Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I sat in the wicker chair in the courtyard. The water I had boiled in the kettle had already gone cold, and I was in no mood to brew Hang Lanque hot tea. With a dry “Please, sit,” I offered him a cup of clear, cold water.

The moment he took the teacup, Hang Lanque suddenly seized my hand. Startled, I lost my grip. Just as the cup was about to fall, Hang Lanque caught it steadily with his other hand, not spilling a single drop.

“Let go. This is Shangjing. Don’t tug at me like this.”

“Isn’t this your private residence? No one will see.”

“I’ll say it one more time. Let go!”

“No.”

Clang-

A crisp sword cry exploded by my ear. Hang Lanque flipped his hand back to block the flexible sword striking from behind him, but his shoulder blade was pinned down. At last, Hang Lanque released my hand, turned around, and faced the newcomer behind him.

Seeing the gray-clad swordsman behind him clearly, Hang Lanque said, “Cui Yuanci, tell your man to get lost.”

“He can leave whenever he wants. But if you try anything improper again, this sword won’t spare you.”

He sneered. “We haven’t seen each other in eight years, and this is how you receive me?”

Hang Lanque flicked the blade of the flexible sword with his fingertip, his tone teasing. “This sword… You’re Shuangsong, the assassin from Xian Capital.”

It was a statement, not a question.

Shuangsong’s identity could fool others, but it could never fool Hang Lanque, who had lived with me in Xian Capital for more than two years.

I had never intended to hide it from him anyway. Once he began investigating me, none of this would stay buried, so I admitted it openly. “That’s right. He is Shuangsong of Xian Capital.”

“Hang Lanque, Shuangsong will be watching you, so don’t do anything else that displeases me. Understood?”

“Heisha Niangzi Cui Shangyi, feared by everyone in the palace, is also Cui Yuanci of the Secretariat Manor, and also… Rong Wan. You truly have so many identities. Back then in Xian Capital, you vanished after leaving a letter, saying you were going to follow a merchant caravan into the passes to become a dancer, earn money, and come back to repair the house. You played the part so well. I never suspected a thing.”

“Weren’t you also pretending you wanted to go repair the city walls for money to deceive me? I said my name was Rong Wan. You said your name was Su Xiao. The dancer Rong Wan and the murderer Su Xiao became a dew-drop couple in Xian Capital. Once the sun rose and the dew dried, each returned to their proper place, owing each other nothing. That was where the story ended. Just like you, I never imagined you were the Young General of Wuyuan Marquis Manor. On that matter, we’re even.”

“Even?”

“Don’t tell me you looked for me after I left. I counted the days. Not long after I left, you returned to Wuyuan Marquis Manor. How could you still remember lowly Rong Wan from Xian Capital?”

“Then I suppose Cui Shangyi never looked for me either?”

“Naturally. The political situation was turbulent back then. I had no choice but to leave Shangjing, and due to an accident, I ended up stranded in Xian Capital. I imagine you had your own reasons for hiding your name there as well. Now that Xian Capital has been destroyed by your hand, it is all in the past. General Hang, shall we never mention the past again?”

“You lured me here just to say this?”

“Of course I did! Those years in Xian Capital were extremely disadvantageous to you, to me, and even to the Hang Family and the Cui Family. I hope you will agree, so we can spare ourselves a great deal of trouble.”

“And if I refuse? What if I insist on tearing off the false propriety of the lofty Shangyi lady official and letting the whole world know that in Xian Capital, you and I took the sky as our curtain and the earth as our bed, indulging ourselves in pleasure? What could you do?”

So the reckless things one did in the arrogance of youth really did come back one day as retribution…

Back then in Xian Capital, there had been no elder sister-in-law, no teaching matron, no servants shadowing my every step. “Su Xiao” and I had acted without restraint, doing countless wanton things. Every single one would have been enough for the Cui Family to drown me in a pig cage.

My words were sharp, but my confidence was thin. I snapped, “That won’t benefit you either!”

“Once your reputation is ruined, I can show great mercy and take you as a concubine.”

Hang Lanque made me laugh from sheer anger. Fine, fine. As expected of a man who had once been with me-he knew exactly where to stab.

“Stop pretending. I know you. If you were truly so certain you wanted to expose what happened eight years ago, you would have said it long ago. You haven’t mentioned it because you have misgivings. Hang Lanque, if you ruin me, I will destroy Wuyuan Marquis Manor at any cost. I’ll give you three days to think it over. How does that sound?”

“And after three days?”

“After three days, if you agree, we leave each other in peace. If you don’t, then we’ll each rely on our own abilities.”

Hang Lanque stared at me, tilting his head slightly, as though he could not see me clearly otherwise.

After a long while, the corners of his mouth slowly curved into a cold smile. “In three days, if I refuse, you’ll have Shuangsong kill me.”

Ah. He still understood me so damn well.

There was nothing left for me to pretend. I nodded and said, “Yes.”

Hang Lanque set the cup I had given him back on the table, then turned and left.

The small courtyard returned to silence, as if he had never come.

Shuangsong poked his head out from the shadows and asked, “I didn’t quite follow. Am I supposed to kill him or not?”

My mind was in turmoil. I gripped the teacup on the table tightly in my palm, feeling the dull ache of the pattern on its surface digging into my hand. Too many thoughts tangled together, impossible to sort out, so I could only answer Shuangsong vaguely, “No…”

“Oh. Then I’m going back to sleep?”

“I truly envy that you can still sleep.”

Shuangsong said, “Do fewer guilty things and you could sleep too.”

“You’re not allowed to speak up for him!”

“Oh. I’m really sleepy. I’m going to bed. If there isn’t someone I absolutely have to kill, don’t wake me.”