziling was apprehensive, he coaxed her to lie down obediently, and then he left immediately.

Wearing tight nightwalker attire, covering their heads in black cloth, revealing only their pair of eyes, the three men flew through the houses and leaped over the buildings, and landed on the snow-covered roof tiles of the house behind Shi Zhixuan's courtyard house. They crouched down and look around, their gaze overlooking the roof ridge, toward the secret nest where Shi Zhixuan temporarily stayed, they faintly saw a dot of light.

In Chang'an, Hou Xibai was an old horse who knew the way home. Pointing to the river course that wound around the Shi residence and then flowed southeast along the city walls, he said, "That river can flow to the Qujiang River at the southeast corner of the city, one of Chang'an's leading wonderful sceneries. Shizun chose the place to stay by this river, it's extremely brilliant."

Kou Zhong said, "Yang WenGan chose the West Market for the same reason. No matter what, close to the Yong An Canal, when something happens, it would be a bit more convenient to escape."

Hou Xibai said, "Lao Ba and I went to He Chang Long many times to tread on the water, we gave up the idea of sneaking in for fear that we might beat the grass to scare the snake. During the day, He Chang Long is engaged in the grain and oil business, on the surface, we could not see anything peculiar."

Kou Zhong said, "I dare say Yang WenGan is hiding inside. When I have enough manpower, we will kill his Niang's until not a chicken or a dog remains, using a ten-thousand-jun-thunderbolt momentum, and disrupt the foot of the Xiang Family and Yang Xuyan's troops disposition."

Xu Ziling spoke in displeasure, "No need to show off, what we are fighting for is not a quick momentary win, but the final victory."

Smiling apologetically, Kou Zhong said, "I was just kidding, in order to match the current leaping-onto-roofs-and-vaulting-over-walls Jianghu shady business."

Blurted out laughing, Hou Xibai said, "If this is called using the soldiers with talking and laughing, it would inevitably infuriate Zhuge Wuhou [i.e. Zhuge Liang of the Three Kingdoms] whose name has been passed down throughout all ages because of this."

Kou Zhong elbowed Xu Ziling lightly, he said, "You go out first, after you make sure that the situation is clear, we will show up."

Right this moment, the alarm went off in Xu Ziling and Kou Zhong's heart at the same time. They exchanged glances first, and then turned their heads to look back together.

Hou Xibai generated reaction a hair later; by the time he looked back, Shi Zhixuan appeared like a ghost at the head of the eaves where the wind and the snow intersected. In the blink of an eye, he was already behind the three men, and spoke indifferently, "If I hadn't heard your relaxed conversation, I would think that you guys are here to assassinate me."

The three men maintained their crouching and kneeling position, Hou Xibai respectfully called, "Shizun."

'Shame!' Kou Zhong cried inwardly. If they really came to carry out the assassination, presently they would have definitely paid bitterly, stealing chicken without seeing the chicken nibbling away at the rice. If Shi Zhixuan 'made a ruckus to alert the authority', they would have to pack their back and leave before finished eating even more. Embarrassed, he said, "Xie Wang, your vigilance is very high, you make me practically suspect that you don't need to sleep."

Shi Zhixuan smiled and said, "Tonight is a special night, I didn't intend to go to bed, I even planned to go to say hello to you guys before dawn tomorrow."

Astonished, Xu Ziling said, "Xie Wang's remarks contain a deep meaning, I wonder what you are thinking?"

Instead of answering, Shi Zhixuan asked, "Ba Fenghan is not in Chang'an?"

Kou Zhong replied frankly, "Ba Xiongdi has other important tasks, he cannot spare the time to come."

Suddenly Shi Zhixuan's powerful body trembled slightly, he looked towards Qujiang waterway.

Following his gaze, the three men saw on the waterway, in the depth of the wind and the snow, the shadow of more than a dozen fast boats appearing. On board, human shadows were flickering, without making any noise at all, they sailed speedily toward Shi Zhixuan's secret nest, and people were leaping to the rocky shore continuously, sneaking toward the secret nest.

The murderous intent in Shi Zhixuan's pair of eyes flaring greatly, he snorted coldly, giving up a grim and ruthless impression, but the tone of his voice was surprisingly tranquil, "Follow me," he said.

The three followed him fleeing high and crouching low, from the southeast of the city to a private house outside the West Market by the bank of the canal. They sat down in the hall of Shi Zhixuan's other secret nest, silently surrounding the round table in the middle of the hall.

Shi Zhixuan returned to his profound-mystery normal state, he spoke indifferently, "This is the reason I said this is a special night; the list of names of the people that I want to kill has just increased by one more name."

Kou Zhong and the others understood. Shi Zhixuan must have disclosed his hiding place to someone, in order to test the other party's loyalty, but the other party betrayed him. Shi Zhixuan's timing in deploying this operation was well-measured. He waited until their 'Situ Furong' team arrived in Chang'an before carrying it out, so that after the incident he would still be able to maintain contact with them. From this, they could see that Shi Zhixuan was truly sincere about cooperating with them to assassinate Zhao Deyan.

"Is it An Long?" Xu Ziling asked.

Shi Zhixuan shook his head and said, "I already gave up all hope for An Long long ago. Although I prompted him to approach Xuyan, but from his revealing the important secret of Bu Si Yin Fa, I knew that he has the audacity to betray me. I, Shi Zhixuan, have not taken his life, only because he still has his value to be exploited."

After a short pause, he went on, "Do you have any news about Wanwan?"

Xu Ziling shook his head to indicate they did not have it, while musing in his heart, if that person was not An Long, which hallowed character would he be? One thing he was certain was that this person should be someone close to Li Yuan, so that after discovering Shi Zhixuan's hiding place, he could immediately instigate Li Yuan to carry out the surprise attack on him. What impact would this incident have on Shi Zhixuan?

Shi Zhixuan spoke indifferently, "The lantern light in the house was the secret signal that the son of a bitch [in this case, this is almost an accurate translation; the original was 'the one who was raised by a dog mother'] and I agreed upon, indicating that I am inside the house."

Turning to Kou Zhong, he said, "Would Shaoshuai be interested in killing several people to have fun tonight?"

Kou Zhong replied heavily, "It depends on who you want me to kill."

Shi Zhixuan smiled and said, "Naturally they are the people who Shaoshuai is not happy that they are alive in the world."

Stunned, Kou Zhong said, "Yang WenGan?"

Shi Zhixuan laughed aloud and said, "This moment, his life and death are completely in Shaoshuai's hands. I just wanted to kill him as a warning to Xuyan, that traitor, to let him watch the people who supported him die one by one, to have a taste of the feeling of being isolated and without help."

Xu Ziling said, "If we beat the grass to scare the snake, it will be harmful and without benefit toward our assassination operation of Zhao Deyan."

Shi Zhixuan spoke indifferently, "Ziling's Jianghu experience is still not mature enough. I only use this to sound out what kind of style is your strategy to deal with the Xiang Family? I'll say that you ought to have a complete plan to pull the Xiang Family by the root, hence you adhere to the great-plans-can-be-ruined-by-just-a-touch-of-impatience rule, am I right?"

Hearing that, the three looked at each other, who could have thought that in just a few words Shi Zhixuan was able to see through their many strategic decisions.

Shi Zhixuan sighed and said, "What happened tonight made me greatly miscalculate the future development. You'd better tell me your overall plan in coming to Chang'an, so that I won't ruin it accidentally."

The three men you looked at me I looked at you, momentarily they did not know how to answer him.