Chapter 133: The Dinner
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Gu Shenwei was sure that the Barren Sect was planning to climb up to Golden Roc Fort, but the fort had not yet discovered the sect's real intention. Those women had already successfully misled the fort by assassinating killers in South City. In the past two days, Golden Roc Fort had launched a citywide hunt for members of New Moon Hall and the Barren Sect but had only killed some ordinary disciples of the Barren Sect and even some innocent women.
Tie Hanfeng did not care much about those crazy women. He was glad that he could help his apprentice to make up with Meng Mingshi after two days of hard word. He himself was also excited to get this chance to meet such a wealthy young master.
Usually, Meng Mingshi would never accept an invitation from a humble slave boy.
However, he accepted Slave Huan's invitation this time. He did not want to offend Bighead Kingpin and he also kind of missed Xu Yanwei.
Meng Mingshi had begun to hang out in South City at the age of 15, with Pot-bellied Buddha as his guide.
The first prostitute Pot-bellied Buddha introduced to Meng Mingshi was his own daughter Xu Yanwei. It was Meng Mingshi's first time sleeping with a girl, but Xu Yanwei, a 15-year-old girl, was already a very experienced prostitute. She taught him many things that he could never forget.
Hearing that Meng Mingshi had agreed to attend the dinner, Xu Xiaoyi told Tie Hanfeng and Gu Shenwei many interesting things about this young master. "There's a saying in this business that a man will always fall in love with the first girl he's slept with. The Fifth Young Master Meng's first girl is my sister. He did fall in love with her at that time and gave her countless silvers. Unfortunately, all those money was taken away by the old jerk."
Xu Xiaoyi still sounded bitter whenever he mentioned his own father.
What Xu Xiaoyi said reminded Tie Hanfeng of the first girl he had slept with. He smiled meaningfully and nodded. "Yeah, that's true."
Gu Shenwei was the only guy who looked grim at this moment. He was confronted with a raft of problems, but none of the people here could offer him any advice.
Xu Xiaoyi raised his head up and beamed just like Tie Hanfeng. "Given that, a man has to be prudent to choose his first girl. Look at me. I'm still searching for a suitable girl."
"Stop flattering yourself. You just don't have enough money to sleep with a prostitute," Tie Hanfeng blurted out. "Before you go out to sleep with a prostitute, you'll have to explain to me where you get the money."
Xu Xiaoyi smiled embarrassedly and changed the subject. "There's another saying in this business: A prostitute should never fall in love with her first man."
"Why?" Tie Hanfeng asked surprisingly. Although he was a frequent visitor to brothels, he had never heard of such a saying. "I'm always wondering why that woman suddenly began to treat me so coldly."
"I just heard it from my seniors in this business." Xu Xiaoyi took a sip of his drink and continued to explain. "A young man usually has lots of fantasies about women and tends to imagine his first girl to be perfect. In the beginning, he's willing to do anything for the girl. However, once he gets bored with her and goes to sleep with the other prostitutes, he'll realize that there's nothing special about the first girl and will desert her for a better girl. If a prostitute falls in love with her client, she'll not only lose business but also look like a fool when her client abandons her. For example, Mr. Meng Mingshi, he loved my sister so much, but he didn't give a d*mn about my sister and I when we were in trouble last year."
Gu Shenwei was not interested in this business at all, but Tie Hanfeng was deeply touched by what Xu Xiaoyi said. He kept drinking his liquor and sadly exclaimed, "Oh, I see. That's why she acted like that."
That night, Tie Hanfeng kept murmuring in his sleep, but the next morning, when he woke up, he quickly recovered from his depression.
Meng Ming came to Xu Yanwei's brothel at noon, accompanied by a group of servants. Upon entering the house, he wept and poured out his heart to Xu Yanwei while neglecting all the other people in the house. After that, he put a smile on his face to greet Tie Hanfeng. He only nodded to Slave Huan to greet this slave boy, before they went upstairs to dine together.
Gu Shenwei was well aware that this banquet would never decrease Meng Mingshi's hatred toward him. After all, he had threatened the young master with a wooden saber and witnessed the young master's discomfiture during the trip to the Iron Mountain Gang's camp.
However, this dinner was still meaningful for Luo Ningcha and Tie Hanfeng. The former took this opportunity to demonstrate that she had total control over her slave boy, and the latter was thrilled to make friends with the Fifth Young Master Meng.
During the meal, Gu Shenwei formally apologized to Meng Mingshi and Meng Mingshi reluctantly accepted the apology. After that, no one talked to the brown-belt assassin anymore.
Meng Mingshi spent most of the time flirting with Xu Yanwei. All the good memories about the girl came back to him again and made him think that she was very attractive again.
Fifth Young Master Meng brought three men to the meal. One of them was in charge of telling jokes to liven things up. Another one remained quiet most of the time but fixed his eyes on Meng Mingshi. Once the young master got stuck for words, he would help him out. The last one came to drink with Tie Hanfeng. These two guys chatted and drank merrily together like old friends.
Xu Xiaoyi led a group of servants to cater a dinner for the people on the second floor. He ran up and down inside the house to serve dishes and drinks.
No one seemed to notice Gu Shenwei leave the table during the meal.
The teenager walked to the window alone to get some fresh air. As it was autumn now, the wind was very cool and refreshing.
At this moment, all the other brothels in Pleasure Alley were closed. This alley got few visitors in the day, so he did not see anybody in the street. The only person he could see was a maid making the bed in the brothel across the street.
Suddenly, he saw a brown-belt assassin walking quietly on the roof of the brothel. That assassin also noticed Slave Huan, but he did not appear to mind it.
He continued to walk forward with an unsheathed saber in hand, and then he jumped into the house through a window and killed the maid with only one strike. He came over to hold the maid after killing her and gently laid her on the ground to avoid making any noise.
A moment later, another two brown-belt assassins jumped into the room to join him. They quickly dispersed to find the other targets in the house.
They all knew that Slave Huan was watching, but none of them minded it.
They were also from Little Flag Battalion, and one of them was a former Tattooed Arm Gang member and Slave Huan's loyal friend. Despite the fact that all of them wore masks, Gu Shenwei still easily recognized them.
"Why do they assassinate their targets in broad daylight? This is not Golden Roc Fort's style at all." Gu Shenwei could not help but wonder. On second thought, he realized why they did this. Pleasure Alley was quiet during the daytime but crowded at night, so it was better to take action here during the day.
Soon, the assassins completed their task, but they did not retreat quietly. To Gu Shenwei's great surprise, they opened the door and sent out a frightened servant. "Help, help, it's a murder," the elderly woman screamed.
All the people on the banquet were dumbfounded.
Tie Hanfeng darted to the window to see what happened outside. "Liu Yin'er was killed."
Upon hearing that the prostitute living across the street was murdered, Xu Yanwei shrilled and threw herself into Meng Mingshi's arms. "Liu Yin'er is one of Mr. Meng's favorite whores. Who dares to kill her? Did she deliberately send the elderly woman out to attract Mr. Meng's attention?" One of Meng Mingshi's servants said.
Liu Yin'er was not only one of Meng Mingshi's favorite prostitutes but also a prostitute working for the Meng family. Besides her, many other prostitutes in Pleasure Alley also had very powerful bosses. To avoid offending those prostitutes' bosses, Golden Roc Fort's killers and machetemen, who had turned all the brothels in South City upside down during the past several days, never dared to come to Pleasure Alley to search for members of New Moon Hall and the Barren Sect.
Meng Mingshi rubbed Xu Yanwei's shoulder with one hand to comfort her while holding a cup of liquor with the other hand. "What an annoying bitch. Tell her to wait for a moment. I'll go over to kill her very soon," Meng Mingshi grumbled.
In the next moment, the elderly woman got rid of Xu Xiaoyi and stumbled all the way up to find Meng Mingshi.
"Mr. Meng, my kind master, someone suddenly broke into our house. Oh, my goodness. They murdered the girl. They killed Miss..."
The woman's speech became increasingly incoherent, but her blood-smeared dress had already convinced everyone that Liu Yin'er was murdered.
"Master Yu will come here very soon," Gu Shenwei realized something and reminded everyone.
Just as he expected, a moment later, Shangguan Yushi and 10 brown-belt assassins galloped to the brothel. An assassin came out to report to her.
The elderly woman's screams had already woken up all the people in the alley. They simultaneously stuck their heads out of their windows to see what was going on outside.
Meng Mingshi turned pale because of anger. He threw his cup aside and ran to the window. "You... Shangguan Yushi... What're you doing here? Why did you kill my girl?"
Shangguan Yushi remained silent. She just raised up her head to give Meng Mingshi a glance and then walked into Xu Yanwei's brothel. When she came to the second floor, she still did not say a word to Meng Mingshi. "Slave Huan, you seemed to forget that you're a member of Little Flag Battalion.
Gu Shenwei had had a lot of trouble to deal with yesterday and thus had completely forgot to report to his killer leader yesterday afternoon. "We were too busy to come back to report."
"Where's Maid Lotus?"
"She's watching the suspects."
Meng Mingshi felt a little embarrassed, and his face became red now. "Stop, stop. You have to give me an explanation first. Why did you kill my girl?"
"Your girl? She's New Moon Hall's disciple. Mr. Meng Mingshi, are you close to Golden Roc Fort's enemies?" Shangguan Yushi asked.
"What are you talking about? That's impossible. She's not a…"
"I've solid evidence."
"No, you must have forged the evidence to frame me. I demand a reasonable explanation for this. Let's go to Golden Roc Fort together."
The two young masters began to quarrel. No one in this room dared to stop them.
Evidently, Shangguan Yushi did not just come here for Liu Yin'er. While arguing with Meng Mingshi, she often turned to Slave Huan, condemning the brown-belt assassin for dining together with Master Ru's foe.
Gu Shenwei was not sure if Liu Yin'er was a member of New Moon Hall, but he was 100-percent sure what Shangguan Yushi was trying to do here. She intended to make a big deal out of this dinner and wanted everyone to know that Slave Huan had openly betrayed Master Ru and dined with her enemy Meng Mingshi. She was pretty confident that Shangguan Ru would hear about this incident very soon.
According to Tie Hafeng's theory about "relations", Shangguan Yushi, who wanted to kill Slave Huan without stirring up Shangguan Ru's temper, was now trying to sever the slave boy's relations with Master Ru,
Somehow, Mister Guo, the Commander of the action against New Moon Hall and the Barren Sect, also came here to question Shangguan Yushi on the assassination of Liu Yin'er. According to Commander Guo's order, Little Flag Battalion should stay within the southeastern area of South City and should never come to Pleasure Alley without permission.
Now that there were lots of people packed inside this room, Gu Shenwei was pinned up against the window by the crowd. When he heard someone chanting Amitabha, he could only turn his head a little to have a look. To his great surprise, he saw two monks in Pleasure Alley: one was pale as a ghost and the other was tall and strong like Vajra Dharma.