An Jiu leaned against the roof beam, watching the start of another day at the Li residence.
Li Ting attended the morning court session at the end of the Yin hour each day. Since his residence in Sweetwater Lane was some distance from the palace, he had to rise before dawn to prepare. Lady Li would wake early daily to assist him with washing, dressing, and personally see him off beyond the second gate.
Bianjing had noticeable temperature differences between morning and noon, with summer mornings being slightly cool.
In the inner chamber, Li Ting sat before the dressing mirror as Lady Li combed his hair.
The room was quiet, bathed in warm lamplight, enveloping the couple in a serene and tender atmosphere An Jiu had never witnessed before.
Li Ting's hair showed streaks of gray, but he appeared in good spirits. Lady Li, estimated to be around thirty, looked younger than her actual age. Though her features were regular rather than striking, her graceful and dignified bearing unmistakably marked her as a lady of noble upbringing.
Once dressed, several maids led the way with lanterns as the couple stepped out together.
Lady Li always walked half a step behind, with Li Ting frequently glancing back at her.
Though no words were exchanged, their deep mutual affection was evident to any observer.
An Jiu stealthily followed them to the second gate.
"Take care on your way, my lord," Lady Li said, taking a cloak from a maid and fastening it around Li Ting herself.
"Mmm," Li Ting responded tersely, though his tone carried clear concern. "The dew is heavy. Return quickly."
Lady Li smiled in acknowledgment but waited until Li Ting was out of sight before turning back.
An Jiu slipped out of the compound and waited at the main gate for Li Ting's sedan chair to emerge, then trailed him discreetly.
Li Ting was accompanied by a fourth-rank guard—a level of defense that should have made him an easy target. However, he traveled only along main thoroughfares. Bianjing had defense arsenals storing Weapons for city protection every two hundred paces, each manned by garrison troops. Though their numbers were few and combat skills modest, alerting them would complicate matters.
Assassinating Li Ting would be simple; doing so within the five-day deadline, however, posed difficulties.
An Jiu followed him all the way to the imperial avenue before breaking off. She then walked back and forth along Li Ting's route to court several times, identifying several potential ambush points.
Additionally, the nearest defense arsenal was only fifty paces from the Li residence. The compound itself was modest in size, making the optimal time for an undisturbed attack within its walls when Li Ting was alone in his study at night.
Having selected her locations, An Jiu lay in wait at one ambush point the next day, bow drawn, ready for her prey.
Yet as Li Ting's sedan passed by, she held her shot and moved to the second ambush site instead.
Again, she merely took aim without acting. In the afternoon, she disguised herself and hired a sedan chair, riding from Sweetwater Lane to Panlou Street.
Sedan chairs had curtains, requiring An Jiu to determine the exact positioning of someone of Li Ting's stature inside—where his head would be, where his chest would rest...
After nearly two cups of tea's worth of time inside the chair, An Jiu's expression grew grave. Leaning against the backrest placed the chest about a foot lower than when sitting upright, let alone the head's position. From her observations, Li Ting was a meticulous man who might maintain perfect posture—but what if he didn't?
For absolute certainty, an ambush along his court route seemed unfeasible.
"Young master, we've arrived," said the sedan bearer.
Stepping out, An Jiu was met with the bustling street scene. She tossed the bearer a piece of broken silver.
"Young master, your change..." The bearer fumbled for coins.
His companion nudged him with an elbow. "He's gone."
In the blink of an eye, An Jiu had disappeared into the crowd.The sedan bearers thought it was just a servant from some wealthy household sent out on urgent business and didn’t pay much attention, happily pocketing the silver.
Panlou Street was bustling with activity. An Jiu looked like an ordinary young boy in a plain gray tunic, completely inconspicuous. Even as she glanced around, to outsiders, she appeared no more than a country lad who hadn’t seen much of the world.
An Jiu found a teahouse and took a seat by the street-facing window on the second floor, waiting for Li Ting to return to his residence in the evening to see if there might be a good opportunity for an assassination.
If he took the same route and sedan after court as usual, then she would have to find an opportunity within his residence. Recalling the behavior of Li Ting and his wife, An Jiu instinctively didn’t want to strike inside the Li residence.
She lifted her teacup and gazed out the window, taking in everything on the street below.
As an assassin, An Jiu excelled at sniping, but the violent tendencies in her soul ensured she was no slouch in close combat either. With exceptionally sharp eyesight and observational skills, she wouldn’t miss a single person or detail in such a noisy, chaotic environment and could quickly identify anything or anyone unusual.
So when the man leading a horse entered her line of sight, she noticed him immediately.
His figure was familiar—so familiar that she recognized him at a glance.
An Jiu picked up a peanut and flicked it with her finger, hitting his bamboo hat.
The man paused and slightly raised his head. Half his face remained in shadow, but An Jiu still saw clearly—Hua Rongjian!
It wasn’t Chu Dingjiang after all!
An Jiu froze.
Hua Rongjian swiftly scanned everyone seated by the windows before his eyes finally locked onto hers.
An Jiu stared back unflinchingly. This man was burly, with sharp facial features and a cold, steady gaze—vastly different from the impression she had of Hua Rongjian. Upon closer inspection, he didn’t resemble Hua Rongjian much at all.
He frowned and strode toward the teahouse.
In that brief moment of eye contact, An Jiu was certain—this man had a face strikingly similar to Hua Rongjian’s, but he was not that frivolous playboy.
“Hua Rongjian” went straight up to the second floor and headed toward An Jiu.
He didn’t remove his hat. After sitting down, he ordered a pot of Tieguanyin tea, but his gaze beneath the hat remained fixed on her hands.
“You’re out?” Up close, An Jiu thought he resembled Chu Dingjiang even more.
When the waiter brought the tea, he calmly poured a cup, drank it in one gulp, wiped his mouth, and gave a deep hum.
Her instincts were right—it was indeed Chu Dingjiang.
Sitting face to face, she finally spotted the flaw—his chin showed faint stubble, yet there were no visible pores. A thin layer of something covered his face.
An Jiu was puzzled. Chu Dingjiang was strange enough—even with a human skin mask, his build didn’t match Hua Rongjian’s. Why disguise himself with such a conspicuous face? Many in Bianjing would recognize Hua Rongjian!
“Are you alright?” An Jiu asked.
Chu Dingjiang shook his head.
After sitting in silence for a while, he glanced at her and stood to leave.
An Jiu settled the bill and followed him out of the teahouse.
The two walked down the street, one after the other, for about the time it took to drink a cup of tea before Chu Dingjiang turned into a narrow alley.
By the time An Jiu entered the alley, Chu Dingjiang had already vanished. She probed with her mental strength—there were no Transformation Realm Masters nearby, only a ninth-order practitioner less than thirty feet away.An Jiu stopped in front of a tightly shut door. When it opened, she saw Chu Dingjiang standing in the dim light. He had removed his human skin mask and changed back into his original attire.
"What happened? Your cultivation..." An Jiu entered the room and closed the door behind her.
The room contained only a simple desk with a bamboo scroll and a sparrow-shaped bronze oil lamp. The furnishings were rough and unadorned, quite different from the delicate and refined furniture of the Great Song. Though An Jiu found it somewhat strange, she didn't dwell on it.
Chu Dingjiang spread his hands, and An Jiu saw several black objects embedded in his palms. He smiled wryly, "There are more on my body. They've restricted my internal energy and completely exiled me to the Crane Control Institute. Many want me dead. Right now, I need you."
So his appearance before her hadn't been accidental.
"What do you need me to do?" An Jiu asked. Chu Dingjiang had helped her before. If he made a request, she wouldn't refuse.
"Three years ago, I was only at the sixth rank, with ninth-rank mental strength. It was only by inheriting a senior's lifetime of internal energy that I reached the Transformation Realm so quickly. Though some was lost in the process, it was enough to help me break through in one go." Instead of answering directly, Chu Dingjiang spoke of the past, "What was never truly mine is unstable. It took tremendous effort just to barely control this power."
"Why? You'd take such a risk?" An Jiu remembered his words in the ancient temple - that absorbing another's energy without meridians strong enough to contain it could cause the body to explode. As a Transformation Realm expert, he could leave whenever he wished. Why endure such treatment just to stay in the Crane Control Army?
Chu Dingjiang's dark eyes were unsettling, his words equally disturbing: "Ambition."
An Jiu frowned, "Did you approach me just for this day?"
When Chu Dingjiang said "ambition," An Jiu felt an ache in her chest - the same sensation Mei Jiu used to feel when upset. So she knew she was hurting too.
His kindness had all been to use her, hadn't it?
"Yes, and no." Chu Dingjiang replied, "If my intentions were purely exploitative, I wouldn't be telling you this. I've schemed against many, but in my current situation, I don't want to deceive you. If you refuse, I won't press you."
"I'll help." An Jiu pushed aside her discomfort, "Whatever your past intentions, I owe you my life. That's undeniable. Repaying debts is only right."
"Shi Si." Chu Dingjiang reached for her hand, but she evaded him.
The door opened and closed, light flickering in the room like the turmoil in An Jiu's heart.
Chu Dingjiang watched the closed door, then lowered his hand. Sitting down, he picked up a game piece from the desk, rubbing the engraved "Hua" character, overwhelmed by bitterness.
He'd long since lost the capacity for pure emotion. Beneath his carefree facade, lies and deception came effortlessly. He'd known from the start that a relationship founded on exploitation would collapse when faced with truth, yet he still chose honesty with her.
Never in his life had he wanted someone's heart so badly.
Arranging the pieces to form the character "Hua," he smiled bitterly.
With you by my side, perhaps this path wouldn't feel so lonely, Mei Shisi. If I laid bare my heart to you, would you stab me when my guard was down...He had always favored risky and unconventional tactics in life, earning him the moniker "Heartless Young Master." Who could have predicted things would come to this? (To be continued...)
OpenNovel