Chapter 131: The Pressure of the Top New Talent

"Hey, by what you're saying, your master knows that you're here with me as a little maid…" Lu Xingzhou said suddenly.

Pei Chuyun came back to herself, her smile half-genuine: "What, are you scared? Knowing there's someone behind me, you think bullying me will get you beaten up?"

"I'm not bullying you, what is there to be scared of? But will your master really let you keep playing around here?"

"She just thinks I'm baiting you, what's so strange about that for our sect…" Pei Chuyun said leisurely: "The specifics of how I carry it out, she won't bother herself with that much… but…"

"What?"

"The past she told me about, who knows, there might be a bit of a warning tucked inside." Pei Chuyun turned around, looped her arms around Lu Xingzhou's neck, her smiling eyes curving: "After all, my mother got knocked up for nothing by someone — you think I wouldn't take that as a bit of a self-cautionary tale?"

Lu Xingzhou said at once: "I'm not the kind of scumbag Father-in-law is."

Pei Chuyun spat: "Who's your father-in-law?"

Saying so, her gaze drifted, and she said with a grin: "Still, the thing you originally had a real shot at tricking out of me — the difficulty just doubled, you know."

Lu Xingzhou leaned in to whisper: "Originally there really was hope?"

"No, no." Pei Chuyun shrank her neck as if ticklish, and huffed: "The moment you come back now you're like a pig in heat!"

Lu Xingzhou didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "It's clearly you who opens and closes your mouth on this topic — I go along with what you want and you blame me."

Pei Chuyun gave two little hmphs and nestled against him without moving.

The restless, muddled feeling she'd had before he came back scattered like smoke in just a few sentences, leaving only a deep, settled calm.

It was as if, so long as he was there, she could feel at ease — all that messy, tangled stuff, having him was enough.

So annoying — clearly her own strength was enough to beat him black and blue, so how did it end up like this…

As for Pei Qingyan's attitude, it was hard to say for now, but her master's attitude was plain enough, and she didn't mind saying it outright: she simply wanted her to become the Maiden Bliss Sect's nail driven into the Pei family — and without giving her enough trust, either; she'd have to prove herself.

Although this was the standard mode of interaction one expected from a demonic sect, after all it was the sect she'd grown up in for eighteen years, yet the sense of harbor and dependence it gave couldn't compare to that of Lu Xingzhou, whom she'd only known a short while — and the literary little enchantress couldn't help but sigh over it.

How laughable… she'd even jokingly threatened him with "there's someone behind me" — heaven knew the person behind her was, in a daze, him.

Mm, he was behind her, holding her.

Pei Chuyun comfortably shifted her position and mumbled: "I'm tired, carry me to bed."

"It's the middle of the day…"

"Can't I take a nap?"

"Alright, alright." Lu Xingzhou indulgently picked her up and laid her on the bed, but didn't lie down himself, only sitting on the edge of the bed and gently stroking the tips of her hair: "Rest well, I'll just read beside you."

Pei Chuyun caught his hand and wouldn't let him go, her voice taking on a touch of unease: "Pei… ever since he saw me yesterday his attitude has been that of someone lost in thought — I'm sure he's begun secretly investigating. If nothing unexpected happens, he'll come by in the next day or two."

Lu Xingzhou knew that deep down Pei Chuyun still longed a little for family affection — especially under the Mo Sect's nakedly transactional relationships, she wanted all the more to know whether her father's side might be a little better.

Like a helpless little kitten suddenly caught in misfortune… she didn't want any answer, she just needed him by her side.

Lu Xingzhou rubbed her small hand and showed an easy smile: "Follow your heart. Even if someone in the Pei family means you harm, Pei Qingyan ought to protect you. Remember our creed — so long as we slack hard enough, we're invincible."

Pei Chuyun said: "What about your business?"

"Mm? What business of mine?"

"You went out today and only came back this late — is something going on?"

"Me? I'm waiting for the Huo family to invite me to a meal, or maybe to a garden stroll."

Pei Chuyun's eyes went wide: "You're going to acknowledge kin too?"

"Wrong." Lu Xingzhou gave a faint smile: "I'm going to kill someone."

Pei Chuyun finally found her sense of presence: "I'll help you."

Lu Xingzhou pinched her nose: "Of course — you're my little maid, the Young Master wants to kill someone, and you won't even hand him the knife?"

Pei Chuyun indignately caught his hand and pulled it down, but didn't argue back; instead she hugged his arm and closed her eyes: "The little maid is going to sleep, no talking allowed."

Lu Xingzhou looked helplessly at his own arm wrapped in hers, and didn't pull it free.

A'Nu sighed in her own room.

So why on earth did I rent this three-room courtyard back then? There's always one room empty — wouldn't just renting two have been fine, saved so much money.

………

In the afternoon at the Suppression Bureau, every department was solemn.

Sheng Yuanyao, the only daughter of First Vice Chief Constable Sheng Qingfeng and a Section Chief of the Jingcheng Theft-Suppression Office, was stabbed and wounded during a morning garden stroll.

According to witnesses, had it not been for a man in a wheelchair dropping from the sky, the headline would have read "stabbed to death."

The assailant was Ye Wufeng, a Soul-Catcher of Yanluo Hall and the principal culprit in last month's suburban-Jingcheng murder case that Sheng had been investigating — this was naked retaliation.

Also present at the garden were Pei Yu, the Young Master of Prime Minister Pei's house, along with the sons and daughters of over a dozen families great and small in the capital. This wasn't merely grinding the Suppression Bureau's face into the mud — it was a grave provocation to the public order of the Great Qian capital. Prime Minister Pei personally inquired into the matter, and the long-retired, tea-sipping old Chief, who hadn't concerned himself with affairs in ages, flew into a thunderous rage and, for once, smashed a cup.

Vice Chief Constable Sheng, his face dark as thunder, called each of the relevant subordinates in one by one and berated them for a full half shichen, then personally took charge of the case.

At his rank, he rarely took personal charge of cases below third grade… but the lead investigator on this case really was Sheng Yuanyao herself, who was now flat on her back in bed — as her father, he had to recover face for her.

Only, this face wasn't easy to recover.

Originally, the Suppression Bureau had only a fuzzy sense of where Yanluo Hall's hideout in the capital lay. After all, Yanluo Hall had always been taking jobs — no matter how carefully the tip-off system was run, if it never changed, it was easy to find cracks. The Bureau had been watching, and already had some leads.

If it were a matter of retaliation, Sheng Qingfeng had full confidence in locating and wiping out this hideout within a day — at least putting on a show of force on the surface, so the Bureau wouldn't lose face.

Instead, his daughter, flat on her back in bed, sullenly told him to let the rest of Yanluo Hall off the hook… and her reasoning was sound: Ye Wufeng might not even be at the Yanluo Hall hideout, and a blind strike would make too big a splash, making it easy for Ye Wufeng to slip away. Her enemy was Ye Wufeng, not anyone else — wouldn't hitting the sesame and losing the watermelon be a waste…

Put that way, a big operation was hard to justify, but precisely targeting Ye Wufeng for capture — how easy was that? Heaven knew where Ye Wufeng was right now; he might have already left the capital. Was the Bureau supposed to swallow this grievance in silence?

Sheng Qingfeng paced back and forth and ordered: "You lot go disguise yourselves as customers first, specifically request the Soul-Catcher take the job, and see how Yanluo Hall's people respond."

A subordinate asked: "And the target?"

"Screen the targets — find someone who won't make Yanluo Hall suspicious and whom Ye Wufeng would be interested in taking on…"

"My lord, based on information from every angle, there's a certain possibility that Lu Xingzhou is a former Yanluo Hall Judge. What about choosing him as the target? Shall we go tip him off first?"

Sheng Qingfeng: "…Don't pick him. If something goes wrong, someone's going to raise hell with me."

Subordinate: "?"

"Also, the matter of Lu Xingzhou being suspected as a Judge — keep it under your hat for now. Speculating wildly about unconfirmed things damages a person's reputation. He's a new talent pill-master about to sit the Elixir Academy's assessment — he's not someone you can just sling mud at. On another level, even if he was once a Judge, he isn't one now; if he really enters the Elixir Academy, that means he's turned from darkness to light, and it shouldn't be dragged up again."

"Yes."

"Go find more candidates. With so many people available in the capital, you only thought of one Lu Xingzhou? Why not go find Pei Yu—damn it, he'd better give me an explanation for this!"

"Report!" A subordinate came running up the door, panting: "Something's happened again!"

Sheng Qingfeng frowned: "What's the panic? Speak slowly."

"Chu Qingchen said he was keeping an appointment, left the Pei household to go drink afternoon tea at a teahouse… He had only just reached the teahouse door when Ye Wufeng, who had been lying in ambush for a long time, sealed his throat with a single sword strike, then left behind the line 'Ye is right before you, what do you intend to do about it,' and vanished into the distance."

Inside the great hall of the Town-Demon Bureau, the atmosphere suddenly went quiet.

Everyone was sneaking glances at Sheng Qingfeng's face, black as the bottom of a pot.

Too audacious… A teahouse—this is murder within the city! This is the capital! Under the very feet of the Son of Heaven!

Yama Hall was always this brazen in the past, because Yama Sovereign was brazen. Who would have thought the new rising star below would imitate Yama Sovereign and be just as brazen!

"Truly petty and vengeful." After quite a while, someone whispered privately: "That line was returning the words Chu Qingchen had spoken before, wasn't it?"

"Chu Qingchen was, after all, of noble birth, a fourth-rank upper-stage, ranked seventh among the new rising stars—yet so utterly unable to withstand a single blow, not even taking one move?"

"First is first, after all… Especially when it's an assassination."

Sheng Qingfeng said coldly: "Whose appointment was Chu Qingchen keeping?"

"I heard…" the subordinate hesitated: "I heard it was Huo Jin."

"Damned fool!" Sheng Qingfeng slapped the table and shattered it: "What is the Huo family doing!"

No one answered. In truth, this didn't necessarily prove the Huo family had colluded with Ye Wufeng. The Huo family wanting to get to know the seventh-ranked new rising star was perfectly normal; the information leaked, Ye Wufeng got wind of it, set up an ambush in advance—nothing unusual about that at all.

One had to admit, Ye Wufeng's oppressive presence had been built up to the full.

The number one on the new rising star list was truly extraordinary… After this stunt, even those who had offended him would not dare step out lightly. Come to think of it, Ye Wufeng doing all this also seemed to have a deliberate intent to flaunt his might, a bit like proving that even without the Judge, Yama Hall still had stronger fighters?

If no high-ranking elder stepped forward, Sheng Yuanyao's young people would be unable to deal with him, so the current scene of casualties and carnage seemed to make sense.

Sheng Qingfeng, furious to the point of laughter: "He's only the first of the new rising stars, not the number one under heaven! Even Yama Sovereign himself coming in person wouldn't dare be this brazen! Steward Chen!"

The subordinate hurriedly saluted: "Here."

"First take men and set up a loose perimeter at a distance, watching the areas suspected to be Yama Hall's foothold. Any trace of Ye Wufeng at all—report immediately."

"Yes."

"The matter of disguising as customers—do it at once. Set the appointment with Pei Yu."

"Yes."

Sheng Qingfeng tugged at his collar and cursed out loud: "What number one of the new rising stars—just a rat. If it weren't for the sneak attack, his straight-up ability might not even match Princess Zhaohuang's."

The subordinates all stayed silent. The words might be true enough, but the man himself cultivated the Way of Assassination…

"Chu Qingchen's dead?" Inside the inn, Lu Xingzhou had also heard the startled chatter of people outside, and murmured to himself: "Not a single one of them listens to advice."

Pei Chuyun, just woken from her afternoon nap, leaned lazily against the headboard and yawned: "Why don't you say it's your Yama Hall's Way of Assassination that's disgusting?"

"The Way of Assassination…" Lu Xingzhou sighed: "Sounds disgusting indeed… but it also means that as long as we can create a situation where he has no choice but to face us head-on, his threat can be cut in half."

Pei Chuyun's eyes sparkled: "What scheme are you cooking up now?"

Before the words had faded, a knock came from outside the courtyard: "Is Young Master Lu here?"

A'uo opened the door and poked her head out to ask: "Who is it?"

A servant-looking person was smiling apologetically: "I'm Fifth Young Master Huo's attendant… Fifth Young Master invites your honored master to Yanyu Tower to meet again, saying he offended in recent days and wishes to apologize to your honored master. For the sake of being one family, let bygones be bygones."

Lu Xingzhou's lips curved in a half-smile: "Here they come, aren't they?"

(End of chapter)