White-Robed Chief

“We owe Head Chief Chu a big favor this time,” said Leng Shoushi as he shook his head.

Leng Shoushan pondered for a while. “Do you think he already knew?”

“It’s hard to say.” Leng Shoushi looked at the two middle-aged men.

The middle-aged man with a rounded face said, “Zhu Wu had no idea how he was subdued. He fainted all of a sudden but never saw who captured him, nobody asked him anything either.”

“…It’s hard to believe that he didn’t know about it.” Leng Shoushi shook his head as he said, “He is from the Secret Guardians Hall, he’s more well informed than us. Furthermore, his capabilities are frightening. It’s fine, we shall let this case rest for a while, don’t dig anymore further.”

Leng Shoushan growled with hatred when he heard this, “Are we just going to let Fifth Brother die for nothing, Ninth Brother?”

Leng Shoushi stared at his obstinate expression. “Then there’s only one way to deal with this – we hand the matter over to Uncle Kang.”

However, he was hesitant. He could not be sure that Prince Kang had nothing to do with this.

If Prince Kang was not part of the ploy, he probably would have been able to protect their fifth brother. This was also possibly a warning toward Prince Kang, threatening him to not interfere. All in all, the case was complicated and hard to predict, such that they shouldn’t poke their heads about or risk being killed. The death of their fifth brother was the clearest warning.

Leng Shoushan sighed. “I shall tell our father, then.”

“You tell Uncle Kang about it, I will tell our father. Both of them have rigorous schemes and deep foresight,” said Leng Shou Shi. “We are still too young.”

“Alright.” Leng Shoushan sharply nodded.

Leng Shoushi glanced at the two middle-aged men. “Both of you can go now, be careful.”

“Don’t worry, Imperial Crown Princes.” Both of them made a closed fist salute as they left the house.

Leng Shoushi massaged his temples. His brain felt more drained from thinking about this single incident than it had over the entire past year.

“We will return for now to let our father decide what to do next,” said Leng Shoushi, “if they don’t make any moves, then we shall do it ourselves!”

“Understood,” said Leng Shoushan, “Do we kill Zhu Wu first, then?”

“That much is a given, but we still need to think about how to kill him,” replied Leng Shoushi. “We will have to ask for our father’s opinion about it.”

“Alright.” Leng Shoushan nodded.

“Be careful on your journey back.” reminded Leng Shoushi.

Leng Shoushan made a closed fist salute and stood up, then left in big strides.

Leng Shoushi called out, “Ji Xue Ling!”

Ji Xue Ling gently walked into the house.

Leng Shoushi said, “Go and talk to Chief Hua and tell him to bring Miss Yu Qing’s contract to Head Chief Chu. Send it secretly, don’t let anyone find out.”

Ji Xue Ling answered in surprise, “Sister Yu Qing is going to be redeemed?”

Leng Shoushi nodded.

“Is it going to be Head Chief Chu again?” Ji Xu pursed her lips and gently smiled. “Head Chief Chu already redeemed three of our sisters from the brothel.”

Leng Shoushi smiled. “Do you want to be redeemed?”

He felt extremely comfortable around these pure ladies.

“Of course I do,” Ji Xue Ling smiled. “But there is still no one that I’ve taken a liking to. What should I do?”

“Wait for a bit then,” said Leng Shoushi, “there’ll be one sooner or later.”

Ji Xue Ling inwardly rolled her eyes at him, he was playing dumb!

Leng Shoushi brought a few Protectors with him and carefully went back to Prince Bao’s Imperial Residence. He then went to the martial arts field in the backyard and saw his father alongside Prince Bao, slowly practicing the same fist technique.

Leng Shoushi waved his hand.

All the maids and Protectors around left.

The vast backyard looked empty now, and they could only hear the chirping of birds.

In the lake not far away, a few shiny fishes were leaping out of the water, splashing the water in all directions.

“What is it?” Prince Bao was wearing a bright yellow imperial robe. His expression was serious and showed his natural prestige.

“Father, I am facing a difficult problem.” Said Leng Shoushi.

“Tell me about it.” Prince Bao carelessly glanced at him. He did not look like he was paying attention.

Leng Shoushi looked around again.

Prince Bao scoffed. “Why this sneaky? Luo Qi, all of you can leave!”

“Understood,” someone responded from the shadows, but there was no sign of movement.

Only then did Leng Shoushi feel at ease. He proceeded to them everything in a low voice.

Prince Bao’s eyebrows furrowed tighter and tighter as he listened on, glaring at him the entire time.

Leng Shoushi usually looked cold when interacting with others, but he dared not carry this expression in front of his father. He said in a low voice, “I regret it too, but things have gone so far that I just can’t leave it aside. I can only hope that you, my father, will make a decision about it for us.”

“You are worried that your forth uncle is involved too?” Prince Bao could read his mind at a glance.

Leng Shoushi nodded.

Prince Bao did not say a thing, he continued slowly performing his fist technique.

An extremely loud caw was suddenly heard in the empty backyard as a golden eagle dived down and landed on an octagonal gazebo. It stood on the tip of the gazebo and looked around with a bright gaze, looking extremely noble.

Leng Shoushi leaped up to the tip of the gazebo and took out the bamboo tube tied to the leg of the eagle. He then patted the golden eagle’s wing and glided back to the side of Prince Bao before passing the bamboo tube to him.

Prince Bao stopped performing his fist technique. He opened the bamboo tube to take a look. He then shook his head, there was nothing he could say.

The golden eagle spread its wings and flew away, disappearing into the sky in the blink of an eye.

“My father, I’m worried about King Ping,” sighed Leng Shoushi. “He has too much power in the army. Everyone knows that the Emperor is going to cut his power, but he might not agree to that. If that were to happen, it will be a disaster!”

“Everyone must stay away from the idea of reducing King Ping’s power,” Prince Bao said in a deep voice. “Whoever that tries to interfere, dies! Now, as to how your forth uncle reacts, I feel he will probably endure it,” said Prince Bao.

“Can Uncle Kang endure it?” Leng Shoushi was surprised.

He considered himself someone who was quite sophisticated and could control his emotions well, but this case was extreme. His son was killed, so the pain was a hundred or even a thousand times worse than if even his parents were killed. Who would be able to hold it in?

“Your fourth uncle is the best when it comes to enduring,” scoffed Prince Bao. “He can endure that which others cannot, but he will exact revenge one day, it is just a matter of time. But how he is going to do it is not something that we should be worrying about!”

“Then what about Zhu Wu?” Asked Leng Shoushi, “this one requires us to exercise extreme caution.”

“Hand him to your forth uncle, let him think about it. You need to stay out of it!” Scoffed Prince Bao.

It was Leng Shoujiang today, but it could be Leng Shoushan or Leng Shoushi tomorrow. To carry out such a bold assassination… if he could not hit back as hard as he could and make his opponent pay a huge price, then the life of an Imperial Crown Prince was taken too lightly!

Prince Bao’s expression did not change, but he was enraged.

“Father, Head Chief Chu is indeed worthy of your praise, he is truly a genius!” Said Leng Shoushi, “if it were someone else, they wouldn’t have been able to find out who the murderer was. It was the perfect assassination, with help from all sides. It was flawless!”

“Mmm.” Prince Bao simply grunted and started to perform his fist technique again.

“I’m curious, how exactly did he manage to find out?” Asked Leng Shoushi, “He just listened to them talking and he could identify Zhu Wu? Of the six people he invited, he could identify Minister Counsellor Gu Qi from the Ministry of War! He looks normal and unassuming, how did our fifth brother become friends with him?”

Leng Shoujiang was just the hedonistic son of rich parents. He enjoyed his life to the extreme and rarely joined in anything relating to the imperial court and was usually looked down upon by the people of the Imperial Court. It should have been impossible for them to become friends with him, and yet, here they were. That is why he was suspicious of Leng Shoujiang’s involvement.

“We will just have to look into it,” said Prince Bao, “but you must be very careful, don’t let anyone find out about it, this case is …”

“Should I report it to the Emperor?” Asked Leng Shoushi.

Prince Bao shook his head. “It’s better to pretend not to know anything.”

“Yes.” Said Leng Shoushi.

“Send an invitation card to Chu Li, invite him over to the residence.” Ordered Prince Bao.

Leng Shoushi was astonished.

Prince Bao continued, “You should get closer to someone like him.”

Leng Shoushi immediately understood and nodded.