Chapter 90: Play a Traitor
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
The copy of a document which cost Gu Shenwei 100 taels of silver turned out to be of little value. The worker of the Document Library had tricked him. The moment he gave the copy to Slave Huan, the assassination mission would shortly be announced. Given that, Gu Shenwei only knew the details about the mission several hours earlier than the 20 chosen apprentices.
To maintain secrecy, that night, all of the 20 apprentices were taken to a secret location outside the fort, where they would receive special training. Because of this, Gu Shenwei did not get a chance to discuss his concerns with Maid Lotus or his other friends.
He still had some negative feelings about this mission and thought of many reasons to prove that his fears were reasonable. After a while, he felt that he could not bear his nervousness anymore and decided to ask his mentor for advice again.
As he had expected, Tie Hanfeng scoffed at his worries. "Hah-hah, you're way too suspicious. You always see a tiger in the way, even when there's only a rat. You saw Mister Guo's seal on the document. That means he's one of the masterminds. He'll be held accountable if any killer dies during the mission," he said while holding a pot with one hand and brandishing a cup with the other hand.
According to Golden Roc Fort's principles, the best assassinations were the ones with the least resistance. The fort saw the killer apprentices within the East Castle as disposable trash, but once they became killers on a mission, their lives would be extremely valuable. Any killer's death would cause great trouble for the masterminds of assassinations.
Gu Shenwei also knew this tradition, so he had to agree with his mentor that Mister Guo would never want any killer to perish during the mission.
With that thought in mind, he finally felt relieved. Beyond his expectations, three days later, he was notified that he also needed to take part in that assassination mission.
It was not a very difficult mission, but to help the killer apprentices get more experience, the masterminds did not omit any steps. Now, they needed to choose a spy among the killer apprentices. The one they chose was Slave Huan.
About a year and a half ago, Han Shiqi had worked as a spy in the assassination of the Gu family.
Gu Shenwei did not like this task at all, and at the same time he felt very bewildered. As his punishment was not over, strictly speaking, he was not a killer apprentice and was not eligible to partake in any assassination missions. However, as a humble servant, he could only follow orders without question.
A yellow-belt supervisor came to read out the orders to him, and a red-belt killer gave him specific instructions and a parcel which contained some ordinary clothes, some silver and a waist token for him to leave the fort.
Gu Shenwei had to leave right after accepting the order, so he did not have time to return to his mentor's place to ask for his advice. He put down a stack of dusty documents, changed his clothes and then headed for the city.
He hated traitors and thought they were despicable. Although Golden Roc Fort usually called these people spies and considered their involvement an indispensable part of all assassination missions, he still felt disgusted that he had to play such a role in this mission.
He went by Xu Yanwei's brothel in Pleasure Alley on his way to find his informant in South City. He discovered that the brothel had already been taken over by a new owner. An elderly woman was standing in front of it, enthusiastically introducing the new girl to the pedestrians.
The place where he was going to meet with the informant was a small and dark tavern. He saw only a few guests in its narrow lobby after entering this place. Without a waiter leading the way for him, he walked directly into a passageway. He saw many small rooms on both sides. They were all partitioned by solid walls, and the largest one among them could only allow five or six people to sit down and chat. It was a nice place for private conversations.
According to the instructions he had received, he was to walk into the 7th room on his right-hand side. An informant should be waiting for him in this room at that moment. This person was going to help him infiltrate a new gang.
To his great surprise, he saw a familiar face here.
"It's you!" They cried out simultaneously.
Xu Xiaoyi spat on the ground resentfully and said, "If I knew it was you, I would've never taken this job."
Gu Shenwei sat opposite to him and said, "No matter who the informant is, I wasn't willing to do this job anyway."
After an awkward silence, Xu Xiaoyi complained, "You really forced my sister and me to suffer."
"I'm sorry. I didn't die to help you guys out," Gu Shenwei said sarcastically. If he had not insisted that the siblings were innocent, they would have been executed a long time ago.
Xu Xiaoyi snorted and then cowered in his seat. After a while, he straightened his back and said, "To tell the truth, we never thought of killing Prince Ju Gaotai. He was not a good person, but none of my sister's clients were good. No matter what, we never intended to frame you. The officer told us that it was you who said that we're innocent and saved our lives."
"You think that I could've done better?"
"No, we're not ungrateful people, but... you know... we nearly succeeded in leaving this terrible place. The younger prince promised us that he would make my sister his queen and me, his minister when I grow up."
"You believed that?"
"Well... those customers... They'll even promise us to kill their own mothers as long as we kept them happy. However, it was still a chance for us. If we just leave this place, my sister will be able to find other rich fools."
Gu Shenwei snorted and asked, "Where's the silver left by the prince and Pot-bellied Buddha?"
"The prince's debt collectors came to us one after another, claiming it was all their money. They've taken it all away, and now my sister and I are penniless and heavily in debt. Given that, she continues to work as a prostitute and me? D*mn it, I work for you now."
"That's the way life is."
Gu Shenwei did not want to play the hero anymore. He did not feel sorry for the siblings. They had no other options, just like himself who could only be a killer now.
"No..." Xu Xiaoyi wanted to retort but quickly changed his mind. He thought of his job and said, "I'll take you to their place tonight. It's easy. They'll accept you immediately after you pay the enrollment fee."
Jade City attracted lots of exiled nobles as well as wandering hoodlums. These hoodlums mostly lived in South City. Some of them sought opportunities in the city, hoping to get employed by crime lords. Some chose to take bolder actions to establish their own gangs and start their own business.
Most of the time, Golden Roc Fort would not pay any special attention to these small gangs and sometimes, they would even hire them to complete some tasks. However, every now and then, some gangs would get overambitious and even dare to challenge the Supreme King. When that happened, the fort would take action against them immediately to ensure its own status and at the same time, give the other gangs a warning.
The target of the 20 killer apprentices was of such a small gang. It had been around for less than one year, and its name was Tianshan Sect. It was also known as the Ten-Dragon Gang since it was founded by 10 wandering machetemen.
The gang's regular meeting place was a courtyard outside the city. It was located near the wilderness and looked more like a nameless tavern since there were obviously much more liquor jars than weapons in the yard. At night, the seven or eight thatched cottages in the courtyard became even livelier than Southwall Tavern. Gu Shenwei could often see some people get kicked out of the cottages or scuffled all the way from the cottages to the yard.
It was indeed very simple to join the Ten-Dragon Gang. With Xu Xiaoyi as his sponsor, Gu Shenwei paid only 10 taels of silver to get a rough iron sheet as the admission voucher. He did not even need to give a kowtow to anyone or go through any other kind of ceremony to join the gang.
Compared to the drinks offered by Southwall Tavern, the liquor here tasted like vinegar. Gu Shenwei did not drink it since he had to stay sober to observe everyone here and obtain information.
The Ten-Dragon Gang seemed to have lots of members. Gu Shenwei roughly counted the people who visited this place tonight and found out that there were about 200 of them. Most of them were dressed in worn-out felt jackets and carried machetes like bandits. They came here to drink, brag and fight. Gu Shenwei could not help thinking of his mentor. He believed Tie Hanfeng would get along with these people very well.
In his view, this group of people looked more like some a disorderly mob than a gang. They did not seem to share a common goal or work on a common plan.
When Elderly Dragon came to the courtyard one or two hours before midnight, these people finally acted like proper gang members.
Elderly Dragon, one of the founders of the Ten-Dragon Gang, was in his 60s. He had protruding eyes, which made him look as if he was always staring at someone. The moment he entered the room he took off his short jacket and threw it to his followers, revealing his tattoos, which were ten fierce-looking dragons.
"Is everybody here?" Elderly Dragon shouted. His voice boomed out above all the other sounds in the room. Hearing his voice, the people in the other cottages all hurriedly rushed over.
"Elderly Dragon! Elderly Dragon..." the gang members chanted their leader's name enthusiastically. They appeared intoxicated as if they had just drunk the best wine in Jade City.
"With a thousand members, Tianshan Sect will soon become the biggest gang in the whole Western Region!"
The crowd burst into cheers.
"Who're we going to defeat?"
"Golden Roc Fort, Golden Roc Fort..." the members, as if possessed, shouted repeatedly. The loud sounds shook the cottage.
"Who're we going to rob?"
"Meng Yuzun, Meng Yuzun..." the gang members got even louder this time, calling the head of the Meng family by his full name. Meng Yuzun was one of the richest men in the Western Region.
This Q&A lasted for nearly an hour. Elderly Dragon guided the gang members to yell out answers to a series of questions, describing how Tianshan Sect was going to crush Golden Roc Fort and ransack North City. After that, Elderly Dragon put on his jacket and left. The gang members, intoxicated and thrilled, also began to leave the courtyard after Elderly Dragon's departure. They walked into the boundless wind and snow with shining eyes. It seemed that this daydreaming could encourage them to endure a few more days of hard life.
Gu Shenwei found the whole situation very absurd. He could hardly describe this group of people as a gang. From his point of view, the Tianshan Sect was probably just organized by some con artists with no real victims except for its members that paid to join.
Despite that, he still strictly carried out his mission and stayed there until no one else was left. He pretended to be drunk and slept at his table, letting Xu Xiaoyi carry him away in the end.
It was snowing hard. The footprints left by hundreds of people were already nowhere to be found. Without Xu Xiaoyi's help, Gu Shenwei could not even tell which direction the city was.
After they returned to the city, Xu Xiaoyi brought the killer apprentice to his home. The two shook off the snow on their bodies at the door. Gu Shenwei felt extremely cold even though he practiced Internal Strength, he looked at Xu Xiaoyi. That boy was unable to utter a word now. His lips were purple because of the cold.
Fortunately, there was a burning brazier in the room. Xu Xiaoyi went to start up the fire, and Gu Shenwei came to sit opposite to him. They sat quietly by the fire to warm themselves. No one wanted to speak.
"Xiaoyi, you came back?"
"Yeah."
Gu Shenwei turned around and saw Xu Yanwei standing upstairs. She was dressed in a silk robe and looking at him curiously. The next moment, she recognized him and her face changed. "Why did you bring him here?" She shouted.
"I didn't have a choice. The fort sent him to contact me," Xu Xiaoyi murmured while shivering.
Gu Shenwei turned away to avoid Xu Yanwei. He did not want to speak with anyone at this moment.
Xu Yanwei went back to her bedroom and locked herself in.
"I hope you don't mind. She nearly became a queen, but now she's still just a prostitute. She's not in a good mood," Xu Xiaoyi said to Slave Huan.
"I see."
Gu Shenwei replied reluctantly. He was still thinking about the Ten-Dragon Gang. The gang members were no threats at all except for Elderly Dragon and a few of his followers, which made him wonder why Golden Roc Fort wanted to attack such a group of people.
"We need to go to the courtyard again tomorrow night, but I need to get myself a saber first."
"What for?"
Gu Shenwei did not answer. He just needed a saber. Without it, he could not fall asleep.